A Dead World.. • G. Rhee

Chapter Eighteen

(Merle Dixon's clap)

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked Lori as she kept looking back the way towards the church we had left Shane, Rick, and Carl at.

"It was a gunshot." Lori deadpanned and I nodded my head. "We all heard it."

A few minutes after we had left the guys at the church we heard a single gunshot and that worried Lori, considering her son was with Shane, and Rick and it was one gunshot. Doesn't make sense why would they fire a gun? If it was a walker either Rick or Shane would have stabbed it, not use their gun. After all Shane was the one to say that no guns should be carried unless it were by himself, Rick or Daryl, or even Dale when he's on lookout. So why would they'd use a gun to kill a walker when they know it would just bring more out? It doesn't make sense. But I tried not to think about it, clearly some of us were having difficulty doing that.

"Why one —why just one gunshot?" Lori asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl suggested and Lori shook her head.

"Please don't patronise me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane. They'd do it quietly." She said the exact thing as I was thinking.

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked and I wanted her to shut up, no offence to the woman but she wasn't making it any easier to calm Lori down.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway." Daryl said bluntly, not really caring about the matter and just wanting to find Sophia so we could get our asses off that interstate. "Can't run around these woods chasing echos."

Daryl had a point, I mean it took us far too long to pinpoint where the church bells were coming from, how much easier or harder would it be to chase a gunshot that happened ages ago?

"So, what do we do? Same as we've been." Lori asked Daryl.

"Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the R.V. I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel." Andrea attempted to sympathise with Carol, who was still on edge about how we haven't had an ounce of luck with finding Sophia.

"I suppose you do —thank you. The thought of her, out here by herself... it's the not knowing that's killin' me. I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy." Carol said so nonchalantly and my eyes widened at that statement. "Oh, god! That's the worst thing I ever said." Yeah? No shit!

"We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth." Andrea mumbled her own response back.

"I'll tell ya what it's worth. Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl. She's gonna be just fine." Daryl snapped back at the two, he was surprisingly the one with the most 'hope' of finding Sophia. "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord." He exclaimed and I laughed slightly at that. Daryl? zen? Really?

So i decided to make a joke of it to lighten the mood, like always. "Oh go on then, teach me your ways oh so great zen master." I teased as I put my hands on either of his shoulders. He pushed me back slightly. "Piss off." I put a hand to my heart as I heard someone laugh. "I'm hurt, genuinely hurt. You hurt me Daryl. Why can't you just accept that we're friends?" I ask more sarcastic than anything and he just shook his head. "Cus' we ain't."

I gasped and stopped walking. "Wow! Okay, I see how it is. I'll just have to get a new friend I guess."

"I'll be your friend." Glenn said as he came up to walk beside me. And I faked a surprised gasp. "Really?!" He laughed and put his arm around my shoulders. "Really. It would be an honour."