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Her pink Converse landed on the dusty ground as Elodie carefully hopped out of the RV, taking a quick look around at the highway they were currently stranded on. The RV had broken down after a couple of days on the road, aimlessly driving around in an attempt to reach Fort Benning. The midday sun beat down on the abandoned road, casting long shadows across the cracked asphalt.

Everywhere she looked, there were abandoned cars. Some were overturned, their tires deflated and windows shattered, while others sat eerily still, as if waiting for their owners to return. Belongings were strewn around, scattered across the road. The smell of decay entered her nose once again, making her wrinkle it up in disgust. She could see the faint outlines of bodies lazily slumped against the dusted windows of the cars, shadowed by the sun.

Elodie thought back to the day everything happened, how she, her mother, and Jamie had been stuck on the highway just like they were now. Only this time, it was quieter. There were no horns blasting, no crying and yelling people, no panicked families. No bombs. They were alone this time.

Jamie had been annoying that day, though Elodie scolded herself for thinking that. She still didn't understand why he acted the way he did. If her mother had forced him to dump her flowers, would she have forced him to do everything else he did? Nothing had been cleared up at all. The only thing Elodie knew was that Jamie didn't hate her as much as she thought he did and that her mother was the one behind the flowers. It was stupid. So stupid.

She wished she could just ask him. She wished she could just talk to him again, even if it was just for a minute. But that was impossible. She would never see him again.

Stop it!

Hands flew to her head, delivering a hit or two before she grumbled to herself, shaking her head as she wandered off to the cars. She noticed everyone splitting up and heading further down the road, a few of them digging through the cars. She needed to distract herself, so she decided to just do what everyone else was doing.

She wandered over to the nearest car and pressed the side of her hand against the window, cupping it over her eyes as she peeked inside. It was completely empty, so she figured it was safe to open the door.

Tugging at the handle, she furrowed her eyebrows when it didn't open as smoothly as she thought it would. She pulled again, placing a foot against the car to give herself a bit more strength before the car door suddenly flew open, sending her flying backward.

She yelped and held on tightly to the handle, ensuring she wouldn't fall over. Pulling herself back up straight, she kicked the door once in annoyance before placing her knee on the soft carseat, climbing inside of the musty-smelling car.

Inside the car, Elodie immediately scrunched her nose in distaste as she saw the now-stale and almost-rotten food lying around in the back of the car, annoying flies buzzing about and picking at the leftovers. The dashboard was littered with empty wrappers, broken pens, and even a cap. The colors had long faded after exposure to the sun for so long, but it looked cool anyway, so Elodie placed it on top of her head.

Sadly, it didn't fit because it was too big and fell in front of her eyes right away. She took it off, checking the back of it. She knew you could adjust the sizes, but she was confused as to how she was supposed to do that on this cap. It had a strap that had been pulled through a metal ring. Elodie pulled at the elastic strap, frowning when it didn't do anything. She huffed and tossed it back on the dashboard, disappointed in the stupid way to adjust the size.

Rummaging through the glove compartment first, she found a few loose papers and an old pair of sunglasses, but nothing particularly useful. She inspected the sunglasses for a moment, placing them on her face for a small moment but quickly taking them off after they just slid down her nose. Why was everything so big on her? She couldn't find any cool things that way! She tossed everything aside with a huff and moved on to the middle console.

As Elodie rummaged through the middle console, her fingers brushed against a stack of small cards tucked away in a corner. Curious, she pulled them out one by one, her eyes widening in surprise at what she found.

Each card was decorated with cool drawings and playful doodles, along with simple phrases written in bold letters. Some cards said things like "hello" and "please," while others were a bit more blunt, with phrases like "shut the fuck up" and "fuck you."

Elodie couldn't help but giggle at all the cards. Who would have thought to carry around a collection of such silly cards? She flipped through them, a smile tugging at her lip at the various drawings and messages.

Then, one card caught her eye. It had the name "Kasper" written on it in neat handwriting, there was a drawing of a blonde boy holding a frog, with bees buzzing around him on it. She wondered why the owner of these cards had them. Maybe they didn't really like talking, Elodie thought. Or, maybe they couldn't hear as well, just like her.

She shrugged, holding the card up to eye-level. It didn't really matter to her what the cards were for. She just knew she really liked the person who made them because the drawings were really cool.

She flipped to the next card, grinning at the sight of another cartoon-style drawing of a girl with red hair and obvious sunglasses. Underneath the doodle was written: 'Indie, AKA the best person ever'. Elodie liked the name Indie, it was really pretty. Though maybe she just thought that because hers and Indie's name both ended in '-die'.

Her amusement grew when she flipped to the next card again, the name 'Agnes' written underneath a drawing of a smaller girl wearing a robe with blue and gray stripes. She was holding a wand in her hand, and she looked really happy.

Elodie carefully arranged the cards with the names-Kasper, Indie, and Agnes-on the passenger seat, making sure they were placed neatly and wouldn't slide off. Then, she tucked the remaining cards with the phrases into her back pocket, deciding to keep them.

With a satisfied smile, Elodie exited the car, clutching the stack of cards in her pocket. She had wanted to show them to Daryl, thinking he might find them amusing too. But as she looked around, she realized that everyone was gone. Panic gripped her chest as she scanned the area, searching for any sign of where everyone had suddenly gone.

She furrowed her brows as she slammed the car door shut, a little harder than intended, and took another look around. The roads were empty, no one to be seen. How could everyone have disappeared so quickly? Her heart pounded in her chest as she scanned the deserted road, her mind racing with possibilities. Had they been ambushed by walkers? Had something gone terribly wrong? They didn't drive off, because the RV was still there.

"Hello?" she called out, trying not to be too loud. She turned in her spot, fear coursing through her veins as she fiddled with the skin on her fingers. Her voice wobbled as she said, "Where'd ya go?"

Her shoes shuffled over the road as she carefully started to walk further, eyes darting from car to car. She didn't understand; where had everyone gone?

The wind rustled through her hair as she checked inside every car, only to find rotten bodies instead of living ones. She tugged harder at the skin of her fingers, feeling more terrified by the second.

What if she was really alone now? What if they all decided she was just too difficult to put up with and decided to leave her there? They probably thought she was too much of a burden, especially Daryl, as he had been forced to drag her out of the CDC. Maybe he regretted doing that, maybe they all regretted even keeping her with them.

She whipped around when she saw a shadow on the ground that was way bigger than she was, coming face to face with a walker. She yelped and almost fell backward in her attempt to back away, eyes widening in fear. She could feel the hot breath of the walker on her face, its decaying hands clawing at the air as it reached for her. She took one look behind it only to let out a terrified whimper when she saw dozens of other walkers emerging from right behind it.

WIth one quick turn, she bolted, her feet pounding against the pavement as she ran away from the walker. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, her heart pounding in her chest as she pushed herself to run faster, faster, faster.

She darted between abandoned cars, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she searched desperately for somewhere to hide. Panic surged through her veins, propelling her forward as she ducked behind a nearby vehicle, pressing her back against its cold metal frame.

She snapped her head to the right at yet another shadow of a stumbling walker around the corner of the car, causing her to slam a hand over her mouth to muffle her whimper. Pressing her other hand against the car, she used it to steady herself as she stayed in a crouched position and slowly stepped backward, eyes glued to the shadow drawing closer.

Lifting one foot up, she placed it behind the other, repeating the movement until she was back around to the side of the car, away from the walker about to stagger around the corner. She turned her head, only to find more walkers coming.

Suddenly, a hand shot out from behind a car to her left and grabbed her wrist, yanking her roughly to the ground. Elodie let out a startled cry as she was pulled under the car, her heart racing with fear.

"Shh, quiet!" a voice hissed urgently, and Elodie's heart leaped into her throat. She squirmed under the person's grasp before realising she knew exactly who it was.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Rick clasped his hand around her mouth, shaking his head. "Stay quiet," Rick whispered, his grip firm but reassuring. "We're hidin'. Walkers."

Elodie nodded shakily, freezing up under Rick's arm that he had pulled over her when she saw the dozens-no, hundreds-maybe even thousands of walker feet staggering past the car. She quickly turned her head away, making eye contact with Carl under the car on the other side. Sophia lay next to him, looking far more terrified than he was. Carl almost looked calm, but maybe that was because he was looking at his dad. Looking at her mom would make Elodie feel more calm right now, too.

Closing her eyes, she squeezed them shut to try to block out the smell of the walkers, most of all. She could hear them only vaguely, so that was a relief. She wanted to hit her head, scold herself for being so stupid and not paying attention to everyone and staying out of their eyesight. But she couldn't due to how tightly Rick's arm was laid over her back, keeping her close to him.

If she hadn't climbed into that stupid car, everyone would still be able to see her, would've been able to warn her. Instead, Rick had to get out of his hiding spot to save her. Another person risking their lives for a stupid, useless, hearing-impaired girl. She didn't even hear that walker coming up behind her. If she hadn't seen its shadow, she'd be dead.

A tiny poke to her side made her flinch, opening her eyes to see no more feet dragging themselves forward. Rick removed his arm from around Elodie, carefully peeking out from under the car. He slid himself back under, looking at Elodie and giving her a tiny nod; It was over.

Though, it wasn't. They both snapped their heads around at a yelp coming from Sophia, who was desperately shuffling out from under the car she was hiding under, away from the walker that had lowered itself to the ground and was now reaching for her ankles. Her yelps turned into desperate cries as she pushed herself out from under the car and darted toward the woods.

"Stay right here," Rick breathed as he quickly slid out from under the car and bolted towards the tree line, right after two walkers that had gone after Sophia.

Elodie's heart pounded in her chest as she clumsily shuffled over the dirty road to get out from under the car when she saw multiple living feet running past. She stood up once she was out from her hiding spot and joined everyone in running to the tree line, panic-stricken as she tried to look through the vegetation.

"There's two walkers after my baby!" Carol cried, being held back by Lori, who wrapped her arms around the woman.

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After a few minutes of waiting by the roadside for Rick's return, Elodie found it impossible to remain still. She paced back and forth, her hands nervously fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. Her eyes darted from the ground to the treeline every few seconds, only making her more nervous.

She really, really hoped Sophia was okay. She was the first person to genuinely be nice to her in a long, long time. Though, there had been one other girl, a few years younger, but she was nice nonetheless. She remembered her name, despite only having played with her for one or two times; Eleanor. They had gone to a fun playground together, but Eleanor had sprained her ankle and hadn't been at school for a few days after that. Because she was so nice, she made up for it by hanging out with Elodie. But her father had come to pick her up earlier, which confused Elodie. She never saw her again after that.

Elodie wished she could meet someone else like Eleanor someday. Perhaps she already had, because Sophia reminded her of her. Sophia made sure Elodie felt included and didn't judge her. When Jamie had mocked her hearing aids, Sophia had defended her, saying it wasn't something to be embarrassed about. She was kind like that.

Carl, too. Elodie thought he probably liked hanging out with her because he willingly sat next to her and drew with her at the CDC. They played hide and seek together with Sophia, and Carl appeared to have fun. So Elodie believed she had met people like Eleanor, people who were kind to her.

But now Sophia was lost somewhere in the woods, being chased by two walkers. Elodie desperately hoped that Rick would find her and keep her safe. She didn't want Sophia to get hurt.

A tap on her shoulder made her flinch and whirl around, meeting Daryl's gaze.

"Stop pacin'. You're makin' everybody more nervous, kid," he advised, nodding toward a car behind them.

"Sorry," Elodie mumbled, walking over to the car and perching herself on the hood. She sat there, occasionally kicking her feet against the vehicle as she stared at the woods, squinting as if it would help her see better. She didn't want to miss it if Sophia ran past.

"They'll be back soon," Daryl assured her, moving to stand next to her and leaning against the car.

Elodie nodded, keeping her gaze fixed on the trees. "'Kay."

Everyone waited at the side of the highway, half expecting Rick to come out in just a minute with Sophia by his side. Instead, they waited there for hours, until the sun was starting to go down. Only then did Rick come back out, his white shirt splattered with blood and his entire lower body soaking wet. The look on his face was scared, tense. He didn't say anything, despite Carol basically pleading at his feet. Instead, he gestured for Daryl and Shane to come with.

He didn't find her.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Soul Silence and Eleanor mention?!?!?!?!?!

(by @superluvsick and @glenns-eyeball) heart heart love u

also sorry this chapter was kinda short but I don't really know what to do with it sooooooo.....