Me and Sophia had a plate of food each. We decided to eat outside, around all of our people and outside of the tents. I was sitting in between my dad's legs and Sophia was sitting in between her mum's legs. We both wanted to be close to our parents. My mum was on the other side of the circle we'd formed, glaring at me and my father. I've never answered back to her before, I've never had the confidence. I also had Teddy sitting next to me, Dolly was next to Teddy as Sophia and Carol were on the other side of our toys.

"So, what was it like?" Carl asked, when I'd finished most my food. We had ham, peas and mash. It was a little dry but much better than what me and Sophia had been eating.

"Soph?" I looked over to her, wondering if she wanted to speak.

She shook her head. "You can take the lead."

"Ah, gee. Thanks." I said sarcastically. "Well, after the highway, we ran like hell... After falling down some banking or something. Those three freaks followed us, so we climbed a tree. We stayed there for ten minutes but when nobody came, we started to worry that the walkers would figure out how to get to us before you found us." I explained, before eating more mash. "So, ya know we ran-"

"No, that's not how it happened." Sophia shook her head.

"Please, anytime you wanna step in." I smiled.

"Ellie ran. She told me to stay in the tree, to wait for her or help. But I didn't. I didn't listen so it was my fault we were out there that long. It was my fault we were out there in the first place, if I hadn't screamed then they wouldn't have found us." Sophia admitted.

"Soph, they-" She cut me off.

"No, it's okay. After ten minutes I got spooked and went after El. I found her passed out after she had gotten three walkers stuck in mud. I carried her to some house's basement. I couldn't remember the way back, so that's why we got lost. Cause I was scared." Sophia explained.

"It's not your fault, Sophia." Her mum comforted her.

Sophia nodded. "It is." She turned to me. "I'm so sorry. I-" She cut herself off, looking down as she tried not to cry, so Carol wrapped her arms around Sophia in a hug.

"You were scared. Nobody can blame you for being scared. And you saved my life." I comforted her, she nodded but the silent tears still escaped her eyes. "After a couple days, Sophia fell out of a tree we were staying in and broke her ankle, five walkers noticed so we ran. I didn't really do anything-"

"No, they heard me scream, and you held most my weight and helped me cross the water. Then about fifteen of them noticed us. They were catching up, so Ellie carried me. I'm the older one and she saved my life, over and over. Whenever we had food, she'd give me more, she refused to sleep so I could sleep, she'd make sure I was safe so she could handle the walkers. Even at the church she said if she couldn't fight them off that the walkers eating her would buy me time to run. She sacrificed everything to keep me safe. And I let her cause I was a coward; I didn't know how to take care of myself, so I let her do it all." Sophia ranted, unable to meet anyone's eyes, angry tears ran down her face. Then she turned to me. "So don't you dare say that you didn't do anything because if it wasn't for you I'd be dead right now."

I stared at Sophia silently, not entirely sure what to say. "You're lying." My mum said, everyone turned to her. "Come on. You really believe her? There's no way my daughter did any of that. She's weak, always has been-"

"Isabella, if you're going to disrespect your daughter then you can take a walk." Rick said

"A long walk, off a short pier." Dad suggested.

"Please, don't start arguing." I said quietly to my dad, he rubbed my arm in a comforting manner.

"You know what? I am going to take a walk." My mum stood up. "Not because you told me too, because I don't want to listen to this bullshit anymore." Then she walked away.

"Good riddance I say." Dale commented causing a few people to laugh, but I just watched her walk away with a frown on my face.

I turned to Sophia, she was wiping her tears away and eating the food on her plate. "Hey, you alright?" I asked her quietly.

She nodded with a smile. "I never said thank you. For everything."

"Hey, what's the rule? We don't need to thank each other for saving our lives anymore. It happens to often." I joked causing Sophia to smile. "You have a nice smile; you should show it more often." This caused Sophia to smile wider.

"So, what did you eat?" Carl asked.

"Fish." Sophia replied. "We ate a snake a few days ago. Other than that, we'd go days without eating. Which is why this food taste so good."

We all laughed but Hershel coming over caused us to stop. "Rick, I'm ready to discuss the terms of you staying. It's better we do it here though, since I doubt it'll be you taking the plunge."

Rick stood up. "What do you mean?"

"I lost something. A silver watch, I dropped it into the lake behind my house. I have a waterproof head torch and I have a general idea of where it will be. Thing is that the lake's pretty deep. So, whoever does this will need to hold their breath for a few minutes." Hershel explained.

Rick nodded. "We'll sort someone to do it and meet you by the lake in ten minutes."

"You get the watch, you can stay. The same terms as our original agreement still apply." Hershel warned.

"Yes, sir." Rick nodded, then Hershal walked away. Rick sat back down. "Can anyone hold their breath for a few minutes?"

"It's easier said than done." Shane commented.

Nobody said they could, I sighed. "I just got to relaxing." I shook my head.

"Ellie, no." Dad said, sternly.

"I can hold my breath for between four and five minutes." I informed the group.

"Baby, give yourself a break." Dad tired.

I looked back to him. "We need to stay here so we have a safe place to stay and look for Jacob. Soph can't go anywhere cause she's on crutches. It's like Rick said, we'll die out there and we gotta stay round this area to find Jacob." I explained, he shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, I turned back to Rick. "I can do it."

"Are you sure?" Glenn asked.

"I'll be fine." I confirmed, finishing the peas off my plate.

"Beth or Maggie might have an old swimsuit you can use." Lori nodded.

"Are we really talking about sending her down there? She and my daughter just got back. You just heard what they went through." Carol pointed out.

"We don't have a choice." Andrea spoke up.

"Couldn't she at least do it tomorrow?" Dale suggested.

"It's up to Daryl." Rick stated.

I looked back to my father. "Daddy?"

He sighed, opening his eyes and looking at me. "I don't like this, not one bit."

"I can't go out there again. I don't think I'll survive next time." I told him quietly.

He kissed my head before looking to Rick. "She can do it. I've seen her swim, she's good. But then she's resting for at least a week. No if's, but's, or maybes."

I smiled, standing up and taking Sophia's empty plate. "I'll go see if I can track down a swimming costume and I'll meet you guys over by the water." Then I headed over to the house.

I put the plates in the sink. "Hi there, darling. Did you enjoy?" Patricia's voice asked.

"Oh, yes thank you, ma'am. It was the best food I've had in a very long time." I grinned.

"I appreciate you saying that. If there's anything else I can help you with, just let me know." She smiled.

"Actually, do you know if Maggie or Beth have an old swimming costume I could borrow? I need to help Hershel with something and mine exploded." I informed her.

She looked slightly concerned but nodded. "Beth has one."

I changed into Beth's old swimming costume, grabbed a towel and headed out to where everyone else was. And I mean everyone... Apart from my mum of course. "Some important watch, huh?" I commented.

"It's a silver pocket watch. You can't miss it." Hershel nodded, as T-dog went on his knees in front of me and attached the head torch to me.

"You sure about this?" T-dog asked as he tightened the strap to fit my head.

"Awh, is the big bad T-dog scared?" I grinned.

"I have been this past week, and now. But don't you go around telling anyone that." T-dog smiled.

I put my hand on my heart and fake gasped. "I wouldn't dream of it."

He smiled, taking my towel and then standing up. I walked to the edge of the lake and Hershel pointed to the general area it should be. "It'll be down in that vicinity."

"I'll get it back for you, sir." I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I looked to Sophia. "If I'm not back in six minutes them I'm dead and it was nice knowing you."

Sophia's mouth dropped open a little bit. "Good luck."

"Ellie, if you feel like you can't breathe at any time, you come back up. You can always take another breath and try again." Rick said.

"Yes, sir." I gave a two-finger salute causing Rick to grin.

My dad put his hand on my shoulder. "You be careful alright?"

"When am I not?" I challenged.

"You really want me to answer that question?" Dad raised his eyebrows.

"Good point, bye, gang." I took a deep breath before doing a perfect dive into the water. I turned the torch on and realised it really was a deep lake. I rolled my eyes at the inconvenience before swimming downwards. I made my way down to the lake floor in just under a minute as I peered around. My eyes stung slightly, being open under water, but I used to do this almost daily, so it was pretty easy to ignore.

I looked around slowly, letting the light from the torch scan everywhere in the area Hershel pointed out. That's when I saw it, the silver watch. It was wedged between two rocks, I swam over to it and picked up the watch. I inspected it, luckily it hadn't been scratched. I did a victory fist pump before I went to swim upwards. But then I felt it.

A hand grabbed my hair, a fistful of it and pulled me back. I turned and saw a walker? It looked like the water was helping with the rotting process as it was one of the worst looking ones I had ever seen. He tried bringing his open mouth to me, but I brought my legs up. I pressed my feet into his eyes and forehead and pushed him back enough, so he let go of my hair. I just wanted to put some distance between us.

I swam forward but it grabbed onto my ankle. I tried kicking it off, but it didn't let go. As I held onto the watch I swam diagonally as fast as I could. I was going to get out of the lake on the opposite side to where my family and friends were. I didn't want any of them to help me out and then accidentally get bitten because of me. I just wanted more time to get rid of it. I wanted to scream for help, get it to let go but it just held on. Its mouth opening wide as it tried to bite me, but it couldn't reach me yet. The walker wasn't strong enough to pull itself closer to me under the water, but once it got dragged to the surface then he would have the leverage.

My hands reached for the banking as I crawled onto the grass. I turned and saw everyone on the other side of the lake. They smiled but then I pulled my legs out, revealing the walking that had attached itself to me. It crawled up the banking closer to me. I cried as I tried to get away, but its hands pinned to my side, and I could feel its growls on my neck as I screamed before a loud bang and its dead weight fell onto me.

"Ellie!" I heard my dad yell.

"Get it off." I panicked, trying to free myself from the walker. Dad kicked it off me before picking me up. I was crying from fear as I held onto him tightly. His hands patted my arms, legs and neck as he was looking for a bite or scratch. When he didn't find one, he sighed in relief.

"Are you alright?" He asked, pulling my head back so he could look at me. I didn't answer as I just hugged him again. "I got you, baby. You're safe, I got you." Dad ushered me as Rick approached, holding a smoking gun.

"Is she alright?" Rick asked.

"Fine." Dad answered, bitterly as he walked around the lake. "You knew it was down there didn't you!" Dad yelled at Hershel. Dad took the watch out of my hand and threw it to Hershel who caught it. "She got your dumb watch! Almost gave her life for it!"

"I swear, I didn't know it was down there." Hershel defended. Dad put me down as T-dog came over and wrapped my towel around me. 

"Bullshit!" Dad yelled.

"Daryl, you need to calm down." Shane stepped between Dad and Hershel.

"No! My kid almost died because that old man wanted a damn watch!"

"Dad, stop it!" I shouted at him, still shaking in fear from just happened. Sophia used her crutches to get over to me and hugged me as best she could without falling over.

"I've sent my own children down there trying to get back this watch. Would I have done that if I knew it was there? My offer stands, you can stay outside in your tents." Hershel stated, before looking to me. "I'm sorry that it scared you. I'm glad you're okay. Thank you for getting my watch back." Then Hershel started walking in the direction of the house. My dad stood there, breathing heavily with anger as he was watching Hershel walk away.

"It's true, ya know? Both me and Maggie have been down there trying to get that watch." Beth informed my dad.

"I'm glad you're okay." Maggie smiled at me before her, Beth, a boy who looked Beth's age which was about seventeen and Patricia walked away.

"All of that for a watch?" Andrea asked.

"Some people really care about old objects with meaning." Dale pointed out.

"No object is worth a child's life." Carol stated.

"Ellie, are you okay, honey?" Lori looked down to me.

I nodded. "I just wanna go to sleep."

"That I can help with." Dad smiled down at me.

I'd gotten changed back into some clothes, my hair was dry now as well and was in the tent with my dad. Mum had guilt tripped Glenn into letting him share his tent with her that night because she didn't want to see me. Well, she wanted to see me so she could yell at me and who knows what else, but dad wouldn't let her be alone with me.

Dad was in his sleeping bag on his side of the small tent while I was in another sleeping bag on the other side. Dad's eyes were closed but that didn't mean he was asleep. "Daddy?" I whispered.

"Yes, baby?" He replied quietly, without opening his eyes.

"I can't sleep." I answered.

Dad sighed, unzipped his sleeping bag and held it open. I smiled widely. I made my way out of my sleeping bag and crawled over to him. I got into his sleeping bag, and he put his arms around me, he zipped up the sleeping bag behind me before hugging me tightly as I nestled myself into his chest. "Goodnight, princess. I love you."

"I love you too." I said, leaning up and kissing his cheek before lying back down. Dad kissed the top of my head and I quickly found myself falling asleep.