Groggily, she opened her eyes. The sky was bright blue and the sun even brighter. She rose her hand to block her eyes and sat up slowly. She was in the back of a station wagon, lain in blankets and flowers. Taking in the sight and rubbing the bandage on her head, she climbed over the backseat and opened the door.
Instantly she realised what a bad idea it was. Her vision spun and she slammed, hard, back into the car, knocking the back of her head and knocking herself back into darkness.
Daylight dipped and had become night when she next woke. Groaning, she shut the door and pulled tight the vest she was wearing. Her head hurt and she was confused. Had she been in a car crash? A duffle bag caught her eye. It was slightly hidden under the driver's seat and resisted when she first started tugging at it. Once freed, she opened it and gasped. Inside was a machete with a red handle, two pistols, dented cans of food and a bottle of cloudy water. She stared at the machete with its rust stains that she was pretty sure was blood as she withdrew the water. Where was she? She clambered into the driver's seat, confusion all over her face. The car took a couple tries before it came to life. She glanced behind her and indicated before pulling into the road.
She drove for ten minutes, hoping to find somewhere nice to eat. She kept scanning the area, wondering why nobody was about. Screaming, she slammed on the brakes and scrambled out of the car. In the middle of the road was an upturned car and clearly injured people. Her hand went to her back pocket, expecting to feel her cell phone but there was nothing there.
"Hey! Are you okay?" She rushed forward, dropping down to help the people trapped under the car. The woman grabbed her wrist, hard and then growled. She screamed and jumped away from the woman. The woman seemed to be decomposing, although she wasn't sure how that could happen. She looked around wildly as she ran towards her car – more people looking like the woman were closing in on her. She screamed again, fumbling with the door handle. One of them fell against her, pinning her to the car and growling. She struggled to face whatever it was and push it away. She wrestled with it as it attempted to bite her. More of them were closing in. She screamed again and closed her eyes.
There was a loud noise and then the body went limp against her. She heard more shots.
"Are you alright?" A man's voice asked her. She opened her eyes slowly, crying.
"What are they?!" She sobbed. The man looked surprised.
"You don't know what they are?" He asked, confused. "Have you been inside walls this whole time?"
"Walls?!" She spoke, incredulously. The man furrowed his eyebrows, noticing the bandage wrapped around her head.
"Here, it looks like you need some help. I have some supplies." He tapped the strap of his backpack. She nodded, tearfully, and got into the back seat. He followed her, putting his bag in between them. He removed her bandage and was surprised to see it stitched up and clean.
"Who are you?" She asked, sniffling softly.
"Morgan. Do you remember who you are?" He redressed her wound with new gauze.
"No." She whispered, looking down. "I woke up in the boot of this car."
Morgan looked over the back seat and saw the blankets and flowers. He also noticed a wooden cross. Beth Greene was carved into it. Morgan picked it up and turned it in his hands. The back of the cross had "loved by" written in the middle, with the names of those who loved her written in with permanent pen. One name drew Morgan's gaze.
"Rick Grimes." He mouthed. He bought the cross with him when he turned around and offered it to her.
"I think you're Beth Greene and your group thought you were dead." She took the cross, bottom lip trembling. She mouthed her name, and traced over some others.
"Why?" She said sadly.
"I don't know. It looks like you sustained a head wound though." Morgan fished around in his bag. "I think I know how to get you to them." He handed her a map.
"Sorry, I was an asshole. Come to Washington. The new world's gonna need Rick Grimes." Beth read out. She looked up at Morgan. "What?"
"Rick Grimes is on your cross." He tapped Rick's name scrawled on the cross. Beth nodded slowly, looking over the other names.
"Maggie Greene." She whispered. "Who do you think that is? Sister, mother?" She gasped, "Daughter?" Morgan gave a small chuckle.
"I guess we'll find out."
It was slow moving since they'd had to abandon the car. A herd came through while they were digging Beth's grave. Nobody was talking, the air felt too heavy. Maggie was taking in uneven breaths, staring at the ground as she walked. Glenn stayed close to her, somewhat leading her through the underbrush. Every now and again, Maggie would let out a loud sob and stop momentarily. Eventually, they came to a final stop, needing to rest and set up camp. Rick said he was going off with Carl to collect firewood and suggested some things that the rest could do. Daryl walked off in the other direction, not telling anyone where he was going. Maggie dropped to her knees where she was standing and moved into a cradled position.
"We should set up the tarps. It's probably going to rain." Glenn said, after looking at Maggie sadly. Rosita, Tara and Abe started setting up the camp, feeling lost and unhelpful with the group's grief. Michonne started stringing up cans around the camp, winding through trees. Tyrese sat down with Judith and started to feed her with baby food they'd come across.
Rick and Carl came back before Daryl. Once it was dark, they were organising a group to go find Daryl. The search group was about to launch when he came through the trees.
"Here." He threw some dead snakes on the ground. He went to a tree and leaned against it, facing away from the group. Quietly, they cooked the snakes and divided up the food. Carol walked over Daryl to give him his bowl.
"Not hungry." He said, before she came fully into his vision.
"You have to eat." Carol said softly.
"Don't wanna." He pushed the food away. Sighing, Carol placed the food next to him and went back to the group. Lighting a cigarette, Daryl looked up through the trees. He blew smoke into the air and sniffed hard, trying not to cry.
Maggie lay on the ground, leaves and dirt rubbing into her hair. She didn't care. She had left her sister behind, in a car, without a proper burial. Tears welled up into her eyes and spilled over. She figured that eventually some walkers will get into the car and tear Beth apart. They'd eat her. Glenn nudged a bowl against her but she just shook her head. She closed her eyes tightly, hating the vision but feeling like she deserved it. The only image she could see behind her eyelids these days was Beth's limp body. She deserved it for failing her sister, and their dad. She should have done better.
They'd tried to clean Beth up before burying her. Eugene wasn't the big scientist he claimed to be but he did have some basic medical knowledge. He had found the bullet, trapped within it's own exit point. He had extracted it gently, cleaned the wounds and bandaged them up. Rosita and Tara had gone on a run to get Beth some clean clothes to be buried in. Maggie sat and washed Beth's hair with a bucket. Then they laid her down in many blankets and picked flowers to bury her with. Seeing her laying there had caused Maggie to collapse again. She didn't look dead but she was. The rest were digging her grave or decorating her cross. Beth deserved a real funeral. But then the herd had started coming through, they panicked, closed the boot and had to run. Maggie had been resistant to going, Glenn pretty much dragging her to safety. Once they rest comparative safety, Daryl had spun around and demanded that they go back and get her body. He had stormed off in front of them when Rick said it's too dangerous, the herd was pretty big and they're fairly low on ammo. Not much noise had been made since then.