𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 | Daryl Dixon

13 | CHEROKEE ROSE

The sun had fully risen to its peak, beaming down on the farmlands. Tori glanced around her, in awe of the sheer beauty of the place which she hadn't been able to truly take in when she first arrived at night. The green fields seemed to go on for miles, cattle and horses roaming the fenced-off areas. Looking at the cleanliness of the place, it made it tough to think about how the rest of the world outside this farm was in such disarray.

The brunette had her hair tied into a high ponytail, loose strands of her fringe framing her face. Her weight shifted to her left leg as she stood with one hand hovering over the pocketknife clipped to her belt, and the other rested on the car hood she stood before with some of the others.

"How long has this girl been missing?" Hershel asked after the search for Sophia was explained to him.

"This'll be day three," Shane replied.

As he spoke, Maggie approached the car with a large map rolled up under her arm. "County survey map," she said, laying it out on the car hood. "Shows terrain and elevations."

"This is perfect," Rick stood with his hands on his hips. "We'll grid out the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you," Hershel quickly told the sheriff. "Not today. You gave three units of blood. You'd wouldn't get five feet in this heat before passing out. And you-" the farmer nodded to Shane, "-with your ankle, you push it now, you'll be laid up for a month. No good to anyone."

"And then there were two," Tori hummed, nodding toward Daryl as he stood across from her.

He nodded his head, biting the inside of his cheek as he looked over the map. "We can head back to the creek, work our way from there."

"And you two can definitely be trusted to not kill each other while you're out there?" Shane looked between the pair with a quirked eyebrow. "That means no bickering, no threatening."

Before Tori could muster up some kind of snarky comment to bite back, Daryl gave the former deputy a blank look and uttered, "We'll be fine."

"Alright," Rick spoke with a nod, his voice cutting through the tension that seemed linger between Shane and Daryl. "Tomorrow then, we start doing this right."

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives," Shane said. "We need the gun training we've been promising 'em."

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property," Hershel spoke slowly. "We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."

"All due respect," Shane stood up tall. "You get a crowd of those things wandering in here..." he trailed off, the silence speaking for itself as he awkwardly chuckled.

Hershel seemed unhappy with the response, and Rick spoke up earnestly. "We're guests here. This is your property, and we will respect that." He looked over at Shane pointedly, warning him not to argue.

To lead by example, Rick unholstered his Colt Python, setting it down in the car hood. Reluctantly, his bottom lip between his teeth, Shane scoffed as he followed, placing his own handgun next to Rick's.

"First things first: set camp, find Sophia," Rick said, making the plan clear.

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's gotta," Shane uttered. "What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how to handle that."

Tori didn't even want to imagine what she'd do if that happened. She was determined to find Sophia, and to find her safe. Carl had survived his horrific ordeal, they had to hope that Sophia would survive hers too. Surely this world wasn't that cruel.