As Daryl marched with the group, closing on Dawn's hideout, he couldn't help but think back to that first day after Beth was taken. Right after Joe's group found him. He didn't really trust them, but at least if things went sour he might have some people to throw at the walkers as he got away.
It was very early; he'd been tracking that damn rabbit all morning long. As he fired his crossbow, that asshole Len took his shot from behind him. The damn pussy; bows are for hippie-ass nature wimps. Crossbows are for men. Crossbows helped the Chinese hold the Romans at bay in Parthia; the Spanish used them to conquer half of the Americas; the Crusades were defeated with them; hell, a bomb-throwing crossbow was used on the Western Front in the First World War. Longbows, in his opinion, were for assholes who had too much time on their hands, and history proved it. It took an English longbowman over twenty years to train to be proficient in a bow; it took a crossbowman one week. Of course, firearms only took about thirty seconds, but they were much louder, and you couldn't well make .45 caliber rounds on the spot; all a crossbow bolt needed was a nice, straight branch from a tree shaved down right.
"What the hell are you doing?" he had demanded, turning to Len after he took the shot.
"Catching me some breakfast." Len had replied smugly.
"That's mine." Daryl insisted, walking over and picking up the rabbit, which now was very dead, with two arrows through its heart and neck.
"Well my arrow's the one that hit first." Len informed. "That cottontail belongs to me."
Daryl ignored him, taking out the arrows and picking up the rabbit. "I've been out here since before the sun came up."
"You see, the rules of the hunt don't mean jack out here. Now that rabbit you're holding is claimed, boy." He warned. "Claimed, whether you like it or not. So if I was you I'd hand it over, now, before you get to wishing you ain't even got out of bed this morning."
Daryl walked up to him, getting in his face, just glaring at him in utter contempt.
"It ain't yours." Daryl replied.
"You know, I'll bet this bitch got you all messed up, hmm?" he mocked. "Am I right?"
Daryl walked away, trying his best to just ignore him. Beth was no bitch. She was so much more special than just a "bitch."
"Got you walking around here like a dead man, who just lost himself a piece of tail."
Daryl stopped dead in his tracks. That was going too far. She was not just "a piece of tail;" hell, he'd never even thought of her as that. And now this asshole Len thought he could just get away with that?
"Tell me something," Len continued, "was it one of the little'uns?"
Mocking her age, that was what drove him over as he unsheathed his knife. He'd pay for those remarks with his life.
"Cause they don't last too long out here." Len shook his head, oblivious to the rage he had invoked deep in Daryl's heart.
Daryl drew his knife just as Joe came up, saying "Easy fellas, easy."
The whole thing was over real soon; they split that rabbit in half and Len got killed for being an ass later anyway, but the thing Daryl was thinking of was how pissed he had been at Len for that. That anger was nothing compared to what he was feeling right now as he advanced on Dawn's base.
It was a big, red-brick building; the single room lit up at the top told them all they needed to know: someone was up there, and there was a fair chance it was Dawn's group.
And Daryl meant to kill every last one of them.
…
"Beth. Beth. Beth!" Shepard snapped, rousing her from her sleep. "Wake up!"
"W-Whaaa…?" Beth asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.
"There's guys coming."
"Where?"
"Outside. They've got a lot of guns."
"The lamp!" Beth facepalmed, cursing herself for forgetting to shut it off.
"What should we do?"
Beth looked at her straight in the eyes. "Well you're the cop! What would you do?"
Shepard sighed, muttering something under her breath as she ran out of the room. Beth went over to the window, carefully looking down at the large group below her. She couldn't make anyone out in the darkness, but they sure seemed pissed off.
"Beth," Shepard called out, "wake up Morgan and take him down the emergency exit out the back. I'll hold 'em off."
"What about you?" Beth asked, going over to Morgan and shaking his shoulders.
"I'll be fine. Go!"
"What?!" Morgan snapped, jolting upright, hand on his knife.
"Whoa!" Beth exclaimed. "Calm down Morgan; there's a group of guys with guns coming, so we're gonna slip out the back, okay? Come on, it's alright."
…
The door took a few good kicks to get in; the cops had shoved a desk in front of it. However, as history had shown, even tanks couldn't stop Daryl Dixon from fighting for what he thought was right. And so they entered.
Right away one cop started strafing madly down the stairs at them. Just one, from what Rick could judge, but that one was more than enough to make them all dive for cover.
"Shit!" Tara exclaimed, diving to the right with Sasha and Abraham as the cop raked the first floor with gunfire.
"We don't want to fight!" Gabriel, of all people, suddenly exclaimed, walking clear out into the line of fire, trying to show the cop his collar so that they'd know he was a priest.
"Shut up!" Daryl shouted, firing a crossbow bolt up the stairs and nailing an abstract painting dead in the center.
"Get out of the way!" Abraham shouted, tackling him down as the cop started shooting again. Abraham took two bullets to the shoulder and lower leg in that tackle.
"BETH, GET MORGAN DOWNSTAIRS NOW!" the cop suddenly called out.
And everyone just stopped. There was just deafening silence for several moments that went by painfully slow as those words sank in. Rick had listened to that cop Lamson before he killed him; he had went down the names of every cop in that hospital, and there sure as hell wasn't a Beth or a Morgan.
"Daryl no!" Rick shouted as Daryl stormed up the stairs, firing madly and then tackling the cop to the ground. She was the same one they had captured before that firefight in the parking lot.
"They've got Beth!" Daryl shouted back down, turning to Shepard. "You bitch! WHERE IS SHE?!"
Shepard recognized him too, but couldn't say anything since he was choking her. He punched her lights out thirty seconds later.
…
"Dawn," Licari announced, walking up to her as she attempted to organize all the clutter around the warehouse they were holed up in, "you might wanna have a look at this."
The pair walked over to the window, Licari handing Dawn a pair of binoculars. Out by a building called HOGAN PSYCHIATRIC CONSULTANT, a single lantern illuminated the top floor of the building well enough for her to see at least ten people standing in a room together, talking. Then the light went out. About thirty seconds later on the ground, a bunch of headlights lit up and moved across town.
"Well, I think I know where we're headed next." Dawn whispered to him, handing him back the binoculars and loading her gun. "We'll attack at dawn, before they're ready."
...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry I didn't update Thursday or Friday; I had to babysit both nights. Here's chapters 10 and 11 to make up for it. Enjoy!