Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ELLA JUMPED. She turned in the direction the gunshot came from, panic rising in her bones. Her breathing became heavy, her fingers twitched and her jaw clenched from the panic and terror she felt due to the gunshot.
The worry she had for the three who stayed behind to cover more ground only heightened. Ella glanced around more so to see if the three men were running towards them because of the herd rerouting themselves and coming back for the highway.
Lori widened her eyes. "Did you hear that?"
Glenn and Ella looked at each other. Glenn was also panicking, his chest rising up and down nervously and frightfully.
"Come on, let's keep moving." Daryl gestured in the direction of the highway, moving past everyone. "It's not too much further."
Ella and Lori lingered behind for they were trying to answer the questions running through their heads. Where did it come from? Why was there only one shot? What happened out there? Who even shot it? Rick? Shane? Or was it some stranger who shot the bullet.
The Walsh girl let out a sigh and continued on until Andrea asked a question, Andrea's eyebrows raised in wonder.
"Are you still worrying about it?"
"It was a gunshot. . ." Lori reminded Andrea. "We all heard it. Why just one?"
Andrea shrugged. "Maybe they took down a walker."
Ella scoffed. "They wouldn't waste a bullet on a walker. So, let's just keep going. . . maybe it was someone said." Ella said in hopes she was right it was someone else.
Lori sighed and looked back in the direction of the gunshot. Carol spoke up, "Shouldn't they have caught up with is by now?"
"There's nothing we can do about it," Daryl was crouched down ahead of everyone, his finger lightly touching the grass. "Can't run around these woods chasin' echoes."
"So, what do we do?" Lori asked the hunter.
"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."
Ella nodded. "Yeah, let's just get on back to the RV."
She hoped that maybe Sophia got back to the RV by now, and so they wouldn't have to continue looking around for her in these woods every single day.
Andrea spoke up to attempt to calm everyone down, "I'm sure they'll hook up with us at the RV."
With that, everyone continued walking towards the highway to get back to Dale and T-Dog who were waiting for everyone to get back from the search party for Sophia.
The two stayed behind because T-Dog accidentally sliced his arm open when the herd passed through the highway, and he wasn't doing too good so Dale stayed behind with T-Dog try and get his temperature down.
Ella hoped they would find Sophia just so they could find a pharmacy for T-Dog and get him the medication he needed before his fever got too bad and before the wound killed him.
"I'm sorry for what you're going through," Andrea directed the words to Carol. "I know how you feel."
"I suppose you do," Carol mumbled. "Thank you. The thought of her out there by herself-" she cut herself off. "It's the not knowing that's killin' me. I just keep hopin' and prayin' she doesn't wind up like Amy."
Ella halted. She balled her hands up into fists, her eyes turning dark and cold. Carol really had the nerve to say that, which pissed the living hell out of Ella.
"Oh, God!" Carol exclaimed. "That's the worst thing I ever said!"
Ella snapped her head at Carol. "Yeah, yeah, it is the worst thing you have ever said in your life, so why don't you just shut your damn mouth, Carol!"
With that, Ella walked away with Glenn and Lori chasing after her.
____________________________
"HOW MUCH FARTHER?"
"Not much," Daryl replied to an exhausted Andrea. "Maybe a hundred yards, as the crow flies."
"Too bad we're not crows," Andrea muttered. She swatted spider webs away. "As the crow flies, my ass."
Ella looked back at everyone else, making sure no one was slowing down, or thinking about collapsing on the ground to relax.
She knew no one wanted to carry them or to wake them up. Everyone here was just as exhausted as the next person.
Her face dropped when she saw a walker creeping up on Andrea. "Andrea!" she screamed.
Andrea slowly turned her head around and let out a scream. She stepped back and tripped over a root. She moved backwards away from the looming walker.
Ella widened her eyes, drawing her gun out of her waistband. She wasn't about to lose someone else close to her. She cocked the gun back and aimed it at the walker, her hands shaking.
The blond woman let out screams as everyone sprinted towards her, only to stop when a female riding a horse swung a baseball bat at the walker. She wacked it's brains out of it's own skull.
"Lori?" the woman called out. "Lori Grimes?"
Lori looked at the woman. "I'm Lori."
The woman nodded. "Rick sent me. You've got to come now."
Ella laughed, quite amused by the woman's demands. "Uh, what? Lori isn't going anywhere with you."
The woman sent Ella a glare, a sigh escaping her mouth. "There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive, but you gotta come now. Rick needs you. Just come."
Ella's face dropped. The gunshot from earlier was a gunshot directed towards Carl and none of them even knew it. He'd been shot for a few long minutes then, maybe even an hour or two.
Oh no, Ella thought to herself.
The woman took Lori's hand and helped her on the back of her horse. Lori threw her bag at Ella, which she swiftly caught.
Daryl held up his crossbow. "We don't even know this girl. You can't go with her!"
"Rick said you had others on the highway, is that correct?" the woman asked Daryl. He slowly nodded. Ella stared at the woman, her eyes piercing through the woman. "Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox — Greene."
With that, she clicked her heels against the horse and took off with Lori.
Confusion and worry washed over everyone. They wanted to head to the farm with the woman and Lori right now for Carl, but they knew they had to get back to the highway first.
And most of all they had to pray Carl would be just fine.
