Beth studied the map from Carol's pack, tracing the railroad lines until they converged on what she thought must be Terminus. Scanning the area around it, she found the state park they were currently in, and she thought she could approximate the little town where the church sat.

Beth couldn't help but wonder what Daryl had said to convince Carol to come back with them. He seemed withdrawn - even more so than usual - and thoughtful.

Her stomach gave a loud growl. Carol's silvery eye's met Beth's in the rearview window.

"There's a can of corn in the bag," she offered. Gratefully, Beth seized the can and passed it over Daryl's shoulder to his waiting hand. He deftly spun his knife around the top, prying it open with quick movements. He tilted his head back and swallowed a quick mouthful before holding the can up for Beth to take.

Unnoticed by the other two, Carol's brows knit for the quickest second. Ever observant, she had noticed at the church, and here it was again - a wordless camaraderie between Beth and Daryl. He told her that they had escaped together. They seemed to have developed a system, a familiarity, where they anticipated each other's movements and acted without hesitation.

Daryl chewed his mouthful of kernels. He had meant what he said when he promised to leave with Carol, but God, he hoped she would change her mind. The thought of leaving Rick, who had become a brother to him, or Michonne, his determined partner in the hunt for the Governor, or Beth, who... he was surprised at the sudden drop in his stomach as the thought of leaving Beth crossed his mind. But Carol had saved him, first and most often. She had welcomed him, sought him, respected him when the rest at Hershel's farm saw only a redneck asshole. Someone to do the dirty work. Someone noone really wanted around. It was like when Merryl showed up at the prison. He hadn't wanted to leave the group then, but his brother had taken their father's shit for him as a kid. Meryl may have been a dick, but Daryl still owed him his life.

But maybe Carol would change her mind. He knew there was uncertainty in her heart. When her mind was made up, Carol would not be stopped. She could've thrown the truck in reverse and sped off around him. But she had paused, and that gave him hope.

It was still before noon when Beth told Carol to veer right. The pine forest around them gave way to a string of houses and an abandoned main street.

A few walkers stumbled aimlessly through the buildings. Vegetation choked at the homes and storefronts and the roads were littered with debris. Carol hit the brakes and surveyed the town in front of them.

"Do we think it's safe?"

No one answered here. They all knew what could happen - the town could be an ambush, with shooters in the buildings waiting to take the truck out and steal their supplies. Or perhaps they'd round a corner and run into a herd.

"We even sure this is right town?" Daryl asked.

"No," Beth answered frankly. The area around what she thought was Terminus had been sparsely populated; the marked towns had been few and far between. She had taken her best guess, but still…

"Screw it," Carol stepped on the pedal and the truck lurched forward. Beth was on high alert, eyes peeled for threats or a sign that they were headed the right way.

"Look! She cried suddenly, eliciting quick reactions from Daryl and Carol. "Sorry, no, it's just - I think that's the food bank!" And sure enough, they were passing a storefront marked Harvest Hope Food Bank. The front window had been shattered, the shelves inside stripped bare. Beth hoped that meant a successful run for the group.

The row of buildings ended as abruptly as it had begun. Satisfied that the town wasn't a trap, Carol slowed the car to a halt at an intersection just outside of the town.

"Hold up," Daryl said, swinging open the door to study the road for tracks the group may have left the previous day. Beth watched him through the front window, unaware that Carol was in turn watching her.

"Head right," he directed, climbing back into the truck. After a few moments the road turned towards the woods, the tall oaks and pines casting moving shadows on the navigated carefully, scanning the trees for threats and a signs. Even so, she nearly missed the green "CHURCH AHEAD" sign covered in fallen straw. Daryl nudged her on time, and turning quickly, the red tin roof of the chapel came into view.

Beth leaned forward between the two front seats, trying to make out the group huddled in the churchyard. Her stomach dropped, the breath exiting her lungs as if she'd been punched in the gut. They were standing at what was unmistakably a fresh grave.

One of the figures turned suddenly, lifting an assault rifle and aiming at the dirty gold truck. Carol ducked quickly, slamming her foot on the brake, as Daryl swore and roughly pulled Beth down by the arm. When no shot pierced the windshield he peeked over the dashboard. Tyreese had wrapped his arm around his sister's narrow frame, pointing her weapon towards the ground.

Still some twenty yards away, the three grabbed their packs and quickly exited the truck. At the sight of her sister, Maggie broke from the group and ran forward, Rick striding behind her. Relief flooded through Beth even as she scanned the rest to see who was missing, but before she could deduce who might be in the grave she was wrapped in a tight - and somewhat angry - hug.

"Who?" She dimly heard Carol ask.

"Bob." Rick's voice betrayed his exhaustion and wrath. "C'mon. We'll talk inside."

Sasha and Tyreese remained at Bob's graveside, but the rest trooped into into the chapel. The afternoon sun streamed through the stained glass, illuminating the tension etched in every face. The initial relief Beth had felt at seeing Maggie was replaced with sinking dread.

"What happened?" Carol's voice was both quiet and commanding. "Was it walkers?"

"Yes - well, no. We don't think that's what killed him." Glenn said softly. He paused, shooting a quick look at Rick before continuing, "He went missing last night. We tried to find him, but it was dark and… anyway, we found him this morning out front. He'd been shot through the head. There was a bite on his shoulder but we don't think he'd turned yet... And his arms were...missing."

"Cut off," Rick drawled furiously. "The wounds were cauterized."

"And that was pinned to him," Glenn finished, nodding towards a paper lying on a nearby pew. Standing on her tiptoes, Beth could make out two words scrawled in thick marker:
TAINTED MEAT.


Beth inhaled deeply, soaking up the damp earth smell and trying to calm her pounding heart. Daylight was fading quickly and she knew it would soon be time to act.

It had all come down to Eugene. When Rick and Sasha had made it clear to Abraham that they wouldn't head to Washington without avenging Bob, and Eugene asserted that he saw no sense in leaving without them, Abraham had finally consented to stay and fight.

"And just how in the actual fuck are y'all planning' on attacking?" He asked in exasperation. "You don't know where they are. You don't know how many there are. You don't know dick."

Eugene cleared his throat. "It's my firm belief that our friend Bob was delivered to our doorstep in order to provoke hostilities; an operation by all accounts successful. I believe they intend to draw us out into an ambush, and furthermore I believe the fact that they attacked one man under cover of darkness suggests that we have the upper hand as far as numbers and strength are concerned. And I have a plan to turn the tables, if you're so inclined to hear it."

The afternoon had been spent preparing - all but two of the church windows had been shuttered, and several pieces of flooring had been pried unceremoniously from the floor of Father Gabriel's office. Dried pine straw had been gathered and spread on the pews and in the corners of the sanctuary, the sharp fragrance filling the whole room. The meager supplies had been loaded onto the repaired church bus, save the weapons, which had been distributed amongst the survivors.

After a rushed and early supper Father Gabriel had handed over the key to the church's front door to Beth with the look of a man resigned to the worst. Clutching it tightly in her palm, she had slipped through the hole in the floor into the crawlspace below. With slow and quiet progress she army-crawled towards the front of the building, stopping in the shadow of the front steps.

Her role was of vital importance, and she was still a bit taken aback that it had fallen to her. It made sense of course; she was small and quick, and would not be considered a threat by the people of Terminus, but she was still a little unused to being included in the dangerous jobs.

Her body began to ache, curled into it's cramped position, and the drumming of her pulse made her feel faintly dizzy. When at last the sky had turned black she heard the stealthy movements on the floor boards above; heard the slow squeak of the door being opened. Her eyes, having adjusted to the darkness, watched as ten pairs of feet walked in file from the church towards the woods. Behind her, she could hear Eugene cautiously climbing down into the crawlspace. Carl, Gabriel, and Tyreese, who cradled Judith, squeezed in behind him.

Anxious minutes passed. Despite the chilly night air beads of sweat rolled down Beth's face and back. At last she thought she heard the crunch of gravel, and straining to see by the dim moonlight, she counted seven pairs of feet that stole up the church steps. A thud overhead told her the door had been pushed open and, as the floorboards groaned beneath the tread of the intruders, she heard rustling behind her and knew that Tyreese had slid aside a panel of the lattice that enclosed the crawlspace so that he and others could sneak onto the waiting church bus.

"Well, I guess you know where here." Gareth's muffled voice carried down to her as he stepped deeper into the dark sanctuary. "And we know you're here."

A perfect owl call came quietly from the woods, and knowing it was Daryl's signal, Beth clenched her palms and eyes shut for one brief second, mustering her courage. With trembling fingers she slid aside the lattice in front of her and crept to a crouch by the steps.

Eugene had tampered with the door hinges that afternoon so that the door would swing closed by its own weight, but Beth still peered cautiously over the stoop to be sure it was shut. From inside she could here Gareth listing the survivors he believed to be hiding inside the back office.

Noiselessly Beth crept up the front steps, sensing the eyes of the rest of the group on her back. She fought to steady her hand as she slipped the key in the lock, and seeing Daryl and Rick creep into position at the edges of her peripherals she turned the key quickly before pitching herself over the side of the steps.

The sound of metal turning was deafening in the still night, but before the intruders could react Rick and Daryl had lit the Molotov cocktails they had been holding and whipped them through the unblocked windows before rushing forward to shutter them with a bang. Through the cracks in the shutters Beth could see the hellish glow as the fires caught the pine straw and flared; the group from Terminus was shouting in anger and surprise, and the sound of frantic feet running towards the doors and windows was distinguishable even with the yells and crackling flames.

The survivors moved as if choreographed. Beth, Daryl, Rick, Michonne, Abraham, Rosita and Sasha spread out to cover every door and window, prepared to kill anyone who might break through the church. Tyreese came from the bus to join Carol, Maggie and Glenn in circling the church, fending off any walkers attracted by the noise and light.

"Rick!" Beth yelled as the window to her right shattered and the wooden shutters buckled and splintered. A man lay curled on the broken wood and glass,having thrown himself through the window. The rest of the intruders began to spill out like insects fleeing their hive, hacking in the smoky air, only to be greeted by the viciousness of the survivors.

Rick yanked Gareth to the ground and raising his machete in air began to chop at the weak and whimpering man. Michonne made quick work of two survivors with her blade and Abraham grunted and swore as used the butt of his gun to knock a man down. Sasha's face was a mask of blind fury as she thrust a knife into the skull of an older woman with the deftness developed by years of fighting Walkers.

The brutality hit Beth like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the righteous anger and determination that had fueled her all afternoon. Turning from the carnage, her eyes fell on the man who had broken through the window, still struggling to get up from the ground. Dispassionately she raised her pistol and ended his suffering with a bullet between the eyes.


The church was still burning when the group abandoned the abused corpses and filed silently onto the waiting bus. Beth was curled up in the second to last seat, her back against the cool window. Daryl paused on his way to join Carol in the seat behind her, their eyes meeting.

"You did good today," he said in a low voice. A measure of calm and faint pride came to her at his words. She smiled her gratitude and closed her eyes as Abraham, began to steer the bus on to the dark road.