A/N: Wow, this story is gaining followers! I've always joked that my fic Wake Up For Me was the fan favorite of my stories but this one is quickly gaining!

Thank you to all of you! This is for you and sis.

I listened to Unbreakable by Firefligh and Epiphany by Staind while writing this chapter.

Chapter 13 -

Beth frowned, her blue eyes searching through the binoculars at the people she could see moving around in the city before her. She didn't see anyone she knew, though what were her odds of finding Daryl and the rest of her family in fuckin' Virginia?

She briefly considered heading back to Georgia but just the thought made her head hurt more than it already was. In fact, her head was throbbing and the drop from the tree she just made definitely did not help it. Her eyes moved to something crawling on her jacket and she nearly jumped at the sight of the black widow crawling on her. She swatted it off and shook the shivers from her body.

As she watched the spider crawl off, she grinned slightly. Before the end of the world, she had read an apocalyptic book and the whole story and plot had been about surviving in the apocalypse, mainly focusing on food and other people. Never once had a character in the book worried about nature. She wondered how many people had died in the real world around her, not from a walker or another human, but because of a simple spider bite...or a snake bite? Or from the elements? Or an allergic reaction? Or from an asthma attack? It was a sad thought to have but it was a truth she had just realized. Doctors were hard to find. Meteorologists could look at the sky but didn't have the technology they used to have to predict a tornado, blizzard, or hurricane. No books or stories ever focused on those details.

The blonde shrugged and ran off from the city's walls, not wanting to be seen or caught by anyone keeping guard.

Over the next couple of days, Beth kept fairly close to the city, still trying to get an idea of the kind of people who lived there. They seemed to be in a lot of turmoil and had company that came to or from the city pretty regularly, though she never saw anyone she recognized there. Eventually, the turmoil led to someone breaking through the walls and letting a large horde of walkers in and Beth left. She didn't want to risk being caught in the horde of walkers or anyone escaping.

About a week later, Beth was sitting in a tree enjoying a brief snack of fried squirrel when she heard them. Walkers. She quietly prepared to leave or fight, if needed, her eyes glancing at the fire she had put out, a small stream of smoke still lifting away from it occasionally. The blonde held still as the walkers stumbled below her. There were only five of them, which she could handle if needed, but what made her stop was the sounds. They weren't making the usual sounds walkers made, the groans or growls. No, they were whispering. Her eyes widened. They weren't walkers. They were people. In walker skins. Whispering. Their choice of disguise was brilliant, she couldn't deny that, but it was disgusting as well. She waited a long while, probably close to thirty minutes or an hour, before she moved from her spot in the tree.

Beth looked in her bag for an aspirin and frowned. Her headache had not been improving, or going away for that matter, over the past week and now she was out of pain relievers. She needed to do something about it as it seemed to worsening as the days progressed. She wondered briefly if she had swelling from the bullet wound, but surely she would have had symptoms of that long before now? She wasn't sure.

Light blue eyes looked in the direction of the city she had left behind and she wondered to herself if they were still standing, if she could somehow sneak in and get aspirin. A sound to her left alerted her and she spun in place to see a rabbit, making her grin. Dinner. She fired her crossbow and the bolt hit the rabbit, killing it instantly. She dropped lithely from the tree she had sat in and walked quickly over to her kill. Her grin fell as she picked up the rabbit and saw her bolt was split. She had been using the heck out of her crossbow lately...some had been misses, others hits and she reused her bolts as often as she could. Perhaps this bolt had just seen its days and was done. She pulled it from the rabbit and dropped it to the ground with a mental curse.

She didn't know it, but later that day a hunter she knew very well would see her bolt.

It was raining. Beth leaned her head back and enjoyed the rain drops landing on her face. She was in the woods outside of a small town, she didn't know the name, and had found some aspirin and antibiotics that had fallen under a shelf in a store, taking them instantly. She had loaded her backpack with as much as she could, which wasn't much, the whole town was pretty much empty of everything useful. As she walked deeper into the woods, her ears picked up on people walking. Two of them and they were very close.

Shit, she thought to herself as she looked around, her crossbow up, how did they get so close? The two people froze when her crossbow pointed at them, her eyes narrow as she took in the brunette woman and the man with the mullet. A mullet? Seriously? She had to fight back a roll of her eyes and a grin at the hairstyle. The two quickly raised their hands before the brunette faltered, her eyes narrowing at Beth before widening.

"Wait...wait...I know you. It's been a while..but Daryl carried you out of that hospital," the brunette stuttered, her eyes widening, "you were dead! What...how?" Beth's eyes widened and she lowered her crossbow. She opened her mouth to respond with questions of her own, but nothing came out. It had been so long since she had spoken to another person. She closed her mouth and cleared her dry throat.

"You...know...Daryl?" her voice was soft and raspy and it hurt her throat to talk but it was there. The brunette, Beth would later know her as Tara, smiled and nodded. "Can you...take me to him?" she asked again, her heart thudding in her chest. She paused, her hand up to stop Tara as the rain slowed and stopped and a soft groaning sound could be heard in the distance, growing closer. Beth raised her crossbow back up as she looked around quickly. They had time and they needed to hide; she could hear the sounds amplify. It was a large group of walkers that were approaching.

Beth glanced around and saw a drop off in the trees, gesturing for the brunette and man to follow her as she ran and slid in the mud into a gulley. Her eyes met the decayed eyes of a walker and she quickly stabbed it with her knife before gutting it. She used the mud and guts from the walker to cover her and the other two before pushing them to laying down and gesturing for them to stay quiet.

"They...whisper," she whispered back to them, earning her surprised and confused looks. Beth quickly shook her head before laying beside them, her eyes closed and breathing even as the group of walkers approached and then slowly ambled by them. Sure enough, Beth could hear whispering hidden in the groans and growls. So the three lay, for about thirty minutes, as the group passed and then time passed. Beth sat up, looking around before nodding to the other two and standing. The other two joined her before Beth held out her hand.

"Beth," she croaked.

"Tara," the brunette said as she pointed at herself and then the man, "Eugene. Come on, we'll go to Hilltop. Daryl was there earlier, he still might be." Beth nodded, her stomach knotting as she walked behind the two. She wiped her sweating hands on her muddy jeans, frowning when she realized that her first time seeing the hunter since the hospital would be with her covered in mud and guts. Rain began to fall again as the three walked out onto a road and Beth sighed, feeling the heavy downpour clean her. Thank you, she thought with a smile.

It was a hell of a walk from where they had been. While the rain had, at first, been appreciated, she was now annoyed. It was cooling down and she was soaked and chilled. To add to her difficulties, her too big boots were now hurting her feet as her wet socks rubbed and slid. Many times, she had considered the idea that this was a trick. That Tara and Eugene were leading her to some vile place but her faith in their mention of Daryl kept her walking behind them. Finally, her blue eyes took in the city, a different one from the one she had originally seen, and it's large walls. As they approached, she could hear people behind them. It was a busy place, from what she could gather, as the sounds of the heavy gate opening hurt her ears and made her head throb more. It had been so long since she had heard the sounds of other people. She followed Tara and Eugene into the city, watching as the gate closed behind them before looking at the people walking and working around them. She didn't recognize any of them.

Her heart stopped when a voice called out to Tara and her blue eyes widened as Maggie approached. Beth's feet froze in their spot as she just stared. Maggie's sentence stopped midway when her green eyes met Beth's blue eyes and it was like the world had frozen around them. All Beth saw was her sister. Her heart hammered and filled with joy at the sight of her sister, her tears welling up as Maggie screamed her name and ran to her. Beth's crossbow dropped to the ground as she met Maggie part of the way, Maggie screaming her name over and over again and she held her tightly.

While resentment and anger still had a small hold on Beth's heart from Maggie's earlier signs of Terminus, the blonde let it go and just basked in the joy and warmth of her sister. She hadn't realized how badly her heart had ached for her family and she had just assumed that she would never see them again, but here she was. Maggie stepped back, her hands holding Beth's shoulders, her eyes racking over her, pausing at the scars on her cheek before freezing on the scar from the bullet.

"Maggie, what's…" Beth's eyes widened at his voice, the sound of him running down to them, and then the sounds of his feet stumbling over themselves as he stopped. Maggie stepped away from Beth, but their eyes had already locked over her shoulder.

"Beth…" his voice was soft, his eyes incredulous before he ran the rest of the way to her, his crossbow slamming into the ground as he dropped it. Beth barely had time to get a step towards him before their bodies collided, arms wrapping tightly around each other, and they slipped in the mud, falling together. His lips were on hers and Beth's body warmed instantly. He held her impossibly tight but Beth didn't care.

She was home.