Dixons Never Cry |TWD|

False Hope

"So, what happened?" Rory asked, eyes wide with curiosity and excitement as if my terrifying experience with the walkers had been a one in a lifetime adventure.

"You don't have to tell if you don't want to," assured Carl, though he seemed to want to know to.

"We just ran and Rick found us, told us to hide in this little bush and wait for him to come back, but Sophia ran off after a while," I said.

I frowned upon remembering Sophia. Where could she be now? Daryl is a great tracker, he'd pick up her track like he did mine, then she'd be safe.

"I hope they find Sophia," said Carl sadly. I hated to see my first friend look sad. I gave him a shy smile.

"My brother's the bestest tracker in the whole wide world. He'll find her," I reassured. He gave me a small smile back before Lori walked up to us.

"You kids go inside the RV now, we've got enough problems right now. Don't need anymore," said Lori, tone soft but serious. We all took a seat at the booth by the window.

Not wanting to talk about Sophia anymore and upset ourselves, we got the old checker set out and decided to play.

I wasn't that interested in it, watching the Grimes siblings play instead. As much as I tried to stop my mind wandering over to my brother out in the woods, I couldn't. I already lost Merle, I don't want to lose Daryl too.

Hopefully both my brothers will return, safe and healthy.

After around an hour of playing checkers and eating little goldfish shaped crackers that were very cheesy, the others returned.

Without Sophia.

Carol sobbed harder, but I couldn't concentrate on that. I stared at the fresh blood stains covering Daryl and Rick. They were sweaty too, and I could smell them both from the RV doorway.

"You didn't find my baby?" cried Carol, face red and wet.

"Trail went cold," said Daryl, voice hard and cold but underlying a gentleness.

"We'll pick up again at first light," added Rick. The skies were already darkening, it would be pitch black in another half hour or so.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night in the woods!" exclaimed Carol. Lori shushed her softly, but Carol paid her no mind. I shared a grim look with Carl.

"Out in the dark's no good, we'd jus' be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost," stated Daryl.

Carol began mumbling about Sophia being too young and Andrea looked angry. She directed the gaze at Rick and Daryl.

"You didn't find anything at all?" she demanded, as if it was their fault. I glared daggers into the back of her head, but Daryl caught on and gave me a look. I turned away.

"I know this is hard, Carol, but I'm asking you not to panic." Rick said, eyebrows raised. Carol ignored him and cried harder.

"We know she was out there, we tracked her for a while," said Daryl calmly.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows these woods better than anybody, he tracked out Marnie in less than 20 minutes.  I've asked him to oversee this." Ricked explained.

"Maybe if Marnie hadn't of left her, you'd have found them both!" exclaimed Carol. Daryl's expression hardened even more at that, while everyone else's expressed shock and disbelief.

I even felt myself get upset and angry at the accusation, but I felt too small in the situation to speak out.

"You leave Marnie outta this! Yer kid's like 5 years older than her. Wasn't S'phia the one that got the walkers chasin' 'em?!" Daryl snapped, all while Carol cried harder and Rick tried to calm the situation down. Shane was the only one that looked fed up.