Hope for the Hopeless

I stood in a small pond that was almost knee-deep, as I searched the vicinity for Sophia. Rick claimed this is where he had left her when he attempted to steer the walkers off in the opposite direction, but Sophia was nowhere in sight.

"You sure this was the spot?" Daryl asked as he leaned over and scanned the inside of the small muddy cave.

"I swear, I left her right here," Rick was frazzled and annoyed, "She was gone by the time I got back here, I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder."

Daryl then walked over to the trail, yelling at Glenn to move in the process. At this point, no one knew what to do or where she could be. This was a large forest and Sophia has been gone for too long.

"Does she even know her left from her rights?" Shane shook his head.

"Shane, she understood me just fine," Rick snapped.

"Kids tired and scared man, gotta wonder how much of what you said stuck." They went back and forth.

"Okay enough," I cut them off, "let's just follow her trail and see where it leads us, it's possible she still headed back to the highway."

"I'm with Red," Daryl spoke, "I got footprints right here."

With that said we followed Daryl's lead. He was the best tracker out of all of us and honestly, he was probably our only hope at actually finding her. We followed it for a good while before Daryl stopped and knelt down.

"She was doing just fine until right here," he pointed, "she shoulda' kept going but she veered off in the opposite direction for some reason."

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked, rubbing his eyes in worry.

"Maybe she saw something, it spooked her, made her runoff," Shane suggested and I immediately blurted out 'walker' as the answer.

But Daryl shook his head no. "I don't see any other footprints, just hers..."

That left an ire feeling in everyone's stomach as we had no idea where Sophia ran off to, or why.

"So what now?" Shane questioned.

"We get back to the highway before dark, for now," Rick explained, "no need to get people more panicked than they already are."

Agreeing that it was our best option, we headed back. The walk there wasn't long, maybe ten minutes at the most, which made everyone quiet at the thought of how close Sophia was to safety. Upon the four of us walking up the hill to where the rest of the group had been dispersed around the RV, Carol jogged over to the ledge, gasping when she saw that Sophia wasn't with us.

"I can't deal with this," I whispered somewhat to myself and Glenn, as I shook my head. I couldn't handle the breakdown that was about to happen from the one person who really didn't deserve it.

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The night was rough, I didn't sleep for the majority of it, I couldn't. Between the cries coming from Carol and the twisting feeling in your stomach when thinking of Sophia going at it alone in the woods at night, the only option was for you to stare blankly until the sun rose again. Until we could head back out, hoping for the best, to find her and for her to be okay. But your mind spun in circles around the thought of her making it through the night on her own was unlikely.

Not being able to lay on the floor of the RV, wallowing in my own thoughts any longer, I got myself up. The plan today was to get a group of us out there looking for her, pretty much everyone except T-Dog and Dale was going. Stepping out of the RV my eyes immediately landed on Rick, I wasn't surprised that he was already up as well.

"Are we ready to go soon?" I walked up behind him, he was hunched over the trunk of a car, snooping through the bottom of the bag. My voice made him jump a tad at first but once he realized it was me he relaxed. He rested his hands on the floor of the trunk, exhaling while he held his head low.

"You think we will find her?" He asked, disregarding my own question.

I leaned up against the car, thinking about the question for a moment. I knew what he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear that we will find her and that everything will be okay and we can get a move on again, but that was bull. "Honestly," I sighed, "No I don't think we will. There's hope that everyone has that under some miracle she'll come running out of the bush or something," I admitted. "But Rick, she's been out there awfully long on her own."

He rubbed his eyes and stood himself up, nodding his head a bit at what I said. "I know, and we can't stay here forever."

He was frustrated and defeated by the situation at hand like most were. "All we can do now is to pray for the best," I rested my hand on his shoulder, comforting him the best I could. "I'll go get everyone up."

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We were about an hour into following Sophia's trail as best we could. Daryl led the pack as Rick let him take point with him being the best tracker and hunter out of all of us. Shane trailed at the back, keeping an eye out for anything that could possibly sneak up behind us. Right now I walked alongside Carl. He wasn't supposed to come along at first, but with so many of us out here, he had quite a few people that are able to keep an eye on him. We walked a little further, all of us quiet and following Daryl's lead until the faint sound of church bells caused us all to stop dead in our tracks.

"What direction?" Shane spoke up, everyone spun in circles trying to determine where they were coming from.

"I think that way, I'm pretty sure of it," Rick pointed to the right as we all began to pick up the pace, following the noise.

"If we hear them then maybe Sophia does too," Carol perked up, hopeful.

"Someone is ringing those bells, maybe calling others," Glenn commented.

"Or signaling they found her," Andrea said, everyone was beginning to get hopeful now.

"Hell, she could even be ringin' them herself," Rick stated before we all began a quick jog towards the noise.

In no more than five minutes we reached an opening in the trees where the church sat. It was a little white building with a small cemetery out the back. By now the bells had stopped and we made our way around to the front, staying close and ready to face what was inside. My hands shook at the thought of what lay beyond those doors. Would we find Sophia inside? Other people? Walkers? There was no way to know until we were already in there. Preparing ourselves, I took a deep breath and placed my hand on the left door handle. Daryl and Shane stood in front of the door, ready for Rick and I to swing them open.

On the count of three, Rick and I both swung open the doors, and Shane and Daryl raced in with us following shortly afterward. We weren't met with much, three walkers that stood between the benches were an easy handle for the four of us. I jogged over to the furthest walker, a woman staggering around in her white Sunday church dress. The walker reached out for me as I approached, but without a second thought, I slammed my crowbar down the middle of its head, dropping her to the floor and splattering the statue of Jesus behind her with blood.

I looked up at it for a moment, shaking my head. "Thank you for this," I said, staring the statue down, annoyed with this sick joke that is our lives now.

Just then the church bells began to go off again, scaring all of us as we stood inside and they were far louder now. Without a word spoken we collectively sprinted back out and around the side to see if anyone was there. I slowed my pace when I spotted a grey box attached to the wall. Glenn walked up to it, flinging the little box open before ripping out the main wire.

"It's on a fucking timer," Glenn turned around, all our shoulders dropped at the news. "No one has been here for a while," he stated.

Just as he said that there was a rustle from the bushes behind us. Everyone whipped around, their hands immediately attaching themselves to their weapons. I turned on my heel and raised my Glock, unsure of what I would see, but what I was met with made my heart drop. Everything happened so fast, I had to do a double-take, but as soon as the dark figure was there, it was gone. But I knew what I saw, I would recognize those piercing blue eyes anywhere.

"Roy! Wait, come back. Roy!" I screamed after my brother, following him into the woods, hoping that he would hear me. Then again, hope is a dangerous thing these days.