All I Ever Will Be
Chapter Twelve - Safe House
They climbed the stairs together, Beth behind Daryl. The staircase was so narrow there was only room for one of them to go at a time. The ceiling at the top of the stairs was low so that they had to duck when they reached it. As Daryl's eyes adjusted, he found a hatch door built into the ceiling.
He felt around it blindly, feeling a lever. Tugging on it, he sensed it release. He paused then and looked back towards Beth. The floor from which they'd came was a long way back now. "You good?" he asked her. "I'm gonna open it."
"Go on," Beth said. "I'm ready."
He looked back at the door, pushing it upwards. It was heavier than he expected. With a deep grunt, Daryl heaved it open until it fell back the other way and slammed into a solid surface. He stood up straight and cocked his gun, pointing it through the hole, not knowing what to expect. The light that was shining through the hatch door was blinding.
He blinked, letting his eyes adjust to a quiet, enclosed room with two windows to the left. The floor through which they'd come was a solid slab of stone. The room was cold and gray with shelving on the walls that held labeled plastic boxes. Squinting he made out what a few of them said - Christmas decorations, extension cords, tools. A few feet away, Daryl saw a Mercedes parked, covered in dust. In the corner, mountain bikes laid, forgotten, on top of each other.
They were in someone's garage.
Daryl hoisted himself out of the hole, reaching in again to help Beth out. The two of them made it to their feet, leaving the hatch door open in case they needed to escape again. They were still on guard, unsure of their surroundings.
Beth started towards one of the windows where sunlight shone through. She stood in the warmth of the sun, closing her eyes to enjoy it. Daryl looked around the room, trying to take in how large it was. He wondered what else they were going to discover today. What the hell was this place? Was this some kind of safe-house? Daryl had heard of people doing shit like this, but never actually following through with it.
"Daryl," Beth said, staring out of the window. "Come here."
He turned and joined her at the window, his eyes adjusting to the blue sky outside. They were in a house alright, on a large plot of land, with forest surrounding them on each side. In the distance Daryl saw a collection of large, white wind turbines. Impressive and no doubt what was fueling the electricity and running water.
"Holy shit," he said.
Beth looked at him, her eyes wide with excitement. A smile crept to her face. "Can you believe this?" she said excitedly, looking towards the opposite wall. There was a door there that would surely open up to the rest of the house. She started walking over towards it. "C'mon Daryl," she said practically skipping.
He brought his gun up again and grabbed her shoulder tightly. "Wait," he said. "Let me go first."
Beth sighed, letting Daryl go ahead of her. He sensed his overprotectiveness was annoying her, but he'd rather be safe than sorry. He reached the door and turned the handle slowly, not knowing what to expect. Sticking his head into the next dark room he could see shoes on the floor and coats hanging on hooks. No sign of urgency or struggle here - just a normal room in a house where people hung up their coats. To the left side of the room was an expensive looking washer and dryer. He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of them. Beyond that, the room was empty.
He waved Beth into the room with him, still moving quietly. They walked through the room and into the next doorway. Daryl wasn't believing what he was seeing.
They had entered a large kitchen, made from a white pine wood with black marble countertops and stainless steel appliances. The dark countertops stretched completely around the room. In the middle there was a long island that had wooden chairs lined up against it. He took the room in, realizing the floor, the walls, even the ceilings were made from wood. It made the space smell fresh and woodsy - familiar.
At the end of the kitchen there was a long table with chairs - a dinner table. Daryl looked beyond the dining space and saw an even larger living area. In the middle was an impressive stone fireplace its smoke chamber disappearing into the high ceiling of the room. In front of it was a wrap-around couch with pillows and blankets. To the right of the fireplace - a hallway. To the left throughout the kitchen and living area there were floor to ceiling windows. They revealed a breathtaking view of the wind turbines and forest beyond. Sunlight poured in from the windows, making the house look shiny, bright and welcoming.
"Wow," Daryl heard himself say.
He looked at Beth who had made her way to the dining area next to the kitchen. She was running her fingers across the surface of the dinner table, her eyes glancing over every detail of the room. Her mouth was wide open - she was in awe of what they'd stumbled across. And if Daryl was being honest with himself, he was too.
He still wanted to be cautious. Coming closer to her, he placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "Let's check out the rest of this place - make sure we're not gonna run into anything or...anyone," Daryl said to her in a whisper.
Beth nodded at him. They walked together, side by side both filled with curiosity with what this place held. He could feel her excitement as she stood beside him and it made him indescribably happy. Maybe, just maybe, they could stay here for a while.
They entered the living area. To the right the room lengthened underneath a second floor balcony into the front of the house. They decided to explore the hall beyond the living area. Down it he and Beth found a bathroom (bigger than Daryl's entire childhood home), a room filled with exercise equipment and another filled with bookshelves, large cushy chairs and to Beth's excitement - a piano.
Once they'd cleared those rooms, and Beth took a go at the piano, they moved to the front of the house. The front foyer had a wide curved staircase that led to the second floor. The front of the house had windows, though nothing near as large as the ones in the back. The front double doors were made of heavy wood and featured over five different locks on the back. The owners of this house weren't fucking around.
Beth had come up to the door and was inspecting the locks. "Nobody forced their way in," she said thoughtfully, her fingers gliding over the deadbolts.
"Huh?" Daryl asked.
"Those guys didn't force their way in - whoever lived here let them in."
Daryl thought about it for a minute and realized she was right. They'd walked right into this place and took it. Just like the Governor had at the prison. Anger rose in his chest, but he did his best to shrug it off, turning towards a room on the left with the doors closed. He opened them together, both hands pushing on the handles and walked in. This room was dark due to a heavy curtain shielding the large window. There was a handsome oak desk in the middle of the room and a corpse slumped over in the chair, their head down on the table.
Beth walked in behind Daryl and he saw her take in the room. Daryl swept the corners and then went to inspect the body. He was quite certain they were dead but it was always best to be sure.
As he came around the back of the desk, Beth inspected the front, picking up a silver nameplate. "Professor Sylvester Watkins," she read out loud, delicately placing it back on the desk.
The professor was quite dead alright. His head had a few bullet woulds through the back, indicating that someone had shot in in a hurry. Daryl sighed, moving away, but before he did he looked down at the desk.
Across the wide table were large sheets of blue paper with an outline of some sort. He recognized it immediately - a blueprint. His interest peaked, and he pulled the corpse back in the chair which rolled on wheels. The head stuck slightly to the desk, but he was able to pull it off with a tug of its hair.
"Daryl - what?" he heard Beth ask.
"Look," he said, fingering the paper. "It's a blueprint." He eyed it closer, realizing it showed a house with a large area underneath. The bunker. "I think it's an answer to what this place is."
Beth had come around to stand next to him, her eyes searching the paper. "That lady was right - this place is massive. Like an underground city or something." Daryl picked the top paper up revealing a few more blueprints beneath.
"Mmhmm," Daryl said, beginning to roll the papers up into a tube. He wanted to take it out to the other room to look more thoroughly at what they might be dealing with. Underneath where the papers had been, a few scattered items were strewn. Daryl's eyes glazed over them, stopping on a moleskin notebook with "The Compound" scribbled on the cover. He grabbed it, along with the blueprints and they exited the room.
It took Daryl and Beth the rest of the daylight hours to finish searching the remainder of the rooms and get rid of the corpse they'd found in what Beth was calling a "study". Daryl was unconvinced that anyone needed an entire room to just study, but there'd been plenty of unnecessary rooms they'd stumbled upon.
The sun had set and after they'd both taken glorious showers in the ridiculously large bathroom, Beth and Daryl sat in the living area. Daryl had built a large fire burning in the fireplace while Beth had carefully closed the blinds to ensure they weren't drawing too much attention in case someone stumbled across the house.
The men had raided the underground bunker all right - according to the blueprint there was an entire stockpile of food in the makeshift kitchen which they'd eaten their way through. However, they'd failed to raid the house for food and the professor was prepared on all counts - stocking his own kitchen with non-perishable food as well. It would last them for a while. Although Daryl still wasn't opposed to eventually hunting for some real substantial meat for Beth and himself. But for now, this was heaven.
They sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch, eating through a jar of pickles, peanut butter, and a box of stale crackers. Beth had even found them some chocolate chips which tasted way better than Daryl remembered. Once they were good and full, they sat in silence together, staring at the fire.
Beth looked up towards the ceiling. "This place is beautiful," she said softly. "I wish we could stay here forever.
Daryl looked at her seriously. "Who says we can't?" he asked carefully.
Beth turned her gaze towards him with those eyes of her and smiled. "Nothin' is forever anymore."
"C'mon, you don't know that," Daryl said, saddened that she'd started to lose some of her hopefulness. He reached for her hand. He was surprised by his own forwardness, but she accepted his large fingers between her thin ones easily. She felt warm and tiny - a small beam of light that was growing within him.
She leaned her head against his shoulder then. "Do you think we're really safe here?" she asked.
Daryl paused for a minute before he said, "We can be." He knew it might be far-fetched to promise something like that. The world was so uncertain, but it might be a real possibility. God, he had to believe that. They were meant to stumble across this place. Hell, they deserved this place.
"Do you think we'll ever find our group again?" she asked candidly. It was the first time they'd talked about the prison in a long time. Daryl knew he thought about it daily - how much he missed Rick, Carol, Michonne, Carl, Glenn and the others. But Beth, watching her Dad murdered in cold blood by the Governor. Then losing Maggie and Judith - he was surprised this was the first time she'd brought it up.
"I dunno," he mumbled sadly.
The conversation brought him back to that place - the chaos of what happened. Watching Hershel die, the Governor and his people storming straight in and taking it all. He had tried - tried so hard to keep them all safe and he felt like he'd failed them. He'd done all he could before Beth and him took off, alone. For a while there, he knew Beth wished she was with anyone but him and he'd sort of wished he was alone too. He was dumb and angry. Now he knew he wouldn't have survived without her.
"I wish Maggie and my Daddy could see this place," Beth said, sitting up then and crossing her legs on the couch. She stared into the ceiling. "They would love it."
"I bet they would," Daryl replied. "They all would."
"At least we're together," Beth breathed, turning to look at him. She bit her lip, her teeth tugging at the soft skin and he was so captivated by the motion - it was driving him mad.
"Yeah." He looked at her and she was lost in thought. Sweet Beth, looking away dreamily, her skin glowing from the light of the fire. He hated how badly he wanted her, the woman in her. He didn't understand it, the distracting obsession he felt when it came to her. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before.
"Beth," he said suddenly, staring at her, needing her, being so close to her, holding her hand. He shifted, trying to get close to her, grasping for her other hand awkwardly. "I just..." he was at a loss for words. "Can I kiss you?" Awkward and clumsy Daryl, never knowing the right thing to say. He expected her to recoil from him then after his schoolboy crush request, but instead she gave a breathy laugh, moving to turn towards his face, her eyes dancing across his features, taking him in.
She pushed her hand into the couch to support herself as she slowly got on her knees. To his surprise, she swung her leg over his body so that she was sitting on top of him, straddling him. It was so forward and he tensed immediately, not knowing what to do - where to touch her, what to think. He wasn't sure how to handle it. How to handle her. He wasn't even sure how to want her the right way. Killing walkers, hunting game, loading his bow - those were the things he was good at. Being intimate was something he'd never mastered. Nothing he'd experienced had ever come close to being this intoxicating.
She was running her fingers over his chest now, over the t-shirt that he wore. He just sat there, his skin burning from the touch of her fingertips through the thin fabric. Their faces were level now and Beth leaned forward so that their foreheads rested against each other. She was asking him to kiss her without really asking. And although he felt anxious and afraid, he leaned forward to catch her lips with his own.
