Hopeless

Chapter 31

I take a deep breath as I pull away from Maggie, calming myself. I know she's right and that's there's no reason to worry everyone..not yet. Not until we know for sure. I dry my face with the hem of my shirt.

"You good?" Maggie asks me quietly. I nod.

"Yeah, come on." I plaster a smile onto my face and we go back inside. Lori walks up to me as we enter the kitchen.

"I heard yelling, is everything alright?" She asks me, her eyes filled with concern.

"Yeah, everything's great." I say, as I turn away from her and grab the potato I left on the counter.

"Alright.." She says skeptically going back to chopping carrots. When all the food is just about done Patricia and Maggie get an extra table from the basement and place it beside the huge table in the dining room. The group slowly trickles into the house as we set the table. Rick is one of the last to make his way in.

"Hey baby." He carefully kisses Lori, who is carrying a hot pan of mashed potatoes to the table. He finds his seat at the main table.

"Where's Sophia?" I ask Carol as she takes her seat.

"In with Carl."

"I'll get them." When I get to his room I see them sitting side by side looking at a comic Glenn brought back from his run. I frown at his pale fragile body, but quickly hide it with a smile before they notice. "Hey you two dinners ready...you comin'?"

"Hell yeah I'm starving." Carl answers.

"Watch it, your mom might hear you talkin' like that." I laugh as his face turns bright red.  Sophia giggles behind her hand. I help Carl to his feet and we make our way to the dining room, with Sophia hovering closely to Carl's side. Carl, Sophia, Cass, Glenn, Maggie, Beth, Jimmy, and I sit at the "kiddie" table while the rest of the group sits at the other. The room fills with an awkward silence as Shane walks in, all the happy chattering in the room evaporating. He takes a seat at the main table beside Carol. I look down at my lap as he tries to make eye contact with me. He completely ignores Cass's existence beside me.

"Well...who's hungry?" Patricia says breaking the awful silence.

"I sure am." Jimmy says loudly from beside Beth.

"Jimmy...no hats at the table." Beth whispers to him, noticing the look Hershel was giving him.

"Everything looks amazing." Rick says as we begin to pass the food around, everyone taking their portion onto their plate. After everyone got their food we are plunged into silence again, the only sounds in the room are the clanking of forks and knifes as everyone eats. Shane stares longingly at me from his side of the table. I look to Cass who is staring straight at her plate, toying with the food on her plate.

"Does anybody know how to play guitar? Dale found a pretty cool one back on the highway." Glenn says trying to make conversation. Everyone just stares at him.

"Otis did." Hershel says almost angrily.

"Yes...and he was very good too." Patricia says with a sad smile. The mood of the room goes from awkward to just straight depressing.

"I..uh I play a little." I say trying to brighten the mood a little.

"Really? I didn't know you played." Shane says quietly from his seat. Just the sound of his voice makes my blood boil.

"Apparently you don't know a lot of things...like how to keep your legs closed.." I mumble angrily. Andrea chokes on some potatoes. Shane hangs his head, keeping his mouth shut.

"So..uh where'd you learn to play?" Dale asks trying to pretend that didn't just happen.

"My dad taught me. My mom she had the most beautiful voice and my dad..he would play his guitar while she sang. One day just before my twelfth birthday I came home from school and found them waiting for me by the door. They bought me my very first guitar and just couldn't wait a few more days until my birthday to give it to me. We started lessons that day. I haven't played in years though."

"They tried to teach me too, but I uh kept snapping all of the strings before we made any progress." Rick says making everyone laughs.

"It's true. He was awful." I say teasing him.

"I wanna learn." Carl says from across the table.

"Me too." Sophia pipes in.

"I'll see what I can do." I laugh. They smile at each other. By now everyone seems to be finishing up their plates. Carl rubs his eyes. This is the longest he's been out of bed since he was shot.

"Alright mister time for bed, before you fall asleep at the table." Lori laughs.

"Yeah, yeah ok." He says sarcastically before standing and heading to his room. He uses Sophia as support as he walks. I stand, collecting the dishes at my table as Lori and Carol do the same at their table. I place the dishes in the sink and Carol starts washing. Rick follows shortly behind us.

"I'm gonna go get the fires going before it gets dark." Rick tells Lori.

"Ok baby, I'll be out in a bit." He kisses her cheek. Then gives me a brotherly nudge.

"Night."

"Goodnight." I laugh at him as he leaves the house. Everyone disperses. The group goes back outside with the exception of Lori and Carol who stay to help clean up. Hershel goes to his study, Maggie goes outside with a rolled up ball of paper held tightly in her fist, and Beth goes upstairs with Jimmy. Leaving the house seemingly empty compared to a few minutes ago. The sun has just begun to set when I hear Andrea screaming from the top of the RV.

"Walker! Walker!" She screams. We all run out to the RV.

"Just the one?" Dale asks.

"I bet I can nail it from here." She says with her eye to the scope.

"No, no Andrea don't" She holds her aim firmly, her finger on the trigger.

"Andrea..put the gun down." I plead. Panic and fear ripples through the camp.

"You best let us handle this." Shane says to me before running toward the walker.

"Shane wait! Hold up!" Rick calls to him. "Hershel wants to deal with the walkers!" Rick yells.

"What for man? We got it covered." Rick yells for him again. Shane ignores him and we all go running after him, our weapons up and ready. Dale stays behind trying to talk Andrea out of pulling the trigger. I get ahead of the others despite my obvious disadvantage.

"Is that Daryl?" I ask Rick as he catches up to me. Ricks gun is pointed straight at his head.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger this time or what?" His clothes are caked in mud and blood. He has a string of ears hanging around his neck, he is a horrid sight but I don't think I have ever been so happy to see him.

"Oh god Daryl!" I throw myself into him. He cries out in pain. "You're hurt..." I whisper almost to myself. Then I notice the broken arrow sticking out of his side. "Oh my god, what happened?" I ask worried out of my mind. He opens his mouth to reply, when a gunshot rips through the air. There's no time. No time to move, no time run. I just stand there frozen. I'm not sure if it's the sound of the gunshot or my own screams tearing through my ears as I feel Daryl's limp body slip through my fingers.

**Author's note: Sorry for any grammar mistakes I've been super busy with finals coming up and everything but I wanted to update for guys. Thank you all so much for all of the support I've been getting. I absolutely love getting comments from you guys! <3 <3**