The CDC happened almost two days ago and now everyone was in a car just driving. Fort Benning set in their minds. That was their last resort if the CDC didn't work out.
Allie sat at the table in the RV looking out the window at the forest as it passed by. Currently they where on a high way heading towards the military base. A dent in their plan happened when they happened upon a car pile up on the road. Allie got up from her seat and went to stand in between the front and passenger seat where Dale and Glenn sat. She saw Daryl pop out from the pile of cars on his brothers motorcycle.
"There a way through?" Dale asked him from the window.
Daryl nodded and told everyone to follow him. Dale maneuvered the RV through the cars and they safely made it through. They didn't get but a few feet when something in the engine popped.
"Darn. Again?" Dale muttered. He cut the engine off and everyone got out of the RV. Daryl cut his bike off and put the kick stand up.
"Damn thing broke down again?"
"Yeah." Dale opened the hood and a billow of smoke hit him in the face.
"Great. Now what do we do?" Allie asked.
"We could look in some of these bigger cars and find a tube like this." Dale said holding out a piece of the engine. Allie grabbed it and examined it.
"Alright." She handed it back to Dale and went around to each car to try and find the similar piece. She opened any hood she could and searched for it. She was in a car close to Carl and Sophia. She was searching the hood when she was yanked from it and pushed under a car. She looked over and saw Rick with a finger over his lips, signaling her to be quiet. He pointed in front of them and saw a bunch of feet dragging along the pavement. The snarls of the walkers got louder the closer they got and with each step closer Allie's stomach inched closer to touching her feet. She didn't realize she had been holding her breathe until the last walker passed by and she breathed out. She looked over to Rick to see a relieved look on his face. It soon disappeared when they heard yelling. Allie looked over to the car beside her and saw Carl and Sophia. Except Sophia was squirming away. And that's when Allie saw the deceased arm reaching for the girl. Sophia acted before Allie could and took off running towards the woods. Two or three walkers behind her.
"Sophia!" Allie screamed. She got out from under the car before Rick could react and took off after the little girl. She jumped the traffic barriers and broke through the tree line. She could hear their footsteps in front of her and Sophia's whines. She took out her pocket knife and switched the blade out. As of now that is her only protection.
After a minute of running she could see the outline of a little girl running. She went in her direction and ran fast enough to get in front of her. She managed to stop her by squatting down in front of her and grabbing hold of her arms. Sophia screamed once again until she recognized her.
"Hey Sophia. Sophia, calm down. It's me Allie."
"Allie?" She looked at the girl and saw the knife in her hands. "Kill them! What are you doing?"
"I can't. There's three of them and one of me. We need to run." Allie grabbed the little girls hand and they both ran. They ran until they where stopped. Allie looked up and saw it was Rick.
"Come on. Don't stop." Rick grabbed Allie's hand and Allie still had a hold of Sophia's and they all started running. They finally stumbled upon a river and Rick guided them towards a little cave.
"I need you both to hide in here while I steer them away. I'll come back for you."
"Yeah. Of course. Come on Sophia." Allie made sure Sophia was safely hidden in the cave before she got in and nodded towards Rick. He nodded back and the yelled at the walkers to try and get their attention. He did. They came barreling through the water and Rick took off in the other direction. The girls where quiet in the cave. Mostly due to Allie having her hand covering the mouth of a whimpering Sophia. Allie let out a breath to early. A walker popped its head over the top of the cave and snarled at the two. Sophia screamed and ran out of the cave and into the woods.
"Sophia!" Allie jumped out from the cave to go after the girl when the walker tackled her. She fell into the water and she was almost submerged in the murky water. All she could hear was the water and the only thing she could see was the yellow teeth trying to bit into her flesh. One hand was struggling to push the dead off, and the other was searching for her knife. When she found it in the water she gripped the handle and drove it into the walkers brain. Immediately the walker stopped moving and she pushed it off her. She got up off the ground and wiped the water from her face. A tree branch snapping caused her to turn around ready to lunge. Only for it to be Rick standing there.
"Where's Sophia?" Rick asked urgently.
"I don't know. After you left another showed up and she got scared. She took off and I was tackled so I wasn't able to go get her." Allie explained.
"Do you know which way she went?"
She nodded her head and took off in that direction. They both ran for a while until Rick pulled Allie to a stop.
"What are you doing? We need to find her!" Allie said.
"And with more people. We don't have the weapons nor the people to just go on a man hunt. Lets go back to the RV." Allie reluctantly followed him, knowing he was right.
When they got back Carol ran up to them frightened.
"Where is she?"
"We're going back for her. We just need more weapons and people before we go back out there." Rick explained.
"Well then what are we waiting for?"
So now Rick, Allie, Daryl, Carol, Shane, Lori, Carl,Glenn and Andrea where deep in the woods in search of the girl. They've been walking a while when Daryl signals for them to be quiet and follow his lead. he squats down and goes to hide behind a bush. When Allie moves up beside Daryl she then notices what he's looking at. A tent. It looked like someone hasn't been there for weeks.
"If she's in there, she'd come out to your voice Carol." Rick told the woman. And so she started calling out for her daughter
"Sophia? Sophia honey it's mommy. Sophia?" After a few tries the group was still met with silence. Daryl told everyone to stay and he went over to the tent. He silently opened the tent and then immediately recoiled in disgust. After seeing that Allie went over to the tent as well and scrunched her face up as soon as she was a foot away. It was a foul smell. Like something died. And something did, well someone. There was a camping chair in the middle of the tent with a rotted body sitting in it. When she went and stood in front of it beside Daryl, she noticed that the corpse was holding a gun.
"Suicide." Allie muttered. Daryl hummed in confirmation.
"Everything okay?" Lori called into the tent. That made the two leave the tent and zip it back up.
"Yeah, just someone opted out." Allie said silently.
"Let's move on then." Shane said. He readjusted then shotgun and went ahead of everyone else. Everyone silently followed. Carol and Lori was in the front and Lori had a solid grip on Carl's hand. Andrea was following silently behind them with Glenn and Rick behind them talking. That left Allie and Daryl in the back guarding them.
"How'd you know Glenn?" She looked over at the owner of the voice to see Daryl still looking ahead.
"We grew up together." She answered simply.
"Childhood best friends?"
"Yeah. Since we were four."
He let out a low whistle.
"How'd y'all last as friends for so long?"
"Well, it was simple. We were always there for each other. Especially after my mom died. He was there more than my dad was."
"What happened to your dad?"
"Became a drunk. And abusive. One night he got in a fight in a bar, he went to far and killed the man. Now he's in prison. I haven't seen him in three years."
"Damn."
Everyone stopped in their tracks when they heard a bell tolling in the distance.
"What the hell was that?" Daryl asked.
"I don't know, but if we heard it do you think Sophia did too?" Allie asked the group.
"Maybe so. Let's go a little further and see if we get closer." And so the group trudged on until they heard the bell again. Only this time louder. That's when everyone broke into a run through the woods. A few minutes later they broke through the treeline and saw a church in front of them. Allie pushed herself faster and she almost passed Rick who was pushing himself just as hard but his legs where longer. They got to the front doors of the church and Rick busted in. The only thing they saw where a couple of walkers and Shane and Rick took care of those.
"Anything?" Carol asked from outside.
"No." Allie called back. She could hear Carol's aggravated sigh. She felt the same way. She just wanted to find Sophia. She felt responsible for the girl. She was with her when she ran off, she should've went with her. If that damned walker hadn't of showed up Sophia would still be with them. She slumped down into one of the pews and put her head in her hands. She sat like that for a minute until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Rick kneeling on a pew in front of her.
"None of this is your fault Allie."
"If I would have just had a tighter grip on her she would still be here. Or even told her to stay while I took out the walker. I was supposed to protect her and now she's gone."
"And we will find her. I promise you." She looked in the mans eyes and saw nothing but truth.
"Alright." Rick smiled and squeezed her shoulder. They both got up and met with the group outside. They all planned to call it a day and get back to the camp. Well all except for Carol.
"We need to find her. She's out there all alone."
"How about this, me, Rick, and Shane continue to look while Daryl takes everyone back to the RV?" Allie said to the group.
"That sounds like a good idea." Rick said.
"Can I go dad?" Carl asked, looking up at his dad hopefully.
"Absolutely not." Lori said grabbing a hold of Carl's hand.
"Moomm." He complained.
"Come on Lori. What's it gonna hurt?" Shane asked.
Rick grabbed Lori's hand and took her off to the side. Most likely to convince her to let Carl go. After a minute they walked back and Carl was cleared to go.
The group was ready to go after Carl got a million "I love you" from his mom and Allie got a hug from Glenn. When they where sure the group was safe with Daryl, they started their trek further into the woods. They've been walking for a while when Carl stopped in front of everyone. He was starring in awe of something in front of them. When Allie looked she saw what he was looking at, a deer. She saw the awe struck look on his face and couldn't help but smile at him. Everything was peaceful and serene until.
BANG.
