Daryl's Girl

Chapter 8

"You still worrying about it?" I heard Andrea say and turned around to see her looking over at Lori, who was scanning the trees a little ways behind us.

This had to have been at least the fifth time she'd stopped. Each time turning around and peering through the woods, hoping to see something different. For the rest of us, it just meant, every time, we stopped, we were getting no step closer to finding that little girl or getting back to the others on the highway. What ever it was, we couldn't let it distract us from the reason we were out here in the first place.

"There was a gun shot." Lori said.

"We all heard it." Daryl agreed. The annoyance starting to build in his voice.

"Why one? Why just one gun shot?" She snapped, turning to face us all before looking back to the trees. 

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't help it. Every one of us were all thinking the same thing, but it wasn't like we could do anything about it anyway. There was no point going round in circles, not when we didn't know where the shot came from. Somehow, together, we just had to convince Lori to keep going.

"Maybe they took down a walker?" I shrugged.

Lori snapped her head towards me with an unfriendly look on her face. "Please don't patronize me." She growled and turned to the others. "You know Rick wouldn't risk a gun shot to put down one walker, or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol nodded and I shook my head. 

Things were bad enough without people adding even more worry and doubt into the mix. For all we knew, they might've been cut off by a herd, or taken out a walker, as I'd suggested. There were a number of possibilities as to why they hadn't caught up to us, and, if something bad had happened, surely Rick or Shane would've found some way of telling us. 

That was when Daryl stepped forward. "There's nothing we can do about it anyways. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes-"

"So what do we do?" Lori interrupted. 

I knew what I'd do, and if they'd listen, I would've suggested that we keep on doing what we're doing and get back to the highway. That we regroup. It was like Daryl said, we couldn't keep running round every time a tree rustles. That's what gets you killed, but I knew they weren't going to listen to anything I had to say. I was the reason that girl was lost in the first place.

I kept my mouth shut and looked at Daryl. It was like he could somehow read my mind as he nodded back at me.

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway." He replied. 

Andrea nodded. "I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." And, by the look of it, that's all Lori needed to hear as she sighed, making her way back over to us before we continued on our way.

A part of me knew it wouldn't last long and I was counting down how long it was gonna take before we stopped, again. All of us having the exact same conversation. It didn't matter what anyone said because all we'd end up doing was repeating ourselves until someone gives up and we keep walking.

I was right. 

We stopped before we even started as I noticed we were two people short and turned around to see Andrea and Carol stood facing one another over where Lori had been standing moments ago. I nudged Glenn and he turned to face me, where I nodded over to the two women and he stopped, nudging Daryl, who also stopped, although with a lot more annoyance than Glenn.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through." Andrea said, looking at Carol. "I know how you feel."

"I suppose you do, thank you." Carol smiled. "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."