Author's Note: Wow I am so sorry this has sort of been dead for awhile. I've been not only caught up with work but sort of iffy on this story after seeing recent episodes. But find I can't really be bothered to care too too much and this is sort of a bastard child of the comic, show, and game (at least on Glenn's part and slight hints). I still don't know how long this will be as I only have a short little while ahead planned so, we'll just see how it goes yes? I wrote this on and off over the span of several weeks, so it may have mistakes (I've read it over and over again trying to find any) but if you see any I apologize. And if they are particularly bad ones, feel free to message me and tell me I'm a boob for not noticing them!

Chapter 2: Heated Decisions.

Hot. It was hot out, an uncomfortable sort of hot that weighed in the air in an almost pliable state. In addition to his regular gear he never left home without was a canteen full of clean cool water courtesy of Hershel and family. Today was the day he felt in his gut, shifting on the spot and glancing back to the treeline impatiently—today was the day it just had to be and he wouldn't take anything else for an answer. Grudgingly joining Rick and Shane where they stood before one of the group vehicles, Shane's gloved hands planted firmly on the hood holding a map in place. If the heat of the hood bothered him in anyway, the officer didn't show it simply stood in place with a none too pleased expression on his tanned face. Soon, the three were joined by Glenn—the young man looking on curiously but, Daryl doubted he was coming along for the ride.

On the map were two x's in red, one marking off the lonely house he'd found in the woods and the other marking the ravine he'd fallen into and found the doll. "Okay." Rick began effectively drawing the attention of Glenn and Shane from the map and Daryl inched just a bit closer.

Merle was quiet, which on it's own said something. His older brother was many things, a man who loathed and enjoyed punching many other things but even he drew a line someplace. And one of his was at children, he wouldn't punch, kick, degrade or torment a child (unless his name is Daryl Dixon). That didn't mean the man was eager to begin the search—he in fact thought it was a load of bullshit and a big fat waste of their fuckin' time—but muttered insults aside he was quiet. "Narrowing down the search from what Daryl provided us with." Rick continued with a nod in his direction, Daryl stood just a bit straighter "Unless there's another house somewhere in here." he ran his hand over the air, likely scorching his hand something serious but not voicing it one bit "I think we will have to widen our radius to-" he frowned falling silent for a moment, in turn causing Glenn to frown.

"Hey Glenn?" Shane spoke adjusting the brim of his baseball cap "Mind grabbin' Hershel for us?"

Nodding with an obvious question on his lips the former delivery boy jogged off into the farmhouse leaving the trio to themselves. Daryl scratched at his jaw "What's up?" he asked, slightly miffed at the wavelength Rick and Shane seemed to be operating on.

Shane glanced to him, saying nothing which left Rick to do the explaining—Daryl preferred the taller man anyway. "Well, you said you found evidence of someone having spent time in this-" He planted his index finger on one of the two red x's "-house. A small someone, just around Sophia's size." he explained carefully.

Just barely refraining from rolling his eyes and scoffing at the obviousness of that statement, the huntsmen moved closer to the map and pegged their oh so esteemed leader with a pointed look which Rick ignored in favour of saying simply, "She's a kid."

"She's twelve." Daryl snorted folding his arms over his chest "Yer boy's twelve."

"Thirteen." Rick and Shane corrected him quickly, this time Daryl did roll his eyes "Whatever."

"My point is." the man started again in a stern voice—sounding eerily like something he would reserve for the dumb fools he met on his patrols—earning a sneer from Daryl and a chuckle from Merle who walked around the pair of former police officers with a extra few crude gestures.

"That a kid won't think to hide in a tree or...a cave, or anything like that." before Daryl could interrupt with his opinion on that "Not all of us were born in a cabin in the woods." Shane beat him to the punch.

"I weren't-"

"She'll be looking for a house." Rick cut in, ending whatever pissing contest his best friend and fellow Atlanta survivor would embark on.

Looking down at the map it spoke of certain landmarks—Daryl thought it might be a year or two out of date alongside meant for either camping or some sort of land development company. What it didn't show was other farms, even the mark on the thick paper indicating the house he'd found seemed to be more of an estimate than anything. An almost accurate estimate if he squinted at it just right but it was close enough to get the point across which was to narrow down the search radius. Hershel arrived shortly after, expression both wary and curious as he rolled his sleeves down—absently he wondered what the old man had been up to.

"Yes Rick?" he questioned softly stopping beside the truck.

"Hershel hey." Neither Shane nor Daryl greeted their host and neither made any indication to start a conversation, Glenn evidently had held some sort of conversation or another—chatty bastard he was—and had stuffed his hands in his pockets well he rocked back on the heels of his sneakers.

"Sorry to drag you out here into the heat, but I just wanted to get your input on-"

"His input? Hoo boy baby brother, ya hear that?" Merle looked back and forth between the officers and Hershel with an amused chortle "I betcha he ain't got nothin' useful to say. Dumbass fuck sittin' out here twiddlin' his thumbs with his pretty little farmer's daughter well everyone else gets royally fucked."

Daryl grunted in response to Merle's words, eyeing the farmer through narrowed eyes. So caught up in listening to what Merle had to say he hadn't caught the rest of what Rick had to say. Mentally floundering as Hershel accepted the red marker offered to him and stared at the map for a stretch of time. What could he possibly be marking? Darly wanted to question, but knew that would give away that he hadn't bothered to listen in the first place. He didn't much care for any of this planning nonsense when he could be out there right now, living it.

Hershel added three more marks to the map, each a considerable stretch away from one and other and wrote in a surprisingly neat and compact manner beside each mark—and added his writing next to the house that Daryl had found earlier. "There are more certainly." the man capped the marker once again and held it back out to Rick who accepted it and tucked it into the pocket of his button up shirt "This right here-" he indicated to the first house marking, next to which he marked 'Cottage' "-belonged to Madeline and Jacob." he spoke "They had it up here for almost ten years, cottage of theirs. Moved up here for permanent residence about two years back."

Having not seen a sign of a single walker in the area, Daryl frowned. But remembering the open doors—and he never did quite get around to checking the second story. "Good people...good people..." the doctor trailed off, quickly shaking himself a moment later before moving to one of the other marks further out.

About a day's journey from them by foot (including breaks for food, rest, and the like), the mark was surrounded by an outline which he took to be the vague outline of the property line. "Donna and Ted—poultry farm." he shifted uncomfortably, it looked to be a relatively small farm "Haven't...heard from them in a long...long while."

He tapped on the location with one finger a moment more before dragging it across to the next one—relatively close to the second laying on a larger stretch of land than any of the others. "Orchard." he tilted his head, leaning a bit closer "Family of five lived here. Oldest came down when...the news footage started playing. Isolated out here..." he raised his head "I haven't heard from them in awhile either, I keep meaning to go out there and see them—been there as long as I remember well Donna and Ted bought their farm up from a Marcella Joy—Joy Farms—about sixteen years back."

Mapping over the stretch of land of each farm, he pretended not to notice Merle's presence as the man leaned in close to eye the map with minimal interest. "They also had horses, about four of them by my last count and I do believe one cow—they'd been looking into expanding from various fruits and vegetables into dairy." a pause "Or was it a goat...?" running a hand through his hair before shaking his head "Doesn't matter, point being that their land was very large. More than once they were approached by some city boy lookin' to buy up their land and start up another development with a scenic country vibe and view." the brisk tone he spoke this in was tinged with disgust—evident what he thought of this.

Stretching up farther he reached a hand out, motioning for the marker again which was soon pressed in allowing Hershel to make three smaller marks on the map spread out between the three large ones and one more in the heavily forested area Daryl felt at home in. "These are simple country homes." he flicked his gaze back to Rick, balancing the marker in his hand uncapped still "One is a small ranch, just starting up—was only finished being put together about a year back." he capped the marker.

"What about this one?" Shane questioned tapping a gloved digit on the farthest farm which looked a good two or even three days—maybe longer depending on what they met along the way.

If they had a car he reckoned it would only be about three hour drive away (on a normal day without walkers, traffic pile ups, and other road blocks).

Merle's bike could take him through easily. "Gettin' yer mitts all over it huh?" Merle raised one brow "Better get it all cleaned up after yer done baby brother, who knows what sort o' mess ya' smeared all over it with those hands o' yers."

"St. Johns Dairy farm." Hershel supplied with a frown.

"Large property, they also have vegetables, a small orchard and about half a dozen chickens or so. Friendly folk, I do believe she's a widow but her two boys moved back in after they finished their schooling up in the city."

"Hey!" Glenn interrupted pushing his way forward and planting his hands on the hood of the car only to withdraw them with a hiss.

"Hay is for horses son." Hershel remarked idly attention pulled from the map and onto the man.

Glenn snorted in amusement but reached out to motion a distance away from 's with his index finger. "I know people here."

Silence.

"What?" Rick asked turning to face him fully.

Snatching the marker from Hershel, Glenn pulled the cap off and scrawled in an untidy manner several hours away from 's he marked: MOTEL.

Shane frowned, taking the marker back and tapping the end against the untidy block letters courtesy of Glenn. "Yeah...yeah...dive of a place, stayed there once or twice myself." he capped the marker tossing it back to Rick before standing straight and resting his hands on his hips.

"These people of yours..." Rick started, Glenn shook his head quickly "Knew them before I came to Atlanta." he spoke quickly.

"Thought you said you were from the city?" Rick said not missing a beat in change of topic, Glenn pursed his lips "No. I mean, yes I spent a lot of time there—did a lot of deliveries out there you know?" he scratched at the back of his neck absently "But I don't know what or if anything happened to them...maybe they would have...maybe she'd..." he trailed off helplessly motioning to the map.

Daryl knew where this was going and did not like it one bit.

It was an awfully long walk.

Merle laughed loudly. "You call THAT a walk? Ohhhh boy baby brother that ain't nothin'."

The younger Dixon had walked farther of course, not through walker infested territory of course but he wasn't about to back down from the possibility. "We'll think about it." Rick started.

"Think about it?" Shane asked incredulously, brows high in surprise "You an' I both know-"

"No," Rick held up one hand, Merle mimicked him crudely over one shoulder.

"We'll check these houses—here and here." The man tapped his finger against two different 'X's nearby "If she was in that place-'
"She was." Daryl interrupted quickly, jaw set and stare daring anyone to say differently.

"Either way being—she'd still look for shelter and right now?" he taps those places again "These are out best shots."

Daryl adjusted the strap of his crossbow. "Great. I'll gear up, pack up some supplies an' be back in a few days." he started to turn away, Rick's voice interrupted the motion.

"No."

"No?" he pivoted back around to face the man "Whattaya mean no?!"

"You know what I mean Daryl—you're not even fully healed yet. We need you to take some time well he make teams, set up contact and inform the group what's going to happen." the man explained calmly stepping forward to hold Daryl's gaze.

The huntsman sniffed and looked away "Whatever man. Ya' do that. Me? I'm goin' out there. We ain't got time fer this." he moved away suddenly then and started off at a brisk pace for his tent, Merle hooting gleefully as he followed behind his baby brother with ten different kinds of suggestions about what exactly they had time for regarding Officer Friendly.