Ch.64

Rick agreed to search around a bit and I left, telling Darryl since he volunteered to search downstream and be careful of the walker horde. He agreed and we split up while Carl, Shane and Rick ended up in the area and checking around the woods near the church. The rest headed back to the road and searched in case she doubled back. I doubled back after ten miles up stream and heard the gunshot that hit Carl.

I found the others and sat down with a canteen of water after thirty minutes. Carol asked and I shook my head. "She's not up stream and there aren't any tracks this side if the river so if Daryl doesn't find her downstream then she's in the farmlands unless you all have luck with her doubling back since I checked."

They shook their heads and I got up, passing Amy the canteen. "I'll go see what Darryl's found and we'll go from there. You all should meet up with Rick. I think they headed north west from the church so start there. We'll meet back up at the cars in an hour if you don't find anything. If you do or we do we'll meet up sooner hopefully."

They agreed and I headed off to meet up with Daryl, finding he'd found Sophia's doll, but no Sophia. I grimaced and checked around, telling him I couldn't find anything more. He agreed unfortunately and we searched the area, killing the walkers around there before we headed back to the group at the cars when we circled the area and found nothing. I crashed after Daryl gave Carol her daughter's doll, telling her where we found it and that there were no tracks from there, but with that as a starting point tomorrow could be the day we find her.

I grabbed a shower and got some food before getting some sleep for once Amy and Andrea slept beside me when they got tired. I'd been their stress relief for both of them since there weren't any strings and in a world where the strong survive, they were holding onto the strongest together. I'd never had them together of course, but one at a time made them comfortable enough to sleep together in the same bed as me. The fact that my reinforced titanium sliding bedroom door locked from the inside helped them relax even more.

Daryl and Carol slept in the front with the door locked since Dale had his own RV and the rest were at the farm. I listened to Carol cry for half the night until Dale and Carol left. Andrea couldn't sleep so we grabbed a shower and spent some time relieving stress. I made sure the door was locked since Carol was atop Dale's camper with him.

Andrea went to sleep with her stress relieved as it were a bit later. Amy needed it next and once they were both asleep, sleep finally found me as well. The next morning we headed up to the farm and met up with the others after leaving a sign and some supplies. At the farm, we got a map and I met the Greene family including Hershel.

When he gave us a detailed map of the area, I marked the places and ground we'd covered, marking the walker hordes and telling them they were death sentences if we go near them. I marked where Daryl found the doll and we planned a search grid from there. Rick wanted to join, but he was weak from giving three pints of blood. I told Daryl. "I take these three grids, mark the trees in the grids blue. You take red and these two grids here. Andrea, you stick with him and work together. Use the crossbows and stay quiet as you move. Once these grids are checked we'll mark them and meet back here in three hours to expand the search area."

They nodded and Amy asked if she could go with me. I shook my head. "I move faster alone and without distractions. If we were going to town I'd take you along but we're looking for a little girl and you aren't exactly trained to shoot yet."

Shane said they needed to get on that and Hershel said he didn't want us armed on his property. He said he'd gone so far without turning it into a military camp and he'd like to prevent that from happening now. I didn't much care since I'd be off their land soon. I left right after that and Rick asked us to keep them informed.

I ran on foot with my sword strapped to my back and a loaded crossbow in my hands. I moved fast for a human but slow for me and marked the grids, killing the walkers as I went and getting damned close to the horde, killing dozens in the area before marking and heading out. I killed three deer while I was searching and carried them back to camp, gutting, skinning and cleaning the meat before cutting them up, putting some on ice and the rest in the fridge for later. What remained I divided up and told Rick to have them cooked and shared with the Greene's for dinner.

Daryl and Andrea returned and I marked the grids before expanding them. "Daryl, I want you to take these two, Andrea, you here and I'll take these. If we don't find her there then we'll try the farms and anything remotely in the area. After that we'll come to it when we get there."

I turned to Rick. "I'd like you to send a couple people to the road to check the supplies and see if there are any signs that she'd doubled back through there. They don't have to stay, but we can't keep combing the same area on the off chance she went back there. A simple search would do."

He agreed and I rubbed my neck before he mentioned the well and needing someone to go into it to get the walker out. I shrugged. "I'll be there in a minute. Have you all been waiting long?"

He sighed. "We were going to ask Glenn, but you being the fearless one and strong enough to manhandle Ed seemed like the best option."

I grunted and followed him to the well before shaking my head. "Your plan won't work. It's bloated and mostly water by now. The moment it gets to the edge it's own weight will rip it in half. It's simple physics. The well's ruined either way-"

He said he'd like to at least try so I sighed. "Get me a chain, not a rope."

He got a chain and padlock like I asked and I was lowered with a rope behind the fat walker. It tried to reach for me and I shoved it against the wall, tying it wit the chains like a diaper. Once the padlock was in place, I had them pull me up and when I reached the top, I straddled the well and growled, lifting the chain alone and pulling the fat fuck up.

My shirt tore as I used muscles I hadn't needed in a while and I ripped it off to get it out of the way. At six-foot seven inches tall, I was a well proportioned and massively strong human. When the walker was nearly out, I stepped to behind it and continued to lift while they picked up the slack. The walker barely made it out and onto the ground before it tore in half and it's feet fell into the well.

It's blobby body split apart like soup that had a chunky rib cage and head atop with flailing arms. It was sickening to see and yet the damned thing wouldn't die from it. I dodged the mess and smell, telling Rick as I shoved the chains in his hands. "I'm grabbing a shower and getting back to looking for Sophia. Next time I say it won't work, maybe you'll rethink dismissing my words."

I left it to them and showered with Amy before heading out. I found no traces of Sophia and I searched damned hard hoping against hope. Once all my grids were marked, I came back near five in the afternoon, tired of looking for a girl I knew now wasn't out there. Daryl and Andrea were back already and I shook my head, marking off the area plus five farms.

I told Rick. "I'm done."

I turned to Carol, Daryl and the rest. "I've searched most of the farms and all the grids Daryl and Andrea hadn't searched themselves. If they haven't found her then she's not in the area anymore and there's no way in hell I'm flipping a coin and searching a cardinal direction at random across Georgia for her."

I turned to Carol and stated bluntly. "She's either gone or apart of a walker horde by now and unless you want to waste the arsenal we have mowing down walkers at random, I can't help you. I've got things to do and I'm not driving myself mad searching places we've already been for a girl that isn't there anymore."

Daryl got in my face and Rick pulled him back with Shane's help. Carol said it was fine, that I'd done more than enough. I told her I wished her luck and the best, but I wasn't about to kill myself looking for someone whose not there to be found. I went to working on my RV, washing my clothes and cooking the deer meat when it was time.

Andrea said she was done as well after having gone over the farms with Daryl for most of the remainder of the day. Rick had them searching all day the next day for Sophia, going over the area with a fine tooth comb. The fact is we knew where her trail ended and there was no way to tell where it picked up again. In the meantime I worked on the RV, reinforcing it, replacing most of it except the chastity with Vibranium and the chastity itself was proto-adamantium.

It took a lot of work doing it piece by piece, but it kept the others from seeing the changes. When I wasn't doing that or chores, I was crafting circular saw blades and making a rechargeable solar powered arc reactor. The sixty cals were wired into the roof with an auto targeting system. The saw blades retracted into the sides and back of the RV while the front had a massive razor sharp grill and pyramid tip bulldozer head on it.

The razor sharp blades retracted into the grill to be activated so no one could get hurt accidentally. As for the fifty cals, they were mounted and retractable into the sides and back at head leave with swivel capabilities. All of them were fully loaded and shut down for now. The best part was the bottom undercarriage was smooth except indents where spikes shoot into the ground three feet all around the sides, front and back of the bus to prevent walkers from getting underneath, raising the RV a bit and making a grid where the floor retracts for those needing protection can get in and out or simply blow the knees off nearby walkers and kill the ones the blades drop.

I made no bones about the death machine on steroids and even had to use Vibranium, nanites and a special near concrete rubber to improve the tires. My RV was a monster though the only negative feature one could tell about it for sure was the scoop on the front for now. The rest retracted into the roof, sides or floor of it. The others had seen me working on the blades and taking the weapons, but the weapons truck was mine after all so even Rick couldn't say much besides asking about it.

I'd simply told him I minored know creative engineering and I'd planned to build a spaceship back in college someday to see the stars, but it seems I was applying my masters degree in a different way, modifying my RV. He asked if I thought it was necessary and I told him indifferently. "The farm has no real defenses. The walkers are moving further and further away from the major cities and that means they're amassing in larger hordes as well. Now, unlike you I'm not content to sit here and search for a girl we both know isn't out there or not alive at least."

He went to speak and I held up a hand. "Don't get me wrong, it keeps them busy, gives them hope and it'd be a true miracle if you can find her alive. I get it and I don't mind, but I'm not like them Rick. I don't need hope, false or not. I'm preparing for the worst case scenario so the rest of these people don't get caught with their pants down. My home is the RV and it's the best damned defense and chance I have at surviving. So do what you have to, but unless you're here to stop me, mind your own damn business while you're at it."

Shane didn't like that, but before he could blink, my sword was at his throat. I told him coldly. "I'm going to say this once, so you'd best remember it. You aren't my leaders, you're their leaders and only so long as they say so. I don't wish to lead anyone, but while I'm with this group to keep my sanity, I will do as I please so long as it doesn't harm anyone. You get in the way of that and there will be an issue. You understand me?"

He swallowed and nodded before Rick nodded as well. I put my sword away and told them. "Now, I can modify the other RV if Dale wants and the weapons truck, because I really am counting on the survival of these people, but my RV comes first and foremost. You want something special made or fortified you can come to me and I'll see what I can do, but let's be clear, I'm not your wife nor child and I don't answer to you so you will be polite and ask and I'll share that same curtesy with anything else. Now I have chores to do so feel free to poke around, but if you break or take anything, this conversation is going to take on a whole other turn."