I din't know why, but for some reason i feel like this chapter is really crappy. I don't know why- maybe it's because I've gone over it so many times in my head, but yeah- this is the chapter where Beth gets taken. I hope you guys like it- this answers the big question- does Jamie get kidnapped with Beth? Please, please tell me it isn't horrible, because for some reason it does.
"It went this way." Beth said, smiling as she pointed to the tracks covered with a light dusting of leaves as she held the crossbow steady. "What is it?"
Daryl shrugged, looking at her. "You're the one who wanted to learn this- you tell me."
Beth frowned, bending down to study the tracks more closely.
Jamie smiled slightly, watching her. Ever since they'd left the cabin in search if food, Beth had insisted on learning to use the crossbow. It was nice, having Beth pick up some of the slack, it meant she didn't have ti constantly be on her toes watching iut for her...
"It looks like a person's tracks, but they're all crooked, like stumbling... It's a walker." Beth smiled, looking proud, and Daryl nodded. They quietly continued forward, Beth holding the crossbow level, excited.
It reminded Jamie of the first time her father had taken her hunting when she was eight... She'd been so excited she'd made too much noise, but her father had let her come anyways, teaching her to sit still like she did in church and scan the woods for game... It was one of the best memories she had left, now, one she'd truly come to appreciate now.
Her reminiscing was cut short as they approached a clearing before a cemetery, finding a walker hunched over something, tearing into it.
Beth smiled, shouldering the crossbow and aiming, quietly stepping forward once, twice...
And something snapped, clamping onto Beth's foot. With a cry she went down into the leaves, and the walker heard her and whirled, starting towards her...
Daryl rushed forward, but Jamie was already running past him, knife in hand. She kicked the walker in the knee, knocking it down, and burying her knife in the back of its head.
Daryl, seeing the immediate danger was gone, hurried to help Beth, prying the trap from her foot. "Can ya move it?" he asked, concerned.
Beth took a step, her foot collapsing underneath her, Daryl catching her.
"Gimme a minute. I'll be alright..." Beth said, wincing as she tried not to put weight on her injured foot.
Jamie had notched an arrow in her bow and was watching the woods around them, slightly anxious at being so exposed...
"Yeah, right." Daryl said sarcastically. He knew she wasn't going to be able to walk, and he bent down slightly, hands extending behind him. "Hop on."
"Are you serious?" Beth asked, looking uncertain.
"Yeah. This is a serious piggyback ride. Now c'mon."
Beth quietly obliged, and Daryl stooped, managing to fasten his crossbow to the sling across his shoulder, hefting Beth up.
He looked up the hill at the house ahead if the cemetery, nodding towards it. "We'll stay there for the night."
Beth smiled. "There could be people there."
"Yeah. if they're are, I'll handle 'em." Daryl said simply.
Beth sighed. "Not all people are bad, Daryl. There are still some good ones left."
"Most of 'em try to rape ya." Jamie muttered bitterly, and Daryl gave her a concerned look. Ever since the prison had fallen, she'd lost some of her people-skills. Always wary of survivors...
"Yeah- well it never hurts to be careful." Daryl said, agreeing. He reached the front porch. He still had to carry Beth, and he nodded to Jamie. "Take point." he ordered.
She nodded, quietly turning the doorknob and opening it a crack. She eased it open, bow angled downward but loaded and ready to pull back at a moment's notice.
She scoured every room carefully as Daryl carried Beth into the living room, settling her on the couch.
Jamie scoured every room, clambering into the rook a moment later to talk to him. "This floor is clear." she said calmly.
Daryl nodded. "Take the second floor- I'll take the basement."
Jamie nodded, wordlessly heading upstairs to search.
Daryl headed downstairs, finding the metal rolling tables with walkers, stabbed through the back of the head and embalmed for burial, dressed in tuxedos regardless of the spatters of blue, dead flesh on their face...
"It's beautiful."
Daryl whirled to find Beth standing, leaning heavily against the wall to keep weight off her foot, but smiling.
"Just looks like a bunch of dead people to me." he muttered.
Beth stared at him, eyes full of pity. He wished he could see the beauty in this, he really did- he wished he could see the world the way Beth did, with such innocence and hope- but he'd lost all of that, had it beaten out of him by his father by the time he was fourteen.
Just then, in the adjacent room, a moan came, and a walker stumbled through the doorway. Daryl buried an arrow in its skull, swinging his crossbow and successfully decapitating the next one that came through, yelling for Beth to get upstairs.
He seized the metal table, wheeling it in front of him as he got into a corner, using it as a barrier as he stabbed and fought past the reaching of dead, decaying hands...
Seven. There were seven of them, he counted, by the time he was done. His chest was heaving, lungs burning, but the adrenalin had yet to wear off.
Jamie had rushed downstairs, fresh blood on her proof she'd found at least one walker upstairs.
"You alright?" she asked, looking up from where she'd been scanning the bodies. Daryl nodded, peering into the room where they'd all come from as he caught his breath and finding it empty. "Basement's clear."
They both climbed the stairs to find Beth looking down at them anxiously.
"Everything alright?"
Daryl nodded. "This place is safe." was all he said, heading upstairs in the hopes of finding food.
He came across a few jars of what looked to be canned peaches and a two-liter of coke and smiled. Not much, but a lot better on what they had been living off of. He was about the call the girls upstairs to eat, but as he neared the top of the stairwell he heard it. Not quite noise, but something sweet sounding, organized, almost like... music.
"I fall by the wayside, but the tide won't sweep me away..." a snatch of Beth's voice drifted up, and he quietly made his way downstairs so as not to let her know he was there.
Jamie was sitting, back against the base of the couch, just listening. A smile was on her features, a relaxed smile. Daryl realized with some alarm it'd been awhile since he'd seen her smile- not since the prison had fallen.
But here she was, just watching Beth's nimble fingers fall upon the pearly piano keys as she sang beautifully...
He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, smiling. It'd been too long since he'd seen both his girls happy like this, Jamie content to listen and Beth singing her heart out like the little songbird she was... He relished these moments- they were so few and far between.
All too soon, though, Beth finished the song and noticed him, brushing a lock of blonde hair from her face.
"Um... Daryl? Everything okay?" she asked, feeling slightly awkward. He realized he'd been staring and quickly stopped leaning against the wall.
"Oh- yeah. Found food."
Both girls stood, looking excited at the prospect of a meal, and Daryl was about to follow them up when he heard the clanking of the string of cans set out by the door. Cautiously, he approached, opening it carefully with his crossbow raised...
It was just a dog, covered in a mop of curly white hair with only one eye, staring at him.
"You want in?" he asked, opening the door. The dog, however, stayed put. and Daryl gave up on coaxing it inside, shutting the door.
"What was it?" Jamie asked from where she was standing, half-supporting a still-limping Beth at the base if the stairwell.
"Just a dumb dog..."
"A dog!?" both of their eyes brightened, and Daryl smiled slightly at their reaction. "Yeah. Too dumb to come inside- I'll see about letting him in later, if he wants to. Now let's eat."
They all dug into the somewhat mis-matched meal, not saying anything, but rather, relishing the taste if food in their mouths. When they were about halfway-dine, Beth spoke.
"This place is too well taken care of for it to be abandoned. Somebody probably lives here."
He saw Jamie's eyes widen slightly at the prospect, saw the way she stiffened slightly- she didn't like strangers, didn't trust them- she'd learned to be cautious. That was good.
"We'll work somethin' out with them." he said calmly, continuing to eat, and he watched as Jamie quietly relaxed and continued to eat. They knew he'd protect them.
There was the sound of whining, then, followed by even more scratching at the door. Daryl sighed. "I'll give the dumb dog another chance to come inside for the night..." he said quietly, standing to go.
He opened the door, fully expecting to see the scruffy looking dog, and barely had time to slam it close as the undead hands reached out towards him.
"Jamie!" he yelled her name, and she came careening down the stairs a moment later, his crossbow awkwardly clutched to his chest and her own bow slung across her shoulder by the string.
He had his back to the door and his heels dug in, fighting for all he was worth to keep the damn door closed...
Jamie tossed the crossbow to him as he stepped away from the door, which flew open, revealing the mass of walkers...
He let the arrow fly- there had to be at least ten of them, he'd need Jamie's help, they were too freaking exposed... And then he saw Beth, with her knife out, eyes wide, staring at the walkers making their way inside.
"Beth! Get outside!" he yelled.
"I won't leave you!" Beth cried, voice laced with terror.
Jamie's arrow skewered the skull of a walker to his right while he smashed the head of his crossbow into the skull of the next- they were being overwhelmed, losing, Beth was the least able to protect herself through all of this...
"Beth! Get the fuck outside!" Jamie growled, landing an arrow in yet another walker's head. It would be safer there, give her and Daryl more room to maneuver and kill these fuckers. Beth would be safe outside, there was NO WAY in hell she was leaving Daryl... She hated to admit it, but right now Beth was being more of a hinderance than a help.
Beth realized her knife wouldn't be of much use against them, then, the walkers, like it or not, were stronger... She ran for the back door, flinging it open and fleeing into the night.
It had been only two or three minutes, he was sure, before the dozen walkers around them were dead. Jamie stood, panting, frantically grabbing as many of her arrows as possible before racing out after him into the night, in the direction Beth had been going...
She'd fought through the brush and toward the roadside. And then there was the car, pulling away from them, the red taillights fading in the distance, and all that was left behind was one lonely, discarded cowboy boot where Beth had once stood...
"Beth!" Daryl was running after the car, then, Jamie beside him, but the taillights faded as they plodded on, and though they said nothing, they each knew the truth- Beth was gone.