Surviving the Apocalypse

Episode 4

A.N. I completely forgot that the discussion between Andrea and Carol about Amy was after the gunshot, oops! But oh well, it's already written in, and the whole point of a fanfic is to put your own spin on things so it's all good! Another thing is that when Daryl refers to the women he always says 'Mrs.__', and I just realized he never does this with Andrea, and tbh I don't mind. He does it out of respect to his "elders", but honestly Andrea acts like a kid herself, and I think Daryl would agree with "You have to earn respect." So I will not be changing that.

        The group was on edge, everyone worrying about the gunshot that echoed through the trees earlier. Daryl was trying to get the group to stay on task, so they could find Sophia and get off the highway. However, every few minutes someone stops to ask about it, or to complain, or even just to take a break, which Daryl could understand but the more they walk the less time they have to spend out in these woods.

Daryl believes with everything in his heart that Sophia is okay, but that doesn't mean that she should continue to stay out here. She's probably terrified out of her mind and, if she ran further than they assumed she did, hopefully she found some form of shelter to give her another layer of protection. The food Daryl gave her would only last so long.

"You still worrying about it?" Ms. Andrea asked, startling Daryl back to the present. She was facing Mrs. Lori, who was turned around looking out at the trees behind them. Daryl resisted the urge to sigh, already knowing that they would be standing around for a while talking for the hundredth time.

"It was a gunshot." Mrs. Lori responded, as if no one else knew that. She was still facing away from them, so Daryl couldn't see her face, but he had a feeling it was most likely filled with worry.

"We all heard it." Daryl offered, trying his hardest to be polite. He knew she was thinking about Rick, Shane, and Carl. He wished he could say that he couldn't imagine how she felt, but he could. He didn't know what happened to Merle once he got off that roof, he may never know. At least they know the general area the men were in, so he can track them and figure out what's going on if he needed to.

"Why one? Why just one gunshot?" Mrs. Lori questioned, beginning to sound frantic. Daryl felt targeted by the way her eyes pierced his, making him shuffle uneasily.

"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl said, knowing it wasn't true, but trying desperately to end the conversation. It wasn't his fault her husband and kid separated themselves, that was Rick's decision. He didn't like how she was only asking him, as if he knew all the answers.

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker." She quickly interrupted, shutting his attempt straight down the drain. "Or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Mrs. Carol asks, adding fuel to the fire that's slowly engulfing the group. Daryl huffed, overwhelmed that the woman won't just listen and continue the search. They were asking him too many questions, he wasn't a leader, he was just a kid that knew how to track.

"Okay, let's calm down." Elodie injected into the discussion, seeing how quickly moods were changing. "It's not like we can do anything anyways, if we go back then we risk getting more people lost. We need to just go back to the highway, before it gets dark."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Andrea added, hoping to soothe the woman into continuing their search. She waited for Lori to nod and turn back around, to follow Daryl and Oliver.

         Now that they were back on track, Daryl felt more at ease. The peaceful sounds of nature always managed to calm him down, something he found out at a very young age. He and Oliver were still leading the group, with Mrs. Elodie right behind them. Glenn stuck close to them as well, but made sure to keep a watchful eye on the other three women.