Chapter 3
The Barn and the Well
They walked outside toward the barn, and saw two vehicles, a car and a truck, parked in front of it.
"No keys in the car," Daryl said, looking around the front seat.
"No keys in the truck either" Beth said as she hunted around in the truck. There are some tools on the flatbed." Beth picked up a hatchet from the flat bed, gripping it in her right hand.
"We're gonna have to clear the barn. Follow me," Daryl said as he led Beth around the perimeter of the barn. The barn had no windows and only one door in front. They could see nothing from the outside.
After circling the perimeter, Daryl firmly rapped on the barn door and waited. Suddenly, agitated walkers growled loudly, pushing themselves against the barn door.
"Sounds like a few of 'em in there," Daryl said. "Maybe three or four. You ready? 'Kay, step back a few feet." He waved her back.
Beth's hand trembled as she gripped the handle of the hatchet tightly.
Daryl unlatched the barn door, pulling it open rapidly. The first walker charged out. Daryl shot a bolt to its head, taking it down.
Three other walkers emerged from the barn. Daryl advanced on one, and swung his crossbow at its head landing a heavy blow, knocking the walker down. Then Daryl pierced its skull with his knife, killing it.
Beth focused on the walker charging at her, its arms outstretched, measuring at least one foot taller than she.
"Usually I do this through a fence," Beth mumbled raising the hatchet.
The hatchet handle extended Beth's arm. She brought the hatchet back, and then forcefully swung it smashing the blade into the walker's skull. The hatchet lodged in the skull of the walker felling it. Beth grabbed her knife and finished off the walker by stabbing its right temple.
Daryl saw the fourth walker approach Beth. Seeing Beth was already fighting a walker, Daryl raised his crossbow and shot the fourth walker with a bolt to its head, killing it.
All four walkers were dead.
"You okay?" Daryl asked, trying to catch his breath.
"Yeah," Beth answered panting from exertion and fear.
"They have guns," Daryl removed a gun from the body of a walker.
"And car keys," Beth said holding them up and jingling them to show Daryl.
"Yup, and the keys on this ugly bastard are Ford, for the truck." Daryl added.
"They look like a family. This must be their farmhouse. They look like parents and two teenagers, a boy and a girl," Beth observed as she took a gun from one of the bodies. "Mine's got a full cartridge." She showed Daryl.
"Mine too," Daryl replied. "Maybe we'll find some extra ammo in here." he said entering the barn.
There was nothing they saw on first examination that would be useful to them in the barn.
"I wonder why they were in the barn and not the house?" Beth questioned.
"Don't know. Maybe felt safer in the barn." he replied.
"Yeah but why?" she persisted.
"Only one door and the windows are way up in the rafters, too high for outsiders to climb in. Looks like they parked the cars in front of the door for a quick getaway, or protection from walkers."
"How do you think they died?" Beth asked
/
"Don't know. Maybe got sick, had no medicine. C'mon let's check out the property. We can burn the bodies tomorrow."
They found the well a distance from the house, behind it, on the left side of the property. Four buckets sat beside it. Using the attached ropes, they lowered the buckets, one at a time, into the well. Daryl and Beth each carried two full buckets of water back to the main house.
They started going through the cabinets in the kitchen. The family recently lived on the property, so there was food in the pantry.
There is some rice, mason jars with preserved vegetables, probably from their garden, tomatoes, green beans, pickled cucumbers, carrots. There are peach preserves, and a lot of dried spices. Beth said excitedly.
"We can cook and boil water in the fireplace in that cast iron kettle" Beth observed.
"Smoke comin outta the chimney's gonna attract the notice of others, draw them here. I think it's safest to light a fire once a day, when the sun is highest. Tonight'll be an exception. We got a little daylight left. I'll get some kindlin' from the woodpile out back, enough for tonight's food and water."
"What if those walkers died of a disease and the barn is contaminated? You think we should stay out of there?" Beth asked.
"I dunno, let's see what we learn bout this place in the next few days. I'ma get the wood so we can boil some rice before we lose daylight. S'not much time."
"Okay" Beth said. "If Daryl hunts, we can make rabbit stew," she thought to herself.
Daryl returned with kindling, enough for the night's meal. He started a fire in the fireplace while Beth poured water from the bucket into the cast iron kettle to boil.
"She's got some good pots and pans we can use for cookin' in." Beth offered. "We have salt for the rice too. It'll be nice to go to sleep with a full stomach tonight"
"Mm hmm" Daryl acknowledged.
"Never get much enthusiasm out of him," Beth thought to herself.
After dinner, Daryl carried three buckets of heated water upstairs into the master bathroom, and poured them out into the bathtub.
""You can wash up first. I'll use the water after you. Don't pour it out." he told Beth.
"Thanks!" she happily accepted.
Beth was psyched to get into a warm bath. She found Dove soap in the bathroom and some washcloths. There was Dial soap too. Daryl could use that. She put it out on a washcloth where he would be able to see it.
She was excited to use the Dove soap, and get the smell of perspiration off her body. Beth lathered her entire body with the bar of soap, running the bar over her wet skin. Clean felt great, and she proceeded to wash her hair with the shampoo and conditioner she found in the bathroom. "Ahhh, what luxury" she smiled.
Beth stepped out of the tub and dried off with a bath towel from the linen closet. She found a brush in the bathroom vanity, and brushed her hair, getting all the knots out. She even found a razor and shaved her armpits and legs. She was really enjoying her little spa day.
"Geez girl!" What the hell you doin in there?
With that she popped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body, and one on her head.
"Your turn," she announced. "There's a razor in there, might be dull, used it on my legs, sorry. And I left some Dial soap out for you."
Daryl went into the bathroom and peeled his clothes off. Both he and his clothes were pretty disgusting. Daryl lowered himself into the tub of water, perfumed from Beth's products. To his surprise, as he smelled the fragrance of the women's products, his body reacted sexually. "Oh, Lord!" he thought pushing thoughts of Beth out of his head.
Daryl picked up the dial soap and lathered, vigorously cleaning his skin. He scrubbed to get the dirt off his arms and chest where his skin was most exposed to dirt. He rubbed off walker blood, and the water got pretty black. "Yuck," he thought. Well he could repeat the process tomorrow, he reasoned.
He didn't bother with the razor. Though he did see a scissors. Tomorrow he would ask Beth to trim the hair out of his eyes. He was sick of his hair always covering his eyes. It interfered with hunting and killing walkers. It just wasn't safe to have it that long.
Beth went through the bedroom closet looking for clothes in her size. She found clean underwear, a clean bra, she lamented that she didn't fill out the B cup. She found a drawer of t shirts, and selected a pretty pink one pulling it over her head.
She found some yoga pants with a flared bottom and pulled them on. She wanted to be comfortable and didn't feel like wearing jeans. Everything was a little large on her, but only about one size, so she felt pretty fortunate to find them.
She also found a thin summer nightgown appropriate for sleeping. She took it, but would wait until she was in bed to change into it. It was sleeveless, and quite sheer, a thin summer cotton, barely opaque enough to hide her girl parts. She would not want to be immodest in front of Daryl. God forbid if he saw her body he would probably have a heart attack. She laughed at the thought.
Beth reflected on Daryl. He surely did not know what to do about her gender. He would be happy if she were one of the guys. Daryl neither knew what to say, or how to behave around females. Beth thought he was most comfortable with Judith. She couldn't talk yet, which was just his speed. She chuckled to herself.
Beth entered the master bedroom where Daryl was sitting on the bed, legs outstretched in pajama bottoms and wearing a white t shirt.
"Ooh, you look so clean! You found some clothes? She asked.
"Yeah, he grumped, hating attention of any kind.
"We had a good day Daryl, don't ya think? We got shelter, food, water, baths, clean clothes, beds, guns, vehicles. I'd say it was a great day!" Beth said with enthusiasm.
Yeah, was a good day, he had to agree. You ready to go to sleep?" he asked.
"Yes I think so."
"Okay," he offered, "I'll sleep in the next room."
"Okay," she agreed. "See you in the morning then," she said as he walked out of the room, lingering at the doorway for a moment, looking at Beth.
"Night," she smiled.
Beth took off her clothes except her cotton panties, and put the sheer summer nightgown over her head. It felt soft and cool, and fell just above her knees.
She crawled under the covers and was asleep in minutes, weary from all the running she and Daryl did since leaving the prison.