„I can't really tell how long has it been, sice I last saw my family. Since I last saw Maggie, since we fled the prison. But I know for a fact, it has been over a month since I last saw Daryl Dixon.
When he told me to run, I should have stayed. But I didn't.
I don't know if he's still alive, or if I'll see him again. Him and Maggie. But I am finally gonna do it today.
I'm gonna run away from here."
Beth closed her diary and carefully put it into her back pocket. She stepped out of her tent and looked around. She bit her lip nervously. What if she get caught? "You can't think like that." she commanded herself as she started walking towards the big RV.
When Daryl told her to run, she hesitated for a second. She didn't wanna get separated and she didn't wanna leave his side. But there was too many walkers and she panicked. She turned and run out of the door towards the highway.
Two walkers got separated from the herd that was now attacking the funeral house. She pulled her knife and started to fight one of them. It took her longer then she expected, but she finally crushed his scull with her knife. Beth turned and wanted to take care of the second one, when somebody appeared in front of her and killed the walker instead.
At first she thought it maybe Daryl, but when the walker fell dead on the ground, she noticed her mistake. Right in front of her was a woman. She was a bit taller then Beth and definitely older. Beth wanted to thank her, for saving her life, but before she could manage to even make a sound, the woman made some hand gesture and two men came out of nowhere. They grabbed Beth and tossed her into a car nearby. She was so shocked she didn't even make any sound. All of them jumped into the same car with her and started driving away before she could stop them.
Daryl. That was the last thought she had before somebody hit her to her head and she lost consciousness.
When she woke up again, she was still in the car. But it wasn't moving anymore. Beth got out of the car and look around. She was in some sort of camp. Her head hurt and she found bulge in her hair, clearly somebody must have hit her pretty hard. What the heck was this place?
As if somebody could read her mind, the same woman that saved her, appeared in her sight. „Hello." Beth turned and looked at the woman. It was daylight so she could finally look at her properly. As she guessed from the short time they've seen each other, she was older. She had long black hair and quite a scar on her right cheek. Beth wondered what had happened to her, she wanted to ask but she stopped herself and istead she said. „Where am I?"
The woman smiled at her, although the smile was obviously fake. „You're safe."
„I didn't need your help."
„It sure didn't look like it. We saved your life."
Beth frowned and shooke her head „no. I didn't ask for any of your help. Where. Am. I?"
„In a survivor camp Georgia. We go and find people that are in trouble. Then we take them here and they join our system."
„And if I don't want to join jour system?"
For the first time the woman's face actually flicked and Beth's words erased the smug smile off her face. „What? You think you would be better off out there? You wouldn't last one day on your own."
Beth wanted to scream at her that it's not true, that she would have been alright and that they had no right to take her from the man she was with. „I would be fine." She just said. She didn't want to admit that her words flicker a sparkle in her. What if she is right? How long would she last without Daryl? And where was he? Surely he wasn't here. Was he still alive?
The woman obviously saw a bit weakness she sparkled inside of Beth because she smiled again. „Why won't I show you your bed?"
She had a bed? In a shock, she followed the woman deeply into the camp. It was mostly tents. Small camping tents. There was also few caravans and some bigger tents. The whole camp was surrounded by a fence.
They slowly made their way through the tents and stopped in front of a small red one. The woman was the first to go inside, Beth followed her. There were two beds made out of mattress. One was clearly empty, the other one was occupied by a small girl. She had big hazel eyes and long brown braided hair. Her cheek were really pink with a lot of freckles. She could be, maybe 12 years old, or so?
„Hi?" Beth was flabbergasted to see someone so young here. The woman looked from Beth to the girl and back, then she nodded. „See you tomorrow, girls." And with that she went out of the tent. The girl kept starring at Beth, but she didn't say a world. „Hi. I'm Beth?" She tried again.
„Beth? That rhymes with death." The girl curled the end of her braid in her hands, looked at Beth for a flickering moment and then looked straight into the floor.
„Thats..uhm..okay?" Beth didn't really know how to react to such a revelation so she shifted her weight from one foot to another. „What's your name?"
„Jill."
„How long have you been here, Jill?"
The little girl reached for her pillow and took out piece of paper with a couple lines that probably marked each day she had spent here. „Three months." She answered quietly.
„Are you here alone?"
She nodded carefully, look around the tent as if she was afraid someone may hear her. „I was with my brother and father. The place where we were hiding. It got overrun by smellers. I run out and they grabbed me. I yelled that my family is still in there, but they just drove away. Left them behind. I wanted to get out of here. I know I wouldn't last a day out, but I just want to be with my family."
„And they won't let you?"
The little girl shook her head. „There's no way they're gonna let anybody leave."
Beth have been slowly adjusting to the life in the camp. The words of the little girl terrified her, she was thinking about fleeing the first night, but she decided to stick around to see how things works around here. She had no guarantee that if she manage to run, she would find her family again and wasn't it better to be part of something then to be out there, completely alone?
She was always good with children and the people, running the camp, saw it too. That's why she got job as a babysitter. She had spent most of her days taking care of all the children. She didn't have much free time, mostly only before breakfast and after dinner, but at least it took her mind off her family.
Jill has been slowly opening up to her, Beth was feeling lucky that she was assigned to the tent with her, she was actually one of the very few people she started to like.
After few days, she actually stop thinking about running off. After a month though, she changed her mind. It was just after dinner. She was walking back to her tent, expecting Jill to be there, but she was nowhere to be found. Beth started to get worried, so she walked out of the tent. She wanted to go back to the dinning tent to look if she is still there, small children often helped in kitchen. But she wasn't there either.
Most of the camp was already asleep, Beth thought that if Jill was walking somewhere between the tents she would have seen her, or heard her by now. That's why she decided to go to the woman that was running the camp and tell her that she's missing.
The woman was living in one of the very few RV parked here. Beth knew, without hessitation, which one was hers. It was the only red one here. She slowly made her way up to the car. She was about to knock on the door when she heard voices inside.
„Where is she?"
„She was trying to climb over one of the walls. Jerry shoot her, before she got the chance to get out."
Beth's fist stopped few inches from the door, she changed her mind about knocking. Obviously, she couldn't know if they were talking about Jill, but in her heart she was sure they were. What are the odds of two people gone missing in the same night? But why did they shoot her? If she wanted to get out of here, why was it so important for the people, to keep her here?
„Fine. Get the body and bury it, before the night's over. We don't want people to know what happend. We'll tell them she wanted to leave so we let her."
Beth didn't stick around to find out the rest of the conversation, she heard everything she needed to hear. She got back to the tent, quickly searching through Jill's bed for some kind of explanation. Surely she would have let her a note, wouldn't she? But the only thing she found was the paper on which she carefuly marked each day she had spent here. Beth could easily tell which was the first day Jill spent with Beth. Jill started to mark her days with Beth here with different signs. Instead of lines, she made little points. That's how Beth knew she had spent here over a month.
She lied down to her own bed, reached under her pillow. Surprisingly she found a little note, she pulled it out and glared at it in shock. She was sure Jill let her some explanation, but she didn't expected to find it in her own bed. She unfolded it and looked down on the note. It was written with really tidy and small handwriting.
'I am sorry. But I can't take it anymore. I will rather take chance out there alone, then being in here without my family. I'm sure you understand.'
And she did. She knew exactly what Jill has been talking about. And that was the night when Beth Greene decided to run. But firstly, she would, of course, needed a plan.
Beth took a few days to look around and she come up with this. The only chance for her to escape is before dinner. People guiding the wall change after dinner and there is even more of them in the night. So she needed to take her chance when there's only few of them. That day, she rushed back to her tent, cautiously packing all of her things. It wasn't much, really, mostly her diary and knife. She wanted to take some food, but there was no way she could steal some without people noticing and she didn't need any unnecessary attention.
She stepped out of her tent and looked around. She bit her lip nervously. What if she get caught? "You can't think like that." She commanded herself as she started walking towards the big white RV. She knew this is the only place she could get some pills. She told a story about how she's not able to sleep for multiple nights because nightmares haunt her. The doctor gave her a pill and watched her swallow it. Beth of course, hide it under her tongue and spit it out, once she was pretty far away from the car.
Beth made her way to the tent with supplies where she fetched a cup of water into which she put the pill in, and then took it to one of the guiding place. She knew the boy, who was watching there. He was about her age and he tried to talk to her now and then. She was mostly rude to him, never really interested in talking, but now he was the only chance she had.
He spotted her, when she was already quite close. He shot her surprised look, but Beth didn't let him speak first.
„Hey. I came bearing a peace offering."
The boy looked even more confused. „Peace offering?"
„Yeah, you know, for how I've been treating you." She tried to smile at him, hoping she didn't look all too nervous. „It's only water, I would have bring something better, but it's not like we get coffee..or alcohol here." She tried to ignore the pain that strung her when she thought about the last (and also the first) time she had a real alcohol drink.
„Water is cool." The boy looked still confused, but he accepted the cup from her. Beth tried to smile once again.
„Sorry for how I've been ignoring you. It has been..all too overwhelming."
„Hey I get it.." The boy took a big sip from his cup. Beth started to bite her lip from nervosity. „I've been here for over a six month, but I remember how it felt the first time I was here. You have to get used to it." He now drunk almost the whole cup. For a moment, Beth was worried it may not work, but then he started to look all sleepy and he wobbled a bit.
„Are you okay?" Beth asked with, what hopefully sounded like a worried voice.
„Yeah..I guess I'm just tired and.." he didn't even manage to finish the sentence before he stumbled and fall on the ground. Sleeping.
„Well that was quick." Beth commented, as she look around. She didn't hear any screams or footsteps approaching, that was a good sign. She didn't hesitate for a moment, started climbing ladder over the wall. There was none on the other side, so she would have to jump. It was pretty high, she could really injure herself. But it was either this, or the possibility of being shot. So she jumped.
She fell heavily on the ground. Her shoulder immediately started to hurt, she could move it though, so that was a good sign, right? Beth quickly rise to her feat and she looked back at wall, then she started running towards woods nearby.