Chapter 12: Bloodletting
"Are you still worrying about it?" Andrea asks Lori when she turns around to look at her, seeing that Lori was looking behind us.
"It was a gunshot," Lori defends.
"We all heard it," Daryl says from the front of the group.
"Why one? Why just one gun shot?" Lori pesters.
"Maybe they just took down a walker," I suggest.
"Please don't patronise me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane. They would do it quietly."
"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asks.
"There's nothing we can do about it now anyways," Daryl says.
"So what do we do?" Lori asks Daryl.
"Same as we've been doing. Beat the bush for Sophia. Make our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they will meet us back at the highway," I say to Lori, trying to put some comfort into the conversation.
We all turn around and started walking back.
"I'm sorry for what you're going through," I hear Andrea say from behind us. I turn around to see her talking to Carol. "I know how you feel."
"I suppose you do," Carol says to her with a simple shrug of her shoulders. "Thank you. The thought of her out here, by herself, it's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying that she doesn't wind up like Amy" she says before looking up at Andrea.
"Oh god, that's the worst thing I've ever said."
Andrea closes her eyes and shakes her head before looking at Carol again.
"We're all hoping and praying with you for what it's worth it."
"I'll tell you what it's worth," Daryl says, stepping to them. "Not a damn thing. It's just a waste of time all this hoping and praying. We're just going to locate that little girl and she's going to be just fine," he says as he starts walking again with the rest of us following.
"We will lose the light before too long, we've got to keep going," Daryl says while looking around for any signs of Sophia.
"Lets' head back," I say.
"We'll pick it up tomorrow?" Carol asks.
"Yeah, first thing," I promise.
We turn around and start walking back to the highway.
*
"How much farther?" Lori asks.
"Not much," Daryl says to her. "Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies."
Walking a few more feet, we hear Andrea cry out.
"Help!"
"Andrea?" I call out, looking around, not seeing her.
We start running in the direction of her screams. When we get there, we see a woman with short brown hair on a horse.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" she asks.
"I'm Lori," Lori says when we come to the woman.
"Rick sent me. You have to come now."
"What?" Lori asks in confusion.
"There's been an accident, Carls been shot. He's still alive, but you've got to come now. Rick needs you, just come," the woman says after Lori doesn't move.
Lori sets her backpack on the ground, walking over to the woman and getting on the back of the horse.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl, you can't just get on this horse," Daryl says to Lori.
"Rick said you had others on the highway?" the woman asks. "That big traffic pile up?"
"Uh huh," Glenn says, nodding at the woman.
"Back track to Faren road, two miles down is our farm. You'll see a mailbox, the name is Greene," she says just before turning the horse and going in the direction she came.
"Well, shit," I say.
I look over, hearing the walker that was attacking Andrea start to moan from the ground.
"Shut up," Daryl says to it before shooting it in the head and walking off.
*
"Shot? What do you mean shot?" Dale asks when we reach the highway.
"I don't know, Dale. All I know is that this chick ran out of nowhere on a horse and took Lori," Glenn said to him.
"You let her?" Dale asks Daryl, outraged.
"Get off my ass old man, Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carls," Daryl says before walking off.
"I heard screams, was that you?" Dale asks Andrea, but she walks away from him.
"She got attacked by a walker, it was a close call," I say to Dale.
"Andrea, are you alright?" Dale calls out to her.
She turns around to face him, shook her head and went into the RV, slamming the door behind her.
*
"I won't do it. I won't just leave," Carol says to us as we finish putting our things into the vehicles.
"Carol, we're split. We're scattered and weak," Dale tries reasoning with her to get us to go to the farm that the woman told us about.
"What if she comes back and we're not here," Carol defends. "It could happen."
"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful," Andrea says, looking at the Glenn, Daryl, Dale and me.
"OK, we've got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up the stakes," Daryl says. "It'll give us a chance to put up a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV."
"If the RV is staying, I am too," Dale says.
"I'm staying too," I say, looking at Daryl.
"Thank you," Carol says. "Thank you, you three."
We simply nod at her.
"I'm in," Andrea says.
"Well, if you all are staying I am-," Glenn starts to say.
"Not you," Dale cuts him off. "You're going. Take Carols Cherokee."
"Me?" Glenn asks. "Why is it always me?"
"We have to find this farm," Dale says to him. "Reconnect with our people to see what is going on, but most importantly, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm," Dale says, talking about the cut that T-Dog got on a car when the herd was passing by. "See if they have any antibiotics, because if not-," Dale was talking and Daryl walks over to his motorcycle, bringing back a back full of pill bottles. "T-Dog will die, no joke." Dale says.
"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle," Daryl says, walking over to his motorcycle and grabbing a back out of it.
"Why didn't you say anything until now?" Dale asks, walking closer.
"'Cause it is my brother's stash. Crystal, X,don't need that. Got some kick ass pain killers," Daryl says, throwing thebottle under hand to Glenn to catch. "Oxycycline," Daryl says, passing anotherbottle to Dale. "Not the generic stuff either. It's first class. Merle got theclap on occasion," Daryl says and walks away.
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Revival (The Walking Dead)
Fanfiction-Seasons 1 and 2- Catelyn found a group she felt safe with. They had guns, ammo, bodies, and Daryl Dixon. #689 dead
