CHAPTER TWELVE » SEARCH PARTY
"Just Shane being a dick like usual."

♔

The next morning, Shane set up a search party to go into the woods to look for Sophia again.

"Everybody takes a weapon," He ordered, watching as everyone looked at the pile of knives and machetes.

Lori stepped forwards first, taking a machete.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea stated, her hands on her hips. "What about the guns?"

"We've been over that," Shane replied, a hint of exasperation in his voice. "Daryl, Rick, Blaire and I are carrying," I snapped my eyes up at him, confused but glad that he'd finally decided to let me keep hold of my gun. "We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about," Andrea muttered.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us," Shane said, eyes piercing Andrea. "So you need to get over it."

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side," Daryl explained. "Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."

"Stay quiet and stay sharp," Rick added. "Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."

Shane nodded at everyone. "Everybody assemble your packs."

I headed to the station wagon and started to pack water bottles and food into my rucksack. I didn't want to take too much but I had a feeling we were going to end up out there a long time.

"I'm still not happy about you having that gun."

I rolled my eyes as I turned around to face Shane. "Get over it," I picked up my rucksack and swung it over my shoulder, attempting to push past him.

"Listen if you make a wrong move today-"

I cut him off harshly. "How many times do I need to remind you that I did do gun training before the apocalypse broke out."

"I know you did. Just make sure you use it as a last resort, okay?"

"Okay," I huffed. "You done now?" 

He didn't reply so I headed over to Daryl, who was stood waiting for everyone.

"What was that about?"

I shrugged. "Just Shane being a dick like usual," I saw Daryl narrow his eyes slightly at the other man but he didn't comment.

Eventually, everyone else joined us and we all started moving.

~

It was a boiling hot day, but thankfully the trees were giving us enough shade. My knife was still in my belt loop, as was my gun now, both of them hitting my thighs as I walked.

The group started to stop and I looked over Carol's shoulder to see Daryl crouched down in front of a tent. Rick copied Daryl, who had his crossbow out at the ready.

"She could be in there," Daryl said. "Could be a whole bunch of things in there," He added, pulling himself up and heading towards the tent.

Rick followed but ended up raising a hand to stop everyone else in their tracks. Daryl stepped forwards, placing his gun down and holding his knife out, ready to use it if need be.

"Carol," Rick whispered. She ran to his side. "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

A couple of moments passed before Carol spoke up softly. "Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?" She swallowed and I watched anxiously, waiting for any sign of movement in the tent. "Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy."

Nobody made a sound and the intensity in the air only heightened even further. Daryl moved towards the tent, Rick and Shane followed. Daryl lifted up the flap and the cool, fresh air was replaced by the all too familiar smell of the dead. Rick and Shane started to cough and let go of the flap, leaving Daryl inside.

"Daryl?" Carol called out, causing Lori to move to her side to comfort her. "Daryl?"

He stepped out a second later, shaking his head. "It ain't her," He confirmed, causing Carol to sigh in relief.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" He pulled his crossbow back onto his shoulder just as bells started ringing in the distance.

I paused, trying to listen to where the noise was coming from. Rick pointed to his side and we all started to run towards the sound. We'd gotten quite deep into the woods before he froze, looking around.

"What direction?"

"I think that way. I'm pretty sure."

Shane stepped onto a tree stump, trying to pinpoint the sound. "Damn, it's hard to tell out here."

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too."

Glenn glanced at Carol briefly and then looked at Shane. "Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others."

"Or signalling they found her," I added quickly. "She could even be ringing them herself."

Rick nodded in agreement and beckoned us all to follow him.
I don't know how long it took us to find the church but eventually we did.  I could see that there was a whole graveyard in front of it, but no bell. However, once we actually reached the church, the ringing had stopped, leaving us in an empty silence.

"That can't be it," Shane stopped beside Rick. "Got no steeple, no bells." Rick didn't reply, he just took off running towards the church.  "Rick!"

I pushed back the uncomfortable thoughts of having to run through an actual graveyard and followed the rest of the group after Rick. Once we reached it, he was looking around frantically. But there was no Sophia.

Rick, Daryl and Shane all occupied the stairs, holding their weapons ready to attack. Rick put a finger to his lips before pushing open the double doors with Daryl.

I don't actually know what I expected to see- I guess I just didn't presume we'd find three walkers stood in the church. The noise must have attracted their attention because they slowly turned around to look at us. Lori quickly handed Rick a machete and Glenn placed his weapon in Daryl's hands, taking the crossbow in return.
Rick headed to the left, slamming the machete into the skull of the walker. Shane walked through the middle of the church and stabbed his knife into the geeks skull. Daryl mercilessly plunged his machete into the other walker's face.

"Sophia!" Rick's voice echoed around the room. He started banging about, looking for places she could be hiding. The rest of us dispersed around the church, searching around the pews.

"You J.C you taking requests?" I heard Daryl mutter at the alter before joining Shane.

"I'm telling you it's the wrong church," Shane repeated. "It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple."

The sound of a bell ringing again came from outside the church. I was still confused, considering it was pretty obvious that there was no bell. Several people started to head out of the church and I quickly followed, watching everyone panic about finding the bell. In the midst of all the chaos, I noticed Glenn running over to the side of the building. He opened a small box, yanking the wires out. The bell stopped ringing. "A timer. It's on a timer."

I let out a breath of relief, eyes scanning the group. "I'm gonna go back inside for a bit," Carol stated, rushing back up the steps. Slowly, most of the others started to follow.

I was never really religious and neither was my family. It didn't feel right going in there. I didn't feel like I would achieve anything out of it. So I sat down outside the building, keeping watch and listening to my own thoughts.

~

Later on, we decided that Rick, Shane and Carl would stay behind just in case Sophia had heard the bells and headed towards the church. As it was getting darker, the rest of us started to head back to the highway.

"So this is it," Carol said, sitting on a fallen tree nearby. I stopped walking, standing beside Lori and glancing around. The ground had become darker from no sunlight and I could only see faint outlines of trees and branches. "This is the whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller groups," Daryl said as he came up behind us.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea commented bitterly, pursing her lips before glancing at me and Lori. "I see you two have guns."

I scoffed, shaking my head. "Are you serious right now? I'm trained in using them and the best damn shot out of all of us."

Lori glanced over at me before her gaze hardened on Andrea. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you." She sat down with a sigh before turning to Carol. "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently," Lori glanced around at all of us. "Anybody? Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." She took a gulp of her water before zipping up her bag. She held the gun out to Andrea who shook her head. Lori took it again and swung her rucksack over her shoulder. "We should keep moving," she stated before walking away.

I glanced at Glenn, exchanging a look with him. I had a great amount of respect for Lori sticking up for Rick, it's something I had wanted desperately to do every time Carol seemed to blame him. Yet, Lori's outburst unnerved me slightly, she didn't seem entirely stable at the moment. Or maybe it was the lack of food and sleep we'd had in the past few days. Nevertheless, I moved my bag into a better position on my shoulder and started to follow Lori's lead.

We hadn't been walking long when the gunshot rang out in the distance.