She had to admit, she didn't actually think this plan was going to work. In fact, despite her false bravado she wore in front of Noah, she had been quite positive they were going to die today. Whether by the bullet of one of the twisted cops who "protected" the hospital or ate alive by one of the dozens of walkers that infested the lower levels of the hospital. She had thought without a shadow of a doubt that she was going to die today.
Dropping down the elevator shaft into a heavily infested body dumping ground was not one of her greatest plans, but it was a plan of necessity. She could practically hear Daryl's voice in her head, asking her just how fucking stupid was she?
But it had worked.
As her feet pounded against the pavement outside of the hospital, and she stared straight ahead at the broken spot in the fence, she realized her plan had worked. Noah was in front of her, close to the fence, he had managed to slip right out of the reach of the walkers and he was free.
He was going to see his family again. She was gonna make damn sure of that.
Hope she hadn't dared let herself truly believe in started to bloom in her heart. She was so, so close. But in the same moment that hope formed, it came crashing back down again in a spectacular show of flames.
The walkers that Noah had managed to avoid, were coming straight at her. She paused for moment, there were too many of them for her to slip past. She wasn't as agile or fast as Noah was. And there were too many for her to shoot, even if she did have enough bullets they would be on her faster than she could take them down.
She lifted the gun up and aimed directly at the first walker she saw. She breathed in, lined up the scopes just like Carol showed her at the prison, just like she had seen Maggie do a thousand times, and let the air out slowly as her finger tightened around the trigger.
The walker's head exploded as the bullet soared through his left eye. He fell to the ground and once again just a tiny sliver of hope bubbled in Beth's chest.
Maybe she couldn't shoot them all down. Maybe she wouldn't make it out of this hell hole, but god damnitshe was gonna take down as many of them as she could and she wouldn't waste a single damn bullet.
She re-aimed and shot again. And again. And again.
She created a small path in the walkers to the fence and knew she had to make a run for it. A walker stepped in front of her, moaning as it lunged for her. She stepped back and kicked him with all her might. Her ankle, that hadn't fully healed yet anyway, cried out at the stress, but she ignored it.
She liked to think that she had looked pretty badass doing that, and she wished Daryl could have seen her right now. She was pretty sure he would have been proud.
The walker had fallen back onto the concrete, others were taking its place, and her tiny window of opportunity was growing even more abysmal. She braced herself and went plowing forward.
She only barely noticed the walkers starting to surround her. She kept her eyes forward, never leaving the hole in the fence. Even as she felt one of the walker's faces brush against the side of her head, she refused to budge.
That was her compromise. She wasn't going to think about it.
Her death, that is. If this was her end, then she was just glad she could hold on to the fact that Noah would live another day and one day be back with his family. She could deal with death, just as long as she didn't have to see it coming.
In fact, she let herself fantasize about life on the other side of that fence. She let herself think about Noah seeing his family again. About what she would do after that. She thought about tracking down Maggie and Glenn. Carl and Judith. She thought about her family, her people and... her redneck.
There were plenty of questions she had about Daryl. All of which she hadn't let herself linger on while being trapped in Grady Memorial. Even if it were for just a moment, she wanted to think about the future that involved Daryl.
Gunshots brought her out of her fantasy and back to the painful reality. The walker that had been seconds away from chomping down on her shoulder, exploded, splattering her face with its blood. At the same time, two more walkers went down.
She almost laughed in excitement, almost turned around to look at the cops behind her, for the first time they were actually her saviors, but she didn't. She jumped over the dead corpses and pushed forward. She was only a few feet away from the hole when she felt arms wrap around her waist.
"No!" She cried out as she was yanked viciously backwards.
She caught a glimpse of Noah as she fell back, horror was etched into his face, as well as indecision. She saw him start towards to hole, probably thinking he could save her, but she knew better. She looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head.
One of them was leaving here today. No matter what.
Besides, if Noah was brought back into the hospital she knew that Dawn would kill him. Probably just to punish her too. She couldn't let that happen.
She struggled against the man's grasp, even used her nails to dig into his arms, but it did nothing. He held onto her with an iron grip, her ribs throbbed under the pressure of his grasp and she felt tears pricking at her eyes.
For one last defiant moment, she tried to summon her inner Daryl. Something she had done often since waking up in this hellhole. She desperately listened for his raspy voice of wisdom. What would Daryl do?
It was silly for her to bother. Obviously Daryl would never find himself in this situation. Daryl was bigger, stronger, and a better fighter. She couldn't hope to imitate her redneck, not in this situation.
Just as her struggles were starting to die down, the answer came to her, but it wasn't with Daryl's voice.
It was her brother's.
Now you listen here, Bethy. If somebody ever comes after you, tries to hurt you, I want you to use this.
She remembered how he pointed at her little elbow.
This is the strongest part of your body, and let me tell you, if you put everything you have into your first hit, you'll have more than enough time to make a run for it.
She couldn't remember why her brother had told her this, why he had thought his youngest sister, at barely the age of six would need to know this self defense tidbit, but she could remember the serious look on his face as he did. She could remember how she had nodded her head solemnly, her blonde curls bouncing in unison.
Her daddy, ever the soft heart, at the time wouldn't have been very happy knowing his son was teaching his baby girl how to fight, but right now, she could almost believe her daddy was watching down from where he was, him and Shawn both, her mama too, cheering her on.
That image brought the life back into her, she could feel an unknown strength filling her body, preparing her for her next move.
The officer was starting to loosen his grip, thinking that she had given up fighting him. Dawn's voice echoed in her head, They always come back.
She used the little bit of breathing space the officer had given her to free her arm, twist, and send it flying back into his face. She heard a satisfying crunch as her elbow connected with his nose.
She did exactly as her brother had told her, she had put everything into her hit and it had worked. The officer had let go of her entirely, crying out in surprise and pain as his hands flew up to his now profusely bleeding nose.
Run, Bethy. Run. She could have sworn she heard her brother's voice once more, this time not accompanied by a long forgotten memory.
So she listened to him and she ran.