Seven's POV
Daryl slows down, his eyes trained on the floor. "Had a little trouble." He points the flashlight to a piece of cloth on the ground. I walk up to it and sniff it. Randall. It was Randall's blindfold. But why would Randall keep his blindfold after he 'escaped'?
Glenn picks it up and him and Daryl examine it. I can track it. I make a sort of grunt noise to try and communicate that I'm able to track it. But before I'm able to get on with the lead that we have we hear the snap of twigs in the darkness and I can smell the distinct scent of the dead. Glenn makes a scared or shocked gasp and the two take off to two nearby trees. Randall? Or a walker?
Daryl harshly whispers to me, "Between." I walk between his legs and wait for any further command. This takes up less space and allows for the two of us to fit behind one tree. Daryl and Glenn peak from behind the tree, me following their lead. Daryl lets out a low, quiet whistle to get Glenn's attention and tosses him a hatchet.
The walker must be able to smell us too.We hear the crunches of leaves come closer to us, my heart beginning to beat at a fast rate though I know to keep calm. I'm ready to spring into action with my flexed muscles set into a position easiest to move.
The walker finally within a few feet of us, finally comes into view. It turns, facing Glenn and lets out a loud growl of sorts. Glenn hesitates giving the walker an advantage so Daryl steps in. He fires a bolt but misses, "Seven! Attack!" Before he can even finish the sentence I've sprung into a leap. My jaws slack, aiming for the putrified head of the lone walker that is attacking us. I successfully clamp down on the head, the weight I bare knocking it down. It's still moving indicating that I haven't bit down hard enough. It's arms flail about and grab onto me, trying to tear into my lean muscles and flesh but before it can do any harm I bite down even harder, partially crushing it's skull. It's arms drop from my side and I step off of it. Noticing it was indeed, Randall.
Turning around I see Glenn and Daryl both looking at me incredulously. My tongue flops out of my mouth and a happy grin becomes plastered to my face. I return to Daryl's side. "Nice," he pats my side.
Daryl leans over, already having noticed that it was Randall. He crouched down beside the body and begins to inspect it for bites or scratches but the only thing he can come up with is, "Got his neck broke." He rechecks Randall's body for any bites or scratches but still, "He's got no bites."
Glenn crouches down beside Daryl and I stand on the opposite side, close to Randall's legs. "Yeah, none you can see." He remarks.
Daryl hold a flashlight and moves back to inspect the neck once again, "No, I'm telling you, he died from this." He says pointing towards our ex-prisoner.
"How is that possible?" Glenn questions, looking between the corpse in front of us and Daryl. "You sure Seven didn't break it?"
"Nah, Seven didn't shake his head back and forth like he normally does. Seven didn't break it." Daryl says shutting down the possibility of me breaking it. Well, let's head back then. We found Randall.
—
Daryl opens the door and I push past him and walk in first, seeing everyone gathered in the room minus Carl who I assume is upstairs, and Rick and Shane. Oh shit.
"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asks, carrying his crossbow in one hand with Glenn behind him carrying the hatchet.
"No." Lori is the only one to reply.
"We heard a shot." Daryl says. One shot.
"Maybe they found Randall." Lori.
"We found him." Daryl says. Yeah. Dead.
"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie speaks up.
"He's a walker." Well, isn't Daryl talkative today? I nudge his legs and he nudges back though I doubt he understood my thoughts at that time.
"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asks. He kinda looks like a variant of Santa Claus if you squint your eyes a bit. While squinting my eyes at Sant- I mean Hershel, I see Beth out of the corner of my eye looking at me with a smile. That made me go back to just looking around the room, don't want her staring at me. It's kinda creepy.
"No, the weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn says, his eyes scanning the room to see everyone's reaction though he unconsciously lets them linger on Maggie.
"His neck was broke." Daryl.
"So he fought back." Patricia, though everyone gives her a strange look once she says this. Does she know then?
"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other, and Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. They were together." Daryl explains to the group. I look up to him in admiration. I'm so glad you ain't some dumb fuck I have to follow around.
"Would you please get back out there, find Rick and Shane, and find out what on Earth is going on?" Lori pleads walking closer to Daryl.
"You got it." Daryl says, receiving a thank you from Lori before I scramble ahead of him towards the front door we came through only minutes ago. I wait at the door for him to open it, anxiously moving from paw to paw. He opens it and I squeeze through to before he can even fully open it. The first thing I notice is the strong smell of the dead being carried through the air. I let out a low bark to signal to the people behind me that there is a huge danger inbound.
I turn around to see everyone's faces which can all be summed up to 'Oh shit.'
"Carl's gone." My heart drops. Lori is seen in a panic but I can register anything else she is saying. Not the kid.
"We're gonna look again. We're gonna find him." Carol making a decision within the panic. I follow after them without Daryl's permission, once again rudely pushing past Lori to get though the door.
I fly up the stairs having apparently caught that from what Lori said and quickly check every room until I came across the room at help Carl's scent the strongest. I push open the door and can already tell he's left the house judging by the open window and Carl himself being no where in sight. I get on my hind legs and use my front paws the balance myself against the windowsill to try and search for Carl from here but all I see is the sea of the dead. Outside the window is a smaller roof which he probably used to his advantage to get down. Fuck it.
I jump out of the window and onto the small roof, still tracking his scent. Luckily, the walkers haven't noticed me yet. I look over the edge of the roof and see it's a bit far of a drop but I'm already on the roof may as well just jump. I slowly edge myself off of the roof and land with a thump. My paws temporarily hurt from the drop but the pain is quickly brushed away by my adrenaline. The walkers notice me and turn to me, growling with blood hanging from their mouthes while they reach out towards me but before they are able to reach me, I'm sprinting in the direction of where I smell Carl. It goes far put into the field, I dodge and weave walkers until I get there and the trail comes to a stop for a second, meaning he was here for awhile. I try to find where he went from after this but soon realize that walkers have begun to surround me. Past them, the barn is on fire and some cars are leaving, screaming of my people is heard in the distance and the most prominent to me being the rumbling of Daryl's bike.
I start to whine, knowing it is pathetic, but I thought I'd die for Daryl, or with him by my side but I'm just alone. The walkers are closing in but with my luck, one trips from possibly a gopher hole.
There's my opening. I sprint through the small gap, the walkers on either side barely grazing my sides with their finger tips. I find Carl's scent again smelling that it leads the to barn engulfed in flames. I'd for sure lose it there so there was simply no point in trying to track him anymore. "Seven!" I hear from a distance. Daryl. I bark back to him knowing it would probably gain the attention of walkers in my attempt to let Daryl know I'm alive even though he can't see me. But I also hear the screams of a woman. It has to be Carol. I try to find my way to her screams and Daryl's calls finally being able to see Carol and Daryl. Daryl looks panics while Carol looks hysterical. A herd follows behind Carol while she clambers onto the back of Daryl's bike. "Seven!" He makes once last call before I see him drive off, away from the herd that followed Carol and him and away from me.