I opened my eyes as the R.V. came to a shaky stop, sending a jolt through my entire body. Sleeping has proven to be hard ever since this all started. The nightmares aren't like the nightmares I used to have before everything started, they're more vivid and way more terrifying, so I tried to avoid sleep as much as necessary. I lifted my head up to get a better view of my surroundings. Dale was sitting in the driver's seat with a grim look on his face with Glenn next to him. Andrea, Shane and T-Dog were all hovering over, looking out of the window, all mirroring Dale's face. I heard Dale say something to whom I presumed was Daryl because I heard his motorcycle drive away. Then the R.V. started again, so I sat upright to see what was going on, and I saw that we were on a highway that was smothered in cars, as if everyone just got up and left in the middle of a traffic jam.

"Can we get through here?" Glenn asked just as the R.V. made a loud bang and stopped moving. I stood up to join the others after wiping the sleep from my eye, I could barely see out of the window because all of the smoke that was coming out of the front bonnet was caressing the window shield. We heard car doors opening and shutting from behind us, meaning that Rick, Lori, Carol, Sophia and Carl have gotten out of their car. We started filing out of the R.V. one by one. The morning sun practically punched me in the face, mocking my sleepy eyes. Everyone was just standing around, unsure of what to do or think. Daryl turned off his motorcycle and hopped off, crossbow in hand. He stood next to me while everyone was bickering about the fact that we're in the middle of no where with a broken down R.V. Daryl turned around and started searching through the boot of the car that we were standing next to. I joined, thinking of all the things we could possibly find.

People must've noticed what me and Daryl were doing because some of them started murmuring, listing the things we could possibly find in all of these abandoned cars. "Maybe we could find some water" Carol said with her voice full of hope.

"This is a graveyard" Lori said. I turned around and saw her looking at me and Daryl with a disappointed look on her face. I looked around to see everyone else with either the same expression plastered on their face or looking down awkwardly.

"C'mon y'all, just look around and gather what you can. Adam, see if you can find anything useful" Shane told me, putting on his authoritative voice that he always uses to get people to do what he wanted. Asshole.

Me, Daryl and T-Dog went the furthest, T-Dog was collecting any spare fuel he could find from the abandoned cars while me and Daryl were looking for anything we could find that could be remotely useful. I opened the back seat door of a burgundy Chevrolet Silverado and found a backpack and two suitcases. The backpack had a couple of bottles of water, some chips and mouldy sandwiches which I presumed to be chicken mayo. I shoved the water and chips into my backpack and went onto the first suitcase. It was men's clothing, flannel shirts, plain tees, jeans. I kept a red and black flannel shirt for myself, tying it around my waist and bagged a plain white tee. The other suitcase was a woman's, so I just grabbed the whole thing so the girls could have their pick. I made my way over to the others near the R.V., suitcase in hand. I was just about to give the suitcase to Lori and Carol when Rick came running in a panic, half shouting half whispering for us to get underneath the cars. We all did as we were told, Lori and Carol were under one car, Rick under another, Carl and Sophia were both under separate cars but next to each other. I could hear the moans getting louder, I hugged my hunting rifle to my chest, getting pretty anxious. I shut my eyes closed as hard as I could, I'm not sure how long they were closed for but when I opened them there were rotting feet dragging past me. I could see Sophia panicking underneath her car. Keep it together, you'll get out okay is what I wanted to say to her. I looked at Rick and his eyes were shooting around everywhere, checking on Carl, checking on Sophia, checking on Lori and Carol, then his eyes met mine, you could see the utter panic in them, but all he did was give me a slight nod. I nodded back to make sure he knew I'd be okay. Say what you want about the guy, but cares so fucking much for everyone.

I couldn't stop thinking about how everyone else is. Did Andrea get away? Daryl? Glenn? I fucking hope so. My hands were hurting while I was gripping my rifle and my knuckles were white, but there was no way I was letting go.

After what felt like forever, the herd started to thin out and I let my death grip on my hunting rifle loosen, feeling an instant relief and finally I began to breathe. Sweat was practically pouring down my face when I realized the herd had gone now, but I guessed none of us thought it was safe enough to get out yet, so we just lay there looking at each other.

Then Sophia got out from under the car, but a straggler caught sight of her and chased her back under the car. Rick got out from under his car as fast as he could while the two walkers had chased her from under the other side of the car and into the woods. Rick ran after them as fast as he could while the rest of us got out from under the cars. Carol started screaming and chasing after them, but Lori covered her mouth and stopped her.

"Should we go after them?" I asked, a little out of breath from running after the two.

Glenn and Shane had joined and Shane said "Better wait it out, Rick will take care of her".

So we waited, and when Rick came back with no Sophia, Carol sobbed. I grabbed my hunting rifle, I wanted to go and look for this little girl.

Rick took Daryl, Shane, Glenn and I to the spot where he left Sophia so he could lead the two walkers off in another direction away from her. "You sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked as he was checking it out. I looked at where he'd left her, she would've been hidden under some tree roots at the side of a creek. It would've been the most awesome place for hide and seek.

"I left her right here, and I drew the walkers off in that direction" he said, pointing towards the other side of the creek. "She was gone by the time I got back".

Daryl found her trail pretty quick, so we went off in that direction. They headed right towards the highway until she suddenly stopped and headed a completely different way.

"She was doin' just fine 'til right here, all she had to do was keep goin'" Daryl said as he inspected her tracks.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her?" I asked.

"Walker?" Glenn suggested.

"I don't see any other foot prints"

"So we all pressin' on?" Shane asked, looking to Rick.

"You and Glenn go back up to the highway, people are gonna start panicking. Keep everyone calm, and let them know we're on her trail"

"I'll keep 'em busy. C'mon" He signalled for Glenn to follow him back up to the highway.

Daryl, Rick and I carried on following her trail. After 10 minutes, we heard rustling in the bushes and we all dropped to a crouch. Venturing further as quietly as we could, we found a lone walker. I ran around to get in front of it and whistled as loud as I could to get it's attention. It made this weird gargling noise just before Daryl shut it up with an arrow through the back of the head. It dropped to the ground with a large thud and Daryl pulled his arrow back out, blood squirting everywhere in the process. He shouted for Sophia, but there wasn't a response. She must not be close by. Rick got to his knees and started looking at the walker's fingers.

"What're you doin'?" I asked with a frown.

"I'm looking for skin under the fingernails" He said very matter-of-factly. He then proceeded to turn the walker over and check the inside of it's mouth. "It fed recently" he said, as he put his hand in and started pulling something out looking disgusted "there's flesh caught in it's teeth". Pulling it out, Daryl examined it and asked "Yeah, but what kind of flesh?".

"Only one way to know for sure" Rick answered, pulling out his knife from his belt.

"Okay, that's insane. You two do that while I'm over there, y'know, not dissectin' walkers" I said before I made my way away from them. I heard whoever it was dig their knife into the walker's stomach and drag it down and I shut my eyes, trying not to think about how gross this whole situation was.

After a few minutes of squelching noises and searching through guts sounds, they told me they had finished. It was a bloody mess when I made my way back over to them but I was glad I didn't have to see it. I may be a 17 years old, but I couldn't even dissect a frog back in high school.

So Sophia hasn't been found and hasn't been eaten as far as we know. Where the hell is this kid at? We had another little search but had to make our way back to the highway before it got dark.

When we got back, Carol was already waiting for us. She started panicking and crying, seeing that we didn't have Sophia with us. "You didn't find her?" She asked, probably not expecting an answer.

"Her trail went cold, we'll pick it up again at first light" Rick reassured her.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own. To spend the night alone in the woods" She was getting really panicky now.

"The darks no good, we'd just be tripping over ourselves" Daryl said as gently as I've ever heard him speak.

She started to get uncontrollably panicky, I decided to step past them and sit on a nearby car to wait for it to end. This day is taking it's toll on me and I've just began to feel it. I needed to be alone.

Carol was blaming Rick for losing Sophia, and when Rick walked past me, I could tell he blamed himself too. This was no one's fault, just the walkers. I decided I wouldn't be sleeping in the R.V. tonight, too crowded. Instead, I found a nearby car that was empty and didn't smell too bad. I got in and used my backpack as a pillow. As I lay there, staring at the dirty fabric on the roof of the car, I couldn't help but think about what Sophia was doing right now and if she was okay. But I couldn't think about that kind of stuff right now, so I rolled over and waited for the nightmares to come and get me.

The next morning, I started to get ready for our hunt. I made sure I was carrying my knives in my belt and strapped my hunting rifle around my back and tied my flannel shirt around my waist. We all went out this time, apart from Dale and T-Dog who stayed with the R.V.

"So what's your deal, man? What did you do before this shit storm?" I asked Glenn out of curiosity as the fallen leaves crunched under our feet as we walked through the trees.

"I was a pizza delivery guy. It sucked, but, I mean, I sometimes got free pizza" He shrugged.

"Are you serious? That really ain't what I was expectin'" I chuckled.

"Really? What was you expecting?" He asked with half a smile on his face.

I was about to reply when a church bell began chiming in the distance. We all stopped dead in our tracks and looked at each other. Rick pointed in the direction they were coming from and we all darted towards it. Sophia could be calling for help right now.

After a while of running, we got to the treeline of a church.

"That can't be it, got no steeple, no bells" Shane said as he observed the church.

"How many fuckin' churches do you think are out here?" I answered him back, annoyed at how idiotic he could be.

He gave me a stern look as we made our way to the front doors.

Rick and Daryl opened a door each, revealing the insides of the church. 3 walkers. 2 civilians and a bride. Damn, what a shitty wedding day.

"Let's get it over with" I mumbled as I made my way over to the bride. I saw that Daryl and Rick did the same with the other two. I heard swinging of a knife and an arrow reaching it's destination as I dug my knife in the bride's temple, ripping it out with a small struggle. The sound of three bodies hitting the ground echoed throughout the church, all of us stood there watching each other, unsure of what to say. I looked up to see J.C watching us. I'd probably feel like a piece of shit right now if I was religious and believed in the sort of stuff. We all jumped out of our skin when the church bells started ringing again, so we all raced outside to see that they were on a timer, so Glenn quickly shut it off. I saw Carol deflate, she nearly ran back inside, to pray I presume. I decided I didn't want to hear any of that, it would just make me feel worse. So I rest on the steps and wait for everyone to be done with this place. Daryl took as seat next to me after a few minutes, I presumed he felt the same way I do. "You not believe in that stuff?" He asked me.

"What stuff? Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Nah, man, the worlds gone too much to shit for any of that stuff to be true"

"I know what you're sayin'" he sighed "Carol still believes, we just gotta act like we do too, I guess. For her" he said as he stared off in the distance.

I nodded. Daryl was right. We needed to do everything we could to make Carol feel somewhat better.

We all gathered outside, trying to figure out what we'd do now.

"Shane and I will be going back out there, we gotta be thorough. Adam, you okay to come with?" Rick asked me.

"Of course, man"

"Okay then, the rest of you follow the creek back, we won't be too long". Rick and Lori agreed that Carl could come with. The kid doesn't know what he's getting himself into, but I guess there's no other way to find out. We made for our separate ways, and we were walking for around 10 minutes when we heard rustling not far away. Rick signaled for us to stop, and we slowly walked until with found the source. A buck was eating some grass not 20 feet away. We all stopped in our tracks, staring in awe. Shane aimed his rifle, but dropped it when he saw Carl making his away towards it. His hand was a few inches away from this innocent creature when a loud bang rang through the air and both the buck and Carl dropped to the floor.