⌜ chapter two ⌟

Rick, MJ, and Daryl head back to the highway, and the others walk over to them to hear what they have to say. Carol starts crying when she sees that they don't have her daughter with them.

"You didn't find her?"

"Her trail went cold." Rick says. "We'll pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods." She says as MJ and Daryl step over the railing.

"Out in the dark's no good." Daryl tells her. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost."

"But she's twelve. She can't be out there on her own." She argues, starting to become hysterical as she thinks about what could happen. "You didn't find anything?"

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic." Rick says. "We know she was out there."

"And we tracked her for awhile." Daryl adds.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

MJ reaches out and grabs Carol's hand. "I'm not leaving here until we find her. I promise you that. I'm gonna find Sophia." She says, and the woman sighs as she looks between MJ and Daryl.

"Is that blood?" Carol asks suddenly, seeing what's on Daryl's clothes.

"We took down a walker." Rick tells her.

"Walker? Oh my God."

He tries to get her to look at him, but she's starting to panic. "There's no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." He says.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asks, and MJ clears her throat as she looks down.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl tells them.

Carol sits on the railing and takes deep breaths, then she looks up at Rick. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" She asks. "How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick says as Shane walks over.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" She questions, tears running down her face. "She's just a child. She's just a child."

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick's saying, and Daryl taps on MJ's arm to quietly get her attention. She looks at him, and he motions for her to take a step back.

They walk away from the others, and he looks at her. "You seem oddly experienced with more than you should be." He says, his voice low. "Would you have left the kid?"

"No." She shakes her head. "But either one of my brothers would've. My dad too."

"And who would'a saved her?"

"In that instance, all of us." She answers honestly. "The only difference is I wouldn't be alive to get her back. So either way, the kid ends up screwed. He did the right thing, that doesn't make it the easy thing."

"So, what do we do now?" He asks. "In your professional opinion."

"Well, you can stop mocking me for starters." She says as she starts to walk away from him.

"What did you do before the walkers?" He asks, and she sighs as she turns to look back at him.

"Let's just say, you're not too far off." She tells him. "Your crack about my professional opinion — pretty close."

—

Rick rolls out all the different tools that Carl found yesterday, laying them on a car hood, and he looks at the group. "Everybody takes a weapon." He tells them.

"These aren't​ the kind of weapons we need." Andrea says. "What about the guns?"

"We've been over that." Shane says. "Daryl, Rick, the bitch, and I are carrying."

"Only bitch I see around here is you." MJ says as she looks at him.

"Can you two not?" Rick asks. "Not today."

"Sorry." She concedes.

"We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane continues.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea says. "Why does MJ get to carry?"

"This ain't gender studies, sweetheart. It's about experience. I was five the first time I fired a gun." MJ tells her. "How old were you? Same age you are now, I'd bet."

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So, you need to get over it." Shane says, and Andrea reluctantly stops arguing with the decision.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side." Daryl says. "Chances are, she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."

"Stay quiet and stay sharp." Rick says. "Keep space between you, but always stay within sight of each other."

"Everybody assemble your packs." Shane tells them, and MJ walks over to Jack.

"Will you stay with T-Dog and Dale for me please?" She asks, and he nods. "I've taught you a little about cars. You think you can help him with the RV?"

"I can do that." He tells her, and she smiles.

"That's my boy."

"Your son?" He asks with a smile, and she chuckles as she looks back at him. He's been pretty happy about that ever since she said it back at the C.D.C.

"Since the moment I promised your mom that I'd take care of you." She says, and his smile widens. "She'd be proud of you, you know. You are every bit the amazing kid that she knew you could be."

"Thanks." He says, and she smiles as she rests her hand on his cheek for a second.

"Keep your eyes open. Watch for signs of danger." She tells him, and he nods. "Alright, we'll be back."

"Promise?" He holds his pinky up, and she wraps her pinky around his.

"Promise."

MJ ignores Andrea's argument with Dale as she puts her stuff together. She's got her gun in her waistband​, her angel blade in its sheath, and her weapons bag over her shoulder. She's ready to head out and look.

The group is walking through the woods, and Shane's being a dick to Carl. MJ stays close to the front because he's at the back, and she's supposed to stay away from him — orders from Rick for the day. Daryl sees a tent, and he moves toward it after telling the others to stay back.

"She could be in there." Shane says.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl tells them.

Rick and Shane follow him forward, and he goes over to the tent with a knife. MJ sees something out of the corner of her eye, and she turns her head, but nothing's there. She heard noises last night too, but nothing ever came to where they were camped on the highway.

Jess nudges her, and MJ shakes her head as she turns back to the group. They watch as Daryl checks around the tent. He's not hearing anything inside. Rick calls Carol over, and MJ hears something behind them.

"The hell?" She mutters as she turns around again.

"What is it?" Jess asks, and Glenn looks at the girls.

"I'm gonna go check around." She says, and he tries to stop her. "Believe me, I can handle myself. I'll be fine." She tells him.

"M—" Jess sighs and turns back to the group once her friend disappears into the trees.

MJ has her angel blade ready in case she needs to kill something. She doesn't hear anything else as she slowly navigates through the woods. She rounds a tree and then jumps when she sees a familiar man in black clothes.

"Oh my f—" She sighs as she looks around the area. "What the hell do you want, Crowley?"

"A little birdy told me that the dead members of your family have been resurrected." The demon says. "Seeing as no deals were made, I'd like to know how."

"Go screw yourself, that's how." She says and then she hears church bells in the distance. "I'm done talking to you."

"Your friends will still be there when we're finished here." He says as he grabs her arm.

"We are finished here."

"We're done when I say we're done." He argues, and she groans.

"God, I used to like different accents before I met you." She says. "Now I can't stand 'em."

"Who raised your dead?"

"Who raised the dead?"

He smiles. "You're a clever girl. I always found that annoying." His face falls.

"I always found you annoying." She turns away from him and walks in the direction the bells came from. "Piss off, Crowley."

"You should be nicer to me."

"You should go back to hell."

"Who brought them back?"

The hunter spins around and clocks him as hard as she can in the face. "I said, leave me the hell alone." She snaps. "I am so sick of all of you harassing me."

He punches her in the face, and she stumbles back a step. She then opts to just turn around and stalk away from him.

MJ finds the group at a church, and Carol's walking inside. The bottle-blonde spits blood out of her mouth, and Jess' eyes widen when she sees her lip. It's split and already swelling, he hit her pretty hard.

"What the hell happened to you?" She asks, and everyone looks at her.

"Nothing. You guys find anything?" MJ glances between them as Rick walks over to her, looking at her lip. "It's fine."

He puts his index finger under her chin and makes her look up. His thumb lightly touches the red and bloody skin, causing her to hiss. She knocks his hand away.

"I said, it's fine."

"What happened?"

"I tripped, hit my face on a rock." She looks at Shane. "You would'a gotten a kick out of it. Class A comedy." She says, but he's not laughing.

"MJ—"

"It's fine, Jessica." She snaps as she turns away from them and looks at the ground. "I'm gonna take a look around, see if I can find anything useful. Glenn, you wanna give me a hand? I'd hate to find another rock."

"Uh, yeah." He nods and then quickly follows behind her as she goes to check the woods on the perimeter of the area surrounding the church.

They head back over after not finding anything. The rest of the group is sitting outside the church in the shade. Rick and Shane are talking and then the latter walks over to them.

"Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." He tells them.

"You're splitting​ us up. You sure?" Daryl asks.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay too." Carl says. "I'm her friend."

"Just be careful, okay?" Lori tells him as she walks up behind her son.

"I will."

"When did you start growing up?" She hugs him, and Jess looks over at MJ.

MJ's leaning against the tree and her head's resting against the trunk. Her eyes are closed and she's fidgeting with the two charms on her necklace — the one that has her initials. Jess' eyes settle on the engagement ring on her right hand. She's worn it for as long as she's known her, but the ring on her left hand is new.

The first she'd noticed it was that day in the rec room at the C.D.C. It's a circle with a small pentagram in the center, flames in the shape of a star surrounding it. It's held on her finger with a tiny silver band.

They all start to leave, and MJ stands up straight, following after them. Andrea's immediately annoyed when Daryl gives Lori a gun. They all head back into the woods.

"I like your ring." Jess says, talking to MJ.

"It was my mom's."

"No, the other one." She tells her, and MJ lifts her left hand to look at it. "When did you get it? I don't remember it from before."

"It was a gift from an old family friend. He gave it to me awhile back." MJ says as she continues walking.

"What does the symbol mean?"

"Theoretically..." She glances at Jess. "It's protection."

"Protection against what?" Glenn asks, and she shifts uncomfortably, something that they all notice.

"Evil."

"But not rocks." Andrea says.

"Funny." MJ mutters sarcastically.

It's quiet for a few minutes as they all keep walking, and then Carol sits down on the trunk of a fallen tree. "So, this is it? The whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl says, and something runs by a few feet behind MJ, causing her to turn slightly.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea says and then looks at Lori. "I see you have a gun."

"Why, you want it? Here, take it." She holds it out toward the blonde. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." She tells her, and Andrea takes it. Lori then sits down. "All of you."

MJ's attention is elsewhere, she couldn't care less about their drama if her life depended on it. Instead, she's trying to focus on whatever's stalking them.

"Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through." Lori continues, looking at Carol. "And I would give anything to stop it. But you have got to​ stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did, or made the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently..​. Anybody?" She looks around and finds that they're all looking at MJ.

"Hey." Jess nudges her leg, and the other girl looks at them.

"Did she actually​ want an answer to that? I thought it was rhetorical." MJ says, and Jess gives her a pointed look. She sighs and looks at Carol. "Yes, I would've made a different call." She nods. "I would have stayed with Sophia because I wouldn't have been able to make myself leave her. And it would've gotten me killed, if not both of us. I understand that you're angry, more than I wish I could, but it isn't Rick's fault. It isn't anybody's fault. It's just... Sometimes​ bad things happen, and there's nobody to blame for 'em. He did the best that he could with what was going on."

"You said you understand?" Carol asks, and she looks down. "More than you wish you could?"

"Matty." Jess mutters, and the others look at her.

"We should keep moving." MJ says, not looking up at them.

They start walking again, and MJ hears something in the trees above them. The others don't notice that she isn't following behind them. Whatever's above her is moving fast and all she can see is a blur.

The rest of the group is a few feet ahead now, and they're slowly becoming lost to MJ in the trees. Something suddenly drops into her view, and her eyes widen when she sees the monster standing in front of her.

"Son of a bitch."