RE: The Walking Dead [Zombie LitRPG]

Meanwhile, Michael was all by his lonesome and still looking for the girl.

"Still nothing" He came across a creek earlier and was moving along with it. In hopes that Sophia might have at least moved near this body of water after she veered off into another direction when she was making her way back to the highway.

"It's has gotten late. That girl might still be wandering around the woods with no direction in mind. At this point, I don't think she'd still be alive by the time I find her." Michael let out a sigh of frustration but still continued his search despite the bleak future.

"I'll never be able to live it down if something happens to that kid."

An hour earlier.

Seeing Rick and the walkers gone. Sophia slowly came out of her hiding place.

She climbed up the slope and started repeating the words that Rick had told her.

"Sun on my left shoulder." She whispered to herself and began her journey back.

The journey back was going smooth until Sophia spotted something that made her freeze in her tracks.

"Raahhh"

There was a lone walker ahead of her, slowly trudging along just several yards from her. It was blocking the road back to the highway.

She quickly covered her mouth as she trembled and was reminded by the scenes from earlier.

In her fear, she made the stupid decision of going into another direction. She probably thought she could just circle around back to the group.

Unfortunately, she eventually got lost as the repetitive landscape blurred her sense of direction.

Fortunately though, Sophia kept on moving even when she was tired which inadvertently prolonged her survival, but this unfortunately also made it hard for the search party to close the gap between them as she was constantly on the move.

She whined but she kept on walking and walking until she eventually got tired. She looked around her fearfully and spotted a small tree that's growing beside a boulder and as close to the ground.

The tree looks similar to a large bush.

Sophia went over and forcefully squeezed herself inside. The branches and leaves would keep her out of sight of the dangers around her. She leaned against the boulder and closed her eyes while hugging her doll tight, trembling.

Behind her, the sun was slowly setting and the whole forest was gradually getting covered in darkness.

The location was near the riverbed where she would drop her doll and Daryl would stumble across it later.

*****

Evidently, Daryl had called off the search as the track had gone cold and in addition, the forest would become even more dangerous at night.

While Michael, who had long veered off towards the direction of the city had also started his trek back.

Rick and Daryl returned to the highway and were met with a hopeful Carol standing beside the rail.

"You didn't find her?' Carol fidgeted and on the verge of tears.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick didn't want to say those words. Deep inside, he knew that Sophia's rate of survival had just taken a dip close to zero. It wouldn't be a problem if this was still the old world, but the dead now also roam this land.

"You can't leave my daughter out there all on her own to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol pleaded as the others had slowly gathered around them. They also wanted to know what happened to the kid.

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people would get lost" Daryl explained it as gently as he can with that rough voice of his.

Sobbing, Carol lighty shook her head. "But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You really didn't find anything?"

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick tried to calm her down by being gentle with his gestures.

"We tracked her for a while." Daryl quickly added.

"Michael's also missing. Maybe he's still out in the woods looking for Sophia." Amy suddenly chimed in.

"He's still not back?" Rick didn't like the news.

The people shook their heads in response.

"He'll be fine. He can take care of himself." Daryl added, not really worried about his ass.

This news slightly calms Carol knowing that there's still someone out there looking for her baby.

Rick decided to leave it at that and instead, addressed the group. "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

Suddenly, Carol spotted the blood on Daryl's pants and slightly panics. "Is..is that blood?"

"We took down a walker."

"Walker? Oh my god."

Rick thought he should have just made an excuse as Carol had started hyperventilating.

"There was no sign that it was ever anywhere near Sophia."

"How can you know that?" Cole's girlfriend had gotten curious with his statement.

There was a short silence as Rick and Daryl exchanged a look.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, just to be sure." Daryl revealed the gruesome ordeal they did.

It slightly calmed Carol as she took a seat down the guard rail. But not even moments later, she started complaining to them.

"How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"

It was selfish of her to do that to a man who went searching for her daughter till dusk. Slightly hurt, Rick still understood her feelings as he's also a parent himself.

"Two walkers were on us. I had to draw them away. It was her best chance."

Shane went beside Rick and clearly wasn't helping with his passing remark. "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol sobbed while Lori tried to comfort her.

"She's just a child. She's just a child."

Slightly guilty, he also realized earlier that it was a bad decision on his part, Rick slowly crouched down while Carol kept on crying.

"It was the only option. The only choice I could make."

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane is really not helping with that.

"My baby got left in the woods." Carol sobbed in between.

Looking hurt and guilty, Rick didn't say anything and just walked off.

"Michael is still out there. Let's hope he can find her." Andrea could only offer those consoling words.

"Alone?" Shane didn't wanna be a jerk, but he's also not optimistic with Michael's chances.

Deep into the night, Michael had once again resumed his search after a short rest and the chirping noise of insects had become his only companion.

Arriving at a cliff with a riverbed down below, Micheal spotted two walkers.

Splat! Splat!

[You terminated a Zombie! Gained +1 EXP and +1 Coin.]

[You terminated a Zombie! Gained +1 EXP and +1 Coin.]

The fire torch in his hand illuminated something from the corner of his eyes, and Michael quickly dispatched the two walkers wandering around before turning his attention towards the sleeping Sophia hiding under the brush. "Damn you kid. So this is where you had been hiding all this time. I had to take that long hike back from the direction of the city, and only to find you here. I should have known."

Since Daryl had never managed to track her down for hours, Michael had taken the chance that Sophia might wander towards the direction of the city.

It was obviously a futile effort as he never once came across even a small clue and eventually had to trek back and thought of looking for that chapel instead.

But it wasn't at all futile as this location is indeed to the direction of the city, that is if he's coming from the direction they were stuck on.

It wasn't until he stumbled across this familiar riverbed where Daryl had hallucinations about his brother Merle. it then finally hit him that it was around this area where Daryl had discovered the doll. So, he immediately started looking around and eventually stumbled across the kid who was peacefully sleeping while shivering from time to time due to the cold.

'There's a huge possibility that one of these walkers were the ones who bit her. It would have been too late if I didn't find her before sunrise, but it's a good thing that I eventually did.' Michael was finally relieved and started dragging the corpses away from where the kid was.

Michael gathered some firewood and branches and lit it up with the torch he has and made a campfire.

"I wonder what's gonna happen now that this kid will survive."

Rustling!

Minutes passed when the sound of rustling leaves reached his ears and alerted him.

With a machete on his left hand and the pistol on the other, Michael slowly stood up and grinned. "I knew you were not gonna make this easy."

"Raahh!"

A walker suddenly came charging in from the dark.

"Your breath stinks bitch!" Michael split its head open and kicked it away before delivering a tornado kick at the walker that tried to sneak up from behind him and blasted its head open. Its brain juice flew towards the hiding place of the girl who had just now woken up due to the noise and she's now witnessing the scene of Michael taking down the walkers swarming towards him from every direction!

A scene she will never forget!

"Michael." Sophia hugged her doll tightly and mumbled in fear.

Michael weaved through the battlefield while narrowly avoiding getting grabbed and continuously delivered beheadings, stabbing, followed by another beheading with the occasional addition of a kick and the intermittent sound of gunfire.

Bang!

Bang!

On the highway, Rick and several others were woken up by noise coming from the forest.

"Could it be Michael?" Glenn asked aloud to those who had gathered near the RV.

"It's possible. I think those were pistol rounds." Shane answered. He still doesn't like that kid.

"How can you tell?"

"I was a Marine before this, but as I said, I'm not one hundred percent sure those were pistol rounds and It could be another person altogether." Shane delivered those words while deep inside, he was thinking about something else.

'Intermittent shots. Whoever it is, that person is calmly dealing with whatever situation they have gotten themselves into.' He came to that conclusion as he figured out that burst shots or a quick succession would have been a clear indication that the walkers had gotten too close or that person had gotten cornered and in their final death throes.

"If that's Michael, shouldn't we go and help?" Andrea was also woken up and arrived just in time to hear their discussion and it made her worry.

"No, that'd be suicide going in there. Besides, it's not easy to pinpoint where the gunshots are coming from. We can only hope that they'd survive the attack." Shane was the first one to quickly disagree. The others also wanted to voice out their willingness to go but the current situation is indeed not in their favor.

Even Rick has remained silent as he also agreed with Shane's opinion on this one.

Looking at them, Andrea gritted her teeth in frustration. "Well, if no one's going, then I'll go look for him myself."

"What? No!" Dale quickly grabbed her and stopped her.

"Let go of me, Dale!" Andrea tried to shake him off, but the old man kept a tight grip on her arm.

"Let's say that you find him amidst the darkness, what can you do after?"

Andrea raised her voice. "Of course, help him!"

"Shhh!"

"With what? Your gun with its limited ammo? You'll just be a burden to him or you'll probably just get lost before you can even find him. By then, we not only need to worry about Sophia and Michael, we'd also have to look for you. The best help you can give him right now is by staying put here and not adding to the problems" Dale calmly advised her.

"He's right. Believe in him. That guy had already proven that he can take care of himself during the quarry attack." Daryl backed him up. Why? He'd noticed that most of the walkers back at the quarry had died of gunshot wounds in their heads, and aside from Rick who had only fired his python once after their return. Michael was the only other one armed with a handgun before.

In addition, those were very precise shots that were taking place during a chaotic scene.

'I really wonder what kind of person my brother had befriended. He doesn't look like your ordinary joe at all.'

Andrea didn't want to admit it, but Dale was right. "Fine, I'll stay here, but I'm going with the search party at first light."

"That's fine."

*****

x103 [You terminated a Zombie! Gained +1 EXP and +1 Coin.]

"This was a lot. I think I deserve my own BGM after this." 

Bloodied all over, Michael let out a chuckle as he stood over the numerous bodies sprawled around him.

"Sophia, are you alright over there?" Michael called out while wiping off the blood around his lips with a leaf.

"Yes." A meek voice responded.

"Alright, you stay there and don't wander off again. I'll just go and wash this off"

"Okay."

Michael went down the creek and took off his shirt and washed the blood off of it. He used the same shirt and started washing off the blood on his body.

A short while later, he returned to Sophia and saw her still hiding inside the bush.

Wearing his shirt that had turned into a rag now, Michael softly called out to the girl. "Let's head back. You can come out now."

Sophia slowly came out of hiding. She fearfully looked around her and hurriedly went to Michael and hugged him.

"Let's go kid. I'm sure your mother is very worried about you." Holding onto his fire torch, Michael has a relieved smile on his face. He grabs her little hand and begins their journey back with the sun slowly peeking from the horizon.

*****

Bang!

Rick dropped the weapons that Carl had looted the other day on the car hood and presented it to the others.

"Everybody takes a weapon."

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about those shotguns?" Andrea complained. She'd rather have a shotgun right now.

"GUYS! It's Michael! And he..he's with Sophia!"

Cole, who had once again taken watch, but on top of the RV this time had spotted Michael and Sophia walking up the hill and yelled for the others.

Rick and the others looked at each other and quickly took off to see them.

"Sophia!"

"Mom!"

Carol quickly came out of the RV when she heard Cole and immediately spotted her little girl returning with Micheal. She quickly broke down in tears and came running towards her.

The people all had relieved and amazed looks on their faces as they watched the mother and daughter hugging each other, finally reunited.

"Michael." Andrea ran towards him and kissed him, before giving him a hug.

"What's with you?" Michael chuckled while patting her head.

"I was worried, you jerk."

Michael smiled, then he turned his attention to the people around him. "Sorry about this. I got lost in the forest when I tried to follow after Rick. Fortunately, lady luck was smiling upon me last night and I happened to stumble across the girl hiding under a bush, or maybe it was a tree. I'm still not sure what it was."

Rick walked towards him and offered his hand.

Michael looked at him for a moment before grabbing his hand.

"Thank you for this."

"It's not a problem. I was lucky though"

"Was it you last night, those gunshots?" Daryl brought up what everyone was curious about last night.

Michael nodded. "Yeah, a swarm of walkers suddenly appeared and attacked us."

"And you took them all out?" Glenn couldn't believe how he survived with the little girl with him.

"There were around fifty of them, but yeah. Anyway, can we continue this after I get some rest?"

"Yeah, go." Dale enthusiastically nodded and even gestured for him to use the RV.

"Thanks Dale. I'm just beat right now."

Michael smiled and let Andrea escort him inside, then Amy quickly followed after the two.

"Amazing." Cole became even more respectful to Michael. It wasn't just him, the others were too.

Even Shane had to admit that even he was awed at the number and how Michael had managed to survive it with a burden with him.

Through this, everyone finally realized who's the most capable survivor among them.

Though Rick and Shane are both having conflicting feelings right now.

One was relieved to see them back safe, while the other, would rather have wanted Michael didn't come back.

Inside the shower, Michael was looking at his reflection from the mirror with a grim look.

"I thought I was done for last night." He chuckled and looked over his shoulder where there's an obvious bite mark, but it never penetrated its skin.

'It was a stroke of luck that the bastard was wearing dentures or it could have gone South.'

"Around 60 and 70, that's my limit."