We were leaving the house today, back on the original journey the group were taking, to Fort Benning. "There's not enough space for her in the RV." I roll my eyes at Shane who still hated me. Carol and Sophia were riding with Rick, Lori and Carl so their car was full. Shane was in the RV with Dale, Glenn, Andrea and T-Dog. "Come on man, we can make it work." T-Dog says as Glenn nods along. "There's plenty of room." I sigh not wanting to deal with Shane for the rest of the journey anyways.
"That's fine, I don't mind riding with Daryl." I shrug glancing at the man who nods, "fine with me." I smile at Shane, "don't you just love it when things work out?" I ask making his eyes narrow at me but he nods and then gets in the RV. "You sure you don't wanna ride with us?" Glenn asks and I nod. "I do not want to be trapped with Shane the entire way." He laughs and nods, "understandable."
"Hold on tight, we don't need you falling off now." Daryl says as I approach his bike, "I'm not gonna fall off." I reply as I hop on and wrap my arms around him. "This tight enough for you?" He just gives me a grunt in response before starting his bike.
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The journey is fine, I liked being on the bike with a Daryl, there was no need for us to talk because it was so loud. Plus I loved all the fresh air and feeling the wind on my face. We hit a bump in the road when we get to a pile up of cars. "Jesus." I mumble to myself as Daryl navigates the others through.
The RV breaks down making us all stop. We all begin scavenging for stuff in the cars. I feel ill at seeing all the bodies in the cars. "Selene get down." Daryl growls pulling me towards him as everyone else starts to drop and hide. I crawl under a car and lay there with my hand over my mouth as he goes after T-dog who'd injured himself.
I can see Carl and Sophia a bit ahead of me, Sophia catches my eye and she looks absolutely terrified I send her a reassuring smile and hold my hand to my mouth to remind her to be quiet.
Once the heard seems to have passed I see her start to move out from under the car, but there's still a walker there and it spots her. It drops to the ground and starts reaching for her. She cries as it does and moves out from under the car, she goes running in the woods. I don't even think before I'm getting up and following after her.
I catch up to her quickly and grab her hand as I pull her along with me. I wasn't strong enough to lift her otherwise I would've. "Come on Sophia." I encourage helping her up after she trips. We're suddenly grabbed and we both jump but I relax once I see it's Rick.
"Are you alright? Are you okay?" He asks the two of us as he checks Sophia over. I nod and she reaches for his gun. "Shoot them!" I hold her back as he explains that the sound would call that heard back. Instead he lifts her up with ease and leads us on.
"Sophia, you have to do exactly as I say. Hide in there. Squeeze in tight. I'll draw them away from you." Rick explains as he finds a good hiding spot for her.
"No, no, don't leave me." She cries, "Listen, listen, listen, listen. They don't get winded. I do. I can only deal with them one at a time. I wouldn't be able to protect you. Selene is gonna stay with you okay?" She nods "This is how we all survive."
"Okay? Go, go, go, go." She squeezes in first and then he turns to me, "stay with her." I nod and follow her into the little corner. "If I don't make it back, run back to the highway, back to the others straight the way we
came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." He instructs before the walkers catch up. I nod and hold Sophia close as he calls them over.
We wait a while before Sophia starts to move. "Sophia let's wait for Rick." I tell her gently, "I want my mom." She cries making me nod, "let's just wait a little longer and then we'll go back." She nods and after another ten minutes I agree to head back to the highway.
"Ok come on, don't let go of my hand. Rick said to keep the sun on our left shoulder." I instruct, she nods and grabs my hand painfully tight as she sticks close to me. We see a walker on our trip and Sophia gasps in shock letting my hand drop. "Sophia!" I shout as she runs off, not the way we were supposed to.
I catch up to her only to see another walker, ahead. "Sophia do not move." I instruct, "do you hear me? Do not move." She nods and so I veer forwards as the walker notices me. I push it to the ground before grabbing a rock from the ground and letting it drop on the walkers head. Grimacing at the sound I turn and call Sophia over.
"Come on let's get back to the others now, and I mean it Sophia, no matter what do not let my hand drop." She nods so we begin walking back the way we came. The woods looked the same to me and I had no sense of direction so I was sure we were lost, the sun had begun to set meaning I couldn't have even carried on following it on our left.
"We're gonna have to stop for the night." I tell her once it starts getting dark. "What no we can't stop!" I sigh, "I'm sorry honey but we're just gonna be in more danger out in the dark. Can you climb a tree?" I ask her. She nods and so I give her a bit of a boost and then follow up after her. Luckily I had my backpack on and so I had some supplies for us. I end up tying her legs to the tree so that she wouldn't fall in her sleep and then I tell her to sleep.
