— WHEN RICK HAD TO FLEE the prison with Carl by his side, he didn't want to leave without his two daughters, but seeing Judith's bloody death, and the vanished bus that Zoe was supposedly on, he truly had no choice in the matter, as he had to keep his son safe. As much as he wanted to stay behind and search non-stop for his two daughters, the whole place was overrun with walkers, and if they didn't get out when they did, they would have been dead, too.. Carl had been blaming Rick for Zoe and Judith's death, since the moment they fled the prison, claiming over and over again that it was down to him why they were both dead, continuously calling him names and pushing him, never giving up. They didn't know that Zoe never left the prison on the bus with the others, she had climbed out to look for her family and was run off the property by a group of walkers; they didn't know that she was trying to survive all alone, trying to get away from any danger that came her war, and more specifically, a group of men that had tried to take her, one that she had eventually killed.

Zoe thought that everyone could be dead — she had walked a far distance without running into anyone from the prison, on her travels down the road and in the woods; the girl didn't want to believe that everyone was either dead, or had walked in the complete opposite direction, but as time went on, it was hard to believe any different because of the evidence stacking up. Right now, the girl couldn't think of anything other than trying to get away from the group of men who may now be out for blood because she had killed one of their own, and they were probably looking for her, wanting revenge for what she had done.. When she first saw her father standing in the kitchen of one of the houses on the street, looking like he had been beaten nearly to the brink of death, the girl thought that she was hallucinating, especially since she had been hit, hard, it must be her imagination picturing her father because it was what she wanted to see most. Zoe had dreamt about finding some one from the prison, but finding her dad was just a bonus.

So, as the girl looked through the window at her father, her eyes began to swell, tears immediately beginning to fall as she couldn't believe her eyes, the thought that she was finally saved, and she would now be safe with the man by her side. Limping around the side of the house, Zoe found the front door, pausing as the girls hand shakily hovered over the door handle, her nerves getting the best of her as maybe she was imagining the whole thing, that she would walk into the house and find it completely empty, Rick nowhere in sight. Pushing her thoughts aside and turning the door handle, Zoe held her breath as she slowly walked in through the doorway and into the hall, her heart stopping at the sight before her, the girls father standing on the opposite side of the hallway like he was seeing a ghost. "Z-Zo?" The man stuttered, unable to come to terms with the fact that his daughter was standing right across from him, alive — but at the same time, he had been beaten to a pulp by The Governor, and he could be imagining the girl standing right before him.

Tears began to stream down Zoe's face the second her father made a sound; she hadn't expected to ever hear the sound of his voice again, at least, not in real life. "Are you really there?" She asked, wincing at how harsh her voice had sounded because of how harshly she had been strangled by the old man. Even Rick furrowed his brows in confusion at the sound of the girl, not liking the bruises forming around her eye and hand prints clearly forming on her neck where she had clearly been strangled, by whom, he had no idea.

Raising a shaky hand, Rick pointed a finger at her, "W-Who did that to you?" He asked, worry instantly forming in his gut as he looked over his daughter and saw how distraught and how injured she currently was. And at his words, Zoe couldn't hold in her tears anymore, feeling her heart completely shatter as it finally dawned on her, what had happened to her and what she had to do to get out of the situation to survive — she broke down, her legs giving out as she slid down the wall and landed on the floor as Rick didn't waste any time in rushing up to his daughter, forgetting about his own pain as Zoe was all that mattered to him. "I got you. I got you, Zo." He mumbled, bringing Zoe up and pulling her into his hold as the girl wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder.

Zoe missed the comfort of her father; she didn't know how long it had been since she had last seen him, and it felt like years since she had felt his hold, but feeling it now, felt amazing. The girl didn't know if her father would look at her any different if she tells him about what she did, and the fact that she had taken away another persons life, something that her father had always frowned upon — what if he hated her? But at the same time, she knew that she couldn't keep it all in, or it would literally eat her alive like the walkers that prey amongst them all. "I killed someone." She whispered, making Rick freeze at her words, knowing how hard it is to take your first life, and he hated that his daughter was having to go through it, and had to do it alone.

Rick gently grabbed the girls face, swiping his thumbs under her eyes as the tears fell down, his face dropped, his heart breaking at the sight of how broken the girl truly was. "Was this the same person who did this to you?" He asked softly, noting to her face and neck, the girl letting out another sob as she nodded weakly at his question. "Oh, sweetheart." Rick whispered, pulling the girl back into his chest and stroking her hair, hoping that it would bring her some comfort, but he wasn't Lori, and he couldn't comfort her in the same way the girls mother could. Zoe muttered the words 'I'm sorry' over and over again, hating how her dad may now thing different of her now that she had taken a life. "It wasn't your fault, you were protecting yourself." Her father informed her, as Zoe continuously shook her head at his words.

"I tried to get him off, I really did." Zoe admitted, leaning further into his hold as she hid her face, feeling ashamed of what she had done. Rick gathered what she meant by this, and instantly clenched his jaw in anger at what had happened to her — he didn't know how she had even gotten out of the prison alive, and how she had gotten off of the bus, but she did, and he couldn't be happier with the fact that she was now with him, and not alone without any help. As he hugged her tightly, her body shaking from her sobs, he looked towards with an almost deadly look, knowing that she was going to kill anyone who did something like that to her from now on, something he hadn't managed to do with The Governor — he wasn't going to let anything happen to her from this moment on, over his dead body.

It had taken a while for Zoe to calm down after she had broken down in the hallway, after letting it all out, she felt like she couldn't even breathe, and like she was going to die, but being in her fathers hold had ultimately helped calm her down, and as she sat on the kitchen counter with a bowl of cereal, the girl scoffing it down as she hadn't eaten properly since before leaving the prison. Rick watched with a worried look on his face, noticing how the girl had lost weight since when he last saw her, and he couldn't be more worried for her, annoyed at himself that he hadn't searched harder for anyone at the prison, and not only that, but it gave him some hope that maybe Judith was alive and out there somewhere.. "You say Carl's out with Michonne." Zoe stated, swallowing another mouthful as she looked up at her father, "But where's Judith, did they take her with them?" She asked, making Ricks heart completely stop.

The man instantly looked down at the ground upon his daughters question, his throat closing as he tried to keep the tears back as he just couldn't cry in front of his daughter, "She didn't make it, Zoe. I'm so sorry." He eventually spoke up quietly, his daughter instantly putting her bowl down and feeling her eyes swell up, "I don't know who else made it, either." He added, knowing that he didn't want to give her false hope about Nate, Daryl, Glenn of Maggie, either — he honestly had no clue on who made it and who didn't, and he hated that he couldn't protect the whole group against The Governor.

Zoe instantly began to cry again at the man's words,  of wanting to believe that her sister could be dead, the baby had barely grown, and she was already gone, she just couldn't believe it. Shakily sucking in a breath, Zoe choked out another sob, "No one survived, did they?" She asked, knowing that they had to face the truth. Rick didn't even know what to say to Zoe — he couldn't answer her question, because he truly didn't know the answer to it; there could be others out there, they just couldn't invest in the hood, or it would just end up being worse for them if no one did survive. His daughter had been through enough pain as it is, and all he could truly do, was hold her whilst she cried, staying strong for his little girl; the only daughter he had left..

"We aren't going to give up, we'll find them, I promise." Rick told her, his heart breaking as his daughter sobbed in his arms, her body shaking viciously as it truly dawned on her that everyone was spread out, and that they could be dead. Nate could be dead, as could Daryl, Maggie and Glenn, and that thought alone terrified Zoe, the fact that they had been living with these people for so long, surviving together, going through hell and back, and they were now spread out, with no way of finding each other. "We'll wait for your brother and Michonne to come back, and we'll think of a plan, okay?" He asked, pulling the girl back and holding her face in his hands, hating how broken she looked. He had never seen her look like this before, beaten and bloody, with no hope leftover — the men whom had attacked her, had truly taken away a part of her innocence, and he wanted to kill every single one of them for what they did to her; she hadn't spoken much about what happened to her before she found him, but she didn't even need to, because seeing her eye and neck was the only evidence Rick needed..