Deadland

Chapter 13- Well

We all slept in the living room, Lori and Rick slept with Carl. 

I wake up to Alyssa gone so I look into Carl's room and see her sitting with Lori and Rick; but I don't see my dad anywhere. 

"Dad?" I walk out of the house and see everyone gathering rocks, so I walk over there to help. 

As soon as I see my dad's shaved head I gasp and cover my mouth, everyone looks at me. 

"Dad." I begin to smile slightly. "What?" He looks around, confused. "Your hair-" I giggle lightly. "You look like a football." Shane scoffs and looks away; Glenn and a few others have to stifle their laughter. 

Just then, we hear the R.V, motorcycle, and car pull up.

Everybody goes back to the front of the house and T-Dog goes to tell Rick and Lori. 

All of the Greene family and our group just stands in front of the house. 

"How is he?" Dale asks. "He'll pull through." Lori smiles. "Thanks to Hershel and his people." She looks around. "And Shane." Rick interrupts. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Alyssa smiles knowing that her dad was a hero. Or-helping the hero.

Rick explains how it happened after breaking the hug with Dale. 

"Can we um-" Patricia starts, very quietly. "Oh right. Um-" Rick turns back to the group. "We're having a funeral for one of their people-Otis." 

At the funeral, while Hershel is saying his prayer, my dad looks deep in thought. I think I'm the only one who notices but Hershel asks him to speak for Otis. "I'm not good at it. I'm sorry." He quickly replies. "You were the last one with him." Patricia sobs. "You shared his final moments, please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning." 

"Okay." Shane whispers. "We were about done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols then. I was limping, it was bad. Ankle all swollen up. 'We've got to save the boy.' See, that's what he said. He gave me his backpack, he shoved me ahead. 'Run,' he said. He said, 'I'll take the rear. I'll cover you.' And when I looked back..." He doesn't finish that sentence. He limps forward and places a rock on the pile. "If not for Otis, I'd never have made it out alive. And that goes for Carl too. It was Otis. He saved us both. If any death ever had meaning, it was his. 

Everyone begins to disperse when Rick mentions Sophia to Hershel. "I think we can help." The woman from the porch says. "Follow me." She begins to walk back to the house and we all follow. 

I lean into Rick, "The fuck is her name?" "I think she said it's Maggie." I nod, "Thanks." 

She leads us to our yellowish-creme colored car and tells us to wait there. 

"So how long's this girl been missing?" Hershel asks. 

"It'll be three days today." 

Maggie walks back to us with a rolled-up map. "County survey map." She says, placing the map and unrolling it on the hood of our car. "Shows terrain and elevations." "This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized." Rick mentions. "We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams." 

"Not you, not today." Hershel says. "You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out. And your ankle," He looks at my dad. "Push it now, you'll be laid up a month. No good to anybody." 

"Guess it's just me." Daryl says. "I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there." "I can still be useful." My dad speaks up. "Dad, jesus. Take a rest day for god sakes." "Well I can drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."