chapter 1
Beth's P.O.V.
Prologue
My crush for Daryl Dixon was subtle, slow growing, like winter changing to spring. I used to think of him just as some redneck. Now he's like my angel.
The day the prison fell was the worst day of my life without a doubt. I had to watch my father by the hand of an evil man. Everyone was getting killed around me. People were running in all directions. I went looking for Judith, but she wasn't where I left her. I thought I was going to get killed. Then I heard someone call my name.
"Beth c'mon we gotta go."
He was right. The prison was finished. Gone. We needed to leave. So we did. We ran. We ran from the past so we could have a future.
I'm swimming in a lake. The sun is bright, making the water sparkle. I see a rock at the bottom of the lake. I can't quite make it out entirely but I feel drawn to it. I have to go get it. I take a gulp of air and dive down into the cool water. The water is eerily empty. There isn't a single fish swimming around me. The lake bottom is clear except for the rock. I feel like something bad is about to happen, but it doesn't matter as much as getting the rock. I'm almost at the lake bottom. I reach out my hand to grab the rock. My heart stops. It isn't a rock I'm reaching for it's my father's head. His dead eyes are staring at me. My breath slips out of my lungs. I panic. I'll never make it back to the surface in time. I'm going to drown. This is the end.
"BETH WAKE UP!" Daryl's voice wakes me up from my nightmare. I can hear my heart beat. I'm covered in a cold sweat. My breathing is in short pants. It wasn't real. I'm still alive.
I sit up in the twin bed. We found a house in a suburb last night. It had a small fence around it. The house was small. It had two bedrooms. One bedroom had one bed. The other bedroom had two twin beds. We awkwardly reached the decision that the bedroom with the two beds would be best.
"Are you okay Beth?" Daryl asks.
He's sitting on the other twin bed in a sleeveless shirt with his crossbow at the foot of the bed. He is giving me a look filled with concern. I nod my head.
"I'll be okay. I need to calm down. It was just a nightmare,"
"You want to talk about it?"
What? Did I hear that right? I've been alone with Daryl for two weeks and I've always had to start the conversations and they never really lasted long. Daryl Dixon wasn't the most talkative person in the world.
"Not really, I just want to forget about it," I replied. It's the truth I want to forget about it and never think about it again.
"I understand I've felt that way about a lot of things before,"
"Thanks Daryl," I say with a smile.
He nods and gets up off the twin bed and starts walking towards the kitchen. Luckily we found some canned fruit in the cabinets last night so we wouldn't have to go scavenging for breakfast today.
I stretch my arms above my head and swing my feet to the floor. My muscles are sore. We killed a lot of walkers yesterday. I change clothes and brush out my hair with the brush that was in the bathroom. No matter how much I brush it it's still a little unruly. I put it in a ponytail and go to the kitchen for breakfast.
Daryl is leaned against the counter eating canned fruit cocktail with his fingers. I grab a can of canned peaches and start eating.
"What are we going to do today?" I ask Daryl.
"We're going to keep searching for the rest of our group, and you're going to learn how to track,"
"Really?!" I ask. I'm excited. I want to have survival skills. I know I'll probably never be as good as Daryl as tracking but I'll still know how.
"Yep we'll head out after we finish eating and get all our shit together"
I quickly finish my peaches and hurry off to the bedroom to get my stuff. Daryl follows me. I grab my backpack, knife, and gun. I put my knife in its holder and I tuck the gun in the waistband of my pants. I put my other set of clothes and my newly obtained hairbrush into my backpack. I put the backpack on and look over at Daryl.
"I'm gonna go grab the cans of food then we can go," he says and walks off to the kitchen.
It's already hot outside and it's not even mid-day yet. We walked out of the neighborhood and into a field. The field was filled with pretty wildflowers and had a wooded area about a mile on the other side.
I looked over at Daryl. He was actually really handsome in a rough sort of way. I hadn't really noticed that before. He had a strong jawline and piercing blue eyes. He walked with a certain confidence to his stride, not over confident but not timid either. I looked away. What am I thinking? Daryl sees me as more of a kid he has to babysit. I can't start liking him like that. It would just make things weird and it's never going to happen. Or could it?
"We're almost to the woods," he said, his voice interrupting my confusing thoughts.
"So how exactly do you track?"
"You pay attention the marks, patterns or tracks left on the ground by whatever you're tracking. Different things make different tracks. Human tracks are usually shoeprints. Walker tracks are usually slurred and sloppy. Most animals leave paw prints or hoof marks,"
I nodded taking all the information in.
"Daryl, how did you get so good at tracking?"
"Never really had a choice. My mom died in a fire. My old man was drunk most of the time and didn't care. Merle was usually always in juvie or away with some women he met. If I didn't hunt I didn't eat."
"Oh," I say softly. His childhood sounded awful.
We finally got to the woods. All the shade from the trees made it a lot cooler. The woods were really beautiful with the sunlight filtering through the trees.
"Pay attention to the ground. See if you can find any tracks."
I focused and let my eyes scan the ground. I didn't see anything. I kept looking and saw indentions in the soil. They looked like deer tracks.
"Daryl I think I found something,"
He walked over and looked over my shoulder.
"Yep those are deer tracks. Let's follow them we may be able to have venison tonight. Good job, Beth."
I smiled and we followed the tracks. They lead us to the top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill there was a deer.
Before I even knew what was going on Daryl had a bolt loaded in his crossbow and had shot the deer, right through the heart.
We walked down the hill and went over to the deer.
"Maybe we can find a house or something and then clean and cook it." I suggested.
Daryl nodded," Sounds like a plan,"
We walked for about half a mile when we spotted a farmhouse. It was a yellow two story old fashioned farmhouse. Daryl set the deer down in front of the steps and loaded his crossbow. He pointed it ahead and motioned for me to get behind him. I did and took out my knife from its holder. Daryl went up the steps of the house and opened the front door and went through. I followed. We cleared all the rooms; there was only one walker, which Daryl shot easily through the head. After that we went outside to clean the deer. Daryl skinned and gutted the deer. We cooked it over a fire outside. Then we went back inside.
We pushed all the furniture against the exits so nothing could get in. I'm so tired. All I want to do is sleep.
"I'm going to sleep," I told Daryl.
"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. We need to rest while we can."
I went to the bathroom upstairs and changed into the set of clothes I sleep in. I really miss having pjs' to sleep in. I walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. My heart skipped a beat. The bedroom was the only bedroom in the house and it only had one bed.
