“Did you find her?” Carol asked the moment Rick Grimes returned, hope and fear fighting across her face.
Rick lowered his eyes, guilt settling heavily over him as he reached into his pocket.
“We didn’t find Sophia.
We only found this.” He held out a torn piece of fabric, and Carol recognized it immediately as part of the pants Sophia had been wearing when she disappeared.
Carol stared at the scrap as though her mind refused to accept what her eyes were telling her.
Only hours earlier, Sophia had been beside her with that doll tucked against her chest, and Carol still had fresh clothes in her bag that Glenn had scavenged for her daughter.
Her legs suddenly gave out, forcing the others to catch her before she hit the ground.
The warm light of the setting sun seemed almost cruel against the grief spreading through the group.
“Carol, listen to me,” Rick said quickly.
“We found a walker near where the fabric was torn, but it didn’t get Sophia.” T-Dog looked over sharply.
“How can you know that?” Rick exchanged a glance with Shane Walsh before answering.
“We checked the body.”
Shane’s hand brushed the knife at his belt as he nodded grimly.
They had cut open the walker’s stomach and found no sign that it had recently fed on a child, giving them at least one reason to believe Sophia had escaped.
It wasn’t proof that she was safe, but it was better than the alternative.
Rick crouched near Carol and tried to keep his voice steady.
“It’s getting dark,” he said.
“If we keep moving through those woods now, somebody could get lost or shoot one of our own by mistake.
We’ll start searching again as soon as there’s light.”
“How could you?”
Carol’s voice cracked through the group.
She looked at Rick with red, swollen eyes, anger briefly overcoming the fear in her face.
“How could you leave her alone out there?” The strength behind the accusation disappeared almost immediately, replaced by helpless grief.
Rick could only stand there and accept it.
Lori tightened both hands around Carl’s shoulders, while Dale watched Carol with a pained expression and slowly shook his head.
Nobody had a good answer for her.
Rick had made the best decision he could with walkers closing in, but that didn’t change the fact that Sophia was now missing somewhere in the woods.
“I’m sorry,” Rick said quietly.
“We’re going to find her.
I promise.”
No one argued, but the mood around the highway camp remained heavy.
Everyone understood how dangerous it was for a young girl to be alone after dark, especially one as frightened and inexperienced as Sophia.
Even without anyone saying it aloud, the same terrible possibility was hanging over all of them.
Carol simply stared into the trees and clutched the torn fabric against her chest.
Several miles away, Magnus Vane drove the newly acquired fire engine west with Sophia sitting safely in the passenger seat, her doll held tightly in her lap.
They had made good progress toward Hershel’s farm when Magnus suddenly slowed and brought the heavy truck to a stop.
Two thick tree trunks had been dragged across the road, completely blocking the only practical route forward.
Magnus looked at the crude roadblock and laughed under his breath.
“Seriously?”
He didn’t need much imagination to guess who had set it up.
Magnus rolled down the driver’s window and leaned out slightly to inspect the roadside.
A moment later, the cold barrel of a rifle touched the back of his head.
Magnus didn’t even turn around.
“Merle, you do realize this thing has mirrors, right?”
A rough laugh immediately came from behind him.
Merle Dixon lowered the rifle and stepped around to the driver’s side with an enormous grin.
He slapped the fire engine’s door twice and looked Magnus over.
“Two damn days, man.
You disappear without a word, and my baby brother starts thinking some walker finally chewed your ass up.”
“Daryl thought I was dead?”
Magnus raised an eyebrow.
That didn’t sound like Daryl.
Daryl was more likely to curse him for disappearing and then quietly go looking for whatever had killed him.
Magnus glanced at Merle’s suspiciously cheerful expression and snorted.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
Merle opened his mouth to argue, but Magnus leaned back and gestured toward the passenger seat.
“Forget that.
Look who I found.”
Sophia cautiously leaned toward the window.
“Hi, Merle.”
Merle blinked.
Then his face twisted as though being called anything remotely affectionate personally offended him.
“Don’t you start calling me Uncle Merle or some crap like that.” His voice was rough, but Magnus noticed he had immediately lowered the rifle and stepped farther away from the truck.
With the Dixon brothers, that was practically tenderness.
Merle and Magnus moved the fallen trunks far enough aside for the fire engine to pass.
Before they continued, Merle opened the passenger door, helped Sophia into the rear crew cab, and secured his repainted motorcycle to the back of the truck.
Then, without asking permission, he climbed into the front passenger seat and settled in comfortably.
Magnus stared at him in complete silence.
Merle noticed.
“What?”
Magnus kept staring.
“Drive the damn truck,” Merle said.
“Why’re you looking at me like I’m your date?”
Magnus glanced toward the rear seat where Sophia was sitting.
“A little less Merle around the kid.”
Merle rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut.
The fire engine rumbled back onto the road and continued toward Hershel’s farm.
Magnus still wasn’t completely comfortable handling something that large, so he kept his speed reasonable instead of treating it like the SUV.
By the time the farmhouse appeared in the distance, night had already settled across the surrounding fields.
Only the lights from the Greene house clearly stood out in the darkness.
The diesel engine announced their arrival long before they reached camp.
Daryl and Andrea rushed toward the noise with weapons ready, Daryl’s crossbow already raised toward the cab while Andrea kept her handgun trained nearby.
Neither lowered their weapon until the headlights went dark and Magnus stepped down beside Merle.
Daryl’s shoulders visibly relaxed.
Then his expression hardened.
“Fuck you.”
Magnus paused.
Daryl pointed the crossbow toward him like an accusation.
“Two days.
You don’t come back, don’t send word, nothing.
Merle thought you were dead.”
Magnus slowly looked at Merle.
Merle immediately looked away.
“So now both of you are blaming each other?”
Neither Dixon answered.
Magnus shook his head.
“I’m fine.
Better than fine, actually.” He opened the rear door of the fire engine.
“And I brought somebody back.”
Sophia appeared behind him.
Daryl’s expression changed immediately.
“Sophia?”
He stepped closer, brow tightening as he looked around the truck as though expecting Carol and the rest of Rick’s group to emerge next.
“Where’s your mom?” The question came out harder than he intended, and Sophia instinctively grabbed a handful of Magnus’s shirt.
“We got separated,” she whispered.
Magnus gave Daryl a look.
“Easy.
She’s been through enough.”
Daryl’s jaw tightened.
“Where’d you find her?
And where the hell are Rick and the others?
Sophia being here by herself ain’t exactly good news.” His irritation had turned into genuine concern because if the group had somehow lost track of Carol’s daughter, something serious might have happened.
Magnus picked Sophia up rather than making her stand through the questioning.
“They’re alive as far as I know,” Magnus said.
“Rick hid her when walkers came after them, Sophia panicked and left the hiding place, and they got separated.
I found her in the woods before a walker could reach her.” He started toward camp with Sophia in one arm.
“I didn’t know the area well enough to track Rick’s group in the dark, so bringing her somewhere safe was the smarter move.”
Magnus set Sophia on a crude stool near the campfire and poured some warm meat broth from the pot.
She accepted it with both hands and immediately began drinking, still keeping her doll pressed against her side.
Daryl followed Magnus over, clearly not satisfied yet.
“You think Rick’ll find us?”
“Unless something completely changes their route, yeah.” Magnus glanced toward the road.
“Give them a day or two.”
The fire engine had attracted more attention than just Daryl and Andrea.
Hershel came from the farmhouse wearing a jacket over his clothes, followed by Maggie, Beth, Otis, Patricia, and several others who were still awake.
He studied the enormous red truck, then looked at Magnus as though deciding which question to ask first.
In the end, he chose the simplest one.
“Magnus?”
Magnus turned.
Hershel stared at him for another second.
“I thought you were dead.”
Magnus closed his eyes.
First Merle.
Then Daryl.
Now Hershel.
He slowly looked up at the night sky and sighed.
“Does everybody around here have to greet me like that?”
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