38. The Hiding Place

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"Dale?" I whisper, he looks at me with a reassuring smile. It helps calm me down a little. I grabbed my gun outta my bag after Shane attacked me, but I know better than to try to use it. After Atlanta, when Merle was shooting everybody got mad at him, cause he was attracting more walkers with the noise. After a few minutes everything had passed, but we stayed still. When I look over, I see Sophia come out from underneath her car. I guess it's Okay. I jump off the RV from the top, I have to make sure Daryl's okay. I'm about to yell for him, but I remember the walkers are too close, they'd hear me. I hear a rattle from behind me, and sigh.
"Daryl, do you know if everybody is okay?" He doesn't answer. When I turn around I realize it's not Daryl... its walkers, two of them. I yelp, and turn around to run.
I do run, I run right into Sophia, who screams, but not loud enough for the other walkers to hear,
"Come on mase!" She grabs my hand, and we sprint to the rail of the highway, the woods are close we can probably lose them in there.
"Daryl!" I yell hoping Maybe he heard me.
"Come on run!" Sophia cries.
We are running so fast, but I don't remember which way we came from. I'm about to go left, when something grabs us. We both scream, but then collapse into Rick's embrace.
"Rick what do we do?" I whimper,
"Shoot them!" Sophia cries.
"No!... No! If I shoot them all the others on the highway will hear, then it won't just be two, it'd be hundreds!" He picks Sophia up, and reaches for me.
"I can run." I assure him, and he nods,
"Keep up!" I nod back, and we take off running in the other direction, away from the walkers. I'm pretty tired, but Rick looks exhausted from carrying Sophia and running.
He stops at a small creek,
"All right, just wait, just stay here." He puts Sophia down, and jumps into the creek it doesn't go very high on him, but will probably be almost to my waist. He pick Sophia and I up, and looks around frantically. He runs over to a small hole in the ground.
"You girls listen to me, you have to do exactly as I say. Hide in there and I'll get them away."
"No!" Me and Sophia say
"Don't leave us!" Sophia cries out,
"They don't get tired, I do. I can't fight them both off with both of you girls with me. This is how we make it. Listen this is how we all survive!" He helps me and then Sophia in the hole, and leaves.
"If I'm not back soon make your way back to the highway to the others, the same way we came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." We nod, and then hear movement above us, and freeze.
"Hey!" Rick yells at them, and they fall down into the creek, and start to chase him. He looks so brave. I remember how hard it was to just kill the one walker at the quarry. I can't imagine two.
It's only been about five minutes, and Sophia starts to get out,
"No! Sophia what are you doing? Rick told us to stay here." She looks at me with fear in her eyes,
"We can't, I want my mom. I'm gonna go back."
"But Rick told us to stay here, and he's only been gone for a few minutes. I think Daryl would tell me to stay here. He'd tell both of us to stay here."
"You can stay here then. I'm going back."
"But Sophia!" She turns and starts to leave, and I get up to follow, but I can't... I can't disobey Rick I know he'll come back. I sit back down, and wait for him to return.

"Girls?" My head immediately snaps up, and I let out a small cry of relief.
"Rick? I'm here, Sophia said she was goin' back. Are you okay? Did... did you git hurt?"
"No it's alright, everything is fine now. Why didn't ya go when Sophia went?"
"Cause it'd only been a few minutes, and I thought about what Daryl would tell me to do."
"Ya did good... real good. Let's go back, I'm sure they're all worried sick."
"Even Daryl?" I say doubtfully, he probably was hoping he'd be able to get rid of me.
"Especially Daryl." Rick chuckles, and helps me out of the hiding place. When I see him, he's covered in blood.
"Are ya sure your okay?"
"Yeah, I had to take em both out. Let's go." He holds his hand out, but I pretend not to see it.

   "Their back!" I hear Carl yell, and then I see him get scolded by Lori and Shane. I stop, when I see Daryl with his head in his hands suddenly look up. I can't read his expression, anger... relief?...A bit of both maybe.
"Mason!" He doesn't yell, but he would if there wasn't such an immediate threat a mile or two away.
     Rick grips my hand, and urges me to move forward. I do... slowly.
"C'mon... it's gonna be fine." Rick encourages.
     When I look up Daryl is sprinting towards us.
"Mason!" He jumps over the guard rail, and that's when I start running towards him. He's not gonna hurt me, he promised.
"Daryl!" I whimper, everything starting to catch up to me. I launch into Daryl's strong arms, and Put my arms around his neck.
"What happened?! Why did ya get down from the RV?" He says, not sounding too happy.
"I don't know... I thought they were gone, and I couldn't see ya. I was scared ya got eaten, and then the walkers came... and... and."
I'm having trouble breathing again.
"Hey, Mason calm down."
"I'm sorry, when Sophia ran, I followed her."
"Hey you're safe now," he assures.
       He puts me down, keeping a guiding hand on my shoulder. Once we're back at the RV he turns to look at me... oh boy here we go. He's about to lay it on me when he's cut off by a frantic voice.
"Where's Sophia?! Where's my baby?!" Carol sobs.
"What do you mean?" I gasp, she was on her way back. She should be here by now! Everybody is talking about what to do, but I zone them out... Sophia is missing, she's out there all alone.
"My dog!" I exclaim in excitement.
"What about the mutt?" Shane says, not in a mean way just irritatedly.
"Maybe he can track her or something. I saw it in a movie once!"
"This isn't the movies it isn't gonna work," Shane snaps.
"Do you have a better idea Ranger Roy?" I sass earring a glare from him, and a nudge from Daryl.
"She's right, we should at least try it," Daryl agrees.
"Come on, I know where it is."
      I start to walk towards the guard rail, but am stopped when Daryl grabs the back of my collar. He rips me back,
"Nice try, but negative ghost rider. You're still in trouble from earlier. Go sit in the truck, and if I find that you got out..." he starts to warn.
"You won't," I assure him.
      "I gotta hand it to you Daryl, if she was mine I'd..." Shane starts.
"Well she ain't," Daryl snaps.
"Come on now, we're burning daylight," Rick cuts in.
      "Let's go Mase," Daryl orders pointing in the direction of the vehicle, and I trudge my way over. He opens the door, and Apollo jumps out. Daryl looks at me, and sighs,
"It's hot out, leave the doors open. If ya need to go sit in the bucket. I'll git Lori to check on ya, and give ya water."
I do as I'm told, and watch Daryl walk off with my dog. I was glad Daryl gave me permission to sit in the back, I was able to feel a breeze. Lori keeps checking on me, and Carl came over to talk to me. His mom made him leave. She said I was in trouble, and needed to be alone, so he left. I can't stop thinking about Sophia I hope they found her. I know they found her... they have to. Kids don't die... right?

SO EXCITED FOR TONIGHT'S EPISODE🤗🤗🤗... HENRY NEEDS SOME BRAINS... BUT I STILL LIKE HIM
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