The Walking Deth - Part II

Only Way Onward - Chapter X

Carolina

I raced up the stairs taking them two at a time and turned into the northern corridor. I went into the first door on the left that was Carol's room expecting it to be empty, and it was. Not only was Carol not in it, but there wasn't a single personal item left in there.

Rick came jogging through the door after me, stopping himself mid step with his hands on either side of the frame, and started scanning the room.

"She planned it." I muttered to him.

I paced back and forth through the empty room, while my chest heaved and my body tensed with frustration and rage. I needed to release the anger somehow so I grabbed on to chair that was pushed under the desk and threw it against the plasterboard sheeting. The chair tore through the board, stopping when the base of the seat caught on the timber frame. I clenched my fists and made an effort to control my heavy breathing as I watched the small black wheels roll to a stop.

I knew that she had gone willingly with the Termites, but I also knew she wasn't right in the head, so I went back down to the mess hall and grabbed my Airborne, checked my Busse was sharp and then went out to track her down.

My first stop was the box car we had left the Termites in. I opened the door as far as possible so I could see what traces had been left behind in the darkness. The shitting bins were half filled and the car reeked something awful. There were also empty cans spread all over the place. As much as I had warmed to David, I cursed him for keeping them alive. A small metallic object glinting in one of the corners of the car caught my attention. It was the broken, rusted and blunted steak knife Beth had given to the Termites to kill Anton, and there wasn't a spot of blood on it.

I threw the piece of shit knife at the wall and then laid some boots in to the dent it left behind. It was bad enough that Carol was out of her mind and with cannibals, but she was also with a motherfucking rapist as well.

I was growling and cussing and close to breaking my leg on the metal wall when Rick jumped up in to the car.

"There are weapons gone too." He said urgently.

"Fuck." I cursed, rubbing my arms over my head in frustration.

"I gotta go after her Rick, I gotta get her back." I declared while pacing towards him.

Rick nodded his head in agreement.

"I'll come too."

I gave him a firm pat on the back and then we both jumped out of the car to the gravel below. Our prison family were all outside waiting for us, along with David, Abraham, Eugene, Rosita and Tara. Beth was standing there with brows creased in concern and Judith in her arms.

"Imma track her down and bring her home." I told her.

Beth bobbed her head up and down in agreement.

"I'm coming too." Glenn said while stepping forward.

"Me too." Said another half dozen voices.

"No." Rick said firmly. "I need you to stay here and hold the fort in case they come back."

He looked over the willing group of participants. "We'll take Glenn and Abraham. The four of us should be able handle them."

"I'll come too." Volunteered David. "There may be no need for blood shed if I can talk to them."

Rick looked to me with doubt in his eyes, but then nodded his head in agreement.

I turned to Beth and told her and lil ass kicker I would be back soon. Beth didn't say goodbye, but I'm sure she knew she didn't need to.

We followed the trail over the fence and through the dirt on the other side. It looked as if they had left early in the morning while the ground was still damp, judging by the foot prints. If I had have spoken to her last night like I intended too she probably wouldn't have left. I knew I was going to be questioning everything I had done over the past few days and mentally kicking my own ass until I found her.

The tracks seemed to follow along the fence line, so we split into two groups and went opposite directions. Rick seemed eager to come with me, so Glenn, David and Abraham went together the other way.

When we were alone I tried to release some of the tension that was building up in my head by confessing to Rick.

"I knew somethin' was wrong." I muttered angrily. "I shoulda done somethin'."

"She tried to kiss me." Rick blurted out in response.

I stopped in my tracks and looked back at him.

"When?"

"That night she took over on your watch." Rick started pacing ahead slowly and I followed him listening to his tale. "Said she didn't want to be alone. I told her I ain't interested and she started wailing about me leaving her, and I knew she weren't right. I shoulda done somethin' too. I shouldna taken her out and left her after Karen died. She was part of our family, I shoulda taken better care of her."

"We all shoulda taken better care of her." I said thoughtfully, looking to my boots.

We followed the tracks around until we met up with the others again and then followed the path Abraham had found out into the woodland. We followed it for about an hour before realising it was spiralling outwards around Terminus. When it got dark and we still weren't any closer to them we stopped walking.

"They're circling us." I put to words what we were all thinking.

"We better get back to the others and make sure they're okay." Suggested Rick "We'll pick up from this point in the morning."

We all nodded our agreement and trudged back to Terminus empty handed. When we got back we found everyone in the mess hall looking anxious and miserable.

"You find anythin'?" Beth was rocking the sleeping Judith on her shoulder.

I shook my head and looked to my boots.

"Nothin. No blood. No sign of a struggle. I'm pretty sure Carol is okay." Rick informed everyone. "But they're circling us, they're waitin' for somethin'. I don't know what."

"To attack." Michonne sneered.

"I doubt it, their numbers are too low." Rick said with a shake of his head.

"They're waitin' for us to leave." Sasha said quietly. It was the first time I had heard her speak since Tyreese's funeral. "We should leave and give them this shit hole back." She said angrier and louder.

"We should go to Washington." Insisted Carl.

"The kids right." Agreed Abraham.

"We should have gone there first day." Sasha said glumly. "If we did, Tyreese wouldn't have been bit, and if we got there and found a cure, then it wouldn't even matter if he got bit, he wouldn't have got sick and he would still be alive."

We all stood in silence thinking it over.

"If we go, and they come back what will the rest of the survivors do." Rick said nodding to the others who were listening in on the conversation.

"I'll come to Washington." Declared Jason, while raising his hand up.

"I'll come too." Insisted Jane, raising her hand after Jason and then having it yanked back down by her father.

"We want to stay." Corrected her father.

Jane pouted and folded her arms moodily.

"I can't guarantee it'll be safe here if we go." Rick told them.

"I'll stay." David volunteered, putting his hand up. "I know this place well. I know its strengths and weaknesses. I ran it for over a year before you came, and if my boy comes back, I'm sure I can keep everyone safe."

"And Carol?" I asked.

"I'll make sure she gets the help she needs." David said with a nod.

I didn't want to leave Carol with Gareth. I certainly didn't want to leave her with Anton. I didn't even want to leave her with David. But if anyone of us was qualified to help her, it was him. Maybe being away from Beth and I for a while would do her good. We could always come back once we had seen Eugene safely to DC.

When I looked around at everyone, especially Beth and Judith, I knew that we needed to take him there. A cure was more important than anything else. I didn't want us living any longer than we had to in a world where we had to fear being eaten by the dead, and the living.

Rick looked to me like he was waiting for my approval.

"I'll go." I muttered. "Jus' lemme have one more look for her."

Rick, Abraham, Eugene and I stayed up late that night figuring out our plan of departure. We took an inventory of weapons and food, trying to decided what we would need for the trip and what we could leave behind for the others. I kept aside a small switchblade for Beth that I thought would be perfect to keep in her boot just in case. We decided we would take the two mini busses out so there was less chance of us being separated. We also had to look over road maps and figure out an alternative route if the roads had been blocked off like they were in Atlanta.

I came to bed sometime in the early hours of the morning. Beth was already curled up on her side sleeping peacefully. I pulled the switchblade from my pocket and dropped it in her boot for her to find in the morning. I didn't bother taking off my clothes or my boots, or my knife belt. I just fell into the bed beside her fully dressed, just like old times.

Beth shifted her shoulders and sighed as I wrapped my arm around her, and then placed her warm hand on top of mine and squeezed it.

"How you doin'?" She murmured.

I wanted to say I was okay. I wanted to keep everything I was feeling bottled up inside. That was the way I always dealt with things. Having the sweet smelling warm and soft Beth in my arms made me feel safe, so I just let my thoughts spill out my mouth.

"I shoulda gone after her when Rick sent her away." I told her regrettably.

She rolled over and rested her head on the pillow so she was facing me, with her nose only an inch away from mine. Then she wrapped her arm over my shoulder and started stroking the back of my neck, while she listened.

"I coulda brought her back. We mighta been together when the prison fell, I mighta been able to help her sooner." I continued.

"You might have left with her, and then we might never have got together." She replied gently without any jealousy.

I felt my lips press forward into a pout. As much as I hated leaving the prison, as much as I hated seeing Hershel killed, and all the other bad shit that had happened since then, I guess it was what brought Beth and I together.

I looked up towards Beth's big blue eyes full of understanding and sympathy, and I tried to force a smile.

"Sometimes bad things happen to good people." She said while continuing to stroke along my neck and shoulders. "And sometimes there's nothin' anyone can do to stop those bad things from happenin'."

I dropped my eyes from hers and nodded, trying to accept what she was saying.

"And sometimes, if you let bad things consume you, there's no comin' back from it." She went on.

I grunted and nodded, acknowledging that there was every bit the chance that Carol wouldn't be coming back. To Terminus, or to who she used to be.

"Everythin' happens for a reason." Beth added.

I looked back to Beth's comforting eyes. "I jus' gotta know if she's alive. Once I know I can let it go."

Beth smiled softly then leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

In the morning I untangled Beth's limbs from mine gently so I didn't wake her, and rolled silently off the mattress. I collected my Airborne and left the room, carefully shutting the door behind me with a soft click.

Mix was waiting outside the door, like he often was, and he followed me down the stairs and out of the building. I didn't want anyone to come with me. I knew that Rick and Beth wouldn't want me going alone, but I just wanted time to myself. I figured I could make an exception for the mutt.

Dean was on watch and he raised a curious eyebrow as Mix and I walked out the gate, but he didn't say anything. I trudged through the woods back to the place we had left off last night. The tracks were still there and I was thankful it hadn't rained anymore since the night before I fell in the creek. I brushed the fallen leaves away from the dirt surrounding the prints and Mix sniffed at them and started following them. I followed after him thinking I couldn't have a better companion. Loyal, could alert you to walkers, could drag you from death, could track, and didn't speak a word.

The tracks were doing the same as they did last night, spiralling outwards but still circling Terminus. I followed them until the sun had risen high and the winter chill had started to disappear from the air. Then Mix and I came upon their campsite. There was a small fire pit with fresh ash and beside that were several flat areas where bodies had slept. They were all fairly close together and overlapped in some places, but I was able to count them and determine there was one for each Termite and one extra. As long as no one slept on top of anyone else I was pretty certain I had the numbers right. I hoped that the extra one belonged to Carol and not Anton. I didn't want her to be with them at all, but I preferred her to be with them and alive, than alone and dead.

I searched around the campsite for a short time trying to find a sign Carol had been there, and then spotted Mix sniffling at a pile of leaves on the ground. I went over and brushed the leaves away and saw thin curled lines drawn in the dirt. The lines were clean as if they were made by a fine pointed blade. A Bowie like Carols. It could have been any knife really, but what was written there made me think it was Carols. Scrawled in neat cursive was a name repeated four times 'Sophia'. And each name had a line crossed through it.

When I got back everyone was in the outside courtyard, packing up their things and saying goodbye. Beth and Rick both gave me concerned looks when I walked through, but they didn't scold me for going off alone. Beth came over and joked about packing everything up for me while handing me my neatly folded Poncho. I smiled at her and she pulled me to her chest and gave me a squeeze.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" she whispered in to my ear.

"Yeah." I muttered in reply.

There were sixteen of us who were going to DC. Ten from the prison, four newcomers, the kid Jason, and it looked as though Jane had convinced her parents to let her come along too. I didn't know what help a small girl like her would be, but small girls had been surprising me lately. Abraham looked pissed that Harry, Noel and Dean weren't coming, but I figured they needed muscle to stay at Terminus anyway.

We all packed ourselves in to the two minivans. Abraham drove one with his group Tara, Jason and Jane and Maggie and Glenn. Rick drove the other with the rest of us, and with Judith perched on Michonne's knee on the back seat. There was barely any room in there as it was with all of our gear packed on the only spare seat, but then Mix decided to jump in with us and sat right on top of Beth and looked to the front with his one good eye like he was waiting for us to take off.

"No, Mix I'm going away now." Beth said, giving the mutt a squeeze around its middle.

"Think he's coming." David said poking his head inside the car.

"But…he's yours."

"Mixy goes wherever he is needed, don't you boy?" David reached in and gave Mix a scratch behind the ear. Mix gave David a lick on the hand in reply.

"He wants to save the world." David added with a chuckle.

Beth looked to me for my approval and I nodded. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my sidekick just yet.

We had been driving for a few hours when Beth lifted her head from my shoulder and started staring out the window.

"Rick, stop!" She called out urgently.

Rick glanced up to the rear vision mirror and then waved his arm out the window signalling to Abraham who was ahead of us to stop. We followed him for a few moments before he slowed and stopped on the side of the road. I looked back to Beth and wondered if she had forgotten something. I thought maybe it was her journal or one of her necklaces or some other thing she always seemed to be carrying, but I doubted she would make us turn back for something like that after hours of driving.

Everyone was staring at Beth now wondering why she needed us to stop. "What's up?" Rick asked her as he turned to the back of the car.

"I need a bathroom break." She declared, before looking to everyone while they rolled their eyes and groaned.

"What are you? Three?" I teased.

She smiled at me like she knew something I didn't know, then unbuckled herself and grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me out of the car. I didn't know why she was taking me to the bathroom with her, I guess she wanted me to keep watch. I went to take a cigarette out to smoke while she did her business, but before I could she grabbed at my hand and led me over to a big green sign, mounted on the side of the road that read 'Welcome to South Carolina' in big white letters.

"You're leaving Georgia." She said, giving my hand a squeeze.

She had remembered what I had said when we played that stupid game back in the cabin, about how I had never left the state of Georgia.

"Goodbye Georgia." I sang with false enthusiasm, while I read over the writing on the sign and focused on the first five letters of Carolina

AN: So I think this chapter had more Caryl than Bethyl. But Daryl really does care about Carol so it seems realistic.
The last two chapters are pretty much done. I just need to add some details and edit a bit. It's going to be a bit risqué...