Every Moment // Daryl Dixon

10

Mia snapped her head around toward the sound of the gunshot, same as everyone else. Lori was worried the most. 

"Why just one gunshot?" she kept questioning. 

"Maybe they took down a walker," Daryl said. 

"Yeah, maybe," Mia added. "So, stop worrying about it. They probably just shot without a thought."

Lori still didn't lose the concern as she stared back at them, worried. "Don't patronise me, you know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" said Carol, looking around as if she'd spot them walking towards them. 

"Nothin' we can do about it anyway, keep doing as we've been doing," Daryl said. "Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

They started walking again, and Carol and Andrea began to talk about praying and hoping that Sophia was alive. Daryl huffed in disbelief. 

"I tell ye' what it's worth. Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gon' be jus' fine. Am I the only one that's zen around here? Good lord."

Mia threw Daryl a smile when he passed her, and they all headed off to look for Sophia again. The next hour was spent walking in silence the whole time. No one spoke, no one looked at each other. Just focused on looking around for Sophia, or the other guys. Daryl eventually pointed out that they were losing light and had to head back, but that they'd look again tomorrow. 

"My legs are like jelly right now," Mia complained. "How much further?"

"'Bout a hundred yards," Daryl replied. "Stop bein' a baby."

The next thing Mia heard was someone yelling. It was Andrea screaming for help. Just before anybody could put the walker on her down, a short-haired brunette riding a horse had an axe go straight through the walkers neck. 

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" the woman asked quickly, looking around at everyone. Mia frowned. 

"I'm Lori," she panted when she reached the woman. 

"Rick sent me, you gotta come now. There's been an accident, Carl's been shot."

Mia stopped listening at the words of her brother being shot, like a buzzing noise going into her brain like static. That was the one gunshot they heard. She moved towards the horse. 

"Take me as well, I'm his sister," she begged. 

"I can only take one," the woman said. Lori didn't hesitate to jump up onto the horse. The woman then spoke really fast, and Mia's head felt heavy and couldn't process a word of it, before she rode off with her mother. 

"Hey," Daryl said beside her. "Yer little brother's gon' be jus' fine. Like Sophia."

Mia gave him a small smile before he shot an arrow in the walker's head after it sat up, growling. "Shut up."

---------------------------

When they reached the highway, Dale shook his head when he saw that they didn't find Sophia. He asked where Lori was, and they explained what had happened. Mia couldn't think, couldn't blink straight, and held her tears in. She didn't want to appear weak. Hell, Daryl wasn't even this bad and he didn't know whether Merle was alive or not. But he did say that only Merle could kill Merle. 

"Climb outta my ass, old man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's," Daryl said as he jumped over the railing. 

Mia blocked out the conversation and went to sit on the road in front of the RV, not able to get the picture of what Carl might be like right now out of her head. Were kids cursed in this apocalypse or what? Sophia goes missing, Carl gets shot. Mia finally couldn't hold in the tears anymore and let them trickle down her cheeks. She sniffled quietly so that the others wouldn't hear.