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THEY WALKED THROUGH THE HOT AIR. Shane handed weapons to everyone to have in case they ran into some trouble while looking for Sophia. Ella got a gun from her father who said she'd need it to protect herself, so she held it in her hand, gripping it.
Everyone came to a stop when Daryl crouched down in front of a tent. Rick followed Daryl, his gun in his hand as they examined it. Ella shoved her gun in her waistband, inhaling.
"She could be in there," Daryl looked back at everyone. "But there could be a whole bunch of other things in there."
"Carol, call out for Sophia softly," Rick told the woman. "If she's in there, your the first voice she should hear."
Carol nodded. "Sophia, sweetie are you in there?" Carol anxiously waited for any type of movement. "Sophia, it's mommy. We're all here, baby. It's mommy."
Daryl moved closer to the tent with Rick and Shane behind him. Daryl lifted the flap up, letting out the scent of dead flesh. They started to cough, except for Daryl who moved inside.
Waiting for Daryl to give them news was probably the worst part out of the day already.
Daryl stepped out of the tent. "It ain't her." he assured everyone, specifically Carol. "Some guy opted out, did what Jenner said. . . well, ain't that what he called it?"
Suddenly, bells rang in the distance.
Ella whirled around to pinpoint the direction of the noise. Rick pointed in a direction and everyone ran in the direction after Rick to find what was ringing.
They got deep in the woods to find they didn't know what direction to go for the noise was everywhere. It rang from every direction possible, and that enraged Ella.
"Which way?" Ella asked out loud.
"I think that way, I'm pretty sure." Daryl said.
Shane looked around the area. "Damn, it's hard to tell."
Ella nodded in agreement, hands on her hips.
Hope ignited in Carol's eyes. "Maybe Sophia heard the bells too."
Glenn glanced between Shane and Carol, pity in his eyes. "Someone's ringing those bells. . . maybe they're calling someone."
"Or she's ringing them herself." Ella pointed out with a shrug.
With that, they followed Rick to the church. It took them only a few minutes to find the church, but they did find a graveyard placed directly in front of it.
They were left in an eerie silence. Ella felt like someone was watching them very closely. She felt like all eyes were on them, she didn't like the feeling she was getting, but then again she got the bad feeling a lot.
"This can't be it," Shane said. "Got no steeple, no bell-"
Rick took off sprinting.
"Rick!"
The group followed Rick into the church. They walked inside to see Sophia wasn't inside the church, there were only walkers occupying the inside of the church.
The walkers slowly turned towards the group. Rick unsheathed his machete and Daryl took his crossbow out.
Rick sliced the machete through a walker's skull. Shane walked through the aisle and stabbed a walker in the forehead, whilst Daryl shot a walker in the face.
"Sophia!" Rick yelled as he looked around the church.
Ella walked over to an empty small bookshelf and moved it to the side make sure there wasn't a hiding hole behind it. She let out a sigh.
"It's got no steeple, Rick, it's got no steeple." Shane repeated to Rick.
Outside, the bell rang again. Ella raised an eyebrow and followed everyone outside as they all panicked about the bell and where it was even coming from.
Glenn walked to the side of the building, then the bells stopped. "It was on a timer."
Ella kicked a rock. Finding Sophia was going to be a lot harder than she suspected.
____________________________
RICK, SHANE AND CARL SPLIT OFF FROM THE MAIN GROUP to cover more ground and hopefully find Sophia in case she heard the church bells and followed it out of curiosity. Everyone else headed back to the highway instead of going with Rick, Shane and Carl.
Ella walked by Lori for she felt the most comfortable around Lori. Ella was worried about Carl, Rick and Shane. She was worried something horrible might happen to them while they walked to the highway.
"So, this is it," Carol sat down on a tree stump. Ella looked back at Carol and stopped walking. "This is the whole plan?" she asked.
Daryl shrugged. "I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller groups." he told Carol.
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea glanced at Lori and Ella. "I see you got guns."
Ella looked at Andrea. Why was she being so bitter about her having a gun? Her father and Rick trusted her and Lori the most out of everyone, so they decided her and Lori could carry around guns.
Lori glanced over at Ella, then back to a bitter Andrea. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you've been giving us. All of you," Lori sighed, turning to Carol. "I can't imagine what you're going through, and I would do anything to stop it, but you have got to stop blaming Rick."
Carol seemed to pretend she didn't know what Lori was talking about, because she put on a confused look, her eyebrows stringing together.
Lori clenched her jaw. "It's in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran off, he didn't hesitate to go after her, did he? Not for a second," Lori shook her head. Ella nodded in agreement. "I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did, or made the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently."
Lori glanced at everyone. They'd all gone silent, they'd all stopped giving Lori looks and they all decided in that moment to stop making stupid side comments.
"Anybody? Y'all look up to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori held out the gun to Andrea, but she shook her head. Lori nodded and put the gun in her waistband. "We should keep moving."
Ella looked at everyone to make sure none of them were about to make another comment. Ella loved this side of Lori, she was finally sticking up for her husband who was really trying to keep everyone alive.
Glenn gave Ella a look, before they both followed Lori in the direction of the highway. They walked side by side in silence, along when everyone else.
