My Desire - Daryl Dixon (1)

Been Shot

Chapter 28

Once it became dark, the boys finally returned but with no Sophia. Watching Carol's reaction was so upsetting as we saw how hard she was finding it to stay strong.

"You didn't find her?" Carol questioned with tears in her eyes.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light," Rick said.

"You can't leave my daughter out there one her own, to spend the night alone in the woods," Carol said.

"Out in the dark's no good. We'll just be tripping over ourselves, more people will get lost," Daryl said.

"But she's twelve, she can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol asked.

"I know this is hard but I'm asking you not to panic, we know she was out there," Rick said.

"And we tracked her for a while," Daryl said.

"We have to make this an organised effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody, I've asked him to oversee this," Rick said.

"Is that- is that blood?" Carol asked, referring to the blood on Daryl's trousers.

"We took down a walker," Rick said.

"A walker? Oh god," Carol said.

"There's no sign that it was ever near Sophia," Rick said.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked.

"We cut the son-of-a-bitch open, made sure," Daryl said.

Carol then began to sit down for a minute, trying her best to calm down before saying...

"How could you just leave her out there to begin with?, how could you just leave her?" Carol asked.

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off it was her best chance," Rick said.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice Carol," Shane said.

"How is she supposed to find her way back on her own?, she's just a child. She's just a child," Carol said.

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make," Rick said.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane said.

"My little girl got left in the woods," Carol said.

Carol then began to cry while we comforted her. As this happened, I saw Rick walk off and I followed him over to a car he was sitting on.

"It's not your fault Rick," I said.

"No, it is. I should have done something to help her," Rick said.

"Rick, it wasn't. I don't care what anybody says, it wasn't your fault and we're going to find Sophia, because there's one thing that I know more than anything, nobody ever stays missing forever. Eventually you find them," I explained.

I then walked off back to my car before falling asleep just like everybody else did. The next morning, we all got up bright and early, ready to find Sophia.

"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick said as he laid down a pack full of tools for everyone.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked.

"Haven't we been over that? Daryl, Skye, Rick and I are carrying. Can't have people popping on rounds every time the tree rustles," Shane said.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about," Andrea said.