The ride to the sanctuary was long and almost quiet. Every once and a while, the man on the motorcycle would glance behind to the trio in the car. Pale blond hair sat in waves over a woman in the back seat, where wide blue eyes watched the scenery pass quickly. The two men in the front spoke quietly to themselves, as music played from the old stereo. There was little wind as the windows had barely been opened. Stagnant air could only go so far.
According to the younger man, Aaron, he had asked Daryl to help him with recruiting. The man seemed happy enough, and Beth was sure he was strong underneath it all. To her, it was almost impossible that people were blind to the terrors outside any wall, any protected area. However, the photos of the safe zone, Alexandria, showed high, sturdy walls surrounding what was left of a small suburban neighborhood. Living on a farm for all of her life saved her from having nosy neighbors.
The only thing that kept her from relaxing completely was the haunting curse she seemed to have adopted. Recalling her attack on the man before only had her close her eyes. It seemed as though she was a different kind of monster. A wolf in sheep's clothing.
Fatigue slowly consumed her as she fell to a deep slumber.
Aaron softly put his hand on her forearm to wake her. "We're here. Seems everyone is in the courtyard, we can meet up with your family there." He was greeted by slow, blinking eyes. Even in the dim light, the life that he was told about flickered in the expanse of blue hues. He slowly turned and opened the door to get out of the car.
Beth stretched her tired legs and grabbed her pack and bow from beside her, before following suit. Using her boot, she lightly shut the door and swung her items over her shoulder. She let her gaze drift over the multiple houses in the complex before trailing after the three men.
Not much was said between her and Dixon after their meeting in the woods. The gruff man made it a point to keep his distance. Honestly, she didn't blame him.
There was some sort of commotion in the courtyard. There were some screams and people yelling over gasps. As the small group made their way closer, a gunshot rang out and blood splattered everywhere. Beth felt that other side of her start a frenzy but she stomped it down as strongly as possible. There stood Rick, with his revolver smoking from dealing a death blow to a man on the ground. From her angle, she could see an older woman cradling what looked to be her husband. The deep slash from the blade in the other dead man's hand connecting the dots. Morgan spoke to her old leader, and the animal like glint in the man's eyes was enough to have her take a step back into the shadows. What ever they decided to come home to was perhaps the start of a power struggle.
The man before her was different from the last time. More ruthless and sinister. She took another precautionary step back, completely out of the glow of the fires. Licking her lips, she felt her resolve weakening. Her eyes darted around, finding anything to keep her from being that creature from before. Aaron, Morgan and Daryl seemed to be preoccupied from the execution they had witnessed. Slowly, she crept even further into the shadows. Keeping the scent of the metallic liquid far from her nose.
Turning around, she made a beeline for the closest wall she could get to. With a brisk pace, she turned around and slide against the steel wall to the dew clad grass beneath her feet.
She watched from yards away as the group of people started to vacate the courtyard and others that looked vaguely familiar took the bodies away. She tilted her head into the wall as she calmed the thundering hammer in her chest, beating hard against her rib cage. Waiting until the scent of blood was dispersed, she heard the nervous sounds of Aaron losing it. The corner of her lips turned into a smile for the moment until she stood and walked back over to the group. They were a little further than the courtyard, on someone's porch. Slowly, bits of her body became visible to small group of people. Some faces she instantly remembered, while others she did not. Gripping her pack and bow straps, she took a deep breath and cleared her throat. Several pairs of eyes looked at the newcomer in confusion. There were some slack jaws, tears and plain fear.
She really couldn't blame them. She couldn't.
Beth instantly felt strong arms around her shoulders and was pulled into a rib crushing hug. Her only response was to return the form of affection from her sister. Maggie pulled away instantly and held her younger sister at arm's length. Tears were present in her sister's eyes and with a shaky voice, she asked what was on everyone's minds. "Beth...How?"
The youngest Greene bit her bottom lip and only glanced away from her sister for a moment. "Maybe we can go inside." She paused for a moment before looking behind her sister's head to see Daryl with an unreadable look on his face. Her eyes slid back to her sister's dark green eyes. "I would rather sit than stand. Its a long one."
Her family ushered her into the large house and she unabashedly let her eyes wonder at all the shiny appliances. Some of which weren't present at her home back at the farm. Beth forced herself to pay attention to where she was going and let her sister remove her backpack and bow to set on the coffee table. Maggie gave her sister room as she looked at the house in awe. Now that she had more light, she saw the scars littering the once pale skin of the littlest Greene. There was blood stains all over the front of her clothes and saturated her hair. The coveralls she wore were tied at the sleeves, the shirt was black and cut off at the elbows. A belt held to her hips carried a larger type of blade and her boots were covered in muck from beyond the walls. Maggie narrowed her eyes at her sister, then glanced to the older hunter also in the room who stood off in the back by the Alexandrian native Aaron.
According to the younger man, they hadn't gone far in search of recruitment's. After a large scuffle where strangers had set up a trap of walkers, the older man known as Morgan came to their rescue and was able to get them on the other side of the chain-linked fence. Not long after that, the older man lead the duo to a camp where her younger sister was also at. However, Maggie was only more shocked to see her sister alive. They had buried her months ago at the little church in Georgia. There was no pulse, her sister had passed.
If Beth hadn't walked up to the porch at the moment, she was going to do something to Aaron for playing a sick joke on her. She had mourned her loss and wasn't in for someone who never met her sister to bring up harsh memories without solid proof. It didn't take long for the proof to just appear before her like it had. So overwhelmed by emotions, she didn't think before enveloping her sister in her arms, feeling her breathe and the warmth of being alive. It was a dream come true.
Maggie shook herself from her thoughts and sat down next to Beth on the couch as their family old and new made themselves comfortable in the living room. Beth was idly picking at fibers on her clothing, waiting for something. Her bright, blue eyes slowly rose and met her green ones. Her younger sister was quiet for a beat more before she looked at everyone in the room. It didn't escape the elder sister when Beth gazed upon Daryl for a moment longer than all the others in the room.
Taking a deep breath, Beth started her story. The only thing she told herself to keep out was what she felt when human blood had been spilt. That was an entirely different animal she couldn't understand and until she did, it would be her secret alone. There were gasps in the room and low murmurs when they found that walkers didn't seem to sense her presence. If not for Daryl and Morgan chiming in, it probably would have been tested by Rick, Beth was certain.
Before long, all the company drifted to their respective houses for the night. The once dead girl who rose from her grave was given fresh clothes and sent off to shower. As Beth closed the door, she turned on the tap and was surprised to find hot water under her fingertips. She hastily removed her clothing and set her body under the relaxing stream. The blood that had been forgotten, along with the decaying parts of the dead, fell from her skin and hair to circle the drain. She took a deep breath to let the steam clear out what felt like webs from spiders in her lungs. Before long, she was singing a long forgotten song. When hope for a better life in the darkened world, before the prison fell and her father and Lori and T-dog were still alive.
"And all the sweethearts that e'er I've had, would wish me one more day to stay... But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not..."
Maggie paused mid step, hearing her sister's song and recalling the memory of long ago. Tears were brought to her eyes as she felt herself slip to the ground. Sobs wracked her body long after the serenade was finished and silence befell the house.
The following day was when things got seriously messed up. There was a meeting being held at Deanna's home about a camp that became overrun with walkers. Beth sat with her sister and Glenn on the couch, but with inches between them. The entire community sans children were there. The details were lost on Beth, but with what she shared with their lose knit family the night before, Rick gave her an expecting look when he was asking for volunteers. Maggie's eyes widened and attempted to voice for her sister. Beth placed her hand on her half sister's knee before speaking for herself. "I will volunteer, I can help." Someone scoffed in the crowd behind them. Beth closed her eyes as she stood and turned toward the person. "Can you do much better? Survive outside of these fancy walls for a season before you look down on me from appearances alone." With no response, she turned back to Rick. "Just tell me what you want me to do."
The hunter in the window watched in silence. His memories of the time they spent at the shack, then at the funeral home and finally her demise, the thought of it made him flinch inwardly. He recalled the metallic taste as her blood and bits of brain matter that had splattered against his face and across the pristine white linoleum of that pathetic excuse of a hospital. Remembered the look on Maggie's face when he brought out her corpse. Remembered placing her body in the dirt at the church back in Georgia where they had found Gabriel. But then, months fly by and there she was. Alive. And so different than anyone else. Seeing her at the small camp in the woods with pink skin and crimson liquid all down the front of her made him suspicious instantaneously. If not for the scars that marred her once porcelain skin, he would have claimed her to be a doppelganger.
The figure that stood before him was a matured version of the child who he had buried. His next of kin who he had shared some of the darker bits of his past to.
"You're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon."
Her words struck a cord in his soul as he looked away from her finally. She could protect herself as long as she didn't do anything stupid, he told himself. The kid who basically died to become a strong young woman and a force to be reckoned with.
It didn't take long for a man named Carter to start trying to convince people that Rick basically couldn't be trusted. Fortunately, the leader of the zone eventually stomped her foot down and squashed the native's fears. She honestly wanted Rick to take care of the problem that could cost them their lives and home. Her husband was murdered just the night before and the killer was immediately dealt with. The pain in her heart was still fresh and raw. She couldn't stand for her people to be destroyed because they were too cowardly to take matters into their own hands.
It didn't take long for more people to start volunteering after that. Once the meeting was set to a close, the Rhee-Greene family and others went back to their homes and awaited more orders. As soon as they stepped over the threshold of the house, Maggie immediately rounded on her sister. "How can you possibly do that after I just got you back?!" Her sister only shook her head and sighed as a response. "Don't. Don't you dare do this."
"Maggie, I gotta do this. I can't just stand around 'n let people we don't know just risk their lives when you and I both know I can handle myself out there." She took a pause before she grabbed her sister's hand and pulled her back out the front door. "If you don't believe me, or trust me, then I'm jus' gonna have to show you the hard way." Glenn attempted to stop them, but Beth only stepped between the married couple. "Glenn, I know ya mean well, but this is the only way. Ya need to back off for once and let us sister's handle it our way." The Korean man was put off by the different Greene, more independent and guardant than before. With Maggie's tilt of her head, he backed off and watched the sisters go to the gate.
Once beyond the safety of the zone, Beth pulled two different blades from her hips and moved in the direction of light snarls. The sound of a gun cocking was her only recognition that her sister was indeed following suit.
There were three walkers, two female and one male, when they came out from the brush. They slowly turned, sensing the life that Maggie held onto strongly. The sister that was the bait could only watch in mute horror as Beth walked right up to the trio of undead. The dead didn't seem to notice as the human with legs of a colt and hair of the sun danced proverbially around them. Beth sheathed one of her blades to glide the other in her fist. Maggie's eyes shot open wider and shook her head in fear. "Bethy, stop please, they're going to-" The words died on her tongue as the walkers began to make an unknown sound. It reminded her of an old movie where a woman hissed in pain when water was set upon her skin. The young woman flung her bloodied fist against the dead. As the crimson drops landed on their decaying flesh, they started to hiss and scream loudly. The noise itself would frighten any predator or animal within a mile radius.
"I don't trust anyone knowing this." Maggie watched a miserable visage befall Beth's features before her eyes, bluer than any body of water she had seen, came back to her earthy ones with a concrete resolve of some kind. "But you're my sister. I hope I can trust ya with what I showed ya." The walkers started to get their bearings as the effects of the blood lost it's potency. "Strike quick or they'll sense you!" Beth shot out of the way as her elder sister released three bullets into each of the skulls. They weren't too far from the zone, anyone could have heard the noise. The bodies fell to heaps on the dirt of the wooded plains. "Maggie. Please." Beth shook her head, not sure what she was asking her sister for. The brunette only set her steely gaze at her sister before nodding. That brought a small smile to their faces as they walked back to their home.
Something felt wrong to Beth when the evening of the migration started getting closer. Even though she had volunteered for the run, she was stuck on wall duty. The radio at her hip helped her stay in contact with those on the road. The frequency only went out so far, and most times all she heard was static. It would be a few more minutes until Sasha's group would take the rest of the herd out an extra twenty miles. Beth was on the west side of the wall when the screams started. Her sun drenched hair whipped around as her eyes doused in fear as she watched people infiltrate the zone. Swinging the bow to her back, she raced around to the north side as malotov cocktails were being thrown from her side of the wall. Pulling out her blades, she ran at the intruder who slid down the wall. The stranger looked at her with crazed eyes and pulled a small axe from his side; intending to hack her to bits.
Jumping back, mindful of her surroundings as she had paced the walls for hours, she dodged the blow to her gut. He quickly lunged at her once more as she feinted to the right. The man stumbled over his faulty steps, with them being his downfall. With a cry, he fell on his face with his shirt torn where the blade hit it's mark.
Instantly, the scent of blood unfurled the creature within Beth. Before the man could stand, she pounced on his back, digging the knives into the shoulders. The man could only scream as he felt his skin being ripped away by shockingly sharp human teeth. The lithe creature pulled up his greased hair to slit his throat before finding another target to sink her teeth into. The back of her mind screamed, reminding her to warn the others out on the road. However, the beast had other ideas. With agility lacking in walker and human alone, the person known as Beth took off to latch her teeth into another unsuspecting victim. While the war raged on inside the walls – she made sure to take care of the ones on the outside.
Not long after ending another enemy, a loud crash knocked her out of her stupor long enough to evaluate a surging need to alert Rick and the others. She fumbled with the radio at her hip and quickly shouted into the speaker, hoping for someone to hear her pleas. "Rick! Alexandria is being attacked from the inside! We need help and fast!" She waited a moment but the only thing that responded was static. "Shit!" Using the last of her speed, she raced to the gate.
As Morgan arrived, he saw the truck that crashed into the guard tower. The horn was blaring, unending and loud. He ripped the door open and killed the undead driver without a moment's hesitation. On the other side, he saw Spencer with fright etched over his face. The older man gave the leader's son a choice, in which he couldn't answer. "Hide." He told the young man with a command in his voice. Morgan entered the zone and saw a crazed man hacking away at a native with a hatchet. The Wolf, as it became known as much later, asked him if he wanted it fast or slow. Morgan was lost for a moment before speaking. "Leave this place,"
A small hooded figure swooped in and killed the Wolf and pulled down the bandana to reveal Carol. The once meek mother and widow adorned the letter 'W' on her forehead – just like the termites eating away at their safe zone. "We don't have to kill." Carol continued talking about going to the armory, whereas Morgan tried to reason with her. When that failed, "You don't like it." Her bright blue eyes stared up at him, a part of her old self brushed the surface before it was smothered with the need to protect their new home. They had learned, all of them, after the prison fell to the Governor.
Beth slowed her pace as she got to the gate, seeing the truck and Deanna inside. Climbing up the opposite side, she threw open the door. "Are you alright?" The elder jumped slightly, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
Amber hair covered the woman's eyes for a short moment before she looked over at the newest addition to her zone. The blood that covered the young woman was ghastly, reminding her of Rick and others in her group. The drying blood on her face and hair was stark in contrast to her somewhat ghostly skin. The crimson stains around her mouth matched the ones on her hands, and sleeves of her once pastel blue shirt. Matted brain matter covered the weapons on her hips and overall, the woman looked to be a warrior of sorts. Kind eyes traveled up and down Deanna's form, looking for any sort of injuries "I'm fine, child." The phrase seized the girl's frame before instantly relaxing. "I'm sorry. Yes, I'm fine. Beth, was it?" The young woman inclined her head before hoping off and slammed the door. After a few moments, the driver side door opened and the stained hand reached up to her.
"We should get back behind the wall, where it's safe. It's gotten quiet – The danger seems to have passed for now." Beth held the elder's hand and helped her down from the truck cabin and maneuvered her around the wreck and back to the gate. They waited a minute before the gate opened and closed behind them. "I gotta check on my sister. Are you gonna be alright?" Deanna nodded, slightly. It was enough for Beth to leave her to whatever she needed.
The bodies that littered the street were natives and enemies alike. Blood stained the concrete. It reminded her of a battleground, of the old world. She felt her muscles tense and needed to make sure her family was safe.
"All life is precious."
