Survival Guide: To Surviving the Living Dead 101

Rule #7

Improvise

Don't have a gun or a knife? Improvise. If there's a metal pipe laying around, use it like a bat. Sharpen a piece of metal, find a thick enough tree limb and sharpen it. Use something heavy to use. Anything can be made into a weapon. Sure it's scary having to get so close to those things but it's better to be quiet. Guns will draw them to you. Instead of firing your gun, use the butt of it to hit the walker in the head.

Rick improvised. Instead of using his gun he led the walkers away from Sophia, had her hide, then took care of them. He used a large rock to bash their heads in. Use enough force and anything can be a weapon. Of course, when Rick went back to where he left Sophia she wasn't there. He had assumed she came back to the highway. When he showed back up without Sophia, Carol freaked out. Daryl, Glenn, Shane, and I went back out with Rick to look for her.

"You sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked. We were down in the creak looking at the spot that Rick said he left Sophia. "I left her right here. I drew the walkers away off in that direction up the creek," Rick said. "Without a paddle... Seems where we've landed," Daryl said. "She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group.
I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder," Rick told us. I walked back over to the edge of the creak after Daryl. "Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail," he told Glenn. Glenn moved. "Assuming she knows her
left from her right," Shane said. "Shane, she understood me fine," Rick told him. "Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."

"Got clear prints right here. She did like you said, headed back to the highway," Daryl said, pointing at shoe prints on the trail. "Let's spread out, make our way back," He said and stepped up. I went after him and he held out his hand for me to take. I took it and he help me up, Rick right behind me. "Let's go. She couldn't have gone far. Hey, we're gonna find her," Shane told Rick, helping him up. We knew how this went. We only had forty-eight hours to find her before we're looking for a body. Or at least that's how it was before. Now time is even more precious. "She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere."

We followed the tracks, Daryl in the led with me behind him. "She was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way," Daryl said as the tracks veered to the left. "Why would she do that?" I asked. "Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off," Shane said. "A walker?" Glenn asked. "I don't see any other footprints. Just hers," Daryl told us. "So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane asked. "No, better if you, YN, and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna
start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail, doing everything we can. But most of all,
keep everybody calm," Rick said.

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on," Shane told Glenn and I. I was going to argue about wanting to stay and help them but I decided against it. "Be careful, yeah?" Rick and Daryl nodded and I followed Glenn and Shane back to the highway. When we got back Shane started barking orders. Giving everyone a job like moving cars out of the way, gathering any food and water we find.

I had just walked back from gathering some stuff I found when Carol walked over to Dale. "Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" She asked. I set the stuff down beside everything else. "Well, 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," He told her. "Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess," Shane said, walking up beside me. "We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back," Carol told him.

I understood she was worried and upset but I was getting annoyed. It was fucking hot and I was getting a headache. "That goes with our saying, Carol. But we can't all just go out trampling through the woods and risk someone else getting lost. Daryl and Rick are in it. Daryl is a great tracker if anyone can find her it's him," I gently told her.

"It's just a matter of time," Shane said. "Can't be soon enough for me," Andrea said, throwing me and Glenn a bottle of water. "I'm still freaked out about that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it," she said. "Yeah, what was that?" Glenn asked. "All of them just marching along like that."

"A herd. That sounds about right," Shane said. "Haven't seen anything like that. I mean the city was overrun and they usually stayed in a group but they were all just following each other," I said. "We saw it when our camp got attacked. Just a wandering pack, only fewer," Shane said. It was silent for a little bit and I looked over at Carol still standing by the guardrail. "Okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do," Shane told us. We all separated and went back to work.

I saw Carl by a black truck and watched him. I heard him let out a small yelp and ran over to him, dropping everything I had in my hands. "Carl! Hey, are you okay?" I asked, helping him up. "Look what I found!" He said, showing me the arsenal. I nodded my head, "that's great, buddy. Why don't you go show it to Shane or Dale," I said, messing his hair up. He swatted my hand away, smiled and ran off. I went back to searching in the cars. I opened the glovebox of a pickup to find a pack of cigarettes and snatched them up, sucking them in the back pocket of my shorts. Daryl would appreciate those.

As I was walking back to the RV I saw Daryl and Rick walking back up the hill to the guardrail. Carol was freaking out because they didn't bring Sophia back with them and they were covered in blood. They said they took down a walker to check if it had eaten anything recently. The only thing they found was a woodchuck. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?" Carol asked Rick in an accusing tone. "Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance," Rick said. "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol," Shane told her.

Carol looked at Rick as he knelt in front of her, "how was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child," she said. "It was my only option. The only choice I could make," Rick said. I could hear the guilt in his voice. I could see it in his eyes. He was blaming himself for Sophia getting lost. "I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane told him. "My little girl got left in the woods."

Rick stood up and walked off down the highway. I watched him for a few minutes before I looked at Carol. "This isn't his fault. He did everything he had to do to make sure she was safe. Trust me when I tell you that right now he is putting full blame on himself. And this will always eat at him even after we find her." I walked off in the direction Rick went.

It was time to get my guilt out of the way. I felt immense guilt for leaving him in that hospital that day. I should have checked myself to make sure he was actually dead. But instead I took Shane's word for it and left him there. If I knew he was still alive I would have stayed behind with him. I would of done everything I had to just to make sure he was alright.