"Sophia's gone!" Carl screamed, running into the kitchen.
"What?" Carol asked.
"She's gone! She told me she was going to look for flowers and that's been forever ago!" Carl answered.
"Oh God." Carol replied.
"It's okay, we'll find her," I declared, wiping my wet hands on the towel before grabbing my pistol and running outside.
"Rick, Sophia's missing." I stated, loading my pistol.
"Huh?" He asked.
"Carl said she went to look for flowers but that was hours ago." I replied.
"Come on, we'll go look for her." He replied.
"Carl, which way did she go?" I asked, kneeling down in front of him.
"This way! Come on!" He yelled, running in front of us.
"Carl, you can't come!" Rick yelled.
"Why? No one let's me go anywhere!" He replied, stomping the ground.
"Let him come. He knows where she went." I told Rick, walking up to Carl.
"Fine, but you stay with us, and don't run off." Rick ordered.
Carl nodded before grabbing my hand.
After a few minutes of walking in the woods, we found a pile of wild flowers.
"Flowers," Carl exclaimed, "Sophia's got to be around somewhere!" He smiled.
"Look, shoe prints!" Carl yelled, a few yards away from us.
I gasped, a walker coming out from behind a tree and grabbing Carl by the arm.
Carl screamed, causing my blood to chill, and I mentally promised myself to never hear that again.
I sprinted up to Carl and the walker, sending my knife through the walker's head.
I watched it land on the ground in front of me, my heart beating rapidly from the scare.
I placed a hand on my heart, wondering how my heart hadn't blew up.
I watched Carl cry into his dad's neck as Rick stood up with him in his arms.
"You got there way quicker than I did." Rick stated, a look of relief on his face.
I looked back to the walker, my knife still stuck in it's head.
"Thanks." Rick replied.
"No problem." I replied.
I pulled my knife out of the walker's head, wiping the blood off on my jeans.
"You okay, kid?" I asked, Carl walking over to me.
He nodded, wrapping his arms around me.
I patted his back before he released me.
"You want me to take him back to the house?" I asked Rick.
-
"We couldn't find her." Rick mumbled, walking into the house.
Carol began crying again, leaning into me.
I wrapped my arms around her, rubbing her back as she cried.
"We're gonna go looking again in the morning." Rick declared.
"That's my baby! She's out there all alone." Carol cried.
My heart broke for her, watching tears roll down her cheeks.
"Listen, we've done everything we can today. If you wanna go look, than get off your lazy ass." Shane spat.
"Shane!" I snapped, standing up.
"What? What are you gonna do?" He asked, grabbing my bad wrist.
"You need to stop! You think you're God and that everyone has to go by what you do and say. News flash! Nobody's gonna listen to you if you're gonna act like this. We're gonna find her!" I yelled, pulling my wrist out of his grip.
"Since when are you so big and bad? You're still the little bitch that everyone falls to their knees for." He spat.
I brought my hand up to his cheek with more force than I thought I had.
"No, I'm not big and bad, but I do more for these people than you do. It's called appreciation, something you wouldn't know anything about because you're being an asshole all the time!" I yelled.
His hand hit my cheek, causing everyone to gasp and scream.
It hurt like hell, but I wasn't going to sit there and take it.
"Shane!" Lori screamed.
"Wow, you're a real coward. Just like the night you killed Otis. You shot him and let him suffer! We could've got away, you didn't have to shoot him!" I yelled.
I ignored everyone's gasps as I continued to blast Shane.
"The Shane that I remember is gone. You've been gone long before you killed Otis--"
I stumbled into Rick after Shane's fist met my nose.
Rick steadied me before grabbing Shane and pulling him outside.
Maggie, Beth, Patricia, Lori, and Carol surrounded me while the men were outside with Shane and Rick.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" Patricia asked.
I nodded, holding my nose which was pouring the blood.
"Get her some ice, a towel, and cushion!" Maggie exclaimed.
I sat down on the couch, tilting my head back.
My entire face ached and screamed with pain but I wasn't going to let Shane or anyone else see me cry.
"He's an ass." Beth spat.
Everyone's eyes widened, hearing Beth cuss.
I laughed, agreeing with her.
"What's the cushion for?" Beth asked Maggie.
"I don't know!" She replied.
I placed the towel over my nose, ruining the clean white towel.
"I'm sorry about all of that." I stated, Maggie placing the ice pack on my cheek.
"You don't have to apologize. He couldn't take the truth." Patricia replied.
"Is it broken?" Beth asked.
I removed the towel, everyone grimacing.
"It doesn't seem to be broken." Lori stated.
"You said something about the old Shane, but I can't imagine him any way else than this." Maggie replied.
"He was totally different than this." I mumbled.
I appreciated that the girls didn't ask me anything about what was mentioned.
I hissed, gently placing the ice pack on my nose.
"We'll get Hershel to look at it," Patricia stated, walking outside.
-
"You okay?" Rick asked, walking into the bedroom I've been staying in the past three days.
I nodded, raising up from the bed.
He raised his hands up, looking at his knuckles.
"What did you do?" I asked, standing up.
He put his arms back down to his sides before I picked up his hands and examined his busted knuckles.
"I can promise you one thing," Rick stated, putting his arms back down to his sides.
"What?" I asked.
"He won't touch you ever again." He replied.
__________
okay lmao