Follow Me, Beth
Chapter 1
_…THEN…_
"Let's wrap this up, Quick and quiet." Rick said before walking over to Abraham, who had a map spread open on a check out counter. "You know where we're goin', yet?"
"Yeah. Best route out of here is a straight shot down 85," Abe said. "We should've been on the road hours ago."
"We don't know what to expect out there. Best to be prepared," Rick said, looking around as the others carried bags of equipment, ammunition and canned food out to load the vehicles.
"We were prepared days ago. That hospital…"
Rick's jaw tensed at the mere mention of it and his eyes darted towards Abraham. If the soldier knew what was good for him, he would choose his next words wisely.
"We wasted supplies that we now have to take time to replace… for nothing-"
"It wasn't for nothing," Rick said, pressing his fist against the counter.
"No, it was for a girl who was already gone, and is now dead," Abraham said.
"You don't know that-"
"We saw a body," Abe said.
"We saw what was left of a body. Daryl says it wasn't her, it wasn't her," Rick said.
"It had her knife on it."
Rick rubbed his forehead, pinching the space between his eyebrows, feeling the tension pooling there. "That doesn't mean anythin'."
"Means she's dead. Yeah, we did her a lot of good goin' after her. If we'd left well enough alone, she'd be gone, but she'd be alive."
"How can you say that?" Rick asked, dropping his hand and looking at Abe.
"'Cause, now, your group is broken, and D.C.? Well, it's the only hope they have left to hold on to," Abraham said. "You're all in such denial, and your man's little mission to go chasin' ghosts… it's gonna slow us down or get more of us killed."
"You talk like you know," Rick scoffed. "You don't." He looked over at Abe. "I get that this mission comes first to you, but Daryl? He's my brother. Beth? She's my family. In case you haven't gotten the memo, these people mean a hell of a lot more to me than you do. They come first. Before a cure. Before a reset. Before any of it. 'Cause it ain't worth shit if these people, my people, don't make it. We're hurtin', and we just needed some time…" He looked over as Maggie disappeared down another aisle with Tara. "Some more than others…"
Glenn paused as he bagged the last of the flares and ammunition he found hidden behind one of the display walls. He stopped beside an open duffle bag in the middle of the aisle. Kneeling down, he pushed it open and saw cans of spray paint, rolls of gaffing tape and boxes of zip lock bags.
"What're you doin'?" Daryl asked, standing there with his crossbow slung over his back.
Glenn looked up. "Is this yours?" he asked.
Daryl shrugged and moved over, dropping a few more cans of spray paint into the bag before picking it up, standing with Glenn.
"… Why are you taking all that stuff?" Glenn asked.
He slung the bag over his shoulder and nodded. "See you out there," he said, simply, turning and walking away, leaving a confused Glenn behind. As he approached the front of the store, he swung around to where Rick and Abraham were. Shifting the duffle around, he pulled all of the maps from their holders on the counter, shoving them into the bag.
"Uh, Daryl, I think we only need one," Rick said.
"Nah, we need 'em all," Daryl said, zipping up the duffle and then turning and stepping out through the broken glass door.
"Should we be worried about that?" Abe asked, watching Daryl go.
"He'll be fine."
"He thinks the girl is still out there. Still alive," Abe said. "Your boy is losin' it, Sheriff. You know and I know it."
"I said, he'll be fine," Rick said, defensively.
"Let's say for a moment she is alive. Odds of him finding that girl again are a million to one."
Rick nodded, a bit defiantly. "Yeah… well I wouldn't bet against Daryl."
"You say that, but-"
Rick squared his body up with Abe's, narrowing his eyes as though his gaze threatened to devour the solider's very soul. "We're gonna let Daryl do what Daryl does. Discussion over," he said, grabbing the map and pulling it off the counter, roughly folding it as he walked out through the door after the rest of his people. Reluctantly, Abraham followed; the last man out, again.
_…NOW…_
"She's gone, Daryl," Carol said as they walked through the quiet streets of Alexandria.
"Like Merle was gone? Andrea?" Daryl said, looking over at Carol. "She's gone, she ain't dead."
"I know you want to believe that, but… she might be," Carol said. "The body we found-"
"Wasn't her." Daryl looked forward and shook his head.
"You have to stop goin' out there lookin' for her. Stop checkin' the trail you left in hopes she's somehow made it all this way alone." Carol reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him. "I'm saying this as your friend, because I'm worried about you. You've done everything you can. It's been weeks. It might be time to accept that, maybe the reason you haven't found her… is because she can't be found anymore."
Daryl glanced down at her hand on his arm and then looked her dead in the eyes. "Naw… she's alive."
Carol slowed to a stop. "Why do you still believe that?"
He stopped and turned. "Why don't you?" He slowly walked back up to her, standing toe to toe with her. "You were gone. You came back."
"That was different," she said.
"No… it's not. You're different, and so am I. Look, you made it clear that there are things you don't wanna talk about. Things you don't wanna tell me. It ain't our thing anymore. I get it. Hasn't been our thing since the prison."
She just stared at him silently, until he grew tired of it. He was tired of people having no words, or always saying the wrong words. He squinted his eyes, trying to understand why she adamantly refused to just talk to him. It felt like the only thing she ever did these days was try to convince him that he'd be better off accepting that Beth was dead and to move on, something he couldn't do. Something he wouldn't do. Yet she couldn't just talk to him, like they once did. Too many secrets. Too many walls. He nodded and turned to keep walking.
"Daryl."
He paused, keeping his back to her.
"Are we okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, moving to take another step forward.
"Daryl?"
He sighed and stopped again, turning his body some and looking back at her. "What?"
"You never told me everything… that happened with you and Beth, did you?" she asked.
Daryl just stared at her and then shifted awkwardly and looked down at the ground.
"I think I know where this is all coming from," she said, "but… I just want to understand."
He looked up and stood there staring for what felt like an eternity, and Carol realized it was a request probably best left unspoken.
Every moment felt surreal lately, like a haze… like a nightmare he couldn't wake up from. He tried so hard to remember every detail. In his dreams, they became so clear that he could still smell her hair - like dirt and leaves, sweat… and the smell of peanut butter that seemed to stay on her in that last night at the mortuary. He could hear her laugh and feel her hand in his, so real and tactile that he could wake up and still sense them. The waking hours, he had to focus harder on it, to remember her touch, her voice, her eyes. Every word she spoke, every story she told, every song she sang. It was all burned into his heart. He'd never forget anything about her, but he was afraid he might.
Daryl finally took a step back and shook his head again. "Yeah, that… that ain't our thing either," he said before he turned and stalked off to meet Rick near the armory, to pick up his crossbow and join his brother on rounds.
_…THEN…_
The engine of the 4-wheeler cut out as a man dismounted. It was dusk and he needed to get back to the Safe Zone before night fell. He hadn't been along this stretch of road since he'd been tracking Rick's group, but he noticed, now, that there was something different about the scene. There were dead walkers around a broken down car, suggesting someone had recently been there.
As he walked around the vehicle, he peered inside. Cautiously, he reached his hand in through the cracked window, watching the body on the backseat. His heart pounded in his throat as he flicked the lock. Alive, dead or undead? He froze when the lock clicked, feeling like it was so much louder than it should have been. But the figure still didn't move. He retracted his hand and, quietly as he could, opened the door. Her arm fell freely out and he saw the unkempt blonde hair of a young woman. On her hip was a sheathed knife and on the floor, where her other hand dangled down to, was a gun. It looked like it was police issued, but he figured he shouldn't be surprised these days what people wound up with.
He tensed and backed up further as she moved, her fingers tensing, her hips shifting slightly as though she wanted to wake, but couldn't. And then she murmured something, and he drew closer to ensure they were words. Living Human words… and not the inaudible mumbles and groans of a reanimated corpse. She breathed a name… or part of a name.
"Dar… Mag.."
It was enough. He reached in and took the gun away from her, tucking it into the back of his pants. Then he placed a hand on her shoulder and gently shook. "Hey. Wake up. Hello?"
When she didn't respond, he bent down and slid his hands under her arms, pulling her along the back seat and out, her legs falling as her feet dropped to the ground. She was completely dead weight under him. He laid her down in the grass. He checked the car to see if there was anything else and found a worn, tattered backpack. Pulling it out, he set it in the grass beside her and opened it. Inside, it was stuffed with mostly large, crumpled maps.
Unsure what it all meant, he decided it must mean something to her to keep them all, so he slipped it onto his back and then moved to scoop her up in his arms. He carried the unconscious blonde girl around the car, towards the 4-wheeler.
"I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm going to take you somewhere safe," he assured her. "You're going to be okay, now."
As he got on and braced her against him, between his arms, he started up the engine again and rode off. Stars were just beginning to dapple the evening sky, but they'd make it back in time. As he pulled away from the car in which he'd found her, in blue spray paint across the hood were the words:
...
Beth
Follow Me
Daryl
...
_…NOW…_
The last time Beth Greene woke up in a new place with strangers, it had been the beginning of the worst ordeal of her life, second only to losing her father. Now, it was happening all over again. Promises of being safe, being rescued. She'd come to suspect it all.
"Shouldn't she be awake by now?" a man asked.
"You brought her in unconscious last night, Aaron. She was severely dehydrated, probably fatigued," a woman said, her voice droning in and out of Beth's consciousness. "She looks like she's been through something," she said, noting the scar on Beth's cheek and another, mostly faded, above her eyebrow, as well as the particularly worn and battered cast on her arm. It appeared as though she'd torn away at it around her hand over time, likely because it kept getting in the way. "Where'd you find her?
"She was in the back of a car on the side of the road. Looked like she just looking for a safe place to sleep."
"You took a big risk," she said. "What if those things had been around? What if she was part of some-"
"I know how to do my job, Denise," Aaron said. "I scouted around the area. She's alone."
"Well, I've given her all of the I.V. fluids we have. After this bag is gone, that's it. She slept through the night, so… hopefully she'll wake up soon," Denise said.
"Does she need more fluids?"
"It couldn't hurt," Denise said, lightly pinching the skin on the back of Beth's hand, and although the elasticity had returned to it, showing that she was, indeed, hydrating nicely, she was certain that she could use more than they had to give. "You may need to send someone out on a run to the clinic and see if they can find any more."
"The clinic is all wiped out. Maybe they could try the hospital-"
Beth's heart jumped and that word brought her around instantly. She opened her eyes and realized she was in a room with white walls, bright lights, and people she didn't know. She rolled off the cot and reached for the closest instrument, suture scissors - a familiar weapon for her.
"Whoa!" Aaron jumped back and Denise, too, put distance between herself and Beth.
"Who are you?!" Beth asked.
"You can put that down," Aaron said in a soothing voice. "We're not going to hurt you."
"Stay back!" Beth warned, jabbing at the air between them with the points of the scissors, her eyes scanning the room for a better weapon.
"My name is Aaron. I found you unconscious by the road-"
"I've heard that before," Beth said.
"I brought you here to help you," he said.
"You'd have died if he didn't," Denise added.
"Why don't you put down the scissors and we just… talk?" Aaron asked, his hands raised in the air in front of him.
"I'd rather hang onto them," Beth said.
Aaron simply nodded.
"I have to go. I have to get back to the road. To the car," she said. "You have to let me go."
"No one's keeping you here," Aaron said, "but… that car was dead. There was nothing there to go back to."
"My things. Where are my things?" she asked.
"Your weapons were taken to-"
"The maps! Where are the maps!?" she asked, frantically.
"We have them. They're in your bag," Aaron said. "They were leading you this way. Was someone leaving them for you? Is that it?"
Maggie greeted Daryl when he returned from his morning excursion to the closest signs he'd distributed around the area for Beth. Every morning she hoped he'd come back with some word of her, some good news, and every morning it wound up just turning into a conversation about having faith that tomorrow would be the day. She couldn't help but know that she was just fooling herself, but everyone else believed that Beth was dead, and it didn't feel right letting Daryl carry that flicker of hope all on his own.
"I'll check further tomorrow," Daryl said. He looked at her. "I'm gonna find her, Maggie."
She nodded. "I need you to be honest with me, Daryl. What are the odds? Really?"
He was quiet for a moment and then he glanced at her, "They're okay."
"Okay isn't great."
"No," he said, looking ahead again and fixing his crossbow on his back. "But it's somethin', an' somethin's better than nothin'."
Maggie smiled a bit. "You know, when you talk like that… it almost feels like she's here," she said.
Daryl stopped and turned to look at her, nodding a bit. He wished he knew more to say to her, but if anyone could understand what they were feeling, it was probably each other. There really wasn't a need for words. "Come on… let's go find Rick and Glenn," he said, cocking his head towards the heart of town.
Beth looked at Aaron warily. The standoff had been going for minutes, but it felt like an eternity. She didn't know what to think and she felt like every answer they gave only brought up more questions. She narrowed her eyes, brandishing the scissors protectively in front of her again.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"Somewhere safe," Aaron assured her.
Beth shook her head, "There's no such thing anymore."
There was a tense moment between the three of them, where they all expected someone to make a move, but none were sure who it would be. Then Beth grabbed the cot and shoved it into Aaron and Denise, causing them to stumble back. With the way clear, Beth bolted for the door. She burst out into the sunlight, which glistened off the scissors in her hand as she shielded her eyes. She noticed the startled people who had stopped to acknowledge the panicked girl.
Beth was confused and disoriented, looking around. So many people. So many strangers. All looking at her, all acting as though they were the ones who should be afraid of her instead of the other way around. Each new face appearing around her, as the commotion brought more and more onlookers, simply left her more and more unnerved. She turned quickly and held out the scissors defensively as Aaron and Denise came out of the clinic behind her.
"STAY BACK!" she shouted.
"It's okay. It's okay," Aaron tried to calm her, but she looked like a caged animal. She looked threatened and frightened, and she was clearly aware that she was woefully outnumbered.
Beth turned and looked all around her. It was almost dizzying, like being on a carousel. But then, her eyes caught a face in the distance. A familiar face beyond a sea of strangers. Oddly foreign, all clean-shaven and hair more finely coifed. But she knew that face, and he was so far away, but he was looking right at her. It was Rick. Then another familiar face, and another. Maggie. Glenn.
All at once her body went numb, because there he was, the person who had left her those signs. The person who had left her the maps. Who had painted the words that kept her going: follow me. The one person she knew in her heart hadn't given up on her. And she did. She followed Daryl all the way there. She found him.
She tried to say his name, but even as her lips moved, her voice evaded her. Losing all strength in her fingers, the scissors clamored to the crumbling asphalt beneath her feet.
When Daryl saw her standing there, he felt the back of his neck start to tingle, pins and needles. The sensation crept into his limps and down his spine. In a split second, a million thoughts rushed through his head. He hadn't asked God for anything, but right now he made one prayer - simple - just let her be real.
None of them were sure if they could trust their own eyes. Some of them had seen people before, people who weren't really there. People who were dead.
"Beth?" Daryl murmured. "Beth!"
Rick could see Daryl already moving, trying to rush past him. He grabbed onto Daryl's arm. "Daryl, wait!"
"No!" Daryl shouted as he tore himself free from Rick's fingertips and headed towards Beth.
The look on his face, at first, appeared as though he was terrified that he might be running to a ghost that only he could see. But with each step, as people moved aside to open the way for him, the urgency in him grew as he dropped his crossbow and began to run.
Beth's legs felt numb, even as they moved her quickly towards him. Finally, she heard a voice yelling his name, and she realized it was hers. "DARYL!"
His breathing was panicked, almost a sob. This was real. She was real. She had to be. He was running towards her and, unlike all the times before, she was getter closer and closer. She was finally within reach. This time, he would catch her. His legs couldn't carry him fast enough. "BETH!"
Before he knew it, Daryl was meeting her in the middle of the road, their bodies crashing together like waves on the shore, their arms grasping onto each other as though clinging to life itself. His arms promptly pulled her into him as the force of their bodies colliding caused them to stumble and slowly they both collapsed down to their knees. Daryl brought one hand up to tangle his fingers securely in her hair. He pressed his nose and mouth against the side of her head, inhaling deeply her scent as she buried her face in his shoulder. She smelled like the road and sweat and dust, and he swore that nothing and no one ever smelled as sweet, because he wasn't dreaming it this time.
Rick looked on as Maggie tearfully clung to Glenn. Beth was alive. She wasn't a walker. She wasn't some figment of his imagination. She'd found them, and it was clear from how she and Daryl clung to each other that they'd both been waiting for this moment.
So many questions rushed through Daryl's head. Was she okay? Where had she been? What had she been through? It didn't matter in this moment, though, because she was here. She was alive. She was in his arms.
"Beth.." he choked out, barely able to process the reality of this moment. Worried, terrified, it was another cruel dream and he'd wake up and Joe would be there or Len or Gareth, maybe he'd be all alone, maybe he'd be with Rick and Carl and Michonne. But he was scared he'd pull away and Beth would be gone again.
Everything fell open like a floodgate inside of her as the hot tears broke over the dam of her lashes and spilled down her cheeks, pooling on the shoulder of his vest and bleeding into the collar of his shirt. She clutched the stitched wings on his vest so tightly that her fingers turned white. Every emotion she'd held in check, just to stay strong, melted away the moment he held her.
"I knew it," he said. "I knew you were alive."
"I knew you were, too.." she said, pressing her head against his.
He opened his eyes and turned his head enough to look at her. "You found us…"
"I found you," she choked out. "I saw your signs. I followed you.."
She could feel him trembling and felt his face buried against the side of her slender neck once more.
Maggie stood back, still clinging to Glenn and crying against his chest, resting her head there as she looked at Beth and Daryl. She knew as well as the others to give them a moment. She would have her's with Beth soon enough. All that mattered was that she was alive. Daryl never stopped believing. Not once.
Slowly, Daryl drew back just enough to cup Beth's head between his hands, even as she still clung to him. As he looked at her, she could see the tears streaking down his face and filling his eyes. These tears were for her, and her alone.
His thumb brushed over the scar on her cheek as he looked her over. "Beth…"
She shook her head quickly and threw herself against him again, hugging him tighter and closing her eyes. "No… no, not yet," she choked out. "Don't let go…" she whispered, frantically. "Not yet.."
"I won't… I won't.." he murmured weakly, holding her tighter to him. "I've got you, Beth," he whispered, his mouth pressed against her ear, his eyes closed tightly, even though it didn't stop the tears. He had her back, finally, and he wouldn't let her go again. "I've got you."