Apocalyptic Love

Chapter 10

Beth sighed when he parked the car in front of what used to be a Walmart. Now it just looked abandoned. She doubted they were actually going to find much. "First thing, we'll get bags, then we'll check out the clothes." Beth nodded her head and climbed out of the truck, her gun in the waistband of her jeans and her knife ready. Just because it looked abandoned, didn't mean it was. She followed Daryl into the store and they quietly moved back to where they would find bags. He handed her a few and took some for himself. "You alright to take the women's clothes by yourself?" he asked.

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. I'll yell if I run into trouble." Daryl nodded his head and gave her a quick kiss before heading off to the men's clothing. Beth sighed and made her way over to the women's section. She had a list of everyone's sizes but as she moved through the racks and took what she could she knew they'd have to live with whatever she could find, and there wasn't much in the way of sweaters or coats. They were going to have to check the back of the store in storage. Hopefully there was something there.

Beth grabbed everything she could until the bags were full and she had to make a trip back for some more. She was getting a few off the hooks when someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back against a chest, a knife against her throat. She glared over her shoulder. "Well, would you look at what we have here; you're a pretty little thing."

"Think we can keep her, Mike?" Another man came out from the other side of the shelf she'd been getting bags off of, holding another knife. It didn't look like they had and guns on them. she thought about calling for Daryl, but she didn't know how many more of them were out there and she didn't want to alert them. Instead she remembered what Abraham had taught her.

"I think we can," Mike whispered, his hand going up her side. Beth closed her eyes and grabbed the hand holding the knife to her throat. She yanked on it hard, pulling it down to her knee. When she hit the reflex the knife dropped to the floor and he grunted in pain. "Little bitch." He reached out, grabbing her long hair. Beth whined as he pulled the roots already weak. She elbowed him in the gut and Mike doubled over, holding his side. The other man came at her and she ducked under his knife and punched him in the stomach.

"Beth?" She looked over at Daryl as he came around the corner. "You alright?" he asked, holding the crossbow he'd found on Mike.

She nodded, rubbing her head where her hair had been pulled. "Yeah, I'm alright."

Both men slowly stood up and glared between her and Daryl. "This here is ours, I suggest ya'll get."

Daryl's lips quirked into a smirk. "Little girl already kicked your asses, I think you're the ones that better get."

Mike growled and took a step towards Daryl. "I outta kill the both of you."

"Mike, let's just go. It ain't worth it." The other man who didn't seem to be as ruthless as his partner put his knife away. "Ya'll got a camp somewhere?" he asked, looking at Beth.

She glanced at Daryl. It wasn't a smart idea to advertise where they were staying. "We do."

"What if we came back with you?"

Daryl moved close to Beth, keeping his bow trained on Mike. "Nah, ya'll just better get." He nodded at Beth who grabbed the bags they both had dropped. Mike huffed and dragged his partner out of the store. When Daryl was sure they were gone he looked at Beth. "You alright?" he asked.

She nodded her head and threw her bags over her shoulders. "Yeah, let's finish this up," we've still got a few other places to hit up." Daryl nodded his head. They cleared out what they could in the way of food before they went back to the sporting goods department. Daryl broke the glass on the gun case, which both of them found strange. Usually they were the first things to go, but they shrugged it off and grabbed the half dozen shot guns and loaded up on ammunition. Daryl was able to get more arrows for his bow and grab another compound bow and arrows. He mentioned something about teaching he how to use it which just made her smile as they headed back to the bedding.

Daryl and Beth both had to get carts at one point because they'd filled up a dozen bags with supplies. After the blankets and pillows came the medicine. They got everything from the shelves before they broke into the pharmacy and grabbed all of the prescription strength stuff. "We should check automotive," he told her as they pushed the already heavy carts down the aisles. "Those cars aren't going to last forever."

Beth nodded her head and followed him back. They grabbed what oil they could, tools, anything Daryl thought they might need. By the time they were on their way back they didn't have room in the SUV to stop anywhere else. It was filled from top to bottom, side to side from the trunk all the way up to the back of the front seats. Daryl had to let Beth drive because they'd had to move the seats up as far as far as they could go and he wouldn't have been able to.

When she pulled up to the gates of the White House Sasha and Tyreese were waiting to open them. Beth drove in and parked as they came over. "How'd you do?" Tyreese asked. Beth grinned and opened up the back, showing them just how well they'd done. Tyreese and Sasha stared at their haul. "Even in a zombie apocalypse you can find everything and Walmart." Tyreese laughed and put his arm around Beth. "Nice job you two."

"Did you run into any problems?" Sasha asked as they started to unload the vehicle.

"Just a couple of drifters, Beth took care of 'em." Daryl grabbed some of the heavier bags with all of the canned food and made his way to the house. Carol and Bob came out to help them unload.

"Nice going." Beth smiled and helped carry things inside as Rick, Michonne, and Carl pulled up. Sasha quickly opened the gates, the others weren't far behind them.

Rick stepped out and looked at the nearly full car then looked at Beth. "Well, guess we know who's going to be loved tonight," he teased as they started unloading the other vehicles. "Did you guys get everything?"

"No, there's still a lot there we could use but we couldn't fit anything else in the car." She rolled up a few of the blankets and passed them to Sasha and Bob before climbing inside to move things closer to the back. "We could probably go again today or tomorrow if you want."

Rick nodded his head, coming over and taking the shotguns from her. "These were still there?"

Beth nodded. "Yeah, and I took a look in the back before we left, it didn't look like anything back there had been touched, so there could be some more."

"Well damn, looks like we just need to unload these cars and head back to Walmart," Abraham muttered, taking a few of the bags.

Once the cars were empty they agreed it was the best idea to go back to Walmart and get what they could. By the time they were done for the day they'd made three trips in total, completely filling the vehicles each time. Everyone was in the best moods they'd been in for a long time as they ate dinner that night in the living room, with actual lights. Beth noticed the way Daryl seemed to be getting closer and closer to her as the night wore on. She really hoped things were really changing for the better between them.

She saw him get up and stretch, his back cracking as he did so before he looked over at her. "You wanna stay with me tonight?" he asked shyly. Beth smiled and nodded her head, getting up and going to him. She slipped her hand into his as he led her up stairs to his room where he made love to her again before they passed out in each other's arms.

"About damn time," Rick muttered, watching them walk off.

Maggie nodded, resting her head against Glenn, fighting off sleep. "I thought they'd never get over it." She smiled a little when Glenn wrapped his arm around her waist.

"You're alright with her and Daryl?" Tara asked. "He's like twice her age."

Maggie shrugged. "If she loves him then it's not my place to get in the way."

…

A few weeks passed as the group settled into their new home and Eugene worked almost around the clock on the cure. Things between Daryl and Beth had changed dramatically. They were always with each other, it was hard to find one of them alone anymore. Beth was once again that happy, vibrant young woman she'd been before they'd lost the prison and Daryl's mood was getting better every day. They were sitting down at breakfast one morning when a very tried Eugene shuffled in, the biggest smile on his face. "I did it."

Everyone froze, looking up at him. "You've got a cure?" Rick asked, slowly standing up. They didn't want to believe it, didn't want to get their hopes up.

Eugene nodded his head slowly. "I think so. I'm going to need to test it before I call it a successes, but yeah, I think I've done it."

"What the hell are we waitin' for, let's go get a test subject." Abraham got up and headed for the door, everyone followed. "How many do you need?" Abraham asked as they pulled on their boots and strapped weapons to their bodies.

"At least ten, I want to make sure it works." Eugene rested against the wall, his head lolling forward as he started to fall asleep.

"Okay big guy, you need to sleep before anything else happens." Rosita wrapped his arm around her shoulder, Tara taking the other side. "We'll get him to bed, you get the walkers."

Rick nodded his head and looked at Michonne. "Think we cut their arms and jaws off we'd be okay?" he asked.

She tightened the strap of her sword around her shoulders. "Should be, even with ten they won't be able to do much."

Rick nodded his head. "We'll need to find a way to transport them."

Beth spoke up this time. "There's one of those bank trucks about three blocks from here. I don't know if it runs but we could use that." Rick nodded his head. They all climbed into the SUV and headed out. It didn't take long to collect the walkers. While Rick and Abraham held them down Michonne cut off their arms and jaws, Maggie, Glenn, Daryl, and Beth held off the walkers that were everywhere else, getting the next one ready while Carl threw them into the back of the truck.

When they got back to the White House they left the walkers in the truck until Eugene had gotten a little sleep. Once he was ready they led them in, one by one and strapped them down to chairs. Eugene injected with the cure he'd created. "Now what?" Tyreese asked as they all gathered around.

"Now we wait. I don't know how long it's going to take." Eugene put the syringe down and crossed his arms. "It could take minutes, hours, days, I don't know."

"Well, we might as well get some sleep." Rick looked at Abraham, you wanna take first watch?"

Abraham nodded. "Yeah, I can do that."

"I'll be down at midnight," Daryl added. They agreed on a four hour rotation and headed up to bed.

…

The next morning everyone was at breakfast except Glenn and Maggie who had taken watch together. When they came in with smiles on their faces everyone looked up. "You guys have to come see this." They followed them back to the room. Eugene was looking over four dead corpses, but they looked…healthy. They were still dead, but they weren't walkers anymore. They were people.

"It kills them?" Carol asked, crossing her arms.

Eugene nodded his head. "It wasn't going to bring them back to life. There's not one walker out there who doesn't have a hole in it that would be fatal to a human. But this way, it'll kill them." Eugene looked at them. "It works."