The Life We Live

Chapter 5

After talking to Carl I decided to go inside and see if Daryl was awake. I walked in and everyone was still asleep. I grabbed a pack of stale crackers from my backpack and sat on the floor next to Daryl.

"Wake up" I whispered. He groaned and turned over. "Daryl come on."

"Five more minutes" he grumbled. I sighed and left him alone, he was never much of a morning person anyway.

"Hey Rain do you know where Carl is?" Asked a voice. It took me a minute to recognize the voice as Lori.

"He's on watch" I said dryly. I would never look at Lori the same after what Carl told me. My now ex boyfriend cheated on me with my bestfriend so I know how it feels to be cheated on. If Rick finds out she's having an affair he'll be devastated.

"Are you okay?" She asked me.

"I'm fine" I said, giving her an obviously fake smile.

Everyone was starting to wake up so I decided to wake Daryl. It took a good amount of shaking to finally get him up.

"Okay everyone I say we head to Fort Benning, we need to stop wasting time" announced Shane. I flinched at the sound of his voice, I was already getting bad vibes from him but when Carl told me he cheated with Lori I knew he was trouble.

"But we can't leave Sophia" said Carol in a tiny voice.

"She's right Shane, Sophia's out there somewhere" added Rick. They got into a lengthy argument on whether we should stay or go. We ended up taking a vote, I voted we stay, I know how important family is and I'm not going to let Carol lose her's.

"It's decided, we're staying" said Rick as he finished counting our raised hands. Shane grunted and crossed his arms.

"Okay, Sophia shouldn't be far so I say we spilt up into five groups and have one stay behind" suggested Rick. We all agreed and I ended up in a group with Daryl and Glenn. We were told to search west so we headed into the forest. We walked for a long time, scrutinizing every area we could. It was almost nightfall, we had been searching all day, I was about to suggest we head back when I saw something.

"Is that a deer?" I whispered. Daryl looked up and nodded. He signaled for us to be quiet and drew his crossbow. He aimed and just as he was about to pull the trigger a shot rung through the air and the deer fell to the ground.

"Holy shit" muttered Glenn, Daryl shushed him. We watched as a large man emerged from the bushes and grabbed the deer.

"Let's follow him" I whispered.

"No way" replied Glenn. I ignored him and started quietly following the man, Daryl and Glenn had no choice but to follow. We walked silently behind him for a while until the forest broke into an open field. I looked ahead and saw a large farmhouse where the man was heading. I signaled for Daryl and Glenn to follow me and I found a route in the forest that lead me to the back side of the house. I sprinted for the house and crouched low beside the wall. I could see the man with the deer still approaching and I crept alongside the house so I could get closer.

"Patricia I'm home!" Yelled the man. A blonde woman emerged from the house and squealed with joy.

"Oh my Otis, that deer is enough to feed everyone!" she exclaimed. An old man and two girls walked out and greeted the man with the deer, who I assumed was named Otis.

"Great job Otis, I guess Patricia did marry the right man" laughed the old man. I wanted to get a closer look at them so I started to creep even closer, but Daryl pulled me back.

"Wait, did you hear that?" Asked the old man. I tensed up as they all became silent. I put my hand around my gun and was ready to draw it when suddenly someone grabbed me from behind. I let out a loud scream and started kicking my feet. The old man, Otis and one of the girls pulled out guns and aimed them at us.

Daryl and Glenn put their hands up as they realized we were outnumbered. I was still struggling to get free from the person holding me when I felt a gun jam into the side of my head and I froze.

"Let 'er go!" yelled Daryl.

"Not until you explain who you are and why you where spying on us" commanded the old man.

"I ain't tellin' you shit" spat Daryl.

"Then we'll kill the girl" said the old man. My blood turned to ice and I didn't move a muscle.

"Daryl" I sobbed.

"We saw him kill that deer and we were curious about who he was. We were looking for a friend's daughter who went missing in the woods, I swear we don't mean no harm" Spilled Daryl.

"Daddy they seem harmless" said the youngest girl.

"How do we know you're not lying?" questioned the old man.

"I can prove it" said Daryl as he reached for his backpack, the old man raised his gun and Daryl stopped.

"I'm just getting a map, and a piece of cloth" said Daryl, the old man nodded his head but didn't lower his gun.

"This is part of her shirt, I found it yesterday when we were looking for her. This map is marked with all the places we think she might be" explained Daryl as he handed the old man the items.

"And where is your friend, the mother of the child you are searching for?" he asked, I could tell he believed Daryl.

"There's more of us, we're good people I swear. We don't have any shelter if you could just let us stay here, at least until we find Sophia" pleaded Daryl. The old man turned to talk with his group. The person holding me finally let me go, revealing himself to be a boy in his late teens with sand colored hair. He positioned himself infront of us and pointed his gun directly at my forehead.

The old man finally turned back towards us, "bring the rest of your group here."