Serpents

1

It hadn't always been this way. There was a time when all of my family wasn't crowded together is this small funeral home just outside of Senoia, Georgia. We had all lived in this giant prison, the West Georgia Correctional Facility; we had our own rooms, well cells, and just space. Space from each other, and space from any looming danger. You see, that all came to an end when Philip Blake, the Governor drove through our gates. He murdered my father, and his men took the lives of many other inhabitants that were hidden behind the concrete walls. What were we to do but flee? He had an army tank pointed straight towards us, we fought for as long as we could, we had guns and ammunition, hell we won the fight, but did we really? While we were all consumed with this rage to kill and protect our families we lost what mattered the most, our home. It took two hours for us to be driven out of our land by walkers and explosions. Initially I was alone with Daryl, that was until we ran into this man named Morgan, he seemed quite deranged at first, but after awhile Daryl and I came to realize it was because of how much he'd lost.

Morgan brought us to this building settled in the trees, and protected by numerous tombstones. We would be living at a funeral home, it wasn't supposed to be permanent, just temporary, for the time being, but wouldn't you know not even two days later Rick, Carl, and Michonne were on our front porch. It turned out that Rick and Morgan had met before, at the very beginning, and that Morgan was the one who saved Rick, even before Glenn had the chance. It took a few days for Daryl and I to adjust back to life with people other than each other and Morgan, we had been separated for months, I would say around four or five, no one really knew what day it was anymore, you just rose and fell with the sun.

Rick was persistent on finding the others, while Daryl and I were a bit wearier of the whole ordeal; for at least two out of our months alone we spent the entire time searching for everyone else. Although we didn't find anyone else, some of the others did find us. But here we were searching high and low for everyone else Rick was guessing to be alive. I had given up on finding my sister a while back, since no hint of her survival existed, but Daryl was there to push me along, even in my hard times. The tow of us had grown quite close to one another, and even shared a bed, which seemed to baffle Rick and the others, but the never spoke a word of it.

All of us were searching for ages before we came across a hint to where everyone else was. There was a sign, left by my sister, telling Glenn to go to a place called Terminus. Terminus was the spot where all the train tracks met. I was hurt that my sister had no hope of me being alive to find her, and Daryl must have saw because he moved to my side and gripped my hand in his, and began to rub circles along the back of it.

Once we found community we were all impressed. They looked to have been a sanctuary, but the truth that lied beneath the surface was nothing short of haunting. It turned out that they were a group of cannibals, and their posters were used as a beacon to attract survivors for their food. They had their captives locked up in train cars, much like corralled animals for slaughter, and human bones were left scattered inside this small fence within the perimeter. While on our mission to rescue the others we ran into Carol before she ignited the giant fuel tank just inside their gates. We watched from a distance as a group of survivors ran back towards the cover of the building, trying to avoid evident doom as a herd of walkers, easily over 500, infiltrated their so called sanctuary.

Morgan and I waited just outside the fence to the left of the trap. Daryl, Rick and Carol had jumped the fence and went the rescue the others, I had to admit I was worried until all of my family was climbing over the railing, of course Rick was the last one over, risking his life for everyone else's. I walked over to Daryl, pushing past my sister, and threw my arms around his neck, his own arms circling my waist. Once I let go my sister came over to me and pulled me into her arms, giving me a hug, which I didn't return. I remembered saying something like thanks for looking for me or I bet you're happy knowing I survived before I pushed away from her and stood beside Daryl.

No one really had a fair amount of time to welcome each other back before we were running away from Terminus and towards a cabin North of the camp. Apparently Ty and Judith were there, waiting for Carol to get back, even Mika had made it out alive, and was taken under Carol's wing before running into Ty and Judith. The look on Rick's face when he was reunited with his daughter was priceless, but I couldn't help but feel detached, like all these people in front of me were strangers, and some of them were. I had no relationship with the red haired man named Abraham, or with the young survivors in Rosita and Eugene, but it didn't take long for me to form bonds with them.

Now here all of us were, building a new life for ourselves in this tiny funeral home. I had not been assigned to babysitting duty, not since Rick came to terms with my survival skills. Daryl had taught me how to use his crossbow, but it was the compound bow that I had taken a liking to. We grabbed it on a run awhile back and I picked it up, just in case, and began to teach myself how to use to. I started off just using it around the funeral home to kill squirrels, and take down walkers. It was no easier to learn than Daryl's crossbow, and I enjoyed the challenge of discovering it. Of course Daryl was able to help me along the way due to the many similarities, but the majority of my learning was done on my own.

It had taken my sister awhile to come to terms with the fact that I was just as capable of surviving on my own as she was, I was positive she still considered me weak, but the fact that people always suggested taking me on runs before her must have hurt her confidence. She stopped trying to get me to stay and watch Judith so I would be "safe", and she could go out on the runs not long after I came back from a run with Daryl holding two full baskets full of canned goods.

I had taken down over thirty walkers that day, over half of them with my knife. Daryl and I had gotten ourselves cornered inside of this supermarket, the place was untouched, and we were excited until a door swung open revealing too many walkers, so many I couldn't count. But we had made it home safe, and even made a few more trips back to get anything else that seemed fit.

I went to the medicine isle and took everything from the shelves, even grabbing the dozen boxes of condoms, all in various sizes. With all the couples we had at the funeral home, it was best they kept things safe, I wasn't sure if we could handle another baby. I didn't even give it a second thought before I put them in my bag, but it did spark conversation before Daryl and I went to bed. He had gone in my bag looking for the mints I grabbed awhile back, but was met with dozens of boxes of condoms. I remember him looking at me with a smirk on his face and him asking me what I had grabbed them for. I had just rolled my eyes and gone to bed, and now here I was the next morning lying on my side with Daryl wrapped around me as he slept. I didn't move because I didn't want to wake him, he needed more sleep than usual because he had late watch today, and we couldn't risk him falling asleep.

"Why are you awake?" He grumbled in my ear, startling me, causing me to jump up and fall on the floor. "Damn girl are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine." I snapped as I stood up off the floor, wiping off the back of my legs. "You should go back to sleep, you have last watch tonight."

"I've been awake for awhile, I was waiting to see if you'd go back to sleep." He drawled sitting up. His chest was exposed to me and his tattoo was on display, if he saw me staring he didn't comment on it, and stretched his arms above his head much like they used to in the movies before he stood up. It wasn't the first time I had seen his back, and I was sure it wouldn't be the last. "Get ready, lets go get some breakfast."

I threw on my jeans and a black tank top, it was the middle of fall, but the Georgia weather was fine until winter was in full swing. I sat back down on the bed and laced up my boots, I reached down and grabbed my bag that was lent against the nightstand before I walked behind Daryl. As usual he was ready before me, but waited anyway, not wanting me to be left alone. That was what things had become between us. The first night we were here and Morgan was on watch he all but told me I had changed his mind and that there were still good people in this world, he had also admitted his feeling for me that night. I had never gotten the time to tell him how I felt, and I still hadn't there was just never time for it, but I decided I would find the time eventually. I could see Carol making advances at him, and I would watch him brush it off, but I feared if I didn't admit my feelings he would one day accept her offer. I stopped at the top of the stairs hearing everyone moving around below us.

"Daryl, wait I have to-" I began to say, but was cut off by Carol opening the door to her bedroom and walking out.

"Can I talk to you?" She asked Daryl giving me a look as if warning me to back off, to which I just rolled my eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me!"

"You're not my mother." I spat at her only to hear her growl at me.

"Beth, go down stairs, I'll be there in a minute." Daryl spoke motioning for me to leave them be.

"But I was going to tell you something." I whispered, not wanting Carol to hear me.

"Well, whatever you were going to say can wait, " Carol began snidely. "What we need to talk about is very important adult matters, so if you would leave us to talk that would be great."

"Excuse me?" I snapped, taking a step forward so I was in front of Daryl. "Don't you dare treat me like a child."

"Why not? You are one." She raised her eyebrows ignoring the group of people gathered at the base of the staircase.

"She's far from a child." Daryl barked beside me gripping my arm to pull me away from Carol. "Now tell me what you were going to and get on with it. I don't need to deal with this shit."

"It doesn't matter, I see were you stand on the matter anyway." With that she descended the stairs and walked out the front door. Daryl looked back at me and motioned for me to go down the stairs once more, but this time I shook my head.

"No, I really need to tell you this." I demandedcrossing my arm to show him I wasn't giving up on this. I began to open my mouth when I heard Glenn yell from their room downstairs.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked stepping forward, both Daryl and I were witnessing the scene from the balcony. "Glenn, you've got to calm down and talk to me."

"Maggie, she's, well she's,"

"Spit it out, man!" Michonne yelled, snapping him out of his daze.

"Maggie, she's pregnant." Glenn said, looking from face to face before he landed on mine. "Beth she wants you to come talk to her, please. She really needs you right now, she's really shaken up."

"I'll be there in a minute," I said before turning back to Daryl. " I really need to talk to you about this now."

"We can talk about whatever it is later, for now go to your sister. I'm going to go hunting for awhile see what I can find, I promise we'll talk about it later."

"But, Daryl, I really need to tell you-"

"Beth. Later." Daryl said before walking away from me and down the stairs, shouldering his crossbow.

"I really need to tell you I love you." I whispered almost inaudibly, completely defeated. I tucked my head down so I was looking at the floor, and started the short walk towards my sister's room. How could this day get any worse?

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