WILDFIRE -Beth Greene

Many Hostile Encounters

As Rick says goodbye to his family, Gwen watches Shane who watches them with a look on his face that can mean nothing good. Rick tries to give Lori his gun but she refuses and ends up with Daryl's spare, which Gwen thinks is a little hypocritical but it doesn't bother her. Andrea on the other hand.

The different groups part ways as the rest of them head back in the way of the creek. Jessie slows to Gwen's pace at the back of the group and latches onto her sister hand.

It had just been them for a while now and even before it had really been just them, it had always been just them. The two girls, of in their own world, along with their baby sister before shit hit the fan. Thats how they liked it, well, how Gwen like it anyhow. Jessie had always shown more interest in people that her little sister and the younger girls dislike for them had only strengthened since the end of the world.

After a few minutes of walking in a tense silence, it's broken by Carol, "So this is it? This is the whole plan?" She sits down on a fallen tree and turns to face Daryl, who answers accordingly.

"Guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups."

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea adds, looking enviously at Lori, "I see you have gun."

To which the woman marches over to the blond and holds the gun out for her to take, "Why you want it? Take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you."

She sits down next to Carol and turns to look at the woman, "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 Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently."

Carol looks ashamed as Lori continues, "Anybody?" She looks around at the rest of them and Gwen finds that she agrees with everything the woman had to say. She could tell everyone looked up to Rick and she knew what that could do to a person.

"Yall look to him and then you blame him when he isn't perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. No one is stopping you."

Andrea wordlessly walks over to Lori and hands her back the gun as the two women share a look, "We should keep moving." And so they head off again.

And after more minutes passed as they walked in even tenser silence, a shot rings out, stopping the group in their tracks, "Do you think that was them?" Gwen asks, confused as to why they'd be using their guns after all the higher preaching they'd done about it being a last resort.

Concern clouds Lori's face, "Why one? Why just one gunshot?"

Daryl shrugs, "Maybe they took down a walker." Gwen could tell he's trying to calm the worrying mother but Gwen thought it was a pretty stupid excuse.

"Please don't patronize me. You know that Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane, they'd do it quietly."

Jessie pipes up, trying to ease the woman, "I'm sure they're fine, probably making their way back to us now." She smiles at the woman who shoots her a look.

"Oh, and how can you be sure of that, huh?"
Which did not sit right with Gwen one bit.

"Hey." She says stepping in line with her sister, "you worried about your boy, of course, but-" she's interrupted before she can offer words of comfort by Carol, who clearly has got the memo that they are trying to reassure Lori.

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?"

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" Lori asks.

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

"They're probably heading back to the RV as we speak." Gwen smiles at the lady, who nods.

The rest of the group start walking onwards as Andrea and Carol hang back, "I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel."

Carol smiles, "I suppose you do. Thank you. The thought of her out there by herself.. it's the not knowing that's killing me," and then Carol says something Gwen's pretty sure no one was prepared for, "I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy."

Gwen has to face away from the two women to hide her visible shock and to regain her composure, she had a terrible habit of laughing when nothing was funny. From what she can work out, Amy was Andrea sister, who they lost back in Atlanta.

The horror at her own words was clear in carols face as she grabs the blonds hands in her own, "oh, good. That's the worst thing I ever said."

Andrea just shakes her head, sympathising with the woman, "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."

That's when Daryl steps forward, "I'll tell you what it's worth...not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hoping and praying. 'Cause we're gonna locate that little girl, she's gonna be just fine." He looks right a Carol with the softest look in his eyes, "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."

Gwen can't hold back her smile at that, despite the overwhelming sense of impending doom hanging over their heads.