Author's Note: I'm back! Back with a brand new chapter for you all. This is a very decisive point of the story, and I couldn't be more excited. I hope you guys like it.

Special thanks to all of you amazing human beings that left encouraging reviews, saying you like this crazy story. Seriously, you rock!

Disclaimer: I still don't own The Walking Dead. If I ever do, I'll be sure to let you guys know first.

When she arrived home being carried by none other than Merle Dixon everybody freaked out, thinking she had been hurt or worse, bitten. Her daddy was the first one to see her. He screamed her name, probably alerting the whole state of Georgia that something was wrong with her, and ran to the porch where Merle was carefully putting her down.

"What's wrong?" Her father demanded as soon as he came near them. It was evident that he was speaking to Merle, and not her, as though he expected her not to be able to answer for herself. It was annoying and demeaning.

"Nothing's wrong," She answered anyway. It was about time everybody stopped treating her like an invalid. "I just fell and hurt my ankle, Merle was kind enough to carry me here." Okay, so that wasn't the whole truth, not even close. But if she told them what had really happened it would be impossible to get a minute of peace in that house.

As she spoke she looked straight at Merle, begging with her eyes for him to follow her lead there.

He just stared at her, his face not giving anything away.

After what seemed to be forever, his eyes left hers and he turned to the crowd that had gathered to see what was going on. "Yeah," He said, almost indifferently. "Girl fell right where I was smokin' my cigarette. Just my luck I suppose."

Beth nearly hugged him, right there. She didn't know why he had lied for her, but she was very grateful nevertheless.

"Oh, thank God," Her father whispered, very relieved. "Sit here," He pointed to a chair "Let's have a look at that ankle."

She didn't sit. "I'm fine, dad; it's no big deal."

Her father wasn't going to accept that, she could tell. But before he got the chance to say something Maggie was speaking.

"Why were you outside?" She was demanding an answer but had an expression which made it clear that no matter what she said, Beth would be wrong.

"Why? What do you mean why? Do I have to have a reason to take a walk around my own house?" Beth was playing dumb, maybe to see if her sister realized how absurd her question was.

Not happening, of course.

"Yes, yes you do. You're supposed to be resting Beth, in your bed."

"Resting? Why should I? There's nothing physically wrong with me." She lifted her chin defiantly.

Silence.

"Where's Rick and Carl?" Beth asked looking around, just trying to change the subject to something else.

Her father lowered his eyes "Carl is missing... and so is Shane." He barely whispered the last part.

"Holy fuck!" Merle was looking at his brother in the eyes. "Officer Friendly went after them?"

"Of course he did," Daryl answered, "Wasn't going to let that crazy fucker with his son."

"But why is no one else searching?" Beth asked Daryl with all the courage she had.

He immediately frowned his face in anger, but it didn't appear to be directed at her. He turned his head to Merle while speaking. "Rick ordered everybody to stay put, said he had to deal with Shane on his on. Especially now that his own son is involved." Then Daryl stared at her again. "We should all be searching. Shane has gone completely insane, by the time Rick found them anything could have happened."

"Were you all out here waiting for them?" She asked him. God, it was so painful to look at him in the eyes and pretend like nothing had happened. Any minute she expected Daryl to start cursing at her.

He didn't curse at her, in fact, he didn't get the chance to answer at all.

"No, we were looking for Lori," Andrea responded. "Right after Rick left she disappeared. We were hoping she just wanted some time alone but it's obvious that she went after Carl."

"Bitch just gonna get herself killed." Merle didn't sound exactly displeased with the idea.

And then, like some macabre twist of fate, a gunshot sound echoed all through the farm.

They all turned their heads in the same direction, not daring to breathe, waiting to see if more gunshots would follow. But the sound that followed was neither a gunshot nor was it from the same direction. A scream, a desperate scream was coming from the opposite direction.

"Lori!" Carol sounded horrified. "Oh my God." Her hand came to her mouth for a second and then she started running in the direction of the scream.

"Fuck! Carol, wait!" Andrea went after her.

By then everybody was desperate, screaming things to do but no one was listening, they were all just screaming. Everybody but the Dixon brothers.

Daryl just looked at Merle, as if waiting for him to decide what to do.

"It doesn't matter," He answered a question Daryl hadn't asked. "All this noise is gonna bring all the walkers right to where we are; we need to move right fucking now."

"Wait!" Beth said holding Merle's arm. "What do you mean move? Please, we can't go, this is my house."

"Kiddo, there's no time for this. Trust me, okay? Go to your room and grab whatever is essential. Do it faster than you've ever done something in your life."

"But...but... What about my house? And Dad? And Maggie?" She was stuttering, trying to get the words out.

"We'll talk to everybody else," He said rapidly, mentioning to his brother. "Now go!"

And she ran. Ran like she was being chased. Ran like she was flying. She was good at running. That she could do.

She stormed into her room, gasping for breath.

Beth then gave herself five seconds, five seconds to freak out internally, and then she moved. Grabbing everything she considered essential. Merle had said only essential; she could follow orders.

Beth quickly changed shoes, putting the sturdier pair of boots she owned. She didn't know where they were going, but it seemed likely that a lot of walking would be involved.

By the time she was finished her heart was going a mile a minute. And in that second, God only knows why she felt very hungry. She hadn't eaten breakfast, her conversation with Merle had appeared to be more important — there would be time for food later she remembers thinking. Ironic, no?

But the hunger served to remind her to run into the kitchen and grab whatever she could see in front of her and stuff it inside her already full backpack. There would come a time later where she would ask herself why the hell had she grabbed the honey, but at the moment, there wasn't time for questioning.

Beth felt as though she was running against the clock, and not one minute could be wasted. From the kitchen, she could hear Maggie screaming something to someone. And then she heard something worse.

"WALKERS!" Her fathers scream sounded like the loudest thing she had ever heard.

Her heart was pounding so fast she could hear it in her head. Oh God, what was she going to do? Walkers. In her farm.

She was panicking. She knew rationally that there was no time to panic, but she just couldn't get up from where she was crouched. A pack of Oreos in her hand. Was she going to die now? After finally figuring out she wanted to live? Again?

"Beth!" Her father was shaking her like crazy. "Beth, let's go!"

She looked at him. Really looked at him, his face dirty with blood, whose blood she didn't know, didn't want to know.

Breathe, she told herself. Just breathe.

Had she known that this would be the last time she would see her father in a very long time, Beth would have said something different, would have said she loved him or something equally as corny. But she didn't, so she said:

"Are you okay?" While wiping some of the blood out of his cheek.

She heard screams outside. A lot of screams.

He didn't have time to answer. Daryl busted through the door looking everywhere until his eyes landed on her.

"Come on; we have to go." And started dragging her away.

"Wait!" She wasn't going without her father. "Dad, come on."

"I have to find Maggie first, honey." He started running in the opposite direction. "Go! I'll find you."

"Dad!" She screamed for him.

"For fuck's sake, there's no fucking time for this." Daryl was dragging her away again.

"Let go of me; I can't leave my father." She was putting her foot down.

At that moment, three walkers appeared out of nowhere.

Daryl pushed her behind his back and grabbed the crossbow that was permanently with him.

And in that second she had the opportunity to actually see the farm. There were walkers everywhere. The barn was on fire, the RV abandoned inside it. She saw Andrea and Carol running in the distance.

Was this some kind of nightmare?

While she was occupied seeing her childhood home being destroyed, Daryl had killed two of the walkers. But the third one fell on top of him, trying to bite every inch of skin available.

Beth wanted to help, she started looking for anything that could become a weapon, but there wasn't anything. This wasn't a movie where there would be a knife strategically placed on the floor right beside her so she could be the hero. There was just her porch. And walkers.

There were a lot of walkers coming their way; they had to go. What was she going to do?

But Daryl didn't need help, foolish her. He killed it with his own bare hands, splashing blood on his entire self.

While he was getting up, a truck came and stopped right in front of them. Merle put his head outside and screamed: "Get inside!"

This time, it was her that grabbed Daryl's arm and dragged him inside. Pushing him into the back seat, climbing next to him and shutting the door so hard she was surprised it didn't break.

"Drive!" The walkers were climbing the front of the car and Beth was getting desperate to get out of there.

But her scream wasn't needed, the second she closed the door Merle slammed the accelerator pedal and drove out of the farm in a speed that, in the normal world, would have gotten him a ticket for sure.

Beth didn't look back; she didn't wanna see what had become of her house. She only looked ahead, at the sea of walkers that had become her new life.

AN2: If you hated it please don't tell me, because I'm in love with this chapter and wouldn't be able to handle it.