Daryl ran his hands through Beth's hair; the sun was rising behind him, lighting up the stray strands of hair that floated about his exterior in the morning light, illuminating hues of red amongst the dark brown, giving him a glowing halo that off-set his sharp features. There was a deep, passionate love in his eyes that melted Beth, melted her into the warmth of his hand as it stroked the hair against her face.
All around them it was quiet, save for the soft sounds of gurgling water from afar and the distant calls of morning birds. There was nothing around except Daryl and his eyes, so blue and startling against his darkened, sun kissed skin. There were no dark circles around his eyes this morning, no bruises on his cheeks and no cuts on his lips.
Beth laced her fingers through his and held their hands together against her chest.
'What now?' she asked.
Daryl leant in and gently touched his forehead to hers, his skin warm and soft. Beth breathed in the familiar musk of him, leather mixed with an earthy scent, like autumn leaves and summer fires.
'Me an' you, girl,' he said softly, his breath warm against her face.
'Where do we go?' Beth breathed.
'Anywhere in th'world,' he said, leaning down and pressing his lips against her throat, the scratch of his stubble sending shivers up her spine, 'it's ours.'
Beth woke with a start. She could tell by the light of the room that it was late morning, and she had overslept. Something was wrong.
Suddenly the realisation of what had woken her jolted her out of bed; there had been an explosion. With as much speed and strength as she could muster, Beth grabbed up her clothing and pulled it all on, snatching up her jacket.
The prison as she hurried through it was empty, but Beth could hear the commotion from outside.
With a grunt, she shoved open the main doors and out into the corridor, the light suddenly blinding her. She covered her eyes and ran out into the group of people she could see from afar, crouched behind one of the buildings wall. Beth reached them, spotting Daryl, who glanced across at her, but Beth couldn't figure out what he was saying.
'Rick! Get down here! We need to talk!'
Beth's heart sunk as bile rose in her throat.
Out beyond the courtyard and across the field were a collection of cars and vans and, as Beth squinted, the Governor.
'It's not up to me!' Rick called back, 'there's a council now!'
'Is Hershel on the council?' The governor called back, from his stance atop a tank, Beth realised with dread. From behind her sister, Beth watched as one of the villain's cronies opened a car door and pulled out her father.
She heard her sister gasp at the same time she herself did, as Maggie covered her mouth with her hand and stumbled backwards in shock. Beth felt her own face crumple, her brow furrowing down in confusion. She took a step closer to the fence, trying to figure out what was happening. Why was her father on the other side?
'What about Michonne?' The Governor called, as a man pulled Michonne from the other side of the car. 'She on the council too?'
The tension surrounding them was palpable and Beth felt her skin crawling with fear as she watched Rick take several deep, shuddering breaths. He was losing it, and Beth could feel Maggie shuddering beside her.
'I don't make decisions any more!' Rick yelled.
'You're making the decisions today Rick... come down here lets … lets have that talk.'
The Governor spoke with a calm deliberation from his place of power, composed and in charge atop his tank, surrounded by his new comrades, armed to the teeth with guns.
Beth stared down at her father, knelt on the floor in front of the gate, his hands tied behind his back. He was not slouched, but stared straight ahead at his family, his eyes squinted against the sun. Both himself and Michonne were silent and still, their eyes trained straight ahead. Amongst the fear, Beth felt a swell of pride.
There was silence as Rick looked towards Daryl; Beth could not see Rick's face, but she saw the way Daryl's own squinted eyes looked into Rick's. He lightly nodded.
Rick nodded back and turned to Carl.
'We can do this,' he murmured, holding onto his son's shoulder. He kept his gaze on his son, strong and steady, then he squeezed his neck and turned from Carl and headed for the gate, which Daryl helped him open. Daryl closed it behind him and stood back to watch with the rest of them as Rick walked down the gravel path to where the Governor stood. Beth held her breath and listened to the crunch of the path beneath his boots.
'We can't take 'em all on' Daryl said quietly to Sasha, heading over to her but keeping his eyes down on Rick. 'We'll go through the admin building, through the woods like we planned. We ain't got the numbers no more.'
Sasha shrugged, her face heavy.
'When's the last time someone checked the stash on the bus?' Daryl asked.
'Day before we hit the Big Spot.' Sasha said with regret. 'We were running low on rations then. We're lower now.'
'Yeah, we'll manage.' Daryl said. 'Things go south, everyone heads for that bus. Let everybody know.'
'What if everybody doesn't know when things go bad? How long do we wait?' Tyreese asked; he was on edge, his eye still bruised from Rick's attack, his back up as he watched Rick walk down to the fence below. His voice was heavy and stern.
'As long as we can.' Daryl said grimly.
He left the siblings, pausing to look down at Beth, before he headed off towards the guns. Beth kept her eyes down on her father, her heart in her throat. There was no way to tell how this scenario would play out and for the first time in ages, she was really, truly terrified.
She felt a tap against her arm. Turning, she saw Daryl, holding out a gun to her. Fearful, Beth took it. Daryl paused as he looked at her, his eyes boring into hers. She swallowed and he turned away.
Beth could not hear what was being said down by the fence. Rick looked small, alone before the prowess of the tank and the forces the governor had mustered. Beth trusted Rick, but things did not look good, and Rick did not look strong.
The governor jumped down from the tank and took up Michonne's katana.
Beth stepped around her sister and heard herself whimper as he held it out against her father's neck.
Fear struck at Beth's insides, turning her guts to ice cold water that sloshed about and threatened to expell itself. Her hands shook against the gun as a cold wind blew about them, whipping her hair; it carried Rick's voice towards them.
'Look, I fought him before -' Rick spoke up and his words drifted over to them. 'And after, we took in his old friends. They've become leaders in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons, walk through those gates you're one of us. We let go of all of it, and nobody dies. Everyone who's alive right now. Everyone who's made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive. But we can still come back. We're not too far gone. We get to come back. I know we all can change.'
From where she stood, Beth thought she could see her father smile. He was watching Rick, and despite the sword at his throat, there was a pride in his eyes.
The Governor moved the sword away from her father's throat and Beth held her breath, held it fast as those around the Governor seemed to waver. She saw people, people who did not look ready for a fight, young women holding guns in an unsteady manner, men who looked pale and unsure, people who had been led here under false pretences suddenly wondering if what they had been fed was true. She held her breath in hope.
'Liar.' She heard the Governor say, and then her world fell apart.
The sword hit her father in the neck, breaking through the flesh and spluttering out crimson red blood which instantly poured down and soaked into his shirt.
Gunshots reigned out all around them as Hershel fell to his side, his eyes wide.
Beth began to sob, her small hands finding their way to the fence and wrapping around the cold wire as her sister sobbed and shot out through the fence beside her. Everything around her blurred through her tears, and the noise of the gunfire merged into a constant drone as everything around her fell apart. The colour drained and her vision greyed, her body shook.
Amongst the carnage, Hershel pulled himself out of the way as Beth watched, dragging himself across the floor as his neck poured. He wriggled his body across the grass in a likewise manner to the incapacitated bodies of the dead did, shuffling his wounded self to an attempt at safety. Beth watched as he pulled himself between two of the cars, but the Governor got to him. Tears poured down her face as her heart broke, her stomach churned and every piece of hope and goodness she had held on to shattered. She watched in horror as the Governor hacked away at her father's neck, severing his head from his body as the tank drove its way through the fence, bringing it down with ease.
Shaking, Beth began to shoot too, clumsily firing off anywhere.
'I'm out of ammo!' she cried.
'Run for the bus!' Maggie cried back, 'I'll cover you!'
Beth ducked her head and ran for the bus as the tank took out sections of their home left right and centre. Rubble cascaded down around her and tripped her as she ran, her arms shielding her face. She reached the bus and suddenly Maggie was there with her.
'Glenn's in there. I have to get him!' she cried.
'I'm going with you!' Beth shouted back.
Maggie stopped and turned to look at her baby sister.
'Get these people on the bus. Be ready to drive. I'll be right back.' She said.
'What if you're not?' Beth cried.
'You have to go without us,' Maggie said.
'I won't go without you!' Beth gasped.
'Beth, Beth, get these people on the bus, okay? It's your job.' She handed her sister her gun. 'We've all got jobs to do.'
Beth leant back against the bus and tried to steady herself as Maggie ran off across the yard, trying to blink back her tears.
Shaking, she climbed the steps to the bus.
There were several people seated there already, their faces dusty and some blooded. She looked around the bus, gasping in air.
'Wheres – where's Judith?' she asked.
Nobody answered her.
Swallowing, Beth climbed back off of the bus and headed back out through the dust, wincing at every shot. Glass shattered down around her as one of the windows blew out and Beth could feel the heat of the fires that had erupted around her, burning down everything they had worked so hard to achieve.
She ran down through the courtyard, but there were stray bullets everywhere. She ducked down behind the bins and hunkered down, covering her ears with her hands. As she opened her eyes, she saw the bus pull away.
'Beth!'
Beth crawled out from behind the bins to Maggie who was hurrying towards her.
'The bus!' Beth cried.
'We'll figure it out!' Maggie shouted back, pulling her sister to her feet, 'come on, we've got to go!'
The two sisters ran through the mess, listening to the shots that were continuing to fire out. Beth's shoulder and chest burned in agony as they ran, keeping close together and their heads down, avoiding the walkers that had gotten inside with the destruction of the fences. Thankfully there was so much going on that the walker's paid little attention to the sister's, their dead brains overcome with all the noise and commotion, some of them struck by a stray bullet and falling to the floor.
Neither sister stopped running until they had gotten far into the forest beyond, and even then they only stopped because circumstance forced them to. Beth could not catch her breath and her body screamed in pain, her nerve endings on fire. Maggie stopped and gasped for breath.
'We have to keep – going.' She stammered.
Beth nodded.
Taking her sister's arm, Beth pushed on through the undergrowth until the sound of gunfire and flames died down behind them and they put distance between them and the battleground. Beth's leg's burned, her feet blistered in her boots and her stomach rolled as sweat poured down her face and stuck her clothing to her back. Beside her, Maggie was in just as much of a state, her breathing hollow and laboured.
'Look,' she gasped, nodding forward.
Beth looked up through her sweat drenched hair to see an abandoned van, its bumper wrapped around a large tree. It had clearly been driven off of the road and crashed down into the wooded area below. Whoever had crashed it had escaped, leaving the drivers side door wide open, and was no where to be seen.
Beth approached the van and pulled herself up and into the cab, whilst Maggie did the same across from her on the passenger side. The floor of the cab was littered with papers and dust, the wires hanging from the dashboard. The sister's searched the cab and found a bottle of water and several mints in the glove compartment, which they shared out among each other. The water was warm but it soothed Beth's throat and brought back a little of her energy.
Exhausted, the two women pulled their-selves out of the cab and rounded the van to the back. The back doors were ajar, and guns raised ready, Maggie pulled them both open. Whatever the van had once held no longer existed, and the expanse of the van was dark and empty.
Beth stared down into the darkness, and a strange feeling came over her. The inside was small and dim, one side of the steel exterior bashed in, but there was a strange comfort within in.
'I think we should stay in here,' Maggie said, seeming to read Beth's mind.
'Yeah,' Beth said.
With a little struggle, the sister's pulled their tired and hurt bodies up into the back. Slowly, Maggie pulled the doors together behind them, closing out the day light and the world behind them.
Beth crawled towards the wall and leant her head back against it. She sighed deeply, pain flaring in her chest as she did so. She closed her eyes and allowed the cool darkness and silence to wash over her.
They sat in silence for some time, the sounds of their ragged breathing the only noise around them. Beth's head lay back against the cold steel of the van, her heart beating in her chest, every inch of her body in pain. The butchery of the past few hours played out in her head, the Governor's assault, her father's murder, the death of their home. The sword struck down in her father's pale flesh in slow motion, his blood splattered out in vivid colour, her sister's scream echoed around her head. Or had it been her own scream? She no longer knew.
'Daddy is dead.' She said. Her voice was broken and raspy in the dark silence around them. Her cheeks were wet.
'I know.'
Beth could not see Maggie in the dark, but the sound of her voice betrayed her location.
'And Glen and Daryl -'
'I know.' Maggie said again.
Beth took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She could hear her sister moving against the steel of the van, the creak of the metal as she adjusted herself.
'What now?' Beth asked.
She heard Maggie swallow. Beth opened her eyes and trained them to where she knew her sister was, and was able to make out her shape.
'We find our family.' Maggie said.
Beth nodded.
Slowly, Beth crawled towards the middle of the van, away from the walls and away from the dent. Carefully, she inched herself down and curled in on herself, laying her wet cheek against the dusty floor. She closed her eyes and held herself, small and fragile amidst the darkness, closed off and safe in the artificial womb of the van.
Tomorrow they would find their family.