Hey guys! I's been a while, but I've been utterly busy... Well no, that's just a lame excuse... TBH, I had some real difficulties with this chapter and I must admit that I absolutely hate it. :/ I really suck at writing "thrilling" scenes and so it's totally boring and idk... I'm so sorry! The next chapter is going to be better, promise! I already started writing it and I think I'll update tomorrow or tuesday!

So forgive me! And enjoy whatsoever!

9.

Brookfield

"He's still sleeping" Beth stated when she walked down the stairs. "I left some food and water for him. He still looks pretty bad."

Daryl nodded.

"Did ye lock the door? Wouldna' want him wandering 'round the house."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Of course."

There was a moment of silence between them, as there often was. Beth kind of felt that they needed those moments of not talking so each of them could gather their thoughts. Still it was awkward to be with him, actually since the two last days it had gotten even more awkward than before. But at the same time it was much sweeter. She smiled.

"So... is there any plan on what we're going to do?" she asked.

"Uhm, we need gas for the car. And as many food supplies as we can put in that trunk." he replied.

She nodded. The thought of traveling in a car and not by foot made her feel less uncomfortable about leaving, still she got sad by the thought on never returning to the place again. The house had become some kind of turning point for her. Since the fall of the prison things had become worse and worse and when she had thought that she'd probably end on the road they had found this place. And with it, she had regained her faith and hope. She sighed internally and shoved the thought away. They would only leave by tomorrow and tomorrow was far away.

"We need some things from the pharmacy, too," she said. "There's barely any dressing material and disinfectant left ."

"'kay. You ready t' go?"

She hefted her rucksack on her back and grabbed the bow.

"Still not sure if I'll ever be able to handle that thing."

He laughed roughly.

"Don' worry, ye will."

They walked over to the Landrover and tucked their luggage on the back seats. The car was as fancy as the house and contained GPS as well as a hi-fi system.

"Too bad we don't have any music," Beth said but just when the words left her mouth she remembered the iPod.

"Oh Jesus! I totally forgot about that!" she exclaimed and started to rummage in her pockets.

Daryl looked confused but started the car. She pulled out the device and raised it triumphantly.

"Awesome!" she said and beamed at him.

"Well done, Greene" he replied as she connected the iPod to the hi-fi system.

He turned the car around and they headed towards the main road. She browsed the playlists to find that the device was not exactly stuffed with music. It just contained the latest album of Lady Gaga and various songs by the Beatles. She pouted at the player.

"I'll go for Beatles then," she said and Daryl made a noise of approval.

It was a short ride anyway and they reached a gas station about ten minutes later. It looked pretty shabby and there was lots of rubbish lying around. A few cars were parked around the place and they decided to check the tanks for fuel. Beth carefully searched through the rubbish until she finally found a piece of hose.

She brought it to Daryl who had forced the filler cap of a dusky pick-up open. She handed him the hose and collected an empty gas canister. When he sucked the air out of the hose, she grabbed her water bottle and handed it to him, so he could rinse his mouth. It wasn't much fuel left in the tank so they had to drain the tanks of two more cars. They acted in silence and Beth felt as if it was a routine. For the first time since a while she felt actually comfortable in silence with him.

When they finished refueling the tank, Beth looked at Daryl in question.

"Shall we check out the tank shop?"

Daryl glanced at the shop. The windows were all shattered and the entrance was blocked with garbage.

He shook is head.

"Nah, leave it. Better go to the city."

Beth nodded and headed for the car when he grabbed her arm.

"Hey, you 'kay?"

She looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Sure, why?"

He smiled.

"Just wanted to make sure."

xxx

"What a podunk town," Beth noted when they slowly drove down the main road of Brookfield.

"What did ya expect then?" Daryl asked but she just shrugged.

The shopping street mainly contained small stores and lots of parking spaces. At the end was a supermarket and Daryl stopped the car in front of the main entrance. The doors were broken down and there was lots of trash scattered all over the place. They left the car and carefully checked their surroundings. They didn't see or hear anything but Beth withdrew her knife nevertheless and Daryl held his crossbow at the ready. They took their bags and quietly made their way into the store.

The salesroom was dusky since there were no windows and only little light came in through the broken doors.

"Damn it," Daryl murmured. "A torch'd be helpful."

Beth felt her heartbeat increase by the thought of what might lure in the dark.

"We can use the headlights from the car," she whispered.

"Fair point," he replied and turned to the car to place it. When he turned on the lights, Beth held her breath. Now they had a better overview over the place and her hopes dropped immediately. Almost all of the racks were knocked over or swept and there was lots of trash on the ground. They needed a few moments to grow accustomed to the scene when they heard the familiar voice of a walker. Beth searched the salesroom for the source of the sound and spotted a body that was stuck under a rack. It stretched its arms out towards them and desperately tried to break free. Daryl casually withdrew his knife and walked over the thing to kill it. Beth followed him carefully and tried to spot any other danger. The light of the car made it a little easier to navigate between the broken racks but the play of light and shadows made her paranoid. She quickly searched through some garbage and collected two gauged cans – tuna. Their search was frustrating and they soon realized that they had to go further into the store if they wanted to find anything useful. When they passed the household department, Beth picked up a small notebook and instinctively stuffed it in her pocket. When they reached the pharmacy Beth's hope slightly raised. The shelves behind the counter were swept and there was broken glass everywhere, but the door to the store room was still locked.

She took a few steps toward the door and tried to open it, but as she had expected it was locked.

"Damn," she whispered, "What do we do now?"

"Need an axe or somethin'"

"What if the key's still around somewhere?"

Daryl shrugged and made an uncertain movements towards the desolated shop.

"Don't think ya gonna fin' anythin' in this mess. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Beth impatiently shifted from one leg to another.

"But there must be a way." Then her face brightened up. "There was a fire department on the other side of the village. Maybe we can find an axe there!"

"Fair point, Greene. What would I do without ya?"

She beamed at him and flushed slightly. He was flirting with her, at least she thought it was a Daryl-Dixon-way of flirting.

They quickly returned to the car and drove back to the fire department. It was less than a minute's drive and Beth felt excited when they found the building to be majorly intact. They circled the building, but the doors were closed and locked and the big gateways where the fire engines used to go through were to solid to break through. They decided to smash a window to get on the inside.

Daryl took a big stone and threw it through the glass. The sound of the shattering harshly spilt the silence and for a second Beth was expecting walkers to show up everywhere. But nothing happened. She helped Daryl to climb up to the window sill which was about 5 feet from the ground. He swung his legs to the inside and carefully peeked into the room. Then he turned around, gave her a quick nod and she handed him the weapons and the backpacks. Daryl dropped them on the other side and reached out a hand to help her climbing up.

When Beth jumped from the window sill to the inside of the fire department, she saw that they were in some kind of bureau. The tables were knocked over and there were some broken computers. And she saw blood.

"Looks as if there was a fight," she whispered. The trace of the blood led to the hall and through it to another room that was now locked. They exchanged a look when suddenly someone, or rather something started to bang against the locked door.

"Jesus!" Beth exclaimed and made a step backwards.

"Come on," Daryl said. "Let's find the storeroom."

They passed the door and went to the left. The hall was dim on the inside since there were no windows and they slowly made their way. After a while their way brightened up and they found an open door at the end of the hall. Beth thought it must be their lucky day, since the door directly led into the garage where two big fire engines were parked. Daryl quickly walked over to the first one and tried to open the storage capacity on the side of the truck, but it was locked.

They searched around the room for a tool so smash it, and Beth grabbed an iron pole which she handed him. He broke the lock and pulled up the shutter. Beth squealed on her inside when the saw the content of the panels. They were filled with tools and two small axes were attached to a hanger on the back plane. Daryl took one and additionally grabbed two hammers and a saw.

"Let's go," he breathed and they quickly made their way back to the hall. When they entered the corridor, they heard that the knocking and bumping had grown louder and the groaning of the walkers mixed in. They carefully passed the door and rushed to the bureau from which they had originally entered the building. Daryl quickly blocked the door with a table and Beth already jumped to the window sill, but when she swung one leg on the outside, she squealed and quickly withdrew it, because a couple of walkers had gathered around the space. When they heard her scream they started to approach.

"Fuck, they are on the outside," she whispered.

"How many?"

"Like ten or so."

Daryl stared at her for a moment and then sighed.

"Gonna try to shoot'em from here. Let's just hope the door's going to bear up."

Beth jumped from the window sill and Daryl took his crossbow. She wished she could help him and resolved to practice more with her bow. When the older man had taken down three from the walkers on the outside she heard the door from the bureau next to them crash. Her heart sank into her boots but she tried not to freak out and headed for the door, to check of it was properly secured. Only a few seconds later the walkers had reached it and tried to break in.

"Daryl?" she whispered.

"Need more bolts! In my bag."

She rummaged through his bag and withdrew the pack they had found in the hunting store in the woods. He quickly stashed the bolts and shot another walker on the outside. The banging on the door seemed to grow louder and after taking down another one he turned around to face her.

"Take your knife, we're gonna pop out."

They quickly threw the bags and tools out of the window and Daryl swung himself over the window sill to jump down. Just when Beth wanted to follow him, the door broke. She squealed and jumped in blind panic. A burning pain shot through her ankle when she hit the ground hard, but she didn't hesitate for a second to get up again and headed for the car. On her way she took two walkers down. Daryl was behind her and she opened the passengers door, when she saw more walkers approach from the backyard of the fire department. They were in the car and on the road again within a few second, bot breathing heavily.

"Fuck," Daryl muttered. "They'll probably follow us."

"Then hurry," Beth replied, her heart pounding in her chest.

He stopped the car in front of the shop and they rushed into the inside. It took Daryl some time to break the lock, and Beth nervously glanced towards the outside, but nobody was approaching the building. When the door finally swung open, Daryl raised his crossbow and slowly entered it. The room was clear of walkers and untouched. They looked at each other in triumph and entered. There were two small roof lights at the end of the room, it was dim but they could see enough.

"Wow," Beth breathed when she saw the amount of medicine that was available. She grabbed some dressing material and painkillers and then started to search through some antibiotics but she didn't know what most of them were for, so she mostly ignored them. Then she found disinfectant and stuffed it in her bag.

"Did you find anything?" she asked Daryl who searched another cupboard.

"I'd say so," he replied and showed her a bottle of morphine and some tetanus injections. She nodded and headed for the next cupboard. It contained mainly sanitary products and she almost considered skipping it, when she saw a deodorant.

"Awesome!" she gasped and stuffed it in her bag. She cursorily browsed the rest of the shelf and found a few packs of condoms. Her cheeks immediately flushed red when she remembered what she had said to him the other night. She took one of the packs. No, she couldn't seriously consider that. But on the other hand... who knew? But no, what would it look like to him if she'd...

"Hey!" he said and she clenched the pack in surprise, turned around and hid it behind her back. "Did you hear me?"

She shook her head.

"Sorry, I was a little distracted."

He nodded in confusion.

"Said we should get outta here if ye didn't find anythin' else."

"Sure," she said relieved that he didn't notice what she had just found and stuffed her haul into her bag. They quickly left the shop, not a minute to late. When they reached the car they saw a large group of walker approaching. After stashing their luggage in the car they quickly closed the doors and set off.

Beth breathed deeply when they passed the walking corpses her heart still pounding heavily. They made it.

She beamed at him.

"We're a good team, don't you think?" she said self confident.

He smiled back at her but didn't reply.

She leaned back in the car seat and caught her breath when she realized the stabbing pain in her ankle. She leaned over and took off her shoe to examine her leg.

"What's wrong?" Daryl asked.

"I think I sprained my ankle," she replied trying to move her foot without pain. "Luckily I took some bandages." She leaned over her seat and started to search through her bag until she pulled an elastic bandage out and started to wrap it around her ankle.

"You think you can walk?" the older man asked.

"I'll manage," she said and was proud on herself, because she thought she sounded really tough.

When they turned into the road that led to the house an uneasy feeling crept through her stomach. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that something was different. She looked at Daryl and saw a concerned look on his face. When they approached the house she saw what had caused her discomfort. The front door was open.

"Fuck," Daryl mumbled and stopped the car. He jumped out and grabbed his crossbow. Beth held her knife and followed him, now clearly noticing the stabbing pain in her foot.

Daryl carefully pushed the front door wide open.

"Hey!" she shouted, but nothing happened.

"Fuck, I reckon that motherfucker escaped!" he grumbled and made his way upstairs. Beth followed him and glanced in the kitchen. Her heart sank to her boots. The cupboards were opened and lots of the food was missing.

"Son of a bitch!" she heard Daryl swear from upstairs. "That dumb ass kicked in the door."

She felt panic grow in her chest. Why had he done that? Had he been lying after all?

Daryl appeared on the stairs and the expression on his face frightened her.

"Daryl, I'm so sorry, I never thought..."

"Leave it," he interrupted her. "We needa leave! Who knows what he's up to."

She felt as if someone pulled the rug from under her. The dream she had dreamed the last few days had suddenly become a nightmare. Now this house wasn't a save spot anymore, it meant danger.

"I didn't..." she whispered, but his stare made her shut her mouth.

"Get your things and then we leave."

With trembling hands she packed the remaining food supplies. She noticed that Rupert had taken some of the kitchen knives. Maybe he was just scared? But she knew what she had been knowing a while ago. He had lied. And he was up to no good. The peaceful atmosphere of the house had messed up her head and she had tried to see something that wasn't there. She had tried to keep up an illusion. She felt tears of guilt and shame choking on her throat.

She brought the food to the car and Daryl followed her, carrying the rest of their belongings.

When they left, Beth felt as if something of her would always remain in that house. Something she would never see again and the thought of it made her utterly sad.