Chapter 1
Her ears were ringing from the sound of gunshots and explosions, but somehow through all the notice she could still hear the frantic pounding of her heart as she searched for the kids.
Had they been shot in the attack?
Had they panicked and forgotten where to go?
"Lizzie! Mika!"she cried out, hoping against hope that this time they'd hear her and come running.
"Beth!"
The call that came in response was gruff and masculine but flooded her with relief.
'Daryl.'
She whipped around to see him striding towards her, crossbow in hand, his eyes flitting around for approaching walkers.
"I can't find the kids they weren't on the bus!" She blurted out. He'd help her, he'd know what to do.
She saw his eyes dart past her and heard the twang of his crossbow followed by the thud of a walker hitting the ground a few yards behind her.
"We gotta go, Beth." He replied, taking a few steps towards her. He used the same blunt tone she was used to hearing from him, his eyes seemed to be pleading with her.
"We gotta go." He repeated in a softer voice. She looked around one last time, hoping for some sign of the children, or anything else from her life at the prison which could ground her bock to where she'd been that morning. But all she saw were more walkers slowly flooding through the fences and descending on the newly dead and dying.
Swallowing down the tears and nausea that threatened to overwhelm her she set her jaw and nodded grimly to Daryl, following him wordlessly away from the prison.
He led them straight into the woods, motioning for hew to follow behind him closely. With the noise of the prison behind them, the thumping of her heartbeat seemed to fill her ears. Being out in the woods after so long felt exposed. She shivered involuntarily, and exhaled nervously trying to calm her nerves. Daryl looked back at her questioningly but said nothing.
In silence the walked on, running parallel but out of sight of the road. Every hour or so they'd spot a walker and put it down as quietly as possible, never muttering more then the necessary "over there."
By the time Daryl spoke again in earnest the sun had started to set and Beth felt dead on her feet. Though they seemed to simply be walking away from the prison, Daryl had clearly had some sense of where they were heading, because as he stopped and turned to her Beth could see the trees thinning into a grassy yard behind him.
"Gotta find a place to stop tonight." He muttered. "Should be a house here the walkers haven't gotten back into. Won't be much in the way of food though- we hit this neighborhood months ago."
Beth nodded in agreement, feeling for the first time the slight awkwardness of the situation. Unlike her sister, she's never frequented the supply runs. Her and Daryl knew each other of course, and she trusted him with her life ten times over, but as they broke into the second house on the cul de sac and barred the door back shut together, she realized this was the most prolonged time alone she'd spent with him in over a year of living together.
The thought made her feel awkward and profoundly lonely, and like a switch had flipped all of a sudden the emotional weight of the day came crashing down on her all at once. Her home was gone, she'd lost the kids and left without finding them, she didn't know where Maggie was... And daddy... Her poor poor daddy...
She sank to the floor gasping to breath over the powerful sobs that wracked her body. She felt a twinge of embarrassment at the thought of Daryl seeing her like this, but it was nothing compared to the pain of the day.
'Let him think I'm even weaker than he already did,' she thought defiantly. But then he was crouching down next to her, his strong bare arm cradling her against his chest, as she sobbed on.
"You're ok. I've got you." He murmured. And she sat there cradled against his chest until her sobs turn to hiccups, and the exhaustion of the day finally won out.