CHAPTER EIGHT
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THE KNIFE IN HER hand felt light, and she looked around at the others as Rick told them all to take a weapon. The search for Sophia was, as Rick had promised, an organized group effort. The sun was up again, beating down upon them as they made their plans.

     "These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea complained, looking between Rick and Shane. "What about the guns?"

     "Haven't we been over that?" Shane replied, looking at her with a tired expression. Explaining things more than once didn't seem to be a favorite thing of his. "Only Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

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

     Arden shifted the knife, trying to imagine herself killing a walker again. And then found herself not wanting to think about it at all. But she knew she'd have to do it again eventually.

     "Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, herd happens to be passin' by. See, then it's game over for all of us," Shane warned seriously, Andrea pursing her lips at the response. "So you need to get over it."

     Daryl quickly moved on from the small squabble in order to relay their plan. "The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side," he explained quickly. "Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."

     "Stay quiet. Stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other," Rick ordered, the ordeal weighing on him visibly.

     Arden busied herself with filling up her bag with a manageable amount of supplies and soon enough, after a small spat between Dale and Andrea, they were off.

     Single file was how they began the journey, Arden finding herself behind Carol and in front of Glenn. There was little chit chat, though that was to keep the walkers as far away as possible.

     Daryl was heading up the front of the group and he began to crouch defensively, signaling to everyone behind him to look up ahead. Arden could definitely tell that he was in his element here.

     A small camp was ahead, nothing moving around near the area. "She could be in there," Shane suggested, the place appearing safe for a lost child.

     "Could be a bunch of things in there," Daryl responded, slowly approaching with his crossbow at the ready. Arden tightened her grip on the knife in her hand, only imagining what horrible things could be waiting for them.

     Risk gestured for them to stay back while him and Shane moved forward with Daryl. After a few moments of Daryl checking out the tent, Rick beckoned for Carol to join them. Arden and the others followed cautiously nonetheless.

     "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear," Rick whispered, Carol nodding in understanding distress.

     "Sophia? Sweetie? Are you in there?" Carol called our gently, Daryl still waiting with his knife ready at the edge of the tent. "Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia? We're all here, baby. It's mommy."

     Slowly, Daryl unzipped the tent as Rick and Shane took a few steps closer. Daryl coughed at the smell that emitted from the tent, Carol watching on hopefully. Rick and Shane both coughed along while Daryl stepped inside of the tent, disappearing behind the flap.

     "Daryl? Daryl?" Carol called out, clearly scared because of the horrid smell. The man finally ducked out of the tent, shaking his head.

     "Ain't her," he finally revealed. Arden wasn't sure if that was good or bad. But watching Carol's distress, she was fairly determined to at least help someone. She could at least do that.

     "What's in there?" Andrea questioned.

     "Some guy. Did what Jenner said...opted out," Daryl responded as he loaded his crossbow casually. "Isn't that what he called it?"

      Suddenly, a shrill ringing emitted from the depths of the woods and they all began to sprint in the direction they believed the noise to be coming from.

     "What direction?" Rick asked, eyes darting between trees. He pointed ahead of them. "That way, I'm pretty sure."

     "Dang, it is hard to tell out here," Shane commented. Arden tried listening to the faint ringing, but couldn't really put a pinpoint on where it was coming from.

     "If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too," Carol said shakily, but hopeful regardless.

     "Someone's ringing those bells, calling others," Glenn pointed out.

     "It could mean they found her," Andrea added.

     "Or she could be ringing them herself. Come on, Rick urged, gesturing for everyone to follow him as he broke into a full fledged sprint.

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     A church was hidden amongst the trees, sitting almost peacefully, surrounded by graves. Arden forgot what old graveyards looked like now that she was constantly surrounded by the dead.

     "That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells," Shane pointed out immediately upon their arrival. Rick, however, paid little attention to this as he pressed forward silently. "Rick."

     They ran just behind him anyway and stopped briefly at the top of the steps, Rick putting a finger to his lips before busting through the doors.

     Three figures sat in the pews leading up to where a cross depicting a crucified Jesus stood at the other side of the building. The walkers turned around, thirsty groans emitting from their rotted teeth.

     Arden stopped short behind Rick and Lori handed him a rather large knife. Rick, Daryl, and Shane spread out amongst the pews and took out each walker in a bloody fashion.

     It seemed like that much blood wasn't meant to be spilled in a church. But there it was, happening anyway.

     Rick screamed Sophia's name and they quickly discovered that the bells were simply a speaker put to play on a timer.

     "I'm gonna go back in for a bit," Carol announced, everyone in the group utterly dejected. As everyone split off, Arden wandered over closer to the graves. And for some reason she really couldn't explain, she began to read them to herself in her head. Those people surely hadn't died because of the nightmare they were living, but she knew that some people never got graves.

     Her parents were religious. She remembered going to church nearly every Sunday but something with it never clicked for her. She supposed it was her interest in science, but she knew even scientists were religious too. But her parents were religious and they were dead.

     She stared at one grave in particular. The tombstone was a cross, the shape shadowed out onto the grass in front of it. It would be dark out soon. Tearing her eyes away, she found the group reevaluating under a tree.

     Shane approached, running a hand through his hair, telling them, "Y'all gotta follow the creekbed back. Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back. Search this area another hour, be thorough."

     Rick was at his side shortly, nodding his head in confirmation. "Splittin' us off? You sure?" Daryl questioned, looking toward the two men skeptically.

     "Yeah, we'll catch up to you," Shane assured. Arden stepped away and grabbed a water bottle from her bag, taking in a deep gulp before replacing it and readying her knife in her hands again. Rick and Lori exchanged quick goodbyes, laying down the rules for Carl to stay with Rick and Shane. Arden was a few paces ahead, waiting for the rest to catch up.

     Two days had passed already, and no sign of Sophia. She thought about that rule that it becomes harder to find someone after the first few days and after that the chances of them being found are next to zero. It seemed like that would apply even more now in the world they were living in.

     Evidently by the beginnings of their walk, everyone was tired and frustrated. Carol stopped and sat on a log with a sigh. "So this is it? This is the whole plan?" she questioned, looking between all of them in turn. Arden slowed to a stop between Glenn and Daryl to glance back at her.

     "Guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Daryl commented, leaning against a tree with his crossbow pointed down.

     "But how much ground can we really cover in this big of a group?" Arden pointed out with a shrug, looking down at her knife. It was still strange for her to feel as though she was part of the group, but she knew she had to try harder to connect.

     "Carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun," Andrea told Lori condescendingly, not impressed with the fact that she was yet to have a gun.

     "What you want it?" Lori asked without missing a beat, looking up from where she was rifling around in her bag. She stepped forward and held the gun out to Andrea expectantly. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're givin' me. All you."

     Andrea scoffed, which Arden felt was rude considering she had made so many scenes about the guns to begin with. "Honey, I cannot imagine what you are going through and I would do anything to stop it, but you have got to stop blaming Rick," Lori said to Carol quietly, looking her directly in the eye. "It is in your face every time you look at him. And when Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would've 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."

     Carol was quiet and no longer looked at Lori but instead kept her eyes steadily trained on the ground. "Anybody?" Lori pressed on, the subliminal dynamic of their group clearly having gotten to her.  Nobody responded. "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."

     A small silence fell upon them while Lori took a sip of water and replaced the bottle in her bag. Andrea quietly handed her the gun and let out quietly, "We should keep moving."