Hello again! It's been a little insane today as I'm trying to get work done but I did manage to get this chapter out. I know it's still slow moving so I hope it's not driving you all too crazy. I promise things will pick up! I'm working this weekend but I still hope I can get a couple more updates in during my downtime. I need some motivation, LOL! You all are great though, and your reviews really do keep me going with this. I never imagined to get this much interest over this fic. Thank you all so much. Here's a little something for you all to tide you over.

Beth was pretty sure Daryl hadn't slept more than an hour the whole night and exhaustion was beginning to show on his face as they opened the gates and backed the vehicle out, leaving their temporary residence of the past week. He was silent as he drove, his crossbow resting next to him between the seats, never more than an arm's length away at any given time. They hadn't spoken much at all this morning beyond the usual mumbled good morning.

She remembered falling asleep next to his legs last night and she hadn't thought she would be able to go back to sleep. Especially after hearing him recall memories of his childhood. She shuddered to think of all of the abuse that he could have endured beginning at the age of eleven and even the things he had seen before that. That was no kind of childhood for anyone to have. She thought she understood a little better now though, about why he acted the way that he did. She had a sense that the memory he had painted for her was one of the more tame ones. She didn't want to think about the ones that were worse.

"Doin' alright over there?" His voice cut through her thoughts.

She looked over at him, saw the lines of worry and concentration creased on his face, "I'm good. How are you feeling this morning?"

His eyes cut to hers for a brief second and then back to the road, "Ain't got no complaints I reckon'. At least, not physically anyway," He replied.

She nodded her head in understanding, "Do you have a plan?" She asked.

He shrugged, "Kinna hard ta plan but I'm figurin' on headin' out tha way I saw that vehicle go an' jus' seein' if we come across anythin'," He said.

"Sounds good to me," She replied and settled back against her seat, keeping an eye on their surroundings.

They drove through the small town that Daryl had raided through the day before, weaving through the walkers that stepped in front of them. She thought it was kind of odd how sometimes they almost looked as if they were trying to flag you down, like they had something important to tell you. She had never really paid much attention to the walkers before, never really considered them as something that was once human. Her Daddy had, but she hadn't wanted to think about it. It was much easier to kill them if you didn't think about it. As Daryl drove them through a group of six walkers, she thought about it. Each of them probably had a story to tell, their clothes and accessories portraying bits and pieces of their former life. It was difficult to imagine it with all of the blood and wounds covering them. She shivered slightly. She hoped that she would never have to be reduced to that. She knew though, from Rick, that they would all turn when they died but she could only hope that someone would put a bullet through her skull before the virus began to rage through her body.

She tried to imagine that her family, the whole group, was in a much better place now. She had tried to hold strong to her beliefs on God and the Bible but with each passing day, it grew harder to imagine that there was something greater than this world out there. She simply didn't understand that if there was still a God, then why would He inflict this misery onto the world? She knew it wasn't her place to question it. That was why you had faith that He was still there, faith that He would bring you through this madness, and that one day the world would be restored, perhaps better than it once was. Maybe that was the plan all along, to weed out the bad until you were left with the good. Until you were left with the ones who were supposed to repopulate the world. Except she knew a lot of good people that had died. People that in her eyes, hadn't deserved the kind of death that had been bestowed upon them.

She was jolted from her deep thoughts once more as Daryl slowed to a crawl and she saw that they were coming upon a group of cars that were littering the highway. Instead of getting out and moving the cars, he sat there for a moment, letting the vehicle idle.

"What are you thinking?" She asked, not wanting to break his concentration but finding herself curious.

His eyes studied the scene before them. They would definitely have to move vehicles to pass through. There was no way around it. "This ain't tha way they came," He said.

"It isn't?" She asked.

He shook his head, "No. If'n they woulda come this way, then these cars woulda been moved. Unless they dumped tha truck but I don't see them huffin' it on foot with no baby. They either went another way or they camped out somewhere nearby. My guess would be they somewhere nearby. All them other roads I passed is small roads and it ain't likely they took to a back road with jus' tha three of 'em," He explained.

Beth contemplated that thought. She knew Daryl was right. Out of anyone in their group, she had never questioned his instincts. Somehow, he always seemed to be right about things and she knew that now wasn't any different.

"So you want to find somewhere to set up camp and then head out to look for tracks?" She asked.

He looked at her, actually studying her instead of just looking through her like he usually did, "Ya think I'm right?"

She nodded, "You ain't been wrong before."

He turned back to the front and after a few minutes, put the vehicle in reverse and turned it around, heading back the way they came. Except he didn't go all the way back. He drove slowly and she knew he was looking for a safe enough place to sleep later. He finally pulled in front of an abandoned building that still had all of its windows intact. He drove around it slowly, leaning forward in his seat, his eyes scanning their surroundings. He finally parked the vehicle around the back and opened his door. He stood on the edge of the SUV and aimed his bow at a couple of walkers, taking them down with ease. He jumped down then and collected up his bolts, wiping them clean on his pants. She exited the vehicle then and started walking over to him when she felt the rough, cold, fingers of a walker graze her shirt. Letting out a gasp, she spun around and walked backwards a few steps to get away. The walker was shuffling along slowly and dragging one its legs behind him that appeared to be broken. It gave a raspy cry and reached for her, a good few feet away now.

She felt Daryl's presence at her back and she was comforted by it, "Practice time. Ya got this. Take it nice an' slow an' aim fer tha head," His rough voice whispered at her ear, his breath blowing across her face. She nodded, her hands trembling. She was determined to get this right. She had killed the one at the other house and she could do this one too, right? She felt his hands grip her wrists and he tightened her fingers around her knife. "Come on, gettin' closer. Take tha bastard down," He coaxed.

She tried to ignore the warmth of his body just behind hers and the touch of his fingers and she focused all of her concentration on the walker. It was much closer now, still going at a fairly decent pace despite its handicap. She raised the knife and then ran forward, not wanting Daryl to have to come to her rescue. She needed to show him that she could pull her own weight. As the tip of her blade sunk into the bone surrounding the brain, she grunted and pressed forward a little more until her knife sunk all of the way in and blood spilled out of its head, some of it running over her fingers. She yanked up on the knife, the weight of the falling corpse threatening to take her down with it.

"Use ya boot fer leverage," Daryl's voice said from behind her.

She lifted her boot and braced it against the chest of the walker and tugged. The knife came sliding out with a sucking sound and the walker fell the rest of the way to the ground. Her nose curled slightly at the scent but it wasn't anything she hadn't smelled before. They always seemed to smell like walker, no matter how much they scrubbed to get their clothes clean. It was amazing what they had gotten used to. She turned back to Daryl, finding him standing there observing her with a faint smile on his face. His eyes gleamed with approval.

She smiled back at him, feeling better about herself, "How did I do?" She asked.

He nodded, "Ya did good. Jus' gotta getcha in some more practice. Let's see what's inside this place an' then I'll see if I can't pick up a trail or somethin'," He said.

...

Daryl hadn't been expecting to feel anything toward the girl. If you asked him months ago at the prison, he wouldn't have been able to tell you much of anything about her. He still couldn't but he did know that she was starting to grow on him in a way that had been completely unexpected. He wasn't sure if she was having the same thoughts as him and he wasn't about to go asking her anything of the sort either. His first priority was to find Judith and get her back safely. He owed it to Rick and the rest of the group who had all sacrificed their lives for that little girl. He wouldn't rest until he had her back.

He was greatly relieved to find only two walkers inside of the building and he let Beth take care of both of them, standing ready just behind her in case she needed him. The walkers had been easy kills because both were slumped on the floor against the wall and he figured that they might have been on the brink of starvation judging from their slow jerky movements. It was hard to say because the group had never really figured out if the walkers eventually just died if they ran out of food. He did know that they could go for an extreme amount of time without eating judging from some of the corpses he had encountered.

The building he had chosen turned out to be an old abandoned bar. It wasn't a classy joint but one of those roadside bars you might find on a back road somewhere. It had obviously been empty for quite some time judging from the lack of alcohol and walkers. It wouldn't be the most comfortable night of sleep they had ever had, but then again it never was. They did a thorough sweep until he was satisfied that the rest of the place was empty.

He turned to Beth, "Ya ready fer this?"

She looked nervous but she nodded, "I'll do whatever it takes to get her back," She replied.

He stared out of the small window towards the woods and the road behind the bar. He could make out a house amongst the trees that looked as if it was hanging on by a single nail.

He pointed to it, "We'll check there first."

She peered over his shoulder to look out of the little window. He tensed and had to remind himself that she wasn't touching him, she was just looking out of the window. He could feel several strands of her hair brushing against the back of his neck. It he wasn't aware of her before, his body was definitely aware of her now.

Just as quickly, she stepped back towards the door, "Lead the way."

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