Chapter 54
Beth stumbled and only was able to keep her feet under her cause Daryl caught her. Joe was being relentless. They had left the cabin and started to make their way through the woods again. They had stopped once to rest for about 5 minutes. Once Joe realized Beth could nurse and walk at the same time he had refused to let them stop as frequently as Beth would have. He had only let them stop so she could change the babies. Beth hoped they would find another spot to sleep tonight. She didn't want to sleep out in the open; they didn't even have a tarp or a tent. Daryl shot a pheasant and hung it from his belt. He had already shot a rabbit and chipmunk and Beth knew he was thinking about trading some of the fresh meat. Joe wanted any booze they found, Daryl planned on asking for any baby products they found. These guys were spiteful enough to claim it just so Daryl and Beth had to offer something for it.
"Claimed." Beth said suddenly pointing up. Daryl looked up and a little tree house, complete with roof was nestled in the trees that boarded the backyards a neighborhood they were circling. "I'm sorry. I got to stop. I want to sleep up there." Daryl stopped and looked at Joe.
"There's a garden right there and I could lug over a BBQ. We could get a good meal in us then check the houses for supplies. Beth and the babies would be safe in the tree house. You feel up to going through the garden with me? I bet there might be some veggies we could use." Beth nodded her head and eyed the backyard. The grass was pretty tall and they knew from what had happened to Dale that a walked could be hidden in the grass, waiting till it caught their scent or heard them. Beth picked up a rock and tossed it into the middle of the ward and waited. Daryl nodded and slowly made his way toward the yard in front of her.
"Should we each claim a house to look through?" Beth asked Joe as he stood guard as she pulled up some leftover potatoes and carrots.
"Might not be a bad idea." Joe said pointing to a ranch style house with two pickups in the driveway. "I claim that one. If I get a truck working y'all can ride in the back." Beth turned her head and pulled up handfuls of herbs and green onions.
"I claim this house." Daryl said. "There's kid shit in the yard. We need stuff." Joe nodded and the other men pointed to the ones they wanted. Daryl tapped on the patio doors and waited. Hearing nothing he easily got the sliding door off its track and opened it. Beth followed him into the house and scrunched her nose at the smell of rotting. All the fresh food had in the kitchen had left a putrid odor through the house.
"This is why I want to sleep in the tree house." Beth said opening a cupboard and taking a small mason jar of rice and sticking it in the diaper bag. Daryl found a few over looked canned goods and two four-liter jugs of water. Beth found the alcohol and started moving it to the kitchen table; she'd let Joe know they had found it.
"Jackpot." Daryl said opening a closet. He grabbed two sleeping bags and a better pack to carry everything. Beth opened the bathroom door and went through the drawers. She found more facecloths and hand towels to use as diapers and some flushable wipes. She pulled the elastics bands off the end of a brush and put them around her wrist. Her hair was tied back with a strip of material from a pillowcase; she'd fix it later. Beth found a huge pot when she walked back through the kitchen and sat at the table while Daryl went through the garage. The babies stared around the room and rested against Beth. She kept her eyes on the yard for any signs of trouble. She wanted to check out the upstairs, but knew that Daryl would be upset if she went up their without him. Daryl came back with a bag of coal and a small camping BBQ.
"That'll make cooking tonight easier." Beth said with a small smile. Daryl nodded and moved to the living room. He tossed her a few decorative candles that Beth would never have dreamt about burning before and a pair of fancy sunglasses. Beth put them on top of her head. "You want to check upstairs now?" Beth asked watching as he pulled the patio door closed and put a stick down so it wouldn't be easy to break in like Daryl had.
"Yeah. Looks like someone has already been here but we might find something." Daryl said. "Another bathroom foe sure, more towels." Beth had started just tossing the towels. She had no way to clean them and thankfully they seamed to be able to find towels or shirts. She only changed the babies if they made number two, and so far she had been able to save the disposable diapers by lining them with a facecloth. One had lasted all day. Beth followed him up the stars and stepped over the furniture and belongings that had been thrown around by the last survivors that had been through the house. Daryl led her into a blue bedroom and she stopped. It was a nursery. There was a beautiful crib, change table and rocking chair. Beth sat in the chair and rocked the babies as Daryl went through the room. Most items had been destroyed when the room had been tossed. There were only a few diapers, those must have been taken by someone else but Daryl did find a large tube of rash cream and a jar of Vaseline in the change table and a few more sleepers that would be a bit too big for the girls but definitely better than nothing.
"You picked a good house." Beth said as they made their way through the master bedroom. Beth grabbed a tube of lip balm and a small tube of hand cream from the nightstand. Daryl found a pair of leather gloves in the closet and slipped them on. Beth tossed him another pair of sunglasses and looked out into the front yard. "Daryl look!" Daryl made his way to the window and noticed the white house across the street. Written in walker blood was; GLENN GO TO TERMINUS, MAGGIE, BOB, SASHA. "Maggie was here!" Daryl squinted his eyes. The blood was faded and stretching down the window.
"She was here yesterday. We know were she was headed. I'll try to see if I can pick up her tracks." Daryl promised. Beth stared at the other houses. "What's wrong?"
"She didn't leave a message for me. She saw me run through the woods. She knows I got out." Beth said.
"She knows I'd find you." Daryl said pulling her back towards the stairs. Beth grabbed two pillows to use in the tree house. The others had gathered outside their patio doors. Joe looked mad. Daryl walked over and opened the door. "What's wrong?"
"Why'd you lock up?" Joe spat.
"Just in case there was anyone else roaming around. I wanted to hear them if they tried to sneak up on us." Daryl said pointing to the table. "Beth found some more booze." Joe looked passed him at the half filled bottles of rum, whiskey and bourbon.
"You keep your word." Joe said tossing an open pack of tampons on the table. Beth blushed and mumbled thanks and added the tampons to her small diaper bag.
"We're going to get supper going under the tree." Daryl said grabbing the small BBQ and bag of coal. Beth pulled her gun out since Daryl's hands were full and carefully walked behind him keeping her eyes open for any signs of trouble. Daryl set the coal and BBQ down and tossed his pack up to the tree house and waited to see if anything came out before climbing up to check it out. He jumped lowered a rope ladder and hopped down. "It's safe if you want to climb up. Pull the ladder up after you." Daryl said standing under the ladder while Beth climbed up.
"I'm going to get them changed and fed while the coals heat up. I'll come back down to help you get supper on." Daryl nodded and started arranging the coals in the BBQ before tossing up the sleeping bags and pillows. He grabbed his book of matches and squirted a tiny amount of the precious lighter fluid he had found on the coals before lighting them.
"You guys going to sleep in one of the houses?" Daryl asked as he sat down and started cleaning his kills.
"Might sleep in your house if you don't mind." Tony said. "We'd be able to lock up."
"That's fine." Daryl said unfolding a few metal hangers. He was making meat skewers again. He tossed all the bones in the pot and dumped some of the water they had found in it. "We didn't take everything. If you find anything you think you could use feel free to keep it. Unless it's for a baby or something Beth would need." Daryl said. "You guys find anything?"
"Some toilet paper. Cigarettes." Tony said. Daryl nodded. He'd kill for a smoke. The stress had reminded him of how relaxing and soothing he always found a smoke to be.
"I found a few cans, sports drinks. " Joe said. The other guys hadn't really found anything worth much. None of the cars had any gas or had been in working order.
"Least we all found cans for on the road." Daryl said. "We'll share the soup with you guys. One of you want to go see if there's any mugs we can use to eat out of?" He only had one metal mug and he and Beth would be using it. Johnny and Tony made their way back to the house and Daryl flinched when they started throwing stuff around. "They should be quieter." Daryl said. Joe walked into the kitchen and the noise ceased.
"Daryl?" Beth asked poking her head out the door. She swung down the ladder. "The babies are sleeping between our packs. They're going to get us killed." Beth whispered as she sat down and started cutting the carrots and potatoes into the pot. She tore apart the green onions and herbs and dumped in about a third of the rice she had found before lifting the pot to BBQ. Daryl arranged the skewers around the pot so they could roast at the same time. The men made their way back with a few mugs and a handful of spoons. Joe handed a ladle over to Beth so she could stir.
"People were here not long ago." Joe said. "There was a message on one of the houses across the street."
"Yeah we saw it." Daryl said. He had an inclination that Joe was testing him, and that he had either seen or somehow heard Beth's reaction. "We think it might have been from one of our people." Daryl said.
"What do those people look like?" Joe asked. He clearly wanted to know if Maggie and her crew were the ones who he had run across. "Maggie's Beth sister. She's taller and she's got brown hair. Sasha and Bob are around my age, both are black."
"We're looking for a white guy." Joe said. "What about this Glenn they're looking for?"
"He's my sister's husband." Beth said. "He's Korean." She climbed back up the ladder. "Soup will be ready in around 3 hours. I'm going to take a quick nap." Beth wanted to get some rest so she'd be able to convince Daryl to let her take first watch. Joe watched as she pulled the ladder up.
"She telling the truth?" Daryl nodded as he flipped the skewers.
"I met Glenn before I met Beth and her sister on their farm. It got overrun. Then we found the prison." Daryl had already told them about that. "We're looking for Whites, an Asian and a few Blacks. Men, Women and Kids. I don't think any of our people would just kill someone though. I doubt your guy is one of ours."
"Doubt but you're not sure?" Daryl nodded. He knew to be honest with Joe. They sat in silence as the soup cooked.
"I don't know if we can keep the pace you guys do." Daryl said. "You guys might be better off moving on without us."
"Looks like we're all heading for this sanctuary now." Joe said. "You really think you can make it without us?"
"I don't even know." Daryl admitted. "I know I won't leave Beth behind and she can't do what we did today again." Joe snorted. 'Seriously. She's carrying two babies, a backpack a diaper bag and trying to keep them quiet. You want to get there and see if this guy is there, I get it."
"We can stop for rests." Joe said. "We need you to track." Daryl nodded and kept an eye on the other two men. "It'd be nice if we found a vehicle." Daryl nodded again.
"Would make things a lot easier." Daryl said. He stirred the soup and flipped the meat again. "We had cars, gas and oil at the prison. It all went up in smoke."
"You had a good set up. You lost it following instead of leading." Joe said. Daryl looked up.
"I didn't make any mistakes. Rick's a good leader."
"I don't know this Rick. I know that men like us last in tough times." Joe said leaning back against a tree trunk and closed his eyes. "You got watch till supper." Daryl nodded and stood up. He started hanging his alarms and setting up for the night. Hopefully he'd get to rest tonight too. He heard the babies start to try and recognized the muffled whimpers they made before they started nursing. He waited to hear Beth sing softly or hum but was only met with silence. She hadn't sung or hummed since the prison. It had only been 2 days but that was 2 days longer than ever before. She always sang to make herself feel better, to grieve. Beth climbed back down when it was time to eat.
"Babies fall back asleep?" Daryl asked as Beth sat on the ground. She nodded her head and hugged her knees. Daryl handed her a skewer of meat and she held it while to cooled and sipped at her bottle of water.
"Smells great." She said taking a dainty bite. Daryl dug into his own skewer and grunted. Beth ate half of hers before handing the rest to Daryl. "I want to save room for some soup." Beth said when Daryl looked at her. "Really. It smells good too." Beth said. Daryl finished his skewer and offered the rest of Beth's to anyone with something to trade. Joe tossed a pack of gum down and Beth looked at Daryl. He could tell she wanted it.
"Seriously? Half a pack of gum for about half a rabbit?" Joe tossed two of his cigarettes down too. Daryl handed him the skewer and shoved the smokes in the case he still had in his pocket. Beth knew better then to tell him he had quit. Daryl picked up the other skewer. "Anyone else got anything?" He could tell Tony and John wanted the meat too. Tony pulled 4 more cigarettes out and John handed over a bottle of liquid baby fever meds. Daryl gave him a dirty look but gave them the last skewer to share. "You were going to hoard baby meds? After we've been feeding you?" Beth turned and dished out the mugs of soup before using two towels to lift the pot off the heat so it would cool.
"We'll save the rest for breakfast." Beth said. "We'll put it up in the tree house with us."
"John you got first watch tonight. Then Tony. Then me." Joe said. "Daryl kept watch all last night and he's been feeding us even though one of us acted like a prick tonight." He said eyeing John. "I remember you claiming all pain meds, Daryl came through with some Oxy for you, Beth found me some beer, all she asked for was baby shit and you were going to keep it." Joe stood up and motioned with his hand. Tony socked John in the face. "BE glad I'm in a good mood." Andrew and Clay each socked him once. "Your next lesson will be harder." Joe added making his way to the house with his mug of soup. The others followed him and John tried to catch his breath. Daryl walked over and offered him a hand up.
"I got some aspirin if you need it." He said. Beth hands were shaking as she tried to sip her soup. What would happen if she made Joe angry? What if they all decided to beat Daryl? Daryl waited till John was inside before picking up the pot of soup and climbing the rope ladder with one arm; He reached down and pulled Beth up before crunching to make it into the tree house. Beth had set it up as nicely as she could. She had found a few granola bars and fruit snacks, kids food that had been left here. The babies were sleeping between their packs and the wall on a folded sleeping bag with their blanket around them and Beth had spread the other sleeping bag out close to them and placed the pillows near the wall as well.
"Daryl we got to get away from them." Daryl shook his head.
"I tried. Joe won't go for it. If we try to run and he catches us? He'll kill me and do God knows what to you and the babies. We got to be smart." Daryl whispered. "We get to Terminus, hopefully we find our people or some good people, we might be able to do something." Beth nodded and let Daryl pull up the rope ladder after he had attached a few alarms to the tree in case someone tried to climb it while they slept. Beth handed him her handgun and let him lay down before cuddling into him.
"I don't want to think about what they'll do if they find the man they're looking for." Beth whispered. Daryl nodded and stroked her hair. He knew she was thinking about what they had just done to John and what they had done the Len. Daryl wasn't stupid. If he weren't feeding them fresh meat, he'd likely be a dead man or have been forced to share Beth. He got little sleep in that cabin because of the way they looked at her. He was some glad she had noticed the tree house.
