Chapter 23: Tears
"Shawn?" Rick looked at him.
"I found Sophia."
Shawn shrugged. But that one sentence was enough to make Rick breathe a little faster. Shawn wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt that Rick's eyes were even a little red.
"Sophia," Shawn called out towards the camp behind him. A few seconds later, Andrea walked out, holding Sophia's hand.
"Rick!" Sophia's voice was filled with joy when she saw him again, and she called out sweetly.
One reason was that she also relied on Rick, the leader of their group; the second was that if Rick was here, then Carol couldn't be far away.
Steadying his breathing, Rick walked over to Sophia and knelt down, taking her small hand and feeling the warmth from it. "You're not hurt, are you?"
"Mhm~" Sophia shook her head obediently. "Big Brother Shawn saved me in the woods."
After resting at the camp for a day, Sophia had gone from her initial state of panic and fear to being able to interact normally with everyone.
'So, Rick was really torn up about Sophia's death. Even if he didn't say it, it must be true. This is just how he is.' Seeing this scene, Shawn thought to himself.
Rick stood up, one hand on the revolver at his hip, the other patting Shawn's shoulder. As they passed each other, he said in a low, slightly hoarse voice, "Thanks, Shawn. I'll go get Carol and the others now. Thanks…"
Rick walked away with his back to them, his silhouette looking somewhat lonely.
Sophia came to Shawn's side, took his large hand, and guessed in a small voice, "Was Uncle Rick crying?"
Shawn knelt down and whispered into Sophia's ear. "Sophia, Uncle Rick wasn't crying. It's just that sometimes, the words you want to say can't come out, so they turn into tears and flow from your eyes."
"Really?" Sophia was taken aback. "Then Mommy must have a lot of things she can't say often."
Looking at Sophia, Shawn sighed. Carol marrying Ed was both a good thing and a bad thing. The only good thing was that Carol had a well-behaved and sensible daughter like Sophia. The bad thing was that marrying Ed was unfair to both Carol and Sophia.
"What a scumbag." Shawn narrowed his eyes, suddenly regretting that he had let Ed be eaten by walkers. There would have been plenty of opportunities to deal with him in other ways.
"Forget it." Shawn shook his head. If they had waited until a later time, who knows how much more Carol and Sophia would have suffered. Ed was a scumbag. He was dead, and the group didn't need someone like him anyway.
Holding Sophia's small hand, Shawn's eyes lowered, a coldness in them.
People began to gather on the Farm. The members of his camp stood by Shawn's side, waiting. Even Hershel's family appeared in the distance.
"What's going on?" Hershel had composed himself and was back to his usual calm demeanor when he walked over.
"Companions from our old camp. We separated for some reason, but I didn't expect them to come to the farm too," Shawn explained casually. Hershel was the owner of the Farm, after all.
After a moment's thought, Shawn added, "Sophia's mother is in their group."
Hershel looked at Shawn upon hearing this, then looked down at Sophia with a gentle smile, his thoughts unreadable.
The two of them chatted idly until several figures appeared at the edge of the Farm, their numbers gradually increasing into a small group.
Suddenly, one figure began to move faster, leaving the others behind. First, it was a fast walk, then, as if confirming something, she started to jog, and finally broke into a desperate, frantic run. She arrived in front of Sophia, gasping for breath, and violently pulled her into an embrace.
"Mom~~" Sophia called out sweetly.
But hearing Sophia's voice only made Carol hug her tighter, unwilling to let go for a long time. Carol felt Sophia's warmth, kissing her forehead and stroking her hair, silently thankful that the scene she had imagined had not come to pass. Carol's cheeks and eyes turned crimson, and tears broke through like a dam.
"Next time, don't run off by yourself again, okay?" After a long while, Carol let go of Sophia and carefully instructed her daughter in a low voice.
"Mhm." Sophia nodded.
Her gaze left Sophia and turned to Shawn, her eyes filled with undisguised gratitude. She opened her mouth, about to say something, but the other figures arrived at that moment.
Carol could only wipe her eyes and stand to the side, holding Sophia's hand. In her current state, Carol's personality wouldn't allow her to bare her heart in front of so many people.
Shawn's gaze swept over the figures. Rick, Lori, Carl, Dale, Shane, Glenn, T-Dog, Jim, and finally, Carol and Sophia.
"Your group seems to be missing someone. Were they bitten?" Shawn asked, feigning ignorance as he looked at Rick. The black woman who was originally in their group was gone.
"She…" Rick hesitated, his gaze shifting elsewhere. Jacqui had chosen to stay behind at the CDC, to commit suicide with the doctor.
Seeing Rick's difficulty, Hershel took two steps forward. "Why don't we get something to eat and drink and talk slowly? I can see everyone is exhausted."
Hershel had a gentle smile on his face as he made the invitation. Since these people were Shawn's former companions, Hershel chose to trust them as well. After all, as Shawn had said when he first arrived at the Farm—if they had ill intentions, they wouldn't have shown up so openly and would have already taken the farm.
Rick's group was travel-worn, having been chased by walkers with almost no rest. At this moment, Rick's team and Shawn's team were like two different pictures. They were listless, their faces caked with dried dirt, their clothes stained with blood, and a strange odor emanated from them.
In contrast, Daryl, Merle, Andrea, and Amy, who had been following Shawn, looked at least clean and tidy. The past few days at the Farm had been the best sleep they had gotten since the apocalypse began.
Rick took all this in but said nothing, just walked into the camp alongside Shawn.
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"You're saying that woman chose to kill herself?" Merle said with a heartless chuckle upon hearing the news about Jacqui. "She seemed to have a lot of guts when she gave me the finger."
Everyone couldn't help but frown at him. Even Shawn silently shook his head, thinking to himself, 'Does Merle have a natural talent for dancing on the line of getting himself killed?'
'If he angers everyone, he's going to have a bad time later.'
Seeing everyone looking at him, and most importantly, seeing Shawn's warning glance, Merle spread his hands dismissively.
"OK, I'll shut up."