Chapter 4
"We're almost there!" Daryl yells over the hum of the bike. He reaches his free hand back, grasping Beth's.
"Daryl!" Beth shouts, tugging on the back of his vest. "Can we pull over?"
Daryl rides the chopper to a stop on the side of the road. Killing the engine, and briefly observing the area for cold bodies, he hops off the bike, reaching out to pull up Beth off the leather seat.
"Somethin' wrong?" Daryl asks, checking if the bags on the back of his chopper were still secure.
Beth watches him, adjusting her belt nervously. Everything happened so fast, and even though she knew her and Daryl being together wasn't something she ever imagined would happen, Beth was completely euphoric about their relationship. That's why she knew this would hurt so much.
She took a deep breath. "I don't think we should act so…together when we get back to the prison." She paused, running her fingers across her denim pants. "It's just, Maggie and my dad, I don't want to surprise them too much."
Daryl was watching her, and a blush rose up in her cheeks. "Don't feel like you have to hide anything. If we moved too fast-"
"No, Daryl, that's not it and you know it." Beth urged, stepping towards him. "I want to be with you, just we've been gone for over a week. I don't anyone in our group to think we did anything more than what actually happened."
"So, you want to act like we spent all this time together, and nothin' happened?" Daryl couldn't help but snort. Was she seriously going to act like him giving himself to her was something that could easily be swept under the carpet?
"No! Daryl. That's not what I want."
"Then what the hell Beth! You can't ask me not to be around you 24/7. You can't ask me not to stroll through the prison gates, awkwardly keeping my distance from you. I can't just hide what I feel." He hardened his gaze, directly it coldly into Beth's eyes. "But apparently you can."
He stormed off into the trees, leaving Beth staring at the place he disappeared.
She waited by the bike, when he didn't show after a while Beth cursed the air, and stumbled into the forest. She limped around, awakening a few stray walkers. Panic arose inside of her. Beth had her knife, but her gun was tucked inside of her backpack. She sped up her pace, maneuvering around fallen branches. She stopped dead. Crossing paths with walkers was inevitable, but Beth hoped it would happen when she was prepared. Not now.
Five walkers were dragging towards her in all directions. She spun around and let a yell escape her mouth. They were advancing on her quickly. Beth whipped her knife out, and moved to stab the nearest walker in the skull. Retracting her knife, she flipped around, limping quickly towards the next one, and stabbing it clean in the forehead.
Beth turned again, and smacked right into another walker. She screamed loudly, pushing the dead body backwards, and watched it slam into another biter. Beth watched as both walkers regained balance and started to come after her once again.
"DARYL!" Beth screamed naturally, as she heard moans from behind her. More were coming from the distance, and she knew she didn't have the strength to hold them off.
She rushed forward, stabbing the two walkers at once, and watched them slump to their feet. The moans from behind had formed into a chorus of hunger calls. Beth rotated, and so did her stomach. There was a small army of walkers swaying towards her.
Panic electrified her veins and she turned to limp her way back to the bike, but stopped dead. Three walkers blocked her path. She was trapped.
"DARYL!" Beth screamed, so loudly birds flew from the trees. Hot, angry tears welled in her eyes. "DARYL!"
She stabbed the nearest walker, and whimpered as he tumbled down on her thigh.
"I'm sorry, Daryl," Beth said aloud to the air, as she braced herself for the herd to swallow her whole.
She closed her eyes.