The Last Flame

Chapter 5

The group made it back to the highway, Lori not being among them along with Shane, Carl and Rick. Glenn caught Dale up on everything that had happened.

"Shot? What do you mean shot?" Dale asked very concerned with what had happened on their search.

"I don't know Dale, all I know is some girl rode up on a horse like Zorro and took Lori." Glenn said, looking both concerned and impressed.

"And you let her?" He asked looking to Daryl.

"Climb down outta my asshole man. Rick sent her, knew Carl and Loris names." Daryl said, clearly irritated with the event that just took place.

"Well I heard screaming." Dale said and looked to Andrea. "Was that you?"

Andrea just shit him a glare before heading into the RV.

"She got attacked by a Hollow, it was a close call." Bell answered his question giving him a look of pity.

The group was discussing what to do. They wanted to find the others and make sure they were okay, but didn't want to leave in case Sophia came back. So they decided to stay the night and prepare a sign for her in case she did, that way they could leave in the morning.

In the meantime they sent Glenn and T-dog to where the brunette girl on the horse has told them, to check on everyone and get T-dog some medicine from a scratch that he had gotten the day before from trying to hide from the herd that had now gotten very infected.

Soon it was just Daryl, Carol, Andrea, Bell and Dale who remained at the highway. Bell decided to stay in the RV tonight since there were less bodies in it.

She stayed up top with Dale, not being able to sleep due to a sniffling Carol in the RV. It hurt not being able to find Sophia today, but then finding out that Carl had been shot, just made the day worse. The woman on the horse mentioned Carl was stable, but it definitely seemed very dire.

Bells thoughts were everywhere, only to be brought out of them by Daryl and Andrea walking out of the RV. Daryl looked up to the RV and spoke to the pair sitting on lawn chairs. "Gonna go head out and keep looking for a bit, be back in about an hour." He said starting to head towards the woods when Bell spoke up.

"Y'all be careful, don't need anyone else gettin' separated from the group." She said, half serious and half joking, like Daryl had told her earlier.

Daryl just scoffed in amusement and walked to the woods with Andrea in tow. Dale looked like he wanted to say something to Andrea but ultimately decided against it, he didn't wanna make her more angry with him than she already was.

Bell placed a hand on his arm in reassurance. "She'll come around, you just need to give her time." She said with a smile.

He returned the smile and replied. "I see now why she's upset, I didn't mean to put her in a hard place, I really was trying to help." He said looking towards the young woman.

She nodded. "I know, you meant well, but she has to decide what to live for now. My brother tried to do the same thing with me once. It was irritating at the time, but now that I look back, I know he only meant well and I'm grateful for what he did for me."

Dale smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a good man, your brother, we're y'all close?"

Bell smiled at the thought of her brother. "Yeah we were, he was a great man. Pretty much raised me, made me who I am really. He was seven years older than me, so I pretty much cherished the ground he walked on. He was even the reason I joined the army."

Dale nodded. "Big military family?" He asked.

Bell chuckled. "Yeah we are, me, my brother, my father, grandfather, and so on. All joined for different reasons and all gave us different experiences, some better than others."