Sophia, stay here. We will come back everyday.

Sharp neon blue eyes peered down at the writing on the dirty car's windshield for a moment before skimming it in lieu of checking out the stuff left behind. Bottled waters, a large gatorade, some canned foods and a can opener.

Huffing quietly, she let her eyes drift around the scattered vehicles lining the highway then back to the camper and a few other vehicles where she could literally feel the wary yet curious gazes of others boring into her.

She supposed that she couldn't blame them any.

After all between her torn and blood stained clothing, the large parka that she was wearing to protect her from suffering from a serious case of sun burn underneath the sweltering Georgian sun- and the hood pulled up over her head, hiding her features- she must look like a real creeper to them.

A real frigging freak. She thought to herself with a slight quirk of her pale lips as she scanned the small note again and then sighed and slipped the pack that she was carrying on her from her shoulder and set it down next to the canned food and dug out a few extra provisions just in case...Sophia needed them once she was found.

She set a few protein bars down, a couple of extra bottled waters, and a small first aid kit down next to the rest of the stuff and took a moment to check the kit and make sure that it was equipped with pain meds, antibiotics, alcohol swabs, unused syringes, anti venoms for snakes and spiders, as well as some stuff to stop excessive bleeding.

She dug out some extra bandages and stuff too and stuffed them inside of the kit and then sighed again as she shut it. And slipped it over by the canned foods and used a finger to write out, Sophia, if you come by and you're hurt...there's a first aid kit for you to use. It has princess band aids and everything. Just... Hang on, okay.

She didn't bother signing her name since whoever Sophia was didn't know her any. But she did sign her little dirt note with her Soul Reaper code name, Guardian. Though she was fairly certain that Sophia likely wouldn't care much about who she was any.

So once she finished up repacking some of the stuff that she'd pulled out to restock the first aid kit and give whoever Sophia was some extra food- she pulled the pack back up onto her shoulder and then started to leave when one of her observers decided to finally show himself.

"Wait!" He called out as she started to move away from the car. She paused for a moment and turned her head to look at him.

He was an elderly man. Probably in his sixties or so from the looks of him. He wasn't very tall, or well built. In fact he looked almost...fragile to her. But then most people usually did given how insanely durable and just plain unkillable she was compared to pretty much everyone else.

"W-Wait please." The man said as he nearly doubled over wheezing. She had to resist the urge to reach out and grasp his arm and move him to sit down somewhere. However she was just a little bit puzzled by the fact that the poor guy seemed to be so winded by...three steps, and ten feet?

What the hell? She wondered to herself as the old man took a moment to catch his breath and then scanned the stuff that she'd decided to leave behind along with her portion of the small note in the dirt underneath someone- maybe one of his groups- own and frowned a little bit until he saw what she'd signed her note with.

"Guardian? Is that what you call yourself?" She didn't answer him verbally. But she did tilt her head a little bit in an inquisitive manner. "And you left some stuff for Sophia too."

He looked like he wanted to tell her thank you but stopped for a moment to rethink his words as he looked her over. Obviously taking note of the blood and stuff on her clothing before then asking her, "Are you injured?"

She didn't bother to confirm nor deny the fact that she was hurt.

She'd had a pretty rough time of things recently and had some bruised ribs, a broken wrist, a fractured collarbone and some really bad gnashes, cuts and a few other things to show for it. Some of which she'd had to set, stitch, and medicate herself for because she hadn't been able to move around much.

It had all hurt like a bitch.

But she'd had far, far worse before so she didn't bother to complain. It wasn't as if she were with anyone who could listen to her bitching anyways.

She felt the old man's hand lightly touch her bruised ribs and held herself perfectly still even as a small hiss of discomfort left her lips. The man flinched a little bit at the sound and quickly pulled his hand away from her side and muttered an apologetic, "Sorry." Before then saying, "W-Would you like to stay here and rest a while? I mean, we aren't much of a group- number wise anyways. Survivors are getting harder and harder to come by nowadays... But I doubt anyone will mind overly much if you sit and rest a bit. Maybe you could even join us once our leader gets back and meets you..."

He sounded both a little bit desperate and hopeful at the same time. And after doing a cursory scan of him, and then the woman and kid that were now standing several feet back behind him, it was easy to see why. He wasn't in the best shape to be taking on any undead. Much less anything with a pulse.

The woman could put up a bit of a fight either way since she seemed to be in fair health- but would ultimately get herself killed trying to protect him and the kid.

She took a moment to weigh the pro's and con's before making her decision and then nodded her head curtly. The man smiled at her. Like full on beamed as if she'd just handed him a priceless treasure or something and then motioned for her to follow him back to the others.

"So do you have an actual name that we can call you?" He asked curiously once they reached the others back at the camper. She nodded but couldn't really respond otherwise to tell him. Her throat had been damaged a while back and was still in the process of healing. And on top of that she didn't really know how to do sign language.

So when he looked at her expectantly all she could do to let him know that she couldn't talk was to lift a hand and move the fabric of her parka aside to show him her throat. The scar was no doubt enough to keep him from thinking too badly of her.

Though she did notice the brief flash of concern and then something else- anger maybe? that flitted across his face before he sighed and then said. "I have a note pad if you want to use it to communicate." It was a sweet offer. Really it was.

But with the world falling apart like it was, she didn't exactly have time to sit down and write everybody frigging notes. It took more time than was necessary. And mere seconds could often mean the difference between life and death.

When he received no answer good nor bad from her, he must have caught on to what she was thinking because he merely gave her a small nod of his head in understanding and then said. "Okay, we'll just call you Guard for now. Okay?"

She nodded her head and watched him shuffle over to the woman and the kid and talk to them both for a second before the woman hesitantly walked over and knelt down. "Hi, G-Guard. Um, Dale says that you're injured? Do you mind if I check you?"

She sat there as the woman whom introduced herself to her as Laurie checked her over while her son, Carl, hovered protectively several steps behind his mom.

"Well, you're definitely hurt alright." Laurie said after a few moments of contemplative silence.

"Bruised ribs, a broken wrist- some of those cuts and gnashes look pretty painful too. But at least none of them are infected. Your ribs and wrist are both a problem though. Especially considering that you've been moving around instead of staying still and giving them time to actually heal." She said as she sat back on her heels with a sigh right around the time her son blurted out.

"Are you a boy or a girl?"

Laurie made a weird choking sound and stared at her for a second in mortification before finally turning her head to look at her son, wide eyed and growled out. "Carl!"

"What?" The boy said in a defensive tone as he pointed to her. "It's a legitimate question. Especially since I can't tell one way or another. Can you tell mom?"

Laurie floundered for a moment and looked at her again, this time taking note of various things. She was wearing oversized and baggy clothing to prevent herself from being immediately noticed as a girl. However her lithe and athletic build tended to work against her some.

But while she may not have an over abundance of boob to work with, she wasn't exactly flat either. And tended to bind her chest to seem more boy-ish. Which worked in many cases when coupled with her height.

Her face though...tended to give her away more often than not.

Though she could easily pass for a really pretty boy- she was far too attractive to maintain that belief for very long. All it took was someone intelligent and keen sighted enough to look closer and she would be outed.

"I'm thinking he's a boy." Carl said thoughtfully.

Laurie scoffed at him and muttered, "You just keep thinking that."

The boy grinned at her in a mischievous manner. "What? It would be nice to have a few more guys around, ya know. After all, we have to take care of you girls."

Laurie rolled her eyes and said, "You'll have to forgive my son. He was adopted by a sexist wolf. And said wolf needs to have someone give him a firm smack to the snout to remind him of the manners that his mama worked so hard to drill into his head."

Her shoulders shook a little bit in silent mirth as the old man, Dale? Came clamoring back out of the camper looking somewhat paincked as he called out. "Laurie! T-Dog's fever is getting worse!"

"I'm coming!" She called back as she started to get up to go and help when she felt her wrist snagged by Guard's hand and paused.

He/She pointed to the camper and tilted his/her head in a questioning manner that left her confused for a moment before Carl said, "I think he's asking what's wrong with T-Dog."

"I think you may be right," Laurie said before then tacking on. "He's got an infected cut. He's feverish, nauseous, dizzy-"

"He has the beginnings of blood poisoning." Dale said as he looked at Guardian. "He needs antibiotics bad."

Without indicating what her intention was, she stood up and grabbed her bag and headed towards the door of the camper. Vaguely hearing Laurie and Carl calling out to Dale about her broken wrist as she brushed by him and quickly entered the camper before he could stop her.

There were two other people in it, she noted immediately as she moved towards the back.

The camper wasn't as big as some of the luxury campers that she'd seen before. So it was literally a straight shot from the door to the back where she could see two people.

One was a slender woman with grey-white hair in an incredibly short pixie cut. She could hear her sniffling as she moved towards her. And a few inches away, she could see a heavy set dark skinned man lying on the bed.

Pausing for a second just in the door, she wondered if she needed to announce herself when she heard the guy rasp out, "W-Who are you?"

Well, never mind then. She thought as the woman twisted around to look at her. Probably expecting Dale or one of the others to be behind her. The two of them looked at each other for a second before the woman was on her feet and starting to open her mouth to scream- which was a very bad idea given the fact that the undead could easily find them all if she did.

So she did the only thing that she could think of to keep the woman quiet...she put her hand over her mouth and made a silent hushing sign by putting her index finger to her mouth to indicate that she needed to be quiet and then slowly moved her hand away from her mouth to test and see if she was going to scream.

She was pleased to see that the woman got the message and stayed quiet as Dale poked his head into the small room. "Carol," He said in a slight wheeze. The woman looked at him anxiously. "Sorry, I didn't get the chance to tell you two about Guardian. I call him Guard for short. But he has meds and stuff and might be able to help T-Dog from getting worse."

The second that her small hand was totally removed from...Carol's? mouth, the woman got a much less anxious look and simply nodded her head in understanding and then shuffled around her to move out of the way.

Once Carol was out of the way, she moved closer to the bed to check the man's injury and damned near jumped out of her skin when he gave her a loopy little smile- because of his deliria- and loudly asked, "Did you come to get me? Cause you must be an angel."

She blinked at him, uncertain how to react to his words since they were just a little bit embarrassing. However because she neither confirmed nor denied being anything remotely angelic, the guy just kept talking. "You're the prettiest little thing that I've ever seen." He said with a small giggle as she cast him a weird look as she reached for the arm that had the dried blood on it.

Once she had the wrapping peeled away and managed to inspect it a little bit, she turned to Dale and motioned for something to write with.

He must have been psychic or something, because he held up a note pad and a pen and gave her a small smile as she rolled her eyes and took the items from him and started to write out a list of instructions. If they could even manage to scrounge around for even half the stuff that she mentioned in her list- then T-Dog would be in much better health in no time.

Once that was done, she scanned it and listed a few alternatives that would work just as well as the original items and then handed the list to the man as she slipped her bag from her shoulder again and then opened it and started to pull out what meds she still had left. While Dale showed the list to the others and they all scrambled to get what she had written down.

Over the next few minutes she managed to clean the wound better than it had already been, and gave the man something for pain as well as to reduce his fever. After that, she gave him some seriously awesome antibiotics that Kisuke had given her a while back, and then took the stuff that the others had managed to scrape together and made something to pull the toxins out of the wound.

Any left over was put into an empty and clean medium sized jar that she had to be used again later.

Just in case.

Once she finished up, she started to clean the small area of anything that needed to be carefully disposed of. Like the syringes that she'd used to administer the meds, the dirty alcohol swabs and stuff.

"You know a bit about treating injuries, huh." Dale's voice caused her to look up from her task for a moment. It wasn't a question. Not really. And yet at the same time it was.

Almost as if he were looking for some kind of confirmation.

She didn't rise to his bait though. It was simpler to let him draw his own conclusions anyways. Besides, it wasn't as if he were wrong. Between her dad and Kisuke's hellish training, she knew far more about medical stuff than she felt her brain could ever contain in a hundred lifetimes.

Thank god she's left home otherwise her head might have actually exploded from the excess knowledge. Still...she couldn't deny that it hadn't been useful to her at present.

Stupid dad and Kisuke. Stupid hindsight... If she could have grumbled about it that would be what she said. However since she couldn't speak- all she could do right then was think it. Really, really loudly.

Collecting the small pile of used and dirty items, she picked her bag up and shouldered it again and then turned to go and dispose of the stuff and nearly ran into Dale in the process. The blasted man hadn't moved an inch. He just stood there, staring her down as in a weird parody of an intimidating manner.

He was about as intimidating to her as a bunny slipper. And she made sure that he knew it too by staring him down in a similar manner.

He actually squirmed and backed slowly away from the door, and she grinned. Ha! I win. She thought as she moved along the camper, brushing by the old man as she made her way back outside. Not a moment too soon either. She could hear a bunch of people bickering and crap as they made their way out of the darkening woods.

There were four men, and one very upset looking blond woman.

The men noticed her right away, even from the slight distance. Whereas the woman was so upset that she probably had trouble seeing straight, so she wound up walking right by her without noticing her at all.

She watched the woman walk right by her and heard Dale asking her what was wrong as the men finally reached the rest of them and eyed her warily.

"Who the hell is this?" One guy asked in a southern drawl. He didn't sound nice at all. And she got a dark feeling from him that made her skin crawl while the other three men just looked at her oddly as Carl came running up to them.

"Dad, Shane, Glenn, Daryl! That's Guard- he's new! Dale found him walking along the highway. He started to walk on by after he left some stuff for Sophia after he saw the note on the car window!" The boy said excitedly as the person that she assumed was the boy's dad knelt down and wrapped his arms around him and hugged him while the others took turns ruffling his hair.

"Is that so?" The man holding the boy asked, his tone a little bit curious and wary at the same time. Carl nodded his head enthusiastically and then pointed to the extra stuff that had been laid out along with the canned food that they had put out for Sophia.

The three men checked out the new stuff that had been added to their own, and seemed to take a special interest in the first aid kit and the little note that she'd left behind.

She got a weird sinking feeling right about then as they turned to look at her again.

"You left this stuff?" One guy, the one with a heavy accent and the crossbow asked.

"Guardian?" Carl's dad said with a small frown as he curiously opened the first aid kit and started to go through it as the other guys shuffled a little bit closer to him so that they could see what all had been left out for the little girl that they'd lost.

"Jesus, this has more meds than a pharmacy." One guy muttered in either awe or disbelief. While another let out a low whistle.

Carl's dad finally finished going through the first aid kit and then carefully put everything back and closed it again as he looked at her again. "Your name is Guardian?" He asked this time sounding just a little bit intrigued. She hesitated for a moment as Laurie came walking up and said.

"He can't talk Rick. Dale said that he has a throat injury that prevents him from speaking."

Something akin to sympathy flashed across the man's face. Not just his either. The korean guy in the cap and the guy with the crossbow both looked sympathetic as well. Though they hid it easier than...Rick did.

"He can't talk?" Rick asked in stunned disbelief. He couldn't imagine being out and not be able to call for help if he needed it. In fact the thought of someone being alone- being surrounded by walkers and unable to cry out if they needed to was downright terrifying to him.

Laurie shook her head no and the man literally cringed. "Sorry. I..uh...w-wasn't trying to-"

She huffed and lifted a hand to wave his apology off. He didn't offend her and he certainly hadn't hurt her feelings any. Rick seemed a little bit less distressed once he realized that she wasn't bothered by his blunder any and gave her a small smile before then looking around as if he were searching the area for something.

She didn't know what the hell he was looking for. She couldn't really sense anything threatening in the immediate area any. Even the undead had wandered off a ways, deciding to steer clear of her for the time being.

"I-Is he alone?" Rick asked curiously. "I mean, wasn't he with a group or something? Or did he get separated from them by the herd of walkers?"

"I-I don't know." Laurie said as she glanced at her. "To be honest, none of us has even bothered to ask him much."

"You didn't bother to ask him?!" The guy that gave her the creeps practically shouted at the woman, rage lighting up his expression as he started to walk towards the two of them.

She reacted to the man as a threat out of instinct and pushed Laurie behind her in an effort to keep the him away from her. The man noticed the move and his steps faltered for a moment as he looked from her to Laurie as if he'd just been punched in the gut.

Giving Rick the chance to move forward and step between them as he asked, "Were you part of a group, Guardian?" She shook her head no and he let out a small angry hissing sound in response before asking her, "Is it okay if I come closer? I ain't going to hurt you or anything. I promise."

She stared him down for a moment or so before then looking at Laurie and getting a nod of assurance from the woman. She nodded and watched him like a hawk as he moved closer to her and then stopped just outside of her reach.

"So you aren't part of a group?" He asked again. She shook her head no and he sighed before then asking, "How old are you? Cause you seem young to me."

She held up one finger on one hand and four on the other and watched his eyes widen in stupefied disbelief before one of the others behind him growled out. "Fourteen! You're fourteen and not part of a group?! What the hell?!"

She didn't know what the hell the problem was. So she was fourteen and alone. So what?

It wasn't as if she'd never been alone before at even younger ages. Hell, she technically moved out of the house when she was twelve and only went back home to visit or if she was utterly starving to death. So naturally hearing someone carrying on about her age was pissing her off.

So she flipped Mr. Growly off.

Rick's stupefied expression vanished and he let out a choked sounding laugh at seeing her flip Daryl off. The man grumbled something about 'sassy, disrespectful mute kids' and then crossed his arms over his chest and fell silent.

It was at this point where Laurie gently put her hand on her shoulder before she asked, "Is it okay if you lose the hood, hon? We need to see your face."

She hesitated for a heartbeat or so, not wanting to show her face to them but understanding that if she got herself into some sort of situation it would be easy for someone to steal her parka and sneak up on them and cause trouble. Sighing, she reached up and hooked her fingers around the fabric of the hood and then slowly started to draw it back.

Letting the hood drop away, she stood there and let them see her face.

She heard one of the guys mutter a shocked sounding, "Holy shit." While the others simply made a collective hissing sound.

"Y-You're a girl?" Laurie asked, taking in her features. She didn't even bother to confirm or deny the question. There was no point in doing so when they could see her very clearly in the waning light.

To be honest, their friend T-Dog hadn't been terribly far from the mark with his 'angel' comment. Her dad, sisters and even a few of her friends back home had said the same thing, or at least something similar to it on more than one occasion. And to be frank, she really hated being told how pretty she was. Especially by others.

It made her feel more like meat than a person.

Sort of like how she was being stared at at the moment by all of them. So annoying, pick your tongues up off of the ground and say something already. She thought to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at them in an irked manner.

Thankfully, Laurie was the first to snap out her funk and realize that she was uncomfortable with the staring and was nice enough to tug her hood back up over her head with a nervous/apologetic looking smile. "Sorry hon. I don't think any of us were expecting the next Miss Universe to be hiding underneath that hood."

She scrunched her nose up in disgust at the title, though she doubted that any of them could see the action any as Rick finally shook himself out of his shocked state and asked, "How long have you been alone out here?"

She looked back at him and huffed as she thought over his question for a moment and then reached out and wrote on the dirty car window next to her.

A year and a half.

The adults all frowned at the answer since the outbreak that ended the world as they knew it had only happened eight months ago.

"W-What were you doing out here alone for that long?" Laurie asked curiously.

She reached out and wrote out, A little bit of this and that. Visiting, camping, training.

"What about your family? Are they still...alive? Aren't they worried?"

My dad's dead. My two sisters are being taken care of by a friend who's busy taking in survivors.

"What about your mom? Isn't she worried?"

She was killed when I was eight.

"I don't see any weapons on you... How do you handle running into walkers?"

Don't need them. I snap their necks and just move on.

Rick looked at her in stunned disbelief. Though he supposed that it was the one way to deal with walkers that the girl had. After all, walkers were dangerous. And without a weapon, she had to fight them somehow otherwise she'd be dead already.

"One last question and then we'll stop asking you stuff for tonight... What is your name? It doesn't exactly seem right to call you Guardian or Guard. Even if both are just nicknames."

Ichigo. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki.

Rick nodded his head as tried the name out to see if he could pronounce it right as Glenn said with a giggle, "Your name means strawberry!" And a split second later let out a loud yelp as one of the kid's shoes slammed into the side of his face with enough force to send him sprawling to the ground on his ass.

"Damn girl! Were you a pro baseball player before all this? That's one hell of a fucking curve ball!" Daryl drawled out in awe/amusement as Glenn rubbed at his sore nose and glared at the girl.

Rick merely snorted and shook his head. As Laurie stifled a laugh behind her hands before Rick finally said, "I can see that your a keeper. Welcome to the group Ichigo."