The Walking Deth - Part II

Only Way Onward - Chapter III

In Town

AN:There was so much information I wanted to cover about Teminus, but I really wanted Daryl and Beth to be reunited, so I skimmed over some of the details. I might explain more in later chapters.

The bible verse in here is Deuteronomy 28:49-58

*Warning* Contains references to Cannibalism.

The red brick and sheet metal rooved buildings of Terminus were surrounded by an expansive chain link fence, lightly rusted, around ten feet high and topped with barbed wire. We had been driving alongside it since turning off the main road and down a small access path which had been obscured by low growing bushes and trees.

I was in a state of giddy excitement as we made the approach. It had been over a week since I had last seen Maggie, and since I had that fight with Daryl. I was hopeful that Daryl did end up making his own way back to Terminus after I had hurt him. Once he had calmed down I was sure he would want to be back with his family, even if he was still angry at me. If he did make it back there, Maggie had probably told him I was with Anton. He probably thought I had left them all to be with him. When I told him about who Anton really was, and what he had tried to do, I wondered would he be angry or relieved?

David pulled the car up in front of a chain linked gate with the road extending beyond it and turning in, out of sight, behind the red brick buildings. Standing on the opposite side of the gate was a man wearing a fur lined bomber hat and a woollen coat. He was watching us cautiously with the muzzle of his rifle poking through one of the diamonds of the fence wire, aimed in our direction.

David turned off the ignition, pushed the door open and stepped out of the car. He let out a groan and arched his back in an effort to recover from the one and a half hours of sitting. He stepped away from the car and began approaching the gate, leaving the driver's side door open behind him. Mix was whimpering and pawing at the backseat impatiently, wanting to follow his master. I reached back and gave him a comforting scratch under the chin.

"What are you lot doing coming in by the back roads?" The man questioned in a rough and brusque tone.

David gingerly paced towards the man with the gun, holding his hands out submissively.

"Afternoon Kevin, I see you got your position on watch after all." David responded in an amicable tone.

The man, Kevin, pulled the gun back through the fence and leaned in closer, making inspection through one of the diamonds.

"David?" The man's jaw dropped and mouth gaped at David in awe as recognition set in.

"Oh man, where have you been?"

"Went back to the old neighbourhood for a bit, to take some time out." David replied. He lowered his hands and tucked them into the pockets of his jeans.

Kevin nodded towards the car. "Who you got with you?"

David turned and beckoned me out of the car with a wave. I opened the door and stepped out and walked forward trying to smile as sweetly as possible, hoping to impress my new possible friend. Mix jumped out of the car and followed at my heel.

"This here is a dear friend of mine, her name is Beth, she's been separated from her family." David explained.

I raised my hand and gave a sheepish wave.

Kevin gave me a quick up and down and then tipped his head in greeting to me with a warm smile on his face. "Welcome Beth, and God bless."

He started fumbling around at the padlock and chain that held the gate together and then the gate was pushed open with a creak and a shudder, that shook the whole fence. He stepped towards me with his hand outstretched to mine. I took it absorbing the ice cold touch against my warmer hand and gave it a shake.

Kevin bent down and gave Mix a rub on the head, and Mix let out an anxious whimper. Kevin peered behind me curiously looking into the car.

"Greg and Gavin?" Kevin said in an inquiring tone.

David shook his head. "They didn't make it."

Kevin's face dropped sullenly and he gave David a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"I'll let you guys in, just take the car around to west block- you remember?" Kevin moved back to the gate and pushed it wider grinding the metal hinge and letting out a screech.

"I remember." David said with a tip of his head, he turned back to the car waving for me to follow.

When the doors were closed behind us and the engine was back on I turned to David to question him.

"Greg and Gavin? Who were they?"

"My sons, the younger two."

David's face was set in sadness, making him look older than he actually was. I chose not to ask any more about them and focused on taking in the sights of what could be my new home. It was a cluster of brick and corrugated steel buildings with many large windows, some covered with shutters, and some left open. There were rows upon rows of large doors leading in to what I assumed were stock rooms and warehouses. A few people were wandering idly along the road who stopped to inspect the sight of the sedan containing the man, woman and dog, with the white cross on the back windshield.

David came to a row of vehicles all neatly parked beside each other. There were all different types of cars. A few of mini vans, some trucks and a couple of four wheel motorcycles. We parked the car alongside the others and stepped out.

"Where's Gareth?" David called out to one of the passers-by.

The man pointed out to his left. "In the comms shed." He called back.

Mix and I followed David around to a large brick building that was filled with loading equipment, and desks and work stations. Three people were sitting at a desk at the end of the room. They all stood and watched us as we walked towards them.

One of them was a man who was somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties. He had short dark brown hair that was long in the front and fell over the side of his face. He had slight stubble growing on his upper lip and over his chin and jaw. He looked very respectable and even a little cute. There was something in his bone structure and eyes that looked familiar.

The man stopped a few yards away from us and inspected us glancing quickly over Mix and myself and resting his eyes on David. A small sound escaped his lips that sounded like a choked laugh, mixed in with a more discernable word.

"Dad?"

Once David and Gareth had greeted each other with a hug and told each other how much they had been missed. They spoke briefly about Gavin and Greg. It turns out David had left Terminus some months ago with his younger sons and a few others. In there first few weeks back, they hadn't been used to being on their own, and had been ambushed by rotters. They had lost three men from their small group including, Gavin and Greg. Gareth looked devastated by the news, and tried to comfort David but David pushed the offer of comfort away and said he didn't want to talk abut it anymore. So Gareth turned his chin up and led us out of the large room and down a hallway and out into the open, where arrays of buildings were surrounding us.

"We've got quite the community here, everyone has a role to play, and you will too." Gareth explained giving me an encouraging grin. "We have over forty people with us here. They've come from all over the state. Some even interstate."

"Did you have a woman come here about a week ago? Brown hair up to here." I motioned to my collarbone. "Green eyes. She would have been with an African American man and woman."

Gareth's eyes lifted to the sky and he let out a thoughtful groan, and then his eyes went back to my face.

"I don't remember anyone of that description, but we have people coming and going all the time, it's possible I overlooked them."

She would have to have been here then, there was nowhere else she would have gone, although I found it hard to believe he wouldn't notice her within a week. Maybe she had already passed through here, and I had missed her.

"What about a man with a crossbow?"

"A man with a crossbow? I would remember that I'm sure. Sorry no one like that has been through here." Gareth answered without even thinking.

The little flicker of hope I had experienced when thinking of seeing Maggie again, now dissipated. Daryl hadn't come this way after all. He must still be out there on his own. He must have been so angry at me. David was watching my facial expression so I turned my face to Mix, who was by my side and focused on him while trying not to let my face fall with disappointment too much.

"We've got several generators, although we've had to roster their usage, fuel has been hard to come by lately. We have an infirmary, a wash room with its own water supply, and flushing toilets, but we go by the rule: yellow let it mellow." He chuckled to himself softly. "Sorry, no showers running yet, but it's something we might work on in the future."

We stepped out into an open area with planter boxes built up beside the brick walls. They were full of cabbages, herbs and other green growth, and I could see corn growing outside the far gate. There was a table along the pathway, topped with washboards, buckets and washing baskets and some neatly folded clothing on a trolley nearby.

"We have a garden, a laundry area, we have people rostered on to help with those. I'm sure David can explain to you how all that works." Gareth said throwing a look over his shoulder to David.

"And this here is our outside dining area." He spread his arms out to the area before us which was dotted with large wooden spindles, attached to umbrellas, with mismatched chairs alongside them, obviously used for dining. "We have a mess hall too, but we do like to enjoy the fresh air, when its not too cold."

Gareth's head turned to the sound of footsteps approaching and David and I both turned to see who it was. It was an older balding man with grey stubble on his chin and a fretful look in his eyes. He looked at us suspiciously as he came nearer and then his eyes widened in recognition as he saw David's face.

"David?" He marvelled. He stepped forward and shook his hand. "Never thought we would see you again."

"What is it, Neil?" Gareth inquired, interrupting their reunion.

"Ben's been hurt." Neil replied.

"Bad?"

"Just a broken nose, but we need to talk to you 'bout something."

They held each other's gaze, communicating to each other in a way I didn't understand.

"You'll have to excuse me. Dad, you can take her up to the living quarters. There in the same place. Just find yourself an empty room, we're a bit short on beds at the moment, but there should be plenty of blankets up there."

Gareth began backing away from us, following behind the balding man.

"I'll check in on you later, see how you're settling in. Welcome to Terminus, Beth, and God bless."

David took me inside a nearby building and up a flight of stairs to the first level. There was a long corridor at the top of the staircase with a walkway going off in both directions. In front of me was a whole wall of windows letting in the remnants of the afternoon sun. Opposite them was a line of doorways.

We stepped to the left and walked past a series of rooms which looked like they may have been offices, before Terminus had been used for survivors. Most of the rooms were furnished with beds and desks and chests of drawers, and other mismatched pieces of furniture. It looked like each room housed between two and four people. There were obviously quite a number of people who were living here, but I had only seen a handful of them so far. I still hoped that I would find my sister here, and she had just been overlooked by Gareth.

We came to a room near the end that was empty save for a rolled up mattress in the corner. And a few neatly folded rough spun blankets. David stepped into the room looked it over and told me it would be ours for now. He wanted to share with Mix and I, until we were settled in, and I agreed, not entirely sure I wanted to be left alone with strangers. People stranger than David anyway.

"This seems like a pretty great place, I don't know why you left." I said to David while we made our way back to the car to get our belongings.

"It was a really great place, when we first got here. But then it started to grow and people started to have disagreements about the way things should be done. In the end I decided it was better for me and my boys if we just left and tried fending for ourselves."

"But Gareth stayed behind?"

"Gareth was the one I had the most disagreements with." David said with a frown.

"Do you think you'll be able to get along together now?"

"I guess we'll see." David said in a tone lacking positivity.

When we got to the car, David popped the trunk and loaded me up with bags that were ridiculously heavy.

"What do you have in here?" I grunted, struggling under the weight.

"I brought most of the pantry with me."

"You think they won't have enough to feed us?" I enquired.

David shrugged his shoulders. "Might not have anything we like." There was a look on his face that I didn't quite understand

I would eat anything they offered; I knew not to be fussy.

After we had unpacked our belongings, and I helped David tidy up and get rid of some of the dust that seemed to be bothering him immensely, David took me down stairs to show me the wash room. It looked to be a staff bathroom with 'employees only' written on the door. There were a line of basins and toilet stalls, and a few women were in there gossiping, but they left when I came in. I used the toilet, smiling the whole time at the thought of using an actually working, flushing toilet, with toilet paper. Then I washed my hands with cool fresh water, and real soap, and met David outside.

We went in to a large open hall, which was filled with tables and chairs and with lots of people. In the far side of the room were couches and small tables, bookshelves laden with books, a ping pong table and a large lit furnace.

I looked around at everyone trying to see a face I recognised, but they all looked like strangers to me. I examined the people here, they all looked peaceful and content, but at the same time they looked worn out. There was something that was a little off about the make-up of the group too. I looked around the room and realised there were no children. The youngest person there would only be about fifteen. I wondered what had happened to their children, but I didn't think I would ever ask.

"David!" Called an excited female voice breaking through my thoughts.

David and I turned to see a woman in her fifties with auburn hair plaited over her shoulder. She had a friendly and welcoming face and she embraced David warmly and then turned to me.

He introduced Mix and I and told me her name was Mary, and Mary offered to get us a plate of food.

We found a spare table and sat down to it and we were soon overwhelmed with people coming to greet David and to meet me and give Mix a rub on the head. Mix looked uncomfortable with all the attention and whimpered softly and even growled at a few people.

Mary brought over a plate of cabbage and a slab of sizzling, flame grilled meat. I wasn't sure what kind of meat it was. It wasn't beef, I hadn't seen or heard any livestock on the way through here, so I assumed it must be some type of wild game. I picked up my knife and fork and began cutting in to it.

David waved a hand in front of my plate and I looked up at him, he was looking over at Mary who was standing at the front of the room, with all eyes turned to her. She pressed her hands together and bowed her head and everyone followed her. I put down my knife and fork and did the same.

"Lord, we thank you for the gifts which we enjoy at this table. As you have provided for us in the past, so may you sustain us into the future. May you bless those good souls who make sacrifice so we may have plenty. Amen."

"Amen." I repeated in unison with everyone else in the room.

I picked up my knife and fork again and glanced up to find David watching me with his eyes, shadowed by furrowed brows.

"You're not having any?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Not sure you should either. The quality of the meat isn't so great here."

David pulled out a can of beans from his coat pocket and placed it on the table. "You want some beans?"

"No thanks, I think I'll rather real food."

I stabbed at the meat with my fork and placed it into my mouth and began chewing. As hungry as I was, it wasn't very appetising. It had a chewy, stringy texture and was incredibly salty. I ended up spitting it into my hand and discreetly placing it back on the plate.

"Told you, you wouldn't like it." David said with a satisfied smirk and began spooning beans onto my plate.

I scoffed down the beans and the cabbage and then placed my plate on the floor for Mix to eat the leftovers. He sniffed around at the meat pushing it around the plate with his nose, whimpered and then placed his head on his paws looking up at me with big round puppy eyes.

"You don't like it either boy?"

I turned back to David. "Do you think it's rancid?"

David nodded his head. "It's definitely off."

After we ate, a few ladies came over and cleared our plates away, wheeling them away on a rusted squeaking trolley. People were getting up and moving to the far side of the room to the furnace.

David and I got up and moved over to the others. Gareth was sitting among a circle of people with an acoustic guitar perched on his lap. My heart skipped a beat when I thought about hearing music again. David and I sat on a couch nearby and Gareth looked over to us and tipped his head.

The other lady Mary came and sat down on the other side of David and gave his arm a squeeze.

"I'm sorry about before, David. I should have asked if you would like to take the lead in saying grace tonight."

David patted her hand. "It's okay Mary. You say it better than I could."

They smiled at each other and then turned towards Gareth who started strumming at the guitar.

He was playing a slow and sad riff, which sounded familiar, but I didn't know what it was until he started singing.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
was blind but now I see.

Gareth was looking at David while he was singing and I knew it was a song especially for him. I looked over to David and half expected him to be smiling, but he had a look of shock on his face with a hint of anger. He sat there through the song red faced and with angry tears in his eyes, and when it was finished he got up to leave. I followed him out, jogging in an effort to keep up. As we made our way to the doorway, I saw a familiar pattern of red and black diamonds on a sand coloured back ground.

My heart leapt into my throat as I recognised it as Daryl's Poncho. But Daryl had left it back at the prison. How did it get here? I drew my eyes up to see who was wearing it. She was just a plain woman with blonde hair, no one I recognised. Then I saw a sight that took my breath away. In her arms I saw the first child I had seen since coming here, not just any child, a baby, and the baby was Judith!

I sat up that night in the room with David cradling the sleeping Judith in my arms. I was far too overcome with emotion to sleep, and David looked to be in the same state.

The lady who had Judith claimed that her mother had arrived here with her a few days ago. She said her mother had been bitten and handed the baby over before going off to die. I racked my brain trying to think who it was. It definitely wasn't Maggie or Sasha. Could it have been Michonne, or one of the governor's people? I had told them that Judith was my sister, and they had accepted without question, so the woman who bought her would have to be at least old enough to be my mother. I wanted to ask what she looked like, but I didn't want to raise suspicion and I was just so grateful to have Judith back in my arms that I didn't really care how she had got there.

"I expected your sister to be older, the way you spoke about her." David said stroking the back of Judith's pudgy hand.

"She's not really my sister." I confessed. "But I knew her mother and father very well. I've taken care of her since the day she was born."

"The lord must have been working overtime to bring you back together."

I gave Judith a squeeze and said a silent prayer of thanks.

"Will you and Judith return with me now? To the funeral home?"

"Not yet, I need to find out more about my sister, if she came here and where she went."

David frowned and then nodded his head in agreement.

"We'll stay as long as you need to."

The night wore on and we chatted about our families, and about the journeys we had taken since the outbreak, and David finally told me the story behind Terminus.

Back when this first happened, a group from David's local church held up together. While out scavenging they came across a freight train on the tracks. They opened up the box cars and found they were piled high with rice and grains, enough to feed them all for a year or more. So they decided to follow the tracks to the train terminal to see what else they could find here. They ended up finding a gold mine of food, clothing, blankets - everything they needed to survive. It was all stored here in freight containers and on the trains. So they decided to make it their home.

They started taking in groups of survivors who came past, and as their numbers grew they had to put some kind of system in place to keep things from going anarchic. David had ended up being chosen as the leader, and he made all the decisions, including who they let in to the community. Eventually he let in the wrong people, and they got into a long drawn out battle that ended with many people losing their lives.

After the battle Terminus was left in a state of disarray and arguments began over the way to manage things in light of the new circumstances. Gareth and the others had ideas, but David didn't like them. So he ended up taking his two younger boys and leaving with a few other followers.

After his sons had died, David had been lonely and he had considered coming back to Terminus to be with his last living son, but then he had found Mix and he had been quite happy to stay there, just the two of them. That was until I came along.

I felt guilty that I had dragged him back to a place with such hurtful memories, but I was also grateful to be in a safe place and with Judith back in my arms.

Judith woke up early the next morning and started fussing. David was still lying on his back snoring loudly, so I left him there with Mix for company and I ventured downstairs to see if I could find some food.

The mess hall was completely empty. I initially thought maybe they were all still in bed, but they must have gotten up early because cereal, powdered milk and breakfast bowls were still out on the trolleys. Judith and I ate our stale cereal and milk and then went to see if we could find where everyone had gone off to.

When I stepped outside I could hear a choir of voices chanting something. I followed the sound to a large brick building with high windows, and planter boxes filled with flowers outside. I stood under the window and listened to what they were saying.

It sounded like they were chanting some kind of Mantra.

"Never again, never trust, we first, always."

They repeated the words three times and then a single voice started speaking. It sounded like Gareth's.

"The lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young:

And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the lord thy God hath given thee.

So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:

So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates…"

It appeared to be verses from the bible, but I didn't understand what it meant .He kept talking but I couldn't hear what he said over Judith's sudden frustrated wail.

I started bouncing Judith up and down in an effort to calm her and eventually she settled and started babbling to herself. I listened again to the voice in the room, but it was completely silent in there now.

After a moment Gareth came out of a nearby door. He smiled when his eyes fell upon me.

"Beth, you must come in, attend worship with us."

I nodded my head and followed. It had been years since I had been to church and I was curious how they did things here.

I walked in the room to see around forty friendly faces staring back at me. A few of them called out "Welcome Beth." In a cultish manner.

The room was a little bit freakish as well. It was lit with dozens of candles of all different shapes, sizes and colours filling every open space, and in the centre of the room surrounded by the other people was a circle of names, painted on the floor in black.

I stopped before it and inspected it. Gareth came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"These are the names of the people we lost." He explained pointing down to the circle. "Several months ago we were attacked by a group of bad people. They held us to seige and near starved us all to death, but the lord showed us the way, and we survived. With the strength of our lord we were able to take back Terminus, and restore it to her former glory... We lost many loved ones, fathers, mothers, we lost all of our children, and all because of these bad people. You must understand it is very hard for us to let people in now, we must be absolutely sure they are good people."

He smiled down on me and Judith and gave Judith a rub on the head.

"You're good people, aren't you Beth?"

After attending worship, Gareth assigned me a job of washing and mending the clothing. I happily sat out in the sunshine while Judy played on a blanket with plastic bottles filled with sand and stones. I listened to the women chatter, mainly about how handsome Gareth was, and about how thankful they were to have David back, and other little non important things that you would chatter about before the world fell apart. It very much felt like I could make this place my home.

After a short while, and a few dozen buttons, a man came racing along the path in an excitable state.

"We've got a rotter swarm coming in." He called down to us, and kept running to inform the others. The women dropped what they were doing and clamoured to their feet. I picked up Judith and followed everyone to the outdoor dining area. Gareth appeared with the balding man, Neil, and a blonde boy with a broken nose.

"Swarm stations." Gareth called to the crowd.

The crowd dispersed running off in all directions and Gareth walked over to me.

"You best take little Judith inside." He advised me.

David came up behind him and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Let me take Judith, Beth here is quite the shot, you could use her."

I nodded in agreement, anxious to get my hands on a weapon. David took Judith off my hands and Gareth led me over to the man with the broken nose.

"Get her armed, Ben, and get her out there." He instructed pushing me towards him.

I followed Ben into a nearby building and up a set of stairs. He took me to a locked door, took out a key from his breast pocket and unlocked the door and then opened the door to what looked like some sort of armoury.

There were racks and shelves of ammunition and weapons ─ Rifles, hand guns, grenades, knives. But the ones that stood out most of all were a katana, and a crossbow.

The swarm they spoke of was a herd of walkers. There had been over fifty of them, stumbling towards the surrounding fences and pawing hungrily at the gates. I had taken down at least ten, but probably more. The rest had been taken down easily by the others, with no loss of life. I guess that was one of the benefits of living in such a large community.

Some men were sent out to clean up the mess, and I was forced to give back my rifle and go back to mending shirts. I did as I was bid, with my mind wandering elsewhere.

That was Daryl's crossbow in the armoury, there was no doubt about it. He was still here, he wouldn't leave his crossbow behind, and Michonne was here too. If Gareth had lied about that, then he had probably lied about Maggie too. They were all here ─somewhere.

When night approached, Gareth proclaimed that we would have a feast to celebrate our victory against the rotters. He told us the feast would be a late one as he had to order extra meat to be brought out from the stores. He then sent us off to get ready for dinner.

David and I went back up to our room with Judith and Mix. Once we were inside I closed the door and approached David angrily.

"My family has been here!" I growled.

David hung his head in shame as if he knew about it all along. "I thought they may have been. How did you find out?"

"I saw my friend's crossbow, and another friend's Katana, and the poncho that woman was wearing, and Judith being here! I know they were here."

David slowly slumped to the floor. "Your family, are probably gone." He said softly.

"What do you mean gone?"

"The people here Beth, they have lost all trust in their fellow man. They do terrible things to outsiders."

"What kind of terrible things?"

"Things I would rather not say."

I glared at him waiting for him to tell me more.

"Look, if they are still alive, then I know where they'll be."

"Tell me where!" I screeched at him angrily.

"Follow the 'A's."

I left Judith with David and snuck out of the room and down the stairs avoiding the crowd amassing in the mess hall. I had remembered seeing a large 'A' painted beside a door in that hall where we had worship so I headed back there.

The room was even creepier at night, with the light from hundreds of candles twisting the shadows on the wall. The fact that they kept these candles going all day and night was really creepy too. Who were these weird and obsessive people and what did they have planned for my family?

I exited out the door next to the 'A' and came to the outer circle of Terminus, surrounded by the chain link fence. There were a number of freight containers and box cars outside near the fence and I walked out towards them and inspected them in the darkness.

One of them had a large 'A' painted on it. So I walked over to it, climbed the steps undid the latch and pulled the heavy door open.

I couldn't see anything inside, it was pitch black, but an awful smell was coming out of there, and I could hear the sounds of breathing. I stuck my head in and whispered.

"Hello?"

A body suddenly hurtled towards me from out of the darkness, and knocked me off the steps and to the ground below. I landed with a thump and shooting pain coursed through my hip and back. I went to defend myself against my attacker before I recognised the sobbing sound she was making as "Beth".

I pushed the woman off me and saw the red and wet face of my sister.

"Maggie." I squealed back, and then lowered my voice wondering if anyone was around. I hoped they had all been distracted by the big feast Gareth had planned.

"You're okay?" I murmured.

"I am now." Maggie said between sobs.

I was suddenly surrounded by bodies hugging me and kissing me and patting me on my head.

Sasha and Bob were there and Rick, Carl, Michonne and Glenn, and there were three other strangers too. I waited for Daryl to emerge, but he never came out.

"Where's Daryl?" I asked turning to my sister.

The happy and relieved faces suddenly dropped into sadness.

Rick shook his head at me. "He's gone, Beth." Rick made to comfort me by touching my shoulder but I ducked away from him.

"What do you mean gone?" I snarled.

"They took him, these people. They're not right." He looked around to the others. "They eat other people."

I knew these people creeped me out, that's what they had been talking about in worship that day. I thought it was just an analogy, but they were actually preaching about eating people! And the meat ─ the awful tasting meat ─I had eaten it!

I felt the contents of my stomach rising through my chest and to my throat and I retched them on to the ground splattering vomit all over everyone who was close to me. They didn't seem at all bothered by it, and just watched me with concern.

I felt my whole body go cold and my arms and legs were trembling uncontrollably with rage and disgust. A ringing was sounding off in my ears, my head was spinning and I thought I might pass out. Then Maggie gripped me by my shoulders and shook me back to my senses.

"Come on Beth, we have to go." Maggie said while dragging me towards the fence.

"I can't go!" I almost shrieked.

"We can't stay here!" Rick growled.

"I have to get Judith!" I growled back.

Rick looked like I had just punched him in the guts, his mouth dropped open and his face turned white.

"Judith is here?" He gasped.

"She's with David ─ my friend ─ she's safe." I started to turn but Rick grabbed my arm, and stopped me.

"You get Judith. We've got weapons buried near the fence, we're gonna get 'em and were gonna come back for you."

I nodded in agreement. I would make sure Judith was safe, and I would find Daryl. He had to be okay, believing he was still alive was the only thing that could make me go on. I would find him, and if I found him in any state but whole. I would slaughter every maneater in Terminus.

I found David still in his room sharing some canned goods with Judith and Mix, he jumped startled when I burst through the door. I pounced on him like a wild animal and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and brought his face in so it was in line with mine.

"They eat people!" I snarled.

David looked shocked and bobbed his head up and down in an erratic nod.

"That's why I left, I couldn't bare it!"

I shook him again roughly. "They've taken my friend, my very dear friend!" I was crying now. I could feel the tears falling down my cheeks and landing on my arms. "Where would they take him, if they were going to eat him?"

"To the killing floor. If you go back to the worship room and take the southern door, it'll take you out there."

I threw him to the ground and jumped to my feet.

"All hells about to break loose!" I proclaimed. "You three best stay low until it blows over."

I knew where to go, and I knew I would have to get there fast, but I had one more stop to make. The armoury. I followed the buildings around retracing the path I had taken with Ben. I raced up the steps turned the corner and slammed straight in to Ben, who was now guarding the armoury door.

He steadied me by gripping my shoulders.

"Hey Beth, thought you would be at the feast with the others. What's up?" He had a goofy grin on his face, completely oblivious to what I had planned for him.

The only weapon I had was the knife I had stolen from David back at the funeral home. The blade was thin, dulled and beginning to rust. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get it through his skull. A living skull would be firmer than a walker's skull. My stomach lurched as I thought about how I would have to force the blade through flesh and bone, the sound it would make, the feel of warm blood on my hands. I had never had to kill a man up close before, a living, breathing, talking man. But in this world you did what you had to for the people you loved.

AN: Thanks to those of you who are still reading and reviewing. Be sure to leave suggestions for improvement, and tell me what you like and don't like.