They got up the next morning and continued on; following the road that Rick and Carl's tracks had led them too. When they came to an intersection they had no idea which way to go. The roads all came together in a large open field and then moved back to the woods which circled the field. They got out to stretch their legs for a bit and cook up some lunch. She sat down by the fire while Daryl skinned a few squirrels.
"Which direction do you think we should go in?"
"I dunno," said Daryl, "Guess we'll keep goin' straight, hopefully we'll see another sign of 'em." Tyreese stood up and said
"I'm gonna go take a look around, see if I can find some tire tracks or something further up the road."
"I wanna come," said Beth, also standing up off the ground. Daryl quickly said
"No you ain't." She felt a flare of defiance.
"Why not?"
"I want you in my eyesight. You don't need to go wander around the woods in your condition." Beth put her hands on her hips and said
"It's not like I'm going to be doing anything to strenuous. Besides Tyreese will be there, it'll be fine." Daryl still seemed hesitant but said
"Fine, but don't go too far." Beth rolled her eyes and followed Tyreese towards the woods. They walked along the road that had been off to the right.
"I can't wait to give Carl his hat back," said Beth with a smile, "Bet he'll be happy to see it."
"You grabbed his hat on the way out?"
"Ya," said Beth, "Couldn't leave that behind." They reached the edge of the woods and they proceeded with more caution as they walked underneath the shade of the trees. It was a cute country road and as they continued on it started to remind her of her old home. Beyond the trees were other smaller meadows with farms sitting atop the hills in the distance. The road turned to dirt and became narrower. They made their way uphill, following the whindy road. Soon a big brick house came into sight. It was absolutely breath-taking. All she could see at the moment was the front part. It was four floors and had big old windows. A few old trucks sat in the driveway. The grass had grown well above the tires and they clearly hadn't been moved for a long time. They couldn't see what was behind the house as the trees had grown closely to both sides. Tyreese stepped forward and said
"I'm gonna check it out."
"I'll come."
"No," he said, "I don't want to risk you getting hurt." Beth grumbled a bit but agreed to stay outside while he cleared the place which would take a while considering the size of the house. While he was in there she checked out the trucks. There was nothing that useful inside of them until she came to the last. She pulled open the old doors and looked inside. On the floor in the backseat was a crowbar. She picked it up took a few practice swings. It would make a nice weapon and she didn't have to wait long to use it. The creaking of the rusty door must have attracted the walkers attention as three stumbled out of the woods towards her. She raised it up in defense and brought it down on the closest walker's skull. His soft rotting head broke like an egg shell, brains spilling out onto the ground as he fell over. She easily took down the next two walkers, feeling proud of herself. She would prove to Daryl she could defend herself even if she was pregnant. Tyreese appeared a moment later and said
"It's clear." She followed him back in. "You're gonna love it here." Beth instantly felt at home when she walked in. It was old and rustic like the farm had been. The floors were made of weathered wood, beautiful painting hung on the walls and every room was so beautiful with its detail and furniture. She wondered who had lived here before the walkers. "Come and take a look out back." Tyreese led her into the kitchen would had big windows that overlooked a gorgeous meadow. Beth gasped at the sight. It was beautiful. The sun was setting below the rolling green hills and it cast a beautiful glow across the land, stretching all the way back to the house. There was a deck that extended off of the kitchen and she went out the slider door to get a better look.
"It's amazing." Tyreese smiled and said
"So how about it? We stay here for awhile, I'm sure Daryl won't object."
And he didn't. When they got back to tell Daryl what they had found he quickly began to pack up.
"What's the rush," she said, "Maybe we should keep trying to find Rick and Carl." She absolutely loved the house but she wasn't sold on it. She didn't want to give up on their search so suddenly.
"You're pregnant and we're in no condition to be travelin'. We need a safe, secure place to be."
"For how long?"
"I dunno." He looked deflated and said "I wanna find 'em as much as you do but we gotta think about ourselves right now. You can't have that baby on the road and we certainly can't be travelin' around with one either."
"Are you saying you want us to stay there until our child is older?"
"Old enough to understand that he or she can't cry loud while we're out on the road."
"But that'll be a long time!"
"I know," he said, "But you wanna survive don't you?" Beth saw his point but she didn't know how she felt about settling down in one place for that long without the others. Despite her reluctance she got into the car and they headed down the road.
When they got to the house she saw how happy it made Daryl
"This is perfect," he said, "We can sleep on the top floor 'n stay safer at night." Beth went into the kitchen and started to look through the drawers. She found several boxes of spaghetti. She brought them into the living room where Daryl and Tyreese were sitting.
"Looks like we'll be having spaghetti tonight!" Daryl was happier then she'd seen him in a long while. He got up off the couch and came over and kissed her.
"I'm gonna go set up some alarm systems around the place." She knew that meant he was gonna string up some cans to make noise if something walking over it. Tyreese got to his feet and went to help him. Beth started a fire in the chimney and got to cooking. She poured some water into a cooking bowl, put the spaghetti in and then set it over the flames. She left a large cooking spoon there so she could come and stir it every once in awhile. She looked out the window and saw Daryl and Tyreese putting up a long rope of cans and other metal objects across the front deck's entrance. She felt a small spark of hope inside of her. Maybe, just maybe they were going to be alright here. Maybe Rick, Carl or the others would find them somehow.
Gareth was pissed as expected. When Alex had made it back to town and told him he had exploded. Not only was one of their hunting groups dead but they'd lost food, food that would have lasted them a long time. Three people would take awhile to get through. They currently had four people still chained up in their cellar so they would be good for awhile but the more they had the better. That way if they had a shortage of people passing through they'd have extra food to go around. Alex remembered trying to survive off of deer and other animals. It had been hard to hunt and a good amount of the meat went to waste as they couldn't all eat it fast enough before it rotted. With humans all they had to do was cut off a limb and cauterize the wound. They could slowly eat what they wanted and keep their meat fresh and alive while they waited to use the rest of it. Back before the world came to an end, cannibalism would have seemed horrifying to him in his office job but now he had changed as they all had. It seemed completely normal to him and he wouldn't have it any other way. Human meat was sweet and delicious, especially female meat. He heard a knock on his door and he opened it to see Gareth there. He still looked red in the face but he had calmed down a bit.
"I need you to tell me everything you know about what happened today." Alex would gladly tell Gareth about it. He wanted those people caught as quickly as possible.
"We found most of the group outside slaughtered in the street," he said, "But I went inside the police station and found Jon. He was nearly dead but he was able to tell me about the people. There were three, two men and one pregnant woman." Gareth smiled and said
"Should be easy to spot," he said, "There aren't many pregnant women running around anymore." Alex nodded and couldn't help but let out a sick laugh and say
"We've never had a pregnant woman have we?"
"No we haven't."
"Wonder if it'll taste better, you know with all the different hormones and shit." Gareth shrugged and said
"Should be interesting to find out." His nasty smile returned and he said "We've never had fetus either."
Beth poured the finished spaghetti out into three separate bowls for each of them. She pulled out some forks and set the table. It felt bizarre to be going back to what felt like normal behaviors. It made her happy. As she finished setting the two candles on the table Daryl and Tyreese walked in.
"How was it?"
"Good," he said, "Got the whole place surrounded so if anythin' comes close we'll know." He shrugged his jacket off and just noticed the clean table. "What's all this?" She grinned and said
"Well if we're gonna stay here I wanted to make the place feel homey." Tyreese looked elated and he immediately sat down and dug in. "Wait! We gotta pray first!" Tyreese looked up at her, spaghetti half hanging out his mouth. She and Daryl took a seat and then she grabbed onto Tyreese's and Daryl's hands. She could see Daryl watching her strangely from the corner of her eye.
"What are we prayin' for?"
"Anything you want," she said, "For our food or each other." That's exactly what Beth did. When she closed her eyes and bowed her head she thanked God for their meal, for their health, for having both Daryl and Tyreese at her side and for the child growing inside of her. Once they were done and said Amen they all started to eat.
Later that night they chose their rooms. The fourth floor was an attic and the third floor had three bedrooms. Tyreese took his own at the far end of the hall, knowing that Beth and Daryl would want their space. Beth was in bed before Daryl, reading one of her books. When he walked in he threw his bag down and started to peeled his dirty clothes off, letting himself fall down onto the bed. He let out a groan of relaxation.
"This is the best bed I've slept in in a long time." She laughed, closed her book and curled up to him. She had to admit it was pretty cold, but with Daryl in the bed it would heat up quick. He must have felt her shiver because he said
"Almost forgot." He got up and went into his bag. He pulled out what looked like a bundle of fur. He handed it to her. Beth realized that they were mittens. Two pairs, a big pair and a little, tiny pair. "The big ones are for you," he said, "And the little ones are for the baby, when it comes." Beth felt so happy and thrilled at the gesture that she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. He continued to talk. "Made 'em outta some squirrel furs. I ain't much of a seamstress but I think they came out pretty good." Beth slipped on her pair. They fit her perfectly. They were mittens and only her thumbs had their own fingers. She picked up the tiny mittens next. They were so small and adorable but would no doubt fit on a baby's hands.
"Maybe I should take up knitting," she said, "Gonna be boring during the day when you and Tyreese are out hunting and working." She smiled and hugged him again.
"I love you so much."
"I love you too sweetheart." She felt him lightly rubbing her back as she settled herself onto his chest.
"We're gonna be safe here," she said, "I just know it." He kissed her on the top of the head and said
"I'll make sure of it."
Thanks DarylDixon'sLover, stateofgrace-xo, K. Lynn Perks, VampireTrekkie1701, Prime 13, electrickpanda, MaddyMarie1212, Caitiann, diana and all the guests for commenting :) So I've decided to continue the rest of this story in a second story. This will be the last chapter with Beth and Daryl for Into the Unknown. The next few chapters will all be Georgette & Candice to wrap up their part of the story before it moves into the next phase in the next story. Beth and Daryl's story will pick up in the next story. I won't do that huge of a time jump so don't worry, everything will be the same. I've gotten some confused messages about all of this. I AM NOT ENDING THIS STORY! I'm just continuing it in another story so I don't end up with 200 chapters lol. This is a good time to stop in Beth and Daryl's storyline and once I reach that in Georgette and Candice's storyline in the next couple of chapters I will be starting the next story.
Thanks for reading,
Wanderlustt