October 29th, 2010
It had been two days since Jacqui died. It turns out Dale and Andrea came out at the last minute. Winter wasn't sure what they were going to do next. They had also got rid of some cars. Daryl had a motorcycle. Rick and Carol's families were in another car. The rest of us were in the RV. Michael was laying on the bed
"You've been laying there all day. You need to get up" Sam said
"I'm too old for that shit" Michael said
"You're 24, shut the hell up" Sam said rolling his eyes at his older brother's dramatics. Then suddenly the car began to slow
"What's going on?" Winter asked
"The road's blocked" Dale said. Daryl came over
"See a way through?" Dale asked. The RV then started moving again
"Uh, maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass-" Glenn was cut off
"We can't spare the fuel" Dale said. A minute or two later they heard a clanking noise. The RV had broken down. They all got out of the RV. Rick's party joined them as well
"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water" Dale said
"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of- Okay, that was dumb" Dale said as he looked around
"If you can't find a radiator hose here.." Shane trailed off as Daryl was going through someone's car
"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find" Daryl said
"I can siphon more fuel from the cars for a start" T-Dog said
"Maybe some water" Carol said
"Or food" Glenn said
"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this" Lori said
"I'll see if I can find anything" Winter said. She walked towards one of the cars. The door was open. She began looking through the car to see if she could find anything. What she found was a pocket knife and some cans of corn. She put the pocket knife in her pocket and brought the cans of corn back
"Corn, nice" Dale said
"I found some unopened bottles of water" Sam said
"I found porn magazines" Michael said
"Of course you did" Glenn said as he helped Dale fix the RV. Everyone kept looking for things. They had come back with quite a bit, until suddenly Rick was telling everyone to get underneath the cars. Winter got underneath one of the cars. Michael and Sam did the same but with different cars. That's when she saw started to see feet approaching. There lots of walkers. She could hear them making noise. Winter stayed as calm and quiet as she could. She didn't move a muscle as they walked by her. She had never seen so many like this. Then, eventually they were all gone. At least they thought they were. Sophia moved to get out from underneath the car but another one popped up. She began to sob as she moved away. She screamed as she got to the other side. Sophia then ran off to escape. Rick rushed after her. The rest got out from underneath the cars as Carol was a sobbing mess. They rushed over to where Sophia had gone before going down the hill. They stared
"There's two walkers after my baby" Carol cried. Lori tried to quiet Carol. However, when Rick came back, Sophia wasn't with him. So, Rick and Daryl went to look for her. Winter was helping T-Dog with his wounds
"We need to clean this" Winter said as she took off her belt and wrapped it about T-Dog's wound. She made sure it was tight enough to stop some of the bleeding
"Sam! Can you see if you can find me some soap?! And get Michael to bring one of those water bottles that you had found!" Winter yelled
"Alright!" Sam said yelled back. T-Dog was breathing heavily
"It's gonna be okay" Winter told him
"You've never done this before, have you?" He asked
"No, I have not, but I'm the closest thing to a doctor here" Winter said
"Oh, God.." T-Dog said. Michael came into the RV with a water bottle
"And, could you see if Carol has a needle and some thread?" Winter asked
"Yeah, sure" Michael said before running out
"You're gonna stitch me up?" T-Dog asked
"Your wound is large, I have to" Winter said. Sam ran in with some soap
"I guessed you'd probably need a rag too. This one looks clean enough" Sam said as he handed it to Winter
"Thanks" She said. She grabbed the water bottle and poured some of the water onto the rag. She then used the soap and got it all over the rag
"This is probably gonna hurt" Winter said. She then removed the rag that Daryl had put on T-Dog's wound. She began to lightly clean it. T-Dog flinched as he began breathing really heavily
"I know, I know. I'm sorry" She said as she kept cleaning the wound. Her hands were covered with T-Dog's blood. Once she had finished cleaning the wound. She used some of the water from the water bottle to clean all the soap off
"It stings" He said. The water ran down his arm. She then closed the water bottle. Michael came in with a needle and some thread
"Here you go" Michael said. Winter cleaned it with the soap first
"Okay, now I'm gonna need you to be as still as possible" Winter said as she got ready to start stitching T-Dog's wound. She then inserted the needle into T-Dog's skin. He bit his lip as he stayed still
"It'll be over soon" She said as she continued. T-Dog had tears in his eyes. She kept going until she had finished. Then, she went over to bed and pulled out her pocket knife. She cut some of the sheets and brought it back. She then wrapped it over T-Dog's wound. She removed her belt from T-Dog's arm
"That's the best I can do for you" She said
"That wasn't as bad as I was expecting" T-Dog said as he was covered in sweat. Eventually the sun began to set. Winter walked out of the RV
"How is he?" Michael asked
"His wound is stitched up, but there isn't much I can do for him" Winter said. Sam walked over with a wet rag
"Your hands are covered in blood still" He said as he handed her the rag
"Thanks. Have they found Sophia" She asked as she wiped her hands
"No" Michael said. Then, Rick and Daryl came back
"You didn't find her?" Carol asked
"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light" Rick said
"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods" Carol said
"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost" Daryl explained
"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol cried
"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there" Rick said
"And we tracked her for a while" Daryl said
"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this" Rick said
"Is that blood?" Carol asked Daryl. His clothes were all bloody
"We took down a walker" Rick said
"Walker? Oh my God" Carol said
"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia" Rick said
"How can you know that?" Andrea asked
"We currently the son of a bitch open, made sure" Daryl said. Carol took a seat as she freaked out
"How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?" Carol asked
"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance" Rick explained
"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol" Shane said
"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child" Carol said
"It was my only option. The only choice I could make" Rick said
"I'm sure nobody doubts that" Shane said
"My little girl got left in the woods" Carol cried. There was nothing they could do
October 30th, 2010
Everyone with the exceptions of T-Dog, Dale and Winter were going to go out looking for Sophia
"Everybody takes a weapon" Rick said as he laid out melee weapons
"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked
"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, Michael, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles" Shane said
"It's not the trees I'm worried about" Andrea said. Sam grabbed a machete
"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it" Shane said
"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark" Daryl said
"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other" Rick said
"Get your shit together" Michael said
"Dale, keep on those repairs. Winter, watch over T-Dog" Rick said. Sam looked at Winter who nodded
"We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there" Dale told Rick. Winter walked out of the RV and approached Sam
"Hey, be safe out there" She told him. He smiled at her
"I will.." He said. She gave his hands a small squeeze before she went back into the RV. Even before all of this, he was aware she wasn't really into PDA
"Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone" Rick told Dale
"I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible" Carl said. Rick looked to Lori
"Your call. I can't always be the bad guy" Lori said
"Well, he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands" Dale said
"Okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions" Rick said. Then the group went off to find Sophia. They walked through the woods. They managed to find a tent. Everyone got low on Daryl's orders
"She could be in there" Shane said
"Could be a whole bunch of things in there" Daryl said. Rick motioned for everyone to stay back. Rick, and the others who had guns moved along to check it out. Sam waited patiently as they checked it out
"Carol" Rick whispered as he motioned for her to come. Carol rushed over. The rest followed
"Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear" Rick whispered
"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's Mommy" Carol said but there was no response. Daryl slowly unzipped the tent and opened it. He began coughing. He went inside to look. Shane, Michael and Rick were all coughing
"Daryl? Daryl?" Carol asked. Daryl came back out of the tent
"It ain't her" Daryl said
"What's in there?" Andrea asked
"Some gut. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl asked. Then suddenly they all heard church bells ringing
"What the hell?" Sam asked. The group ran towards the sound but because of the trees it was hard to pinpoint where it was coming from
"What direction?" Shane asked
"I think that way. I'm pretty sure" Rick said
"Damn, it's hard to tell out here" Shane said
"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too" Carol said. Sam knew that Sophia's chances of being alive were slim. Extremely slim. Not only was she a child, but she was a child with no weapon or survival skills. Her likelihood of being alive was close to zero. But, he didn't dare say anything
"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others" Glenn said
"Or signaling they found her" Andrea said
"She could be ringing them herself" Rick said. Another choice was that they were on timers. A lot of churches did that these days
Winter was sitting on the hood of a car as T-Dog had a bottle of water in his hand. Dale was ontop of the RV looking through the binoculars
"Ain't you supposed to be fixing that radiator? What if they come back with Sophia and Rick wants to move on right away?" T-Dog asked
"I had it fixed yesterday" Dale said
"What?" Both Winter and T-Dog asked
"What was all that rubbing and sanding for then? That's just bullshit?" T-Dog asked
"Yeah, that's one word. Another word would be pantomime- just for show. No one else needs to know that" Dale told the two
"Pantomime" T-Dog repeated
"If the others know we're mobile, they'll want to mobilize and move on" Dale said. Winter now understood that he did it for Sophia
"What you're doing for Sophia.. that's really nice of you" Winter said
"It's the bare minimum" He responded
"That is one tricky hose, huh?" T-Dog asked
"Very" Dale said
The group had made it to a church
"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells. Rick" Shane said as Rick kept walking towards it. They all followed after him. They ran to the church until they got to the entrance. Rick and Daryl were right in front of the doors. They opened them and went inside. There were four walkers inside. Michael, Rick, Daryl, and Shane each took one out
"Sophia!" Rick yelled. Daryl walked up to Jesus, who was on a cross
"Yo, J.C., you taking requests?" Daryl asked. Shane walked over to the rest of the group
"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple" Shane said
"It could have speakers-" Sam was cut off by the sound of bells ringing. Everyone rushed outside and saw the speakers. Glenn turned them off
"A timer. It's on a timer" Daryl said
"I'm gonna go back in for a bit" Carol said. Sam followed Carol who went inside the church. He sat in one of the pews in the front. Carol began to pray as Lori walked in
"Father, forgive me. I don't deserve your mercy. I prayed for safe passage from Atlanta and you provided. I prayed for Ed to be punished for laying his hands on me and for looking at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growing in his soul. I prayed you'd put a stop to it, give me a chance to raise her right, help her not make my mistakes. She's so fearful. She's so young in her way. She hasn't had a chance. Praying for Ed's death was a sin. Please, don't let this be my punishment. Let her be safe, alive and safe. Please, Lord. Punish me however you want, but show mercy on her" Carol said. Eventually the group went back. Rick, Shane and Carl stayed behind to look some more. They stopped in the woods as Daryl led them
"So this is it? This the whole plan?" Carol asked
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups" Daryl said
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun" Andrea said to Lori
"This is the reason you don't have one. You are like a fucking child begging to get your hands on some toy. You need to shut the fuck up about it for five second. The world does not revolve around your wants. We are busy looking for a little girl, and all you seem to care about is the fact you can't carry a gun, which you don't even know how to shoot, mind you" Michael said
"No, no. Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me" Lori said as she handed Andrea the gun. Andrea took it
"All of you. Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face everytime you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody?" Lori asked as she looked around. There was no response
"Y'all look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you" Lori said. Andrea gave Lori the gun back
"We should keep moving" Andrea said. So they continued on their way
(2873 words)
11/27/22