Beth slowly got out of the bushes, still feeling a bit dizzy after what had happened with Carol. Her face suddenly lighted up at the sight of Michonne standing right in front of her. The latter, who was quite worried not to see Carol around, gasped in surprise and drew a huge smile on her face.
"Beth?!", she disbelievingly said while stepping closer to hug her.
Daryl in the meantime couldn't think about anything else than Carol. Each second he spent here was a wasted one. The sad reflection in his eyes wouldn't go away until he found her safe and sound.
Michonne and Beth were chuckling, happy to see one another after all that had happened. The noise they were making alerted the others, who came out of the church in a flash. Rick stopped right at the bottom of the stairs, speechless. A bunch of "oh my god" could be heard from the group, and then Maggie showed up. She brought her hand to her mouth, letting the tears fill the corners of her eyes. She thought she would never see her sister again, she even had imagined the worst. She starting shaking, unable to move. As soon as Beth saw her, she ran to her and wrapped her arms around her sister's waist, crying as well.
Daryl was witnessing the scene from afar, ready to go back from where he came when Michonne, who hadn't forgotten her question, turned around and gave him an inquiring look. She slowly stepped forward, eyebrows frowned.
"Daryl... What happened? Where's Carol?"
A shiver went down his spine as he heard her name. He however tried to pull himself together in order to sound credible. He knew he had to lie to protect Carol, but that wouldn't be easy. He hadn't had the time to think about something to make up about her absence, which made his heart beat even faster in his chest.
"She's okay. We found a car a few miles away an' she's tryin' to fix it. I should go get her before-"
"Those things ain't working with me Daryl, where is she?" Michonne immediately responded.
He sighed and looked away. He was mad at himself for not managing to find anything better. He didn't want anyone to know what was up with Carol because he thought it would only make things worse, but he didn't really have a choice anymore. He was usually a good liar, but he was way too worried at the moment to concentrate on anything.
"She just left. She's mad at herself for what she done. Look, ya can't tell anyone 'bout this. I can get her back, and I will." He said in a slow and sad, but however determined voice.
Michonne frowned, feeling bad for her. She saw Carol as the strongest person she had ever met, and what she had done was, as painful as it was, the right decision. "I'll come with you."
"No, I need to talk to her. An' that's on me. I should've seen that comin', I should've paid more attention."
"None of this is your fault Daryl", she disbelievingly responded.
He didn't answer that. He felt like it was his fault, and he could never get that off his chest. "Look, no one can know 'bout that. If the others ask where we are, jus' tell 'em we went huntin' or whatever. Just don't tell 'em 'bout Carol."
Michonne really didn't think it was a good idea to let him go out there on his own but he was more determined than ever, and he didn't need anyone to take care of him. She reluctantly nodded, and Daryl turned over while the others were still hugging and crying over Beth.
"Be careful", Michonne whispered right before he disappeared behind the same bushes he came from.
As he was running as fast as he could in the woods, he couldn't help imagining the worst. In the state Carol was in, she wouldn't really be able to defend herself if a bunch of walkers or anything else came her way. His hands were shaky and sweaty, and his heart was about to explode in his chest. A couple of branches were slapping his face every five seconds, and his crossbow was pounding against his back at the rhythm of his steps.
He finally arrived at the camp they had left, after a few minutes spent searching for it. Luckily, his hunting skills were still at their best, probably even increasing due to the amount of adrenaline in his body.
He started to circle around the camp in a one mile perimeter, focusing on everything that could let him know what way Carol left.
He had been searching for about twenty minutes, sweat was running down his forehead, fear was taking over, but he refused to ever give up. After a few more minutes, he finally found something. He knelt down to observe something that clearly looked like a footstep. He quickly found a few other ones, captured in the mud. It wasn't his or Beth's, he had no doubt about that. Plus, it faced the opposite direction of the camp. Pretty fresh also... It was Carol.
He could have felt a bit relieved, but he wouldn't until he found her safe and sound. He followed the tracks, paying attention not to lose them. He noticed that her footsteps weren't regular at all, some of them were covering the others, some drifted away from their initial trajectory. She must have stopped several times, probably because she was crying. His heart stopped as he felt completely helpless. He could feel her pain from here, he could hear her broken heart hardly beating, buried under a way too important amount of ache.
He followed her steps for what seemed like an eternity to him. He eventually found something, not really reassuring though. At the bottom of a tree, a bunch of footsteps were covering the ground. As he was coming closer, his gaze stopped on something that made him shiver from bead to toe. He knelt down, his heartbeats echoing in his entire body.
He held in his hands the small piece of cloth he knew belonged to Carol. There was blood on it.
His hands were trembling harder than ever and he couldn't feel anything no was about to break down.
A scream.
He lifted his head, tangled between fear and hope as be recognized Carol's voice. He ran in the direction the noise was coming from at full speed. His blood was pounding against his veins.
A scream again.
Carol was leaning against a tree, trying hard to push a couple of walkers back with her arms. She had dropped her weapon in the rush, and her arms were about to let go. She started crying in despair, not knowing what to do anyone. A small voice in her head kept saying that she had deserved it, that she was being punished. She couldn't disagree with that. She was about to give up when an arrow stabbed one of the walkers right in the head, quickly followed by another one, taking care of the other walker.
She gasped loudly as she collapsed on the ground. Her eyes were wide opened, her heart was about to explode and her entire body was covered with sweat. She thought it was the end. She lifted her head up, and through her tears she saw Daryl running at her.
"Carol!", he said while crashing on the ground next to her. He couldn't hold his tears back. His hands and gaze searched for the hole in her shirt, and he finally spotted it in the lower part of her stomach.
"You bit? You bit!" He sobbed.
She gasped and searched for Daryl's face. She held him in her shaky hands. "N-no Daryl. I'm okay."
"But there's blood on-" he sobbed.
"It's not mine", she said while rubbing his cheek with her thumb and managed to smile at him. She still hadn't quite realized that she wasn't dead.
He collapsed on her shoulder, in tears.
She wrapped her arms around his back as tears ran back again on her cheeks. At that moment she realized how worried he looked, and she felt extremely guilty. She never thought anyone would actually care about her, especially that much. Ed never had. She had kinda gotten used to it. But Daryl came after her the two times she had tried to escape. He had accepted what she had done right away, without asking for any explanation. But he didn't know about Lizzie... And she couldn't face it, she couldn't accept what she had done. And Daryl risked his life trying to get her back, but if he knew what she had done... She sobbed against his neck and held him tighter.
"I'm so sorry..." she choked. "I'm so sorry for everything, Daryl."
He rubbed the back of her head with his hand. He needed to feel her body against his, to know she was really there.
"You have nothin' to apologize for. I'm the one who should've done somethin'..."
"Stop it."
"And also back at the prison. Without you, we'd all be dead. We'd have died several times over."
"Daryl..."
"You belong with us more than anyone, and you can't feel guilty for what you done Ca-"
"You don't understand", she whispered.
She slowly pulled back, keeping her head down and her cheek against his. She put her hand on his chest. She couldn't take it anymore, she couldn't keep it for herself anymore. It was burning her entire body up from the inside. She took a deep, shaky breath.
"Lizzie's dead..." she paused to catch her breath once again, "I-I killed her", she managed to articulate between two sobs.
* Thanks a lot for the reviews! Keep them coming, it really means a lot to me :)
