Liz had always felt the thought lurking in the back of her mind: the farm won't be safe forever. Things went to hell much more quickly than she had ever imagined, though. Shane had come running out of the woods to her, claiming the outsider-turned-prisoner Randall had broken out of the barn and caught him off guard. The men set out to find him, leaving the women in the house. Something about the story seemed fishy to Liz. Since when can someone catch Shane off guard, especially a pipsqueak like that Randall kid? Now, she was hunkered down in the house waiting for news. She was curled up with the Greene sisters on the couch; the older girls' pistols loaded and on the coffee table in front of them.
Lori swore and paced back and forth, running her hand over her barely-swollen midsection without even realizing it. "Shit. Shit. Shit."
"Language," Hershel warned from the kitchen.
"This is stupid," Andrea complained. "I could be out there searching, too. I can't believe they treat me like a child. All of us. Why are we supposed to sit in here and wait for the men to save the day?" Despite her complaint, she remained seated and instead, glanced out the window wistfully.
"Just give it a rest, huh? We don't need more people out there in the woods," Lori snapped. She walked to the stairs and yelled for Carl to come down. When he didn't reply, she squeezed her eyes shut and sighed. "Has anyone seen Carl?"
"That little shit head," Andrea mumbled. "I'll go find him."
"We'll all go," Maggie said, grabbing her gun from the table and handing Liz hers. "It ain't safe and you'll go runnin' and try to be the hero."
Carol jumped up and headed for the door before any of them. "We'll find him. We have to."
The second the group stepped outside, it was clear that Carl missing wasn't their only problem. A colossal herd of walkers was stumbling toward the house and the barn was ablaze. Black smoke swirled up toward the stars.
"Jesus," Andrea breathed. She fired off a few shots, then shook her head. "We've got to go. We can't just stay here. Load up the cars! I'll take as many of them out as I can."
"Is the barn on fire?" Lori asked suddenly in a small voice. "What's – what?" She looked around frantically; her eyes as wide as a deer in the headlights'.
Liz scanned the yard and found only walkers. She ran back inside and grabbed her bow and arrows. Standing on the porch, she took aim and shot a few arrows. Walkers fell to the ground, but more quickly lurched forward to replace them. "Where are they? Where are the men?" she called. "They're still out in the woods?" She felt to make sure her knife was in her belt, then slung her bow over her shoulder and took off into the yard, dodging walkers or popping her knife into their temples to drop them.
"Liz!" Carol screeched desperately from the porch. "What are you doing?"
"I'll be back! I'll be fine!" Liz called over her shoulder as she headed for the woods. When she reached the treeline, she paused and glanced at a shining spot on a tree. Blood. She swore and looked down at the ground, trying to remember the tracking lesson Rick had tried to give her a few years ago. She'd laughed it off and asked when she'd ever need to track someone through the mean streets of L.A.. Stupid, stupid me. Liz squinted at the ground and started following foot tracks. There were far too many to make sense; they were muddled and tracks were covering other tracks. "Damn it," she hissed, slinging her bow onto her shoulder and instead, pulling out her pistol. Ignoring her better judgment, she crept along, trying to determine whether the four men had gone out together, or which of the four men she was tracking.
The answer came quickly, as a familiar hushed voice came from nearby.
"Glenn?" Liz hissed. "Glenn?" She raised her gun and held it steady.
"What in the hell are you doing out here?" Daryl's gruff voice answered. He and Glenn appeared out of the shadows and quickly reached the girl. The men both looked her over and stared at her in confusion.
"I'm fine," Liz quickly snapped. "The barn's on fire, there's a herd of walkers at the house- we need to gather everyone together and get out of here. Where are Rick and Shane?"
"Don't know, but we heard a gunshot," Glenn replied. "We were just on our way back to say the same thing. Is everyone else okay?"
When Liz nodded, he sighed in relief.
"Shane's up ta something," Daryl said, scanning the surrounding area before continuing. "We found Randal dead of a broken neck. He turned, though. Shane and Rick still missin'. I got a bad feelin' bout that."
"Jesus," Liz whispered. "He'll kill Rick."
Glenn stopped and turned back to face Liz. "What? Why? Why would he do that?"
"Lori," Liz replied. "Shane's out of his mind. He thinks Lori belongs to him, since he got her and Carl out of the city." She shook her head. "Never mind that now. We've gotta get back to the house. Maybe they're there." Dark thoughts of what the gunshot Daryl and Glenn heard meant crossed her mind and she tried to push them out of her head.
As the group reached the treeline, Glenn gasped and Daryl swore. Dozens of walkers were stumbling toward the house. Shots were ringing out and the living were screaming to each other. Cars roared to life and the barn crackled as it burned brighter and brighter.
"Get to the bike," Daryl said to Liz. "We can hold them off for a while, just to make sure everyone's accounted for. C'mon." He took off at a dead sprint, his knife and bow in his hands.
"I've gotta find Maggie," Glenn puffed as he ran. "We'll meet back on the highway, yeah?"
"Highway. Got it. Spread the word to anyone you see," Liz agreed as Glenn turned for the house and they continued toward the camp.
"Keep up," Daryl growled from in front of her as he slashed at walkers left and right. "C'mon!" He turned back and waited for her, firing a bolt from his crossbow before spotting her on the ground trying to wrench a knife from a walker's skull.
"I'm right behind you," Liz grunted as she tugged. Usually the walkers were much more decomposed, but this particular one was freshly turned and the skull was thicker than she'd expected. The knife pulled free just as another walker reached her and grabbed at her shirt. Before she had time to react, the walker dropped with an arrow in the middle of its forehead.
"I said keep up," Daryl growled as Liz snatched the arrow from the skull. He looked her over quickly as she stumbled toward him and handed him the arrow. "You ridden before?"
Liz nodded. "Yeah, I have for a video."
"We're gonna sweep the perimeter," Daryl said as she jumped onto the bike and steadied herself. "We ain' gon' be close 'nough for knives. Arrows and bullets."
Liz nodded and raised her bow. "I don't know if I can do this from this angle," she called to him over the roar as the bike began rolling. She let an arrow loose and it found its home in a walker's eye.
"Looks fine to me," Daryl replied. "Let's go." He revved the engine and swept along the fence line, in utter disbelief at the number of walkers before them. He debated riding back closer to the house, then decided against it. A few of the cars were doing the same as he was; sweeping back and forth, firing out the windows. He didn't dare try to count how many people were in each car; dropping the bike here would be suicide. With every twang of the bow he'd carved with his own hands, he saw a walker drop. "Doin' good," he called over his shoulder.
When she ran out of arrows, Liz pulled out her pistol. The first gunshot made Daryl twitch in surprise, but he called back to her, "How many rounds you got?" Liz shook her head. "Not enough. We aren't even making a dent." She glanced back toward the house. She saw Hershel firing a shotgun, and spotted Glenn and Maggie in a car together. "How do we know when it's time to leave?"
"We don't," Daryl replied. He pulled ahead to an area void of walkers and came to a stop. He reached into his sidebag and pulled out his pistol. "Here. We've gotta give them more time." He handed it back to her, along with the ammo. "Can't worry about needing them later, since there might not be a later. Drop as many as you can."
"Go!" Liz screeched as a walker stumbled up from behind them. She fired a shot and watched in fascination as black blood that looked like tar oozed from the wound.
Daryl scanned the farmstead. A car was bumping walkers to the ground as it rumbled toward the gate. "They're heading out," he called back to her as he kicked the bike into gear. "It's time to go."
Liz glanced to the drive and a pick-up's tail lights, while another car looped back around again to sweep past the barn. "One more sweep by the gate so they can make it out," Liz replied. "Let's do one more. We'll be okay."
Daryl nodded and swung the bike around. Liz laid down fire, dropping the line of walkers closest to the road leading out of the farm. "How many cars went out?" she asked. We have to give them more time.
Daryl shook his head. "Don't know." He circled the house once more, nearly running over Patricia's lifeless body. He groaned and hoped Liz hadn't seen. He steadied the bike, then put his feet down and grabbed his crossbow. "Ain' nowhere to go. Help me clear a path!" Shot after shot, walkers fell, but more replaced them quickly and began to close in on them. "Different plan," Daryl called, turning and heading back for the woods.
"Daryl, no," Liz protested. "We'll dump the bike." She took out a few more walkers before they hit the treeline.
Daryl carefully navigated through the trees; his knuckles turning white on the handlbars. If it had been just him, he'd have swept the farm as long as he could to ensure everyone got out. With Liz on the back, he couldn't bring himself to stay a second longer.
"We're going the wrong direction. We've got to get back to the highway," Liz shouted over the engine.
"Trust me," Daryl replied. "We ain' gonna make it through the herd that way. They'll pull us off the bike." He slowed and avoided a fallen tree and a stray walker.
Liz slashed the monster in the face before the motorcycle lurched forward and carried them away from the farm for good. She looked over her shoulder and could just make out the orange glow from the barn. She closed her eyes shut and prayed they'd all made it out alive.
****
What seemed like hours later, the motorcycle roared to a stop on the highway. Daryl breathed a sigh of relief and Liz closed her eyes and thought a silent prayer as members of the group waved to them. They were apparently the last to arrive.
"Thank God," Hershel called out. "We thought you two were dead."
Liz got off the motorcycle and heaved a sigh. Her hips were screaming in agony from the long ride, and her arm was sore from the bow. But I'm alive. Realizing how lucky she'd been to avoid injury or death, she suddenly turned back to Daryl and watched him reach down and flip the kick stand. A smile crept onto her face as he ran a hand through his hair.
"What?" Daryl asked after a moment. He looked up and immediately swore he'd never forget the moment; Liz Clarke staring at him with half a smirk on her face after they're teamed up and shot walkers from a motorcycle. There were blood splatters across her blue and white gingham shirt, just as her freckles were splashed across her cheeks and nose. The rising sun was coming up behind her, giving her a glowing halo.
A smile still playing on her lips, Liz shook her head. "Nothing." With that, she bent down, slid her hands to the back of his neck, and kissed him. She was pleasantly surprised that he smelled and tasted somehow familiar. Something in me remembers the CDC, she thought with giddy delight.
Daryl didn't have a chance to react to the brief yet passionate lock before Liz turned and walked toward the group without him. "What the hell was that?" he called after her.
Liz didn't hear; the group had come forward to embrace her. Lori hugged Liz and tried to stop crying. "Thank God. We saw you heading for the gate, then you looped back. Jesus, Liz." She pulled away and nodded into Liz's face. "I thought we lost you."
Carol was next. "She was doing more than the rest of us," she sighed, throwing her arms around Liz. "We saw that. It's about time," she whispered in Liz's ear. When she pulled away, Carol wore a mischievous grin on her face.
Liz smirked. "It's been a long night. I deserved that." Then she giggled, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.
Daryl strolled over and glanced around the group. "This it?"
Glenn nodded. "Yeah. What's the plan?" Glenn turned to Rick. "We lost a lot of people. We need to go. I'm not losing any more." He held Maggie close and had a new steely look in his eye.
"He's right," Rick drawled. "It ain't safe here. We're going."
Liz glanced from Maggie to Beth and frowned. The blonde was staring at the ground; a blank expression on her face, similar to the look she wore when contemplating and eventually attempting suicide back at the farm. "Andrea, Patricia, Jimmy?" Liz asked, her momentary elation at being alive all but gone.
Everyone shook their heads and avoided her gaze.
"Shane?" Liz asked, suddenly realizing his absence. She glanced around at everyone's faces, certain she'd just missed him. When she couldn't find him, she felt her stomach drop in dread. "Is- is he out scouting out the road?"
Rick glanced at Carl, then back at Liz. He shook his head slowly. "He didn't make it," Rick said, his voice strained. Carl began to cry.
Liz stepped backward and put a hand to her chest in shock. As much as she hated Shane for what he had become, he was her brother. They'd grown up together and until recently, she had held out hope that their relationship could be salvaged. For every one time he'd struck her, there were a hundred times as children when he had hugged her. She waited for tears to fall, but they didn't come. Instead, a sense of relief washed over her. A slight guilt coupled with the feeling, but she pushed it away.
"Shit," Daryl mumbled, putting an arm around her waist. Liz immediately folded into his chest for support. She nodded and let the fact sink in. Shane was dead. She was officially out of family in this world.
"I'm sorry, Lizzy, I-" Rick trailed off when his voice broke and shook his head. "He was my best friend." Next to him, Lori began sniffling. Rick hung his head.
"We have to go," Glenn interrupted. "We can do this later. We all lost people. Come on." He pulled Maggie toward the car. "It's not safe here. Why are we standing around? No one else is coming. We saw what happened to everyone else. They were the only ones we were waiting for."
Liz watched as Rick moved his mouth wordlessly at her. His lip trembled, but she shook her head in reply. "It's okay," she said, knowing that however her brother had died, it was better that Rick had survived.
"We've gotta go," Daryl said softly at her ear.
Liz took a slow breath and nodded. "I know," she said. "I just didn't expect," she trailed off. Fact of the matter was, her Shane had been gone a long time and wasn't coming back. "Okay. I'm okay." She nodded and repeated it.
"Move out," Rick called.
"Can you ride?" Daryl asked. "If you need to get in a car, I can-"
"No, fresh air will do me good." Liz said. She took another deep breath and nodded confidently. "I'm with you." She gave him a small smile.
Daryl nodded, then before he realized that he was doing, reached around and placed his hand on the back of her head. "You're with me," he repeated in a low growl. He leaned in suddenly doubted himself. Her brother just died. What the hell are you doing? His heart began to hammer and for a second he wondered if was going to survive the moment. Walkers were one thing, but girls were an entirely different beast.
Sensing his sudden apprehension, Liz reached up and locked her arms around Daryl's neck. She glanced up into his eyes and smirked. "I used to think you weren't afraid of anything, you know?"
Daryl opened his mouth to speak, but no reply came to mind. Instead, he laughed and wrapped his free arm around her waist. "Just chupacabras and girls." Though they were both covered in grime and blood, Daryl caught the same vanilla scent that he'd started to associate with the girl. Liz felt comfortable in his arms, and he suddenly wondered what he would have done if she hadn't made it to the highway. Her nose ring brushed against the tip of his nose and his breath caught in his chest.
"You're gonna have to get over that fear," Liz whispered, raising up on her toes and brushing her lips against his.
"Kiss her, fool," Maggie's voice came from nearby.
Carol pressed her hands together and squealed as Daryl kissed Liz, dipping her slightly. She beamed and elbowed Beth. "Finally. Our own personal soap opera has paid off at last." Carol sighed and tilted her head as she watched the pair.
In spite of her grief, Beth grinned and suppressed a giggle.
"Told you," T mumbled to Carl, who made a face.
"How'd you know that was going to happen?" Carl asked, tipping back his dad's sheriff hat and looking up at T.
T smirked. "Magic. I'll explain when you're older."