Surviving the Apocalypse

Episode 2

A.N. I am not great at reading maps myself, unless they're on GPS. I get easily frustrated with paper maps, because of how many roads and labels, and teeny tiny words there are. Therefore, I am basically making up the most random directions ever, and making it sound legit. I have looked through TWD wiki timeline and I can not find anything about a map for the area, and obviously it has been filmed in a few locations so I can't use actual maps and roads around the Greene Farm.

So I'm making it up, I also have no clue what time exactly Sophia got lost, but I feel like it was closer to morning than night therefore I am guessing the highway was East. Rick tells her to keep the sun on her left shoulder to get to the highway, and the sun rises in the East and lowers in the West, so if she was heading towards the sun she would be heading East, right? If not, oh well, we can pretend because I've already written it lmao.

          Sophia knew she should have stayed in that creek, but she thought she could follow Rick's directions back to the highway. She kept the sun on her left shoulder just like he said, but then something moved in the tree next to her and it scared her. She couldn't help that her feet started to move, they just did it without her realizing.

Now she was regretting ever moving out of that hiding spot, she should have just waited for Rick to get back. It was getting dark and she was too scared to use the flashlight Daryl had given her, because she didn't want to gain any unwanted attention. She still had her bookbag and the pocket knife, luckily they didn't get lost when she was running from those dead freaks.

She has been walking for a long time now, and she hasn't seen or heard anyone from the group. She knows they're probably looking for her, they wouldn't just leave without her right? She was currently up in a tree, trying to rack her brain for any tips or facts Daryl had said about the woods. Anything that could help her find her way back to the highway, without getting lost further.

Sophia had never gone hunting but she could vaguely remember Daryl and Oliver talking about different footprints, and how to tell them apart. Hopefully they could tell the difference between hers and walkers, maybe she could just stay in the tree until they found her.

Too afraid to sleep, Sophia held her bag in her lap, to see what all her older friend had packed into it. She carefully unzipped the first pocket, seeing a small map, a compass, and a pen. The bigger section of the bag had the granola bars, water, a small roll of gauze, a lighter, and a flashlight.

She has never used a map and compass, at least not any real ones. She had a small playset once that was for "exploring", but they were plastic, and she only had them for a week before her dad threw it away. However, she had learned about maps a couple years ago in school, and knows what the letter on the compass means. North, East, South, West.

The only problem she was facing now is that she didn't know what road the highway was, and where it would be on the map. She didn't know what part of the woods she was in either, so she decided she would wait until the morning to check to see what looked the most similar, and pray for the best. Now she had to wait, wait until the sun came up or for someone else to find her before she found them.

       The next morning, Sophia didn't hesitate to pull out the map and begin searching. She sees one long road connected to a bunch of smaller ones, and a few areas labeled with wooded areas. She knows that the one they were on was really long so she must be looking in the correct area, the only problem is which wooded area is she in?

Sophia looks up and turns so that the sun meets her left shoulder, and looks down at the compass. The needle is painting to the left, which means she is heading East, if she remembers correctly. She begins to slowly walk forward, keeping an eye on her surroundings, while also glancing down to make sure she doesn't get off course.