No Rest For the Wicked ~ A Walking Dead Fan Fiction

Chapter 15: Damned if you do, Damned if you don't

Chapter Fifteen  

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't 

First Person~ Kate 

"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked, examining a little alcove at the edge of a creek he was currently standing in. 

"I left her right here." Rick repeated. "I drew the walkers a way's off in that direction up the creek." He pointed. 

"Without a paddle- seems where we've landed." Daryl muttered. My eyes locked on a small flattish area in the grass. It was barely noticeable but upon glancing a little higher I saw the twigs on a bush next to it were broken.  

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group." Rick told us as I knelt and examined the break. Still green and a little wet, whatever did it didn't do it long ago. "I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." By the angle of the break I'd say it was moving away from the creek. 

"Looks like she was doing just that." I said, getting to my feet and carefully stepping back, eyes peeled for more tracks. 

"Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." Daryl drawled, quickly noticing and putting together what had just taken me ages to determine. 

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane stated. 

"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick said stubbornly.  

"Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck." He shook his head. 

"She's smarter than your giving her credit for." I told him. 

"Got clear prints right here." Daryl stated, ignoring the bickering going on around him as he pointed at the patch we were standing by. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway." 

"Let's spread out, make our way back." Shane ordered as everyone started moving. "She couldn't have gone far."  

I trailed after Daryl, who was leading us along her trail. The water Shane and I had enjoyed on the road was now completely evaporated from our clothes, my hair left just a little damp. I was happy fall was coming along with some cooler weather. We ducked under a bush she would have been able to walk right under and he slowed. 

"What is it?" Eric asked as Daryl knelt, examining the ground. I looked around too, recalling the rare times he would answer my inquiries about tracking back in the Atlanta camp, now trying to see whatever it was he was seeing in the leaves below us. 

"She was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." Daryl pointed back around. 

"Why would she do that?" Glenn wondered. 

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane suggested. 

"A walker?" Glenna asked nervously. 

"Or an animal." Eric added. 

"I don't see any other footprints." Daryl shook his head. "Just hers." 

"So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane asked, his tone implying he didn't think that was best. 

"No, better if ya'll get back up to the highway." Rick said. "Except Daryl and I." 

"Why? Don't you need help out here?" Eric asked. 

"Daryl's the only one that actually knows where to go and people are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can." He told Shane. "But most of all, keep everybody calm."