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"Sophia!" Cali yelled searching around the area the two were just in. She didn't see the girl anywhere and was beginning to panic. Sophia must have been scared by the walker but she shouldn't have ran away.
The teen took some deep breaths before completely freaking out. Sophia couldn't have gotten far, she just needed to look closely for any sign of her.
Remembering that Daryl tracked animals by their footprints, Cali was going to try to do the same with Sophia. With her eyes taking in every detail of the dirt ground she noticed two sets of footprints. One pair were obviously hers and they led off to the right the direction of the walker, while the other small set led off in the complete opposite direction of the highway where they were heading.
Cali couldn't go back to the highway without Sophia. She wasn't going to let a child wander around the woods alone so she decided to run in the same direction Sophia had gone.
"Sophia?" Cali called out repeatedly as she followed the girls tracks.
It felt like forever before Cali got any sign of the girl. A loud human sounding cry came from a few feet away from where the teen was. The sound immediately had Cali on edge fearing the worst but she rushed towards it hoping to find Sophia safe.
However luck wasn't on her side.
As Cali came around a few trees into a clearing she was face to face with a walker holding onto Sophia. The young girl was struggling to break free of the walker's grip.
"Sophia!" The teen screamed in horror watching the walker take chunk out of the child's neck. She sprung into action rushing over and stabbing the walker in the head.
Both the walker and Sophia fell to the ground, the young girl crying as she placed a hand on her bleeding shoulder.
"Cali help!" Sophia cried noticing the teenager standing over her.
Cali stood motionless not knowing what to do. Sophia was going to die just like Jim, just like Amy, and just like Jade.
"It's okay. You're okay." Cali dropped to the ground and pulled Sophia to her chest into a hug. All she could do in that moment was reassure the girl even though they both knew she wasn't going to make it.
"I don't want to die!"
Cali had no idea where they were. She was so disoriented from seeing Sophia get bitten that she forgot about everything else. If her mind was clear she might have remembered the way back to the highway but they didn't have time to get there int time. The sun was quickly disappearing and covering the girls in darkness.
"You're not going to die. Everything is going to be okay." Cali spoke absentmindedly picking the girl up. "I'm going to find us somewhere to stay the night." She nodded to herself as she stumbled through the woods praying to find somewhere safe to hide.
Cali just needed to make Sophia as comfortable as possible.
It finally seemed like God was giving Cali a break when after twenty minutes of walking through the woods carrying a crying Sophia, she finally saw white peaking through the endless green of trees.
It was dusk by the time the two finally made it to what looked like a small farmhouse sitting in the middle of the woods. There was no sign of anyone from what Cali could see from the outside. She kicked the front door open waiting a moment to see if any walkers would come out from the noise.
Without any surprise guests coming to see the two, Cali deemed the house safe enough and entered into what looked like a living room. From the layers of dust on all of the surfaces, Cali would guess that it had been abandoned for awhile. Heading into the kitchen the shelves were mostly empty except for a can of beans.
It wasn't much but it was better than being out in the woods in the dark. At least they had walls to protect them from any dead just stumbling upon them.
