HELLO!, This is the first The Walking Dead fiction i've done. I might continue onto more chapters. I will note this don't completely follow the story-line and I do not own The Walking Dead

Daryl and Beth have been on the road after the outbreak of the prison.

No time

"We aren't goin' to kill you" The average sized man sighed, while shaking his head. His hair was dark with splats of light red blood, covering the tips of each hair strand. The splats of blood were then followed down to his face. He had black paint smudged across each cheek, much like a scavenger. The blood then followed down to his neck, it getting a darker shade of red when it hits his clothes. The man then looked back down to his preys. They were sitting against a tree's trunk with their hands tied, a girl with blonde hair and a man with a crossbow, that was.

Daryl looked lost and miserable, almost like he had no effort left to move. He looked like a man who hadn't spoken in weeks, but if he tried too, no sound would be heard. He kept his eyes on his crossbow that was softly resting in the hands of the second man, standing behind the average man, like he is his subordinate.

Beth was sitting beside Daryl, breathing hard with wide eyes. One minute they were both in the woods tracking; Daryl was training her with his crossbow. Beth started to get frustrated with the silent treatment she was getting and burst out ranting. Suddenly everything happened in a flash as two men came out the horizon and took them down, tying their hands around the tree trunk.

"The world is getting worse" Beth cried out. "Don't make it anymore worse then what it already is-"

"Oh, we wouldn't dream of it" The man licked his lips and made a small sucking noise. Daryl looked up and underestimated this.

"Ya sick bastered" Daryl effortlessly choked. The man turned his head to Daryl quickly, his smile whipped off and replaced with an inwards pout and then he looked him up and down in disgust.

"We ain't gonna hurt ya. Either of you" The man claimed with creepiness. "You both just happened to pass our path with you're guards remarkably lower then ours –"

"Fuck ya" Daryl mumbled and watched his foot wiggle a little, from being in a sorrow of pins and needles. The man raised his eyebrows and stepped forward.

"I don't like you. And I especially don't like you're words" The man said and then coughed, almost like he had a cold. He then pulled the bloody knife out from his back pocket and held it there, so it was invisible to his preys.

"I almost feel threatened by you" He smirked. The man's knife that was firmly held with his hand twitched before he heard a body from behind him hit the leaves covering the floor. He turned to his subordinate and looked down at his lifeless body on the floor, a bullet hole in his head but there was no sound from the gun. The man looked up and at Daryl but quickly realised they had no weapons to make this situation occur. He raised his gun and aimed it around their surroundings.

"Don't hide" He shouted and listened as it echoed through out the forest. Daryl and Beth looked at each other with questionable expressions.

"I said don't-"The man's body fell to the floor silently and had the finishing touch of the splats of blood surrounding his hair and face.

"What the hell-"Daryl looked around, and only hoped it wasn't a threat. They would have no chance with there hands tied like this and their weapons out of reach. The only chance they would have is if this person... or what ever it was was here to help them.

"-was that?" Beth finished off for him.

Suddenly a figure walked out from the horizon in front of them. It was a woman's skinny figure, she had baggy pants and a dark jumper on, with her hoodie up that covered her face completely. The hot silent pistol was in her hand, but not raised. She walked up and stopped just near there feet. She hesitated like she was analyzing something but decided to freeze.

Daryl wanted to speak but he felt threatened by her. Partly because he couldn't see her face but mostly because she was just standing there, like she could see them but they couldn't see her. If Daryl was wrong he would have classed her as a ghost, but he knew from Merle they where some sort of myth. Every time her finger twitched on the trigger, Daryl would get into attack mode while Beth would flinch.

The figure slowly moved her hands, still holding the gun, to her hoodie. She moved it back and revealed her face.

Carol

Daryl and Beth's mouths opened a little, in time together that their jaws hurt.

"Carol?" Beth smiled with relief but Daryl was still in shock. He thought she was dead, he thought that after Rick throwing her out of the prison after she killed Karen and David she wouldn't survive this long. Fuck, they barley make it this far but Carol had been out there far longer then they have. Daryl tried to speak but it was unfortunate that he couldn't find his voice now.

Instead Daryl took her in. Above her eyebrow was blood gushing out, down towards her cheek and down her chest. Her face was muddy, almost like she had been digging for coal, but most of all what hurt Daryl the most was her scar. There was a jagged scar running down from the corner of her eye and down to her cheek. Daryl could tell it was new because the skin on its edges have not started to curl up, with some pink flesh still showing through. But he somehow knew this scar would be permanent. He wonders how she got it, did she do it herself accidently – he was always accidently slitting the knife on his skin when fighting. Or was it a threat. Daryl started to feel this angry feeling in his stomach.

He didn't know why he was feeling this but it was bubbling, he should have been there to help her, to kill the bastered that added another scar to not only her body but her face. They heard the noise before they seen it - A walkers moan echoed within the forest.

Suddenly a walker stepped out from behind a tree on there left. It was an ugly walker that could not have been identified but they could tell from the clothes it was a young woman. At the same time, Daryl and Beth turned their heads to the walker to panic about their tied hands but not even a second later Carol's silent pistol was raised and shot it down spot on. Beth looked at the walker trying to function if it was really dead while Daryl turned his head to Carol. Carol had changed; Daryl didn't need to have been told that, to know it. Carol isn't a bubbly, caring person no more, or someone who would help others. But had she changed for the worse or better?

Carol looked down at her pistol, reloaded it, and shivered at the thought of rotten blood. Daryl instantly knew the old Carol was there. He remembered when they where at the prison, killing the walkers through the fence was the time Daryl realised Carol shivered the most when shooting the pipe into the walkers head. He knew Carol had changed, but being the person who shivered at gore now a day was the person who didn't even survive in small spaces. Daryl knew that being on your own turns you into this villain, from surviving and over thinking independently.

Carol walked over to one man she killed and looted his body. Finding nothing she went to the other man to only find nothing again.

"I thought you where..." Beth broke the silence.

Carol looked at her, sighed and picked up Daryl's crossbow. She walked silently towards them and put the crossbow beside Daryl's feet.

"I'm so glad you are okay!" Beth smiled and nudged Daryl's arm to say something. Daryl didn't take the hint, but it wouldn't have mattered if he did anyway. He didn't trust Carol. The old Carol would have untied their hands by now, before she looted the bodies anyway. Maybe she didn't trust them.

"Are ya goin' to untie us?" Daryl sarcastically asked but his voice was weak and low then usual. Carol looked up and took another pistol out her back pocket. She checked to see if it was full of bullets and then threw it onto the floor beside there feet.

"There's no time" Carol whispered harshly. She threw her backpack onto the floor and bent down to take out knifes. Daryl knitted his eyebrows and inspected the knifes. There were more then at least ten knifes all attacked to a small chain.

"No time for what?" Beth asked. Carol looked through the knifes as if this was nothing new to her. Beth winced every time a knife scraped with another, but she mostly winced at the thought of the knife touching her flesh. Suddenly Carol stopped and quickly looked up to the left of the forest. Daryl followed her line of sight and then back to her. Carol's eyes squinted almost like she couldn't see but they suddenly went wide and she looked back down to the knifes.

Faster then before she looked through the knifes and found a suitable one. She unclipped it from the chain and threw it onto the floor beside the gun.

"Woman, what ya doin'?" Daryl raised his voice. Carol looked up and at him. For the first time Daryl couldn't find the light in her eyes, almost like there is no hope left in her. He couldn't find the twinkles he loved to look at, but now his eyes always wondered to her scar.

Carol shook her head, picked up her backpack and ran right. Daryl could hear her feet hitting the leaves and listened to it until the sound disappeared. Until Carol disappeared.

"Carol!" Daryl shouted and tried to attempt to untie his hands. He couldn't loose her now, but she slipped out his fingers before she even got in them. She was so close, weeks of being with Beth and thinking Carol was dead. Only to find her and for her to run from him. Daryl grunted over and over while trying to untie his hands but he could feel the blood starting to ooze.

"Shut up! You'll attract them!" Beth whispered "You'll att-"

"Carol!" Daryl shouted again and started to pull forward onto his hands.

"Daryl" Beth cried shakily and nudged his arm.

"This fuckin' tree!" Daryl could feel his hands rubbing on the bark but the pain made him want to fight more. He wanted... needed to get to Carol. He wanted to protect Carol and Beth. Nobody should fight this world alone, the more they had the better.

"Daryl" Beth tried again while looking away from him.

"What!?" Daryl growled and looked up to the back of Beth's head. He looked over her shoulder and came into line of sight of walkers. A whole herd of them. His body flopped down like a fish and came to terms they where going to die. The herd are going to eat them alive while they can't do a damn thing because their bloody arms are stuck to a damn tree. Daryl looked around, ignoring Beth's small sobs and looked down at the knife and gun Carol left.

Daryl's brain clicked. That was what Carol was looking at when she was fiddling with the knifes. That's why she left the weapons beside them. She knew the herd where travelling towards them. Carol tried to act fast, she tried to do the right thing to higher their chances. She left a gun, crossbow and knife after all. But why didn't she untie their hands, wouldn't have that been quicker? Then all three of them would get out the forest together and survive together. But mostly, that was what Carol was talking about.

There's no time.

Please review you're thoughts! Many Thanks!