~~~
We're headed for Fort Benning now. It's a long way, and I don't think it's worth it. Maybe we could find something else. But who am I kidding, who's gonna listen to a kid, especially Daryl Dixon's. No matter what he does for this group, no one appreciates him.
We had to trade Dad's truck for Merle's motorcycle. We ended up siphoning fuel from the truck into the RV. I ride with Carl now, in Carol's Cherokee. It's crammed but the best we can do.
I watch as my dad passes the RV and leads us along the stretch of road.
"I was just thinking about our trip to the Grande Canyon with Carl." Lori tells Rick breaking the silence. Rick laughs and Carl speaks up.
"I don't remember that," Carl says looking at his parents.
"No you wouldn't," She tells him. "You where just a baby. We never made it past Fort Worth."
"No you got sick." Rick tells his son. "I never knew a baby could throw up so much."
"Ick." Carl says making a face.
"Yeah Ick." Lori laughs. "But the doctor in Texas said you'd live and we turned around and drove home."
"That sucks." Carl replies.
"No," Lori says. "It was a good trip."
"The best." Says Rick agreeing with his wife.
"Can we go see it? The grande canyon? I'd like too." Carl asks his parents.
"I would too." Sophia agrees. I keep my mouth shut. "Can we go?"
"We'd never go without you or your mom," Rick says turing around to look at her a bit. "That's a promise. You too Cheri."
"Oh uh, thanks." I reply looking out the window from my spot in the very back. I volunteered to sit back here, it's nice and I only share the space with a couple of bags.
Soon the line ends up stopping and my dad is now turning around on his motor cycle to talk to Dale. From what I can tell there's a bunch of cars all clumped up on the highway for a long while.
Rick slowly navigated through the endless cars behind Dale and my dad. The RV stops and so does Rick.
"I said it, didn't I? A thousand times." Dale complains. "Dead in the water."
"Problem Dale?" Shane asks.
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" he pauses and looks at my dad who is looking through cars. "Okay that was dumb."
"If you can't find a radiator hose here," Shane states looking around.
"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Dad says looking through one of the trunks of a car.
"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog says walking around the cars a bit.
"Maybe some water?" Carol asks.
"Or food," Dale suggests.
"This is a graveyard." Lori argues. "I don't know how I feel about this."
"And we'll be apart of it if we look for supplies here." I mutter so only my dad can here. He chuckles and continues to dig in the trunk.
"All right, all right." T-dog says walking off. "Here we go."
"Come on y'all," Shane says. "Just look around. Gather what ya can."
I walk back to Carols Cherokee and grab my crossbow. Who knows I might need it.
I scavenge in a couple cars not to away from my father and T-dog who are siphoning fuel. I don't find to much, a couple of painkillers and an old pocket knife, I store the pocket knife in my waist band.
"Cherokee!" My dad harshly whispers at me to get my attention. I snap my head up at his voice and see gesturing me to come over to him.
"Yeah?" I ask.
"C'mere." He lifts me up and puts me in a the back of a flat bed full of items useless to us. "Get to the back, and stay still."
That's when I notice it, I smell it first. Walkers a whole lot of 'em. I do as he says taking my crossbow off my back and laying down. I make sure the cross bow is loaded and press myself at the back.
My dad leaves me, making sure I can handle myself before finding somewhere to hide himself. T-dog staggers over, falling and I notice a huge gash on his arm a trail of blood is behind him as he crawls towards a car. A walker stumbles towards him and I'm about to shoot it when my dad creeps up behind it and stabs it in the head. I hear a sickening crunch and the walker is dead.
"Shh." My dad places finger to his lips and drags T-dog a little bit so he's laying down before placing the dead walker over him, masking T-dogs smell. He reaches in another car and pulls out a walker laying on top of him self and being extremely still. Several more walkers pass and my breath is shallow as I wait for the herd to pass.
My dad throws the walker off of him and checks on T-dog only moments after the last walker passes. I hear soft screams and I recognize them as Sophia's. There's nothing I can do. She's to far away from me.
~~~
Rick ran after her. Drew the walkers that where chasing her away. Saved her life, I hope.
Soon enough Dad, Shane and Glenn head off to find them. After a little bit, Shane and Glenn come back, telling us that Rick and my Dad are still searching. I scavenge around some cars before Dale calls me back.
"You should keep a lookout." He tells me pointing to the top of the RV. "Maybe you can spot Sophia, or just see if the herd didn't wander off as far as we thought. Besides, you got the best aim with that thing right now."
"Okay," I say. "Maybe you guys could find some bolts if we're lucky."
"I'll be sure to keep a lookout." He says smiling.
"Thanks Dale." I smile before hopping on top of the RV. A pair of binoculars and a small folding chair rest on top of it.
I take a seat examining the woods. I see a rustle in the leaves and I bring my crossbow up. I see that it's some type of animal and I shoot it. Whatever it was falls dead to the ground.
"Hey Glenn?" I call out seeing he's fairly close to me. He looks up. "Can you go get that for me? I found some dinner."
He grimaces but retrieves it anyways. He holds outwards by the bolt and I laugh.
"Here you go," he says handing me the dead squirrel. Great now only if I could find a couple more of them no one would be to terribly hungry.
"Thanks." I smile and he climbs off of the RV, going back to work with Dale.
"Where's my gun?" Andrea asks Dale snootily. I scoff, she doesn't even know how to shoot. "You have no right to take it."
"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale asks keeping his cool.
"My father gave it to me." She says. "It's mine."
"I can hold onto it for you." Dale replies.
"Or you can give it back to me." Andrea counters.
"Everything cool?" Shane asks walking over.
"No!" Andrea says crossing her arms. "I want my gun back."
"I don't think that's a good idea right now." Dale says looking her in the eye.
"Why not?" Shane asks.
"Because she can't shoot." I mutter.
"I'm not comfortable with it." Dale says turning to Shane.
"But your comfortable with her and her damn crossbow?!" Andrea yells pointing at me. "She's like 10!"
"12, but good guess." I reply not looking down at her.
"And her keeping lookout? She freaks out everytime she sees a walker!" I laugh at her comment.
"Well, at least I know how to shoot." I chuckle.
"Listen her weapon is quiet, and with her aim, I think she's qualified to keep her weapon." Dale tells her calmly. I smile and start to skin the squirrel with my large knife attached to my hip.
"The truth is," Shane starts. "The less guns we have floating around camp the better."
"You turning over your weapon?" Andrea asks him.
"Why should he?" I ask her. "I'm pretty sure he's not gonna shoot at a leaf every time the wind moves it. Besides, I think he's right, plus it could help save ammo."
"I'm trained, in its use." He states proving that I'm right and Andrea's wrong. "That's what the rest of y'all need is proper training."
"Well count me out of it, I already know how." I say turning back and ignoring Andrea complain a little bit.
"Oh god they're back," Glenn says looking out towards the woods. Rick and my dad exit the woods and I frown when I don't see Sophia. I hop off the RV and see Carol about to break down.
"You can't just leave my daughter out alone in the woods." She pleads.
"Out in the darks no good." My dad says softly in a voice he's only ever used for me. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves, more people get lost."
"But she's 12! She can't be out there on her own!" She states. "You didn't find anything?"
"I know this is hard," Rick says sort of gently. "But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."
"And we tracked her for a while." My dad states.
"We have to make this an organized effort." Rick tells the group. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody, along with Cherokee." He states. "I've asked him to oversee this."
"Is that blood?" Carol asks quietly, looking at the stain on my dads shirt.
She begins to breathe heavily as dad looks down.
"We took down a walker." Rick tells her calmly.
"Walker?" Carol asks not so calmly. "Oh my god."
"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick says trying to get her to calm down.
"How can you know that?" Andrea asks. I chuckle knowing the answer.
"They sliced the bastard open," I state. "Gutted 'em"
"We made sure of it." Dad says.
"Oh god," Carol breathes heavy sitting down. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?"
I know she's upset, but how could she be blaming Rick? Sophia has a better chance of surviving now then she did before. Rick explains to her how it was Sophia's best chance. I walk away, I don't want to hear anything else about how one of my best friends is missing. Soon enough my dad is following me and we retire to bed for the night.
~~~
The next morning we are surrounding a car and Rick is unraveling the 'arsenal' Carl found yesterday. "Everybody takes a weapon." He tells us. My crossbow rests on one of my shoulders while my dads hand rests on the other.
"These aren't the type of weapons we need." Andrea says. I scoff.
"Then what weapons do we need Andrea?" I ask her. "A gun? The noise would only attract more."
She just ignores me.
"We've already been over that." Shane says from the shade of the RV. "Daryl, Rick and I are carrying." He says. "Can't have people popping off rounds everytime a tree rustles."
"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea says.
"And a knife will do just fine." I mutter under my breath.
"Say someone happens to fire at the wrong time, a herd happens to be passing by," Shane states putting Andrea in check. "See, then it's game over for all of us, so get over it."
I smile. Andrea needs to stop acting like she is capable of shooting a gun.
"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side." My dad tells the group the plan. "Chance's are she'll be by the creek, it's her only landmark."
"Stay quiet, stay sharp." Rick tells us. "Keep space between you, but always stay within sight of each-other."
"Everyone assemble your packs." Shane tells us. The group disperses to assemble their packs. I make sure I have all my bolts and that everything I need is in my pack.
"Cherokee," my dad says. I know what he's about to say.
"No, don't say it because I know you will." I cut him off before he has the chance to say more. "I'm okay, I just froze up at the CDC, I was scared that we where all gonna die."
"Cheri, freezing up could be the reason you die." He tells me putting his hand on my shoulder.
"I know," I mutter. "And it's not going to happen again."
"Okay." He says almost reluctantly.
The group starts to head off into the woods to look for Sophia. T-dog and Dale stay behind to fix the RV.
I trail behind my dad and the rest of the group follows suit. I hear Carl try to show Shane something, only to be shot down. I glance back and give him a sad look. All Carl wants is to be like Shane, but after Rick got back to camp, Shane just started to ignore Carl.
We approach a tent and the group slows and crouches down. I keep my crossbow up, we don't need anyone bit.
"She could be in there." Shane says.
"No shit Sherlock." I mumble under my breath but my dad hears me. He lets out a soft chuckle.
"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Dad says advancing towards the tent with me following closely behind him.
My dad signals Rick,Shane, and I to stop while he goes to inspect the tent. My crossbow stays raised, I don't dare lower it we're in the middle of the woods. Dad has set his crossbow down and only has his knife out, but he's inspecting the tent what good will it do if a walker comes up behind him?
My dad looks at Rick and gestures for Carol to come over.
"Carol!" Rick yells in a whisper like voice. My dad stands near the opening of the tent ready to attack if a walker happens to be in it. "Call out softly, if Sophia's in there your voice should be the first she hears."
"Sophia? Sweetie are you in there?" Carol calls in her soft voice. "Sophia, it's mommy." Carol looks like she's about to break down and cry. "Sophia, we're all here baby. It's mommy." She's starting to lose hope.
When there is no response Shane, Rick and I advance slowly. My dad carefully unzips the tent, inside is someone who 'opted out'. I cough at the sudden smell of decaying flesh, and so does anyone this close to the tent. My dad enters it, and after a moment Carol calls out his name.
"It ain't her." He comes out, sporting a new handgun.
"What's in there?" Lori asks.
"Some guy." He answers. "Did what Jenner said. Opted out." He picks up his crossbow. "Ain't that what he called it?"
All of a sudden we hear bells ring. I automatically run towards the sound. It could be one of my best friends in this group ringing it. The group follows closely behind me.
I come to a small clearing and the group stops behind me. While they try to figure out who's ringing them, I try to figure out what direction it's coming from.
"Come on its this way!" I say pointing to my right.
We come across a church and I realize there is no bells for anyone to ring. I drop to my knees, my hope is quickly dwindling away. Soon enough my dad is behind me and running up the stairs of the church in front on me. Rick and Shane join him and they open the doors revealing three walkers all sitting in the pews. They kill the walkers, Shane and Rick over do it a bit, and I sink into one of the pews along the back.
"Sophia!" My dad yells at the front of the church. "Yo J.C? You taken requests?"
"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church, it's got no steeple no bells." Shane says.
"How many churches do you know of in this area Shane? This could be the only one." I say.
"Oh shut up Cherrokee, go play with something why don't you let the big boys handle this." Shane snaps.
"Shane, if you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of the damn apocalypse!" I yell at him before storming off into the graveyard surrounding the church. Then once again the bells go off coming from the side of the building. Glenn hurriedly cuts the wires causing the bells to ring.
"Timer," my dad says breathlessly. "It's on a timer."
"Told you dumbass." I mutter to Shane.
"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol says sadly as the rest of the group just stands with faces of awe. I head back inside with Carl who's looking down.
"I miss her." He states.
"Me too." I agree with the boy. Sophia was our friend and now she's gone, dead or alive, we don't know. "I should've gone after her, I heard her scream. But I didn't do anything, I could've killed those walkers, if I did she would've been here with us right now."
"Don't blame yourself Churro." He says putting his hand atop of mine. "You where to far away, and closer to the herd."
"I guess your right." I say quietly. "But I still feel like it's my fault."
"Don't." He says in his small voice. Lori comes inside and ruffles her sons hair a bit before pulling him away to talk. I sigh, and grab my crossbow before going to find my father.
I walk through the graveyard, multiple headstones are standing, a few of them toppled over. Instead of finding my father, I find the headstone of another Dixon
Here Lies Margret Dixon
Loving mother
1950-1984
"Maybe, if you didn't smoke, you wouldn't be dead right now. Maybe daddy and Merle wouldn't have scars, maybe it's all your fault." I whisper at my grandmothers grave.
"Cherri?" Carl asks from behind me. I stop in my tracks.
"How much did you hear?" I ask.
"All of it." He responds. "What happened to you?"
"That's a story for another time Carl." I say. I quickly walk off before he can question me more.
"Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back okay? Daryl your in charge." Shane says walking towards the group. "Me and Rick we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."
"Your splitting us up." My dad states. "You sure?"
"Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Shane says.
"I wanna stay too." Carl tells him stepping forward. "I'm her friend."
"Me too." I say joining Carl. "Besides I can track."
Nobody says anything to stop us so Rick and Shane let us stay.
"You be careful missy." My dad tells me.
"You to ole' man, don't break a hip on the way back." I joke and he ruffles my hair before pulling me into a hug kissing the top of my head.
"I mean it, stay in Rick's sight. I don't trust Shane." He tells me.
The larger portion of the group leaves. After my dad gives Lori his spare gun. I see Andrea scoff and I just laugh. Rick goes off into the church for a moment, to pray I'm assuming.
"Well Carl lets go find our friend." I say putting my hand on his shoulder. When Rick is done, Carl, Shane and I are sitting on the steps of the porch.
"Get what you needed?" Shane asks him.
"Guess I'll find out." Rick responds passing us on the stairs a dwelling towards the woods.
After walking for a while, Rick stops is due to branches snapping. Turns out it's a deer. I put my crossbow on my back and Carl and I approach it carefully. We grin like madmen. This is proof that good things still exist in the world. Carl looks back at Shane and Rick as if asking for permission to go up to it. We continue to to approach it.
Then my heart almost stops as I hear a shot ring out. The deer is dead and Carl is now laying unmoving stop of me. My crossbow hits the back of my head as I fall and everything goes blurry until the blurriness turns into nothingness.
~~~
Hope you enjoyed, this chapter kind of sucked.
Word Count: 3461