When you die, you become a walker, bitten or not, unless you're shot in the head. Everyone knows that. What everyone doesn't know, however, is that there is an upside to this disease.
Powers. Everyone has them. Not all of the survivors know it, but they have them. You see, to protect your living brain from the disease, your brain produces a counteraction. This creates some sort of power that only you have.
And it only takes a certain kind of near death experience to find that out.
Beth Greene's incredible power only acted out after she was shot.
The bullet had gone through her head, yes, but not through her brain. A green shield had put itself between her bullet and her brain. The shield carried the bullet through the shield instead of the brain, causing no damage to occur to it. Still, her head was bleeding badly, due to the bullet passing through it.
Nobody knew about this power; everyone thought she was dead.
Even if she saved herself from the bullet entirely ending her system, she wouldn't be able to live unless her head was patched up with the help of others.
What was this power, exactly? It was a protection power. She could protect herself and anyone from a near-death experience. Had she known of this power before, she probably could have saved many of her friends and family. Somehow, she is just one of the many living people who don't know about their powers.
Hopefully, they will find out eventually, because that could be the only way to stop the apocalypse once and for all.
"BETH! NO!" Maggie was on her knees, sobbing. Glenn held her shoulders in a comforting way, but he was also despaired.
Daryl was crying as well. He couldn't even look at the pale girl's face. She had changed his life and he couldn't even look at her. He hated himself for it. He dropped to his knees and pressed Beth's limp body to his own.
Rick was pacing around, wiping his eyes. He gave a loud sniff and said in a low, yet demanding voice, "We need to go. We need to go, now. We need to go."
"NO!" Maggie screamed. "Not now… not yet…"
Daryl was sobbing into Beth's shoulder. He could have done more.
Maggie finally had the strength to run over to them. She tried to take Beth's body from his grasp, but he wouldn't let go.
Eventually, he laid her body down gently, rubbing his eyes. Maggie shook her head and hugged Daryl. He returned the love, as the pair sobbed in unison.
.x.x.x.
The fire truck was large, but almost not large enough to fit Beth's body in. Eugene earned a slap in the face from Maggie when he suggested leaving her behind.
Daryl and Maggie sat in the back area of the truck. Beth was spread between their laps.
"I can't stop lookin' at her…" Maggie said. "She's just so beautiful…"
Daryl didn't respond, but also continued to stare at her limp body.
"I think we should patch her up," Maggie said, gesturing towards Beth's head.
"Yeah," Daryl grunted. He stood up and exited the back area, retrieving a wrap from Carol's bag. He returned to the area and shut the slide door.
He handed the wrap to Maggie.
"I can't," she said. "You do it."
Daryl sighed and sat Beth up. Her white face gleamed in the sun's light from outside. Daryl looked down for a moment, then proceeded to wrap the bandages around her dainty head.
"There," Maggie sniffed. "I feel a lot more comfortable lookin' at her without a big hole in her head."
Daryl grunted again.
"I love my Bethy…" Maggie said. "Ev'n if we were only half-sisters, she'd still drag me into so much trouble. She'd always say 'Maggie, can we go outside and play?' ev'n when she was fifteen."
Maggie looked up at the ceiling of the truck. Daryl listened to every word, giving her his full attention, but continued to stare at Beth's beautiful face.
"One time, Shawn and I were hangin' out in the kitchen. She ran in with her innocent look, said, 'Maggie, Shawn, I wanna make somethin' for you. Help me make you a meal!' We didn't have much eggs at the time, 'cause we didn't have many chickens either. But we worked with what we had. Ended up bein' me and Shawn covered in egg yolk and Bethy sayin' that she made us a meal." Maggie chuckled. Daryl did slightly, too.
"You didn't tell me much when we were in the train cart, only that you were with her and she was taken. What happened when y'all left the prison?" Maggie asked.
Daryl heaved a sigh, but continued to stare at Beth's face.
"Found 'er wanderin' around the prison area. Said she was lookin' for the kids to get them to the bus. I told 'er we had to go, and we did. Those next few nights, we just wandered around. She begged me to come with her to look for you guys, but I'd lost hope. She didn'. Then one day, she said she wanted a drink. Showed her my dad's cabin, full of moonshine. I guess I must've drank too much, because I was yellin' and grabbin' and forcin' her, somethin' I'd never do now. She calmed me down, even though I had hurt her and scared her. She brought me back. You should'a seen her, she was the happiest drunk ya ever would'a come across," Daryl chuckled. Maggie smiled and looked down at Beth yet again.
"We talked awhile. Ended up me tellin' her about my life before shit broke the fence. She told me how she missed Hershel, missed you. We left the cabin awhile later." Daryl decided not to bring up him and Beth burning the cabin, or her "last man standing, you're going to miss me" comment.
"We wound up at a funeral home, but Beth'd got her foot caught in a trap. It'd twisted her ankle all around. I carried her to the house, and we ended up stayin' there. We talked and laughed and sung… she brought me happiness and comfort that I had never really felt. Few days passed and walkers invaded the place. I fought my way out, but she got taken. She left her bag behind and I chased the car for hours. Got stuck at a crossroad…" he trailed off.
"Wow," Maggie said.
Daryl huffed and finally pulled his gaze from Beth, looking up at the ceiling.
"I'm not the same man I was, and it's all thanks to her. What I'd give for justa 'nother moment…"
Maggie looked up from Beth to Daryl.
"Did you love her?" she asked.
"… I don't know..." Daryl said. "But I think so."
Maggie nodded and smiled again.
"She'll do that to ya. I don't know who wouldn't love Bethy."
.x.x.x.
Carl was sitting in the mid area of the truck with Glenn, Michonne, and Judith.
"I can't see her like that," Carl said. "I'm glad Daryl has her right now."
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Heh, I remember when I had met her, I had a huge crush on her," Carl said. "She was just so pretty and sweet, an amazing singer and good with kids. Even if I was only thirteen, any age of guy would easily fall for a girl like that."
"I miss her songs," Michonne said. "A few times I caught her singing songs about rebellion and loneliness, things like that to little Judith over here. She said she sung what she liked to because the baby couldn't understand her anyway."
Judith giggled and bounced up and down.
"I definitely miss her. I remember the first time we had a full-on conversation. She came up to me one day and said she approved of Maggie and I. She said no guy had ever made Maggie feel this happy before. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't heard that. Beth helped me understand how I felt about Maggie," Glenn sighed with a dazed smile.
"She helped me. She changed the way I looked at things. And I never thanked her…" Michonne said.
.x.x.x.
"Poor Maggie…" Rosita said. "From all I've heard about Beth, I really wanted to meet her."
"You definitely would have. I remember when we lived at a place together. Almost everyone had fallen ill, but she hadn't. She was supposed to be taking care of the baby at the time, so she couldn't offer much help to taking care of people. She still helped me a lot," Sasha said. This got not only Rosita's, but Tyreese's attention.
"She'd always come by, tell me how I looked better every day. Say everything would be better soon. She was right, and that's part of what kept me going."
"I had only seen her once before this," Tara joined in.
"The attack at the prison. It wasn't the governor killing Hershel that made me stop fighting and realize I was fighting for the wrong side. It was her. She was hanging over the fence, sobbing. My heart had broken. We had been the cause of someone she loved's death. I was the nastiest person alive for being the cause of a little girl like that crying so hard.." she trailed off.
"Even though we lived together for a while, I didn't talk to her much. She did do one thing I remember really well, though," Tyreese said. "After Karen and David's deaths, I was broken, I was crazy. But she sat down with me one day, said she wanted to sing to me. She sung to me like I always sung to Karen, and it brought me back to sanity."
"Beth, she's changed a lot of lives," Rick popped in. "It's so hard to see her be killed knowing that she was one of our sources of hope and happiness."
"I wish I could have met her properly," Tara said. "She seems like a great person."
"She really is," Sasha said. "I'd probably be a lot different if I hadn't met her."
"Me too. Even though she only did a small act of kindness for me, it changed me and the way I was acting a lot," Tyreese said.
.x.x.x.
"Hey, Beth," Maggie said to her limp body. Daryl had gone into another area where he could be alone for a while.
"Everyone here misses you. Even people who never knew you miss you. You've changed all of our lives, Bethy, and I could never repay you."
Maggie sighed and tucked a piece of Beth's hair behind her ear.
"Bethy, I'm just pretendin' you're still alive right now. I just can't accept that you left. I hope you're listenin' to me from up there."
Tears began spilling out of Maggie's eyes, as she hugged Beth's body.
"I miss you, Bethy, I miss you… I don't know what to do…"
.x.x.x.
After Maggie had finally the feeling in her to return to the group, or at least Glenn, Daryl returned to the room where Beth's body still rested.
Beth was laid on a bench, and Daryl stood on his knees on the ground next to her. He grabbed her hand. It was so cold, but so familiar. He loved the feeling of her soft hands.
"Hey, Beth," Daryl said. He didn't even care that he was talking to a dead body, he just sat and continued to converse.
"You remember when you were askin' me what had made me a better person an' all?" he grew a smile for the first time in a long time.
"It was you. You're the whole reason, Beth. You've changed everyone's lives. You've changed mine. I wish there was something, anything I could do to repay you."
Daryl looked at her pale face again.
"You're so beautiful. You have a beautiful personality and a beautiful heart. Beth, I don't know what I should do now… findin' you was all that kept me goin'."
There was an eerie silence as tears began to well in Daryl's eyes.
"…Daryl..?" Beth moaned.