The Dead Walk the Earth

Chapter 11: An Unexpected Turn of Events

They drove for what felt like days, Charlie's arms wrapped firmly around Daryl's torso. Every so often she'd adjust, and she mostly kept her face buried in his back to keep the wind out of her face, but it was a generally a nice ride. Soon, though, that ride was interrupted by a barricade of cars. Daryl drove on, weaving through the mess of metal to see the damage and the easiest way around it. They circled back around and stopped at the open window of Dale's RV.

"See a way through?" Dale asked him. Daryl nodded and motioned for him to follow the bike. Daryl circled around the RV and led Dale and Rick slowly through the maze; They made it about halfway before the RV started making an awful noise. Charlie jumped slightly, the unexpected noise startled her. She heard Daryl chuckle as he turned off the engine. Charlie got off first and used his shoulder for balance, then joined the others in a circle next to the RV.

"-stranded with no hope-." Charlie heard Dale say and then stopped when Daryl started looking through the things in the open trunk of a car.

"Plenty o' things we can find here," Daryl said. Carol suggested water, T-Dog suggested more gas.

"This is a graveyard." Lori piped up. Everyone looked at her, but no one seconded her protests. They split up and started digging through cars, trunks, anything open and looked promising. Charle managed to be lucky enough to have left most of her bags in the RV; She grabbed one and went off in search with the others. She managed to find some Advil, a bunch of water bottles, a map of the area, and even a small journal and a few pens. She stuffed them all in her bag before she heard a cry of surprise. It was Shane; He was by a delivery truck and it looked like a liquid was pouring down on him; He found a delivery truck full of water! Charlie found herself scavenging in a truck next to Daryl, he threw the things he had found into her bag.

She saw Shane pull Glenn down and saw the others were doing the same thing, "Down!" Shane whisper-yelled at her and Daryl. Daryl pulled her down with him under a truck but stopped himself when he spotted T-Dog, shirt changed from white to red, his arm covered in blood. He looked at Charlie, kissed her quickly, then ran to help Dog. She wanted to call out for him to get his ass back here, but Dog needed help and she didn't want them or herself to be a target for walkers. She stayed silent and held her breath as the walkers started to shuffle past the truck. She silently scooted herself towards the center so that she was nowhere near the sides. Slowly, the shuffling and moaning died down, the grey feet that once were the only thing on either side of her was gone. She didn't move. She let out the breath she felt like she'd been holding for years; All was silent. And then it wasn't. A girl was screaming, it was Sophia. Charlie peeked out in time to see Rick dart off and disappear into the woods that lined the highway. She scooted out quickly, scraping her elbow on the way out. She pulled in a quick breath, ignoring the blood that coated her elbow, and ran after Rick.

"Charlie! No!" she heard Lori yell. She ignored her, but didn't get past the guardrail; She felt arms wrap around her torso and she was stuck in place.

"Let me go! Let me go, Shane!" she yelled at him and attempted to kick and get loose.

"Best quiet up or those walkers will be back in no time. He can handle himself."

"I just got him back, I won't lose him again!" she yelled at him.

"Charlie, he'll be fine," Lori told her.

"How can you all just stand here?! It's a little girl and one guy against two walkers!" she questioned. She caught a glimpse of Carol, "Tell them to let me go after your girl. I can help Rick, I can find her."

"It's too dangerous. You'll never catch their trail fast enough to catch up to them." Daryl told her.

"If I hadn't been stopped to have this dumb conversation, I could have her back by now!" she protested.