Deadland

Chapter 11- Shoot

(Tw!! Mentions of being shot, drugs)

By first light, everyone had gathered a weapon from a blacksmith bag that Carl had found. Alyssa grabbed a machete while I stayed with my dagger. 

Everyone minus T-dog and Dale went into the woods to look for Sophia, trailing the creek. 

We approach a yellow tent, hidden decently deep in the woods. Everyone crouches down and stays quiet, ready for anything to happen.

"She could be in there." My dad mentions. "Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl responds, slowly standing up and creeping towards the tent. 

Rick motions for us to stay put and him, Daryl, and Shane begin to tip-toe to the tent.

After Daryl inspects the tent, Rick calls for Carol to call out for Sophia. 

"Sophia, sweetie," Carol softly says, her hands shaking. "Are you in there? Sophia it's mommy. Sophia, we're all here baby. It's mommy." 

Shane and Rick walk up to the tent for extra protection for Daryl. 

Daryl slowly unzips the tent and opens the door, the smell of a rotting corpse floods out. 

Daryl steps in and the tent flap closes behind him. 

It takes him a minute to step back out but once he does he says that it isn't her. 

I don't know if I'm relieved or not. 

"What's in there?" Andrea asks. "Some guy. Did what Jenner said, opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" 

As soon as Daryl stops talking, the sound of faint church bells ring from a distance. Everybody stops and listens before running to the right of the tent. 

We course through the woods for a few minutes until we finally approach a white church surrounded by graves. 

"That can't be it." My dad starts. "Got no steeple, no bells." Rick doesn't listen, he just starts walking. Shane calls out to him before following, running up to the front. 

When Rick and Daryl open the doors, we are met with three Walkers, sitting at the pews. They slowly stand up and begin walking towards us. Lori hands Rick her machete, Daryl takes Glenns...whatever he was using, and Shane uses a knife. Quickly, all of the Walkers drop dead. 

Shane and Rick begin arguing about how there's no steeple when we hear the bell again, this time louder. 

Everybody bolts out of the church and rounds the right side, only to be met with a speaker. Glenn runs up to it and rips the cords out, silencing it. 

"A timer. It's on a timer." Daryl pants, pointing at it. 

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol says quietly, walking inside of the church. 

Everybody except Lori, Shane, and Andrea. 

Carol begins praying to the cross in front of her, Lori sits behind her. 

The sadness in her voice makes me want to cry but I don't, I don't need to. 

I look to the left and see Glenn looking at me, I immediately look back down at my feet.

Rick and Shane decide to hang back and continue to search for Sophia while the rest of the group goes back to the highway. Carl decides to stay with them and help them look since he's Sophia's friend. Alyssa quickly looks at Shane but he shakes his head. 

"Hell no Alyssa, you ain't comin'. I can't tell Carl what to do but you're going back with Adrian." 

"No! I don't want to go back with her." "Well you're going to." Shane says, sternly. Alyssa takes that as a hint and doesn't say another word.