digging graves// rick grimes x OC//

What Lies Ahead Part 3

Back on the highway, Dale and Winona are directing Shane and Andrea with moving the cars to clear a path. Carol goes up to Dale, "Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?"
"We have to clear enough room so I can get the RV turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map," Dale explains.
"With all of us out there, we'd be mucking up the trail, making it harder for us to find Sophia," Winona replies.
"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess," Shane speaks as he comes up behind her, causing Winona to flinch.
"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back," Carol adamantly says.
Lori comes up, "Hey, that goes without saying."
"Rick and Daryl, they're on it, okay? Just a matter of time," Shane says.
"Can't be soon enough for me," Andrea says passing out water, "I'm still freaked out from the herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it."
"Yeah, what was that?" Glenn questions, "All of them just marching along like that."
"A herd," Shane repeats, "That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer." He exhales and clears his throat, changing the subject, "Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it."
——
Back in the woods, Daryl and Rick are still following Sophia's trail. Daryl abruptly stops, Rick looks at the ground confused, "Tracks are gone."
The redneck shakes his head, "No, they're faint, but they ain't gone," he points ahead, "She came through here."
"How can you tell?" Rick questions, "I don't see anything. Dirt, grass."
"You want a lesson in tracking or you want to find that girl and get our ass off that interstate?"
Rick doesn't reply and Daryl takes that as an answer and proceeds to follow the little girl's trail.
——
Winona couldn't stand the thought of being around Shane, she constantly worried if he would harass her or do anything to her. With Daryl and Rick being out in the woods and Glenn helping the others, she decides it will be best to find Carl.
Spotting the young boy, she sees him alone—not being watched by Lori— squatting by a car with his knees against his chest. "Hey, Bud. How ya holding up?" Winona knows how close he was with the missing girl, she can't imagine what he's feeling.
Carl looks up sniffling, wiping aways the tears, "Nona, I know Shane told me boys don't cry, but I'm so scared. Are we going to find Sophia?"
The woman sits down next to Carl, pulling him into a comforting side hug, "Sophia is going to be okay, your dad and Daryl are going to find her and bring her back safe and sound. You can't worry yourself silly over something out of your control," she wipes his tears, "And what Shane told you? Hon, it is perfectly normal for boys to cry. Look at when your dad finally found you and your mom, he cried. It is a good thing to do, it shows that you're still human, okay?"
Carl nods, beginning to smile, "Can we go look for more stuff? I wanna find something cool!"
Winona gets up, reaching out a hand for Carl to grab and pulls him up, "Alright, lead the way."
Carl starts to drag Winona down the interstate, weaving through the abandoned cars. He stops at a truck and peeks inside, "I'll take this car, you take the other one, okay?"
"Okay, I'll be right here if you need me," Winona reluctantly agrees. She saw how he was excited over something inside but if she tried stepping closer to take a look, he would block and slightly push her back. She began to walk over to one of the neighboring vehicles, which happened to be a van. Opening the door, she noticed some comic books peeking out from a backpack in the back row. She went deeper inside to grab them. Picking them up, she saw the collection included action and horror comics— just up Carl's alley. She smirks, "Oh, he is gonna love these. Maybe this will makeup for not taking him to the comic book store before the start of this," she shoves the books into her backpack. She continues sifting through the bags.
Hearing a shriek, Winona quickly gets out of the van. Racing over to the truck she left Carl at, she sees him holding something and laying on the ground. When she looks up to the driver side door, she sees a dead man who probably was a walker that was killed, "Carl? Are you alright?"
He jumped, "Oh, I'm fine. When I grabbed this, he moved and it freaked me out."
"So... what did you get? And why wouldn't you let me check the truck to make sure it was safe?!"
"Sorry, Nona. I was just really excited and everyone else can do this by themselves, I wanted to do it."
"Okay, just tell me next time. That could've been a walker."
"Okay... but you need to see what I got!" He rolls open the tarp he was holding, to reveal a bunch of weapons and knifes.
Winona smiles and ruffles the boys hair proudly, "Man, look at you go. Good job, Bud."
"I wanna go show Shane!" Before Winona could debate, Carl was already pulling her towards the man, "Shane!"
Lori hears this and rushes over, "Carl, what happened?"
"Keep an eye on your son, for once, and maybe you'd know," Winona grumbles under her breath.
Shane spots Carl and Winona, making eye contact with the woman, but quickly breaking it to look at the boy, but goes back to working on the car. Carl continues, "I found something cool," Shane ignores him, "Shane, check it out." He unrolls the tarp, "It's an arsenal, I found it with Nona."
Without even looking up, Shane replies, "That's cool, Bud. Go give 'em to Dale."
"Check this one out," the boy says excitedly, he pulls out one of the weapons, "Woah, it's a hatchet," he turns to Winona, "Look, Nona, we can match!"
Lori walks over with her hands on her hips, looks at the woman in disapproval and turns to the boy, "Be careful. Don't play with those."
"It's really sharp," Carl says in amazement.
"What did I just say?"
"Can I keep one?"
"Are you crazy?" Lori grabs the hatchet away from the boy.
"No way," Carl says, his smile dropping. He turns towards the man, "Shane," no response, "Shane, tell her to let me keep one."
Shane finally looks up from the car, "Hey, man, go give them all to Dale now. Go," he commands.
Carl's smile fades completely as he grabs the bag back from his mother. Winona and him begin to walk towards the RV, she pats his back, "Hey, it's alright. I think they're cool and they'll help the group out a bunch. And don't worry about Shane, he just has a stick up his butt."
Carl snorts, "Thanks, Nona, you always know how to cheer me up."
She smiles at the boy and they continue to head towards Dale.
——
The sun was starting to set, and Rick and Daryl still weren't back yet, and Winona was starting to worry. Glenn and Dale pick up on her strange behavior, and Glenn puts a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, Wi, calm down. They're fine and they'll be back soon."
She sighs, "I'm sure they are. I just don't know why I'm so anxious."
Glenn and Dale look at each and raise their eyebrows, "Uh-huh..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks, crossing her arms.
Before they can answer, Andrea stomps over, "Where's my gun?" she directs the question towards Dale, "You have no right to take it."
Glenn and Winona eyes go wide and they start to walk away, but manage to stay within earshot because they're both a little bit nosy.
"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale asks.
"My father gave it to me. It's mine."
"I can hold onto it for you."
"Or you can give it back to me."
Shane walks over, "Everything cool?"
"No, I want my gun back," Andrea answers.
"I don't think it's a good idea right now," Dale states.
"Why not?" Shane asks.
"I'm not comfortable with it." Andrea scoffs at the words of the older man.
Shane speaks up, "The truth is, less guns we have floating around camp the better."
"You turning over your weapon?" Andrea asks sarcastically.
"No," Shane chuckles, "But I'm trained in its use. That's what the rest of y'all need is proper training. But until that time, I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for," Shane reasons.
Andrea scoffs again, rolling her eyes, "Uh-huh," she walks away.
Glenn and Winona walk back over, carrying crates of food for the RV. Shane turns to Dale, "Mind telling me what that's about?"
Glenn interrupts, putting his crate down, and pats Winona's arm, "Oh God, they're back."
A breath of relief escapes Winona when she spots the two men emerging from the forest. However, her heart breaks when she notices they don't return with the little girl. Carol begins to cry, "You didn't find her?"
Rick steps over the guide rail, "Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light."
"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods," Carol protests.
"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost," Daryl rationalizes.
"But she's twelve. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol cry's in disbelief.
"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic," Rick says calmly, "We know she was out there."
Daryl steps closer, "And we tracked her for a while."
"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody," Rick says, taking charge, "I've asked him to oversee this."
Carol is quiet, staring at the ground, she notices a dark stain on Daryl's boots, "Is that blood?" She begins to panic.
"We took down a walker," Rick answers.
"Walker? Oh my god," Carol shakes.
"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia."
"How can you know that?" Andrea questions.
Rick turns to Daryl unsure of how to word it, Daryl explains for him, "We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure."
Carol sits down on the guide rail, "Oh god." Lori's sits next to her, trying to comfort the woman. Winona watches anger boil up inside Carol, "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"
Rick backs up to give the woman space, "Those to walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."
Winona walks over, "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."
"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child." Carol says breaking down.
Rick squats down, "It was my only option. The only choice I could make."
Shane leans against the guide rail, "I'm sure nobody doubts that."
"My little girl got left in the woods," Carol cries quietly. Lori and Andrea going to comfort her.
Rick walks away from the group, Winona jogs after him, "Cowboy, slow down." Rick doesn't acknowledge her, but he does slow down so she can match his pace. "Look if you need to be alone right now, then tell me. But if not I'm gonna talk and you're gonna listen."
He sighs, stopping, "Winona, if you're here to lecture me about losing Sophia, I don't wanna hear it."
"Well it's a good things this isn't a lecture like that then," she smiles. "Look, Rick, you did the right thing. I can see you're beating yourself up over losing her, but you need to stop. You were the first one to chase after her, you got to her first and hid her while you drew the walkers away. No one's perfect, you did what you had to do and that's what matters. Sophia is a smart girl. She's strong and we will find her. I know it may seem like everyone is against you right now, but just know you have me."
He looks at the woman in shock, thoughts racing through his mind, he didn't know why she felt like a breath of fresh air in his lungs, or why he always felt better talking with her. He just smiled at the woman, "Thank you, Graves. I needed that."
"Anytime, Grimes. You always have me."
——
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