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𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 that was slowly seeping into the dirt, red and shimmering in the sunlight. The little girl, who had not been Sophia for some time, laid face down. I barely paid attention to Carol's sobbing as she ran from the scene, or the labored breathing of my friends around me.
I dropped down into a squat, resting my hands against my forehead, feeling the cool metal of my gun press against my sweltering skin. There were tears streaming down my cheeks that I mistook for sweat.
My hands were shaking and it took everything in me to slow the movement as I breathed in deeply through my nose and out my mouth. I felt hands touch me, softly, weighing down against my shoulders before bending down to wrap themselves around me. I didn't care that it was Shane, that moments before I'd been calling him a monster, screaming at him to stop, because his weight was comforting and keeping me grounded.
I needed to be rooted back to this earth, rather than the air that was trying to shake me apart. He bowed his head against mine, pressing his forehead into my hair as I sucked in a deep breath to hold back my own mangled sob. I'd allowed myself to be filled with false hope, that somehow through it all, we'd find her. That she'd be hiding into a little burrow, a cupboard, a car, and she'd be safe and sound. That we'd have a beautiful reunion between mother and daughter, and all would be right in the world.
But she'd been dead. From the start. She'd always been dead.
Beth made a loud sobbing noise behind me and I turned my head swiftly, watching her race forward. I was on my knees, stumbling forward as the girl dropped down beside her mother's body.
"Beth, wait, no–" I broke out before she began to scream. Her mother, Annette, chomped at the air and clawed at the girl's hair to bring her down.
Beth let out a wailing scream as everyone began to race forward. I had Beth around the waist, dragging her backwards and away from the walker as it tried to bring itself out from under another to get to her.
I threw Beth towards Maggie as she ran towards us and I had my knife pulled out from my waistband in seconds. I was upon the walker before anyone could get to her. I had her arms pinned down with my feet and the knife humanely in her skull before Glenn could run up to help, his rifle drawn.
I glared up at everyone who'd been shooting earlier and snarled, "Never put yourselves in this situation ever again." My voice came out rougher than I intended, the anger clearly visible. "If you're going to be using a gun," my eyes found Daryl, found Glenn, found Andrea and T-Dog, "then you make sure the shot is direct, not some pussy bullet through the jaw."
