Daryl had been sitting in the hallway with his back against the wall, watching the front room gradually take shape in the faint glow of dawn when he felt his head snap up with a jolt.
He looked again at the room and realised while still hazy in the light of dawn, it was definitely brighter and his eyes narrowed involuntarily when he realised he'd fallen asleep.
He let his senses zone in on what was around him, feeling immediately reassured by the noise of Beth's soft breaths as she slept in the bedroom across from where he sat.
He couldn't help the prickly feeling on the back of his neck though and when he zoned his senses to anything else around him, he felt his stomach drop. There was something new he picked up that definitely wasn't there before.
It was the unmistakable smell of cigarette smoke.
Grabbing his crossbow, Daryl silently pulled himself into a crouch and pushed the bedroom door open, to where Beth lay on the bed facing the door fast asleep.
"Beth!" He whispered sharply. After a year on the road, both of them learnt to sleep light and as soon as he said her name, her eyes snapped open and immediately connected with his.
He saw the fear in her eyes almost immediately, Beth knowing without a doubt from his crouched position, his hardened facial expression and the tension in the lines of his body that something was very wrong.
He nodded at her and she nodded back, before silently getting up and grabbing her knife and their packs.
He gestured for her to stay in the room, before creeping towards the lounge. He tread silently to the window on the left and peered out of it. Seeing nothing in the misty dawn light but the clearing and the woods, he did the same with the window on the other side; still finding nothing.
If it wasn't for the growing unease he felt in his stomach, he would have started to wonder whether he was just imagining the smell.
Beth had come out of the room and was standing in the hallway, knife poised, watching Daryl as he moved silently round the lounge checking the windows, feeling the discomfort rolling off him.
Creeping silently to the front door, Daryl turned to Beth and gestured with his hand for her to go back into the bedroom.
When she didn't move at first, not wanting to leave him, he fixed her with a stare so serious and hard, she stared back for a beat longer before nodding and stepping back silently towards the bedroom. She felt a horrible rising panic in her at the fear and unease she could read off Daryl.
Now assured that Beth wouldn't be in the firing line of whatever Daryl was expecting to find out there, he quietly raised his bow, stepped a few steps forward and opened the door.
He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, an ambush maybe, but as he stepped out with tension rippling through his body he took in an unnerving scene that he wasn't expecting at all.
Before him in the misty haze of the morning stood three men, standing casually in the clearing in front of the porch, looking up at him as if they'd been waiting for him.
A large black man stood the furthest back, leaning against a tree smoking a cigarette, studying Daryl in a curious but idle way. Closer to the house was a tall, lanky man, with greasy black hair and a bow of his own, only his was casually lowered in front of him. He was looking at Daryl with anger and hatred written all over his face.
The one that got Daryl's attention though was the one closest to the porch, a tall man with grey hair, and a charming smile. When Daryl stepped outside, he threw his arms open in a welcome.
"Well hi there!" He cried, his smile widening.
It took Daryl just a second to take in that their relaxed stance meant if he was quick enough, he had a small chance of taking them out without them shooting him and as he pointed the bow at the grey haired man and his finger itched on the trigger, he felt the cool metal that could only come from the end of a gun against his forehead.
Distracted by the men in front of him, Daryl had failed to notice the fourth man on the porch with him, grinning now as he held a gun to Daryl's head. He was the kind of man Merle would have been right at home with before the turn; shaved head, tattoos and a few missing teeth emphasised by his wide smile.
Daryl felt the rage radiating off him and a burning anger already growing inside him at the intruders who had taken him by surprise. He kept his bow raised, finger ready on the trigger.
"Well now!" The grey haired man laughed. "By the way you're pointing that thing at me, I'd say you're not a talkative kinda guy!"
"What the fuck do you want?" Daryl ground out, holding his bow steady and ignoring the pressure of the gun to the side of his head.
The man held his smile. "Shouldn't we start with the formalities?! I'm Joe and it's good to meet you." He said easily and waited for Daryl to respond. When Daryl said nothing and didn't move a muscle, Joe continued.
"Well then let's just skip straight to the point shall we?" He smiled. "You have something that we want." As he said it, Joe gestured behind Daryl at the cabin.
Daryl was fucking mad. He had a fucking gun to his head and these assholes thought they could just threaten him and take his shit. H'd known guys like this; asshole pricks who could act the big man because they numbers.
As he tried to contain the rage burning inside him, he thought of Beth hidden away in the bedroom and suddenly thought that he needed to play this carefully to keep her safe. If they wanted the cabin, fuck it, him and Beth were planning on leaving anyway, they can have it and he could get Beth away from them unnoticed.
Daryl stared at the man for a second longer before responding.
"Alright." He started. "You can have the fucking cabin. I'm gonna go inside, get my shit and go then you can have it." He spat out, not bothering to keep the rage from his voice.
The man stared at him for a second before bursting into loud, uncontained laughter which reverberated in Daryl's ears. The greasy looking guy standing by him smirked and snickered at this.
Daryl continued to stare, holding his bow steady still pointing at the man, narrowing his eyes even further.
The man finally seemed to catch his breath before answering.
"You think we tracked you all the way from town for this?!" The man gestured at the cabin behind him, before dissolving into his loud, brash laugh again.
Daryl felt his blood run cold. The smell of smoke he woke up to, the man standing by the tree smoking and the curling smoke Beth spotted as they scrambled off that roof in town all suddenly seemed to link together.
He remembered running into the woods as the back door had opened but had never thought they'd been spotted or that someone would track them.
He felt a horrible prickling sensation run through his whole body as he now properly let the man's words sink in. He couldn't help the shock flash across his face before he quickly schooled his features.
Joe seemed to notice and his grin grew wider.
"Now Scott right here - sorry, excuse my manners - this right here is Scott." He gestured to the man standing to Daryl's side who was holding the gun to his head. "As I was saying, Scott right here promised our little group that he's seen the finest little piece of ass EVER - and when I say ever, Scott says even includin' 'fore the turn - hoppin' off the roof of our very own home."
He chuckled to himself before continuing. "Now one little rule we have here in our group is that we don't lie. So when Scott said it was the finest piece of ass, he sure would'a meant it."
Daryl felt every muscle in his body tense when Joe finished speaking and felt his heart hammer in chest at the thought of Beth hidden in the bedroom. He willed with every bone in his body that she'd heard this and had made a run for it out the back door. He was already coming to the decision that they could do whatever the fuck they wanted to him; she needed to get out and she needed to go now.
"She's dead." He rasped. "Got bit yesterday." His mind seemed to moving at a million miles an hour as he scrambled desperately around for how he could convince them.
"You go over there in those trees, you'll see 'er grave." He gestured in the direction of the woods with his bow, where he buried the couple yesterday.
"Is that so?" Joe asked, his eyebrows raising as he asked.
Daryl stared at him trying to read what Joe knew. If they'd followed the tracks then they'd seen both Daryl's and hers, but then that would still make his story that she got bitten stand. Joe grinned at him expectantly. Still not able to get a read on him but praying that his theory was right, Daryl nodded sharply.
Joe looked back at him thoughtfully before calling, loudly "Bo!" and the three men standing around him all smirked at Daryl expectantly. "He speakin' the truth? Is our piece a'tail not in there?" He called.
Almost immediately, Daryl felt as if all the blood drained from his body as he heard Beth's cry from inside the house. Acting on instinct Daryl moved to turn around and go to her, but was struck hard on the head with the butt of the gun.
He groaned loudly in pain and fell to his hands and knees on the porch, his bow immediately ripped out of his hands by Scott as he did. Suddenly defenceless and with the world spinning Daryl tried to get himself to his feet as he saw through his dizzy and hazy vision Beth pushed outside by a man behind her, holding her against him. He noticed bitterly that Beth was unarmed and the man held her knife to her throat.
"Get the fuck off her!" Daryl snarled, lunging in the direction of Beth and the man. He felt a searing rage pumping through his body, but it was now mingled with a suffocating fear of what these men planned to do with Beth.
As he lunged forward the butt of the gun connected with his head again and he fell forward to his hands and knees for a second time, before earning a sharp and forceful kick to his stomach that made him grunt in pain.
He was quickly becoming aware of the desperation of their situation and was searching frantically in his mind for a way out.
He heard the click of a gun being cocked and as his vision cleared, he looked up to see Beth standing now in the clearing, still restrained by the large man she came outside with but with a gun pointed at her head by the black man who'd been by the trees.
"Now, now, now." Joe said tauntingly. "You're gonna do what I say and behave because otherwise, little missy here's gonna getta bullet in her head and I'm willing to bet she's somethin' to you." He paused and looked between them thoughtfully. "She ain't kin. Much too good to be kin. But she ain't your tail neither." He looked between them again. "Huh. Well I'm stumped but it don't matter to me either way." He smiled again.
Daryl was still now on his knees looking up at Beth as she stared down at him. He hated the terror he could see in his eyes and tried everything he could to look back reassuringly but he knew his face only expressed the burning rage he felt inside him.
"Well first of all, Scott you weren't wrong." Said Joe, running his eyes all over Beth's body, as she stood there trying to hold her chin high and look strong, but the fear plain in her eyes.
"And she's just perfect for our little game here." He continued before turning to Daryl. "Now you see, we've been spending the best part of a couple'a years now picking up tail when we want it. We don't normally keep the likes of you - boyfriends, husbands, brothers - alive to watch, but me and the boys here are startin' to get a little bored." He gestured around at the other men. The larger man still had Beth restrained but she was still, aware of the gun still pointed at her head. Scott stood with his gun pointed at Daryl who knelt in between them all on the floor and the greasy haired man flanked Joe, who stood towards the centre of the group.
"Now don't get me wrong, while I love hearin' 'em scream while the boys get their fill, we thought we'd have a little fun with you, 'specially since you decided to go climbing all over the roof of our home 'n all." His large smile was replaced with a serious expression as he narrowed his eyes at Daryl.
Daryl felt every inch of his skin prickling as he took in the scene before him. He felt a heavy sickness in the pit of his stomach at where this was going and begun to feel a desperation creep into his veins.
"Fuck you." He spat. "If you fucking touch her -"
"You'll what?" Joe cut him off, staring at him as Daryl stared back, the rage emanating from his body and expression. "You'll what my friend? If I were you, I'd take a look 'round." He gestured around at the men standing staring at Daryl, before continuing. "Anyway. You didn't let me finish. To make things a little more interesting for the boys here, you got two options. You can watch us'all take it in turns to fuck your sweet little pet. Or, seen'as how we got no TV no more, we'll let you do it and we'll watch."
Daryl felt the blood drain from every part of him. He reacted on instinct, shouting angrily as he pushed himself to his feet and attempted to rip the gun out of Scott's hands. Just as he got purchase on it, he felt the searing hot pain of a crossbow connecting to the side of his face and he fell again to the floor, before feeling all the air knock out of him as his was kicked hard on his side and groin by the greasy haired man.
Daryl vaguely noted he could hear Beth's screams for the man to stop and all his mind could think was that he would do anything in the world to take the pain and fear he could hear in her cries.
"Now Len…" Joe's voice taunted through Daryl's clouded vision. "Whole pointa this game is he's meant'a be alive." Daryl lay on his side and tried desperately focus his vision as Joe continued. "So what'll it be then? Your tail or our tail?"
Daryl tried to get onto his hands and knees and as his vision cleared, all he could see was Beth's face. She was staring down at him tears streaming down her face, looking at him with terror on her face but an expression that made him feel like she wanted to reach out to him.
He couldn't bear the look of fear and desperation and turned away from her, again noting the gun pointed back on him as he tried to pull himself up to look at Joe. He knew he needed to think smart to get them out of this but the anger and utter rage was coursing through the veins in his body.
Fixing Joe with the deadliest stare Beth had ever seen Daryl answered, "You can go to fucking hell. I swear I will tear you to fucking pieces, every fucking last one'a you if you touch her."
Joe's smile seemed to fall off his face at this and he stared back at Daryl thoughtfully for what felt like a lifetime.
"Wrong answer."
A/N - Elements of rape/non-con next chapter. Please skip on to chapter after once it's up. It is relevant for the plot!