Chapter 13 – Chance

It had taken them a few days to really get out of Atlanta. The city was swarming with walkers, and Morgan was still recovering from what he had endured at Grady. They had to move slowly, often stopping to lock themselves in abandoned cars for the night or hiding in abandoned buildings from other people.

There were other people. This was the first thing that had surprised Beth. On their second night, camping out in the lobby of what used to be an apartment building, she heard them. Coming from above – voices. Shrieks, sighs, yells, nothing welcoming. Nothing to get excited about. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she felt uneasy. Beth couldn't bring herself to believe that anyone was good anymore; her sense of trust had been all but thrown out the window.

So they moved. They moved a lot. And they hid from people and walkers alike.

By chance, they rarely encountered large herds of walkers. They were a small group, but the three of them were enough to fend off the walkers they did come upon. Beth did most of the heavy lifting, but she didn't complain. She was glad she could fight, glad to be rid of the pain in her head and the weakness that had previously consumed her. And she was glad to be with her friends – she wanted to protect them at all costs.

"People are almost worse," Kira whispered to her one night.

They were sitting in an abandoned minivan parked by the side of a road in the suburbs. They had finally made it out of the city – now heading closer and closer to the woods – to freedom. Morgan was asleep in the very back row of the van, the row that used to be designated for kids on a long trip. Kira was in the front, keeping watch, her hand closed tightly around the wooden stake that had protected them so well. They had found a few knives, too, but for whatever reason, Kira felt better with the stake.

"With walkers, I know what I'm getting into. I know what they want. They have one-track minds, they're easy. But people… I've seen people do horrible things..."

Kira drifted off, falling silent. But Beth understood perfectly – their biggest danger was always going to be other people.

Beth was curled up in the middle row, trying to sleep, but feeling distracted. She nodded to herself, agreeing silently with Kira. People were definitely worse. She was worse – she had done horrible things. In her mind's eye she could see the lifeless body of Dr. Edwards lying motionless on the ground in front of her. Bleeding, slowly bleeding, forever bleeding.

Beth took a breath and shook her head. She knew she would have to face what she had done. But she didn't have the capacity for it right now. Her only goal was to get herself and her friends to safety – and to find the people who had left her behind. She needed to sleep. But there was also something unsettling about finding herself curled up in the back seat of a car again. The last time this had happened, she had been dead, but for a faint heartbeat. The last time this had happened, she had a family who left her. The last time this had happened, she lost her memories.

But eventually sleep did come, and what a strange sleep it was.

In her dream, Beth felt warm. She was cocooned in warmth and tenderness, as if she was being held tightly. She could hear something faint – someone was breathing heavily, taking deep breaths and sobbing above her… wait… she was being held. Someone's heavy arms were wrapped around her, cradling her to their chest, rocking her back and forth. And they were sobbing. She could feel tear drops falling into her hair above her.

And they were moving, bouncing up and down – she was still in the backseat of a car, being held by a sad stranger. She then became aware of something entirely different – a tiny hand was clasping and unclasping one of her fingers. A baby hand. And people were shouting somewhere nearby. Something about having to get out, about having to leave her here.

But she didn't want them to leave. She wanted them to stay. She wanted to be held forever in this tight embrace. It was comforting. It was warm and safe, and suddenly as soon as she felt it, it was gone. Cold, stark, lonely.

And then she was being shook awake.

"Beth, you're having a nightmare," she heard Morgan say.

Her eyes flew open. She realized that she had been crying – so she lifted a hand to wipe her face. She sat up and looked at Morgan, who was leaning over at her from the seat behind her. He had an arm on her shoulder and a worried look on his face.

"Who's Daryl?"

Her heart stopped. 'What did you just say?"

"Daryl. You kept saying 'Daryl' in your sleep. It woke me up. Can't believe it didn't wake up Kira," he nodded in the sleeping woman's direction.

Daryl. Beth felt herself flash back to memories of white wings on a leather vest, the roar of a motorcycle, and a fire. A huge fire. She didn't know – but she did know. She just couldn't remember. Her entire body tensed at the sound of that name.

"I don't know, Morgan. I wish I did. But I can't remember enough…"

"Beth, it's not the first time you've said it. You shouted it out once a coupla nights ago, but I couldn't hear it right. But this time you clearly said 'Daryl.' Are you starting to remember your group?"

Beth looked at him. She was trying to stay calm, but her heart was beating a mile a minute. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Daryl, Daryl, Daryl. It was like an epiphany – an epiphany she hadn't yet unlocked the secrets to.

Morgan was still staring at her, an amused expression on his tired face. "Do you think maybe Daryl wrote that note about you?"

Beth's hand automatically flew to her pocket to grab the $20 note tightly.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because ever since I asked you who Daryl was, you've been smiling like a lunatic, and I don't think you even realized it."

Beth became aware of the huge grin plastered on her face. But she couldn't make it go away. She was ecstatic – all at the sound of a name. She had to find her people. She just had to.

….

The next week practically flew by. On their way out of the suburbs, they split up for a few hours to scavenge for food. Beth found packs of Twinkies and a couple of cans of corn in one house, Morgan had discovered a collection of graham crackers and spam, but Kira won the scavenger's hunt. Kira had found an abandoned ice cream truck that still ran. Morgan was excited by this good news:

"It used to take 13 hours to get from here to DC by car without traffic. Shouldn't take more than a couple days now! Just gotta take some back roads and watch out for herds!"

There was enough gas in the truck to get them probably two thirds of the way there, through Virginia. When it ran out, they decided they would just have to walk the rest of the way.

"Not like we haven't already done a lot of that, anyway," Kira had said matter-of-factly.

In her newfound euphoria, Beth found herself laughing a lot – laughing at the fact that they were now racing down the highway in a bright pink truck. Laughing at the fact that she never got her license to drive but was doing just fine. Laughing at how easy it was to really move when she didn't have a gaping hole in her head. Everything made her happy. Even her friends seemed to be in bright spirits.

At night, they stopped and locked themselves up in their truck. One of them always kept watch for a herd outside. They rationed their food and kept close together – the nights started getting cold.

They were almost through Virginia when their truck finally puttered to a stop. The end of the road. But even then, Beth was happy. The truck had taken them further than she had expected it to. Morgan pointed out how close DC really was to their location – it wouldn't be long now.

They were hoping to find shelter – maybe a military base, something organized and good. Beth was hoping beyond hope that Morgan's group would be there – she could use a few extra people to help her find her own people. Somehow, she had faith that she could find her people, even though it had been a month now since they had left her in that car, unaware that she was alive.

…

It had only been a few hours since they had left their truck behind, but there was already an uneasy feeling creeping up on Beth. The sun was slowly starting to set.

She was walking a few paces ahead of Kira and Morgan, eager to clear a path for them and keep them safe. She also wanted to give them some privacy – they seemed to be growing closer to each other by the day. She was happy for them – they had both been lonely for so long.

But Beth couldn't shake the feeling that they were bound to run into trouble. There was something about the stillness of the forest here. Birds weren't chirping, and it had been hours since she last saw any signs of animal life. No tracks, no droppings, nothing.

"Oh no, what the fuck is that?"

Beth turned around. Kira was pointing at something off in the distance to her left. It looked like a heap of something. Beth wanted to check it out.

"I'm gonna go see, you guys stay here. I'll holler if I need you."

Beth stalked off quietly through the brush, and only had to go a couple of paces before stopping and taking a horrified breath.

It was a pile of deer carcasses, slowly rotting away, untouched but for the wounds that had killed them.

What the hell, Beth thought to herself. She inched closer, quietly, careful to stay hidden in the trees. This was something man-made. She didn't like it, not one bit. As she slowly inched her way around one of the trees, she noticed something else.

There was blood on the ground in front of her, and it looked fresh. It wasn't a lot of blood – but clearly someone had been injured almost exactly where she stood. She gasped as she realized that there was also blood smeared against the trunk of the tree she was standing next to.

Beth felt her curiosity pulling her forward. She wanted to investigate further – she couldn't stop herself. So she tried to find more blood. Whoever was bleeding clearly had an open wound – maybe she could track the blood to find them. Maybe she could help them. But it was dangerous – and she couldn't ask Morgan and Kira to put themselves in danger like that. She turned to head back to her friends, when something off in the distance caught her eye. Something bright green.

She looked around cautiously, and then darted quickly past the disgusting pile of deer carcasses into the thick woods on the other side. She stopped when she reached her destination, and looked up.

About a foot above her head, an arrow was stuck in a tree, its bright green tip pointing out at the end. She felt something stir inside of her, something familiar. There was blood near the base of the tree. She so wanted to investigate.

Beth reached up and tugged the arrow out of the tree and stuck it in her back pocket. It could come in handy.

She turned back around and ran back to her friends quickly, but silently.

"It's just a bunch of dead animals," she told them when they questioned her. "But there were also signs of a struggle. I think we should stop for the night soon, but keep an eye out for trouble."

Her hand found the arrow in her back pocket, and she felt the blood rushing through her veins. That hesitant feeling was back.

…..

A quarter of a mile away, so close yet so far from where Beth had just been standing, Daryl Dixon was slowly coming in and out of consciousness. He was tied up against a tree trunk, unarmed, and totally unaware of the three men standing guard around him with hungry looks in their eyes.

…..

I got so excited to write this chapter! The suspense continues! I'll make sure to update soon! Please leave reviews if you feel so inclined :)