'A dry run, tha's all this is,' Daryl said, his brooding eyes steady on Beth. He was standing before his bike in front of the gates, a bag slung over the seat and his crossbow over one shoulder. Beth stood before him, her arms folded across her chest to stop herself from shaking. No matter what he said, what Rick said, she was worried.
'We go in, check it out, run through the plan, and then do it for real tomorrow,' Daryl said.
Beth nodded, her lower lip between her teeth. It didn't sit right with her.
The courtyard before the gates was a buzz with nervous energy as people talked through the plan. Rick wanted those with him to see the quarry for theirselves before they attempted to tackle it for real. They needed to know what they were up against, he had said.
A part of Beth wanted to go out there with them, see it for herself, help her family, but a part of her didn't. She wasn't sure she had ever see a real quarry in the flesh before, but she understood the size of them. And one that was full of walkers? She wasn't sure she could see that for herself and sleep.
'You make sure you come back to me, Dixon,' Beth said seriously, her own blue eyes searching his.
Daryl offered her one of his rare smiles.
'I'll be back in time fer dinner,' he said, 'best make sure you got it on the table, girl.'
Beth laughed at that, reaching out to gently slap him on one of his bare arms, but the laughter died in her throat as the sound of engines started up around them. Daryl grabbed up the bag and slung it over his other shoulder.
'I gotta go,' he said.
Beth nodded.
Daryl smiled; he reached out to cup her chin, lifting her to face to look in to his.
'I'll be fine,' he said. 'Worry about y'self.'
'Okay,' Beth said softly. She pushed up onto her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his own lips, feeling him smile beneath her.
'See you later,' Beth said.
She stood to the side then, with her sister and Jessie, as the convoy gathered and got ready to leave beneath the summer's burning blue sky. Jessie's husband, Pete, was going out with them.
'I need to go and see Diana,' Maggie said once the cars - and Daryl's bike - had disappeared out through the gates and were headed up the road in a puff of dust. 'She wants to go over the new watch points.'
Beth nodded.
'I'm going to get on with some painting, while the house is quiet,' Jessie said softly. 'Beth, do you want to come over, have some sweet tea?'
'Oh, thanks,' Beth smiled, 'but I think I'm going to go lie down. I didn't sleep well last night.'
Jessie nodded her understanding, but Beth could feel Maggie's eyes on her.
'Come over later if you want to,' Jessie said.
Beth nodded again, then made her way back into the town with her sister and Jessie, trying not to dwell on the thought of Daryl, vulnerable on his bike in the open.
She split from the other two women and made her way up the front steps to the house she was beginning to see as home, already having grown tired.
It was quiet inside, everyone either out on the quarry or out to their own business. The house felt stuffy as Beth made her way upstairs, the day outside growing hotter - she was beginning to sweat as she pushed open the door to the room she shared with Daryl.
Beth pushed the curtains back, cracked open the large window and pulled off her leggings before flopping backwards onto the large, white bed, the blankets cool beneath her.
She was beginning to drift off when a sound she had learned to identify at all cost roused her.
Beth opened her eyes, then jumped up and hurried to the window. As she looked down, she saw a man she did not know, did not recognise, disappear into the house opposite. Below her, the hubcaps around her front yard will still rattling.
Someone was in her house; even without the hubcaps, Beth heard the familiar squeak of feet on the stairs; her blood ran cold. Thinking on her feet, Beth ran to the side of her bed, grabbed up her knife, and steadied herself by the door. Waiting. Clenching and unclenching her fist around the hilt.
Whoever was in their house had made it to the landing; Beth heard the door to Tara's room at the end open. Straining her ears to listen, she heard them moving about, then leave. Beth's heart rose to her throat as whoever the intruder was made their way up the hall. Thoughts raced through her mind - should she head out and take them on, surprise them? She glanced at the leggings she had discarded on the bed - no time. She didn't need to be caught off guard. Caught with her literal and proverbial pants down. One hand moved to her belly, protruding lightly from beneath the white tank she wore. She couldn't put herself at risk.
The intruder finished with Maggie and Glen's shared bedroom, and Beth heard them make their way over to her. Shaking, she took a deep breath, twirling her knife in her hands, then clenched her jaw together to stop it from quivering.
The door handle rattled.
Beth swallowed.
A woman with matted, bedraggled hair pushed open the door; her face was flushed and sweating, her eyes wild beneath a dried, cracked red 'W' on her forehead.
Beth bulked for a moment, then the woman's pale lips broke into a wide grin, revealing broken, yellowing teeth. The eyes that looked at Beth were flaming with an eerie wildness, and it scared Beth as much as that grin did. But seeing this strange, dirty woman about to cross the threshold into the small, clean, safe place she shared with Daryl snapped something in her.
A red mist seemed to descend down over her and she lunged forward, raising the knife as she did. The woman grinned and reached out to grab Beth.
Beth managed to shove her out into the corridor, pushing her back against the white wall opposite. They struggled together as the woman held Beth's wrist fast, stopping her from burying her knife any where. Beth grabbed a handful of the woman's matted hair, pulling her head down to one side, pulling the grin from the woman's face at the same time. It was replaced by an ugly snarl.
Beth got one of her bare feet behind the woman's leg and tripped her, twisting her away from the wall and down to the ground. The woman pulled her down with her, but the fall forced her to let go of Beth's wrist.
In the struggle, the woman clamped her jaw down on Beth's arm, illiciting a shriek of both shock and pain. In her anger, Beth plunged the knife into the woman's chest, feeling the crack of her ribs beneath the blade. Blood splurted up, covering her forearms and chest. The woman screamed as Beth yanked it back out, her mad, feral eyes staring out at Beth with a mixture of fear and hatred, then those eyes widened in pain as Beth pushed the knife back in again. The woman's screams garbled as blood made its way up her throat, filling her mouth, and died there as Beth continued to stab her.
The woman was long dead by the time Beth fell back onto her backside, covered in the intruders blood, breathing heavily.
She pushed herself up onto shaking feet, looking down at the body of the dirty woman, her own dark crimson blood pooling out around her and seeping into the light carpet.
Quickly, before she ran, Beth leant down and stabbed her knife in to the woman's temple. Then she pushed her up, gingerly stepped around her, and headed down the stairs. She was halfway down when she felt the crash, far off somewhere, then the heard the deafening sound. She paused for a second, her heart pumping. It was a horn, loud and deafening, and it ran all through their small town.
The front door had been left open, and as Beth made her way to it, a man ran into view, engulfed in flames and screaming. Beth stopped in horror as the man fell to the floor, first to his knees, then onto his face, screaming and thrashing on the gravel. Beth ran back to the kitchen sink, grabbed up a bowl of water, and hurried it to the thrashing man, who by now was only twitching. She sloshed the water over his face, putting out the flames, but as the smoke rose in acrid swirls from his singed flesh, Beth saw the damage had already been done; his skin had burnt away in large, gooey sections, bubbles arisen above the surface. Beth stumbled backwards. He was already dead.
In the near distance, Beth watched as another one of the intruders ran after one of her neighbours. She watched as they threw an axe after him - it hit its mark, burrowing itself in his back. The man twitched for a moment, attempting to grab at it, before he lay flat, one arm still twisted awkwardly towards his back.
The man left the axe in his back, but moved his head to one side and bent over him for a moment, his hands out of Beth's view. Then he ran off.
Beth followed slowly, down in a crouch, towards the body on the floor. Gently, she moved the man's head, seeing the bleeding 'W' the man had carved in to it. She took a shaking breath.
Finding the strength, she pulled the axe free, grunting with the effort, wincing as the blod flew to the surface of the gash and spiled out over his once light blue shirt, dying the grass he lay upon.
Struggling to hold it, Beth hurried after the intruder, the gravel cutting in to her bare feet, ducking down behind bushes whenever anyone she did not know passed. Her heart was thumping in her throat, her mouth dry. Her arms ached from the weight of the axe and the earlier struggle.
Her intention had been to head for Deanna's, where her sister was supposed to be, but as she made her way across the path she spotted the original owner of the axe heading for Jessie's. Her empathetic need to help others having kicked in, she followed him, keeping low to the ground.
The man bypassed the door, heading instead for the open garage. With the sound of the horn still blaring in all of their ears, Beth followed.
Beth watched as he passed the statue of the owl Jessie and her sons had been working on, erected from old bits of metal scrap scavenged or found, as he peered over the shelving and cabinets, ignoring the open boxes of tools or paints - he did not seem to be interested in looting, which struck Beth as odd.
She kept a distance behind him, but had no choice but to enter the darkened garage as he tried the handle of the door that led in to Jessie's kitchen. Beth held her breath, but let it out in an exasperated gush as the handle turned - and the door opened inwards. Why would Jessie keep it locked, she thought. No one else did.
Panic flared, and Beth moved out in to the open.
'Hey!' She called, barely aware she was doing it.
The man, his face blood specked and dirty, turned to look at her, a look of surprise on his face.
'Is that my axe?' He asked, his eyebrows raising beneath his shaggy hair.
'Get out of here,' Beth said, raising the axe and gripping it with both hands; her heart was pounding.
'Why? We're here to free you,' he replied, his voice a grainy rasp.
'We don't need freeing,' Beth said, taking a step forward, barely noticing the cold of the garage floor on her bare soles.
'Look at this!' The man said, swinging his arms wildly around himself, gesturing to the garage they stood in. 'We don't need this! The way the world is now - it's a sign! A sign that we should return to how we always were! Wolves!'
He threw his head back and howled, sending shivers all through Beth's body, freezing her to the spot in shock. Looking back down, he locked his eyes on her, then pounced.
A scream broke through Beth as he advanced on her, and before she knew what she was doing, she had swung the axe at him. The man fell to the floor, the axe buried in his neck, with the confident grin of a mad man still on his face.
Beth's chest was heaving, the scream dying in a gasp, as she looked up to see Jessie in the open doorway, eyes wide over the pale hand clamped to her mouth. Seeming to pull herself together, she gestured for Beth to come to her.
Shivering now, Beth stepped around the man and ran to Jessie, who enveloped her in a quick hug, before pulling her inside the house.
'Upstairs, quickly!' Jessie said.
'Are you okay?' Beth asked, grasping the older woman by the arms. 'Has anyone else got in?'
Jessie shook her head.
'Come on,' she said, 'Sam is upstairs.'
Beth nodded and allowed herself to be forced upstairs, tagging bloodied footprints up Jessie's cream stairs.
Jessie ushered her through in to Sam's room - as they went, Beth heard rapid gunfire break through the air, cutting off the sound of the horn.
'I need to get to my sister,' Beth said quietly, as Jessie moved towards the cupboard.
'We need to stay in, ride it out. It isn't safe.' Jessie said; Beth had moved to the window to look down, but she did not miss the sound of a lock before the cupboard door slowly opened. Sam's pale and terrified face peered out; he spotted Beth, and his watery eyes widened. She glanced down at herself, realised how she looked - white tank, knickers, blood.
She turned back to the window as Jessie spoke softly to her youngest son; the streets below were full of smoke and bodies, those of both the 'wolves' and Alexandrians, some still running, some fighting, a lot dead.
'What happened here...' she murmured, looking down at the once familiar streets now flecked with blood and fire, her own eyes wide now.
The sound of the door alerted her, and she spun back around to face the room.
'Mum!' Sam gasped.
'Get back in there,' Jessie said softly, 'it's okay.'
'I'll go,' Beth said.
'No!' Jessie hissed, but Beth was already at the door.
Her hands pressed flat against the walls, smearing both blood and grime along them, Beth made her way slowly down the stairs, wincing whenever a step creaked. She edged in to the hallway, listening.
'Mum?' A voice came through; Beth relaxed.
She turned in to the kitchen.
'Ron,' she said, beckoning to the boy who was standing in the kitchen.
Ron gawped at her, eyes wide, mouth agape.
Beth rolled her eyes.
'Come on!' She urged.
Slowly, he moved to the hallway with her.
'Who did you see out here?' Beth asked. 'My sister?'
'No,' Ron said, still looking shocked and scared. 'But I don't think she's inside the walls - I think her and Deanna went out to look for watch points.'
Beth nodded, relief washing through her. Maybe she had kept out of it all, maybe she was safe.
'Your mum and brother are upstairs,' Beth said. 'They're safe.'
'Did you - did anyone - ?' Ron stammered.
Beth, once again, was reminded of the blood on her.
'Someone tried to get in through the garage, but it's okay.' Beth said.
Ron nodded, his mouth seeming to stammer as though he was trying to speak.
'Go upstairs. See your mum.' Beth said.
Ron nodded again.
Beth stayed downstairs, slowly making her way around the front room as the blood was beginning to dry and crack over her bare legs. She tried to keep away from the windows, whilst also attempting to peer out of them, gaging the mess of the streets through the net curtains.
Things did seem to be slowing down outside - the screams had stopped, along with the horn, and Beth could not see anyone passing any of the windows. Beth's heart was still hammering away in her chest, and her breath was still shaking, but she tried to keep herself together. Whoever these people were, they were wild, and out of control. There seemed to be no motive other than killing - than freeing them, as the wolf man had put it. They were down on men here, but they could take them. The Alexandrian's had grown stronger, more confident in the growing days, and the parts of her family that had stayed behind were even stronger. She herself had taken two, Carl was somewhere, so was Carol. They would see this through. Tomorrow they would bury their dead, but they would see it through.
Not even an hour after it had begun, the assault on Alexandria was over.
Maggie, having been outside of the walls when it began, had made her way back in and taken her own care of the intruders. She fought her way to the house, stepping over the burnt husk of the man outside, only to find it empty. At first she had panicked, but then she had gone back out. She found her way to Jessie's not long after.
Beth had seen her coming from her vantage point at the window, and had opened the door to her, pulling her in to her arms.
'Thank god you're safe,' Maggie had gasped, clasping her sister to her. Then she pulled her back, holding her at arms length to look at her, taking in the blood, the lack of clothing. 'Are you okay?'
'I'm fine,' Beth said, a little breathless. 'One of them got into the house but I took care of them,' She said. 'Then one tired to get in here, I took them out too.'
Maggie was nodding, but her eyes had fallen on the bite mark on Beth's arm; the colour drained from her face. Following her sister's eyes, Beth looked down, noticing the crescent of broken skin, the dark, dried blood around it.
'It wasn't a walker!' She proclaimed quickly. 'It was one of the wolves, the woman in our house.'
Maggie had taken Beth's arm and was inspecting it.
'You need to get it looked at, and soon. It could easily get infected.'
'I know, I know,' Beth said, gently taking it back. 'I will.'
'Okay,' Maggie said, pushing her hair back from her pale face. 'Did you take care of them?' She asked then.
Beth was confused for a moment, then she understood.
'The one in our house, yes. The one in the garage... no.' She bit her lip.
Maggie was annoyed for a moment, and Beth understood it - it had been reckless, leaving one to reanimate within their walls. But she breathed out and nodded.
'In the garage?' Maggie asked.
'Yeah,' Beth nodded, 'but they might not still be there.'
'I'll check,' Maggie said. 'Wait here.'
The reanimated wolf man had left the garage, but he hadn't gotten very far; Maggie was able to track him pretty quickly and put him down. She stood up after having plunged her knife into his temple, and brushed her hands off, looking around. People were beginning to pull bodies into piles, their faces dazed as the streets around them now lay silent.
Back inside, Jessie had joined Beth downstairs.
'The body in our house,' Beth said to Maggie once she came back in, 'I don't think I can face it again.'
Maggie nodded.
'I'll take care of it,' she said.
'Why don't you stay here and shower,' Jessie said. 'I'll get you some clean clothes.'
Beth looked down at her bare legs, feeling self concious for the first time. She nodded.
As she left Jessie and her sister to talk things over, she alowed herself to breathe for the first time in a while. She was proud of herself for having handled things - she thought Daryl would be proud. Her mind turned to Daryl then, wondering how he was doing, hoping they were faring better out there. She ran the hot water and waited for the room to steam up around her, then turned to look at herself in the mirror - for a moment she nearly screamed, thinking that the face that looked back at her was that of the woman she had killed in her hallway - it was the eyes. Wide and almost feral, blue eyes she had known all her life looked almost alien to her. Beth took several deep breaths as the steam around her thickened, and the eyes she looked both out of and in to grew steadily more familiar.
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts, and climbed in to the shower, letting the hot water run its steady jet over her bruised body, the blood wetting and running down her pale skin. She let out a sigh of relief, not knowing that things were only about to get worse.