The Walking Dead (Fanfic)

Chapter 12

We were all scattered under a tree in the graveyard. I was leaning against the bark with my legs stretched out and a bottle of water in my hand. I closed my eyes as I felt the soft breeze cool me down. Rich and Shane were having their own conversation, and all of us just waited. Daryl was pacing up and down, so I stretched my foot out, trying to get his attention. When he almost fell over my foot, he looked down at me. I raised the bottle of water towards him, he was the only one who hadn't had a drop to drink. Daryl took the bottle and gulped down the water that was left.

Shane broke away from Rick and walked towards us, clearing his throat and aggressively scratching the back of his head. "Y'all gotta follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, Aideen, y'all are in charge." Shane said looking between the two of us. "Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this are another hour or so just to be thorough." Daryl scanned over the group that was left and shrugged. "You sure? About splitting up?" I asked looking at Rick, I did not give a rat's ass on what Shane thought. "Yeah, we need to make sure." Rick said before looking over to Lori.

"I want to go with you. I'm her friend." Carl stepped forward, looking between his father and uncle as I stood up from my spot. "Just be careful, okay?" Lori said before hugging and kissing her son's head. Rick walked over and hugged Lori before he tried giving her the gun. "I'm not leaving you unarmed." She said as we started walking in the other direction. Daryl walked towards Lori and pulled out a small revolver, a gun I didn't even know he had. "Here, got a spare. Take it." Daryl sighed as she slowly took it. I looked at him with raised eyebrows, but he just shrugged.

Andrea scoffed as Lori put the gun behind her back, almost exactly how mine was nestled between my belt and back. Daryl and I lead the way as Glenn, Carol, Lori, and Andrea followed close by. "So, you had another gun." I stated but it almost came out as an accusation, almost. "Relax darlin', I got it off the dead guy in the tent." Daryl rolled his eyes before walking ahead, I sighed and tried to shake my annoyance. Glenn came up from behind me and nudged me with his shoulder. "Trouble in paradise?" he asked with a smirk painted on his face. I nudged him beck before sighing.

"To be honest, I don't know. Anyway, we haven't spoken in a while, how are you feeling after the whole CDC thing?" I asked him as I stepped over a fallen branch, my best friend shrugged before letting out a sigh. "Worried about you, you had a literal panic attack. But just uneasy, I guess. And now, after losing Sofia...It just feels like we are taking blow after blow, and I don't know how much we can handle." Glenn said fixing his hat. "Well, I'm okay and we will find her, you just have to have hope." I told him before shooting him a sad smile.

The one good thing about the friendship I had with Glenn, was that we didn't have to talk everyday to know that we were there for one another. "Would y'all shut up?" Daryl almost growled which was strange because the light conversation on our way to the tent hadn't seem to bother him. I went to check up on Carol, but she still refused to talk to me. After she ignored me, Lori came up and comforted me. "Just give her some time, she's just worried about Sofia that's all." She said gently patting my shoulder as we continued walking through the trees.

"So, this is it? This is the whole plan?" Carol said as she sat on a fallen tree, she looked exhausted. "I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl said annoyed as he leaned against a tree, which was funny because back at the graveyard he acted like he didn't care. "Carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun." Andrea mocked looking over at Lori, clearly still annoyed that no one had given her gun back. "Why you want it?" Lori tiredly said before stepping forward and holding it out to Andrea. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me."

Lori took a seat down and looked at everyone except me. "Y'all keep looking at me and Aideen with the same look." She said before turning to face Carol, "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Aideen and Rick. It is in your face every time you look at them, and when you refuse to speak to them." Lori explained looking her in the eye, it felt strange that she was sticking up for me, but I couldn't look away.
"They didn't hesitate when they ran after her, did they? Not for a second. I don't know if any of us would have gone after her like they did. Or made the hard decisions they had to make, or if anybody could have done it differently.