WHITE FLAG

chapter eleven : dead highway
{ season two - episode one }

TWO WHOLE DAYS had passed since the group all left the CDC. Nothing much had happened; just stopping by places scavenging for food and, well... driving. Ever since the morning at the CDC, the younger Schmidt hadn't been able to sleep, not even shut her eyes.

Her eyes continued to stare into the beige, matte dining table in the RV. She wasn't even lost in her thoughts; she was still in shock. While everybody else slept at night, she stayed awake and gazed up into the beautiful night sky.

Kloe lifted her chin slightly, noticing Shane rubbing his clenched hands across a metal piece to a gun. There was a baby blue cloth on the table, with his pulled-apart-gun lying across it perfectly.

She silently rested her head on the palm of her hand as she carefully watched the man. In the corner of her eye, she spotted Andrea also admiring the man with his ways with handling guns. "Looks complicated," Andrea commented, resting her back against the window.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way," Shane told in a peaceful, quiet tone. "I could clean yours, show you how." Kloe watched as he knelt down to the side and pulled out Andrea's gun. He, without hesitation, lifted the gun and aimed it into the air. "Oh yeah. It's a sweet piece."

Andrea sent a small, sympathetic smile. "It was a gift," she stated, "from my father." Kloe felt her teeth dig into her bottom lip, ignoring the blaring pain that was coming from it. "He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said 'two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves.'"

"Smart man, your father," Shane stated. Kloe forced her eyelids open before it looked like she had fallen asleep. "Look, it's a-" he hesitated for a moment, unsure on what to show, "it's a limited capacity. See? It only holds seven rounds." He lifted the gun and opened the magazine, revealing all the ammo stuffed inside.

"Oh, jeez," Dale muttered, causing Kloe's attention to fall onto Dale and Glenn, who were both sitting at the front of the RV. Dale was driving and Glenn was instructing him on where to go.

"Aw no," Glenn added barely above a whisper, his eyes slightly disappointed. Kloe instantly felt her eyebrows glue together with confusion as the RV came to a slow stop.

"What's happened?" she asked, shooting up from the small seat as did Shane. She darted her dark brown eyes all around the place, there were cars blocking the entire road. There were a few knocked over abandoned trucks, along with a few cars, "Oh, Christ."

Glenn released a panicked breath, holding up the map closer to his face and scanned over it. Kloe felt a familiar presence beside her as she slowly turned her head, noticing Zayn had finally made his way over to them. He had spent the last two days sitting away from everybody, as if something had gone wrong.

Her eyes immediately shot away from him and focused on Daryl, who was on Merle's motorcycle. He was slowly approaching them, his motorcycle rumbling. "See a way through?" Dale inquired, squinting his eyes from the bright sunlight pouring through the clouds.

Daryl tilted his head to the side before driving away. Kloe's eyes darted all over the place, searching for a way through the frenzy of cars.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back," Glenn suggested, examining the map. "There's an interstate bypass-"

"We can't spare the fuel," Dale quickly cut in, spinning the steering wheel to the right to follow Daryl. Kloe felt her heart drop into her stomach, they had been doing so well on their journey until now.

As Dale continued to drive through the cars, Kloe's whole body tensed by the sight of a blockage. There was no way they could get through. "Jeez," Glenn muttered to himself, his eyes not breaking away from the cars that surrounded them. "Can we get through here?"

Kloe dug her teeth into her cheek to the point she could taste the blood, but of course, she didn't take any notice and was focused on what the main problem was. Unexpectedly, the RV came to a quick stop with steam covering up the windshield, blocking their view.

The younger Schmidt's face quickly grimaced at the loud screech from the tank burst. "Well, shit," she whispered, not hesitating to take a few steps towards the door to the RV and pushed it open. She took a few more steps back, allowing Dale to pass through. She quickly seized onto her bow and quiver as she waited for Shane to follow Dale on suit.

Glenn lifted up his hand and forcefully smiled, gesturing that Kloe could exit first. She instantly nodded her head and pursed her lips, being too awkward to say 'thanks.' She rushed down the steps, feeling the hot, humid air hit against her skin.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale slowly walked over to the hood of the RV. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane queried, looking off into the distance with his shotgun in hand.

Simultaneously, the three of them turned to spot everybody standing close by to each other, staring at Dale for answers. Kloe spun back around to Dale, who flickered his eyes between everybody, "Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" he immediately cut himself off, noticing the amount of vehicles that most likely had gas, "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here-" Shane spoke up, but got cut off by Daryl, who was scurrying through the trunk of a car that was directly in front of us.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," he pulled out a small, pink backpack and quickly grimaced and groaned, throwing it back into the trunk.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dog smirked, beginning to tread over to the cars to search for them.

"Maybe some water," Carol commented, her arms gently wrapped around her daughter, Sophia.

"Or food," Glenn added, who was only around a meter behind Kloe. She peered over her own shoulder, noticing he was already looking over at everybody else in the group.

"This is a graveyard," Lori placed a hand on one side of her hip. There was an uncomfortable silence for a long moment, everybody eyeing each other. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"Same here," Kloe added, all the attention falling on her. "There is only one reason why all these cars are abandoned. They couldn't have just packed their things and ran away, not like this." Like before, her teeth bit into her cheek from the awkwardness.

"All right, all right," Shane muttered, rubbing his hand against his chin. "Come on, y'all. Just look around. Gather what you can."

Kloe gripped tighter onto her bow, spinning her body around to figure out which direction to head in first. She wasn't exactly in the mood to go with somebody, but she knew that wherever she went, she would bump into someone.

Her eyes pinpointed into an area where nobody had headed. Instantly, her legs began to move without stopping to think and made her way in between a pile of cars that were scattered around.

She stepped closer to a somewhat cleaner car than the others, bringing her hands to the side of her eyes and looked into the window, seeing if she could spot anything worth needing. In a few milliseconds, she caught a glimpse of the ends of arrows.

A small smile grew on the brunette's face as she stepped towards the trunk. She reached out her hand to press it open, but it was locked tight. She gritted her teeth, using all the strength she had to pry the trunk open. She needed those arrows since she was running low. When the outbreak began, She had around thirty. Now, she was down to ten; some of them practically falling apart from the amount of times they've been used.

"You might need this," a sudden, familiar voice appeared from behind her. She spun around, seeing Zayn hold out a small knife that he had obviously swiped from his sister's belt. "You could break the lock on the trunk with it."

In an instant, she gripped firmly onto the knife without saying anything and stared into her brother's smokey blue eyes. "Thanks," she muttered, turning back around to pick lock the trunk. She knelt down and traced her finger underneath the door to the trunk, searching for the lock.

As soon as the trunk lifted, she lunged for the arrows and stuffed them inside her quiver. She froze for a moment, as to why Zayn was still standing behind her. "Why are you still there?" she asked quietly, not bothering to face him. Just as she thought he was going to reply, he didn't and instead sighed. She reluctantly turned to him, staring deeply into his eyes. "You haven't spoken to me- to anyone, ever since the CDC, and now you're just gonna stand there and watch me do my own thing?"

"I- I don't know," he shrugged, "it's like I've just wanted to be less sociable... I don't know why," he shifted his eyes to the gray concrete on the ground, small cracks slithering through it. Kloe wanted to push past it, but deep down she knew something was wrong, and she knew he was lying.

Jolting back slightly from surprise, a loud sound of water hitting the ground filled the atmosphere. Then, the thing that made her heart melt. That laugh. The laugh that Glenn Rhee made all the time.

She whipped her head around, spotting Shane getting poured with clean water from a truck and Glenn, who was getting something from one of the cars. Kloe hurried over to the two, Zayn following her on suit as they quickly approached them.

"No fucking way," she smiled widely, staring at the man who was getting a free, cold shower. She jogged over to Shane, cupping her hands together to catch some water that missed Shane's masculine body.

Even the water filling in the brunette's hands, it felt amazing finally touching water. She brought her hands away from the water and hovered her hands over her head, releasing the water which instantly soaked the top of her head and shoulders.

"Hey, save me some!" Glenn exclaimed with excitement as he began to twist the screwdriver faster, basically jumping up and down on the spot.

"It's like being baptized, man. Isn't it, Klo?" Shane brought his head under the water again and continued to wet his head.

Kloe shrugged, the smile never leaving her face as she poured more water onto her head. "I'm not sure. Is it? I've never been baptized," she chuckled, wiping away the water that managed to get into her eyes. Suddenly, her whole body froze, as if something had just struck inside me. She could hear something. Something that wasn't Glenn's playful laugh or the water crashing onto the dry ground. "Do you guys hear that?"

Glenn's laughter came to a stop, and Shane placed his hand over the water so it could stop making a loud noise. "No?" Glenn answered, focusing his eyes into the air to try listening. "What are we supposed to be hearing?"

"I don't know, it's familiar," she responded, listening harder into the distance. Then it hit her, "Walkers." Her eyes widened at the realization as Shane, Glenn and Zayn all stood in place, their eyes beginning to widen as they then began to hear the familiar growls.

"Under the cars!" Shane ordered, gripping firmly onto Glenn's arm and threw him onto the ground. Kloe turned her body to the car that was next to the truck Shane and Glenn were crawling under and swiftly knelt down and snaked herself underneath. Her head switched sides repetitively, eyeing everybody else that managed to get under the cars. "Good hearing, Klo," Shane whispered, causing her to bring her index finger to her pursed lips to shush him.

The younger Schmidt's heart dropped when she noticed T-Dog, Daryl, Andrea and Dale weren't under any cars, but she figured Andrea and Dale were inside the RV, or on top. Kloe's hands were trembling with panic and fear as her chest heaved against the solid, gray concrete road.

All of the muscles in her body tensed up as the walkers stumbled past the car she was underneath. Their feet dragged across the ground, causing a loud scraping sound. She glanced up ahead, spotting T-Dog and Daryl pushing dead walkers' bodies on top of them.

As much as she wanted to just jump out and shoot every single one of the things down, she knew deep down that she'd be gone in a few seconds. Nothing much else happened, except she sealed her eyelids shut and didn't open them until someone said it was clear, which sadly did not happen and instead a loud scream erupted from a little girl.

Sophia Peletier.

Kloe's eyes shot open and stared straight into the direction the scream came from. In an instant, she hurriedly crawled out from beneath the car. "Kloe, stop!" Shane whisper-shouted, but obviously she didn't listen and wanted to save the little girl who was in danger.

She got to her feet quickly and sprinted towards the group, her grip tightened onto her bow. She immediately noticed Rick jumping over the metal railing as he rolled down the steep, grassy hill.

Without even stopping to think, she placed her hand onto the metal railing, fully prepared to help Rick save the little girl. Right when she was about to haul herself over, she felt the same accustomed fingers lace around her wrist. Still not having any thoughts plunged into her head, she whipped her head around over her shoulder, coming face to face with Glenn Rhee, who had a look of panic and seriousness in his dark chocolate, brown eyes.

Lost into his eyes, she allowed him to pull her away from the railing. Carol fell onto her knees and threw her hands to her mouth. "There's two walkers after my baby," she cried, letting Lori wrap her arms around her shoulders.

"Maybe some of us should go to help Rick?" Zayn suggested, stepping into his sister's sight. Beads of sweat dripped off his forehead as he quickly wiped them away, annoyed with the raging hot temperature.

"Rick knows how to handle it," Shane pointed out, narrowing his eyes towards Zayn. "We can't have more of our strong people going out into the woods when those walkers just then could come back."

"But my baby..." Carol sobbed, followed by Lori's shushes. Kloe dug her teeth into her bottom lip, feeling the unbearable pain of sorrow in her heart for the poor woman.

...

After a long ten minutes of waiting for Rick and Sophia to return, Rick finally did, but without Sophia. "I found her, told her to stay put in a good hiding spot and said that she should run back to the highway once it was clear," he explained, panting a little from all the sprinting. "Once I got back to the stream, she was gone. I thought she came back here, but she didn't. She's still out there somewhere."

A loud, muffled sob escaped Carol's lips as Lori wrapped her arms tighter around Carol's waist for comfort, "You're gonna go back to look for her, right? You can't just leave her out there."

"Of course, but I can't go alone," without even looking, everyone knew instantly the two people Rick's eyes fell on. Glenn and Kloe. She turned around to see who he was looking at, and everyone was correct, he was looking at the two best friends. "I want you two to come with me, is that okay?"

"Well, yeah," Kloe answered, nodding her head furiously. "I was gonna help anyway," her eyes subconsciously landed on Glenn who was standing beside her, his eyes nervously flickering between her and his sneakers.

"Okay," Rick switched his gaze to Daryl. "I need you to come too. You're the one who can track, you could track Sophia's trail to see where she went." Daryl nodded his head, positioning his crossbow in his two arms.

"I'll go too," Shane added, placing his shotgun over his shoulder and stepping forward. "Everybody else, stay here and listen to Dale. If he says anything is about to happen, don't worry about us and do what he tells you," everyone acknowledged my nodding their heads instantaneously.

...

It only took around five minutes to get to the place the Grimes man had mentioned about hiding Sophia. It was a small creek, slightly clean water running through it. There was a large rock hovering over the water, resulting in a shelter.

"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl inquired, ducking his head beneath the huge rock to examine the place. He whipped his head over to Rick, his eyes full of questions.

Kloe hastily made sure her arrow was in the position it was supposed to be as she faced Glenn, who had his eyes in every direction with a gun in his arms.

"I left her right here," Rick lifted up his arm, pointing at the exact spot he had left Sophia. He stood up, looking into a new direction, "I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek."

"Without a paddle, seems where we've landed," Daryl dragged his legs through the dirty, mustard colored water.

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group," Rick panted, stepping through the water alongside Daryl and lifting the same hand into another direction, towards Kloe and Glenn. "I told her 'go that way and keep the sun on your left shoulder.'"

As Daryl treaded closer to the two, Kloe felt little splashes of water hit her leggings. He glanced up at the two best friends, "Hey, short rounds, why don't you step off to one side?" Daryl motioned his hand to the side, signaling them to move. "You're mucking up the trail."

With annoyance, Glenn and Kloe stepped over to the side, allowing Daryl to view the trail of the young girl who had run off and never returned. "Assuming she knows her left from her right," Shane spoke up, raising his eyebrows skeptically at his best friend.

"Shane, she understood me fine," Rick defended, narrowing his eyes. Kloe watched as his jaw clenched, frustration running through his veins. She could see the worry in him, she could read him. Some people those days were easy to read, but others weren't.

"Kid's tired and scared, man," the Walsh man shook his head furiously. "She had her close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."

"Got clear prints right here," Daryl noted, scanning his hand across a pile of dirt. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway."

"Well, then maybe she made her way back while we were out here?" Kloe suggested, chewing the inside of her cheek.

Daryl quickly nodded his head in agreement, making a circular motion with his finger as he parted his lips to speak, "Let's spread out, make our way back." Shane extended his arm and helped him up while Glenn and Kloe just stood mindlessly.

A stoic expression on his face, Shane gripped tightly onto Rick's hand and hauled him up, leaning closer to his ear. "Hey, we're gonna find her," he assured, all of them grouping together, sticking close as they all followed Daryl. "She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere."

Frowning at Shane, Kloe stood at the back, confirming that they didn't have any company by raising her bow and aiming it in every direction. Many thoughts ran through her mind, many were negative. What if Sophia had gotten lost and ran into a walker?

She blinked her eyes, attempting to clear her mind, to not think at all except the positive notes. She stared down at her black leathered boots as she stepped over any twigs or overgrown plants. She swatted away any bug that managed to land onto her damp skin.

She watched Daryl kneel down on one knee slowly, his eyes staring into the pile of leaves that were scattered everywhere. "She was doing just fine till right here," he pointed. Kloe leaned over a little, trying to trace what Daryl was actually looking at, but she saw nothing; only a mixture of dirt, leaves and twigs. "All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way," he pointed into a direction that was the complete opposite way to where the highway was.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked quietly, his eyes shifting back and forth between Daryl and a now knelt down Shane.

Shane flung his head around, looking at the four others, "Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off."

"A walker?"

Daryl shook his head, pursing his lips as he continued to examine the ground, "I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."

"So what do we do?" Shane inquired, sending a look to all of them for answers. "All of us press on?" Instantly, Kloe shrugged her shoulders, switching her gaze to Rick as he stepped forward, who was darting his eyes between Shane, Glenn and Kloe.

"No, better if you, Glenn and Kloe get back up to the highway," he whispered, rubbing away the sweat that rolled down his stubble chin. "People are gonna start panicking," Shane straightened up from the ground, staring deeply into Rick's eyes. "Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm."

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars," Shane nodded. "Think up a few chores. I'll keep 'em occupied," he sent his gaze over to two young best friends and motioned his hand to follow him.

The two young adults sent a quick unknowing expression to each other as they abruptly began to follow him. Rick stepped out of the way to let them walk through. She let out a long breath as the three of them made their way through the woods.

Full of worry, Kloe's heart was practically beating out of her chest. She gulped down the lump that was forming in her throat. She couldn't ever imagine the feeling of your own child getting lost in a world like this. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around Carol and tell her everything would be okay, but she knew that might not have been true.

Glenn, who noticed the worry in his best friend's body, placed a hand on her shoulder. She lifted her chin and looked into his eyes. "You don't need to worry," he comforted, offering a small, weak smile, "I'm sure they'll find her."

Kloe pursed her lips and bluntly nodded. She looked off ahead, Shane was quite a way off, but still remained in their sight so they could follow him. "Are you just telling me that because I am worried, or because you need the comfort yourself?" she quietly asked.

"A bit of both," he answered truthfully, the words sliding off his tongue like music to the brunette's ears. She swirled her head back to him, noticing he was all ready watching her and gratefully smiled.

"What would I do without you, Glenn? Always making my days better," she smiled, causing him to return a sheepish smile.

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Words: 4012
- 31st December 2021

This is the last chapter of 2021! I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas! Feel free to comment what you got and tell me all about it! I'm all ears!

Happy new year everyone!