Hey guys! I just finished my next chapter. I don't even have words on how inspired I've recently been on writing! Last time I actually wrote a story was on NaNoWriMo 2011. D: (And I wrote in my mother tongue back then...)

So last night's episode... What do you think? I've totally fallen for Daryl's development (I don't want to go into this because of possible spoilers...). I try to let "my" characters develop, too. I'm not sure how well I'm doing it atm, but I really try. A reviewer said that Beth seems to be too whiney in my fic. I agree on that, in the series she's (now) much stronger. But I was trying to slow things a little down, since I want to make the change become more obvious. I hope you don't mind. :)

However, I hope you'll like the next chapter.

4.

I know places we can go, babe
Where the highs won't bring you down, babe
No, the highs won't hurt you there, babe

When he woke up he felt Beth huddled against his back. The sun was already shining. He was pretty sure she didn't do it on purpose and somehow he liked the innocent way she tried to get human contact. Somehow he liked touching her, too. Still he felt a little uneasy about it. He wasn't used to touch people, not in that way. He carefully rolled over and watched her for a while. She had tucked up her legs and hugged herself into an awkward position. Her head was curled against her chest and her locks softly fell over her face. She looked so peaceful, yet so vulnerable and he felt the urge to pull the blankets over her and tuck them tight around her.

He realized how his thoughts trailed off while watching her. He thought about his past life, about his brother and his father and even about his mother. He thought about how different he and Beth actually were and how he never met anyone like her before. Actually, he thought his life hadn't been much better before the apocalypse, it had only been different. Of course this life was shit. Dead men were walking around and trying to literally eat anything alive, people didn't trust each other anymore and tried to kill each other to maybe survive a little longer. There was no food, no electricity, no running water.

But on the other hand, for him it hadn't been much different before. He had always been among people that didn't trust each other, who were willing to victimize a person's life for their personal benefit. He had never experienced any luxury like a clean house or a fridge full of food. Most of his childhood he had been starving, at least that's what he remembered. And later, he had lived from day to day, just as he did now. His only aim had been to survive. It had gotten a little bit messier, a little bit bloodier in the past two years, but all in all he had always been a survivalist.

Actually the biggest difference to his former life were the people he was with, or had been with. And these people were better persons than those he used to know. They had had a sense of justice, a sense of morality. They had been generous and selfless. The people he had been with had trusted and helped each other and in his former life this had only happened to him on very rare occasions. The only person he had relied on had been his brother. Once more, he wished Merle would've stayed with them. If they hadn't have left him on that roof in Atlanta... maybe he would still be alive, maybe he would've become a different man – a better one than he had been. Have I become a better man?

Suddenly Beth twitched in her sleep and made him return to reality. He didn't want her to see him watching her, so he decided to get up before she woke up. He quietly rose from the bed, grabbed his crossbow and carefully walked downstairs. He had fixed the door the other night, so no walker would accidentially walk into the store. Before leaving the building he quickly peeked through a window to check the front of a house for anyone for something that might cause danger.

When he stepped on the front porch he realized that it would be a sunny day. Autumn was coming, one could easily spot it by the yellow and brown leaves in the tress. As no danger seemed to be in sight, he decided to relieve himself on the outside. Since they had recently refilled their water bottles he thought he could waste some water on washing his face, so he walked upstairs again and went to the bathroom. Of course there had been no running water for quite a while but the drain was still intact. He took off his shirt and gave himself a quick catlick. He then decided to change shirts and walked back into the bedroom. He carefully dug through his bag, and finally found a – more or less – clean shirt. When he arose he noticed she was awake watching him.

He hesitated for a moment before pulling the shirt over his head. How long had she been watching him?

"Morning," he said, unable to cover the wonderment in his voice.

She sat up.

"Morning," she replied and a faint smile tug on her lips.

"Ya should get ready. We need t' leave. Maybe we can do some hunting today."

"Oh yes,! I'm starving. Also I can practice my shooting skills," she said cheerfully.

"Yeah, sure," he answered and the two of them knew that she wouldn't even hunt a squirrel down.

She got up from bed and rubbed her hands over her arms.

"Ugh chilly."

He didn't say anything, because he didn't know what to reply. She took the few hygiene supplies she possessed and slipped past him to the bathroom. They quickly gathered their things together and left. Beth seemed to be pretty cheerful this morning since she was very chatty, but this time he didn't mind.

"So, what are your plans on hunting? What do we hunt? And where?"

He chuckled.

"Well we're already in the forest. Can't imagine a better place for hunting."

"Sure," she replied, "But how... I mean, where do we start?"

"Leave this up to me, okay?"

"But Daryl, I need to learn! What if... what if... you won't be able to hunt for some reason? Then I will need to care for us."

He chuckled again. "Sure."

"Why aren't you taking me serious?" she complained and the indignation in her speech amused him.

"I am, girl!" he replied. "You wanna learn how to hunt? We start now."

She stopped in surprise and he smirked at her puzzled look.

"Come on, we're burning sunlight!" he called at her.

xxx

Beth stared at Daryl's back for a moment. She didn't get a thing of him. First he was making fun of her and from one second to the other he changed his mind from no to yes. When he called for her she followed him with a shrug on her shoulders.

He lead them through the trees for a while and Beth tried to watch carefully what he was doing, but she couldn't see any difference to what they had been doing for the past days – walking through the forest. After about half an hour, she got impatient.

"Daryl, what are we actually doing?" she asked.

"Tracing," he answered in monosyllables.

"But how am I supposed to trace, when I don't know how it works?"

He stopped and turned around.

"The signs are all there. You jus' gotta know how to read'em."

She bowed her head and looked in his face. Was he making fun of her again? He hold her gaze for a second and then let his eyes trail over the ground. It took a second for her to realize that she was supposed to follow his eyes. She focused on the ground furrowing her brows in concentration. And then she saw it. There were marks on the ground that disrupted the even carpet of leaves on the ground, they were uneven and not easy to follow, but she tried map the connection between the traces in her head. Her eyes danced over the ground and tried to find an explanation but she couldn't figure it out.

She desperately shook her head. "I need help on this one. Those marks seem to point to the left and they're small, and those lead straight ahead but they're different..."

He silently nodded and darted a look at her. She glanced back and realized he didn't plan on giving her an answer.

"Daryl, I don't get it..."

"Yeah you do. You already have the answer."

She furrowed her brows once again and stared on the ground. Left... straight ahead... It wasn't possible... And then the scales fell from her eyes.

"It's two different traces, isn't it?" she exclaimed. "Two animals have passed!"

He smiled.

"Good, girl. Now which one's which?"

She fixed her eyes to the traces once more.

"Well... those look petite... but look over there, there's a bigger scratch on the ground. Like it slipped... Or maybe started to run."

She stepped closer to the big mark. "The marks are so small. Maybe it was a rabbit."

Daryl shook his head. "Nah... it's a deer."

"A deer?" she squealed. "We have to follow it! It could keep us fed for several days!"

He chuckled. "The deer has long been gone – especially since you tend to make much noise when something pleases you."

She pouted at him.

"So what's the point of showing me then?" she asked.

"You need to learn," he replied and she felt pretty stupid.

"So what's those other traces?" she asked trying to sound less touchy.

"Oh those... those you should know. Watch again, carefully."

She stared on the marks. It were long and slender marks, like something had been dragged over the ground. Only wasn't it one continuing mark but several that seemed to alternate.

"It looks like... footsteps... But of someone limping or so..."

She paused and looked at his face for a hint. For a moment their eyes fixed on each other and his gaze distracted her. She had never realized how blue his eyes actually were. The look he gave her a sight tingling in the stomach. She wanted to think but the look on his face diverted her thoughts. She took in a deep breath and then unsnapped her gaze from his. Focus. She told herself.

"It's a walker, isn it?" she asked.

"Yep."

"Why are we tracing a walker?"

"You wanted to hunt, didn't ya?"

"Yeah, but food, Daryl..." she sighed. "I'm starving."

"I know. I'll take care for food. But you need to practice your skills. Now, follow'em."

She pouted again but did as he told her. Carefully the followed the traces trying not to step on them and destroy an important hint. The marks were very uneven, but big and it wasn't even that hard to follow them. She wondered why she had never done this before. After a short while he stopped her.

"We're close. Be careful. Keep your bow at the ready." She nodded and raised her chin, heading towards the direction the marks led to. And then she saw it. It was limping through the trees and didn't seem to head towards a certain direction. She felt her heartbeat increase when she raised her bow.

"Wait," Daryl whispered behind her. She quickly glanced towards him, realizing that he was holding his crossbow. He passed her, and whistled. The walker stopped and slowly turned around. When it saw them it suddenly increased its pace, arms stretched out towards them. Daryl released a bolt from his crossbow and pinned the should of the thing against a tree.

He then pointed his head towards Beth.

"Now, it's your turn."

Her face brightened. First of all she had thought he wouldn't let her take the thing down but now she stepped forward and raised her bow. It still was hard for her to draw the bow, hold it still and aim at the same time. The first arrow she shot went far away from her aim. She frowned, took another arrow and targeted again. The arrow almost stroke the walker but just a moment before it would've hit the thing, the dead made an attempt to release itself from its boundaries.

"Damn," she murmured, "That's not fair. It moved!"

"Deer move, too," Daryl replied.

She made a third attempt to kill the walker but failed again.

"I can't do it. I'm not strong enough yet. Please help me, " she pleaded.

She saw his eyes dancing between her and the walker.

"Nah, ye can do it on your own."

She got impatient and her arms trembled even more. The fourth attempt failed.

"Fuck it," she said angrily.

"Come on, girl," Daryl scolded her. "Just try a bit harder."

"I hate this damn bow. It's bullshit," she ranted, but raised it again. The walker pulled hard on its restraint and she could hear flesh rip, when it slowly started to free itself.

"Fuck you, you stupid thing. Fuck, fuck, fuck you! Fuck this world, all of it!"

She released the arrow. It struck the walker right through it's neck. The thing raised its arms in protest, then it finally released itself from the restraint and rushed up to Beth. She angrily withdrew her hunting knife, made two big steps towards the living dead and dug it deep into its skull.

"FUCK YOU, YOU HEAR ME?"

She yanked the knife out of the head and breathed heavily. She then jerked her chin up and darted an angry look towards Daryl.

"I can take care for my self now, Mr. Grinch, okay?" she panted not concealing the upcoming humour in her voice. "I learned my lesson. Can we get something to eat now?"

xxx

And one final question: Do you have any suggestions about what's going to happen in the season finale? D: