Mellody woke up and rubbed her eyes. Daryl and Archie must have already awakened because they were gone. Mellody sat up and looked out the window, seeing the others clustered around the rv and discussing something. Archie was standing next to daryl
"Hey Mell!" Archie called out.
Mellody opened the door and swung her feet out, jumping down He was standing at the edge of the woods.
"Come on, we're looking for Sofia, you're with me!" Archie called out, waving his arms for Mellody to come over.
Mellody ran over to Archie. She expected him to start walking into the forest, but he was holding a hatchet--two of them, actually. He handed one to Mellody.
"For me?" Mellody asked, surprised.
Archie nodded, his eyebrows raised.
"You gotta learn how to protect yourself, don't you?" Archie said, raising his eyebrows.
Mellodu smiled and grabbed the hatchet with both hands, feeling its familiar weight and balance.
"No, hold it like this," Archie said, showing her how to hold up his hatchet. Mellody nodded, correcting her position. Archie nodded in approval, and then he started walking into the forest. Mellody thought they were going to go with the rest of the group, but Archie took her somewhere else.
Suddenly, Archie stopped, grabbing Mellody's shoulder and holding her back from going any further. He held his hatchet up, pointing forward at a walker stumbling through the forest. Archie hid behind a tree and pointed to a tree next to him, instructing Mellody to hide behind it.
Archie whistled, and Mellody heard the walker getting closer and closer to them. Archie made a mysterious signal--she wasn't sure what he meant. The walker started to shuffle past them, and Archie whistled again.
"Go now!" Archie said, loudly, and Mellody ran forward and stabbed the walker in the back. The walker fell to the ground, and Mellody stabbed it in the head, following Archie's instructions like she was supposed to.
Archie put his hands on his hips and tilted his head in disbelief.
"Better than I expected--you're a natural!" Archie said, as he raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly.
Then they both started to hear a ringing like a church bell.
"What is that?" Mellody asked, furrowing her eyebrows in concern and looking really worried.
"A bell?" Archie said, shaking his head and squinting to see better.
"Maybe they've found her...it might be a signal!" Archie said, looking back at Mellody and pointing towards the location where the bell sound was coming from. The two of them started running towards the noise, where they saw a church in the distance. Everyone who had separated, including Rick, Carl, Carol, Shane, Andrea, Daryl, and Glen, was there already.
"Did you find her?!" Carol yelled, placing her hands on her heart.
"Nah, I'm guessin' you didn't either," Archie said, placing his hands on his hips.
Mellody looked down at her shoes and walked to join the rest of the group. Archie walked forward, too, but the two of them were separated when they reached the church.
While Archie went over to Daryl and the others, Mellody sat next to Carol, who appeared to be in tears.
"Carol..." Mellody whispered.
"We'll find her, I promise," Mellody said, smiling as best she could.
Carol wiped her eyes and squeezed Mellody's hand softly.
"I know, I know we will," Carol said, almost as a whispering to herself. Then she added gently, "Thank you.”
"Hey!" Archie called out to Mellody.
Mellody turned around and looked at him.
"Break time is over; let's head back out there!" Archie said, waving his arm at her. Mellody quickly jumped up and was ready to head back outside.
"We're split into 3 groups," Archie said, patting Mellody's back and leading her toward the woods. The two walked through the woods for what felt like hours, even though it was actually only a few minutes. Archie didn't say anything to her; he didn't need to; they understood one another.
Archie stopped when he heard a gunshot.
"What the hell?" He said, taken aback by the volume of the shot.
"I only heard one shot, are they okay?!" Mellody asked, frightened. She expected to hear multiple shots if it was a walker.
"Hopefully," Archie said, worried, indicating that they should move cautiously and quietly in the direction where the gunshot came from.
