Bloodletting (season 2 episode 2)
The group continued their quest, hoping to ignore the loud, singular gunshot they had heard echo through the woods about twenty minutes earlier.
Lori stopped her walking as she turned her attention to behind her, hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband and son.
"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked once she noticed her absence, she slowed to a stop before turning around. At the sound of her voice the rest of the group did the same.
"That was a gunshot." Lori reminded.
"We all heard it." Daryl reminded as well, looking around to keep an eye out for danger.
"Why one? Why just one gunshot?" Lori pressed.
"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl suggested as he sucked in lips before shrugging.
"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly." Lori ranted as she looked around, desperately searching for any sound or sight of her lifelines.
"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked softly as her grip tightened on her bag.
"There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl explained as he looked at everyone in their small group before his eyes were trained on Lori.
"So what do we do?" Lori asked.
"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Nadia and Sophia, work our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the R.V." Andrea sided with Daryl as she looked at Lori.
It was silent for a few seconds before Lori walked past the group causing them to follow as they began to continue their journey back to camp, but they stopped only a second later when Andrea began to approach Carol.
"I'm sorry about what you're going through, I know how you feel." Andrea sympathized.
"I suppose you do. Thank you." Carol pulled a forced smile, as she looked at the group before looking back to Andrea then finally looking back at the group. "The thought of them out here by themselves... it's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying that they don't wind up like Amy." She said tearfully and full of emotion.
Andrea's head moved from its slightly turned position to sit normal as her expression changed drastically at the grieving mothers words.
Carol looked at Andrea, seeing how her face changed caused her to gasp as she realized she spoke before she thought.
"Oh god," She said in shock at her own words, she moved closer to Andrea to grip her shoulders in regret. "That's the worst thing I ever said."
Andrea shook her head as if to deny her apology but her forced words made it quite clear that her words stung. "We're all hoping and praying with you. For what it's worth."
Obviously Daryl didn't agree with Andrea's words as he came barrelling over to the pair.
"I'll tell you what it's worth- not a damn thing." He shook his head as he looked around the women. Tears filled Carol's eyes as if she expected Daryl to cuss her out for holding out hope but she was proved to be wrong in her assumption. "It's a waste of time, all this hoping and praying." His eyes were trained on Carol as he spoke his prove, " 'cause we're gonna locate those little girls, and they're gonna be just fine." He empathized heavily on the word fine as his eyes flickers between Andrea and Carol. "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord." Before he stomped his way back to the front of the group.
••••
It had been about fifteen minutes since they had last stopped.
"We'll lose the light if we're too long. I think we should call it." Daryl said softly in hopes of not having to deal with a very angry Lori and a crying Carol.
"Let's head back." Lori agreed with a nod.
"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asked hopefully.
"Yeah. We'll find them tomorrow."
Daryl whistled and waved a hand as a sign to follow him as he began to lead the way to the highway.
"Hey, Daryl?" Glenn asked as he hung behind the group.
"Yeah?" He asked with a huff as he stopped walking yet again.
"Do you see that?" He asked as he pointed towards a large, old tree. There was a dark blue 'N' painted on the bark.
"What the hell is that?" Andrea asked as she and the rest of the group made their way over.
"Markings, so they don't get lost." Daryl muttered in slight disbelief.
"It's my girls." Carol said softly as she smiled at the tree, " 'N' for Nadia. We always saw it on tv to mark your trail so you don't get lost. She must've done this."
Daryl reached his hand out to feel the paint, trying to gouge how long the paint had been sitting in the sun.
"It's been here about an hour, maybe less. It's still pretty wet." Daryl pulled his hand away to look at the little bit of paint that covered the back of his rough, veiny hand.
"My babies. They're alive." Carol looked around the woods as if she expected them to just pop out of nowhere.
"I told you." Andrea smiled at her.
"We gotta follow these tracks before they go cold, but we gotta be quick. We're as good as dead being stuck in the dark." Daryl spoke.
They walked in a group, Daryl leading in front as always. Andrea began to walk further away from the group without even noticing.
She was so lost in her own mind that she walked into a cobweb that was made between two thin trees.
She huffed as she broke the web, roughly throwing it to the ground with anger, not noticing the walker that was trailing close by.
She began talking as if talking to members of her group but as the walker groaned loudly, she whipped around coming face to face with a male walker, she let out a loud and deep scream alerting the group of her predicament.
"Andrea?" Lori yelled as her and the group looked around rapidly to try and find which direction her voice was coming from.
Daryl, to no ones surprise, was the first one to figure it out as he raced in her direction. The walker gripped her tightly as he attempted to bring her neck closer to his face, to take a chunk of her flesh.
She stabbed the walker in the gut as she continued screaming before she tripped over a large fallen over tree causing her screams of fear to turn into screams of pain as well. She began to frantically scoot her butt back to bring as much distance between her and the hovering walker as possible.
It grabbed her leg in an attempt to bite it as Daryl, Lori and Glenn raced to her rescue but they weren't fast enough as a pretty women raced through with her brown horse, knocking the walker away from Andrea with a wooden bat.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" She asked with a strong southern accent. "Whoa." She said as her horse rushed to a stop.
"I'm Lori." Lori spoke out in confusion, wondering why on earth this young woman would be looking for her of all people.
"Rick sent me, you gotta come now." The mystery women said.
"What?"
"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've got to come now. Rick needs you, just come!" Lori took off her backpack and dropped it to the floor to the distaste of Daryl.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." He held an arm out to point to the unknown woman. Lori didn't listen to him as she walked over to the woman.
"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" The woman asked and once she got an 'uh-huh' she continued, "backtrack to the Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. The name is Greene. Hyah!" She spoke in a rush before she gave a signal for the horse to move which it quickly complied.
They were gone, leaving the last four members of the group to finish following the tracks left behind.
The walker pulled itself into a sitting position as it wheezed.
"Shut up." Daryl sassed to the walker as he shot an bolt through its head before stomping away.
••••
Time had seemed to slow even more than it had before. It was still her first day out here all alone. She wasn't sure if she was completely right about the times but she knew that she was right about something.
She was all alone.
Her predictions about the group had been wrong. They weren't looking for her.
It probably took a lot of debate for them to come to their conclusion but in the end, they had made their choice. Shane had probably argued with Rick about the better of the group and how it would be much safer for them to move on. That I was as good as dead. That Lori and Carl's life was in danger the longer they stayed.
That last comment alone would have won him over.
She couldn't blame him for wanting the best for his family. She just hopped wherever they were, Sophia and her mother were safe.
She knew her mother would have put up a fight and a fierce one at that but in the end, she is a sheltered woman and is used to a man ruling her life. After a few hours of her being inconsolable, she would give in and force an unwilling Sophia to flee.
If it was her father she wasn't sure what her mother would have done. If she had stayed without the group which would incontrovertibly end in the whole family's demise or would she have thought of what was best for her children?
She didn't know for sure because she didn't think of the best for her children when she stayed with the man who tormented her and her daughters for years.
But of course, there was a difference between being stupid and not caring.
She knew that if her mother had left her, she wouldn't have done it by choice.
The more Nadia looked around the more familiar she began to get with the area around her. The trees didn't blend together as much as they did the day prior. Maybe she had begun to understand her surroundings better but she still needed to find a way to get the hell out of there.
She was not ready to become the new Tarzan.
She had found a small tin of paint in the abandoned campsite she had passed a few hours ago. She wasn't sure what purpose paint would have at the end of the world but when she continued looking for anything useful she could find, she came up empty-handed. So she laid low and took an hour's break, when the sun had raised slightly and had cast an even larger shine of sun into the already blinding surroundings she took the paint and continued on her journey.
She had begun to mark the trees as she walked so she would get even more lost than she already was. A part of her knew it was stupid, that somebody could find those marks later and find her, but the hope that her group would find it and follow it outweighed the worry that coursed through her body.
Some of the deep blue paint stained her hand as she gripped the paintbrush tightly before she raised it again to resume her marks.
She marked a tiny 'N' on every other tree that she had passed, so she didn't use too much paint but enough that if she got lost she would know exactly where to go.
She had been walking for a few hours and had already used less than half.
Her legs were beginning to ache drastically and her ribs felt like they were on fire, every stem of her being wanted to just collapse onto the rough forest ground but she knew that if she didn't find a safe place soon, she was as good as dead.
She didn't want to see the dangers she could face in the never-ending green that seemed to surround her.
It had been late July that the apocalypse had started and now it was around September which meant that in a few weeks, the leaves would start to change their form and die off while changing colours.
She couldn't wait to feel the never-ending heat turn into a light warmth, to finally feel a breeze instead of the humidity that always seemed to be floating in the air. Fall had always made Nadia feel lighter, it was cold but not too cold, sunny but didn't make you break a sweat and it made everything feel more fun.
Fall was Nadia and Sophia's favourite season. They would always play outside with the neighbourhood kids, well before Nadia grew out of it, they would have scavenger hunts, go bowling, make their own games of hopscotch with chalk, play telephone etc.
But since Nadia grew out of her childlikeness, she opted for playing those games with Sophia by herself.
Before she would just let Sophia play with her friends in the neighbourhood but not long after she had stopped joining in on their fun, their mother showed up at her book club meeting with a large bruise causing the children's parents to fear for their children's safety and they decided to shun Sophia and officially banned their kids from associating with her.
Sophia had taken it as hard as anyone could have expected, she had lost some of her greatest friends because of the blind rage her father had taken out on her mother. She had sulked in her room for days, only coming out to do the necessities.
Nadia was severely worried for her mental health. Mental health wasn't really a thing that was talked about in her household. Her father didn't believe that it was a real thing, just an excuse for people to be lazy and take money from the government.
But Nadia never agreed with his train of thought. If people thought differently than others or their bodies were affected, then it wasn't their fault. If a doctor diagnosed them and there were literal medical terms for specific disabilities then they were real.
Nadia had tried her hardest to break Sophia out of her disheartening state by doing things that could cheer her up. So one night she stayed up all night organizing a scavenger map that she even designed with Sophia's favourite thing. Glitter. Hot pink and yellow glitter which she placed atop of purple glue, added the perfect pop the map was missing.
Once Sophia saw the girly map a smile finally pulled onto her face. She had spent a few minutes telling her some elaborate lie she had come up with, about how she found the map on their doorstep and the glitter pirates had deemed them responsible to solve the task.
They spent all day looking around the neighbourhood for clues about where the hidden treasure was, even though Nadia was the mastermind the whole time. Nadia had dug up a pink treasure chest she had painted herself and stuffed with fake goods and jewelry.
Even when she was given the chance to take the whole chest she said she wanted to leave the rest for the pirates because, in her words, they were nice enough to share it with them. Sophia had picked out a sliver heart locket from the chest, the locket was small but in a stylish way, it leaned slightly to to the right as if it was trying to be close to her heart.
Sophia hadn't taken it off, she had worn it fatefully for over two years, which honestly shocked Nadia. Sure she knew Sophia was thankful and that she really liked the necklace but she thought as the years passed on she would've grown out of it and maybe if the world was still normal she would've.
Nadia had to applaud her for that. She personally, probably would have stopped wearing the necklace after a few months, but if it had come from her sister, she wouldn't have taken it off either.
She was unsure if she had known that she had set it up or not but Nadia hoped she didn't. So she could still believe in some kind of magic. Even if she wasn't there to see it.
A sudden jolt of pain coursed through her as a pain in her chest and heart shocked her.
The pain was so severe causing her to clutch the bark of a nearby tree to stabilize her as she began to sway, the pain strong enough to leave the girl light-headed.
She thought she was gonna pass out. She tried to hold it together. She knew that if she let herself crumble, she wouldn't be able to put herself back together again.
A walker could easily sneak up and feast on her while she was comatose.
Her weak body fell to the floor, her mind spinning but it leaned on one specific thought that reminded her.
She has felt this before.
Back at the quarry, when that walker had stumbled into camp, almost getting its hand onto Carl and Sophia.
She had looked everywhere for the pair, before finding them right in time.
It hasn't been as strong then as it was currently. It felt as though her heart was breaking. Like her guts were being ripped out by hungry walkers. Like her head had been popped open and someone had scrambled her mind, taking all of her thoughts with them.
The sound of a vehicle approaching snapped her out of her thoughts, fear filled her body at the familiar sound.
Her body ached as she pulled herself up slightly to duck down and hide behind a tree and it was just then that she realized that while her mind had wandered through her pain she hadn't noticed that she was nearing an open road.
A black truck halted to a stop a little ways ahead of her. A rather large group of eight men all piled out of the vehicle, some hopped out of the truck bed and the right came from the inner of the vehicle.
They were heavily armed, with large guns, guns she didn't even know the names of, which wasn't a hard thing because she knew nothing about them.
They were clean looking, not squeaky clean as there were large specks of dirt across their faces and bodies but it didn't appear that they smelt, but she wasn't willing to get close enough to prove herself correct.
"Scout the area boys. I want anything you find." A large male instructed the group of men as he aimed his long rifle up to the sky while holding it in a weird way using his right hand.
His eyes a dark brown and his hair a chestnut brown. He looked to be around forty and seemed to be in decent shape. His face though was scrunched up in a condescending manner as if he thought his group was beneath him.
His head slowly turned as his eyes scanned the forest intently, he looked as though he was mad at every tree his eyes danced across. His angry demeanour put her on edge, causing her to worry about what could happen if she was spotted.
There were some men in the group that didn't look half bad, some looked a little odd. They didn't look as mad as their leader did but they didn't exactly look friendly.
She hoped she was wrong on her assumptions but a part of her felt like she needed to bolt.
But she knew she was in no position to. Her legs felt like jelly from the sudden activeness of her usually out-of-shape self, the mind-altering sheering pain in her ribs causing her to constantly feel bile in the back of her throat. She knew she was pushing herself and her body far more than she should've been and that she should have stayed put instead of putting herself in more danger by potentially moving further away from camp but she had to try to get somewhere safe.
If they left her, she would be a sitting duck just waiting for walkers to band together and take her out.
She couldn't let that happen. She needed to be strong. And being strong meant surviving on her own.
Her mind felt like it was running in circles. She didn't know what to do, should she take her chances of making too much noise and run in whatever direction looked more promising? Or should she stay as still as possible and hope they didn't notice her hidden behind a tree?
Her choice was made for her as the men began to get closer and closer to where she was hidden, causing her to slowly back away from the men.
Her steps were unhurried but calculated as her eyes flickered back and forth from the group of men who were chatting about who knows what as they walked and the forest ground at her feet in hopes of avoiding anything that could make a sound. Like sticks and leaves that could crunch under her weight.
Once she passed a few trees at her slow pace she realized they were getting too close for comfort. She turned on her heels and slowly jogged in the other direction, not too loud but loud enough to cause the men to pause. She pressed her back against a large tree a good distance from where she once was but she was close enough to hear their words.
"Did you hear that?" She heard a scratchy old voice say, as silence once again began to fill the air.
"Why the hell are y'all just standing there? Get your asses moving." The leader demanded in a harsh tone as he shot the men a warning glance.
"It's probably just a biter." Another one brushed off as he began to move to where Nadia had previously been.
"Nah, too quick to be a biter, we would've heard the son of a bitch moanin' and groanin'. Probably a deer." A middle-aged man spoke as he walked past the duo, his rifle raised in front of him, ready to defend himself from any oncoming dangers that could be lurking in the swirl of green trees.
The man was cautious, he looked as though he was experienced with the way he raised his weapon and carried himself. He almost reminded her of Rick, he used to be a cop before the world went to shit, same with Shane.
He had told the Peletier family that he and his family used to live in King County where he and Shane were deputies. He even went on to tell them that he got his bachelor's in criminal justice, which meant he wasn't only trained but he knew how to tell good people from bad people. She really wished he was here right now.
She hoped that he made it back to the highway safely. He had put himself in harm's way multiple times to give them a chance at survival. She could only hope that because of his good intentions that luck was on his side. But of course, she couldn't rely on that train of thought. She hadn't done anything horrible that would cause her this much karma.
Maybe this was revenge from above for taking her father's life.
But he was going to kill her, she did what she had to do.
Maybe it was for judging her mother for all of those years.
It could also be the time she accidentally ate too much dairy and pushed that old lady out of the way to get to the bathroom before her. But in her defence, it was either that or shit on the floor.
Or for telling Mrs. Fertana, that her fruit cookies tasted disgusting. She was seven at the time but karma was certainly a bitch.
Karma had a funny way of getting back at people. It could come days after, months, or even years after. Nothing was safe from the hands of Karma. Even doing the smallest thing could cause a major experience of the butterfly effect.
A part of her never really wanted to believe in those types of things but the more she grew and learned she had seen it even more times than she could count on one hand.
Take her father for example, he had spent nearly two decades putting his hands on his wife and then his children, which caused Shane to beat him nearly beyond recognition. He was then left to heal up in his tent, next, he tried to get Nadia to stay with him and when her mother forced her out of the tent he was left alone and exposed which practically rang the dinner bell to the hungry walkers who devoured his flesh.
If he hadn't laid his hands on her in public he would still be alive. Maybe if he were still here, she would be safe with the group. Maybe they would even already be in Fort Benning. Safe and Happy. Well as happy as they could be with her father still around.
Then there's Merle. He started a fight with T-dog on that roof because he was being a racist douche, which cause Rick to take action and handcuff him to that roof. He was promptly left there and in order to escape the handcuffs he cut off his hand and now, he's gone. He just disappeared.
If he wasn't such an asshole he would have been with the camp on their way to Fort Benning.
"You go that way. You go that way." He pointed at the men as he spoke.
"You ain't the boss of us, man. He is." One of the men sassed as he nodded his head back to the obvious leader.
"I'm telling you to do something, so do it. Do you think he wants you standing here doing nothing? Do you want to prove your self to him? Do something useful."
With a loud and long huff, she heard the sound of the three men's footsteps walking in different directions and thankfully, one of the directions wasn't her way.
Once the footsteps and voices fated she began her mission again. She ran, fast but as quietly as she could.
But suddenly strong arms yanked her roughly against a rough chest, eliciting a screech to be pulled out of the girl's mouth.
A lot of thoughts flooded her mind as fear ran hastily through her veins. She wasn't sure if what was about to come was endless suffering or death. She hoped it was the latter.
"Shh, shh." The man whispered into her ear as he trapped her lips behind his hand, keeping any sound from escaping.
"The hell was that?" A man from earlier yelled into the forest hoping to gain a response from one of his men.
"Just a biter. I put the ugly bastard down." He yelled out as he tightened his grip on Nadia pulling her closer against the tree that covered them. "Keep your mouth shut." He whispered deeply. After a moment of silence and when the man was finally sure the others would be too far away to hear he eventually started to loosen his tight grip on her.
Her toes were finally able to touch the ground as he released her. His hands moved from her middle to her shoulders as he spun her around to look at her face.
"Guess it really was a deer. Easy prey."
"Who the hell are you?" Nadia asked quietly, she wasn't sure if it was in fear of pissing him off or in fear of the others hearing.
He was the man who gave her a slight reminder of Rick. They didn't look alike at all and it was purely in the way they held themselves. She could only hope that he was similar in his morals too.
"I'm Arlo. What's your name, kid?" The man, Arlo, replied as he held out a hand for her to shake which was promptly ignored.
"Let me go." Was all that flew out of her mouth. She was already done with this conversation. She wasn't sure if he was trying to screw with her by pretending he was a good guy or if he was genuinely stupid enough to believe that she would shake hands with the man who just forcefully took her against her will.
"Well, Hello, Let me go, it's nice meeting you." He joked blankly but a tiny smile pulled against his lips.
"We found a spilled can of paint, maybe we'll find Da Vinci out here." One of the men hollered causing barks of laughter to ring through the tense air between the pair, causing the large man to stiffen as he was reminded that there were other people around them. His people.
"You need to get the hell the hell out of here." He said darkly as he looked around, checking to see if he could spot any of his men nearby.
"What?" Nadia asked in confusion as she tried to see what he was looking at. The tiredness finally getting to her as she attempted to figure out what he was saying.
"You need to run, now. I don't know how long we're gonna hang around these woods. Go back to your people before something really fucking bad happens. Go now, kid." He pulled his eyes to lock with hers to show her how serious he was, his right hand rubbing against his dark beard.
She looked up at him for a few seconds, trying to truly grasp how bad this man really was. Was this some trap to get her in the open and harm her? The sudden pain was beginning to fade into nothing, finally letting her think relatively clear thoughts.
He didn't give her much time to think as he pulled his hand away from his face and used both of his hands to shove her back by her shoulders. They shared a nod before she turned on her heel and took off running.
Her movements were quick as her eyes frantically looked for her markings on the trees to guide her way.
Her feet pumped rapidly, not bothering to be quiet as she ran for what she believed to be her life. Her chest rose at a fast pace as she huffed out breaths of hot and barely used air. The air was coming in and out so quickly that she felt as though she didn't even have a chance to breathe it in to appease her burning lungs.
Leaves crunched deeply under her fast footsteps, her body jumping over sticks to avoid tripping and slowing her down.
She fell, narrowly missing a large manhole that was filled with walkers, the growls of the hungry dead pulled a cry from the girl as she shuffled the best she could to pull her exhausted body away from their hands that just went over the hole.
She winced as she hunched over in an attempt to pull herself up.
She continued running, not quite as fast as before but her feet were still moving faster than they would if she were jogging.
She was given an opening. She was given a second chance to survive. He had spared her of whatever danger lurked with those men.
She wasn't stupid knew what they could have done to her. What they could have forced her to do. But that man had protected her, who knew what kind of trouble he could be in with the cold man from the road?
She knew that what he did didn't deserve a reward. It was what a decent person would do. But in this world, people like that were rare and even more so now.
The world hadn't had a problem killing off good men, her Uncle Josh, Jim, all of those caring men at camp, potentially Morales and it was only a matter of time before the good men of her group were killed off too.
She hoped she was wrong about the latter two. They were good people. Even Daryl.
They wouldn't kill without reason. They wouldn't hurt someone without reason, maybe Daryl because he definitely has anger issues but she was sure he wasn't a creep.
She could just tell, even when he was an ass back at camp, his eyes never strayed on people, he never made comments like his brother did unless he was just fighting with Shane or Merle about something stupid.
Her running was halted when people caught her eye.
Her group.
Her mom.
Her group must've noticed her before she noticed them because Daryl's crossbow was trained a little higher than her head as if he was expecting her to be taller. His hands steady as his veins popped from the tight grip he was inflicting on his weapon. The weapon fit him like a glove, as if it was made for him.
Andrea was directly behind him, the gun that Lori had given her was raised in her direction as if she was expecting more than one threat to attack.
Glenn was beside Daryl with a fearful look on his face as his hand hovered over his knife that was in its holder on his hip.
Carol looked defeated as she numbly stared at the oncoming 'threat' not even bothering to find a weapon.
Their facial expressions changed drastically once they realized they weren't in danger. They had finally found her.
Daryl instantly lowered his crossbow as he trailed her with his eyes as if checking if she had any open wounds.
Andrea kept her gun raised even though there was shock in her eyes, her head moved left to check if there was any danger around her but once she knew it was only Nadia, she slowly lowered her weapon as well.
Glenn's face contorted into pure shock as he caught sight of his friend.
Carol's face was hard to read. She just stared blankly at her oldest daughter as if she didn't believe she was really standing there, safe and sound. As if she couldn't.
She had been imagining these scenarios since her children disappeared. She had been imagining them standing in front of her, with wide smiles on their faces as they were finally reunited with their only living parent.
She imagined them telling her that they just played together in the woods. That they had a little scavenger hunt. But the longer the girls were missing the less likely it became that, that could be the case.
But here her oldest was. She wasn't smiling and she looked exhausted but she was here. She was here and she was alive.
Carol ran up to her daughter as soon as her disbelief wore off, she pulled her into a bone-crushing hug as a sob tore through her body causing it to shake as Nadia hid her face in her chest.
Nadia couldn't believe that she had finally found her group. She had finally found her mother and now she would be able to check on Sophia and finally be able to get to Fort Benning.
Nadia let small tears fall down her face, the situation called for larger ones but she was so mentally exhausted that, that was all that she could muster up.
The group was silent as they let the family have their much-awaited reunion. The family needed a moment of peace and they weren't gonna interrupt them.
Carol's hand came up to caress her wild and sweat-damped hair, well crying roughly as she finally held her daughter in her arms.
She felt as though she could breathe again.
After a few moments, Carol pulled away once she didn't feel the smaller body of her twelve-year-old daughter join their hug.
Carol's hands went to cup Nadia's face as she smiled tearfully at her before looking around her, expecting to see Sophia.
She pulled her arms away from Nadia's face to hold her shoulders, tightly but not like Ed, she didn't intend to hurt her, she just wanted to make sure she was really there.
"Where's Sophia?" Carol asked with a smile.
Nadia's small but relieved smile instantly dropped. It was like a switch went off. The once mighty sense of happiness at finally finding her family was ripped away within a second.
She didn't know how to feel; was she supposed to be happy to be with her mother again? She was before she figured out that her mother's pure question could only mean one thing.
Sophia never made it back to the highway.
She had told her to run. She had let be out in the open on her own. She was dumb enough to think a twelve-year-old girl was able to remember a simple direction that she, herself wasn't able to?
The more that she thought about it the more she thought that maybe her subconscious had helped trick her into thinking her bogus logic actually made sense.
Maybe she needed that hope to push on.
Nadia had to take a second to process her mother's question before she looked around at the group with panic-stricken eyes, landing on every one of them, letting them know just how perturbed she was "Wh-wha-what? She's- she's not with you?"
Carol's grip on her shoulders dropped as she moved her head to look behind Nadia. "What-"
"I- I thought she was with you!" Nadia exclaimed as she looked at her mother before her eyes flickered to Glenn as he spoke.
"Rick said that he left you guys in that den, that he told you guys to go back to camp." He shook his head in a mix of confusion and sympathy.
"We- we were! But Rick said- that if he didn't come back go back to the highway. He didn't come back. So- so I... I grabbed Sophia but then I lost her!"
"Okay, okay slow down. What happened? Slowly." Daryl asked as he took a step closer.
"We left the creek, but before we found Rick, Sophia fell and hurt herself. I carried her but it just hurt so bad I couldn't anymore. So- so she was walking beside me and we were going the way we came an-and there was a walker right in front of us, we were gonna just run away and get around it another way."
She trailed off as the more she talked her eyes shifted downward as if to hide the guilty look on her face.
Daryl leaned down slightly, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder before he furrowed his burrows.
"And?" He gave her a look that basically said 'what the hell else', so she pulled her head up and continued.
"But another one grabbed me. Tackled me and ripped her away from me." at her words Carol let out a fearful gasp as her daughter told her story. "He was so heavy and I couldn't get him off, and she was- was so scared and then another came and I made her run. One of them tried to follow her but I- I threw a rock at it and it left her alone. I killed them but one...one of them must've followed her."
"Oh god." Left Carol's lips as she sobbed.
"I tried to track her but I'm not like you," Nadia looked away from her mother and looked at Daryl, who was watching her intently as she spoke.
"And I followed it for a little but I obviously... um, do you have any idea where she is?" Nadia looked desperate as her eyes locked on everyone's but stayed on Daryl the longest, knowing out of everyone, he knew the most about the woods. "Did she make it back at all? Is she alive?"
"We don't know, but I'm sure she's fine." Glenn tried to reassure Nadia as he placed a hand on Carol's shoulder as a form of comfort.
"You couldn't follow her trail? If anyone in our group could, it would be you, right?"
"We had it then..we lost it," Daryl said as he dropped his head before slowly raising it before looking at Carol.
"So, you have nothing?" She looked at them but her eyes stopped at Andrea when she shook her head. "How the hell did you find me? Follow my footsteps or something?"
"Nah, we found your breadcrumbs." Daryl said as he nodded to a nearby tree, which contained her markings.
With the reminder of that, she realized why she had been running in the first place.
Her whole body tensed up, her body frozen in its place. Nadia pulled her eyes away from the tree to scan to woods around them in a panic, her breathing catching in her throat.
"Hey, wha's the matter?" Daryl asked as he raised his crossbow back into both of his arms as he too scanned the woods.
"We have to go!" Nadia said frantically as she began to go straight past the group in the direction she was originally heading but her mother took a hold of her shoulders to hold her in place.
"Why? What the hells going on?" Glenn asked in confusion as he too looked around.
"There are men here," Nadia revealed causing everyone in the group to pause. Glenn and Andrea's eyes were flickering around them checking for danger but Daryl's gaze was flickering between Nadia and the area surrounding them.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked.
"I was by a road and a group of men got out of some truck and went to look around.. this guy grabbed me, and-and I thought he was gonna kill me but he hid me and let me go. Told me to run. Then I found you guys." She finished and noticed the way the group tensed at the mention of a strange man grabbing her.
"How many of 'em?" Daryl asked as his eyes turned deadly, as he looked at the woods like it was his prey and he was a hungry predator waiting to strike.
"Um..."
"Think, Nadia." He pressed.
"Eight. There were eight guys. They all had pretty big guns."
"How big?"
"Pretty damn big. Bigger than what was in the gun bag."
"Shit," Daryl muttered quietly to himself but the group could hear it. It put them all on edge. Daryl wasn't scared of anything but Nadia could see a pang of fear dance along his face.
"Can we please go? Please? I don't think they're staying so let's not give them a reason too." Nadia tried to persuade the armed man, her voice squeaking slightly as the tiredness and sadness began to make an appearance again.
Daryl looked away from the woods to lock eyes with Nadia. He held her gaze for a few seconds before he moved his eyes upward to meet her mother's.
After a few more seconds Daryl relented, they were just about out of the area when the same bush that she had came through, ruffled softly.
••••
They had made it back to came in one piece. Nadia's heart was in pain as she realized that Sophia really wasn't there.
Dale had wrapped her tightly in a relieved hug, T-dog following suit as he carefully wrapped his injured arm around her.
Once at camp, she listened the the adults talked. The group split up. Shane, Rick and Carl in one. Daryl, Carol, Lori, Andrea and Glenn in another.
Carl had been shot. A woman on a horse saved Andreas' life before taking Lori to her family's farm where Rick and Carl apparently were.
As soon as Nadia could escape the conversations, she did.
She found herself once again, alone as she huddled in the bed at the back of the fairly clean R.V.
Her mind ran wild, causing her eyes to be unable to close but as if her mother sensed her unease, she
climbed into the medium sized bed to join her, pulling her head onto her lap, and stroking her hair.
And finally, her mind shut off, willing sleep to grace her thoughts instead of the thoughts of what could be happening to Sophia right now.
Authors Note
They are finally reunited again! I was debating on making Nadia stay in the forest for longer but I love the farm era and I really wanted to write for it, plus Nadia wont be exactly happy after a specific episode...
I'm sorry this took so long to get out, but editing chapters is the bane of my existence and I was trying to put it off for as long as I could, but I did make a promise and I keep them, so, sorry if the end seems rushed :(
Who was the mystery group? What are your theories?
My PLL fanfic will be published on Halloween, so keep your eyes out for it!
I hope you have an amazing day/afternoon/night. I love you all<3
Word count: 7.6k