Chase || Daryl Dixon ||

-Third Person-

__GIF Owned By IMGUR__

A handful of the group was circled around a truck, looking at the map Maggie provided. Rick was explaining how they would divide up the area as a woman approached the group quietly. No one was really sure how, but for years Amanda walked so lightly that it was impossible to hear her coming. Not a single person around the vehicle noticed the small woman until she was standing directly between Jimmy and Rick.

"Mandy! Gosh I told you to flail around a bit more when you approach a group so that you don't scare anyone. Now, Beth said you should be sleeping still." The rest of the group turned to look at the new member of the search team when Maggie pointed her out. Almost all of them jumped a little in shock at the girl's ability to stay quiet.

"Who the hell is this?" The long haired hunter almost shouted as he looked at the girl in shock and a hint of disgust. She simply rolled her eyes and pointed to the map.

"Uhh. Are we supposed to know what that means? Is that where you are going?" Rick asked the group more than the girl. The Greene family had told him they had another person living with them and he would probably never hear her talk.

"She's pretty much saying continue, Amanda doesn't know where to look, but once she does you can bet she'll find the only pinecone missing a seed in the whole forest." Maggie explained the girls behavior and gestured for Rick to continue.

"Well umm, Amanda you can head over here, it's not too far from where Daryl saw a place she might have been and he'll be searching the other way." Rick was pointing to a place on the map and waved a finger towards the man with a crossbow to her side. She simply looked at him, the map again, and walked in the direction he prompted her to wordlessly.

"Don't you want a gun little lady?" She wasn't sure who said it, but she didn't care. Without turning around, she held up her crossbow in one hand and used the other to flip them off. A small laugh escaped Maggie's lips that she tried to muffle and Daryl couldn't help but smirk as they watched the girl walk off into the distance.

"She seems like a handful." Shane said, a bit grumpy that he couldn't get under her skin.

"She's helped save my daddy's farm more times than I can count and she's a real softie if you ever get on her good side. I'll wish you luck on that one though." Maggie smiled a bit to herself before everyone went off to their designated areas.

......

It was days before Amanda returned to the farm, she may have stayed out longer if not for the screams she heard from the farm house. Sounds echoed around the woods, but she just had a gut feeling the sounds came from her home. She moved quickly, trying to be quiet in case it was another group attacking their farm. Once she got to the tree line, it was obvious what had happened. She slowed to almost the same speed of the monsters she saw dead in front of her. Everyone in Rick's group was holding a gun and the Greene family was either bawling or in shock. Once she got to the line of people she looked across the group, the woman had stepped on a stick on the way there. A mistake she would have never made if it weren't for the fact that she hadn't slept in forever and everyone she cared about was crying in front of her. Everyone went silent as one more walker wandered out of the barn. Based on the scream of the short haired woman, Amanda knew it was the girl they had been looking for. A knot formed in everyone's throat as Daryl held Carol back and Rick was forced to shoot a little girl in the head. After seeing the last thread of hope left, the thing she had been out in the woods for days looking for, fall to the ground, she passed out. Beth ran to her mother and Jimmy quickly tried to catch his friend. No one was sure how to process what just happened and Rick and Shane got into a screaming match. The Greene family went into the house, Jimmy carrying the unconscious girl, and Maggie dragging her sister after from the bodies.

......

Amanda woke up the next day on the couch of the farm house. Slowly she rose and looked at her surroundings, making sure she was where she thought she was.

"You're awake! Thank god, I mean I know you need your sleep but everything is falling apart round here. Beth won't get out of bed and keeps trying to kill herself and dad is missing, Rick and Glenn went into town to find him... I think he's drinking again Mandy." Maggie ranted as she pulled the small into a tight hug. "I'm just going to bring this food to Beth, maybe you can talk to her?" She nodded in responses and followed Maggie to Beth's bedroom. She quietly knocked on the door before opening it. Beth was curled in her bed under the covers and didn't even turn to see who it was. Maggie set the dinner down on the bed before leaving, a sad look on her face.

"Hey pumpkin... You alright?" Amanda quietly asked her friend, resting a hand on her shoulder. Before she knew it, the young blond tackled her in a hug. After about 30 seconds of awkward but needed contact, Beth retracted and looked at her friend with dead eyes.

"There isn't a point anymore is there? We are just going to fight until we die."

"No no no, we can find safety and happiness, at least for a while. I believe that. I mean we've made it this far here. If we lose this we will find another place I promise." That was probably the most she had said all at once in years. But it was worth it as long as it sunk in. Amanda really cared about Beth, she was like a little sister to her. Back when her and Maggie were in high school and spent all their time together, they would wrangle little Beth around. She was still really young at the time and completely boy crazy. She was also insanely curious and that got her into trouble all the time. Beth was always Amanda's riding partner when the horses needed to get out and they would train them together. It broke her heart to see the younger blond so depleted, a state Beth was rarely in. After being coerced into taking a few bites of her food, Beth layed back down to get some sleep. Amanda took this as her cue to leave and walked towards the kitchen. Once she got in though she immediately turned around. The women she heard called Lori and Andrea were arguing as Maggie did dishes. Amanda was not interested in any interactions involving the angry looking woman that insulted her the first day they met. They had taken in their whole group of strangers, not something they would have normally done, and the first thing she does is insult one of the family members. Amanda wasn't a blood relative but they couldn't have known that. She was even blond like Beth and Patricia. Amanda quickly and silently walked out of the house and looked over the group of people on her lawn, an indifferent expression on her face. Dale smiled and waved at her, a greeting she did not return. Having had enough social interaction for the night she returned to her usual perch on the roof and waited for Hershel to return.