Thanks for taking the time to proof read this once again, fandomismylife. Means a bunch :)

CW: Language and a lil body horror.

Adam won't stop crying.

He's so heavy, and—

And for God's sake, he won't stop crying!

"Here," Kelly says, "let me take him."

I hesitate, casting an angry glance behind us at Mary. She's keeping her distance. I narrow my eyes, telling her without words to keep it that way.

"Okay, thanks," I say, putting Adam in Kelly's arms. His cries settle to harsh whimpers. She's calmer than I am, more in tune with her maternal side than me, I guess.

We're heading to the rendezvous point. The woods are thick with smoke being carried in the wind from last night, even after the miles and miles away from Hilltop we've come. We need to keep moving. I tell it to Kelly, but she doesn't say anything back. Why would she? She knows.

She coos to Adam, who is peering out of his bundle of blankets at our surroundings, eyes clumpy with tears and soot. Kelly wipes them clean, shushing him. I wipe my own eyes, rubbing off dregs of sticky sap, dirt, and ash. My clothes are stained in it. I know it because Kelly and Mary's are, too.

"You're good with kids," I tell Kelly, thinking of her ASL lesson yesterday.

"Good enough to stop them from crying, maybe," she says, shrugging, "not much good at making them fall asleep, though. He must be exhausted."

I groan in agreement. "This one afternoon, while Al and I were babysitting, 'cause Tammy was busy in the gardens and Earl was in the Blacksmithery, Al was using this awful, cartoon, baby voice to try to get Adam to sleep. It was awful." I chuckle absently. "Adam hated it."

Kelly snickers. "Nobody likes the creepy baby voice."

Adam whimpers again. Kelly rocks him gently in her arms.

"I can help."

All my thoughts sour like milk. I twist around, curling my lip enough it hurts the healing cartilage in my nose. Mary takes the hint, stepping back, like some submissive dog. I'd chase her off with a broom if I had one.

"I'm... I'm just saying. I can help, with my nephew."

"Yeah?" I ask, faking a smile. "Well... who the fuck asked you?"

Mary raises her eyebrows.

"Come on," Kelly complains to me, taking a small step over to her. "She knows him."

Without a word, I snatch Adam out of her arms and walk away. He begins screaming instantly. I shush him, my breath catching, tears welling and falling. I didn't see Earl after the fires started, and I didn't see where the other children went either, and I lost Daryl and Oliver, and then Kelly and Mary found me and Adam in the woods this afternoon, and now — oh, God... he won't stop crying.

"Try rubbing the back of his h—"

"I thought I told you to be quiet!" I shout at her, barely not sobbing. Adam jumps, then howls a long, brain-bursting screech. Kelly searches around us, worried we're attracting walkers or worse. I try to calm myself. I look at Mary, at her two, dull, blue eyes, and gritting my teeth, I tell her, "I let you tag along for your sake, not ours. Now, step back..."

She does.

We keep moving.

Walkers find us soon, attracted by Adam's cries. Kelly takes him for me, doing well to settle him while Mary and I put down a few of the dead that get too close. We find a small, overhanging embankment at the foot of a clearing, where we hide out of sight in hopes that the cluster will pass us. Minutes go by, then an hour, where the only movement we make is breathing and blinking, pinning ourselves to the bank and preying Adam will remain silent in Kelly's arms.

By the time it's dark, we've lost count of how many clusters have passed by, coming from one direction then the next. Every time we think we're in the clear and begin climbing from the embankment, another cluster shows up. I look at Kelly for answers, but she seems as confused as me. I try not to dwell on it too much. I'm just glad she's managed to keep Adam quiet — following Mary's instruction about rubbing his head which I'm only privately furious about. It's a relief that Mary is smart enough not to look at me this whole time, or speak to us.

"It's too dark to keep moving," I whisper to Kelly, watching as another cluster disappears off through the trees. "We'll have to camp here tonight. It'll be cold. We can't risk lighting a fire. One of us will have to stay awake. We'll do shifts. I'll go first."

Kelly grits her teeth and shakes her head at me. "You know, we would have been at the rendezvous point by now if you'd just given the kid to her from the start."

I don't even look at her. I just glare ahead and whisper, "She and her people left him for dead. She and her people killed my family. She's not touching him."

Kelly tuts, then continues to coo to Adam.

I look around us —ignoring Mary entirely— realising the coast is clear, so rising to my feet. "Here, Mary, help me build some cover— Hey, I said help me? What are you looking at?"

She's twitching her head around, left to right, twisting in her seat, looking up the bank, and down, like she's caught a scent.

"What?" I hiss again.

She looks at me, suddenly, and says, "Someone's coming."

I snatch my bow, looking around, but not seeing anything. "What? Who?"

"I've seen this before," Mary warns, not answering me, "the cluster."

"Clusters," I correct.

"No," she says, "it's the same Guardians. He knows how to control them. He can make them cover every square foot if he wants to."

"Mary..."

"He's herding them at us," she mutters, spinning on the spot, "trying to draw us out of hiding."

"Who is?"

"I'm so stupid," she says over me, talking quick and grabbing a handful of her matted hair. "I'm so stupid. I should have realised. I should have realised."

"Realised what?" Kelly asks, gripping her knives, eyes scanning the trees around us. "Who are you talking about, man?"

"Beta," Mary answers, out of breath from just standing there with the thought of him filling her head. She clasps a hand over her mouth, eyes wide in panic. "He followed Adam's cries. He knew I would be with him. He must've lost our tracks after the cluster came through, but he's made it this close, it's only a matter of time before he... Oh, God, I've put you all in danger. I'm so stupid!"

I think hard, searching around us for any movement. "If we stay here long enough, maybe he'll miss us. Maybe he'll move them on."

Mary shakes her head. "He won't stop until I'm dead. He'll find me. He'll kill us all."

"Well he's not here yet," Kelly says, "so he's still looking for us, right?"

Mary looks at her, huffing uncertainly. "Yeah. I mean, we're alive."

A twig snaps in the distance. We all swivel around to it, forgetting to breathe. Adam starts to fuss so Kelly pulls him close. A walker emerges through the fog, then several more. I draw my bowstring.

"No!" Mary whispers. "He'll know we're here."

"But they're coming right at us."

Mary notices this, too, her eyes widening. "Oh, God. Oh, God, I was right."

The walkers spot us under the moonlight, growling their terrible growls.

Disguising the man hunting us.

"Run," I say.

We hurry through the woods, our destination on the rendez—

"No! He'll follow us there," Mary pants. "He'll kill everyone."

Adam beings to cry again. I suck in air through my teeth, forcing the panic away.

"Alright," I huff. "Quick, this way. I have a plan."

And I take a sharp left.

As we go, Mary confirms my suspicions that Beta can only go as fast as the walkers; if he were to start running, he'd be noticed and eaten. "Or worse," Mary says, "he'd have to kill the Guardians." I explain my plan to them as we run, managing to get far enough ahead, where we find a national trail-walk park that I've ridden through on Blondie hundreds of times before. I run to a dusty old van in the otherwise deserted parking lot while Kelly and Mary run on ahead and hide in the small restroom block.

Kelly glances back at me before they go inside, and signs something I can guess from the context means, "Good luck."

I nod, signing one of the only things I remember from her lesson yesterday, bringing my four fingers to my chin and gesturing them out as, "Thank you," and once they've locked themselves in the restroom, I throw myself under the van and watch the direction the walkers and Beta will come from. My mom's blade is still sharp, the varnish handle smooth in my grip.

And then it begins to rain.

For minutes, all I can hear is Adam's cries and the low patter of the raindrops hitting the earth, slowly transforming the dry dirt beyond the cover of the van into wet, gloopy mud. I spend all my time praying the weather will drown out any other noise, praying that Kelly will settle Adam before it's too late, and finally, thankfully, the restroom block falls quiet and the darkness is filled with only the sounds of raindrops and cricket calls.

Too soon, I hear distant growls through the woods.

I see them under the moonlight, shambling through the rain streaked fog and trees. The dead begin crossing the parking lot. I search for Beta in the crowd, realising I forgot to ask Mary what he looks like. Oliver never mentioned his appearance either, and Isaac only said Beta was Alpha's second in command. I wonder if he was there in the barn where Alden and Tammy Rose were killed. I wonder if he killed them, or just held them down as his Alpha severed their heads from their shoulders. I wonder if he would even remember their faces.

Finally, the cluster begins to thin, leaving just a few stragglers, lost in the dark and falling behind the rest as they continue on the way Beta led them. I almost climb out from cover, wanting to take out the last few left and get the others before Beta turns back, but then I notice one walker.

Built like a grizzly bear.

Standing perfectly still.

Watching me.

His fresh eyes glisten dully in the moonlight and my heart rises to my throat, gagging me. I can't even blink. Does he see me? It'd be impossible. It's too dark, and although I'm watching him from under the van, I'm hidden behind tufts of long grass.

Still, slowly, he walks towards me.

I resist all urge to scramble out and run. I almost shut my eyes, too terrified to watch, and then he's here. I see just his thick black boots, shuffling in the mud as he grabs the van door handle and wrenches it open, slamming it back so loudly and suddenly that I almost yelp. Running on impulse and adrenaline, I push myself closer, knife gripped. It would only take one deep swipe at his Achilles heel; one loud snap, and it would be over for him. It would be.

Only fear stops me. Fear roots me to the dirt. Trapping me there.

He leans into the van, his immense weight and size sinking it, threatening to squash me. Then finally, he climbs out of the van and walks away. I swear silently, furious, and then, in relent, I allow the relief to set in. We can get away now. We can focus on finding the others again.

And then I am dragged by the ankles out from under the van.

My bow, caught against the underside of the vehicle, is ripped off over my shoulders. Mud slathers my face and front. Sheer panic overtakes me as Beta twists me onto my back and kneels down to me, so huge he's like a giant, about to eat me whole. He snatches me around my jaw with one dustbin lid-sized hand, cutting off my scream, and with his other arm, blocks my thrashing arms and legs. I manage to swing my knife at his chest, then his arm, and blood spurts from his jacket and spills in thin streams down the black leather. But he doesn't even wince. It's as though he doesn't notice. He doesn't feel pain. He just holds me down harder, burying me, his yellow teeth baring furiously, spitting through his teeth as he growls in my face. He steals my mom's knife without effort, throwing it aside. And then, as if I weigh nothing at all, he takes me by the base of my ponytail and pulls, raising my head, sitting me up, making me stand, and then lifting me off my Goddamn feet.

The pain is blinding.

I scream.

God, I just have to scream.

And then, louder than any man should be able, he roars.

Like a mother fucking animal, Beta fucking roars.

As I dangle there like a dying thing, squealing in pain with my boots a foot off the ground, I hear him unsheathe his knife. I gasp in horror. I kick out furiously, punching him and crying out. He raises his blade. I clench my eyes shut.

"Stop!" Kelly shouts, bursting out of the restroom block with Mary trapped unconvincingly in her headlock; in Kelly's other fist, her knife is shaking. She puts it against Mary's temple.

I can hear Adam's wails from inside the restroom. I have to shut my eyes again. Rain and mud and tears fall down my face. I can only think of the pain, turning my vision white. My scalp is on fire. Beta grimaces as I dig my fingernails into his fist, scraping off the thick, calloused skin there in an attempt to force him to let go. I start to grab at other things. His jacket. His shoulder. My hair. He shakes me off like some damp rag doll.

"Let her go!" Mary screams. "Or she'll kill me!"

"R— Right. Y— Yeah. I will!" Kelly stutters, the whites of her eyes shining under the cloudy moonlight.

Beta tilts his head, watching me hang from his knuckles.

As he looks back at the others, I hear him laugh.

And in a deep, bone-rattling growl, he says, "Your tricks won't work this time..."

I'm about to die. I know it as he opens his mouth to roar again, raising his blade to plunge it through my ribcage. I have no bow but I still reach for it anyway. I don't know why. But it's the only thing I can think of. I snatch an arrow from my quiver, which, unlike my bow, managed to stay on my back, and in an instant, I plunge it through Beta's face. I watch it puncture his cheek, feel it penetrate through the thick muscle of his tongue, and I catch the sight of the arrow head sticking out through the bottom of jaw, dripping with blood that looks black in the grey night-light, before he growls out a cry and throws me several feet away.

I land against the van with a loud bang, collapsing to my hands and knees in the wet mug. Enraged, Beta runs at me. I scream, and then, out of nowhere, he staggers back as Kelly's knife dives through his right shoulder. Then Mary has snatched my mom's knife from the ground and she's sprinting at him, at this man who is a hundred times her size, at this man who is a thousand times her strength, and with a war cry, she sinks the blade through Beta's chest.

And he sinks his own through her stomach.

"No!" Kelly screams.

I see Mary gasp, staring down, then up, grimacing. Beta leans close to her, ignoring her attempts to beat her fists against his chest, and he whispers, "You... Will... Walk... With… Us..."

"Never!" Mary cries, scratching him across the face and tearing off one side of his mask.

The sight of his face brings me to my senses. Reaching under the van, I grab my bow, and without time to stand, I send an arrow through Beta's thigh. He growls in pain and staggers back a step, dropping Mary, who collapses to the mud on her back. He tries to snatch his knife from her, but I shoot another arrow, aiming for his head. It embeds through his bicep. He grunts in pain, glares at me, then turns and runs away, quicker than a man built like a tower should be able. I pull my bowstring. My arrow punctures him through the shoulder-blade. He buckles, but manages to keep on his feet, running away through the black woods, shoving aside walkers that are coming back, attracted to our noise. I aim past their heads, trying to get a clear shot, but it's too dark and I'm not quick enough...

And Beta is gone.

I drop my arms, horrified and wincing and out of breath, still sitting against the van in the mud, like some broken toy. It hurts to crawl over to Mary. She's gasping in pain, gripping the knife in her gut, tugging weakly.

"Don't pull it out," I mutter, managing to push her hands away, "it's the only thing stopping you from bleeding out."

She just sobs. "Maybe... that's for... the best."

She's going into shock so I take off my coat and sweater and place them over her chest and waist.

"Enid," Kelly cries, running back from the restroom with a screaming Adam clutched in her arms. "The geeks."

I tell Mary to lie still, and to try to stay awake, then retrieve my knife from where she'd dropped it. I'll never know where I find the strength to stand. The first walker is fresher than any I've dealt with for a long time. I'm not ready for it when it lunges at me, sending me to the floor with it landing hard on my chest. I cry out, winded and struggling to keep its mouth away.

"Kelly! Help!"

She puts Adam in the van and shuts the door, then runs to help me, pulling the walker off. I kick its knee in and, as it goes down, Kelly stabs it through the soft part at the base of it's neck.

It takes all our effort to keep the dead away from Mary and the van. I'm still so distraught and distracted by pain that Kelly has to save my life again when another walker knocks me to the ground. She caves its skull in under her boot. I don't know how we manage it, but somehow we're both still standing by the time I crush the last walker's face in under a rock. The rest must've followed Beta into the woods, the smell of his blood breaking their illusion.

And somehow.

God, somehow, we are all still alive.

Just.

I stagger to my feet, covered in blood and mud and rain, totally exhausted. I return to Mary. She's still lying there, breathing quick and shallow, in a shallow pool of blood and mud.

"We have to go," I croak, wiping clumpy blood and rain out of my eyes.

"Are you okay?" Kelly argues, a handful of arrows in her quiver that she's retrieved for me from the various dead around us.

I nod. "Come on. She won't make it if we wait."

She helps me find something to carry her, which ends up being a thin, plywood door from one of the restroom cubicles. We break it off after a few hard kicks, then, carefully, we lift Mary onto it. She begs us to leave her. I put Adam in the narrow gap between her legs and tell her, over his screams, to focus on keeping him there, secure between her knees.

She shuts her eyes and nods, then reaches down for him, and at the same time Adam raises his small arm out to her, and they touch, and he grips her shaking, bloody thumb in his wet, little fist, and Mary sobs, and smiles.

"Shh," she tells him, "shh..."

And Adam falls quiet, and his eyes begin to droop.

I watch them for a moment, amazed, then carefully, I cover Adam's tiny face with the corner of his blanket to protect him from the weather. Their hands are still entwined as Kelly and I lift the door. Mary's blood spills slowly over the edge, soaking mine and Kelly's hands and the blanket Adam is wrapped in.

Eventually the rain stops, and the moon is high in the middle of the clear night sky, and we haven't seen a walker for miles, and Mary is still alive, somehow.

I'm planning how I'm going to get her to survive this once we get to the rendezvous point when I see a landmark: a thick-rooted, marked, willow tree, that means we're getting close.

"Hey," Kelly says, "did you get a look at Beta's face? It was like... I recognised him from somewhere."

I don't say anything, instead blowing away the sweaty hair stuck to my face.

"He looked like that singer..." Kelly says. "Half Moon."

"Yeah, now you mention it," I say, adjusting my blistered hands.

Weakly, Mary laughs, her thumb still held gently in her nephew's sleepy grip. "Knew his voice... was familiar," she says.

"Shh," I tell her. "Rest."

"Imagine that," she whimpers, managing a chuckle. "Getting stabbed to death by a Goddamn rock star."

"You're not dead yet," I tell her. "Now, save your strength. We're almost there."

Fuck a princess, I'm a king
Bow down and kiss on my ring
It's gonna hurt, it'll sting
Spitting your blood in the sink

I'm crazy, but you like that
I bite back, daisies on your nightstand
Never forget, I blossom in the moonlight
Screw eyes, glacial with the blue ice
I'm terrifying

Notes

Song was Daisy by Ashnikko. I kept it to the end because I felt like, in the off chance that you'd decide to put it on at the beginning, it would be distracting and contradictory for the feel of the chapter as a whole. It's a kind of fast/bratty/girl power sort of song, and to me, has some really good vibes that I think fit Enid's mentality right now. Like she's just sort of lost all her fucks to give, and she just got the shit beat out of her, and she's ready to kill; I just picture her basically as the human embodiment of a violent earthquake rn lol

Felt weird that Beta in the show was following Mary all night and didn't just straight up try to murder Alden, Kelly, and Adam himself, so I wrote some scuffles. I also almost didn't even write this chapter, and first just skipped this arc. Thank you, fandomismylife, for planting the idea for an Enid pov chapter in my head.

The scene where Enid was pulled out from under the van was inspired by that one time I was playing TLOU2 as Ellie, hiding under a bed, thinking I was smart as shit, and some fucking gross-ass WLF just drags me on out from under there. Scared the everliving shite out of me. Good times. Also just finished that game for the second time and shit was way sadder/better this go around.

If anyone is wondering why Enid is trying to help Mary despite hating her, I figured she's a doctor, something she finally re-enstated to Daryl last chapter, so she basically has taken an oath at this point to save as many lives as she possibly can. Attacking Whisperers excluded lol

As always,
happy reading.