THE NEXT MORNING, THE GROUP ROUNDED UP TO COME UP WITH A PLAN TO SEARCH FOR THE GIRL,

Rick placed a cavalry on the hood of the truck that they gathered around, "Everybody takes a weapon." He stated,

Andrea shook her head, "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?"

Vivian and Marcie glanced at each other before they rolled their eyes. Andrea was pissed that Shane took her gun away. They needed training, especially her.

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane responded,

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

Shane pushed off from where he was leaning against the RV, "Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it."

Glenn nudged Marcie in her side, showing off his weapon he grabbed from its' sheathe, grinning at her.

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

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

"Everybody assemble your packs." Shane ordered and everyone got ready to leave,

"Stay safe." Vivian told Marcie as she adjusted Liam on her hip,

"You, too." Marcie turned her attention to the toddler, "You keep an eye out for T-Dog." She grinned, poking his belly, causing him to laugh,

"Dale, keep on those repairs. We've got to get this RV ready to move." Rick walked over to the older man,

"We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back." Dale told the sheriff,

Rick patted his son's shoulder, "Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone."

The boy stared up at his father, "I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible."

Rick looked over at his wife, "Your call. I can't always be the bad guy." She told him,

"Well," Vivian stepped in, wrapping her free arm around Carl, "he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands."

"Okay. Okay." Rick sighed, "But always within our sight, no exceptions." He told his son before walking away,

Carl grinned up at Vivian and she gave him a quick wink before Dale helped her into the RV. She set Liam on the seat at the table and gave him a few toys to play with. She sat across from him and stared out the window at the group heading towards the woods,

She wished she could go with them to find Sophia. But she didn't want to leave Liam behind, if anything would happen to him and she wasn't there? She'd never forgive herself.

Marcie gripped her hunting knife as the group tread through the woods. Daryl led, while Rick was right behind him. She walked beside Glenn, looking around for any sign of the girl.

The woods seemed untouched by the rest of the world. It made her understand why Daryl was away from the group so much, hunting. Why be apart of the drama when you could be in the woods, surrounded by silence?

Daryl crouched down low and signalled for everyone to stop moving. Marcie peered over his shoulder and spotted a bright yellow tent in a small clearing.

"She could be in there." Shane stated,

"Could be a whole buncha things in there." Daryl replied as he stood,

He, Rick, and Shane began to move towards the tent, while the rest stayed back in case there was something dangerous inside the tent. Daryl told the other two men to stay back as he got his knife out and approached the shelter. He moved around the tent, trying to get a peek inside. He shrugged back towards Rick, who then urged Carol to come over,

The others followed suit, "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?" Carol called out as Daryl stood by the door of the tent, knife raised, "Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy."

There was no movement or sound, so Daryl began to unzip the tent door slowly. When the door was opened, both Rick and Daryl covered their mouth and nose, as if the smell inside was revolting. Daryl went inside while the other two men began to react to the smell. Marcie glanced over at Glenn, who shrugged,

"Daryl?" Carol called out with panic lacing her voice, "Daryl?"

He stepped back out, "It ain't her."

"What's in there?" Andrea asked,

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out." He answered, putting his crossbow on his back, "Ain't that what he called it?" 

Marcie jumped slightly at the sound of bells ringing through the air. Church bells. 

They all took off towards the origin of the sound, hoping it was Sophia who was ringing the bells. Or, if she heard them, she could be running towards the sound, too.

The group ran into a clearing, littered with headstones. Yards away sat a white church. 

"That can't be it." Shane panted, "Got no steeple, no bells."

Rick led the group towards the church with no steeple, therefore there were no bells to ring. They ran around to the front and Rick, Daryl, and Shane went up to the red doors. Daryl and Rick opened the doors together and Marcie moved to get a look inside.

Three biters sat scattered amongst the pews. The dead turned towards them at the sound and Marcie shivered at the creepiness.

The men separated to take down their own biter as the other group members walked up the steps. Carol was behind Marcie, peeking around and searching for her daughter,

"Sophia!" Rick yelled, clinging onto hope that maybe she was hiding out nearby,

Shane ran his fingers through his hair, "I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple."

Coincidently, the bells rang once more. It was loud, making it clear that they were at the right church.

Daryl ran out first, pushing past everyone. Marcie and Glenn weren't far behind, running behind him as they turned the corner to see the speaker attached to the church. Glenn went to the intercom system and quickly turned it off to make sure it didn't attract any unwanted visitors,

"A timer." Daryl grunted as he paced, "It's on a timer."

 "I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol announced before heading towards the red doors.

Marcie watched her go inside before heading towards the tap and turning it. Water came sputtering out and she was grateful the church was hooked up to a well. She cupped the water into her hands and splashed it on her face, instantly feeling relief before she grabbed her bottle from her pack to fill up.

Glenn came over and let out a relieved sigh before moving his head under the tap. Once he moved, Marcie splashed him slightly and Glenn poured his water bottle over her head, "Glenn!"

Andrea came over, her blue eyes piercing them and the two shamefully wandered away, "What crawled up her butt and died?" Marcie mumbled and Glenn elbowed her in the ribs.

Once Andrea went off to speak with Shane and the others got their rest in the church, they gathered outside to come up with a plan B.

"Got to move here, man. These people are spent. There's only so many hours of daylight left. We still got a long way back." Shane told the sheriff,

"I can't stop yet." Rick responded,

Marcie felt bad for him. He felt so guilty for loosing Sophia, when in reality he was the only one who ran after her. It wasn't his fault. He didn't know she would run off, away from the highway.

"We still got a lot of ground to cover, whole other side of the creek bed. I say we search that on the way back." Shane replied,

"She would have heard those church bells. She could be nearby." Rick argued,

"She could be a lot of things."

"We could leave a sign for her? In case she comes here. Have her turn the bells back on to get our attention." Marcie offered,

 Rick nodded at her before they turned to see Shane's doubtful look, "I can't go back." Rick told him, "Her being out here is my fault."

"That's great. Now they got you doubting yourself, huh?" Shane smirked,

"What about you? You doubt me?" Rick asked his friend,

"Hey, we can assign all kinds of blame." He responded,

"Fighting right now is not what this group needs." Marcie stated, coming between the two men, "We have a little girl to find."

"This means something, finding her." Rick said, "It would be the miracle we need. We can't give up."

Shane shook his head, "Oh, man." He mumbled before walking back towards the group,

Rick turned to look at Marcie, "We're gonna find her, Rick." She told him before they went over to the others,

"Y'all gonna follow the Creek Bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane announced,

"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl asked,

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

Carl stepped forward, "I want to stay too. I'm her friend."

Rick and Shane shared a look before the sheriff looked over at his wife, asking for silent permission. Lori moved forward, "Just be careful, okay?"

The younger boy nodded, "I will."

"When did you start growing up?" Lori asked before wrapping her arms around her son. 

Marcie placed her thumbs in her waistband before sauntering away from Shane and standing next to Glenn as Rick and his wife said their goodbyes.

He took his python out of its' holster, "Here, take this. Remember how to use it?"

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Lori declined,

Daryl took a small gun out of his waistband, "Here, got a spare." He held it out to Lori, "Take it."

Marcie caught Andrea's eye roll and the brunette shook her head. Lori knew how to use a gun, her husband is a cop for christ's sake. And she's much more level headed than Andrea,

"How long before she makes a comment about the gun?" Marcie mumbled to Glenn as they made their way into the woods,

"I say at least an hour." He replied,

"Bet on the tub of Pringles I found on the highway?" Marcie asked,

"You got a deal. Um, one problem though, how are we gonna tell the time?" Glenn questioned,

"We'll figure it out." Marcie grinned at him,

They spread out slightly, some of them looking for signs of human movement while others were just wanting to be anywhere else.

Marcie didn't know exactly what she should be looking for, but she still kept an eye out, with a hand on the handle of her knife.

"So this is it? This the whole plan?" Carol questioned as she sat down on a log for a quick break,

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl mumbled,

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea spat,

"Here we go." Marcie whispered to Glenn,

Andrea turned her eyes to Lori, "I see you have a gun."

The mother reached into her waistband and grabbed the gun Daryl gave her, "Why, you want it?" She held it out for the blonde to take, "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me."

Marcie smirked as Andrea took it, her eyes glanced down as Lori stared hard at her. Lori sat down and looked over at 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. 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's right." Marcie said and everyone turned to look at her, "We're lucky we have him. He's a cop, he's trained to make those split second decisions. We just need to trust him."

"We should keep moving." Daryl stated before walking off,

"Wasn't Rick the one that led you into a walker-infested city?" Glenn asked her,

"Shut up."