Disclaiming, because if I owned the walking dead, Beth wouldn't have died like that and Daryl wouldn't have cried. I'm very upset with this.
There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I'll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out
There's a darkness upon you that's flooded in light
And in the fine print they tell you what's wrong and what's right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I'm frightened by those that don't see it
/
Theres a darkness upon me that's flooded in light.
Rick looked on at the two broken people in front of him; the man he now called brother, thrashing and shouting in his sleep, and at the woman who was growing stronger every day...the woman who had saved his brother, all of them, really. Sighing, he walked towards them. If they didn't quite Daryl soon, they'd have a whole herd on them and be down a man.
"Wake up!" Reagan shouted, shaking his shoulders as his began to calm. He had to be okay, they needed him to be, she needed him to be...
He could hear the panic in her voice, hear the familiar sound of Ricks worn down boots coming across the leaf covered ground, he could hear it all, from Judith's cries to Beth's singing. He was trying to hard to forget the sound of the creature who had torn into Reagan, that had turned her pale skin crimson.
Coughing as he bolted up-right, Daryl whipped his head around, taking in everything. He half expected to wake up and see Reagan lying in a pool of blood, but instead she was next to him, the worry melting from her face as his eyes went wide.
Sitting back on her heels, Reagan let out a pent up laugh as she looked up to the murky sky, rubbing her hands down her face as her body shook a silent sob out. He was alive, it had worked.
She hardly noticed Rick kneel next to her, or that the rest of the group had gathered around. It was only when he spoke that she focused again. A look of confusion on his tired face he spoke softly, "Wha' the hell happened?"
"We got lucky," Abraham said, nodding at Reagan with a mixture of pride and hope. She knew why, they all did, if Eugene ended up not being able to fix the world, she might. The trip to D.C. Wouldn't be for nothing.
"What'd you do..?" Daryl asked, looking right at her now, unsure of how they'd made it out, how she was alive and sitting here with only blood on her clothes now.
"Gave you blood, she also killed...that thing. It was brutal..and really cool. You would'a liked to seen it!" Carl explained, all but shouting with excitement now.
Reagan nodded once when glanced back towards her, looking for confirmation. When he looked her up an down, it finally occurred to her that he was also taking about what the thing had done to her.
It had tore through her stomach, shredding her skin. Sitting there before him now, she only bore angry red marks down her arms and on one side of her throat. Her shirt was still stained dark from the blood, but what skin he could see through the rips was marred in colorful ink, some still pale. None of it bloody.
"Heal a bit quicker these days...'sides, it wasn't that bad to start with."
The causal tone in her voice almost worried him. She was either stoic or in rage, never so calm about life and death before, however, right now he didn't care. Daryl Dixon never thought he'd feel relieved at being alive, but he was.
"Oh.." He said, a smirk forming on his lips as he pushed his hair from his eyes.
Her own grin thrown back at him was all he thought about as he dozed in and out of sleep for the next few hours.
xxx
"Do you think he's good to travel now?"
"I think we all need a day, D.C.'s not going anywhere."
Daryl was shaken awake, again, by Reagan, the worry back in her face as Beth knelt on the other side of him, a bottle of water and can of soup in hand.
"Daryl, can you move? We gotta go. Now. It ain't safe.."
The widening of her pupils and the shake go her hands was enough to convince him that it was time to move on, despite Ricks words to Abraham about staying longer.
At his nod, she stood and marched towards the two alpha's, filling them in and setting them straight when they argued against her.
"She's real shook up, huh?"
Beth's small voice brought his gaze back to her, taking the can from her, he ate a bite before speaking, "She's normally right. Some how. You good?"
Shrugging, Beth placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, "jus' glad you made it."
The softening of her eyes was all he needed to know she'd meant it. It was then that he realized that people would miss him if he was gone, that he'd finally found a reason to have a beating heart.
"Ain't nothin' can kill a Dixon, 'crept a Dixon. Don' worry." He reassured her, a sheepish smile forming as she laughed. He had found hope with Beth, a new light in life that came unexpectedly and he'd welcomed it with wide arms and a fragile heart.
As she moved away to pack her things and tell Maggie it was time to clear out, Daryl felt alive, truly alive, because of his families love for him.
Finishing his can of slightly cold soup, he returned to watching Reagan. Maybe he could let her in, in the ways she had seemed to want back at the Nightingale. Maybe..
"You're not listening! It's not safe here! We need to move!" Reagan finally shouted, unable to find a calm way to convince the two men. Beth believed her, so did Daryl and Carl, why was it so hard for Rick? Abraham didn't believe her, he just wanted to move out, find the facility, and get to D.C..
"You need to quite down, Rea. Daryl's not healed, he can only go so far-"
Rick was cut short as a deafening shriek washed through their bones, an eery quiet following.
Spinning hastily, Rick moved around the outer circle of their camp, peering into the woods before turning towards the others, "Get your shit."
His only command and the whole group was up and moving, faster than ever before as a chilled breeze swept through the trees.
Glenn and Rick both had one arm under Daryl's as they dashed through the trees, people in front and behind, watching for any signs of another one of those...things.
The two men were practically dragging Daryl now, only a few feet in front of her, Carl, Beth and Maggie.
The four were covering the rear, and the three men's backs, as another bone chilling cry tore between the trees. As if the wind worked with it, leaves blew up all around them, whipping at their faces before covering the ground again.
A cold chill ran down Reagan's spine and her veins began to twitch again, acid pouring from her heart and searing into her blood as she dropped back form her companions; spinning around with her rifle locked tight against her shoulder, the black, dirty, axe secured to her back with a self-made harness.
She hadn't noticed Beth approaching until she felt it. It was in the way the wind blew, how the air went stale, the way her blood froze and her heart stopped beating. It was the way her skin burned and her eyes saw static and white rage, it was then that she turned, gun aimed past Beth, into the clearing. It had been waiting, following them silently thought the trees. "GET DOWN!" Reagan cried out, firing as Beth dropped and rolled sideways onto her knee, firing into the trees with Reagan as the group stopped to see what was happening.
"Go!" Beth screamed to them, her clip empty in her pistol now. Dropping the useless gun, she pulled her long knife from it sheath and stood beside Reagan, who had now swung the axe free from its harness. "Get out of here, Beth!" Reagan said through clenched teeth, her heart pounding so loudly Beth could swear she heard it stop the moment the charred looking thing leapt from the trees.
Shoving Beth sideways and yanking her axe up, Reagan twisted and fell onto her stomach, the axe embedded into the the creatures arm. The others had now stopped, Daryl leaning against a tree as he watched two of the most important people scramble for weapons. Carol stood next to him, gun drawn as she occasionally checked behind them. They still had walkers and other foul people to watch out for.
With a heavy heart, Daryl hung back and watched as Beth threw her knife to Reagan, who now crouched as the thing wretched the axe free, tossing it towards the group, a menacing look in its yellow eyes as people dove to avoid being killed by the flying blade.
He was so engrossed in how his family narrowly avoid being cut through, that he hadn't seen the creatures face light up, charred black flesh tightening around its face as it tore into Beth's throat. Her scream pulled everyone into a lulled somber state, lasting only a second until Reagan let out a primal scream and lunged towards the thing. Digging her borrowed knife into its lumpy cranium, sparse silvery hair hanging limp as a dark, thick liquid gushed down.
Pulling her arms up, Beth dug her thumbs into the yellow eyes of the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen, pushing them in until her palms were flat on its face and it's jaws slacked a bit.
Maggie was running towards them, sobs drowning Daryl's soul. Once she was close she fired into its skull, falling backwards as it's long, bone thin, arm swung at her. Letting Beth finally fall flat to the ground, Reagan pulled it backwards, her arms wrapped around it's long neck, her knife sawing into its throat as it attempted to scream again.
Maggie was now with Beth, crying out as she pushed onto the gash in her throat, trying to stop the blood.
Beth reached up, a small blood covered hand cupping her sister face as she smiled. Blood seeped past her lips as Daryl collapsed, one of the last good things in his world dying in front of him.
His crossbow left his hands as he took a deep breath, not believe ing what he was seeing. Rick and Michonne now helping Reagan dispatch the creature of its head and arms, unsure of how to kill a monster like this.
That's all that was left in this world as Beth Greene coughed blood onto her pale face, her breath dying in all the ways Daryl's heart was. The way all of their hearts were breaking now.
Sorrow hung in the suffocating air as Reagan collapsed next to Maggie, shouting for Bob and for tubes and bandages.
She would save Beth.
If she had known the moment she'd met these people that Beth was their beckon of hope, Beth and baby Judith were what kept them going. And she would not let one of them, one of Daryl's family, die if she had the power to change it.
