Daryl Dixon knew one thing for sure: he was tired of walking. Since joining Joe and his gang, he felt like all he did was walk. These guys never settled down anywhere for more than a night or two. They were wanderers, as he had once been. He should have felt at ease, comfortable. This had been his life for so long before Rick and his troupe of good-doers. This is how Merle and him had lived. Going from one spot to another, salvaging anything they could find and then moving on. But, as he walked, Daryl realized more and more that this wasn't his life anymore or, at least, he had had a chance of this not being his life anymore, but that chance had been taken away from him in a black car with a cross on the back.
He wasn't going there. It had been weeks since he had lost Beth. He needed to get over it. He wasn't going to find her. She was gone, just gone. He hadn't expected to lose her so quickly. They had only gotten out of the prison weeks before. They had burnt that house down together and he had seen her for the first time that night. Well, seen her as anything but Hershel's youngest. She had become a fighter right in front of him when she called him out on his bullshit. When she had told him he was afraid, his mouth had almost hung open. The girl had had balls to do it, and he had respected the hell out of her afterwards. The night he had lost her, something had been brewing in his mind. When he had looked at her for the last time, she had known that the reason he still believed in the world was because of her. Before he could even get any words out though, all hell had broken loose. He had got caught in the basement and she had ran because he told her to. Damn it, he should have kept her with him. As Daryl was getting caught up in his own head, he didn't notice that Joe was even talking until he was up close to his face.
"Daryl, we are stopping here for a little while. We all need a break." Joe said it casually, but Daryl could see the side-to-side move in Joe's eyes. The guy was sure as shit lying through his teeth. There was a reason they were stopping here. Daryl looked around. This road didn't look any different than the any of the others they had been walking. It was just an old country road with forest on both sides. No farmhouses or sheds anywhere. Usually, they didn't stop unless they had shelter to sleep in. Daryl looked at Joe again. The guy was looking up the road, like he was expecting someone or something. Something was going down here today.
Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to himself, Daryl decided to just leave it alone and bunk down for the night. As he laid out his sleeping bag in the leaf-filled ditch to the left side of the road, he saw some wild berries growing on a bush at the edge of the forest. Just as Daryl set up, he saw Randy, that shady ass twitchy bastard in Joe's gang, look up at the bush too.
Before that asshole could open his mouth, Daryl yelled out, "Claimed," as he marched over to the bush and pulled the berries off. Popping a few into his mouth on the way back to his bag, Daryl couldn't help but smirk at Randy a little. At first, Daryl hadn't liked the whole idea of claiming things as solely yours, for no one else's use. That had been Merle's way of things. Rick had taught him a different way-the 'one for all' way. But now, Daryl could see the beauty in it and the necessity. Look at what looking out for others had got all of them at the prison. Homeless. Dead. Kidnapped. Take your pick. There was something to be said for having something be yours and yours alone. No one could take it from you, unless they wanted one hell of a beatdown from the rest of the gang. When you claimed it, you owned it. End of story.
Daryl had just gotten off to sleep, when he heard a car coming up the road. He opened his eyes to see headlights coming toward them from about a mile up the road. He looked around. The others were getting up, but not with any alarm. They didn't see too worried or much like they cared at all. Daryl turned back around when he heard the brakes on the car. It was stopping. Daryl got up as he saw Joe walk towards the car. It was pitch black outside. Daryl's eyes were still seeing mostly shadows, but they were quickly focusing to their surroundings. They snapped completely to attention though, when Daryl could see the black shimmer on the car, as Joe walked up to the driver's side. He bent his head as the window came down. Joe was talking to the driver. Yeah, this was definitely why they had stopped here. Joe had been expecting this guy, Daryl could tell. Daryl saw the guy through the windshield. He had short, black hair and a sly grin on his face as he pointed to the back seat of the car. Daryl couldn't see anything, but when Joe peaked in and looked back at the guy, he was sporting the same shit-faced grin on his face. Daryl's stomach lurched. Whatever was in the back seat, both men wanted.
"Boys, get on up here." Joe yelled back to all of them. "Leon got us some fun stuff to play with in here." Ah, so that was it. This 'Leon' was their scavenger. Daryl figured it was just booze, but didn't want to look like a pussy, so he followed everyone up.
"Pretty." Randy breathed out, as he looked in the back. Pretty? Daryl thought. Daryl was about to look in the back when he saw it. As he neared the car, he could see the back windshield. Clear as day, he saw a white cross. Daryl knew what was in the back of the car before he looked. He all but ran to the passenger side door. Wrenching open the thing, he looked down and saw her. The blonde hair was tangled and had fallen half way out of the ponytail he had last seen it in, still had the same jeans and yellow jacket as that night too. The one big difference was the welt on her right temple and a swollen eye that was black and blue and she had been gagged with duct tape. Daryl knew what he had to do as the driver got out of the car. It was the way of the gang. Just as she opened her eyes, Daryl yelled out, "Claimed."
He saw the recognition immediately, but then her eyes drifted over the other males surrounding her and fear shot into them. She shot up, but that was when they both realized that her hands had been tied together. She looked up to him, all panic. The other guys were scooting closer in and that nasty ass Randy was reaching for the driver side door to open it.
"Did you fuckers not hear me? I said claimed. So, back the hell off." Daryl said, as he reached in and locked the driver's side door. Joe was there then.
"You heard 'im, boys. I would have shared her, Daryl ain't, so leave it be," said Joe, shaking his head as he walked away from the car.
Daryl jumped into the back seat as they all started reluctantly walking away. He grabbed Beth's wrists with one hand and hauled them over her head. "Start thrashing around now." He said as he kicked out to make the car move. Beth looked at him in confusion. "Just do it and start yelling like you're scared. Now!" She did, as best she could gagged, and Daryl stretched out and put his full body weight on her. He knew exactly what this looked and sounded like to the other guys. It was what he wanted. They needed to think she was his. Daryl took his time peeling the tape off. He didn't want to hurt her. He didn't have the balls to ask her if she had been hurt other than the black eye and knock on the head. He didn't want to know the answer.
Daryl peeled the tape off as gently as he could which wasn't easy with Beth thrashing under him. When he finally got it off, he put his finger to his lips and Beth quit yelling. "I need to get you out of this car, but we can't leave. They'll come after us. Shit, we are going to have to wing this. I'm not going to hurt you though and I won't let them, got it?" Beth just nodded. "Here we go," said Daryl as he pulled her out of the car.