Survival Guide: To Surviving the Living Dead 101

Rule #9

Don't Back Track

Sometimes it's not a good idea to back track. Especially if you get yourself in trouble. If you're walking along the road or through the woods, just keep going. And okay we're basically back tracking but we have people back on the highway and that's where we want to be. And in my opinion I think it would be better if we could just find a way through the mess of cars instead of turning around. Backtracking could just get you into more trouble. Going back could mean running into a herd of walkers. Going back could mean running into the living. And let's be honest here, the living is a lot worse than the dead.

As Daryl led us back to the highway Carol started complaining about Rick leaving Sophia behind. We had stopped for a short break when Lori defended Rick but also sympathized with Carol. After our little break we kept going. Andrea ended up wandering a little away from the group and ran into a walker. Luckily for her some girl came riding in on a horse and knocked the walker off of her. She started asking for Lori and when Lori stepped forward what the girl told her had my heart dropping. Carl was shot. He was alive but he was shot and she needed Lori to go with her. Lori did just that with Daryl arguing the whole time. She told us the address to her house and then took off with Lori.

We weren't too far away from the highway from where Lori rode off 9n a horse with some stranger. Dale was full of questions only pissing Daryl off. It was agreed that Glenn would take T-Dog to the house while everyone one else stayed back. I should have gone with them but I didn't. I thought it better not to be in the way. Instead I decided to walk down the highway and just sit for awhile. Daryl wasn't the only one that didn't want to hear Dale's questions. I knew he'd most likely come to me for the answers since it was my nephew. I just couldn't dead with that. It would just end with me snapping at him. I was honestly starting to think maybe I should have gone with Rick and Shane. Maybe I could have prevented Carl from being shot. I know don't be a hero. But saving my nephew would be worth it. How did he get shot anyway? Surely it wasn't Rick or Shane who did it. Someone else must have been out in the woods. Who would shoot an innocent twelve year old.

The sun was going down casting an orange glow in the sky. It was kind of peaceful now that there was a lot of noise. No planes in the sky. No four o'clock traffic jams. Just the sounds of nature. The nose all stopped only about a few weeks after the outbreak. I've never heard the world so quiet. I wondered if it was like this everywhere. Jenner said that the French were the last to hold out the longest. It would have been nice to learn more about this whatever it was. Where did it start and why didn't anyone inform the right people when it did start. Was some scientist playing around with something and created this thing? There were so many questions.

"You okay?" I looked over to see Daryl standing on the road. I nodded, "yeah. Just didn't want to deal with all the questions I'm sure Dale had." He nodded, looking down at his boots. "Mind if I join ya?" I moved over on the hood of the car I was sitting on and he climbed up beside me, sitting his crossbow on the roof. I laid back on the windshield and looked up at the darkening sky. "It's kinda nice. Not having all the noise," I said, quietly. Daryl hummed, lying back beside me. "Carol is crying. Can't stand it but I get it." I sighed, "yeah. And now Carl has been shot."

"I got lost once when I was nine." I looked over to see Daryl getting off the hood of the car, grabbing his crossbow. "I'm going to go walk the road." I slid off the hood, "I'll come with you." I walked up onto the road beside him. As we started walking down the road Andrea called out for us and I rolled my eyes. We walked the road for a while then crossed over the guardrail a little ways down where Sophia went. As we walked through the dark woods Daryl told us about when he got lost as a kid and how he wiped his ass with poison ivy. Andrea and I both laughed at that. Then we came across a tent and a walker hanging in the tree. There was a note nailed to the tree so Daryl read it.

Got bit. Fever hit.
World gone to shit.
Might as well quit

"Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess," he said, looking at the walker. His legs were just bone and muscle, tendons were showing. Andrea groaned. We turned to look at her, "You all right?" I asked. "Trying not to puke." Her hand was over her mouth. "Go ahead if you gotta," Daryl told her. "No, I'm fine. Let's just talk about something else for a moment," she said. "How'd you learn to shoot?" She asked. "Gotta eat. That's one thing these walkers
and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Look at him, hanging up there like a big pinata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs."

There was the sound of vomiting and coughs. "I thought we were.changing the subject," Andrea said. "Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass," he told her. "There wasn't a lot that came up," she said. "Huh. Let's head back." Andrea pointed up at the walker, "Aren't you gonna..." I looked back up and shook my head. "No. He ain't hurtin nobody. Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang. You want to live now or not? it's just a question," Daryl said. "An answer for an arrow. Fair?" Andrea asked. "Mm-hmm," he hummed. "I don't know if l want to live or if l have to or if it's just a habit," she told him. "That's not much of an answer. Waste of an arrow." He shot the walker and we walked back to the highway.