A Broken World

Eighty-Two

Chapter 82Seeing Rick, Carl, and Michonne standing on the railroad tracks should have made everything feel better. In some ways, it did. For days, Daryl and I had been walking around without knowing who had survived the prison. Every set of footprints gave us hope, and every abandoned camp made me wonder if we were following people who were already dead. Now three of the people we'd been looking for were standing right in front of us.

Rick looked exhausted. His beard had grown out, his clothes were filthy, and there were cuts across his face that hadn't been there the last time I'd seen him. Carl didn't look much better, but he was standing beside his father and seemed okay. Michonne had her katana strapped across her back and looked about as tired as the rest of us.

Daryl didn't say much at first. He kept looking past them and down the tracks, and I knew what he was doing. He was looking for everyone who wasn't there.

"Where are the others?" Daryl asked.

"They're not far," Rick said. "We made camp a little farther up the tracks."

"Who made it?" Daryl asked.

Rick glanced at me before looking back at Daryl. "Maggie, Glenn, Sasha, Bob and Tara are with us. We found each other over the last couple days."

Hearing Maggie and Glenn's names immediately took some of the pressure off my chest. The last time I'd seen Glenn, he'd barely recovered from being sick. I had spent days wondering whether he'd survived the attack, much less whether he'd been strong enough to make it out of the prison.

Daryl wasn't finished. "Beth?"

Rick's expression changed enough that both of us noticed.

"We haven't found her," Rick said carefully. "We haven't found anything that says she's dead either."

Daryl looked away and tightened his hand around his crossbow. I reached for his arm, but he moved before I touched him.

"Daryl," I said.

"Don't," Daryl said quietly.

He wasn't angry with me. I knew that. Beth mattered to him, and right now he didn't want anyone trying to make him feel better when none of us knew where she was.

Rick seemed to understand. "We're still looking," Rick said. "If Beth got out, she'll be looking for us too."

"Yeah," Daryl said. "She will."

Carl stepped closer and looked between Daryl and me. "Are you guys hungry?"

I turned toward him. "I'm always hungry."

Carl smiled. "We actually have food."

"Then you're officially my favorite person," I told him.

Carl looked at Daryl. "I thought he was."

Daryl narrowed his eyes at him. "Watch it."

Carl laughed, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling. It was strange how good something that simple sounded. We'd spent the last several days listening for walkers, gunshots, footsteps, or anything else that meant danger. Hearing Carl laugh reminded me that we hadn't lost everything.

"Come on," Rick said as he turned toward the tracks. "Everyone's going to want to see you."

We followed them for about twenty minutes. Daryl stayed beside me the entire time. He didn't hold my hand or make any obvious attempt to stay close, but his arm brushed mine several times while we walked. Every few minutes I caught him looking over at me.

The fourth time it happened, I finally looked back at him. "What?"

Daryl frowned. "What?"

"You keep looking at me."