Before Beth could respond, a sound from outside gathered their attention and they sat unmoving in silence, just listening. When nothing more followed they figured it was just a Walker stumbling about and Beth reached down to fist the front of Daryl's shirt, pulling him back to her lips. It wasn't until another sound of a car door slamming rang out that they broke apart fully.
Daryl pushed Beth forward to stand and went to grab his bow. "Stay here." He whispered, walking over to peek out the window.
He counted three men by the street in front of the house and one searching through a car parked at the edge of the yard. With The Governor and his group mostly disbanded or dead, Daryl just assumed their threat had been taken care of. It somehow slipped his mind there could possibly be other people just as violent in the area and he had no idea if they were dangerous. Far as he was concerned no one could be trusted anymore.
"What is it?" Beth asked nervously, keeping her voice low and continued standing where he left her.
Daryl turned in her direction and heard the knob on the back door jiggle. There were more of them than he first realized and that just meant they could already be spreading throughout the neighborhood. An easy escape out the front door was unlikely.
"Go." He hissed, pointing toward the bedroom and Beth didn't hesitate to take off running, Daryl at her heels.
A window breaking made Beth go pale and Daryl shoved her behind him, poking his head around the corner to see down the hallway. Two men could be heard having a conversation in the kitchen, along with cabinets slamming and dishes being tossed around. Daryl backed away, shutting the door quietly and turned to Beth. "Ya gotta hide." He insisted.
Beth was on the verge of panicking. "What about you?" She asked, gripping the handle of her knife.
"Just go!" Daryl spat and locked the door, moving himself to brace against it while Beth dove under the bed. There was no time for arguing.
The voices of the men grew louder as they approached and Beth watched Daryl press against the door harder when the handle moved. A man on the other side cursing in protest.
Beth jumped when the handle suddenly broke off and it fell to the floor. The result of someone smashing it with a blunt object and Daryl struggled to hold the door shut as they pushed forward, causing it to crack slightly. His feet slid across the carpet and his elbows started to buckle against the force of the two men. He let out a growl, trying to find any last bit of strength to hold them back and finally faltered. Dropping to the floor and rolling onto his back with his bow at the ready.
"Whoa! hey, hold up." The first man said with his hands raised. Startled to see Daryl laying there with his bow pointed in his direction. He was older with greying hair, a scruffy beard and seemed to be well fed, his round belly falling out the bottom of his shirt. The only weapon Daryl could see was a crowbar firmly clutched in his right hand.
Daryl kept his aim on the heavy man and scooted further away, still on the floor. His eyes flicking to the door when the other one entered. He was younger and had a knife in one hand and a rifle strapped to his back, Daryl instantly changed position. Focusing his attention on him instead. The gun made him uneasy and if needed he'd rather take him out first.
"No reason to start any trouble." The younger man said, in no way changing his stance to seem less threatening like his friend had. "You here all alone?" He asked with a smirk.
Daryl noticed the man's eyes had drifted over to where Beth was hiding before he asked and heard her shift. Apparently she hadn't pulled part of her body fully under the bed and he knew Daryl wasn't alone.
The older man took a step toward Beth and Daryl jumped to his feet, planting him directly in his sights and he froze. The younger one drew his rifle from behind his back and pointed it at Daryl. "Easy." He said.
The two of them stared at each other, for what seemed like forever and the young man finally broke eye contact and looked back over toward the bed. "Why don't you come on out from under there."
Beth's breath hitched when the demand was made for her and she didn't move. She didn't know these men and she didn't know if the minute she came out they wouldn't do something horrible. So she chose to stay where she was, it being the safest place she had at the moment.
The young man cleared his throat. "Alright, lets try this again." He took a step closer to Daryl, his gun about a foot away from the tip of his bow. "You either show yourself or my bullet and your friend are going to get better acquainted."
Beth felt her heart start to race at the thought of them killing Daryl and quickly shifted to slide out from under the bed. Daryl only moved to place himself between her and the danger. His stare cold, fixed on the man with the gun and ready to put a bolt through his head at the slightest change his finger made on the trigger.
"Mmm... makes sense now why you'd keep this one hidden." He bit out while sucking on his teeth, a chuckle coming from his partner. The younger of the two did a once over on Beth, clearly checking her out and Daryl clenched his jaw. "She's just a baby... sweet and innocent... my kind of bitch."
Beth swallowed down the bile that started to rise at the man's words. Unable to stop the tremble that went through her knees when she imagined what they would do if they got a hold of her. She reached out then to grab the back of Daryl's vest, her knife still clutched in her other hand. Praying Daryl had a plan to get them out of this, there was no way she stood a chance alone against the two of them.
"Unless he's been putting it to her." The older man said with a smirk, twirling the crowbar through his fingers. "Might not be as good as you're hoping."
His friend grinned and readjusted his rifle. "Only one way to find out." He took a step forward and Daryl saw his opportunity. The man made the mistake of looking back over at Beth only for a brief second and Daryl shifted, shooting his bolt through the man's eye. His gun going off as he fell and Beth yelped, ducking as the bullet crashed into the window behind them.
Daryl moved gracefully in one step as the other man approached and swung his bow into his jaw as hard as he could, knocking him back into the dresser. Reaching down for his knife at his waist, piercing the man's skull before he even knew what hit him.
His body fell limp instantly and tumbled to the floor, joining his partner as Beth stood there frozen. Shocked to be that close to the scene she'd just witnessed and how close the bullet had come to hitting her. At first she didn't even notice Daryl grabbing her arm and tugging her toward the window, until he paused and placed a hand on her cheek.
"Beth!" He snapped, trying to get her to pay attention. She blinked, her first instinct to look back at the men on the floor, but he made her stay focused on him. "We have to go." He insisted, moving to slide the window open and knocking the screen out.
"Move yer ass!" Daryl yelled when she was still standing there, afraid at any moment the rest of their group would be drawn to the sound of the gun going off. Along with any Walkers in the area.
Beth finally started to climb out the window. Her body only moving at Daryl's shoving, her mind still in a daze.
Once their feet hit the ground, Daryl placed his hand on Beth's back and had to push her forward to get her to start running toward the woods. As they got closer to being hidden by the trees, Daryl spotted two men in the distance rounding the house and felt the sting before he heard the shot fired.
"Daryl!" Beth yelled as he stumbled and fell to the ground, her heart stopping. She knew he'd been hit from the look of pain spread across his face, but didn't know where, not until she saw the blood seeping through his fingers pressed just below his hip. When she moved to kneel, he pushed her away, clinching his jaw and forcing himself to stand.
"Go." He hissed and tried to block out the throb that was sent through his left side every time he took a step. They had to get out of there before they ended up getting killed.
Beth bit her lip with worry and hooked her arm around his, trying to move him along with the least amount of pain possible.
"Here, sit." Beth said once they reached the river, having back tracked from the day before. She looked around just to be sure they hadn't been followed, even though she hadn't seen anyone the last mile they traveled.
Daryl wasted no time hobbling to the edge of the water and laying down on his back with a groan, still holding his hip. Beth came over and moved his hand out of the way to see how bad the wound was, but his jeans blocked most of the view. She looked up to let him know he'd have to pull his pants down, but he was already unbuckling his belt.
She moved away then to tug her shirt over her head and soaked it in the river, ringing it out slightly before returning to where Daryl was laying. He'd been in the process of sliding his pants down and Beth could tell it was hurting him to do so.
Grabbing his wrist gently, she stopped him from moving further. "Lay back." She insisted and he dropped his head to the ground, placing a hand over his face without a word.
Beth carefully shifted his pants down low enough to gain access to the wound, but hesitated when she also needed to move his boxers out of the way. After telling herself he wasn't going to mind, she reached up to grab the elastic and slid them down also.
The wound was about three inches below his waist line, on the start of his leg and that meant his pants were down far enough to give her a nice view of the thin layer of hair trailing down his stomach, into his pubic area and his beautiful hips that still made her go weak.
Making sure to keep him covered enough to not embarrass him and to keep her focused on his injury, she placed the wet shirt against the tender flesh and started cleaning off the blood the best she could.
Daryl tensed at the contact and cursed, wincing each time she had to wipe or dab at the wound. Thinking he would of found the whole experience of her sitting there in only her bra and his pants down far enough to almost see everything, much more enjoyable had he not been in so much pain.
"Sorry." Beth apologized, wincing along with him each time he jerked or flinched.
"S'alright." Daryl said softly, keeping his eyes closed and trying to concentrate on anything other than what she was doing.
After most of the blood was wiped away, Beth leaned forward to get a better look and sighed in relief. The bullet passed right through the skin, leaving a good chunk of flesh missing, but at least it wasn't lost somewhere inside him. The only problem now was she didn't have anything to use to close the wound or cover it.
"I need your shirt." She demanded, it was their best option and he always wore more layers than anyone needed in the summer.
Daryl sighed and rubbed his face before sitting up enough to start shedding his clothes. Tossing his vest to the side, he handed her his shirt once it was removed and went back to laying.
She took her knife out and cut the shirt into pieces to be able to wrap around his leg, leaving enough material to use as a pad to soak up anymore blood until they could find proper medical supplies. When she pulled the makeshift bandage tightly against his skin to tie in a knot Daryl bit his lip and growled, his body instinctively jerking away from what was causing the pain.
Beth tried to offer him comfort and placed her hand on his uninjured hip, sliding it across his stomach.
Daryl's muscles flexed under her touch and he sucked in a breath, reaching down to wrap his fingers around hers. "Thanks for fixin' me up." He offered.
"I should be thanking you...had you not been back at the house, who knows what those men would of done to me..." She swallowed, trying her best to hide how scared she was.
"Hey, we made it out of there." Daryl reminded her as he shifted to sit up more, squeezing her hand.
"You got shot Daryl! You could have died. I could of been used as some kind of sex slave and tortured by those sick fucks. It's bad enough we have to constantly fear the dead when in the end we're still losing more to the living and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of running." Beth reached up to wipe at her eyes, telling herself to not cry, to not get upset, but she was ready for whatever messed up joke the world had become to be over and done with. Her father had been killed over nothing more than a grown man having a temper tantrum and it wasn't fair. She didn't know whether or not Maggie survived the attack on the prison and if she had, actually finding her was next to impossible. Daryl was all she had left and he'd almost been killed right in front of her.
Beth stood and threw her bloody shirt as far into the woods as she could, telling herself to get it together. She couldn't have a mental breakdown when they needed to find somewhere safe to go. "Can you walk?" She asked, reaching a hand out to help him stand.
Daryl took her hand and stood, trying to readjust his body in a position to where he could move comfortably and pulled her against him. He knew she was upset and after everything she'd just done for him, the least he could do was try to make her feel better.
"Wanna know a secret?" He asked while she wrapped her arms around his waist carefully.
"Sure." She replied, burying her face against his chest and inhaling deeply. His scent and warmth already helping to calm her.
Daryl held her for a moment before reaching down to place a finger under her chin, making her look at him. "You were the first person ta hold me after the world went ta shit." The memory was always close in his mind, the moment she hugged him after telling her about Zach. Even though at the time he flinched away, unfamiliar with the gesture, it was one of his best memories of her until now.
It took Beth a second to realize exactly what he was talking about and she smiled. Squeezing him just a bit tighter.
"Wanna know another secret?" He asked with a grin, glad to see her smiling.
She gave him a nod, not sure if what he had to say would be any better than the last one he shared, but she was interested.
"The view I got right now is killin' me." Daryl chuckled and watched as her eyes followed his and she finally realize he could see right down the top of her bra.
Beth blushed and shoved him away gently with a laugh. "You're delirious, come on."