THEY ALL STOOD BY A TRUCK before Rick told the Greene family one of their people missing for a few days now. He mentioned she was a little twelve-year-old girl who got lost along the way back to the highway when Rick told her to stay.
The entirety of the Greene family were all shocked and sad to hear that. Their hearts ached for the mother of the little girl.
"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked the sheriff.
Rick replied, "This will be day three."
Ella watched as the Greene family shifted their weight from one foot to another, clearly uncomfortable to hear that she was gone for that long.
Maggie suddenly came up to the truck and showed a map. "The county survey map. Shows terrain and elevations."
Rick placed his hands on his hips. "This is perfect. We can finally get this search organized."
Hershel shook his head. "Not you. Not today. You take a few steps out into the heat and you'll pass out. You gave three units of blood," he looked over at Shane. "And your ankle. Push it now and you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."
"Guess that's just me," Daryl pointed at an area on the map to show everyone where he wanted to head to look for Sophia. "I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there."
Ella observed the area he chose. She noticed there was a water line that ran through the area he wanted to check out. She wondered if one day after they found Sophia if they could drive the RV down there and play in the water.
It would be pretty fun.
"I can still be useful," Shane spoke up. "I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."
Rick nodded, hands on the map. "Alright, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right."
Shane decided to make another comment about the gun policy. "That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them."
Ella glared at her father. Hershel made it pretty clear to their group that he didn't want guns on the farm earlier, but her father still had the audacity to ask Hershel about the guns again.
"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp." Hershel told him.
The corners of Ella's lips pressed themselves into a straight line. She glanced away from Shane and at Glenn who gave her the same look she had on her face.
Shane stood up straighter and looked Hershel dead in the eye, placing his hands on his hips. "All due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here-"
Rick instantly cut Shane off at the mentioning of the undead creatures. "Look, we're guests here. This is your property," he looked over to Shane, directing the next few words to him. "And we will respect that."
He then pulled out his pistol and set it down on the truck. Shane begrudgingly pulled out his own gun and sat it on top of Rick's gun. He crossed his arms over his chest, irritated.
Ella placed her weapon on the map, and then everyone else followed suit. Ella understood why Hershel didn't want guns on his property, they were dangerous weapons. They were pretty scary at times too.
Even Lori didn't like them that much because she hated when Carl would ask to use one or when Rick used to get his gun out to show it off to people at barbecues.
"First things first, set up camp, find Sophia." Rick told everyone.
"I hate to be the first one to ask, but somebody's got to," Shane placed his hands his hips. His eyes narrowed at Rick. "What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how to handle that."
A long moment of silence passed, causing Ella to be worried that Rick may not want to put her down if she was one of those things, but she didn't blame him.
Rick averted his gaze away from Shane. "You do what has to be done."
Ella frowned. Maggie stared the men down. "What about her mother? What do we tell her?"
"The truth." Andrea spoke up.
Maggie Greene gave Andrea Harrison a look of shock before she looked at her father, Hershel. Ella crossed her arms, inhaling sharply as she didn't like that they might have to put Sophia down.
Ella looked away from everyone else. What if she were the one to find Sophia, would she even be able to put Sophia down? She felt like if she did find Sophia herself that Sophia would manage to take her down and kill her.
"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Rick spoke up, snapping Ella back to reality instead of her mind.
Hershel held Rick's gaze momentarily, before he finally nodded. Rick thanked him before everyone dispersed.
Ella turned on her heel, going inside the RV.
She walked all the way to the back of the RV, heels clicking. Chatter was heard all the way outside in, along with some laughter, but not much since everyone was still kind of on edge.
She pushed open the door to the small bedroom, seeing Dale was reading a book and humming a small tune to himself, not noticing Ella Walsh had opened the door to the bedroom.
She plopped down on the chair beside him, drawing in a tired breath. She really wanted some sleep right about now.
"Hi." Dale smiled.
"Hi."
He wordlessly got up from the bed, closing his book and setting the book down. He walked back over to the bed and sat down on it.
"How are you holding up?" Dale asked Ella, his leg bouncing up and down as he asked that question. "Since Carl-"
Ella sighed and cut the older man off. "I'm fine, I guess. It just sucks that Carl had to go through that."
"I know, I know, but he'll be fine. Lori, Hershel and Rick said so," Dale laid his head back, sighing. "I hope we find Sophia soon."
Ella slowly nodded. "Yeah, me too. . . for Carol's sake, and for Carl's. They'll both be devastated if she's dead," she paused. "I think I will be too."
Dale nodded in agreement and looked back down at Ella. "Yeah, I think I would be devastated too."
"Yeah."
"Anyway, I'm gonna go get some air."
With that, Dale walked away.
Ella crawled into the bed and fell asleep.