Daryl's Angel (10th Anniversary Edition)

Chapter 14: A Wish and a Prayer

By the time the sun starts to set, we've got more than enough supplies to last us the trip to Fort Benning, but Rick and Daryl still haven't returned. We've got jugs of water from an abandoned water truck, various non-perishables, and plenty of bottles of water and other drinks, as well as suitcases full of clean clothes.

T-Dog's helping us, feeling strong enough to help and guilty enough to refuse to rest any longer. He carries anything he can handle with one hand, as I've warned him against using his hurt arm. If it's clotted at all, I don't want him to reopen the wound.

Rustling comes from the woods and a moment later, Glenn calls out.

"Oh, god," Glenn says. "They're back!"

We clamber together as Rick and Daryl come back to the highway, alone. I have the sudden urge to run to Daryl, to welcome him back, but I hold my ground. At my side, Carol backs up, her breathing becoming shaky again.

Her voice breaks as she says what we're all realizing. "You didn't find her?"

"We'll pick it up again at first light," Rick promises.

"You can't leave my daughter out there to spend the night alone in the woods," Carol says, almost pleading.

"Out in the dark's no good," Daryl says. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost."

"But she's twelve. She can't be out there on her own," Carol repeats, tears in her eyes as she looks between the two men, desperate. "You didn't find anything?"

"I know this is hard," Rick says, keeping his voice low and calm, "but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."

"And we tracked her for a while," Daryl adds.

"We have to make this an organized effort," Rick says. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

Carol doesn't seem to be listening. She stares at Daryl's pants, her breath hitching as she points a shaky finger. "Is...is that blood?"

"We took down a walker," Rick explains.

"Walker? Oh my God," she gasps as she starts to pace, unable to stay still.

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia," Rick insists.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asks as Lori wraps an arm around Carol's shoulders.

Rick hesitates, then looks at Daryl.

"We cut the son of a bitch open. Made sure," Daryl says.

Carol pulls away from Lori and sits down on the metal dividers blocking off the highway from the ditch. As she tries to catch her breath, shaking, Lori takes a seat next to her.

Carol looks up at Rick. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us," Rick says. His voice is starting to shake too, emotion bleeding in. "I...I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol," Shane says.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol demands, tears starting to slip down her face. "She's just a child. She's just a child..."

"It was my only option," Rick says as he gets on his knees, looking up at her. "The only choice I could make."

"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane says.

Rick bows his head, defeated, and Carol looks around at all of us before she settles back on Rick. Her lip trembles.

"My little girl got left in the woods," she croaks out, her voice so strained with the effort of keeping herself together that it's barely there.