Thank you so much for all the reviews, favourites and follows for this story! I was worried that it wasn't going to take off and the setting was just too weird for a TWD fanfic, but it's really grown in popularity the last few days. I am feeling so encouraged, thank you!

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Beth had been waiting for days to catch Ana at the right moment. She finally spotted her leaving the grocery store one evening, her face wan, dangling her shopping bag from one hand.

Beth fell into step beside her, like Daryl did to her when he just appeared out of nowhere. I'm doing it. I'm part of the group now.

'I know where your boyfriend is,' Beth said in a low voice. Ana stared at her but kept walking. 'I also know he left you behind, and he's a worthless human being.'

'Where is he?'

'He's gone over the Wall.'

Ana's face creased in anguish. 'I don't know why he just left me. You know, I've almost been hoping that he's in prison, not … over there. Because as terrible as that would be it would mean he still loves me. How do you know for sure?'

Beth pressed her lips together. 'I can't tell you that. But I can see to it that you get to tell him to his face just how worthless he is. Would you like to do that?'

'I just want to leave. There's nothing here for me now. I'm so lonely, and I think I'm losing my mind. I can't find anything in my apartment. My food tastes strange. I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if I'm even real anymore. It's ever since Conrad left. I – I'm not strong enough without him.'

'You are, and you will be,' Beth told her. 'I'm going to get you out. Don't start doing anything different. Don't act differently, happier or anything like that. And don't tell anyone you've spoken to me. All right?'

Ana nodded, and Beth walked in silence beside her a moment before turning down a side street. Daryl had told her how to check if she was being followed. She took random turns, waited in shadows. It was snowing and it was late, and there were not many people about. When she was certain there was no one on her tail she headed for the meeting place.

Daryl was seated in a booth in a dark corner of the Schwarzer Samt bar. He had a tumbler of whisky before him and was smoking an f6. Beth got an Armagnac from the bartender and slipped into the booth opposite him. There were a handful of people at the other tables, and some East German pop music played on a record player.

'She's in,' Beth said softly.

He nodded once. 'Were you followed?'

Beth shook her head. 'There was no one following me from work or after I talked to her.' She took a sip of her brandy. 'Ana said some odd things. Her nerves are on rattled. She thinks she's going mad.'

Daryl frowned. 'What exactly she say?'

'The food doesn't taste the same since Conrad left. She can't find anything in her apartment. She's starting to doubt her own existence. Isn't that strange?'

He looked around the bar for a moment, thinking. 'They're gaslightin' her.' He saw her confused look and said, 'Stasi agents are goin' into her apartment while she's at work. Movin' things around, changin' her usual brand of coffee for another, stirring salt and sugar into things.'

Beth stared at him. 'Why on earth would they do that?'

'Makes her fragile. Doubts herself. She can't plot against the government or plan an escape if she feels like she's losin' her mind. Nasty fuckin' way to subdue people, but it works.'

Beth was indignant. 'But that's terrible. She hasn't even done anything.' Yet.

'The Stasi wants to see that she doesn't. Subduin' her is easier than waiting for her to make trouble for 'em.'

Beth thought about this. It made sense in a twisted sort of way. Conrad leaving must have put the agents onto Ana. They would have deemed her an escape risk. It might even have been the commandant himself who had ordered the gaslighting. He was in charge of their sector. She was glad all over again that she'd walked in on him and Lori. If that was the sort of thing he did to people like Ana she was glad she knew his true nature.

'Daryl, we've got to get her out.'

'We will.' He downed his whisky and looked at her closely. 'How's it feel?'

She realised he meant being part of things. Working against the Stasi. Her heart had pounded as she'd talked to Ana. The air around her in the bar felt electric. She smiled at him. 'It's scary. But it feels pretty good.'

They sat in silence for a moment. Beth studied him covertly. She liked watching his large hands as they toyed with his whisky glass. He had a smear of engine oil across one knuckle, and she wondered if that had anything to do with what he did all day. She didn't know where he worked. Perhaps he maintained the machines in a factory, or worked as a mechanic.

'How are we going to get her out?' she whispered, leaning forward.

He gave her a narrow, assessing look. There was a glimmer of a smile at the corners of his mouth though. 'Ain't you a curious cat.'

Beth shrugged, smiling. 'I'm part of it now. I want to be there when she goes over the Wall. Has it got anything to do with the bakery we were watching?'

He just looked at her, amused.

'It is, isn't it?' She sat back, thinking. It couldn't be just a safe house. If Daryl'd had people watching it around the clock then he would have known that Merle was in there. But he'd been dumbstruck when his brother had appeared. His brother who was supposed to be in West Berlin.

Aha. That was significant.

'There's a tunnel, isn't there?' A tunnel in the basement of the bakery that went under the Wall. Daryl didn't need people to get over it at all, past the dogs and machine guns and floodlights. They went under instead. Silent. Undetectable.

He reached for her hand, squeezing her wrist in warning, but his eyes admiring. 'You're too smart for your own damn good, Miss Two Fingers.'

Then he saw something over her shoulder, and his face hardened and he released her wrist. Beth wanted to turn, to see what it was, but caught herself. It might look suspicious if it was an agent.

'Well ain't this cosy.'

Beth looked up at the man standing beside their table. Merle. She shot a look at Daryl. He didn't seem very happy about it.

'Get lost, Merle.'

But Merle pushed himself into the seat next to Beth, making her slide across to make space for him. 'Nuther round for you both?' he asked.

'We were just leaving.' Daryl stood, waiting for Merle to let Beth out of the booth.

Merle shrugged. 'Suit yerself.'

Beth and Daryl left the bar. 'I don't trust him,' Daryl growled in a low voice when they were outside. 'He said two of my group I got over the Wall told him about the tunnel. They knew him, from before. Knew he was my brother. I can't work out whether they'd tell him, or whether he's lyin'.'

'What can you do about it?' Beth asked.

He looked around, sighing. 'Nothin'. I can't contact the two in West Berlin to find out if he's tellin' the truth. I ain't got another way to get people out. I just have to trust that my own blood's not about to betray me.'

Beth said nothing. The icy air bit into her body through her coat, and she shivered.

He looked her over. 'You're cold. Go on. Get home.'

She hesitated. 'I don't know where you live. I don't know how to contact you in an emergency.'

'What emergency?'

She shrugged. 'I don't know. Just an emergency.' It didn't feel right somehow that she couldn't go to him if she needed him. She couldn't imagine what that need would look like, but she would feel more secure if she knew she could find him.

He looked at her for a long moment in silence. Then he took her elbow and turned her around. 'That one,' he said, pointing to a grey building a few blocks away with white rectangular windows. 'Top floor. Number 4B.' His hand rested lightly on her arm and he spoke softly into her ear. 'Now you're learnin' all my secrets.'

…

'I can't believe that this is really happening.' Ana's face was pale, but she looked calmer than Beth had seen her in weeks. They were inside the safe-house across the road from the bakery. Daryl would be on his way by now.

It was six days since Beth had told her she could get her out. Daryl had told her they should wait, just in case someone had seen Beth with her in the street with Ana and connection her with Ana's subsequent disappearance. And just in case someone saw anything suspicious happen near the bakery. It had been as silent as a tomb.

'Why are you helping me?' Ana asked, her eyes shining in the darkness. It was past two in the morning, but Beth didn't feel tired. On the contrary, she was keyed up, excited.

'I wanted to,' Beth said softly. 'I didn't think it was fair that your boyfriend abandoned you like he did. You should have gone together.'

Ana's lips thinned at the mention of Conrad. 'I'm going to give him a piece of my mind when I see him. And then I never want to lay eyes on him again.'

Beth smiled at her. 'That sounds like an excellent plan.' She went to the window, peering out. The street was silent and still.

The door opened behind them and both girls whirled to see who it was. Daryl came through the darkness toward them.

'It's all quiet out there,' Beth whispered.

Daryl went to the window himself and peered out. He stood quietly for about ten minutes, just watching. Then he turned to Ana. 'You ready?'

Ana nodded.

Daryl looked at Beth. 'I'm going to take Ana across now. You're gonna to stay here and watch the bakery. If anyone comes past actin' suspicious, or if anythin' doesn't seem right, raise the blind by a few inches and I'll see it before I come out. Don't,' and he looked at her hard, 'cross the street yourself. Stay here. All right?'

Beth nodded. 'Be careful.' She turned to Ana, embracing the girl. 'I hope you have a long and happy life,' she whispered into her hair. 'You're worth ten of people like Conrad.'

Ana squeezed her hand, tears shining in her eyes. 'I'll always remember your kindness.'

And then Daryl and Ana were gone, slipping quietly out of the flat and down the stairs. Beth stood close to the window, a little to one side, and saw them appear and cross the street. Within seconds they'd slipped into the bakery and the street was silent once more.

Beth let out the breath she'd been holding. In a few minutes Ana would be along that tunnel and in West Berlin.

There was the sound of an engine and Beth craned her neck to see where it was coming from. A large brown van skidded to a halt outside the bakery. The double doors at the rear were flung open and a half-dozen or so soldiers jumped out. Beth watched in horror as they kicked in the door to the bakery and ran inside.

Beth reached for the blind, to pull it up, to warn Daryl, but the gesture was as stupid as it was futile. Her heart pounded in her ears for a few seconds, she was frozen in indecision – and then there was the sound of gunfire. Three shots. Then four shots. Then two more.

Beth felt an almost overpowering urge to run. Run somewhere – toward the soldiers, away from them, all the way back home. But she stayed where she was, waiting, nails digging crescents into her palm.

A soldier came out of the building carrying Ana, one arm held round his neck, her body and head slack and her feet dragging. There were dark bloodstains down the front of her dress and her pallor was ghostly white. The soldier slung her into the back of the van, and she tumbled like a doll. Beth could tell that she was dead.

Oh, god. Where was Daryl?

An officer appeared from behind the van and looked at the body, his hands clasped behind his back. Commandant Blake. It was a shock to see him outside the office. Looking so calm in the face of death and violence. He looked toward the entrance, waiting.

Beth looked too, her heart racing. There were still soldiers inside. Five, or maybe more. All with guns. All trained to shoot to kill.

Where the hell was Daryl?