This is a small oneshot me and Bethylgrixon came up with, inspired by a headcanon she found. This is set a couple months after the midseason finale, which Beth survived and is reunited with her family.
Beta'd by Canadiangrlforever, thank you!
Come Little Children
Beth strapped her sheathed knife on her belt, licking her dry lips. She's outside, surrounded by empty trees and the cold air. Beth sniffed and zipped her green coat a little higher up, her dark grey, knitted scarf now under the fabric. The blonde shivered, it's freezing and mentally made a note to thank Carol for knitting her a scarf. Beth also mentally noted to look for some leggings to put under her now thinned jeans, the fabric felt frozen against the skin of her thighs.
Somewhere an hour ago, Rick announced that a supply run is needed. And fast as well, they have three wounded and Rosita caught a fever, just a simple cold. But then again, even a simple cold can kill you nowadays without proper treatment. Luckily for them they found a family cabin in the woods, it was perfect for a couple days. Rosita and Carol needed the bed rest and Noah and Eugene could use a break as well.
But they needed gauze and medicine and they were almost out of that, so that supply run was needed and badly as well.
Beth volunteered to go, so did Tara, Carl and Michonne. They were the fastest of the group at the moment. They needed a couple strong people to guard the cabin, so that was up for Rick, Abraham and Sasha. Maggie and Glenn were walking the perimeter, minding their own business. And Beth was glad for that, her sister became overprotective after Grady.
She looks up at the winter sun, it's about three in the afternoon she guessed, remembering what Daryl taught her.
"You sure you'll be alright," Daryl suddenly stood behind her, snapping her out of her thoughts. Beth let out a startled gasp, she didn't hear him at all. Crossbow strapped on his back, ready to hunt their meal.
Beth nodded and smiled at her dear friend and nodded. "I'll be fine, it'll be a quick run. In and out, we'll be back around sundown."
Daryl nodded and shrugged. "I'll be back then as well. Be careful, Beth."
"I will," the blonde spoke with confidence and then sighed, smiling a little. "I know you don't want me out of your sight, I just need to do something."
"Next time you're coming with me," Daryl pointed to the forest, hinting towards hunting. "Continue your lessons."
Beth smiled and spotted Tara waving at her in the corner of her eye. "I got to go, see you later."
So they left to the little town fifteen minutes away from their location by feet, a small town tourists visited during the summer. And now they are here to scavenge the left behind food and medical supplies. All four of them decided to stay at the side closest to the forest, making their run fast so they could go back in an hour or two, at least before sundown. Rick even wanted to wait till tomorrow, but in the end they convinced Rick it will be a fast run.
"So," Carl started, looking at his surroundings. They were at the entrance of the town, a large school stood gloomy on their right. The teen pointed at the houses across the school. "Michonne and I will take those houses here and you two will go into the school?"
Beth nodded, cleaning some dirt under her thumb with her fingernail. "Yeah, Tara and I cover the school. We'll see what supplies we can get from there."
Carl nodded, understanding the blonde.
"Be careful," Michonne told the two younger women. "Might be a lot of walkers in there."
"We'll be fine," Tara smiled and held out her fist towards Beth, who laughed and bumped the hand with her own. The brunette looked at the teen and the black woman. "You two take care as well."
"Remember, we'll meet each other here back on the road. If the place gets overrun, go to the woods by the willow," Michonne reminded them of their meeting spot, nodding at the two.
"Got it," Beth responded and waved as the other two walked off, leaving her and Tara at the schoolyard. The blonde turned to Tara. "Let's go."
They walked towards the entrance door, it was locked with a big chain. The metal of the chain was rusted, realized it had been there for a long time. On the wooden door was a warning sign, written on with paint. Beth sighed. The same old story since the start of the apocalypse. Although, you barely see it nowadays anymore. Most signs have been ripped or washed away,
"Dead inside, do not enter," Tara read out loud, she too had heard the same thing over and over. "It must been on here for a while, meaning there are a lot of walkers inside."
"Let's hope it's worth the risk," Beth started unwrapping the chain of the door handles, they were loosely thrown over them making them easy to come off. When Beth was done, she dropped the chains on the ground and grabbed the door handles.
When Beth opened the door she was greeted with stale dust in her face. She coughed in the green sleeve of her winter jacket. "That's a lot of dust," she remarked towards Tara. "Door's been closed for a long while."
Both women walked inside the school, into the dark, empty hallways as their footsteps echoed. Beth noticed that Tara shivered and not because of the cold that hung in the air with the stench of the dead. Overall it had an unnerving ambience.
"This place gives me the creeps," Tara admitted as she turned on her flashlight, shining over the dirty floor. Here and there a corpse of a child, which saddened both women. "I've seen this in a horror movie before, you know with abandoned buildings and serial killers?" the brunette scoffed at her own joke and frowned afterward. "Or was it a videogame..."
Beth shined her light on the map near the entrance door, it showed the classrooms and other rooms in the school and nudged Tara lightly. "Let's do this quick, I don't like this place at all and I don't feel like staying here for a while."
Tara nodded in agreement. "I agree, so..." Tara looked at the map and hmm'ed. "So infirmary is a must go, maybe we can hit the teacher's lounge, janitor closet and the kindergarten section," the brunette looked at Beth, who raised a brow. "You know for Judy, get her a new toy."
"Maybe we can look in the science classroom as well, might be some batteries," Beth added and looked at the map again. "We're closest to the janitor closet and the infirmary, let's hit those first. Science room afterwards and then the teacher's lounge and the kindergarten. And then we get the hell out of here," Beth ended her plan.
Tara tilted her head to the right and shrugged. "Sounds like a plan."
-X-
The janitor closet was nothing, just junk. So after that waste of time they headed to the infirmary, which wasn't that far away from where they are, just across at the end of the hall on the left. Tara leaned against the wall as Beth knocked on the door, alerting whatever is inside. She pressed her ear against the wood, listening for a sign of life -or dead in case it's a walker. It's probably the latter because she heard a weakened moan from the other side of the door.
"Walker inside," Beth murmured to Tara who pushed herself off the wall. Beth unsheathed the knife and slowly opened the door, not knowing where the walker is located. There is no weight against the door, which means the walker isn't close, but still dangerous. Beth pushed the door open wide and listened for the growls. But she saw the walker when she entered the room, nearly choking on the rotten air. Her eyes watered at the stench and muttered a curse under her breath. This one has been here for a while.
The walker was in a pathetic state, one of the cabinets had fallen on the rotten walker, crushing the spine. The thing is starved and desperately reached out with her boney and only arm towards the blonde.
"God, this place reeks," Tara whispered behind her as she entered. She shined the light on the walker. "That explains it."
Beth walked towards the weakened walker and stabbed it through the skull. The knife came out coated with a thick layer of black blood. Beth grimaced and wiped it off on the tattered uniform the walker wore.
"She must have been the nurse," Beth pointed at the once white blouse and trousers, now covered in blood and grime. "No signs of other walkers in this place, she must have holed up here and got in an accident that killed her," Beth pointed at the cabinet.
"And when she reanimated, she tore one of her arms off trying to crawl away," Tara added as she started to look around in the cabinets. "Surprises me that she didn't tore her upper body half off."
"Yeah, and that means that this place is probably untouched," Beth now also started searching the cabinets and drawers, taking everything they can.
Tara hummed in agreement, finding a bottle of painkillers and rubbing alcohol. "This place is a goldmine!"
"Maybe, if we're lucky the school is pretty untouched itself," Beth mentioned as she shoved a bottle of vitamin C pills in the slowly filling backpack.
They both stuffed their bags full with the remaining pills, gauze and bandages and headed out of the small infirmary. On their way to the science classroom they killed another teacher walker and a smaller one that belonged to a child.
"I hate seeing child walkers," Beth murmured as she covers up the body of the child and she heard Tara hum in agreement.
"Sucks that it's a school..."
The science lab didn't have much besides a couple batteries and the two decided to go on to the next stop. When they got there, Tara suggested splitting up for a moment to work a little faster. After all, the kindergarten section was across the teachers' lounge so they still were pretty close to each other, plus there weren't much walkers in here -which made Beth wonder what happened to all the other kids and teacher, had they gotten out?
So Beth headed into the teachers' lounge as Tara walked into the classroom littered with toys, grime and a layer of dust.
The teachers' lounge was another goldmine, dried foods, crackers, a small bottle of aspirin and even some instant coffee. She all stuffed it into her bag pack, now full of supplies. When Beth decided that she was done she walked to towards the exit of the room to help Tara with the baby stuff they needed for Judith. Beth just remembered they were almost out of formula for Judith and it wouldn't hurt to take some more.
Just as her foot touched the doorpost, she heard them. Small, low growls and moans. Her hearing got sharper after months and months on the run, two and a half years in the apocalypse. She heard them loud and clear, their small feet scuffling in the echoing hallway. Beth hid against the wall next to the door, out of sight from the eight child walkers. She hoped they would just pass by as they didn't notice her or Tara -who hopefully heard them, too.
Only to her dismay, she heard a loud crashing object in the classroom across her, quickly followed by a startled "Oh shit, where's my knife?" from Tara, who tried to sound calm. But Beth heard the panic in her voice. The walker children had heard it and turned their decayed heads towards the source of the noise.
Damn it, Tara, Beth thought in panic, trying to control it. She had to help the brunette, but she needed a plan. It's not possible to just barge in and kill them without attracting more attention of hidden walkers to her. No she had to play this smart.
A bitter idea hits her. A song. She could softly sing to lure the children walkers to her, hopefully not all at once. A lullaby pops up in her head, one of a movie that Maggie made her watch a lot of times. Yeah, this could work, she could sing that version. An eerie lullaby to lure children.
"Come little Children, I'll take the away," Beth started singing gently, her voice echoing in the hallway, giving it a chilling effect. "Into a land of enchantment."
The walker children heard her voice and turned towards her, their dead eyes looking for the source. She'd caught there attention. Still hidden behind the wall, she continued softly.
"Come little children, the times come to play," One of them started moving, but the others didn't follow yet. It was the shell of what once was a lively red-haired girl, robbed of her life too soon. Beth unsheathed her knife, prepared herself to kill the walker and continued the song. "Here in my garden of shadows."
The walker girl came closer and closer, struggling on her boney legs, lured towards the voice in the shadows, unknown of what's waiting for her. Beth slowly breathed out as she saw the walker girl enter the room, she grabbed the tiny shoulders back with one hand and dug the knife deep into the back of the walker. The body dropped dead once more, this time definite.
The blonde quickly glanced at the remaining child walkers in the hall, they're searching for the voice that was now gone. Beth grimly again hid against the wall and continued.
"Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way," Beth scoffed in her mind, the lyrics oddly seemed to fit. "Through all the pain and the sorrow."
This time she caught three of the children in once with her luring voice. Two boys and one little girl, couldn't be older than ten. She waited for them as she softly hummed, still luring them to her. Just as the first boy passed the doorsteps, she jumped to action and jabbed her knife into the forehead of the boy and it dropped onto the floor, next to the corpse of the girl from earlier. She kept humming as the second and third came snapping at her through the doorway and quickly ended them as well.
Beth quickly glanced outside the doorpost again, four left moaning and growling in the hallway. Beth continued to sing.
"Weep not poor children, it must be this way," moans instead of weeping, but Beth knew they must have been weeping before their demise. A silent tear fell over her cheek, they must have been so scared. She had to kill them, not to just save Tara, but she had to put them out of their misery as well. So she kept singing. "Murdering beauty and passions."
The remaining walkers now gave all their attention to Beth, totally forgotten about the brunette in the other room. There were four left, and they were children so that would be so hard to kill now. As Beth came out of her hiding spot, carefully not to trip over the bodies in the darkness. The walker children saw her and snapped their heads towards her, aggressive but hungry moans sent in her direction. As she stabbed the first walker child that came closer to her, she continued singing.
"Rest now my children, for soon we'll away," a hint of sadness laced her voice as she softly sang to them, killing two other walkers "Into the calm and the quiet."
She pierced her knife in the head of the last walker, a boy that too looked no older than eight. With his dark curls he reminded her of Luke, the little boy at the prison. The boy whose shoes she found on the train tracks, on a puddle of blood and flesh.
The boy dropped to the floor, it was done. They're all dead. No more danger.
Beth sighed and leaned against the wall and wiped the brain matter and sickly dark blood from her knife on a rag she had on her belt. She sheathed the knife again and slid down the wall onto the cold, stained with dirt floor.
The blonde looked at the four dead child corpses on the floor "Come little children, I'll take thee away," she sadly continued her song, voice slightly cracking. "Into the land of enchantment."
Their innocent souls have long gone to heaven, their land of enchantment. Another tear slipped over her cheek.
"Come little children, the times come to play," her voice cracked a little more as she finished her song. "Here in my gardens of...Shadows."
It was quiet now, besides the howling wind that could be heard from the outside. No moans, nor growling or snapping teeth. No more singing. It was quiet and Beth buried her head in her hands, rubbing a coming up headache away.
"That was so creepy," Tara's voice snapped her back into reality. Beth looked up and saw the brunette standing in the doorpost of the classroom, bag almost overflowing with supplies. In her hands two packs of formula for Judith that couldn't fit in her bag, the brunette smiled at her thankfully. "But it was creepily awesome."
Beth got up from her sitting position and walked back into the teachers' lounge to get her bag back. She picked up the backpack and headed back to Tara who was waiting for her in the hallways. "Let's go before more walkers give us more trouble."
Tara nodded in agreement. "I wonder where all the other walkers are..."
"How about we don't find out," Beth muttered, she was done with this place.
"Hmm, this place really gives me the creeps," Tara hummed as they walked back outside.
The brunette closed the door as Beth picked up the heavy chains and secured the entrance again. It was snowing again, the white flakes gathering on the floor, creating a coat of white fluff.
"Sorry for being a klutz again. I heard them and tried to hide and my back knocked over a plastic box full of toys," Tara admitted as they walked towards their meeting spot with Michonne and Carl. "If I stayed quiet you wouldn't have to go through that trouble."
"It's not your fault, could've happened to me as well. I'm kind of a klutz as well," Beth smiled at her friend. "Found anything for Judy?"
Tara nodded and opened the duffle bag, taking out a stuffed bunny. "You think she'll like it? You know her better than anyone."
"I think she'll like it," Beth smiled and waved at Michonne and Carl at the end of the road.
-X-
As they returned back to the cabin, Daryl did too and Beth smiled kindly at him, mouthing an 'I told you I would be fine' and headed inside. She gave the bag to Sasha in the living room who told her to wake Judy up from her nap. The blonde thanked the black woman and headed upstairs to get the toddler.
She entered the baby room as quietly as she could, Rosita may be sleeping. The baby room originally belonged to a boy, with blue painted walls and carpet floor. Beth walked towards the crib near the curtain covered window, not letting any light in or out. She shook the toddler gently then caressed the round cheeks slightly wet by the slobber of the baby
"Hey baby girl," she cooed at the baby whose eyelashes fluttered open. Judith squealed at the sight of her caretaker and reached out with her chubby arms. Beth picked up the one year old. "It's dinnertime, Aunty Tara found some formula for you."
She carried the toddler out of the room, trying to keep her quiet. When she headed down the stairs, she nodded towards Abraham who brought some medicine and a bottle of water towards Rosita.
She greeted Tyreese and Carol in the living room and headed towards the kitchen. She sat Judith down in the high chair and grabbed one of the packs of formula Tara had placed there earlier and set it on the counter next to furnace. She washed her hands with the soap bar, cleaning off the dried blood and grime.
She warmed up some of the fresh water from the well outside in a pan and mixed some of the formula with it. She grabbed the baby bottle from the counter and filled the mixture in it, taking a test sip to see if it's the right temperature.
Beth looked at the happy baby in the high seat. And smiled, hoping that girl will live to see adulthood. That she doesn't have to face the same fate as the children at the school. The children from the prison. No, she wouldn't let that happen on her watch, nor on Rick or Daryl or anyone in this group. They would protect that girl no matter what.
"Here Judy," she gave Judith the bottle and went on to clean her mess up as Daryl entered the room with some butchered deer meat.
"Ya cooking tonight?" he asked, placing the bloodied flesh on the counter, grabbing one of the used towels that lay in a heap on the floor.
Beth nodded as she saw him cleaning his bloody hands. "Yeah, I guess so. Noah was going to help me."
Daryl shrugged and looked at her again. "How did the run go?"
"It went well," Beth admitted, helping Judy with the now empty bottle. "Tara and I went for a school, place had been untouched since the turn."
"Must have been a lot of walkers then."
"Most of them were already weakened and a lot of them were just...gone," Beth told him, now cleaning Judith's mess. "It's just...there were a lot of kids..."
Daryl stopped his actions and threw the rag towel back on the heap, knowing what she had done. "Sorry to hear," he glanced at Judith for a second from behind his bangs. "Kid walkers are a pain to see."
Beth nodded and picked up from the high chair and handed her to Daryl. "Can you bring her to Tara, she has a present for Judy. Also tell Noah to get here, I'm going to start cooking."
"Will do," Daryl took the toddler in his arms and walked back to the living room.
-X-
Everyone had settled down after dinner. It's now dark and dangerous outside, so they all holed into the cabin with the windows boarded and clothes so no light and warmed escaped from the outside. They barricaded the doors from outsiders and stray walkers. Carol still sat on the large couch with a blanket over her legs, knitting a hat for Judith. She told them it's something to do, now she's basically is useless when it comes to runs or protecting the group.
Carl had fallen asleep on the other side of the couch, it had been a tiring day. Michonne told them they had a small run in with walkers back in the town. Maggie and Glenn shared the largest fauteuil nearest to the fireplace.
Daryl had slumped down into one of the armchairs, fumbling a bolt between his thumb and pointer. Rick and Noah -whose leg is still healing, sat in the other two armchairs. The others had dragged the chairs of the dinner table to the living room.
Beth herself sat on the carpet with Judith, letting the little girl play with the stuffed bunny on the floor. Beth braided her hair out of boredom, she slipped the hair tie that was around her wrist over her and secured the braid.
"So," Rick started. Everyone in the room turned their attention towards their leader, who had turned towards Beth and Tara -who too sat on the floor, against the couch. "You guys found a lot of supplies in that school."
Tara nodded. "It was practically a goldmine!" She moved her hands to prove a point.
"Yeah," Beth agreed, thinking about what happened in the school. "Lots of walkers too... Well, they were practically spread over the whole school so it wasn't really a trouble."
"Hmmhmm, we managed," Tara hummed in agreement, playing with her yoyo. "Although, I almost screwed up in the kindergarten classroom. I accidently knocked over some boxes with toys."
"It attracted some walkers that were passing us, but we took care of it," Beth continued.
"We? No, you saved my life back there! I didn't do anything, except trying to find my stuff. They may have been kid walkers, but it was a group. Besides that it was super dark in that classroom." Tara looked at Beth in disbelief. "You know it was super creepy when you started singing, the lyrics were so eerie and fitting. It was like it came out of a horror movie!"
Beth looked down with a timid smile as Tara looked at her with a thankful grin. The brunette continued. "You're my hero, you saved my life with your voice."
Beth laughed her off. "I guess anyone would have done it -not singing but...you know, helped you."
"Take the compliment, Beth," the blonde turned around to face Daryl behind her, he gave her a grin in return when she looked at him. "It ain't the first time you saved someone with your voice."
Thank you for reading and please leave a review and tell what you think of it.
Have a nice day/night!
Edit: because a guest pointed it out, thank you for that. The song comes from Hocus Pocus, it's the Gardens of Shadows version.
Edit #2: Okay I found the inspiration post for this. It's a post by Misseffie on tumblr, she also made a playlist :)