The Prison Group

Chapter 4

"Beth? Daryl?" Beth groaned, rubbing her eyes as Carl knocked on the door. She slowly climbed out of bed and grabbed one of Daryl's shirts, pulling it on as she padded across the freezing concrete floor. She opened the door and poked her head out. "Hey, how's your shoulder?" Carl asked.

"Sore, but I'll live." She smiled sleepily. "What's up?"

"Dad's calling a meeting. He wants everyone down stairs now."

Beth nodded her head. "Okay." She kissed Carl's forehead. "Give us ten minutes and we'll be down. He's still asleep." Carl nodded his head and went to take up Sasha and Bob next. Beth closed the door and rubbed her shoulder as she walked back over to the bed. She slipped back under the covers and wrapped her arms around Daryl, kissing his shoulder. "Baby?" she called softly. He grunted and rolled onto his back. "Rick's calling a meeting, we gotta get up."

Daryl sighed and rubbed his eyes, looking up at her. "We know what it's about?" he asked.

Beth shook her head. "No, Carl just said he wants us there, like yesterday." Daryl nodded his head and got up, pulling on a pair of sweatpants. Beth grabbed a pair for herself and pulled them on along with a bigger, loose fitting tank top. Carol was going to want to look at her shoulder. She slipped a pair of slippers on and followed Daryl to the living room. The television was on and Philip looked like he was giving some kind of a press conference. Rick had it paused.

"I'll look at you after the meeting," Carol told Beth, bringing over some coffee.

Beth nodded her head with a smile and sipped her coffee, looking at Rick as everyone else joined them. Rick crossed his arms and pointed the remote at the television, resuming the broadcast. "These criminals have been allowed to terrorize this city for too long. The FBI isn't doing anything to stop them, so I'm going to." Philip looked pissed off, Beth and Daryl smirked a bit. "If anyone can give information leading to the arrest of any of the members of The Prison Group, or the whereabouts of their hide out, I will double the reward money."

Rick turned off the television. "Well, he's not happy."

"What did you do to him?" Abraham asked, looking over at Beth and Daryl.

"We didn't do anything," Beth said innocently. "I may have flirted with him a little bit though."

"A little?" Daryl looked at her. "If he didn't have a gun pointed to his head he would have had a hard on."

Beth shrugged her good shoulder. "It doesn't matter," Rick stated, looking at everyone. "No more jobs, not until this heat dies down. Our faces are everywhere now and I doubt a mask is going to help us right now." He ran a hand through his hair. "We're going to take a little down time, just relax for a while, just until the heat dies down." He looked around at everyone. "No big purchases, no crime," he looked pointedly at Beth, "no joy rides."

"How long do you think this is going to take?" Carol asked.

Rick sighed, rubbing his jaw. "I don't know, a month, maybe a little more. I'll keep my eye on the news. Once they stop talking about us we should be okay."

Everyone nodded and started to leave. Carol walked over to Beth and gently pulled the old bandage off. "It's already stopped bleeding," she told Beth as she started to clean it up a little and apply a new bandage. "You're lucky the back of your seat slowed down the bullet."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm lucky like that." She sipped on her coffee.

"Does it hurt?" Carl asked.

Beth smiled. The kid hadn't gotten shot yet. He would eventually. They'd all taken a bullet before; it was a part of the job. "It did, but not so much anymore."

"Can I see?" Beth nodded her head and Carl walked around behind her before Carol tapped the new bandage into place. "Gross."

Beth laughed a little. "Just wait little man, your time is coming." She watched Carl and Daryl start up one of the gaming systems and start to play something. She sat there and sipped on her coffee. It wouldn't take long for the heat to die down. It never did. Within a few weeks they'd be right back out there. She couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen though.

…

Three weeks later, they were back in that living room, ready to talk about a new job they had. They had been out of the news for a week now. They were a little surprised it hadn't lasted any longer. "We have a client who wants us to rob a casino. Apparently he owned half of it until his partner cheated him out of it." Rick started passing around folders detailing jobs. "Rosita, I was kind of hoping we could procure a limo for this?"

Rosita nodded her head. "Shouldn't be that hard to get my hands on one." She looked over at Beth. "Can you drive a limo?"

Beth nodded. "Yeah, I stole one when I was fifteen, didn't know it had George Clooney in it until he rolled down the window after about four cops were chasing us." She smirked a bit. Now that brought back memories.

They all smirked a bit and listened to Rick as he ran down a detailed plan and went over the jobs everyone was supposed to do. Beth wouldn't be getting out of the limo this time. They were going to need to make a quick getaway and she was going to have to be ready for them when they came out. Usually they had more time to plan, but they were supposed to leave the very next day. It didn't give Rosita long to get a limo, or nearly enough time for them to run down everything. Beth just prayed that nothing went wrong.

…

Beth pulled up to the casino and rolled down the window, separating her from the others. Daryl poked his head through and kissed her. "Be careful," she told him.

"Always." He kissed her again as they all switched on their ear pieces so they could communicate as they climbed out of the limo. Beth sighed and threw the limo into park, rolling up the window again, and sat back, waiting for them to come back out. "Oh fuck," she heard Daryl mumble over the ear piece.

"What's going on?" she demanded, anxiety spreading through her.

She heard them all running, heard someone shouting. Before she really knew what was going on, they were all climbing back into the limo and Rick was in the front with her. "Go. Now." Beth put the limo back into drive and peeled away. "It was a set up," Rick told her, rolling down his window and glancing into the mirror. "Swat, FBI, they were all there, waiting for us."

"Everyone okay?" Beth asked as she pulling onto the freeway.

"For now."

"Guys, they've got a barricade set up, thirty miles down the road," Glenn said over the ear pieces that were still turned on.

"Damn it." Beth swore and took hers out, reaching over and pulling Rick's out. Daryl couldn't hear what was about to be said. "They're not going to let us go this time." She looked at Rick as she sped up. "We already have all of Atlanta PD on us, not to mention the FBI and swat team." She handed her gun to him and put her seatbelt on.

"So what do you suggest we do?" he asked, looking at her. She could tell he knew she had a plan, but he wasn't going to like it.

"I can get us to the Chattahoochee, but we're not going to make it farther than that."

"So what, you're going to drive the limo into the river?"

Beth shook her head and looked at Rick. "No, you're going to climb through that dividing window, you're going to get the others, and you're going to jump. The fall isn't that far, the impact should be minor, just remember to tuck your legs." She sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. "I'll drive as close as I can, and you're all going to jump."

"And what about you?" Rick asked.

She smiled a little; this is why Daryl couldn't hear them. "Just come get my ass out of jail."

"Daryl's going to kill me," Rick mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"There's no other way to get out of this. We can't all go to jail." She looked at him and took his hand. "I'll be fine; you just get our family out of here."

Rick nodded and leaned over, kissing her. "We're going to get you out."

Beth smiled and nodded her head. "I know you will."

…

Daryl looked up as Rick climbed in through the dividing window and Beth rolled it back up, locking it from her side. He didn't like what was going on. "What's the plan?" he asked.

Rick reached up and rolled back the sunroof. "We're jumping." He looked at them. "Beth is going to get us to the Chattahoochee, but we're not going to make it farther than that. We're going to jump into the river."

Daryl growled, grabbing Rick. "And what is she going to do?" Rick looked at him and shook his head. Daryl swore and let go, looking at the window. "If she's not going then I'm not going."

"You don't have a choice." Rick punched Daryl, knocking him out and grabbed him before he could fall. "Abraham, you go first, then Tyreese. I'll hand Daryl up. You make sure he stays alive." They nodded and climbed out, Rosita going with them to try and take out any cops that might be shooting at them. Beth was an amazing diver though. She's boxed them in between two semi-trucks. The cops couldn't see them with one directly behind them and one on their left. Rick shook his head as he handed Daryl up. He made sure everyone was on top of the car before he climbed out himself.

He glanced at the car where Beth was sitting before he looked at the bridge coming up. "This is it." He kissed Carl's head. "Keep your legs tucked when you jump." They all took a deep breath, ready as they drove over the bridge. One by one they all jumped, landing into the cold water. Rick came up quickly, the water had woken Daryl up and he was screaming, trying to get away from Tyreese, like he could get back to the limo.

…

Beth saw them all jump and pushed harder on the gas pedal. If they were going to take her, then she was going to make sure she had fun before she went. She pulled away from the semi-trucks and got back into the heat of everything. The cops were shooting at her, but she wasn't worried. She reached into her purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, rolling down the window. She smirked and took a long drag, pulling out one of the nips from the cooler that was in the console and ripped part of her shirt off, sticking it into the bottle. It wouldn't do a lot of damage, but she liked fire. She lit her shirt on fire and tossed it out of the window, smirking when it landed on the windshield of one of the cars.

She flicked her cigarette out of the window when she saw the barricade. They were telling her to stop over a speaker system but she didn't have any plans on stopping. She pressed down harder, pushing her speed into the high nineties. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel as she got closer and closer. When they realized she wasn't going to stop they started to get out of the way. Beth hit the barricade, smashing cars, probably hitting a few people. The limo rolled and she hit her head on the steering wheel, hard. The world went black as it rolled.