Thanks everyone for reviewing :) If things seem boring now they'll be spicing up soon lol ;) Just trying not to rush things and move things along at a realistic pace.
Daryl woke up the next morning to find Beth still in the bed with him. She must of moved in her sleep because she was way closer to him than she had been when they went to sleep. She was pressed into his chest. He tried to push the idea that he liked it out of his mind and got up to look out the window. There didn't seem to be as many walkers as last night but there was still a good amount lurking around. He got his crossbow, opened the window and took aim. One by one he shot them down. He heard Beth sit up on the bed behind him.
"What are you doing?" she asked groggily.
"Gettin' rid of the walkers," he said, not looking back at her. She stood up and came next to him, watching him take the last few down. He then left the room and went to the bedroom down the hall that faced the front of the house. She followed close behind. There were only a few in the front yard, nothing he couldn't handle.
"Gotta go get my arrows," he said, once he'd hit the last walker. They headed downstairs, Beth in front of him. He heard her gasp of fear as she turned the corner into the living room. There was a walker standing there in the middle of the room. It started coming towards them, he reached for another arrow to use but realized he was all out. He cursed, searching his pockets for something to use. Beth was frozen in fear. He remembered his pocket knife and took that out. He quickly moved past Beth and pounded the knife into the walker's head. Beth still stood behind him in shock. He picked the body up by the arms and started dragging it towards the door. "Could you come open the door for me?" he asked. She snapped out of whatever fear induced trance she was in and hurried to help him. Once she had opened the door he dragged the body out on the front lawn.
"How do you think he got in?" she asked.
"I dunno," said Daryl, looking around the house for any broken windows. "The door was still closed when we came down."
"Maybe we should get a few of them tied to the house so it keeps others away," said Beth.
"I'll get to it later," he said. His stomach suddenly let out a loud growl. He hadn't had venison in a while now and he had a craving for it. "What are your plans for the day?" he asked.
"I thought we could go out and look around some more," said Beth with a hopeful look on her face.
"I told you we have to build up a sustainable amount of supplies so we can move on from here," he said. He saw her face fall and hoped to God she wouldn't start crying. He was never good with crying girls.
"Fine," she said, "I'll take the car myself." He laughed and said
"You're funny if you think you're goin' anywhere without me girl." Her expression changed to anger.
"I want to do something!" she said, "What do you expect me to do? Sit here back at the house while you go out and hunt?" She had a point. He handed her a large knife and a pistol.
"Go sit at the end of the road and watch out for any passing cars, only use that gun if you absolutely have to," he said, "We don't want a repeat of last night."
Beth sat in the soft overgrown grass on the side of the road, leaning against the sign she had put up. It simply read "Prison Group" with an hour leading down the dirt road to the house. Out of boredom, she was working on making and tying together a small crown of twigs and grass. She'd been out there for three hours now, and nothing had happened. She couldn't believe Daryl wasn't letting her do anything. Back at the prison, when she had Judith to look after it was understandable that she never went out on runs but now that it was just the two of them she wanted him to look at her as more than just a little girl and as a woman. She instantly came out of her thoughts when she heard the distant sound of a car. She stood up out the grass and listened closely. It was coming from the south. She quickly hid herself in the trees, in case it was someone else. She saw the car coming down the road. It didn't look like any of the vehicles they had back at the prison. As it drove by she caught a glimpse of the person sitting in the front seat. It was a man she didn't recognize. She fought with herself on whether she should jump out and flag him down. He could know some of the people from the prison, or maybe he would kill Daryl, take all of their food and rape her. Before she could decide the car was already gone. Feeling excited she ran back down the road. Maybe Daryl was back already. She ran into the house to find it empty. The car didn't looked packed or like it had been driven a long distance. The man had to of just been going on a run. Maybe they'd see his car again.
"What are you doin'?" She turned around to see Daryl who was holding a large deer carcass over his shoulder.
"I just saw a car!" she said. He seemed to light up with interest.
"Was it anybody we knew?"
"No," said Beth, "There was a man in the car."
"Did you let 'im see you?!" he asked.
"No," said Beth, "But he couldn't have been a traveler, his car wasn't packed at all, he has to have a camp somewhere close by. Maybe he knows where the rest of the group is!" she said.
"We can't take that risk," said Daryl, "We have no idea who he is. For now we gotta keep a low profile." Changing the subject he hoisted the deer higher on his shoulder and said
"I got dinner," she smiled and said
"Good I was getting sick of squirrels and canned soup."
Daryl lit a fire in the fireplace and got to work on cutting up the deer meat. Beth sat behind him on the couch watching him cut up the meat into pieces.
"Gonna be the best fuckin' meal we've had in weeks," said Daryl, his mouth already watering. When he was done, he cleaned everything up and put one of the pieces on a pan over the fire.
"I can do this for you," said Beth coming over and sitting next to him on the floor, "You haven't bathed in a long time, you should go now before the sun goes down completely. I'll stay here and watch the food." He knew she'd be fine.
"Alright," he said, getting up. "But if anything goes wrong, just holler."
"I know," she said, rolling her eyes. He got everything together and headed down to the pond.
Jumping into the water felt like heaven. He usually didn't give a shit, taking a shower was not at the top of his priority list, but it felt amazing. The cool water soothed every part of his body. As he washed off, every bruise, sun burn and cut seemed to melt away. He closed his eyes and floated on the surface. He must have lost track of the time because when he opened his eyes again it was dark out. He quickly got out, pulled on a pair of jeans and headed back to the house. He found Beth eating a piece of meat off a plate, a platter of cooked meat sitting on the couch next to her. He saw her gaze linger on his bare chest before she said
"Dinner's ready," He threw everything down and sat down on the couch next to her and dug in. She watched him pick up a piece of meat from the plate and viciously bite into it.
"You eat like an animal," she said, laughing. He took another big bite and half of it fell onto his chest. For a split second he imagine her licking it off of him, making her way down to his stomach, kissing along his waist, and then- His thoughts were broken as she took the meat from him and said
"Didn't your mother teach you any manners?" She had meant it playfully but the thought of his mother killed the mood. Beth noticed the change in him instantly.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nuthin'," he said. Flashbacks of his mother came without warning. The putrid stench of her cigarettes, how he'd find her passed out drunk on the couch most nights, her voice yelling at him, calling him a little shit and beating him. He didn't even want to let his thoughts wander to his father. He jumped when he felt Beth put her small hand over his clenched fist. He looked into her eyes. They were deep blue pools of concern. She didn't even have to talk to make him cave into talking. "My childhood wasn't the best," he said. He leaned over and ran his hands over his face, into his hair. "Had shitty parents," he said, not wanting to elaborate. It's not like Beth could understand. She had lived a sheltered life of on a farm with the perfect family. He suddenly felt her hands tracing the scars on his back. He hadn't meant to show them to her. He looked up at her. He could see that she understood him by the way she was staring at him. Most of the women who had ever seen his scars had pressed him for more information and pouted at him when he didn't tell them but she leaned away and said
"We all have bad stories, we just have to learn from them and make sure history doesn't repeat itself." He knew she was right. Even though she wasn't his daughter, when Judith was born he knew she needed to be nurtured, the exact opposite of his childhood. He had never thought much about being a father but he knew that any child of his would never be treated the way he was. He wasn't going to let history repeat itself like he'd seen with so many other families before the world went to shit. She handed him back his food and said
"Finish up, you look tired, you could use some extra sleep." Usually he wouldn't let anyone tell him about what they thought 'he needed' or what he should do but instead he smiled at her and said
"Thanks Beth."
