A/N so for those who read last chapter in the first few days after I posted it, I added a note to the end explaining my decision making process with certain elements of the story. Go back and read that if it is anything that perks your interest. One comment I received after posting it, was that the reviewer didn't agree with my calling what Carol did as a betrayal. I don't think she set out to do something as a betrayal, or was actively thinking that she was betraying the group; but I do think what she did was wrong, and betrayal was what I felt when I found out what she did. It was a sucker punch to the gut for me, with a healthy portion of "How could she do that?!" They had worked so hard to build not just a home, but a society at the prison; and she just decided she knew better, and would do what she thought was best. I get she thought she was making the tough call. I understand she was trying to protect everybody, but I still don't understand where her logic came from – anyone around colds of any type knows that everyone is exposed before the symptoms set in, so to do what she did when she did it was the height of futility. It's just always bothered me, because especially as a mother, she would/should have known this. So maybe betrayal wasn't the best word, but at this point in time I can't think of one that fits any better.
Also, so sorry this is out so late, though I did warn ya ;) Mix a business trip that went morning to night, an unexpected weekend getaway, normal life with two small boys, and oh yeah, morning sickness that lasts 24 hours (surprise!) and this is what ya get… needless to say I have been absolutely exhausted, and when I have turned on the computer, the screen has shimmered in front of my face. I spent this past week just thinking sadly how much I missed WORD.
Anyways, enjoy! This should be the longest break between chapters, not that life is settling back to normal I should be getting a chapter out every week to week and a half! And I own nothing
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When they finally took the last turn and first saw the town of Sundley, Beth smiled. It had been a long two days since leaving the museum; they'd been forced to reroute around walker herds twice and had been off-roading more times than she could count. The bumps were jolting on her still healing body and the monotony was endless. Speaking had never been Daryl's strong point, and though he had been more talkative the last… she counted quickly… eleven days, the many stretches of silence were longer and longer. Sundley was a larger town than Carson, but by driving the outskirts they could quickly find the road that had once been Main Street.
"It's odd how all the small towns are emptying out." Beth said, reading the signs and graffiti on the shops as they passed.
"Not so odd." Daryl replied. "Those that are loose wind up drawn into the herds, the ones that are stuck stay stuck." He shrugged and parked the truck outside a little mom and pop store called "Edna's Market." The curtains behind it fluttered though the air was still, and a moment later, a decayed hand was reaching for them, beating against the glass. "Damn." He said, putting the truck in gear again, and driving further down the street.
The next two places showed signs of unlife, but when all was silent at the third try, "Miles & Son Hardware", he smiled and parked the truck. The day was bright and scorching hot; he squinted and cursed the bright reflections shooting back into his eyes. Walking up to the shop window, he peered inside and saw several corpses. He knocked on the window and waited, but nothing moved. "Dead-dead then." He muttered to Beth, who was standing guard behind him. He tried the doorknob and grinned at the fact its lock held. A moment of fiddling with his knife in the jamb, and they were in. They stood just inside the doorway for a minute, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness before going further in. Daryl went straight to the corpses, and after nudging them with his foot, noticed that both had damage to the back of their skulls. "Someone already took care of 'em" he told her.
Beth nodded, and started moving towards the aisles of the store to clear them. It was a small store, and didn't take long. She didn't know what they could really use here, but it was good to know that had a fall back place to head to tonight after searching the town, anything was better than the cab of the truck. "Anything we should be looking for or grabbing?" She asked Daryl, who was up front searching the checkout for weapons.
"Wouldn't be bad to have more rope." He yelled back to her, "And some work gloves to keep in the truck."
She nodded, knowing he wasn't really listening for a response, and found the aisle that had the rope. There were a bunch of different types; not knowing which was best she cut and coiled a bunch of different types. Her Daddy always found a use for the yellow and blue one, the one that was slightly thinner than her pinky, so she cut extra of that one. The next aisle over had the work equipment. She moved down it silently, grabbing a couple gloves in Daryl's size and some in hers, after trying them on to see what size she was.
Throwing everything into a bag, she went back to the front of the store to check on Daryl. "Found it?" He asked her.
"Don't know how much we need, but I grabbed a bunch." She told him, "How'd you make out."
He shook his head. "Found the spot where the gun used ta' be." He told her, "But whoever did a number to them two musta taken it with 'em. Left some of the ammo behind but it's not a type we can use."
"Shame." She said, turning around and leaning against the counter. "Town this size is going to take us more than one day, isn't it?"
"Prob'ly" He said, "Depends on what we find."
"Let's get to it." She told him, the unanswered questions still driving her on.
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The first few streets were empty of anything, but when they got a ways away from there they started seeing signs of life, a door that had been broken down, trash blowing in the streets. Nothing that would be considered a signal, but it was always encouraging to see signs that other humans were surviving too. "Let's check out here." Daryl said, pointing at a clothing store whose door was unlocked.
"Why?" She asked, stepping in and squinting in the darkness.
"'Cause I'm damn hungry." He muttered. "'s good a place as any." He told her.
The store had been ransacked, which worked to their favor. Most of the clothing racks were clear, at least of anything useful. Gauzy summer dresses still hung here and there, along with some bathing suits and the like, but other a half empty rack of some over-sized clothing, anything that could be considered practical was long gone. The lack of clothes meant there weren't many places for walkers to lurk, and after a tense fight with the two women that had once worked there, the place was theirs. Beth grimaced as her knife made a wet sucking sound coming out of the walkers head.
"Here." Daryl called and tossed her a bag of beef jerky, opening up his and digging in with no issue, not noticing or bothered by the smell lingering in the place, strengthened by their recent fight and kills.
"Think I'll wait a while." She said, tucking it into her back pocket. Walking away from the bodies and the smell, she wandered around the small store. It had once been a house, converted into a store as the downtown area grew up. Almost all the windows had been sheet-rocked over to provide room for displays, but the main level was mostly clear of anything, just one large room that was only so big. She smiled while she handled a purple bikini hanging on the rack. Her daddy had always been conservative; she'd fought like heck to get his permission to even go to the lake with her friends, let alone wear a suit like these. That had been tabled for when she was older. Now she was older, and the chances of her wearing one of these were even less.
Letting the strap fall, and watching it sway back and forth a little, she shook her head and thought to herself, 'enough of this.' She turned and walked away from the suits, and made her way over to the other corner of the store. This side had a small window, the type that slide open to the side; knowing it was too small for anyone to fit through, and opened in a way that wouldn't draw attention, she let go of the clasp and breathed deeply, as a soft wind brushed against her face.
"Go on" Daryl said from the front of the store.
"What?" She questioned him.
"Ya chewin' on your lip so hard it'll start to bleed soon. Don't need to attract anymore walkers." He said, putting another piece of jerky in his mouth. "Say what ya need to say."
"Not much, really," she told him quietly, shaking her head and wiping a stray hair from her face. "Just missing things. Daddy encouraged me to dresses, so long as they made me 'look like a proper lady.'" She said, imitating his tone and vocal cadence. "I hadn't gotten out of ribbons and bows when this all went down. I spent hours dreaming about the dresses that I would get to wear when I grew up like Maggie. Tried a couple of hers on to get the idea, but well… they didn't fit quite right." She blushed red at that and turned away, stroking the blue dress in front of her gently. "In the prison it was easy to forget how much time has passed, but now being out, all I do is count the days. We're almost two weeks out from everything. Can't believe it's been so long since I've seen anyone. Missing them. Missing Maggie." She swiped a tear from her eye, and Daryl grimaced when he knew she had hit home from what she was running from.
"Just 'cause we ain't found 'em yet don't mean nothing." He told her sternly.
"I know" she said simply, "doesn't stop the thoughts about how they could have died though..." She shook her head and grabbed at the dress next to her. "Being out, it's easy to keep my mind on the here and now. But the quiet times like these are the ones where I can't help but think about what should have been. This is the year I would be starting college. Maggie had already told me, after a bad fight with Daddy, that she was gonna take me out and get me the proper clothes for a college girl. Like these. I know it's silly and girly, but…" She trailed off, settling down and closing her eyes for a minute.
Daryl was quiet. Her tone while she was talking made him think of nothing so much as hopelessness and pity – he didn't know what to say to either and knew if he said what he was thinking it would lead to either heavy crying or punching fists. So he sat there, as the silence stretched. Fact was, nothing could be done about what had happened, and he had never been good at playing the should 'a, could 'a, would 'a, game; just move the hell on and deal with what ya got.
In the silence, another sound slowly grew. The shuffling and moaning of a walker was somewhere close, filtering in through the open window. "No!" A man's voice desperately cried out from the same area. It was enough to make Beth's eyes snap up.
"We gotta help him." She said, standing with her bow in hand, checking her knife in its holder with the other.
"Don't know him." Daryl said, from his spot.
"Daryl Dixon." Beth said, in a scolding voice he's heard her use many times with Judith, "Just 'cause you don't recognize him doesn't mean he isn't someone worth helping." He still didn't move. "He could know where some of the others are." She told him, before moving towards the door. "You can stay if you want but I'm going."
"Beth." He grimaced. He knew what was driving her, and couldn't deny her need to find out, but damned if he liked them sticking their necks out for someone dumb enough to get trapped.
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In hindsight, he should have known that this would be a tough one, and that something was very wrong. The first tip off on entering the alley was that Beths tiny body shouldn't have been enough to block the sight of the walker attacking the guy. The second was that Beth, who had slowly become proficient at taking down walkers was hesitating and shaking was enough. As it was, it wasn't until he had caught up to her, and moved to her side that he saw the walker that caused the man's distress, and a wave of horror hit him.
Being at the prison meant they hadn't seen many kid walkers in a while, and since then they had been fortunate to not have to deal with this yet. Daryl always viewed it as luck that the circumstances required to change meant there were fewer walker children than adults. Not that that helped things now. Not when a walker who looked to be eight was in your face. The man was holding him back, constantly holding him back while crying. The walker didn't have the strength to break free of the hold, but had the advantage of being inexhaustible. The man, whomever he was, had obviously been on the road for a long while; a layer of grime covered him, and his pale face was near white with exhaustion. Whatever was going on may have just come to their window, but this man had been in the thick of it for a while.
Shaking his head sadly and approaching the awful sight, Daryl swallowed thickly before taking out his knife, and doing what no one else had been willing or able to do. Rather than letting the body fall like normal, he caught the underside of it, and moved with it, laying it gently on the ground. "Noah" He heard the man softly calling.
"He one of yours?" Daryl asked, feeling another level of pain and guilt on top of what he already felt. It sucked having to put down kids, even knowing there was no other option.
"No. Yeah." The guy said, brokenly. "He wasn't mine at the start of this, but he felt like it now. I wound up in a group with his Mom and Dad, sweet couple named Louise and Mike." He paused for a moment, and Beth's little medical training recognized the halting way he spoke as a sign of shock. He didn't look more than 25, and with his round cheeks and patchy scruff he could have passed for Beth's age or even younger. "After they got... lost... I wound up with Noah. The last year we've been doing the best we could together. Nerdy kid figured out staying up high kept us out of the walker's sights, so we've been moving from tree house to tree house the last few months. Smart kid." He said, shaking his head again. "Stupid. So stupid."
"What happened?" Beth asked gently, mindful of where they were but not seeing any danger at the moment.
"Nothing." He said, shaking his head. "We've been heading from base to base, working our way inland, looking for someplace that would give us a real shot. It's had been quite for ages, and we hadn't seen a walker in weeks. Amazing how quickly you can let your guard down. I've never had a kid or brother; I knew about keeping him alive from the walkers, but to actually take care of the kid?" He laughed. "Shit, the kid took care of himself. We came across a tree house, but no ladder, just branches. We were gonna move past it, but Noah was adamant he could climb it, even though the branched were higher than he was used to. He was high, but not that high, when he missed one and lost his grip. He should have been fine, but the way he landed broke his neck. I can still hear the cracking sound it made in my head."
Daryl felt his stomach twist. He'd heard bones break before, just hearing about it reminded him of the sickening sound of his own arm breaking as a kid. He could easily see the awkward bent to Noah's neck now, and with no effort, his mind could see the same thing happening to any of the kids from the prison. He hadn't been responsible for any of them, or even close to 'em to be the one that was and to have seen it all must have been awful.
"Why didn't you take care of him?" Daryl asked, annoyed that if this was one of his own he didn't do anything about it.
"I tried, but couldn't." He looked down guilty at the boy. "Time passed, and I had myself revved up to do it once he I saw him start changing. I knew it was coming, but every other time, it only took a day or so. I stayed with him for three. When it hadn't happened yet, I figured there must have been something wrong to the inside of his head from the fall." He shrugged again, and bent down and stroked the boys head. I buried him then, and used the tree house for another couple days. I've been circling the town for days looking for supplies and the like." He finished lamely.
Beth muttered quietly "Just weren't ready to move on yet."
"Yeah." The guy said. "Then earlier today, I turned the corner and saw him. Thought I was going crazy at first, and then just tried to hide. Weak I may be, but damned if I could do it now after saying goodbye to him. Figured I could just get away and leave it to someone else,"
"Thanks." Daryl said bitterly
"You don't know what it's like!" The guy yelled, breathing heavily as his grief was being eclipsed by anger.
"You're right, I don't" Daryl said a little more gently, mimicking a tone he'd heard Carol use with the kids.
That helped take some of the wind out of his sails. He sagged a bit against the wall, and then asked miserably, "What do I do now?"
"Now you come with us," Beth said, shooting Daryl a look that said 'Don't Argue'. "We're split up from our group and been searching around for our people. We've been on our own a while. We could use the company." Daryl snorted. "Ignore him, he's just moody sometimes." She said, with a wave of her hand. We can take care of Noah properly, than camp out the night and move on in the morning."
"What's ya name?" Daryl asked, holding out his hand to lift the man up.
"Paul" He said, reaching out and grabbing his hand gratefully.
"You can stay with us for a night, but we go our own way in the mornin'" Daryl spoke evenly but sternly.
"Fine," He said, before turning a looking at them. "Who are you anyways?"
"That's Beth. I'm Daryl." He said. "Better grab your boy if you want to bury him."
Paul did what he said, before falling instep behind them.
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The setting sun found them back at the store, tired and dirty after the hard work of burying the boy and keeping lookout. There had only been a few sparse walkers here and there, nothing they couldn't handle. Beth and Paul were working their way through a can of beans, while Daryl worked on cleaning his crossbow, uneasy around the new guy. Paul finished talking about all he had been through in the last months, ending on a note that left her uneasy. "We ran into a group of people not long ago," He said, "troublemakers, who didn't leave us alone till I lied and told them Noah was my kid. Good thing I still had my license at that point to prove I was old enough, kept trying to convince me to leave the kid on his own to join up with them."
"How old are ya?" Beth asked, curious now.
"Thirty two." He said, making her eyes pop. "My coworkers used to call me Brady, after the Brady Bunch kid that looked like he never grew up. Beth giggled at that, and Daryl shook his head at the sound. "What about you, what's your story?"
"Well," Beth said, thinking quickly, she wanted him to know something about them in case he came across some of the others, but didn't feel the need to share everything. "We were in a group of about thirty, we'd made a home in a prison, but it got overrun and destroyed. Daryl and I got split up from the rest of the group, well we all got split up in different directions, so we been searching the area around here it for signs of the group ever since. Haven't had much luck though." She shrugged her shoulders.
"And you and Daryl? What are you to each other?" He'd been trying, but just couldn't get a read on them in the last hours.
"Don't really know how to put it." Beth said quietly, moving her gaze to the person in question, watching him take care of his bow at the other end of the room. "We're each other's family. We run into anyone I get a bad read on and I tell 'em he's my brother to keep them off my back. But really, family is the best thing I can say about him. Almost think were thicker than blood, don't know what I would do without him."
Daryl nodded his head from his corner; he must have heard her and agreed. Beth felt a warmth in her chest when she realized what that meant. Smiling happily, she turned back to Paul, "And you, where are you headed now?"
Anywhere but here." He muttered, laughing very little. "Need to get out of this hellhole. Moving on west, hoping to find a good spot in northern Alabama or Louisiana to make my home. Somewhere far enough inland to not worry about the coastal population, but somewhere in all those lakes and rivers, should be able to find some island to hole up in."
"Not a bad idea." Beth agreed.
"You could come with me." He said, quickly adding, "I mean, you and Daryl both."
"We aren't ready to move on yet. It's not time for us to give up on the others. Not while they could still be out there."
"I get that." He said, "And I'll keep an eye out for them in my travels. Never know what's going to happen." He lapsed into silence and finishing his beans. Daryl came over and sat with them soon after, before bunking down and getting ready to sleep.
"I'll take first watch." Beth said, padding over to her bow and taking a seat, moving so she could see a clear view out the sliver of window they left exposed.
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The morning passed packing up and getting ready to leave. Beth wanted to give Paul some of their provisions, and engaged in a silent discussion with Daryl about what they needed versus what they could give. He shook his head at four cans, but gave her a look that clearly said, do what you need to do when she only held up three. She shot him a smile and softly said "Thank you." Turning back to Paul, "Here," she said, handing over a small bag with the food, and one of the extra knives from before. "This is a list of all the people we're looking for," She handed him a bit of paper, with all their names and basic descriptions on it. "Now you take care of yourself out there." She gave him a brief hug, before turning away and heading to the back of the store to get cleaned up for the day.
"Don't be stupid." Daryl told him, not really sure what else to say to the guy.
"Do my best." He said, hesitating before talking again. "You know, talking with Beth last night, she said you guys had planned out to say you were brother and sister if you ever ran into trouble."
"So?" Daryl asked.
"Well, and don't take this the wrong way, cause I don't mean it to be insulting, but you're a redneck."
"Shit, ya think?" Daryl asked, laughing a little.
"Well, Beth's not, not by a long shot. She's the closest I've ever seen to a real southern belle, even if you play up living with different parents and growing up different it still don't fit. Your actions and mannerisms are similar after being together so long, but not in a way that makes it seem like your relatives. Just because you both have the accent, you can't feign kin, at least not by blood. By choice, maybe."
Daryl was thankful for the layer of dirt that mostly hid his blush at that insinuation. "What d'ya mean by that?" He said gruffly.
"Well, it's just…" Paul hesitated, figuring out the right way to say it, then continued. "You're a redneck, but not of the mountain men, inbreed kind." At Daryl's blank look, he added, "No one should look at their sister the way you look at Beth. And no one should look at their brother the way she looks at you." He shook his head, and moved towards the door. "Might want to change your story is all." He had reached the doorknob at that point, and stopped with his hand resting on it. "Anyways, I thank you for your help yesterday, and will keep a look out for your friends. If I catch any of them I'll pass along your plans and let them know you're doing ok." After that, he made his way out, and Daryl turned back o check on Beth.
He paused, resting a minute to process just what Paul had said. He didn't think of Beth that way, least he didn't think he did. Sure, he'd been more aware of her body lately, between training her, and making sure all the wounds were healing. But not in a way that was dirty, at least it didn't feel dirty to him. She was just a large focus of his life now, watching her was normal. Paul did have a point though, about them being too different to pass as true kin. They would have to come up with something else.
Bringing himself back to the present problem, which was searching the town, he thought about where they stood. Paul had at least helped them cross out some of the town based on his travels, which meant they would only have to spend another day here, instead of two or three. Scratching at the raised scar hidden in his head, he made his way towards the back. "Thanks to Paul, we only hav'ta search another day here…"
"Daryl!" She yelled at him, turning her back to him, moving her arms quickly to cover the fact she wasn't wearing a top.
"Sorry." He said, looking down with closed eyes as she righted herself. "Thought you'd be done by now."
"Well I'm all done now." She told him, turning back around after her shirt was on. Daryl looked up just as she was pulling her hair free; the action made her shirt ride up a little and show a flash of her belly. He may not have noticed it much before, but now that Paul had mentioned it, it seemed hard to notice anything but. Until the embarrassment from the talk with Paul faded, it was going to be an interesting day.
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The next three days had gone much the same as the ones before, the location changing but not the circumstances. The had moved on from Sundley, and after a short stop in a strip of houses that didn't even have a name, they found themselves camping out between towns, taking a page out of Paul's book and hiding out in a tree house on an old farmstead. "Not too bad being up here." Beth said, tying her hair back. The sun was setting and the heat of the day had broken, leaving a cool breeze coming through the open window. If Beth had heard anything of his talk with Paul she hadn't said, and had spent the last days just going about her business as usual. "It's nice to be in the night breeze like this, than shut up in some of those houses." She moved her head left and right, working out some of the kinks, before stretching her arms above her head. It was peaceful, and the summer sounds of the crickets and night animals just added to the lullaby for both of them.
"Been thinking 'bout something Paul said." Daryl spoke softly, knowing they needed to come up with a better plan than they had.
"Yeah?" She asked.
"He said that he would never buy us as kin, and I think he was right. Just ain't happening. If we get stuck somewhere, or someone assumes it, that's fine, but I think we need to come up with another story in case we run into anyone else."
"Okay." She said; agreeing that the thought of them being brother and sister was pushing it. "What do you have in mind? Pretending to be a couple?" Her voice rose a little at the end, but he thankfully decided to ignore it.
"Maybe. Yeah." He said, after another beat. He started shaking his head and laughing "Oh shit, this is messed up."
She laughed to, which made them both feel better. "Messed up more than camping in a tree house during the end of the world, a world where the dead come back to life?"
"Point taken." He told her. "I figure we meet someone we don't wanna run with we give 'em a line 'bout being on our own, just us." He went digging in his pocket, before awkwardly grabbing her hand and putting something in it. She looked down and saw a ring, a wedding ring. "Ya don't have'ta wear it if ya don't wanna," He muttered, looking away from her, "just had the idea after Paul's talk and figured you may want to go all in."
"Where's yours?" She asked, noticing his bare hands.
"Haven't caught a guy walker yet." He shrugged. "We can hit a jewelry store or wait till we get a married guy for me."
"Okay. Romantic." She joked, sliding the ring onto her finger. It was way too large, and easily slid off if she moved it. "Doesn't fit." She said, shrugging, before putting it in her pocket. "We can find another though." She told him, "I think it's a good idea. I like the visual it'll send to people, and make them ask less questions about why we're together. At least till we know if they're good or not. Plus, a couple of my friends used to do something like this when they were working, just to keep from being hassled by guys. I'm lucky, I have a man to back it up"
"There's something else." He told her, unfolding the map out on the floor in front of them. "I wanna head out of our planned circle and then loop back in."
"Why?"
"The only place we ain't been that's survived everything we been through is Kings County, where Rick is from. We know he didn't head there, but the others knew about it, and someone else may have had a thought to try and meet up there, least after thinking 'bout it for a while."
"Wasn't the crazy guy there? Is it safe for us? He nearly shot Rick, and he knew him." She said, unsure if anyone other than Daryl would have connected the dots and decided to take the risk.
"Don't think I haven't put off the idea these last days, but our search is gonna take us past there eventually, and we may as well hit it sooner rather than later and know. More time goes by, the crazier the bastard is gonna get."
"There is that." She said, still not liking the idea but unsure what other option they had left. This endless searching was getting to her, and short of making the trek back to her burnt out home; they were out of options. "We gotta try." She agreed after a few moments silence. After all, what other choices were there?