I was so worried this chapter wasn't going to be long enough- like I was trying to find out ways to bulk it up, then bam it's too long! Maybe I should have split it.
Beth woke up confused. Her limbs felt heavy as if she had been fighting world war III independently last night, the room was dark and filled with the sound of soft breathing. Realising the weight wasn't her own, but the weight of another person encasing her in his embrace, she smiled. It was a nice feeling, like being little and running to your parents bed to avoid the monsters. But Daryl wasn't a parent, not in blood or the way she saw him. Daryl was just Daryl. Yes, she relied on him, and trusted him and didn't want to spend anytime apart. But that didn't mean he was just her protector anymore.
A knock at the door woke startled her and woke him up, he sat up quickly. The door opened and Sasha came in with a tray. Tyreese opened the curtains letting the warm sun beam in. he smirked at the two of them. Daryl was looking like he wanted to die, his knees pulled up to his chest, the sheets to his chin. If it weren't for the piercing blue daggers, he would have laughed at the childlike reaction.
Beth, however, looked rested, back to her usual calm self. Her hair was tousled and she pouted in half sleep. There would be no question about how she was, because it was stupid and needless. She only needed to know she had them there for her, like she was for them.
It felt like a holiday, everyone gathered in one bed eating breakfast. Sasha managed to make Daryl squeal by putting her cold toes on his leg, a noise which made Beth burst into little giggles. She promptly got a painful flick to the ear, which only made her grin stupidly whilst holding the side of her hair. They discussed cartoons, beers and all the little things that annoyed them but they wanted back. Beth no longer an awkward silent child, communicated her own way in non-awkward silent womanhood.
They began at the store, letting Daryl find his clues. The empty cans were recently only three days old or so, and the mud trail led towards the woods. Great, tracking down another little girl in a forest. He pushed aside thoughts of what happened to Sophia. The footprints seemed heavy and staggered, this person was exhausted or injured, and carrying a toddler. In Daryl's head that meant they could be caught up to fairly easily.
They had packed the next day, making everyone's backpack equal in its important contents- just in case. A massive meal of squirrel and fish stew, which was less offensive after some careful spicing and cooking by Beth, had left them full and ready. It was a unanimous choice to leave.
The sight of the store and knowing Judith had been there made Beth whimper slightly, but there was nowhere else to start. Daryl held her hand quietly, leading them to the tree line. Weapons drawn they started trekking.
Hours later nothing had been said, a few stops to rest had been made and a hasty snack of green beans eaten. Time goes so quickly when in boredom or desperation, or bored desperation. The land scape looked the same to all of them, except Daryl, who wound himself into the head of the kidnapper. They let him lead them by the hand, metaphorically for some and literally for one, into the depths of dark woods. Trust, you build everything on trust. And they trusted Daryl knew what he was doing. Until he stopped. There were walkers.
Dead walkers. Lying there on the soft grass- decapitated. The natural paths of the forest split into two trails, down one more staggering footprints, down the other another body and another head.
''So what it's Michonne or Judith?'' Tyresse asked, though it was on all of their minds. If you did this morally then you went for Judith, she was young and potentially in dangerous hands. However, anyone carrying a toddler around with them obviously weren't an immediate threat, in fact they were prolonging her chance of survival. Strategically, you went to look for Michonne, she was strong and resourceful. They needed Michonne. It was like picking a family member to die, who did they care about least?
Beth knew Michonne was the better choice. But her heart yearned for that baby girl, she needed to know if she was healthy and cared for, or she could never rest easy. The others were going to leave her baby. And Beth had to decide if she was strong enough to go alone at this point, leave the family she had now for a chance with her child. She didn't have Daryl's tracking skills, and couldn't hold off walkers for too long. But if toughening up meant getting to lil' ass-kicker, then that was what she was prepared to do.
''We split.'' Daryl's voice broke the silence, and they all sucked in a breath. ''Beth n' me follow ass-kicker- you find Michonne. We meet back here at noon tomorrow, if not we give it a week and meet back at the rendezvous point.'' It wasn't wise, but not entirely stupid either. They needed to cover more ground and this way no one would be left behind, but there was chance they wouldn't meet again.
Hugs and rushed farewells were in some way more painful and unusual than the usual tearing apart of immediate death, this sat slowly building in your stomach, rather than stab you in your gut. Beth held onto Tyresse, she pulled out a tin of peaches from her backpack and handed them to Sasha. It was her own way of saying goodbye.
The trail was harder without half their group, it felt lonely, like after months of being in the prison. You get so used to people being around, but you never get used to them being gone. The sun was up for another six hours or so yet, and they were both confident they were moving quicker that a person and a baby. Even so, that person had at least two days head start on them now, hopefully they were on foot, and it would be easy to track them that way. Trying to follow a vehicle was difficult and it was easier to fall behind.
Burning legs don't matter when you're looking for a loved one. Relishing the pain, Beth spurred on next to Daryl, nearly as quiet on her feet as he was. They stopped twice to have a rest, but both were anxious to sit still for long. Instead they began a system of sipping water on the move, alternating fast pacing with a slowed walk. Just to that tree and we can stop, that rock over there, until the top of the hill.
Daryl wanted to keep going, but he knew Beth would only keep pushing herself. She wasn't built for this like he was, but she wouldn't ever say stop. Hell, even as a walker she'd be searching for Judy, rather than biting people like she should. This meant a lot to her, a lot to him too, but ass-kicker and Beth were each other's tickets out of zombie land.
He held out his sweaty hand to her and she took it, squeezing it tight, letting him know she was still there. They clambered over rocks together, he occasionally holding onto her small waist so she could drop down steep faces. Together they remained attached, pulling each other on when the other got tired. Daryl couldn't remember feeling more comfortable with anyone else in his life, and that scared him.
They must have been travelling four hours by now, the light was lessening gradually, but the cooler air was coming in. thank god. They had just had to climb down a particularly steep hill that made their legs burn, getting back up tomorrow could be fun.
The wind picked up, the smell of decay hitting Daryl straight in the face, was this smell ever going to go away. He set to keep walking but Beth's small hand pulled him still. She moved her other hand to her lip and closed her eyes. Daryl listened round, he could hear the wind groaning through he trees- no wait that groaning was-
''Daryl.'' Beth voice whispered out, it wavered in fear. Pinpointing the direction was impossible, the only safe way was back, up that hill where they could easily slip or be caught up. Daryl counted his arrows, he had 7. Preparing the bow to fight and run, Daryl aimed in front of them.
''Y'gotta be shittin' me.'' Daryl cursed. Walkers began their slow marching ahead, still unseen and upwind, Daryl realised seven arrow was not going to cut it. It was a herd, and the blurred lines of it seemed to be a pretty big herd. They had about three minutes until the walkers would know they were here, and if that happened Daryl doubted survival was imminent.
He looked around, the trees around them were bare of branches until too high to reach, maybe if Beth got on his shoulders she could get to safety. About 100 metres away there was an old cherrybark oak tree. The branches looked low enough to grab on to and they could swing themselves up, it would be easy to wait out the herd with their food, sleep up there and move on in the morning. Only problem was it was 100 metres in their direction. The decision had to be made now.
Daryl grabbed her hand and pulled Beth into a sprint, she stumbled along beside him, her eyes wide with 'what the fuck are we doing?' some of the herd had seen their escapade and starting groaning and shuffling faster, like a game of Chinese whispers, the herd gained life and speed.
He pushed her up onto the lowest branch. Realising the plan Beth pushed off his hands, gaining purchase on the tree, straddling it quickly. He threw up the backpacks and then started heaving himself up, Beth's small hand wrapped around his forearms, using her thighs to keep her upright. Her grip moved to puling at his armpits and then the back of his shirt. When Daryl's legs finally were finally up with the rest of them, they wasted no time in climbing higher.
The walkers reached up at the braches with curling fingers, more and more of them pushing for food they couldn't have. In situations like this you feel bad for the poor piƱatas at the old parties children used to have, as if you finally understand their pain.
There was nothing to do but sit and wait. Beth and Daryl picked parallel branches to each other, passing the can of spaghetti between them. They had another hour of sun left before it would begin to dim. He was tired from the long day and fear could only peak and go down. This come down from anxiety only made him realise how stiff and painful it was to move. Beth must have felt the same after she moved her leg after an hour and groaned.
''should sleep.'' Daryl said matter-of-factly. Beth only looked at him, and then down. So the girl was scared of falling was she? Sighing loudly, Daryl rummaged in the bags. He pulled out a blanket, it was the pink one, go figure. Then he got some rope and patted his branch.
''come over to the cool branch, girlie.'' She tilted her head at him, but shakily complied. Her legs felt like jelly, practically so high up, using her arms as much to hold onto other branches. Daryl had clipped the belts of the backpacks to a weaker branch above them, looping the arms over too in case, it bent with their weight, but seemed like it was going to hold. She stepped carefully onto the branch, crouching down to sit. He helped her, making sure she didn't fall.
Daryl pulled her back against him, her legs open over the branch pressing against his identical ones, and her back against his chest. She blushed at the closeness, chiding herself that it was the same as sharing a bed. The rope was tied around the trunk and then knotted at her waist. Daryl's hands trembled as he tied it so close to her in the intimacy he created. The blanket covered small Beth easily, but left slight cool gaps near the backs of Daryl's arms. Sleep came easily for her.
Daryl stayed up a while, contemplating their situation and trying not to notice that Beth smelt like softness and vanilla. Her head was back against his shoulder, and she occasionally twitched. Daryl could feel her heat keeping him warm and tied very much not to think anything that would cause something to come up between them.
Morning came quickly, the day before exhausting them both. Beth stirred before Daryl, her eyes opened to the realisation that she was in fact strapped to Daryl in a tree. Like a sixth sense, Daryl moved behind her. The sun was just about risen, and they could see the last of the herd of walkers in the distance stumbling away. In about 20 minutes they would be out of sight and the journey could continue. Eating breakfast, Beth wondered how long the undead could retain information, obviously they had been forgotten for the march to find fresh meat elsewhere.
It would be stupid to say that both of them weren't looking forward to heading out the tree, after that they should head back to meet Tyresse and Sasha. Beth climbed down carefully, as they passed the bags between them. A few stragglers were still milling around, but they weren't at the base of the tree. Daryl considered them manageable, besides none of them had noticed their presence. Resting on the lowest branch, Beth crouched ready to jump down. Just as she got ready to jump, a lonely walker clambered from under the branch they were stood on, the startling presence made her slip. She was going to land straight on it.
Her breath suddenly all disappeared. A tight arm was stopping her falling. Daryl had his arm around her waist and was clinging on for them both. The walker had spun round, snapping at Beth's ankles. Coming to, she began kicking it away, writhing in panic. Daryl grunted trying to hold onto her, thankful she was so skinny. His arms burned, but there was no way to help her. Beth's small shrieks and Daryl's grunts drew some other walkers closer.
And that's how they found themselves stuck. He couldn't let go of her or the tree, which meant his crossbow was of no use. Her hands were holding onto his arms, t use as leverage to kick, but even so she couldn't reach the knife in her boot. Tears streamed down her face, as she lamely tried to avoid the hands of the walkers. Daryl's arm was trying to pull her up, but there just wasn't the strength or space to help her. This is how I die.
The walker's teeth gnashed a centimetre away from her calf when its head fell off. The other walkers soon dropped and Beth opened her eyes to the warm brown ones of Michonne. Instantly taking the weight off Daryl's arm by wrapping her arms around Beth's joint legs, Daryl felt the weight change.
He panicked. He couldn't see the mute and the basically mute katana user, but knew something had changed. Surely she would have screamed if she was eaten, but he could feel the soft expanding of her chest. Taking for granted the release of pressure, Daryl let go. He leaned up enough to turn his head, finally seeing their saviour. He sat up, stretching his arms tentatively, before jumping down.
Wordlessly, he and Michonne took out the remaining few walkers, who had only just reached them. The herd hadn't heard.
Beth face was still pink, as she wrapped her arms around Michonne. Daryl found it weird that she got a hug back. He had never seen the warrior woman show any real affection, and he had never seen her with Beth. Didn't realise they knew each other. Beth was the kind of person to wind herself into the coldest exterior though, he wasn't surprised if anyone broke the warriors calm it was her. But he still fell like he was intruding on some unknown friendship. Michonne held Beth's head up to look her in the eyes, both of them trying not to let tears spill, seemingly getting all the information she needed out of them. Damn that woman was good.
Michonne then looked over at Daryl, making sure he was unhurt. Daryl's face must have asked all the questions he hadn't get said.
''I came to tell you there was a herd passing through.''
Hope you enjoyed, I'm trying to update as much as possible, but I've committed myself to two stories and an education -so I'm sorry if I'm a bit flaky.
Review for Daryl love! (Which I don't really have the right to give out)
