𝐇𝐀𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐃 │ 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐗𝐎𝐍 ¹ [✔]

[17]: feelings

Marley wasn't anywhere in sight; That's the first thing Daryl thought.

Many people had died that night. But it couldn't be Marley. It just couldn't, he thought to himself.

People were crying, bodies were strewn everywhere. Gaping holes in their stomach or rotted skin on their faces. He recognised none of them as Marley. Where was she?

"Who's here y'all? Who's here?" Shane announced. Everyone looked around them, hugging and grasping at their loved ones. No one said a word though.

"Okay, who's not here?" Rick said, tears evident in his voice.

People listed off names gravely, but when it came to Marley's name, Glenn spoke up.

"But she's not here," Glenn had noticed it too.

"What d'you mean man?" Shane asked, walking towards him slightly.

"I mean... the other people... I can... find, uh, their bodies." Glenn stuttered.

"I don't see hers." Daryl inputted lowly. Shane looked around, quirking an eyebrow.

"Look in her tent... or something, she's probably hiding." He said to them both, who looked at each other for a moment, then turned and walked the short distance to her tent. They found it empty.

Glenn and Daryl looked at each other gravely. Marley had gotten herself lost. They made a silent agreement, confirmed with a nod. They would find Marley.

"Hey guys!" Glenn announced, walking back over to the centre. Daryl close at his heels.

"Marley's missing!"

Again, it was silent. A little sniff here and there, but it was a universal fact that they didn't know where she was.

"Is anyone else missing?" Shane asked everyone. His booming voice seeming a little too loud. Like the gunshots they had heard earlier.

Again - there was that silence. It held a cold foretelling in it. Yet it seemed to hold nothing at all.

"Just Marley." Shane said exasperated. He wiped the back of his hand on his forehead, a bead of sweat threatening to blind him.

"Where would she go?" Glenn said desperately. Glenn was close to Marley. She saw that he was sometimes lonely. He didn't single him out. He liked that about her. He didn't tell anyone, but he had something an inch away from a crush on her. He couldn't help that - she was utterly gorgeous. Even Daryl had admitted that to himself. The redneck, who supposedly didn't have... what are they?... feelings. And yet, that first night where he saw her eyes in full glory - Daryl Dixon admitted to himself that she was pretty.

Eyes turned to the redneck in question. They asked the question Glenn had voiced.

"How should I kno'?" he said.

"Look, Daryl. Just work with us here." Shane said to him.

"I've never seen her go anywhere but the camp and the quarry." Lori voiced up, her arms coiled around her son's shoulders.

There it was again. That silence. Seeming to creep up on them at any moments notice.

"The woods?" a small voice was suddenly heard. The men looked around, but Lori only had to look below her at the boy in her arms.

"Carl?" Rick asked, a calm authoritative tone in his voice. This was a full investigation now.

"I... I think I saw her go into the woods," Carl's voice was as childlike as it was before. He sniffled his tears, seeming to go into Sheriff mode just like his dad.