Rick grabbed Shane by the collar of the shirt, dragging him off towards the forest. Daryl watched, and followed, silently. He was curious how Rick would handle the situation. Daryl tried to be objective and think about how he would handle it if he was the one in charge, but honestly he was so angry he wanted to bust a hole into Shane's face. Daryl had walked up just in time to see Rick land a solid punch to Shane's jaw, which in and of itself was enough to raise Daryl's eyebrow, but the second Beth had emerged from the barn, all color stripped from her face, Daryl had seen red. He wasn't normally protective and honestly the force with which he was overcome with the feeling shook him to his core. This whole soulmate thing was a hassle when it involved feelings about their families as well.
As Daryl moved quietly in the brush behind the two men, he had to admit to himself. His protective feelings weren't completely centered on Maggie and her position in his life. Daryl was an angry redneck, who came from the wrong side of the tracks, but the idea of forcing a girl into something like that made his stomach turn and twist in knots. Especially one that wasn't much stronger than wet paper. Beth needed to be protected. She needed to be taught how to protect herself, but all the training in the world wouldn't take away the fact that she'd still need someone to look out for her.
Daryl watched as Shane and Rick came to a stop, Shane rounding on Rick. "What are you gonna do, Rick? Shoot me?" Shane sneered. Daryl clenched his hands around the stock of his crossbow. It would take one pull of his finger and Shane would be ended, but it wasn't his call, no matter how much Daryl wanted to put the sick ass down.
"What the hell were you doin', Shane?" Rick countered. "We are guests here on this farm. Guests who already cost this family a life." He growled out. Shane lunged at him, landing a right hook on Rick's jaw.
"That kid sacrificed himself." Shane hissed. Without pause Rick pulled his pistol out, training it on Shane.
"You can feed that crap to everyone else in there, but I know better. I know you better." Rick uttered, voice deathly calm. "Now, I'm tryin'. I'm tryin' to think of a good reason not to bury a bullet in your skull."
"You gonna kill me over these people? These nobodies?" Rick didn't respond. Daryl watched with baited breath as Rick seemed to weigh his words and his options. Before he could make a decision the snapping of twigs and the cocking of a gun made all three men freeze and turn their weapons on the lone stranger standing in the open.
"Well, I was just going to let you kill each other, but I've been out here looking for strangers for days and frankly Randall is getting a little mad that I haven't found y'all yet." Daryl squinted at this punk, no older than Beth or maybe her older brother. Daryl briefly wondered if maybe Beth knew this kid, but by the way he had his gun trained squarely on Rick, he knew this encounter was going to end in someone not walking away.
"We ain't got no business with you kid." Rick called from behind his pistol.
"Oh, but that doesn't matter. We got business with anyone we find in this forest. Now, why don't you drop those weapons and any ammo you may have on you so we can collect from you?"
"We who?" Shane questioned, cocking his gun back.
"Oh, you didn't think I came out here alone, did you?" A series of clicks from guns cocking back as well as shifting of brush showed a group of about seven guys, guns all trained on their little group. Daryl felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. He knew he could get off at least one shot, and Rick and Shane might be able to drop at least one each, but they were still greatly outnumbered and a firefight would result in not just the loss of their weapons, but their lives as well. Rick grit his teeth before dropping his gun and squatting down to place it on the ground on the brown dirt.
"Put 'em down, guys." Rick said, eyes darting over to Daryl and Shane. With a growl Shane and Daryl followed suit, placing their weapons down on the ground. One of the strangers made their way over, gun still trained on them, and stooped to gather the weapons.
"Alright, now gentlemen. The fun can begin."
Beth stood at the kitchen sink, admiring the play of sunshine on the fields outside. The grass looked so green, and the sky looked so blue and it made her little mind spin. Her thoughts floated back to the barn and she couldn't stop the shiver that overtook her. She couldn't stop thinking about the look in Shane's eyes as he'd yanked her head back and bore down on her. His eyes were a dark brown, a color she was starting to hate with a passion, but they'd been so heated and vibrant when he'd attacked her. Just the picture of them in her mind made her get anxious and flood with fear.
She let out a breath, trying to rid herself of the terrifying image. "You seem like you've seen a ghost." Beth jumped and looked over her shoulder at Lori and Carol. Beth had seen Carol around, never really talking to her, but she'd noticed the woman seemed sweet and kind. A deep sadness was buried within her, but Beth could never really bring herself to ask what had happened to hurt this woman so badly. It just seemed too personal.
"Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought." She smiled at the two women. "Did y'all need something?"
"Yeah. Carol was wondering if you had anything in the way of asprin?" Beth's eyes flicked over to the older woman for a second, a warm smile on her face.
"I know things like that are probably wildly expired, but I figured I'd ask." Beth thought for a moment, smiling at Carol and how she was trying so hard not to be a bother, like she felt she wasn't worth it.
"You know, we might have something. Lemme go check the bathroom." Beth took a step towards the bathroom just off where Carl was resting.
"Oh thank you. That's very kind of you." Beth opened the medicine cabinet, looking at the bottles in front of her. Her eyes lit up when she saw the bottle she wanted and plucked it from the shelf.
"This is all we got." She handed the bottle to Carol, a small grimace on her face. "It's not much, but it should do the trick." Carol nodded, clutching the bottle close to her.
"Thank you." She ducked her head and made her way back out to the front. Beth sighed.
"Thank you, Beth." Lori said, watching Carol walk away. "It's the simple kindnesses that help heal the worst wounds."
"What happened?" Beth asked, not elaborating because it wasn't needed.
"Back before everything turned into this, Carol had a daughter. She has a daughter." Lori corrected, and Beth's heart ached for the woman. "She and Sophia and Ed, Sophia's dad, were part of our group when everything kind of fell apart. We were scavenging for supplies on the highway. A herd came up on us and we all had to hide under the cars. When we thought it was clear Sophia crawled out from under the car. A couple walkers chased her into forest, and Rick took off after them. They got separated and we haven't seen her since." Lori looked at Beth, her expression was sad. "We've been searching for her ever since, but the hope gets dimmer and dimmer each day we don't find her." Beth bit her lip.
"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry." She breathed. "You've all had such sad experiences." Lori nodded. "Lost so much." she sighed. "I'm so sorry."
"Ain't your fault. That's just how things go in this world with the way it is." Beth nodded.
"Are you scared for your baby?" Lori nodded. "Well, if I know anything about Rick, he'll make sure you and that baby are well protected and cared for." Lori smiled over at Beth.
"He's a good man. For all his faults, he's a very good man."
"Does he know yet?" Beth asked quietly and Lori nodded again.
"Yes. I told him everything, the good the bad and the ugly, after…" she trailed off for a moment. "After we lost Shaun. I wanted him to know in case…"
"In case Carl didn't make it?" Beth whispered. The mention of her brother was still hard. Her feelings were still fresh and raw from the whole situation. She watched as Lori nodded. "I bet he's excited." Beth hedged, trying to get the conversation away from thoughts of her brother. Lori nodded.
"Yes he is, but he's always been excited to be a father." Lori's eyes softened and Beth watched as the love blossomed in her features. She was touched with jealousy, but bit it back. It wasn't her place. Not really.
"But you're not?" Beth observed, the envy burning in her belly.
"I'm excited to have a baby, but I look at this world. And I think about what kind of life that child is going to grow up in. I have most of a lifetime of happy memories to remember. Carl is younger, he only has a few from before everything happened and I can already see that weighing on his shoulders. This baby wont have any memories of before. When the world wasn't like this." Lori looked to Beth. "What kind of life is that for a baby?"
"You gotta have hope. That baby will be surrounded by a family that loves it. It will have two parents who will do everything they can to make their life happy and secure. That's more than a lot of kids before everything turned out like this." Beth offered, trying desperately to lift Lori's hope. Lori smiled softly and looked down at the ground before over at Beth once more.
"How do you do that?" Beth frowned not sure what she was talking about. "How do you always stay so positive and keep the hope with everything going on?" Beth just shrugged lightly.
"You don't have much if you don't have hope that it can get better." She offered simply. Lori thoguth for a moment before nodding.
"You are very right Beth. You are very right."
Daryl let out a grunt as he was shoved down to sit on the ground in a dirt abandoned warehouse. Rick followed, and then Shane was settled on the ground as well. Daryl fidgeted with the rope currently holding his wrists bound behind his back. After having their weapons collected, Daryl, Rick and Shane had all had their hands bound and were led through the forest to some abandoned warehouse. They sat silently as some kid walked into the room. Daryl glared at the kid.
"Well, it's about damn time we found you." He said, humor evident in his voice. "We've been looking for you since we saw your message on the highway."
"You must be Randall?" Rick asked through gritted teeth.
"Oh yeah. I'm bad with introductions. My name is Randall, welcome to my place!" He grinned, throwing his arms wide.
"So, now that we're here, you gonna kill us?"
"Me? Oh no." He shook his head, crossing his arms in front of him. "We're going to find out where the rest of your group is hiding, and then once we find that out, we're going to give you to our pets."
"Your pets?"
"Yes. We have pets, and we like to take good care of our pets." Randall's grin turned dark and menacing as he stared at the three men. Daryl swallowed, his eyes darting to a door on the other side of the room as a loud bang rang out. Daryl listened and was horrified to hear the low gurgling moans and sighs coming from the other side of that door.
"You got walkers?" He hissed out, and Randall's eyes landed on him.
"Yeah. We collect biters as we find them. They make the best pets since you only ever gotta feed 'em every once in awhile." He gave a shrug. "I figure it's been a good couple weeks since they've had anything to eat, so they should make it quick when they get to you." Daryl felt the blood drain from his face and the bile rose in his stomach.
Figures he'd finally find his soulmate, only to end up walker food.