The group stayed in the nursing home over night, but they didn't want to stay a second longer than they had to. So at first light, they packed their things and got ready to go. The new plan was to head to Fort Benning, like Shane had originally wanted. After seeing what happened at the CDC, though, Rosie had no hope for Fort Benning. She thought that everyone there would be dead or dying. There was no point. But she went with anyway because she had no other choice. She already tried running away and it didn't work.

When they got out to the cars, Rosie made a beeline for Daryl's truck, but he stopped her by holding a hand out in front of her. She looked up at him, furrowing her eyebrows with confusion. "What?"

"Not bringin' the truck. Don't got enough fuel," Daryl told her.

Rosie's stomach churned at this information. What did that mean? That she was gonna have to sit in a car with Shane? That he was gonna be like he was at the CDC? Shane was the last person she wanted to sit in a car with. "What car are you goin' in then?" she asked. She thought that if she stayed in the came car as Daryl, Shane might not go near her.

"Not ridin' in one. I'm takin' my bike," Daryl replied, nodding towards the motorcycle in the back of his truck. Rosie's stomach churned again. That is not what she wanted to hear.

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Where am I s'posed ta go?" Rosie asked. Daryl nodded towards the RV and Rosie crossed her arms. "I don't wanna ride in there."

Daryl scoffed. "What, ya wanna stay here with the walkers?"

"No," Rosie said, irritated. "I don' wanna be with Shane."

"Ya don't got a choice," Daryl said as he began packing his bags onto the back of his motorcycle.

"Why can't I ride on the motorcycle with you?" Rosie asked, following behind Daryl as he went to move more bags.

"'Cause I said no."

"But I done it before! My coach had a motorcycle. He took me on a ride before."

"I don't give a shit. Yer ridin' in the RV."

"I don't want to."

"Kid," Daryl said, stopping to stand in front of Rosie while he talked to her, "yer not my responsibility. Yer jus' some kid. I ain't gonna let ya ride with me, so beat it."

For a reason Rosie didn't understand, Daryl's words disheartened her. She didn't know why it made her stomach hurt. He was right. She was just some kid and he was just some guy. She barely even knew him, so why did she care about whether or not he wanted her around?

With a sigh, Rosie reluctantly made her way over to the RV as she held back a frown.

•

Rosie was not enjoying her time in the RV. She was bored out of her mind and had no intentions of talking to anyone else in the RV. She was irritated with Daryl for not bringing the truck because one; she now had to ride in the RV with Shane and, two; the motorcycle was extremely loud.

Things got even worse, though, when Shane sat down across from her at the table with a serious look on his face. "We need to talk," he said quietly. Rosie stared at him, waiting for him to talk about what happened at the CDC. But instead, he nodded towards the back of the RV where the bedroom was. "Come on."

Nervously, Rosie stood from her spot on the booth and made her way towards the back of the RV. If she was being punished, might as well get it over with.

When she got back there, Shane was sitting on the bed and he gestured next to him, so Rosie sat down too. He didn't say anything at first, which made Rosie nervous. She thought maybe if she said something weird it would change the subject and he'd forget, so that's what she did. "I miss beef jerky commercials," she said.

Shane's serious expression morphed into a smile. "What?" he said, humor in his voice.

"The weird ones with Bigfoot in 'em," Rosie clarified.

"What are you... you know what we can talk about that later," Shane stopped himself. Rosie's attempt to change the conversation failed miserably. "The other night at the CDC-"

"I ain't gonna tell no one! I swear! Lori doesn't want me to," the girl rushed out. Maybe if she could get him to believe her, she wouldn't get in trouble.

"That's not what I was going to talk to you about," Shane said. Rosie's eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "When you saw, why did you run? You know no one is going to hurt you when you get in trouble, right?"

"What?"

"When you do something wrong, no one is going to hurt you," Shane said again.

Rosie stared at him for a moment. What the hell was he talking about? "But I did somethin' bad..." she reminded him.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean someone is going to hurt you for it. That's not how it works," Shane told her.

She was beyond confused. Everything she'd known since the day she was born was crumbling at his words.

Is that why Fraser said I had to get out of there? Is that why Merle killed Daddy? Is that why Daryl said Daddy was an asshole? Is it all because "that's not how it works"?

Shane sighed at the look on Rosie's face. A million thoughts were running through her head and she just didn't seem to get it. "The other night, at the CDC, I wasn't going to hurt you. I'm never going to hurt you," he said.

"But... ya gave me the look," Rosie said, picking at a lose string on the bedding to distract herself.

"The look?"

"The look Daddy used ta give me when I was in trouble. Like, if I said somethin' I wasn't s'posed to," Rosie said. The look he gave me after you snitched to him that I punched Carl, remember?

"When someone gives ya that look, it doesn't mean they're gonna do what your dad did, Rosie. It means that, sure, they might be annoyed, but they're not gonna hurt you. No one is gonna hurt you anymore. Ok?" Shane said. His eyebrows were raised as he gave the girl a serious look, which she found kind of funny.

Rosie had no idea how to answer. She didn't quite believe him, for whatever reason. So isntead of assuring him that she understood, she decided to go back to her original plan of distracting him. "Do ya think Obama is a walker right now?" she asked.

"What?"

"Do ya think Obama is-"

"No, I heard you," Shane chuckled. "Just wonderin' why the hell that's what you're thinking about right now."

"Can't stop thinkin' 'bout it. Like, what if he's walkin' 'round the streets of DC eatin' people? Just like any other walker. Does bein' rich and important change anythin', do ya think?"

"That's... a good question. I don't know," Shane replied.

"Can't stop wonderin'."

"Tell ya what, why don't you come out here and I'll show you how to clean a gun. That'll keep your mind off of it. Sound good?" Shane suggested. So far, Rosie had been nothing but hostile towards him, and all of a sudden she was being cooperative, maybe even friendly, if you're willing to stretch. He was absolutely going to take this opportunity to try and get the girl to warm up to him.

"I a'ready know how. My daddy taught me," Rosie replied. Her dad had taught her everything she needed to know about guns. He said she needed to know how to protect herself if the time came. I ain't raisin' no pussy, he said. But Rosie was surprised that Shane had changed his mind about her having a gun. He seemed so against it last night. Maybe Rick had talked him into it.

"Alright, then why don't you show me what you know," Shane said, standing up off the bed. Rosie got up after him and followed him over to the table. They sat across from each other and Shane placed his gun on the table. Once Shane gave her a nod of permission, Rosie got to work.

"Looks complicated," Andrea said after awhile. She had sat down next to Shane, watching Rosie clean the thing. Rosie didn't say anything in response to Andrea's comment, she was too focused.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way. Right, Rosie?" Shane said, tapping the girl on the arm.

She looked up quickly. "Huh?" she asked.

Shane just chuckled. "Nothin'. Never mind," he said. Rosie didn't need to be told twice. She quickly got back to work, once again tuning herself out of the two adults' conversation. She didn't like either of them very much anyway.

Just after Rosie finished putting the gun back together and slid it back across the table to Shane, the RV started to slow to a stop.

"Ah, jeez," Dale said, looking out across the highway. There was a giant truck knocked over right where they were headed, blocking the way. Rosie kneeled on her seat to look out the window when she heard the rumble of the engine of Daryl's motorcycle grow louder. He came riding up next to Dale's window.

"See a way through?" Dale asked. Daryl didn't say anything, he just nodded and continued on, trying to find a way.

"Uh," Glenn said, unsure, as he sat in the passenger seat and held a map in his hands. "Maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass."

"We can't spare the fuel," Dale stopped him. Rosie wanted to ask why they even kept the RV around because, as far as she knew, RVs used up a lot of gas. She didn't ask, though, because she figured the adults knew what they were doing and wouldn't appreciate her input.

Daryl led the RV, weaving their way through the maze of broken down, abandoned vehicles. Rosie looked out the window, staring at the corpses inside of the cars. She jumped out of her daze, though, when a loud, squealing noise suddenly emitted from the front of the RV, followed by a small cloud of smoke.

Seconds later, she was following the trail of adults out of the RV. "I said it, didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water," Dale complained, walking towards the front of the RV to look at the smoking engine.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked, looking out at the maze of cars.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" he suddenly stopped when he looked out at the hundreds of cars that surrounded them. "Ok, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane said.

Rosie walked away from the group, tired of the close proximity of everyone, especially after being crammed in the RV with five other people. She started looking through the trunks of cars after noticing Daryl do the same thing.

"There's a whole bunch a' stuff we could find," Daryl said as he picked through one of the closest cars.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars, for a start," T-Dog said, grabbing an empty gas tank and walking off.

"Maybe some water?" Carol suggested.

"Or food," Glenn added. Rosie's stomach started making noises after that, suddenly aware of the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since the eggs T-Dog gave her at the CDC. That was two days ago, if she remembered correctly. She huffed at her stomach for making noise, deciding that she could go a little while longer.

"This is a graveyard," Lori spoke up. Everyone just stared at her. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"Come on, y'all. Just look around. Gather what you can," Shane said, ignoring Lori's worry.

Rosie continued on doing what she was doing, but then Lori came up and put a hand on her shoulder. "You stick close to me, ok?" Lori said. Rosie wanted to tell her to fuck off and mind her own business, but instead she just nodded, thinking about what Daryl had told her.

Ya gotta pay more attention ta how yer actin'. Or yer gonna piss everyone off all the time.

Unfortunately for Rosie, sticking by Lori also meant sticking by Sophia and Carl. She had no interest in becoming friends with them- or anyone else for that matter- but she decided she would just tolerate them... for their sake. She didn't need friends...

"Kids, don't look," Carol said monotonously as she walked past a rotting body in a car. Rosie scoffed before opening the door and searching the car. She was glad she did it, too, because she found herself a hunting knife, along with a sheath that she could attach to her belt- or her father's belt, rather.

Wearing her father's belt still felt wrong. Dangerous, maybe. But it also made her feel stronger. Like all the strength that the belt had once taken away from her was given back when she wore it around her waist. It was her belt now, and it would never hurt her again.

Along with the knife, Rosie also found a bag of Build-A-Bear clothes, which she took, even though she couldn't find the bear it went with. Rosie had no interest in it, but she thought back to Sophia and the doll she always carried around.

She ran over to Sophia, and when she got to her, she stopped and squinted her eyes as she tried to think of what to say. "Look," she said, handing the plastic bag over to the older girl. "For your doll."

Opening up the bag and looking inside, Sophia's smile grew wide. "Awww! They're so cute!" she said, holding up a small dress for the doll.

Sophia crouched down to the ground, where she sorted through the clothes, deciding which ones to put on her doll. Carl crouched down next to her, just watching. Rosie watched for a moment, too, before going through the closest car.

When Rosie climbed out of the backseat of the car, she saw Sophia and Carl looking to her left with wide eyes. She looked too, and saw Rick staring at them, crouched behind a car. "Carl, Sophia, Rosie!" he whisper-shouted, gesturing towards the ground, "Get down! Now!"

Sophia grabbed onto Rosie's hand and pulled her under the car that Rosie had just searched while Carl went in the next one forward. They were all confused, at first, before they saw the many, many pairs of feet dragging across the concrete.

Walkers.

Sophia started to cry, keeping eye contact with her mom. Rosie looked over to Carl. He looked scared, but he wasn't crying like Sophia was. Rosie was scared too, but she didn't show it. She stayed silent as she watched the pairs of feet drag by just a foot away from her face.

Suddenly, Sophia started loudly whimpering and tapping Rosie's arm repeatedly. Rosie looked to where the older girl was looking and saw a walker down on the ground. She shuffled away, Sophia shuffling with her as the walker crawled towards them underneath the car.

Hearing Sophia's screaming, more walkers started to come their way. Now instead of one walker, there were two. Rosie and Sophia got out from under the car and crawled under the guard rail on the side of the road. They slid down a small hill and started running as fast as they could.

Rosie knew that running wasn't the only option. She would have to kill the walkers if they ever wanted to get back to the highway. She didn't have her backpack with her gun in it, and she couldn't use the gun either way because it would draw more walkers. The only things she had were her pocket knife and the hunting knife she had found in one of the cars.

It would be impossible to get the knife into the walkers' brains without sneaking up on them. Rosie was too short, she knew that. So she'd just have to use the element of surprise.

She ran ahead of Sophia and hid behind a tree, pulling out her pocket knife. She'd use her pocket knife first because it'd be harder to kill a walker with, and then she'd save the hunting knife for when she got winded. She tried to keep her heavy breathing quiet as she heard Sophia and the walkers approaching.

When Sophia ran past, Rosie gripped her knife tight and jumped out from behind the tree. She kicked in the first walker's legs before stabbing it in the eye. She sat on the walker's chest, trying hard to pull her pocket knife out of the thing's skull, but it wouldn't budge. She looked back to see the other walker quickly approaching, so she decided she'd give up on the knife.

Rosie ran forward again, hiding behind another tree. When the second walker ran past, she snuck out behind it and kicked the back of its knees, making it fall forward. She sunk the hunting knife into the back of its head.

Rosie sat on the walker's back for a minute, catching her breath, until she realized that Sophia was nowhere to be found. She must have kept running, even after Rosie killed the two walkers. Rosie knew that Sophia wasn't the same as her. She wouldn't survive out there on her own, and she probably wasn't paying attention when she ran; she wouldn't know how to get back. Once Rosie had that thought, she realized she wasn't paying attention when she ran either.

"Shit," Rosie whispered to herself as she stood up and spun around. She was surrounded by nothing but trees and bushes. She had no landmarks. God, she wished her dad would have taught her to track. He tried, once, but he got mad quickly and never tried to teach her again.

So, Rosie did the only think she could think to try; she started walking towards where she thought Sophia ran.