What Lies Ahead • the walking dead ¹

30 • Girl in the shadows

After a while of Alexa sitting by the barn with only her thoughts as company Andrea came back. "Thought you and Rick were gonna look for Sophia?" Alexa asked, watching as the woman sat on the opposite fence again.
"We were but Hershel needed him for something." Andrea shrugged. Alexa nodded, hoping that the old man might have changed his mind.

"You got things covered down here?" Alexa asked, hopping off the fence.
"Yeah," Andrea replied, raising an eyebrow at the girl. "Where are you going?"
"Checking on Chase," Alexa answered. Andrea nodded, her head turning back to the barn as Alexa left.

Alexa walked back up to camp. Glenn was keeping a lookout on top of the RV. Shane and Lori were talking. Carl was reading a book. T-dog was relaxing in his tent. And Carol, Daryl, Rick, and Dale were nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Chase?" Alexa called up at Glenn, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.
"I think he went up to the house," Glenn called back. Alexa nodded, looking over her shoulder at the farmhouse. Spotting her brother she thanked Glenn before heading in his direction.

"What's 'sup, kiddo?" Alexa asked as she climbed the porch steps.
"I don't feel good," Chase mumbled, curling into more of a ball than he was already in. Alexa nodded, collapsing in the rocking chair next to the boy.
"Me neither, kiddo. Me neither..."

The siblings sat silently, both in their own little worlds. Alexa knew she hadn't been spending as much time as she could with her brother. She knew it. She was just so preoccupied with trying to piece together this puzzle of a group that she knew had several missing pieces. Not to mention she had been running around for days on end, trying to find a little girl she knew deep down was probably dead.

Alexa knew it was wrong to think that Sophia was dead. After all, Daryl and her did just find the girl's doll a few days ago. It was a sign she was still out there somewhere. Plus, Sophia was just a little girl. A little girl that needed, that was going to be found one way or another. And when she was, Alexa would be able to move on.

But the more Alexa thought of moving on, the more she didn't want to. It was like a gut feeling that she should stay with this group. No matter how many pieces they were missing. But that was the problem, they were broken. And broken meant dangerous. But then again, everything in the world was dangerous now. Especially people. People were perhaps more dangerous than walkers.

Alexa had so much running through her mind that she didn't even notice the group all walking up to the porch until Chase pointed it out for her.

"Alexa, what's going on?" Chase asked, getting Alexa to look up at the approaching group members.
"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago." Andrea said in response to a question Glenn asked. Alexa stood from her chair to listen to the group as they began to argue.
"Yeah, you were," Daryl said as he walked up with Carol. "What t'hell?"

The group looked around at each other confused, everyone trying to find out where Rick ran off to.
"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously?" Daryl asked, his eyes moving in Alexa's direction as she watched the new man approaching. Daryl followed the direction her eyes were looking, spotting what she saw as well.

"Oh, here we go."
The group looked in the direction Daryl was referring to. Their eyes fell on Shane, who came marching up with both bags of guns.
"What's all this?" Daryl asked, pointing at the weapons the man was carrying.
"You with me, man?" Shane asked, handing Daryl a shotgun.

Daryl nodded, accepting the weapon.
"Time to grow up," Shane stated, addressing the whole group.
"Where's Dale?" Andrea asked confused as Shane shoved her pistol in her hands.
"He's on his way," Shane mumbled as he handed a gut to T-dog.
"Thought we couldn't carry." The man pointed out, looking at both Shane and his pistol oddly.