Carol focused on her every step, keeping her eyes only on the train tracks in front of her.
She was afraid if she looked back - if she allowed the grief of Lizzie and Mika to seep in - that she'd lose her will to keep going at all.
Tyreese was silent beside her, bouncing Judith lightly in his arms.
He was determined to reach the sanctuary Terminus, holding tightly to the hope that Sasha and the others could be there.
Carol wished she could believe that.
She wanted nothing more than the opportunity to see their group again. Their family.
But Carol hardly had any hope or faith left in her. She would continue down the train tracks for Tyreese though. She owed him that much at least.
SNAP!
The sudden sound from the woods pulled Carol from her thoughts. She stopped, barely breathing, listening intently. Another twig snapped even closer and she pulled her knife, ready to take down any stray walkers.
She held still, waiting quietly as the ruffling of leaves and snapping of twigs got closer and closer, until a lone figure stumbled from the tree line.
Carol raised her knife but froze in her tracks as she stared at the slight figure before her.
"Beth?"
...
"I was with Daryl." Beth began. "We got overrun. He told me to meet him in the road. Last thing I remember was headlights coming' up behind me and then pain."
Beth leaned heavily against a tree, taking gulps of the water Carol had offered her. Her hair was a frizzy mess and her face was scraped up, but she looked no worse for wear otherwise.
"I woke up in the car's trunk. My gun was gone but they didn't see the knife I had hid in my boot." She paused and took a shaky breath.
"It's okay if you don't wanna talk about it right now." Tyros gently assured her. Beth shook her head.
"No, it's okay. Really. . . the car stopped and I head one man say somethin' about checkin' to see if I was still knocked out. When he opened the trunk I jumped up and stabbed him in the chest. He wasn't expectin' it. I jumped out and grabbed his gun and shot him. When the other guy got out to see what was goin' on I shot him too. . . then I took off for the woods and been walkin' this direction ever since."
Carol and Tyreese stared in shock, taking it all in.
"And Daryl?" Carol asked, fighting to keep her voice even.
Beth shrugged, her eyes full of sadness.
"I don't know. I don't even know if he made it out of the house we were stayin' in at all."
Carol nodded.
"Okay well . . . once you're rested we need to keep goin'. We're not far from Terminus and I wanna get there before sundown." Carol left Beth to rest in peace.
She felt tears attempting to well up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Any hope she'd let form when the youngest Greene girl had emerged from the forest had just been destroyed with her last words.
