Before I Fade Away~ Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

Chapter 14~ Hopeless

{Sylvie's P.O.V}

      The night passes by rather slow, and when morning comes we're all up at the crack of dawn ready to search for Sophia. I'm slightly unsettled about bringing Athena along, she's so little and gets confused. 

"Mommy can I walk by Daryl?" She asks as we're getting ready to go. I look at Daryl, I'd be fine with that as long as he doesn't mind. 

"Ye' think ye' can keep up Thena'?" He challenges her. She nods her head, determined. 

     With that, we take off into the woods. I can't help but laugh whenever Daryl would purposely walk fast and Athena would get behind, but she quickly ran to catch up. 

"Don't you think she's making a lot of noise? And she's gonna muck up the trail." I hear Shane say to Daryl. I squint my eyes, as if doing so will burn holes through his back. 

"Look." Rick says, preventing Daryl from responding.

"Hey Thena', go back with yer' mom alright. I gotta look for somethin'." Daryl tells her. She nods and walks back over to me. I hold my hand out and she grabs ahold. 

       Daryl stalks over to the tent with Shane and Rick close behind, they're very cautious about the task at hand. Carol then stands by them and calls out to Sophia, no response. So Daryl carefully unzips the tent and enters. Rick and Shane gag at what I assume is that same dead body smell that was at the CDC. 

"It ain't her." Daryl says, stepping out of the tent. 

      We stand there hopelessly, but the sound of church bells gives us a sense of hope. Maybe it's Sophia ringing those bells. They all start running, so I pick up Athena and run with her so we don't get caught behind. We burst out of the woods and before us is a cemetery with a church not far away. Again, we take off running.

    Rick, Shane, and Daryl clear the building out while the rest of us stay behind. When the church bells go off again, Daryl rushes out of the church. 

"They're on a timer." Glenn sighs, ripping the wires out to turn it off. 

      As the group discusses what to do next, I watch Athena pick little flowers from the ground. She smiles as she comes back to me.

"Look what I got for Carol!" She brags innocently. 

"They're lovely, why don't you go give them to her." I say, then kiss the top of her head. What did I do to deserve such a sweet and loving daughter?

    I watch her tap Carol and hand the flowers to her, I instantly see a light flicker in the woman's eyes. She smiles and kneels down to give Athena a hug. After she pulls away, Athena finds Daryl, and Carol walks over to me.

"Your daughter is an angel, she's the one thing keeping most of us sane right now." She compliments.

"Thank you... both of us are going to do what we can to help find Sophia. She's one of Athena's only friends." I reply. I find myself doubting if we'll find her, a little girl out in these woods with walkers roaming around isn't exactly assuring.

      Rick and Shane decide to stay at the church for a little while and the rest of us will head back to the highway. Carl begs to stay with them, and Lori allows it. 

"Momma why can't we stay too?" Athena asks.

"Because, we have to see if Sophia is in the woods. I promise you they have it covered here." I try to cleverly get her thought off of staying behind, I don't trust Shane to keep her safe.

      When we get a ways into the woods, a loud gunshot rattles our ears and causes a flock of crows to flee from the safety of the tree branches. Lori gets worried, but Daryl tries to downplay it in order to keep everyone calm. The last thing we need is a bunch of panicking people. 

"Sylvie, c'mere." Daryl says once we stop to rest for a minute. 

"What?" I wonder. He looks at Athena with concern.

"Somethin' don't seem right. She ain't acting right since we left the church." He tells me. 

"Athena honey, come here." I call her over. She walks slowly, her shoulders drooping, eyes looking practically sunk into her head and a frown on her face.

"Baby, do you feel okay?" I kneel down and hold both of her hands. 

"M-momma" She barely is able to say before she collapses in my arms.

"Athena? Athena! Honey, are you okay? Baby, please tell me you're faking..." I say frantically. I lay her down and try to find anything wrong with her. 

"Sylvie, I think that's blood on her shirt... was that there before?" Lori points out. 

    I quickly lift up her shirt, and gasp at the nasty looking gash on her stomach. To my relief, it's not a scratch or bite of a walker, but I still don't know how the hell she got it.

"How did this happen?! I would've seen if she had fallen! I've been with her-" 

"When Dale said he grabbed her, that was after she had gone to the bathroom. Maybe she slipped and cut herself on something sharp." Andrea suggests.

"Oh god... my poor baby... This thing is infected!" I sob. I press the back of my hand on her forehead, she's burning up with a fever.

     Daryl suddenly picks her up and starts walking at a faster pace, so I wipe my tears and we all follow him.

"We're gonna get her back and she's gonna be just fine." Daryl says sternly. 

     After some more walking, a woman on a horse strides up and knocks out a walker. Andrea almost got bit, but thanks to this person she's okay.

"Lori? Lori Grimes" She says, and Lori steps forward.

"Rick sent me, there's been an accident, Carl's been shot." She informs us. 

"There's no time! C'mon." She says when she sees Lori hesitating to get on the horse. Eventually she believes the woman and hops on, Daryl protests but he's cut off by the girl giving directions to her farm.

"I need to get Athena to that farm, I can't help her unless I have the right supplies. And you heard her, they'll have what she needs." I tell Daryl, in a matter-of-fact way.

"Alright, let's go." Daryl announces.

A/N- Here's an update until I can write again in a few days. Hope you enjoyed!