AN: I used 'mom' instead of 'mum'. teehee

The Walking Deth - Part I

An Unexpected Journey - Chapter IIX

Clean

"Daryl."

That voice was familiar. It was Beth's voice, but she was gone, a car had taken her...No I found her again, they had her tied down and they were going to rape her...No they had been stopped. Was she here with me now?

I could hear the repeated thud, I could feel the sticky wetness all over my hands and face. I could see red, everywhere was red. He was dead, I had killed him. At least for now.

I let my fingers release what I had been holding and driving down into the lifeless body, and it fell to the ground. No blade. I had broken it.

I turned towards the sound of her voice and took in the sight of her face. It was red and swollen, and wet with tears and she was saying something to me. I looked at her lips.

"Daryl."

"Beth?" I felt the word come from my mouth, but I weren't entirely sure it was me who said it.

I looked her up and down taking in her dirty skin, the red welts around her ankles and wrists, her lack of underpants and the harsh reality set in. I shook my winged vest off my shoulders and wrapped it around her waist and then I pulled her down to hold her.

I was cradling her in my arms and rocking back and forth like I was holding Lil' ass kicker. My face was pressed into her hair, taking in the familiar scent and her face was sobbing in to my shoulder. We were both sobbing.

"We gotta go." Said an unfamiliar voice.

I looked up to see one of Joe's men standing over me. The young black guy, what was his name? Anton? He was holding a bundle of clothing out towards me. Dirty and bloody. I recognised Beth's dirty knitted sweater, stained yellow tee and her torn jeans.

I reached out and took the clothes from him, and then shifted Beth off me and helped her to get dressed.

Anton moved over to the door and put his back against the wall peering carefully outside.

"We need to get a move on, the others could be back at any time."

My hands were trembling so much that I was struggling to help Beth with her clothes, and she was trembling and sobbing so much that she was being no help to me at all.

"We're lucky that we had been forced so far out to hunt, or else they would have heard all the commotion and come runnin'." Anton was shifting around on his feet nervously.

It had been quite a trek back to the warehouse. When I left the others, none of them had caught anything, with any luck we still had time to get everything together and get out of here.

When I had finally pulled her clothes on I searched for her boots and socks which were in a crate by the side of the table along with all the other vis and pieces she carried around. I pulled one boot on, but when I tried to pull on the other over her injured ankle she cried out in pain, so I decided to leave it off.

Anton was motioning for us to go to the door. I didn't know what his motives were for helping us out. I'm sure if he hadn't, both of us would be dead, or worse, so I was grateful in a way. But the mere fact that he had been with these guys made me wary of having him around us.

"You ain't comin' with us." I asserted.

He gave an amused laugh.

"You ain't gonna get far without me, there more of them out there, and I sure as hell ain't stayin' here."

I didn't like the idea, I didn't know nothing about the guy, but he had just saved our lives, so maybe that was worth something. I would need his help to get away, and Beth was in no state to be fighting. I guess he could tag along for a bit, if he turned out shifty it wouldn't take much to get rid of him later down the track.

"How many walkers you killed?" I asked.

He looked like he was confused by the suddenness and nature of the question. I remembered what Joe had called the walkers.

"How many freaks?"

"I dunno. hundreds. Thousands?"

"How many people you killed?"

He turned and pointed to the body of the man he had shot on the ground.

"Just one."

"Why?" I really did want to know the answer to that one.

"To save your ass." He chuckled a little, like there was something amusing about it. I scowled at him and the smile left his face.

"He had it comin'." He added.

I nodded at his response, it still didn't give me a clear idea of his motives, but he obviously didn't have any loyalty to these guys, and that was a start.

I fumbled around the room grabbing at what I might need, some food, water, some rope and shoved it into my bag. I took Beth's trembling arm over my shoulder and walked over to my Stryker and picked it up. I put it over my shoulder and went to take Beth again but she pulled herself away from me, she turned around to look back at the warehouse like she had forgotten something.

"We gotta do somethin' before we go." She said in a weak voice.

She raised her hand and pointed at a table that had been next to hers. It was covered by a dark cloth.

"What is it?" I asked.

Anton cautiously walked over to the table and pulled back the cloth.

There on the table tied down just the way Beth had been was a naked female walker.

"Holy lord Jesus in heaven!" Breathed Anton, as he looked down on her.

I took a few steps forward to get a closer look. It wasn't a walker after all, it was a woman who had the shit beaten out of her, she looked like she had been tortured too and most likely raped. There was a fair amount of dried blood between her legs. My stomach lurched as I thought about what could have happened to Beth.

"Help me untie her." I said as I moved towards the ropes on her wrists.

"No Daryl." Beth objected. She was standing back and staring at the woman with a haunted expression on her face.

"You wanna leave her?" That wasn't like Beth, she was the most humane person I knew.

"She don't wanna come with us."

I looked at Beth and then back at the woman. I looked at her face, there was no life there. Her eyes turned to mine and gave me the look of someone who wanted to die.

I looked back to Beth again, she was nodding encouragingly, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. I turned and cocked my Stryker ready to send a bolt into the woman's head and end her suffering.

Before I could pull the trigger, Anton pushed his handgun to the woman's temple, shot and splashed her brains over the table.

"That's two." Said Anton pointing at the woman's dead body.

After an hour of carrying Beth, my back was aching something fierce. I had to keep stopping to lift her in to a better position and she finally convinced me to put her down and let her limp along, while I took most of her weight on my shoulders. I checked back to see black smoke billowing into the air from the warehouse fire. We had made good distance.

I had wanted to take one of the cars in the warehouse, But Anton had told us they were all dry. The car they had most recently brought in had the gas line snapped when some idiot had been checking it over. It had emptied the gas all over the warehouse floor. I was pissed we had lost a method of transport, but used the opportunity to set light to the place and burn the motherfucker down.

We had scavenged the place beforehand grabbing what little had been left behind by Joe's crew. Anton had claimed a few rounds of ammo for his handgun, and I had grabbed the shotgun even though it only had one round left. I had also managed to find some bandages that I would use to rebind Beth's ankle when we had stopped.

We didn't really have a set course of direction, just running the opposite way from where Joe's crew had been hunting. I knew that the warehouse fire would have called them back home, and only hoped they weren't able to track us back into the woods.

When night came we decided to stop and make camp. Not trusting Anton that first night I had kept watch. Beth had been curled into a ball with her head in my lap, holding my hand to her chest, while I stoked the fire with a stick in my other hand. Even though I had urged her to get some sleep, every time I looked down on her face her eyes were wide open.

"She ain't your daughter is she?"

Dawn was near, and Anton had woken and was watching me looking down on Beth's face.

"No." I admitted.

"I figured as much. Think Len knew it too, he was just messin' with your head."

Anton sat up and stretched and groaned and cracked his neck.

"She your woman?"

He was probing for information I wasn't willing to give, so I just grunted.

"Were you together – before?"

I didn't reply.

"Probably not, she don't look too old. That would have been right messed up back then."

I glared up at him.

"But things are different now you know –it's cool." He gave a casual shrug.

If this guy didn't keep his mouth shut he was likely to get his head knocked off.

"How you guys meet anyway? Seem like an unlikely pair."

I grunted in response. Get the clue fucker, I don't want to talk about this shit with you.

"You must have helped her out right? You take care of her, and she take care of you?" He had a lecherous grin on his face. Brave bastard. Brave and incredibly stupid.

I slipped Beth gently of my lap and stood up ready to confront him.

"You shut your mothafuckin' mouth, 'fore I knock them pretty white teeth out." I said poking my finger into the air between us.

He held his hands up defensively and leant backwards.

"It's cool man, just making conversation."

Beth was now propped up on her hands watching the exchange, her brow furrowed in concern.

"Well conversate about somethin' else" I suggested angrily, making my way back to Beth, dropping myself in to the dirt and putting her head back in my lap.

I hated the fucker, I hated his good looks. I hated the way he strutted around like he was king pin in fantasy land. I hated his friendly voice and chatty words. I especially hated the fact that we wouldn't be here chatting at all if it hadn't have been for his intervention.

"How about we talk about why you were with those sick fucks." I suggested.

"Why were you with 'em?." He retorted.

I had thought that Joe seemed like a fairly decent guy, I was grateful that he didn't just kill me and take my gear when he had the opportunity, but I don't think I could get passed the fact that he let his crew do what they did, and I wasn't sure I could get passed the fact that Anton also stood by with it.

"Survival. Strength in numbers." He added when I didn't reply.

"You couldn't survive without em?"

"I did, for near on three years, out there on my own. Freaks – ah, walkers at every turn, sometimes I had to run from huge hordes of them, sometimes going for three days without sleep, no one else to keep watch. Scared I would collapse and have some walker munching on me when I woke up."

Now Beth spoke up, it was the first time she had made a sound since we first left the warehouse.

"We've all had to do some pretty awful things to survive." She reasoned. "Anton's a good person, Daryl. I think he's proven that to us."

It wasn't proof enough for me, but the fact that she still believed in good people gave me hope that she would be able to recover from the shit she had just experienced. I decided to let up on Anton for her sake.

After a breakfast of canned beans, we left our little camp and moved deeper into the woods. I figured if we walked long enough we would eventually come across a road or something and be able to plan our next move from there.

Anton loved the sound of his own voice. He chatted about his life during the day, and at night when I took my turn to sleep he would hum tunes to himself.

He had been a college boy for a couple of years studying something to do with engineering, but his dad had died and he couldn't keep up with the tuition so he had taken a job with the navy, allowing him to complete his degree while serving.

He had been over in Kings Bay training at the sub bays when all this had hit. He had tried making his way back home to his Mom but after a year of wandering around and seeing all the terrible things he had seen he decided he didn't want to go home knowing his mom most likely didn't make it out alive.

The basic survival training he had with the navy had given him enough skills to keep himself alive out in the woods, and he claimed he had never found another group of survivors to stay with until Joe had found him. Joe had been impressed with his weapons knowledge and ability to take orders, and had invited him to stay with the group.

I saw his prowess myself when we came across a group of walkers a day later. When I had spotted them I had shifted Beth of my shoulders and put her to the ground. I pulled out the shotgun from my backpack ready to take them on.

There had been six walkers, and Anton had made five shots, hitting them all dead centre in the forehead. I shot the last one, and then tossed the gun, knowing I wouldn't find ammo anytime soon. He had holstered his weapon grinning with pride, and I had felt my lips curl up in a smile, even though I was sure I still hated his guts.

It was a couple days after leaving the warehouse that we came across a grove of Pecan trees. It had been a relief to see a new sight as I was sure we had just been going in circles for some of that time. I had let Anton lead the way, so I could see to Beth, and even though he was a seaman he clearly wasn't the best navigator.

It was after dusk and in the dim light I could make out a couple of wood panelled buildings beat up and overgrown with vines. There were two walkers strolling around in the distance who hadn't picked up on our presence yet, we weren't about to alert them neither, so we picked up the pace and moved on to our new destination.

There was a barbed wire fence surrounding the home, which would be handy at keeping the walkers out. Anton lifted and moved a post across so Beth and I could get through and then he pushed the post back in to the earth behind us.

The main house was rather large, big enough for a family. There was a worn out picket fence that stretched half way around. I thought of Beth's joke about picket fences, and thought about how for a second we thought we might have been happy back at that funeral home. Anton's feet crunching the ground behind me reminded me that if something was too good to be true, it wasn't worth dreaming about.

As we walked up to the porch I noticed freshly turned earth in the garden. I would say they were graves judging by the makeshift crucifixes standing over them. And the neat bunches of yellow flowers placed on top. I was glad for the darkness and of having Beth's face tucked into my chest when I recognised the small size of the graves and a pair of baby's booties hanging from one of the crucifixes. She would have thought of Lil' ass kicker just as I was.

Anton offered to go ahead and check out the house since he had the flashlight and I stayed holding Beth out on the porch. After a few moments he came out stating it was clear.

The sight of the wooden crib inside the home only confirmed to me that a baby had died there. And there was an old rag doll left by the fire, telling me the other graves must have been for children. Beth's eyes rested on the crib sadly and I knew I hadn't spared her the painful memory after all.

The living room looked as if it had been used recently, there was plenty of firewood by the fireplace and the soot was fresh. There was a half attempted puzzle spread out on the table. There were lanterns spotted all over the place and they smelt as if they had been recently lit. I wondered who had been here and if they planned on coming back anytime soon.

I took Beth down the hall in to the nearest bedroom. It had a large window with white netted curtains. Even though it was dark now, I knew she would enjoy the sun when it came up.

I lowered Beth carefully down on the bed, and then lit the lamp on the bedside table. I lifted Beth's feet up, and I took her one boot off and brushed some of the dirt from her other foot, being careful not to move her ankle around too much. I took the opportunity to wrap up her ankle in the fresh bandage and then rested it back on to the bed. Then I got up to leave her.

"You get some sleep, I gotta check this place out." I ordered, while backing towards the door.

She shot herself up and glared at me with a bewildered look.

"You can't leave me." She protested.

"Won't be far, just be outside, you call and I'll come runnin'."

She didn't look convinced.

"You need to get some shut eye. You've barely slept the last few days"

"I don't think I'm gonna be able to sleep." She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them.

"Just try to rest then." I suggested.

I scoped out the rest of the house with my Stryker drawn, not sure on how well I could trust Anton's scouting. I went into the room next to Beth, it was hard to see by the light from Beth's bedroom but I found a lantern inside and lit it. It was a bathroom, and it had been recently used judging by the lack of dust. I used the toilet and then checked out the flush. No running water. There was also an old cast iron bath with big brass feet.

I made my way out in to the living area. Anton was sitting on the couch. He had got the fire started in the fireplace and now had his feet up boots removed as if he had just come home from a hard day's work. I half expected him to ask me to start rubbing his feet. He smiled up at me as I entered, and I scowled back. The thought of playing happy families with him and Beth made my skin crawl.

I moved on into the kitchen, and found another lantern to light. The kitchen was relatively free of dust and the smell of roasted pecans still loomed in the air. I checked out the stove and found it still had gas connected to it. That would come in handy.

When I was satisfied with what the house had to offer. I went back into the room where Beth was. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, her eyes darkened with fatigue, but still wide open.

"I told you to get some rest." I scolded as I put my Stryker down.

"I can't." She said shakily. "I keep thinking I'm going to open my eyes and wake up back in that warehouse."

I walked over to her and dropped myself on the bed beside her.

"You don't need to think 'bout that. Len and those other fuckers are dead, there's good distance between us and the rest o 'em, and if you trust Anton then we don't have nothin' to worry 'bout."

Beth looked doubtful.

"Do you trust Anton?" I asked.

Beth pursed her lips in thought.

"He saved our lives, on a couple of different occasions now. He has no obligation to us, I think he's just a good guy who got caught up with the wrong people"

I knew all about that. But I still wasn't sure that was a good enough reason to trust him, but if Beth was comfortable with it, I was happy enough for now.

I shifted on the bed, and she clutched at my arm, she must have thought I was going again.

"Can you stay with me?" She pleaded looking up at me with her big blue eyes.

"Sure I can." I didn't think I would ever be able to leave her again.

She didn't sleep well that night, although I tried to, I kept waking up to her shifting in the bed. I tried holding her tightly, but she still wriggled about. I thought about trying my special tactics for getting her to relax, but my better judgement thought it was not something I should be bringing up at this time.

The light coming through the window woke me up at dawn. I sat up and stretched and yawned and then looked down on Beth. She still had her eyes wide open.

"You sleep at all last night?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Is there anythin' I can do?" I asked. I wished she could just tell me something, anything. I felt so helpless.

She shook her head again.

My stomach started grumbling and my thoughts slipped from sleep to food.

"You hungry?" I asked.

She shook her head again. That had to be a lie, the last thing I had eaten was the beans and she had hardly eaten any.

"I'mma get you some food." I got up grabbed my Stryker and went out to see what I could find.

Anton was already up and moving about the kitchen, I went in to see what he was doing.

"Mornin'." He called cheerfully when I walked in, like we were on some kind of daytime soap. All he was missing was the frilly apron. I tried to force a smile at him, and nodded a good morning.

There was a pleasant smell coming from the oven.

"You cookin' somethin'?"

"Yep, went out there early and bagged us a rabbit. Not too big, but enough for all of us."

Well wasn't that just fucking perfect.

"Great." I said with false enthusiasm and stormed out the kitchen. Flipping the bird to him, when he turned his back.

Outside in the daylight I could see things more clearly now. The pecan trees surrounded the home, and the ground was littered with nuts. They would be a nice change from canned food and game, might even help keep scurvy away. I would ask Beth to come and help me collect some after breakfast.

There were several flower gardens around the house that were neatly tended. I looked up to see the two walkers still wandering around in the distance and wondered if they had lived at this house.

While walking around the house I also spotted a well pump with a couple of iron buckets stacked up neatly against it, I went over and gave the pump a few presses. I splashed my face with the cool fresh water that made its way out, and gave my vest a bit of a rub, worried I might ruin it, but wanting to get some of the blood off, and then I had an idea.

It had taken a while carting the water back in the buckets, boiling it on the stove in the big pots and putting it in the bath. Anton had watched me moving back and forth with a puzzled look on his face. Eventually he offered to help me, but I told him I would do it on my own. When the water was several inches deep I decided it was ready.

I went out to talk to Anton, hoping I could encourage him to give Beth some privacy while she relaxed. I found him outside looking at the flowers.

"Think you could give Beth and I a bit of alone time?"

He turned towards me, and a sheepish grin was on his face. I knew what he was thinking, but I didn't plan on it happening.

"Yeah I guess so, what you want me to do out here?"

I looked around at the place.

"You could fix that fence up." I said gesturing to the barbed wire fence that had fallen over and curled up on itself.

"Get us some nuts." I gestured to the nuts on the floor of the grove.

"Or just keep lookin' at the flowers." I pointed to the yellow flowers in front of him, then I turned and walked back to the house before he had a chance to respond.

Beth was still sitting on the bed staring at her plate of Rabbit thigh. It was in the same position I had left it in earlier that morning.

I walked over to her and scooped her up off the bed.

"What are you doing?" she squealed gripping my shirt tightly.

"I got a surprise."

I carried her into the bathroom and put her down, she turned around and looked at the bath. I felt my heart flutter a little when I saw her smiling again.

"You remembered." She cried, dipping her hands into the water.

"What can I say. I'm a romantic." I was joking; although I knew what I had just done would probably be considered romantic.

She was still standing there staring at the bath, I thought maybe she was needing some encouragement so I helped her get undressed. I came at her from behind, and slipped my hands under her sweater and pulled it over her head. She giggled a bit when her tee and singlet got caught over her head and I helped her to pull them off too. Then she pushed her hands up her back and undid her bra, slipped it off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor.

My dick jumped in my pants like it had just got an unexpected surprise.

Get a hold of yourself Daryl, you don't want to bone her, you want to help her heal.

She thumbed into her jeans and then slipped them down and off, pushing her bare ass out towards me in the process. This was going to be tough.

I tried my best not to stare at her ass and tits while she lowered herself in the water. When she let out a groan of relief, I almost let out a groan of frustration to meet it.

Think of Grandma.

Then the dumbass side of my brain kicked in and I decided to take off my shirt and help her to wash. It was 'cause I didn't want it to get wet though. That was what I told myself anyways.

I had found some soap that looked handmade and a clean looking washcloth. I lathered up the cloth and ran it up her arms and over her shoulders, rubbing and scrubbing and massaging in to her skin. I squeezed the cloth and let the warm water roll down her shoulders and down over her chest and then fall in between her tits. I attempted to tear my eyes away as the large droplets rolled down and clung to the end of her nipples.

Grandma, Grandma, Grandma.

She rested her head back in the bath and closed her eyes and let out a long and deep sigh, and I continued to torture myself rubbing the cloth over her body, down into the water over her belly and up her thighs to her bent knees and down the calf of the foot in the water. The other foot with the bandage was resting on the edge of the bath. I draped the cloth over the foot on her uninjured side and pulled it out of the water and began massaging in between her toes.

She let out another soft groan, and I looked back at her face. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful and pleased. The water was beading all over her face shoulders and chest, and my dick was throbbing.

Grandma, Daryl! Fucking Grandma!

"You feel better?" I finally managed to ask, when I had gained some control over my breathing.

"Yeah." She said opening one eye and peering at me.

"It is getting a bit cold though."

I put my hand back in the water, it was lukewarm, I had probably spent more time than I realised rubbing all over her body, lost in my thoughts of not fucking her.

"You wanna get out?" I asked.

She opened her eyes and sat up.

"I think I should before I start looking like Grandma."

I laughed internally at her comparison.

I got a towel for her and wrapped it around her while I helped her out of the bath. I rubbed her down to dry her off, rubbing over her tits and then down to her ankles drawing my hand up her legs and inbetween her thighs. I damn near had to beat myself upside the head, fighting the urge to lean forward and place a kiss there.

The girl was just damn near gang raped and all you can think about is boning her? Dumbass.

Making a quick retreat, I stood up and wrapped the towel around her shoulders. I tossed her clothes into the water along with my own blood stained shirt, thinking I would give it a scrub later.

I thought you didn't want to get your shirt wet?

Shut the fuck up, brain.

I led Beth back to the room and passed her a relatively clean sweater I had found in the room. It was too large for her, but I would need to wash her clothes and it would be warmer than a wet towel.

She pulled it over her head and lay back down on the bed. I think she looked just as sexy in that oversized sweater, laying back on that bed, as she did laying naked in the Bath.

"Think you can sleep now?" I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Will you hold me? - til I fall asleep."

Just hold her?

Damn girl, you're asking me to do the impossible.

AN: I have to apologise. Ffnet isn't letting me upload anymore chapters...hopefully I'll figure it out soon.