A/N: I'm so honestly excited about this chapter. It's unedited, so all mistakes are mine!
Disclaimer: TWD and its characters are not my property. I wish.
Daryl felt his muscles stiff from the tension. They'd been hidden under Terminus's wire fences, watching its guards in their night turn. He could see the features of one of them when a light hit him in the face. He felt a tug in his stomach when he noticed the scar that crossed his face. It was like someone had stitched him up clumsily, with no medical knowledge.
He turned his neck to look at Rick, who judging by his expression, had just seen what he had seen. Daryl made him a signal before he hid before one of the bushes. He started climbing the wire fences as silently as possible, trying to ignore the soreness in his limbs. He refrained himself from kicking Ellie when she, trying to follow him, let out a loud whimper. He jumped down again when one of the guards looked at their direction. He waited a couple seconds and climbed again, staring daggers at Ellie.
"Sorry" she whispered. He crossed the wire fence and fell with a thud, rolling until he got to another bush. Daryl couldn't help but wonder how had Ellie managed to get out of there, being disoriented and badly hurt. Her innate clumsiness was pretty obvious, so he just clenched his jaw and kept silent. It wasn't her fault. No one had taught her how to be silent.
As soon as the guy with the scar turned around, they sprinted as fast as possible. Daryl tackled him, and without giving him a chance to warn the others, he pierced his neck with his knife. He took a few steps back to avoid from being crushed by the guy and dragged him far enough so his partner wouldn't see the body. They didn't have a lot of time.
He met up with the rest of the group in the back of one of the buildings. There wasn't a single light. They were in the dark, which was partly good and partly bad. No one could see them, but they couldn't see anything either. And if someone had already spotted them…
He felt a little hand wrapping around his wrist, dragging him softly towards a place that he didn't know. He let Ellie guide him, because even though she was clumsy and loud, she knew where to go. He could hear the footsteps of the rest of them. It wasn't long until they were in front of a metallic door. He was afraid that they were too loud by opening the cracking door, but they were already inside.
The room was lit with halogen lights, cold and aseptic but useful enough.
"How do they have electricity?" Carl asked.
"They have some kind of storage" Ellie explained, "It was already here when they found this place. They try to ration it but it's like it's already running out".
They kept moving down the hallway until they got to another door. The girl made a silence gesture, and then she put her ear against the door, trying to catch some noise inside. Daryl stopped breathing for what it seemed like an eternity until she finally said:
"Clear".
It was like everything was at slow motion. Her hand, raising and opening the door, the dim lights in the room…
Red was the first thing that he saw. Slithering along the floor like a snake until it reached his boots. He raised his head and found the naked body of a girl laying on her stomach, in front of him. The blood was hers. The numerous cuts of her body were the cause of her bleeding out. He felt a violent shudder running through him when he noticed the blond hair fanning around the floor. His hands started shaking just as violently as the rest of him.
There was just silence. He wasn't sure how much time had passed until Rick moved forward, approaching the body. He crouched down and looked at her face. He deflated when Rick's expression changed.
"It's not her" he muttered hoarsely, "It's another girl, Daryl".
God, he'd thought… but it couldn't be. A little butterfly tattoo decorated her arm. It was small, but if Beth had had it, Daryl would've seen it long ago. No, that girl wasn't her… then, who was it?
"Misha" Ellie breathed abruptly. He saw her stumble before she fell on the ground, staining her clothes with blood. Now she was the one shaking, "Oh my god".
She started hyperventilating. Michonne crouched down next to her, trying to calm her, but she wouldn't listen to her. She was just inhaling and exhaling brusquely, her gaze never breaking from the dead girl on the floor.
"What's this place?" Carl whispered. Daryl lifted his eyes and read the inscriptions on the walls. Never again. Never trust. We first, always. It was as sinister as the candles that were everywhere. It looked like a ritual room.
"I dunno" the sheriff answered, "But whatever it is, we have to get Beth out and soon".
"Ellie" Daryl said, turning towards the girl, "Where were the others? Where did they keep you?"
But she didn't react. She had wide eyes, taking in the macabre scene in front of her. She was paralyzed with fear. She started shaking her head jerkily.
"I can't come back here, Daryl" she muttered, "I'm sorry. I really can't. I can't end up like Misha. I can't, I can't, I can't…"
Her sobs were getting louder as she panted. Daryl wanted to soothe her and make sure she knew that everything was going to be okay as long as she was quiet, but a part of him wanted to grab her by her shoulders and shake her until she told him where was Beth. They didn't have a lot of time, and if her panic attack kept going, they'd be surrounded in no time. Their blood would soon join the river on the floor.
"Ellie, hun, listen" Michonne spoke with gentleness, "I know you're scared, we all are, but you have to be strong. Where did you sleep?"
Ellie seemed to be returning herself. Her breathing became evened out as her eyes fixed on the woman. She was still shaking, but at least she could speak:
"That door… there's… another hallway…" she managed to articulate before a sob racked through her. Michonne held her tightly and helped her get up.
"C'mon, we gotta hurry up" Daryl grunted.
"Hold on" the woman countered.
"We can't hold on".
"She's terrified, Daryl" Michonne replied harshly. The hunter didn't answer, instead huffing and running a hand through his hair. What if someone had already seen them?
"Alright, Daryl and I will check that hallway. If something happens, you get 'em out" Rick told her. Michonne nodded, and both men approached the door warily. Rick opened it with caution, and Daryl looked at Ellie one more time. She looked more calmed now and nodded at him once, encouraging him. He was going to find Beth. He was going to see her.
He couldn't believe it.
The wide hallway was dark. There were no windows or ventilation conducts. Rick took out a little lantern and shook it a few times until it worked.
"See that door?" Rick muttered, and Daryl nodded. It was different from the others. This time, there was a double door with a chain locking it. Even from there, they could hear the sobs.
Daryl thought his heart was going to get out of his chest. Beth was there. A part of him wanted to run and kick down the doors, but the rational part told him he had to be more careful than ever. It was a short distance, after all. He had to walk on eggshells. If they screwed this up, they'd all end up dead, and she'd never get out alive.
I'm coming for you.
One step. Two, three, four… he was surprised to be so close to the door then. Absurd as it sounded, he had felt like the hallway would never end. It was a ridiculous fear, but he just didn't believe it was so simple. These things never happened to him.
But that was real.
"We have to pick the lock".
The sheriff nodded and opened the bag. Suddenly, a picklock came out.
"Where did you find it?"
"The man I killed in that house had it" he explained. Daryl guessed he meant Lou. He didn't get to meet him. He was already dead when Daryl found the group, but the hunter knew he had been just like his partners.
Despite their situation, and the tension, he couldn't help but think that it was comical how clumsily his friend was trying to get rid of the lock. It was evident that he wasn't used to it, and it was logical, considering he had been a cop before the world went to shit. He could still remember him wearing his sheriff uniform. But it had been a long time since that. The Rick Grimes he had met in Atlanta was totally different from the Rick that had called him brother.
"Lemme try" he moved Rick away softly, "I think I'm more used to this stuff, cop".
Rick's lips turned slightly upwards. He hadn't forgotten the Daryl Dixon he had first met either, the same that had threw dead squirrels at him and had tried to stab him. The redneck he had been then.
The world had irrevocably changed them both, for better or worse.
Daryl smirked of relief when the lock was finally open. They threw the chains to the ground.
"Open it" Rick encouraged him. But he couldn't. He was grabbing the door handle so strongly that his hand was white. Just thinking about seeing her again by opening one door had him shivering.
He closed his eyes for a second.
You're gonna be the last man standing.
Daryl looked at his friend one last time before he opened the door and came in.
He saw figures running away from them. He took in his surroundings and he just saw fear. No, not fear: terror. Those girls wouldn't even look him in the eye, and the same happened with Rick. They just hid behind the mattresses, sobbing in silence.
"No, no, please…
"Not me, not me".
Daryl moved around them, lighting (not very softly) every single face, looking for Beth. He saw lots of blue eyes, but neither of them was a pair of doe eyes. He saw lots of blonde girls, but not her. The more he searched, the more the anguish grew inside him. The image of the dead girl wouldn't stop appearing in his mind. What if Beth…?
The police half-closed the door as he kept lightening the place. There were twelve or fourteen girls in there, shaking. And it wasn't strange. That place was extremely humid and cold. He couldn't imagine being there for hours, wearing nothing more than underwear.
"Did you see a blonde girl? Beth? Blonde, blue-eyed girl?" Daryl asked.
But nothing could be read in those faces except fear. He saw some of them swallowing hard when the lantern lit their faces. One started sobbing louder when Rick approached her.
"'m not gonna hurt you" he told her, "but you might know her. How old are you?"
"Please, don't hurt me…" she said.
"I won't, I promise".
"I'm just sixteen. I just wanna go home… please…" she moaned as she buried her face in her hands.
"Just tell me if you saw this girl Beth".
The girl looked at him before she shook her head.
"If someone knows her, or knows where she might be" Rick said, raising his voice a little, "this would be a good moment to talk".
Silence. Not even a sob could be heard now. Just shivers and teeth chattering and panting. They weren't going to talk. None of them.
Rick sighed.
"Daryl" he started, turning to face him, "I think-"
And that was all he heard before everything went blank.
The second the foggy haze he was in disappeared, two things came to him: the first was his crossbow, or more like its absence; the second was the killing headache. He felt like his head was going to explode any time soon. It was like it was pulsing. He opened his eyes slightly, and then a hand pressed against his head.
He straightened up so fast that he felt sick. He moved his arms looking for a support point, but instead, he found a human body. A warm, breathing body… and it seemed like they were talking to him.
Daryl tried to focus. A weak moonlight lit that place, letting him drink in the surroundings and the face of his interlocutor.
"Maggie" he whispered. He tried to get up again, but it was like his body was too heavy.
"Shh" she said, helping him to sit down, "that's it, careful. You knocked your head pretty hard".
"These people…" he started. Suddenly, realization hit him, "Beth. Where's Beth?"
Maggie's lips turned into a thin line, in a gesture that Daryl interpreted like a way to keep tears at bay. Judging by how brusquely she turned her face away from him, she was already crying.
"I wonder the same thing" she muttered hoarsely.
Daryl moved a bit and spotted Rick, Carl, Michonne and Ellie lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. Rick had a pretty nasty cut on his cheek, and someone churned inside him as he noticed Ellie's black eye.
"Bob was afraid you had a concussion. He said someone had to watch you until you woke up, if you did. You're the first one to return" she explained quietly, "I dunno when they'll return themselves".
"Maggie…" he managed to say, "what… what the hell happened?"
The eldest of the Greene sisters took a second to answer. Suddenly, she looked more adult.
"I got out with Sasha and Bob. I started looking for Glenn immediately. It was like an eternity until I found 'im" she smiled weakly, "It was the best thing that had happened in a long time. He was with more people. Good people, Daryl. We decided to go to Terminus, but as soon as we arrived we saw this was a trap. They took our weapons and put us in this train car. We've been here a few days, and just a couple hours ago y'all appeared".
Daryl tried to process everything. He felt like he'd felt some nights before the turn, when he was still wandering off with Merle and he convinced him into taking some shitty pill. He felt like he was floating.
"Beth's here" he muttered.
"What?" the shock of her voice was identical to the one of her face.
"Ellie, the kid…" he pointed at her, "she's been here 'fore. She knew Beth. Beth's here".
He looked at Ellie again. Apart from the black eye, he didn't see any new bruise in her already damaged body. That didn't make him feel less of a shit, of course.
He told her he'd keep her safe. He promised her she wouldn't have to come back there. But there they were, trapped in a train car in some lunatics' community. He looked away, feeling ashamed.
"I got out with Beth. One night walkers attacked the place we were stayin' in. She had a hurt ankle and I told her to wait for me on the side of the road 'til I could get rid of the walkers following us. But when I managed to get out she wasn't there anymore. Someone had taken her… black car, with a white cross painted on it. I tried to follow it. I tried".
Daryl lifted his head to glance at Maggie. Her eyes were dry now, but she looked shocked.
"But she's alive?"
He nodded.
"She's alive".
Daryl was leaning against a side of the train car, the most luminous one. Through the cracks he could see the outside: two new guards were there. They had taken care of the blood and the body of the old guard. Everything looked perfectly calm.
A couple hours had passed since he had woken up, and he wasn't surprised to find out that some were still trying to wake up. There were some new faces, strange people, but they were Glenn and Maggie's friends, and if they trusted hem, so did he. Besides, they already had enough enemies.
Rick, Michonne, Ellie and Carl had woken up shortly after him, but just the adults were able to get up for long enough to catch up with the rest. As soon as Ellie tried to open her mouth, she moved to the furthest place of the train car and started throwing up, even though she barely had anything to puke, and then she fell down, trembling. Michonne held her and put her on her lap, where she stroked her hair until the girl fell asleep again. Even then, her tiny body kept shaking. Carl tried to hold on a bit more, but he was truly exhausted. They all were. The rest of the group had tried to convince Daryl to get some rest, but he had refused: when they were at the prison he had never left his turn in advance, and some slight concussion wasn't going to stop him now. Bob had already told him that the risk was gone.
He saw a woman on her fifties with long, gray hair pulled up in a braid. She approached one of the guards and they talked for a bit. He realized she was in charge: the way he nodded jerkily and how fast he moved clarified it.
It wasn't long until he came back, but he wasn't alone. He was dragging a girl by her hair. He recognized her immediately: she was the girl Rick had tried talking to. She was sobbing loudly and was trying to get rid of the man's grip.
The guard said something before he practically threw her at the woman's feet, who said something that Daryl couldn't understand. The man leered at the girl before he turned around and came back to his position.
The woman crouched down carefully next to her, cradling her face in her hands with a surprising softness to wipe out the tears. The woman smiled and asked her something, but the girl just shook her head weakly. She kept talking, but the girl just kept shaking her head, over and over again. Suddenly, the woman's expression hardened. She stood up and kicked the girl on the stomach. She rolled to her back, panting.
"Tom!" she exclaimed strongly, "Take her from my sight. Two days without water or food, and we'll see if she speaks or not".
"Yes, m'am" the dude answered. Daryl saw how the girl tried to get up, facing him. She opened her eyes and their gazes met.
"Help me" her lips formed the request. But Daryl couldn't do anything. He couldn't even get out of there. Fuck, he hadn't even been able to find Beth.
Two girls approached the first one, trying to move her, but she fought back. She kept looking at him, pronouncing the same words endlessly. It was driving him insane. What did she want from him? He was as trapped as she was. He couldn't do shit.
One of the guards approached the girls, and his lantern blinded him for an instant. When he blinked to focus again, he froze.
Because the girl he'd been searching for months, the girl he had been dreaming about every single night since she was taking, the same that was always on his mind, filling it with her soft voice, was know kneeling down beside the poor girl who was now begging for his help, soothing her.
Her back was facing him, but he'd recognize that little braid on her ponytail anywhere. The girl lying on the floor looked at her and murmured something before she fainted. Then Beth turned around.
It was like being back in the woods looking for Sophia, when he had fallen off the horse. The same tug in his stomach. Her eyes flashed in the darkness, full with shock. He couldn't stop looking at her. Her mouth was slightly open, just like that night at the funeral home, when that "oh" slipped through her lips. She was changed: her features were a bit harder now, showing the obstacles she had been through. However, her eyes remained the same. Graceful, full of light. Full of pureness. Those doe eyes that he'd see in every pond, river or lake that he'd come across. And those very same eyes were piercing him now, like she was trying to get under his skin, like she hadn't already done it.
The man pushed her roughly and she lost her balance, breaking the visual contact. He pointed at the passed out girl and grunted like the Neanderthal he was. Beth nodded curtly, and with the other girl's help, they managed to make her move. He felt sick when he realized she was walking away. She was leaving… again. His heart skipped a beat when Beth turned her head one last time to glance at him quickly before she slipped an arm around her partner's torso, but he didn't see shock in her eyes. Just a promise.
I'm coming for you.
A/N: And there she is.
Thanks for reading and please review!