60 Days
All of the next day was spent waiting anxiously. Beth peered through the open cracks hoping to see people from the prison. Maggie...Glenn...just anyone from the prison heading towards the silo. She wished she had a pair of binoculars so she could have a better look.
She climbed the ladder inside of the silo almost a hundred times just so she could look out from the upper hatch. But all throughout the day, all she could see was walkers. Smoke could be seen coming from where the prison was.
Beth told herself that maybe they were trying to dodge walkers...maybe their injuries were slowing them down. Should she go back? Should she try looking for them? She over-analyzed the situation. If she left and people showed up...and then there was Judith.
At the last minute, she decided she would keep waiting...take care of Judith like she's supposed to. They were coming. She knew they were.
...
For the next several days Beth gathered all the supplies that were stored in the silo. She rationed them out and got them ready for everyone. They could be badly injured and she would need to treat them right away. She made sure to eat as little of the food as possible. Save it for the others.
...
A week had passed.
Once she knew that it was safe, she ventured outside for the first time...scouring the area. The prison was too far away to make a quick check. She hurried back inside as soon as Judith started crying.
...
She started marking the days inside the silo. At this point, it could've been 2 and a half...maybe 3 weeks. The weather was getting bad. She still prayed for them. She prayed to God the others would find their way here. They had to have been lost. The escape route was blocked by the attacks. It was possible.
A few days later, a walker tried to break into the silo. A hatchet was one of the few weapons she had. With all the adrenaline in her, she opened the door and finished it off.
She found an old broom and dipped it in the walker's blood. As far up as she could reach, she would write a message on the side of the silo. Maybe they would be able to see it. Maybe Maggie...
It took hours till she was finally finished. The message read 'We're here! Beth & Judith'.
She knew the message could attract the wrong kind of people but she was at the point where it might not matter anymore.
...
Judith had run out of diapers. Beth had never made a run before but she took the risk when she ventured to a nearby gas station. The miracle was that she not only made it there and back with the diapers but that Judith, whom she had to leave behind was still there. A part of her hoped that if she left for a bit, maybe someone else would be at the silo too, not just the baby.
After she changed Judith, she couldn't bring herself to look at the 30-something marks she made on the wall.
...
"Don't grieve." She told herself. "Don't grieve until you're sure."
Beth wasn't sure if she was still sane. If it wasn't for Judith, she knew she would be already lost. Soon the lullabies she would sing to her were less for Judith's comfort and more for her own.
Despite her efforts to ration, she realized how little food was left. The supplies weren't even meant to last this long as it was.
...
For the entire day, she sat there with Judith in her lap, looking at the 60 marks on the wall.
Sixty...
She didn't even realized she had been in this silo with Judith for that long. A part of her refused to believe the markings.
She carried Judith outside to look at the outside of the silo. Most of the bloody message had faded away from the recent rainstorms. But this time around, she couldn't bring herself to go back inside. After taking one glance at the silo and another at the direction of the prison, Beth stood there took one deep breath and just started walking in a random direction. She wonders if it was possible to already be dead on the inside.
...
The only time Beth would bring herself to think of her family and friends was to absorb whatever advice they had given her about surviving...looking in places no one would think to look...don't fight more walkers than you can handle...know when to leave...know when to hide.
She likes to think their words are the reason she's still alive. But Beth feels it is far more likely due to luck. Many had often considered Judith to be her lucky charm. She didn't know why they would think that. What luck was there in being all alone...in being the sole survivor of your people?
Walkers soon became easier to kill. At times she had gotten careless...just inches from getting bit at times.
She started to have complex conversations with Judith not realizing that she would even respond.
She had a bible on hand as her only reading material. She used to be a true believer in its word but the more she read it, the more she saw it as just plain text with no real meaning or depth behind it.
The book was read from cover to cover in about a month of traveling.
...
"Mama..."
Beth froze. She knows she's hearing things. In her state, she had to.
"Mama..."
Her turned towards Judith who was already in the process of crawling. The word was coming from the child's mouth and it was directed at her.
But Beth knew it was inevitable. Everyone back at the prison did too. They often joked that Judith would one day called her mama considering all the time she spent caring for her. But she wasn't supposed to be that...not in the literal sense. Beth was the nanny, the babysitter. She wasn't supposed to be the main caregiver. She wasn't supposed to be the last human the child had left in her world.
This wasn't how she wanted to be a mother.
And that was the moment she finally grieved...the moment Beth finally let it all out.
...
Once in a while, she would spot people...and not the good kind. After what happened to the prison, she knew better than to trust any human in this world. She'd rather encounter a walker than a human survivor any day of the week. The days when she believed that good people still existed in the world were long gone.
She saw movement of a human survivor and didn't bother to take a second glance. She dashed away with Judith in her arms as quickly as she could. Later that day...she would find a cabin, nearly covered in vegetation, wood rotting and growing moss, but from the looks of the inside, it was still habitable.
There was time to dream, Beth thought. If even temporarily, this could be their home. She could gather food and supplies from nearby areas and board up the windows. The time to rest was badly needed. When Beth looked at herself in the mirror she found, she saw a being that might as well resembled a walker. The color was fading from her face. Her ribs were sticking out.
She realized that she couldn't remember the last time she had a good meal.
Judith was not in any good shape herself but she was far more resilient than her "mother" was.
...
"Son of a bitch!"
The man had walkers swarming on him like locusts. His arrows weren't expendable. He would resort to elbowing them just to get out of there.
As he struck them with his crossbow, he became doused in blood and guts. Adrenaline compelled him to keep running, even though he was clearly in no condition to. He was too sore and too exhausted.
The distance between him and the walkers got bigger as he climbed the hill. Even in the darkness he could spot the cabin. There were no lights. As he got closer, he could see it was boarded up. People could be in there sleeping for all he knew. They could be in there ready to kill him.
But oddly enough, that didn't seem to matter to him anymore.
He tried the door and found it impossible to break through. Furniture had to be blocking it from the other side. His only other choice was the window. He threw all of his weight into it until he got through. He threw his crossbow into the home first, then he tried to climb in but got clumsy and crashed onto his side in pain.
He swore he could hear the whimpering of a child and some footsteps. 'Just great,' he thought. A light came into the room and he knew it had to be the parent. Death was coming. They were gonna kill him on sight. He thought it was for the best. After everything he had been through, he would welcome it.
Instead he found himself staring awkwardly at the petite blond woman who know had a gun pointed at him, shaking in horrible fear.
