Chapter 10
The hostel was about a quarter mile down the road and had a grand total of six walkers in it which we quickly took care of before looking around the interior of the old stone building. "This could be useful if we ever run out of room down at the cabins." I said looking around at the room interior. It had all the modern appliances which were completely useless since electricity when the world went crazy but a huge wood stove stood in the center of the room.
"True. It's stood the test of time and should remain standing for years to come." Michonne said as she headed down the hallway. "Plus, there are lots of rooms back here if we happen to come across new people in the future just in case they are truly crazy."
"Like the woman that wanted to cut Rick up and feed him to her dead husband?" Glenn asked with a raised eyebrow.
I nodded as we all followed her and checked out the bedrooms, bathrooms, and extra living space. Jensen and Jill just looked at each other before following us with wide eyes. The place was absolutely massive and would serve us well if we ever needed it. "Okay, let's go see if we can find any other houses down this way." I said as I lead the way back out the front door.
Driving for a total of six miles and we saw absolutely nothing except trees and mountain drops and rises. "We could just fall some trees across the road somewhere along her to stop the occasional walker and humans." Daryl suggested pointing to some of the big trees up on the edge of the small rock edge that lined one side of the road.
"I would like to think that there are still good people in the world and if they need a sanctuary we can offer it to them, not make them walker food." I told them causing them all to chuckle. "I'm serious. While I would never let them into our actual cabin area, maybe we could use the hostel as a trial and error type of thing."
Everybody nodded in agreement as Glenn maneuvered the truck around in the road so we could head back the other way. We found a grand total of five homes and 18 walkers within 6 miles of either direction of our escape plan oasis. "This is really a better option than the prison. Especially with us already having been attacked there once and struggling with the fence because we are out in the wide open." I told the group as we rode back to the house down the mountain with the mountain of supplies in it that we had decided to not touch so we would have some supplies to get us started if we ever came up here to live. Getting started in a new place is always the hardest.
ll told us about and it had maybe 20 walkers in there which our group took out with some strategic maneuvering but everybody walked away unharmed. "If we ever need it this building could be useful." Glenn said looking around at the small building before climbing back in the truck. The only reason nature hadn't taken over this building was because of the metal roof and the fact that it was made of rocks.
Once back at the house we scrounged up a quick dinner of stale crackers, old cans of baked beans, and some box macaroni and cheese. With my stomach full I took a quick shower before collapsing onto the bed that Daryl and I had claimed our first night here. I was asleep instantly on to be woke up by Daryl as he pulled me back against his bare chest. "Hmm…you're so warm." I moaned as I buried my cold nose into his warm chest. "And you smell so good." I moaned out as I placed a kiss to the center of his chest.
"Showering for a few days in a row will do that to a person." He told me with a soft chuckle. "As well as some deodorant.
Lifting my head I placed a nipping kiss to his chin. "I kinda don't want to go back to the prison." I muttered softly. "I think we could do so much better up here."
"It is kind of nice up here, isn't it?" He asked as he tightened his arms around my back. "Peaceful and relatively safe."
"Mhmm. If only we didn't have so many house guests." I muttered irritably.
He chuckled as he scooted us around in the bed until he was lying flat on his back with me sprawled across his chest. "Listen and you'll hear something that's going to change your mood instantly." He told me as he placed a finger to my lips. Straining my ears I heard the faint sounds of someone moaning. Make that two someones. There was only one person who would do something like that. Jill.
"That's disgusting. She just met him today." I said with a shake of my head.
He nodded in agreement. "Which is why I had to be stupid drunk to even unzip my pants for her. And that was just so Merle would shut up and leave me alone. I had been turning her down for weeks."
"I don't like the fact that she's had her hands on you." I grumbled into his chest. "That she knows what you look like with your clothes off."
Daryl pulled on my bent knee until I was laying on top of his chest. "You, woman, are the only one who I have ever allowed to touch me so freely. And she's damn well never seen me without my clothes on. I fucked her from behind with her hands pinned to the wall. Hell, my clothes never even came off, I just unzipped my pants and slid in."
I shuddered at the image that popped into my head. "That's still gross." I told him as I raised up with my hands on either side of his head. "I really like this place up here, Daryl. It's so much better than at the prison. We all need to sit down once we're back there and have a serious talk about relocating all of us."
"I know, baby, I know." He told me as he reached up tugging my face down to his. "Less talking, more kissing. Please. Let's see who can make the biggest ruckus." He whispered against my lips and who was I to deny the man anything.
Our lips had barely met when we heard yelling coming from the living room. Glenn. "KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF! WE HAVE A HOUSEFUL OF PEOPLE HERE AND NOBODY CARES ABOUT LISTENING TO YOU TWO HAVE SEX. IF YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE SEX, AT LEAST BE QUIET AND GET IN THE FUCKING FLOOR!"
Daryl and I rolled around the bed as we tried to muffle our laughs but they were renewed all over again when we heard a crash and a groan with Glenn telling them he was not playing.
The laugh was need because the next morning we started our journey towards the prison.
Poor Jensen looked like he was about to piss down both pants legs when he climbed from the back of the truck and several guns and sniper rifles were aimed in his direction. After Maggie, Carol, Rick, and my Dad talked to Jensen he was welcomed into the fold easily. The weeks following our scouting trip was spent making sure that everybody had a copy of a map with the route marked out in case it was ever needed. Despite mine and Daryl's pleading to head to the mountain cabins before they were actually needed, the majority vote was to stay put in the place that was already established with extra people clearing the fences all day long. So instead of leaving for what a few of us considered a safer option we planned for a worst case scenario, which was inevitable. We set up vehicles at various houses with gas in the tanks and keys hidden in specific spots along with supply of bottles of water, some food, a crude first-aid kit, and a map to the cabins.
My training was kicked up a few notches and I was excited when Michonne, Sasha, and Maggie all joined Daryl in getting me stronger. Being able to wake up curled around Daryl's warm body made the exhausting days worth it along with the fact that I could feel myself getting stronger. Since our return, Jill thankfully had moved on from Daryl and was now making her claim on Jensen known throughout the whole prison.
What thought to be just a normal summer cold turned out to be a virus that wiped out over half of the prison's population and resulted in the deaths of over half of our population and I couldn't help but think that it was because we were all living in such close quarters. We were just taking our first breath of fresh air from the epidemic when a large hoard of walkers pretty much walked right through our gates creating chaos. People were screaming which caused the walkers to swarm in their direction, others were wildly firing their weapons hitting people and walkers alike. Daryl quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me from the chaos and to the motorcycle. "Hold on." He screamed at me as he twisted the handle and sent us flying in a wild game of duck and dodging the walkers as we high tailed it from what had been our home. We didn't speak a single word until we pulled up to one of the escape plan houses.
"Do you think anybody else made it out alive?" I asked as I climbed off to lift the garage door so he could walk the motorcycle inside.
"I'm sure they did. I saw people getting on to the bus as I searched for you. Plus, our family aren't known to be slackers. They will find us. If not here then at the cabins in a few days."
"Thank you." I whispered to him as I pushed the door back down, secluding us inside the small garage where a truck already waited for us to use to get to the cabins.
It wasn't until it got dark and we decided to call it a night that my sobs finally came. "Baby…" Daryl said softly as he curled up behind me, pulling me into his chest.
"I'm worried my Dad didn't get out of there and we just left him." I whimpered as I rolled over to bury my face in his warmth.
He stroked soothing hands up and down my back attempting to calm my emotions and worries down. "Hershel has already survived one walker bite, I'm sure he made it out just fine. Let's just think that everybody is still alive until we know for sure that they're not. Okay?"
I nodded in agreement to his words. "That's easier said than done. He was the humanity of this group, Daryl, so what's going to happen to us if he's not around to do that? He kept everybody humble and honest."
"That he did, but you know, he instilled all those same qualities in you and Maggie. I think the two of you could make those cabins and mountain into something we could all be proud enough to call it home." He told me softly.
With a shake of my head my tears renewed once more, this time from the pure joy I felt at the amount of trust and faith Daryl had in me and my sister. I'm not sure how long Daryl held me close, murmuring about what the cabins in the mountain could mean to us, but eventually my eyes slid shut and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
A frantic knock on the door that lead to the garage yanked me from my slumber. Daryl was quicker than me and raced up the hallway and into the kitchen. As I yanked on my boots I heard voices coming down the hallway. "Bethy?! You up? Daryl said you were back here!" I heard my sister call out and, with one boot on and the other in my hand I ran out of the room and down the call. We collided as tears poured down our faces in excitement and relief. "I'm so glad I found you." Maggie whispered against my hair as we hugged each other tightly in the middle of the hallway.
"Who's with you? How did you get away? Is Glenn with you?" I fired the questions rapidly as I pulled back to give my sister a once over.
She pulled back from me and did the same to me before meeting my eyes. "He was on the bus when it left. Hopefully they made it to a house without incident. I've got faith in him that he will meet us at the cabin as planned." She told me as she cupped my face in her hands. "Sasha and Bob are with me but Bob's been shot. Think you can patch him up?"
"Isn't Bob an army medic? Why can't he talk Sasha or you through patching him up?" I asked as we headed towards the living room with our arms linked between us.
Maggie smiled at me. "We wrapped it up but we're scared we will do more harm than good and he can't very well talk us through it when he's in so much pain. You are the next best option since you spent so much time helping Daddy out in the clinic."
"That's with animals, Maggie. Bob is not an animal." I told her as I shoved her playfully. On my way to the front rooms I sent up a silent 'thank you' to whoever was listening for bringing me my sister back.
When I entered the living room Daryl had one of the oil lanterns lit as he and Sasha helped Bob get his shirt off. "I got the first aid kit." Daryl told me as he stepped out of the way so I could take over.
"Thank you." I told him with a smile as I sat down on the coffee table in front of Bob. "You gonna survive?" I asked him as I looked at the bloody bandage on his shoulder.
Bob grunted as I began unwrapping the bloody bandage. "You are going to have to help me through this, okay?. As I reminded Maggie, you are not an animal and I was always horrible at the game operation."
"That's not funny, Beth." He grunted as I tossed the bloody bandage to the side. "First thing you need to do is feel around the bones and see if they were hit or missed." He ground out before sticking a stick in between his teeth and biting down on it hard.
Taking a deep breath I followed his grunted directions in checking, cleaning, and dressing the wound while he lay panting and sweating on the couch from exertion. "Good job." He breathed out before his body slumped to the side. Passing out from the pain.
"Let's get him to the room to lay down." Daryl told Sasha and Maggie who helped him carry Bob to the first bedroom down the hall while I cleaned my hands up with the last bit of water from the water bottle I had used to clean Bob's shoulder wound. He was lucky because the bullet, while a clean through and through, had been high enough on his shoulder to miss the bones completely. "You doing okay?" Daryl asked as he stepped up behind me, placing his hands on the counter on either side of me.
I nodded as I used a strip of an old curtain to wipe the rest of the blood and water off my arms. "I think so."
"Good. Why don't you go lay down with Maggie? She's in the master bedroom." He told me as he placed a kiss to my shoulder.
Spinning around to face him, I cupped his face in my hands. "Isn't that where we were sleeping before they showed up?"
He nodded but placed another gentle kiss to the tip of my nose. "Yeah, but your sister needs you and I think you need her too. I'll be right there on that couch when you wake up in the morning."
Lifting up on my toes I pressed a quick kiss to his lips because he was just so damn sweet and thoughtful of the needs of everybody around him. "I could easily fall in love with you, Daryl Dixon."
"Don't start talking crazy, woman." He told me with a smirk before giving me another quick kiss. "Let's get some sleep."