Ch. 13
This chapter moves us along. I hope you like it.
Merle drove through the night, looking back every once in a while to check on Beth and Daryl.
Beth was in and out of consciousness for a while before finally being able to sit up on her own. After the sun rose, they had to stop a few times for her to throw up. Concussions were a bitch that way. Daryl would hold her hair when she puked and try and get her to drink water, but when he looked at Merle, he shut down.
Merle wondered why, but then figured it was because he didn't like to be seen as weak or that he'd let her get hurt. It didn't matter, though. He knew Daryl, and Daryl wasn't the kind of man that would have gone down without a fight.
When the car finally ran out of gas at a crossroads, Merle got out and looked around the area. There were some train tracks in front of them and a really nice house off to the right. If they needed to, they could probably stay there the night then head out in the morning.
"Merle?" Beth called his name very softly and squinted against the sunlight as Daryl helped her out of the car.
"Yeah?" He asked and reached out an arm to steady her as she walked forward.
She hugged him then, tighter than he could ever imagine and whispered, "Thank ya for comin' back."
"I's always comin' back," he muttered and pushed her away gently. Daryl pulled her to him and looked up at Merle. "Y'all coulda taken care of yaselves. Don't go makin' me out to be somethin' I ain't."
Beth nodded but the smile she sent him told Merle that she could see straight through his front. He was just about to suggest staying in the house when a group of men seem to appear out of nowhere right behind them.
The leader was the different kind of guy.
Daryl knew that the moment he locked eyes with him.
He analyzed the three of them before his eyes settled on Merle's knife hand. "What the fuck happened there?"
"It was in my way," Merle answered with a shrug.
The older man smirked and nodded. "We're gonna need your weapons and maybe the girl."
Daryl had to fight back the urge to charge the man and lay his ass out. Merle wasn't so calm, though, and when one of the group members walked forward to take his gun, Merle slammed his the metal part of his knife hand against the side of the man's head, downing him in an instant.
The others drew their weapons and Daryl raised his bow. "Let's just slow down," he said and tried to hold up Beth who had slumped a little. "Take the weapons and the packs, but ya ain't gettin' her."
"I'll beat y'all both senseless then make ya watch what we do to her then I'll kill ya both and take her anyway," he said easily.
Daryl lowered his bow and acted like he was going to sit it on the ground at the man's feet, but when he walked forward, he swung up with all his might, knocking the man backward.
He pulled his bow back up and aimed. "That's a nice weapon," he said to Daryl with a laugh. "Been lookin' for one just like that."
"Well, I changed my mind, ya ain't gettin' it."
The man studied him for a moment then he looked to Beth and Merle. "Name's Joe."
"Daryl."
"Ain't ya gonna introduce us?" Joe asked and waved his hand toward the others.
He stared him down for a second then said, "My brother, Merle, and my wife, Beth."
"Wife?" Joe laughed. "So that's what they're callin' it nowadays."
Beth cleared her throat and opened her eyes. "I am. He didn't do anythin' I didn't deserve," she lied way to fucking easily and his nostrils flared a little at the thought of someone laying a hand on her. Beth moved to the backseat of the car. "I need to lay down," she said and slipped into the car.
Joe looked around the group and smiled. "This is how I see it. Y'all can come with us or we can kill ya both here and just keep everythin' else for ourselves."
Daryl looked to Merle. His lips were a thin line and his jaw was tense but he nodded anyway. "Fine," Daryl said. "She ain't in no shape to be movin', though. Got a fuckin' concussion."
Joe shrugged. "She'll walk or you'll carry her, but we're movin'."
Beth was shaken awake, and she smiled at Daryl before closing her eyes again. "I need ya to get up and follow me."
"No, ya lay down with me," she said quietly, her words were slurred even to her own ears.
"Beth," he said her name and shook her again.
This time she sat up and put her hand against his cheek. "Ya were gonna say ya loved me last night," she heard herself whisper and Daryl's eyes closed. She looked past his shoulder to see the group of men standing over by the train tracks and tensed up, remembering everything all at once.
"Just take your bow and stick close," he said. "Kill anybody that touches ya and run. Don't worry about me and Merle. We can handle ourselves."
Without a doubt, Beth was still woozy, but she would have to pull it together if they were going to get out of this alive.
"How ya doin', darlin'?" Joe asked as she stepped out of the car, slinging her bow over her shoulder.
"Fine," she answered softly and squinted her eyes against the sunlight then followed after Daryl.
They all walked to the train tracks and went west. After a couple of miles, Merle asked, "Why Atlanta?"
Joe smirked. "We're trackin' a walkin' piece of fecal matter that killed one of our friends."
Merle hummed in response and nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer.
The rest of the day they walked in silence, but Beth knew she was getting stares from the men walking behind her. Daryl would touch her shoulder every now and again, but when she looked into his eyes, she saw his desperation and had to look away.
Merle was never far from her either, but he didn't touch her at all. When she thought about it, she wondered if it was a conscious decision. That way the other men knew that he wasn't with her like that. Maybe it was his way of offering another layer of protection.
When they set up camp that night, Daryl laid down their stuff at the edge of camp. He sat down and pulled her between his legs with her back to his chest while Merle sat down beside them.
"Gonna run?" He asked in a whisper.
"First chance we get," Daryl answered back.
The sat in silence as the other men ate and talked. Beth tried hard to stay awake, but her head throbbed. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep with her head against Daryl's shoulder.
He didn't move her, and he didn't sleep at all. He gripped his knife the entire night, waiting for someone to try and take her from him.
When the sun started to rise, he gently woke her up and nodded his head to the woods.
"Let's go find somethin' to eat."
Beth followed him into the woods, holding her bow at her side. When they were a far enough away, he asked, "Your head okay?"
"Yeah. It's sore, but I don't feel as sick to my stomach anymore."
He nodded and looked at the ground before heading off in a different direction. A rabbit had been through recently, and that would be good for her to have.
Her footsteps were light behind his, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
She was still there.
He stopped and looked back at her then said, "C'mere." Beth walked to stand in front of him and she smiled at him. Daryl gave her a short kiss before he said, "We ain't never fuckin' again."
"What?" She asked with her forehead scrunched up.
"First time, everybody got sick. Second time, the prison fell. Third time, ya almost got kidnapped and were beaten then we found these assholes. We ain't never fuckin' again."
Beth watched him for a few seconds before she broke out into a loud laugh that she covered up just as quickly as it came out.
"I love ya," she said. "Even with things so up in the air, I can't help but think about how much I love ya, Daryl."
He felt himself grin a little. "Let's get this rabbit."
Nearly an hour later, he had it in his sights. Beth wanted to try, but when she concentrated too hard, her head would start hurting worse.
Right as he pulled the trigger, a second arrow flew right beside his face. He turned and immediately caught the stare of one of Joe's men. He was the one who had been eyeing Beth across the campfire when he thought Daryl was sleeping.
"Claimed," he said and walked to the rabbit.
Daryl took off for it, too, and got their first. He threw the other guy's arrow out in the to the woods and held onto his own before walking back to Beth. "Let's go," he said and pushed her forward.
"That's my cottontail," he said from behind them.
He grabbed the legs and pulled and Daryl turned, pulling his knife from his sheath.
"Now, let's just wait a second," Joe's voice sounded from their left.
Everyone turned but Daryl didn't drop the rabbit.
"It's mine, Joe. I claimed it."
"Me and Beth have been trackin' this thing since sunrise. It's ours."
Joe looked between them. "He don't know the rules, Len. Can't fault a man for rules he don't know." With a smirk, Joe took the rabbit from their hands and chopped in in half against a nearby tree. "Ass end's still an end."
Len stomped off and Daryl looked down at the half of rabbit that had been tossed his way.
"It's no good now," Beth whispered, remembering what he taught her about some organs tainting the meat if they got cut when cleaning the animal.
Daryl looked over at her and shook his head for her to be quiet, but Joe walked to stand in front of her.
"I ain't stupid. Ya ain't his wife, and he sure as hell didn't put his hands on ya. Not with how he was hangin' onto ya all night. I know men that beat their women, and he ain't one of 'em."
Beth set her jaw and didn't say a word.
"Y'all are together, and I can respect that. All ya gotta do is play by my rules, sweetheart, and in a few days, I'll let ya walk outta here scot-free."
Daryl closed the distance between them and pulled Beth to his side. "Whatcha want?"
"Just some helpin' findin' this guy. That's all." Daryl looked back at Beth who shrugged. "Play by the rules and find this guy, and in a few days, off ya go."
"What're the rules?" Beth asked from behind Daryl.
"If ya want somethin' 'claim' it. It stops things from goin' Darwin every five minutes. Once it's claimed, it's yours and yours alone." He looked back and Beth and raised an eyebrow at Daryl. "Next is don't lie. Ever. I'm lettin' yesterday slip 'cause ya didn't know us, but from this moment forward, ya tell a lie, ya pay the bill."
"And what's that?" Merle asked from out of nowhere.
"A beatin'," Joe answered. "The severity of which depends on the offense and the general attitude of the day."
"She can't be walkin' around for hours at a time," Merle said and shook his head. "She needs to rest."
Joe eyed him curiously for a second then said, "What do ya propose then, big brother?"
"Let 'em go, and I'll help ya find whoever it is your dealin' with."
"No," Beth said before Daryl could even get it out. "Absolutely not."
"It ain't your choice," Merle said firmly.
Joe watched Beth, and he shook his head. "All of ya stay until the deal is done."
Before they could challenge him again, he walked back in the direction of camp.
"We're fucked," Merle said and sighed. "He ain't never gonna let us go. We're gonna have to kill 'em."
"Or sneak off in the middle of the night and find a car and haul ass outta this area," Daryl said and reached for Beth's hand. Their fingers twisted together, and he pulled her back to camp. "Right now, we play the game."
The moment they had entered camp, Daryl pulled Beth in front of him and said, "Claimed. She's mine. Any of y'all touch her, I'll kill ya."
That made Joe smile and laugh. "Ya heard the man, Little Bo Peep over there is off limits now."
"I didn't know we could claim her!" One of the men said angrily. "I'd have done that last night! Thought we was sharin' her."
"Not this time," Joe said and picked up his pack. "We got bigger shit to worry about right now than gettin' pussy. We gotta get the man that killed Lou. Now that Daryl's claimed her, y'all can all worry about the asshole we're followin'."
"Didn't say shit about not lookin', though," Len said and drug his eyes over Beth's body.
Merle looked over every member of the group.
Before this was all over, every single one of them would be dead.
That afternoon, they found an abandoned auto garage to bunk in, but they were the last ones through and all the cars were already claimed.
A balding, fat fucker leaned against the side of the truck that was his for the night and looked to his brother and Beth and said, "Ya let us watch her blow ya, I'll let ya have the truck."
Daryl straightened up, and somehow Beth knew not to touch him, not to let them see she had any type of control over him at all. She just looked at the ground and wrung her hands together.
Merle watched as Daryl walked across the cement floor to where the man stood, a friendly smirk across his face. "Ya wanna watch her suck my dick?" He asked evenly.
"Hell yeah," the man answered. "Ain't watched a porno in a long time, and sure as hell never seen one right in front of me."
"But she ain't the first girl ya've thought about like that since all this shit started," Daryl stated. "She ain't the first ya've taken against her will."
"I didn't rape that bitch," he said and shook his head.
"I bet ya've thought of it a million times since y'all found us." The man shrugged a little. "That's where it's gonna stay, too," Daryl said quietly then he backed up and went to Beth who was trying to seem unaffected.
"Watch your shit, Daryl," Merle said as they laid out their sleeping bags.
"I'm gonna gut everyone of these mothafuckers," he whispered. "You're sleepin' between us, girl." Beth laid down on the sleeping bag and curled into a little ball.
Only once that night did Merle get up, the rest of the time he laid a forearm's length away from Beth, staring at her and Daryl in the darkness, and listening for any sound that might have signaled the attack was coming.
If there was one thing he was sure of, it's that something was going to happen between them, and it was going to happen soon.
Daryl followed Beth outside so she could take a piss and Merle walked over to the tool rack on the far side of the garage. Everything was pretty well picked over, but he found a flat-head screwdriver in a drawer. Worst came to worst, he could give it to Beth, and she could stab someone in the neck with it.
Once he was back over at their bags, Beth and Daryl walked in through the door and started gathering up their stuff.
"It's gone," Len said loudly. "That bastard took my rabbit!" He came rushing across the open space between the cars at Daryl, and he immediately pushed Beth over to Merle, and Merle pushed her behind him.
"Didn't touch your rabbit," Daryl said and shook his head.
"It's gone! You're the only one with interest in what I had."
Daryl shook his head again, and Merle could see the anger brewing behind his eyes. "Didn't take you're fuckin' rabbit."
"Now, boys, we got a bit of a predicament here. Len says ya took it. You said ya didn't. Guess the only way to find out for sure is to look through your bag, Daryl," Joe said and picked up the pack he shared with Beth. Daryl reached for it, but Joe pulled it further out of his reach then dumped the contents onto the floor.
Sure enough, there was a rabbit head mixed in there.
"Ya sonofabitch!" Daryl hollered and started for Len. "Ya put that there! Ya waited until I went outside like some fuckin' pussy."
Len stood his ground and Joe looked between them. "Now, Len, this is a big offense. Are ya sayin' Daryl stole your rabbit?"
He met Daryl's eyes and nodded. "Yeah, he stole it from me."
Joe sighed. "Ya sure ya ain't some dirty, lyin' cop?" Len looked up at Joe and his eyes widened. "Teach him a lesson, boys," he pushed Len into the group of men. "Teach him all the way."
As the group went to beating the fuck out of Len, Joe turned and tossed the rabbit to Daryl. "Let this be a lesson to ya about followin' the rules."
"How'd ya know I was tellin' the truth, and he wasn't?" Daryl asked.
"I saw him do it," Joe answered.
"And ya were just gonna let it play out," Daryl said disbelievingly.
"Examples are always the most helpful way to teach a new concept to people. Remember that."
He walked away, and Beth went to pick everything up and put it back in their pack. Merle watched as she tuned everything out and worked. Once it was all put away, she went to the door and stepped outside, never once looking back.