Author's Note: Couldn't be more excited about this chapter, even though it was tough to write and took a lot out of me. It really is a turning point to all of them and it will change everything. Is sad, I know, but it serves a crucial purpose in their growing bond.

Enormous thanks to all who have followed and reviewed this story. I can't say how amazing you guys are.

Disclaimer: The day I own The Walking Dead, will be the day Merle and Daryl leave the show to come and live with my gorgeous self.

I'm not ready to fight all these guys, and I'm painfully aware of it.

Beth had only been training for two weeks; she still depended on the brothers. She knew her own power, or lack of it, very well. It had been one of the first things Merle drilled into her head. Know your strengths and your weakness, better than anyone else.

So her only chance was to cause as much of a distraction and a scene as she could, to attract the attention of the brothers. And yet, at the same time she was bursting with doubts because the noise was sure to attract walkers as well.

Beth knew she was walking a real fine line there.

She's a girl, all by herself, in the middle of the woods, surrounded by strange men. Men who had, undoubtedly, bad intentions. What could she do?

She needed to get away, and yet the only weapon she had were a gun she was not very good in using, a big knife around her waist and a tiny one hidden inside her boots, on the right foot — just waiting for a chance to be used against a person trying to do her harm.

What could she do? With two knives and a gun against all these men around her?

She couldn't count accurately — she wasn't facing all of them. But, if she had to guess, she would say there were, at least, eight men there. Eight big, heavily armed, men.

She had to think quickly. What would give her a bigger chance of living?

The strange dude in front of her was talking, she could tell, but she wasn't listening. Not really. She had to think.

He was probably threatening her anyway...

She decided to do the best she could. After all, if she did nothing, she would probably die a horrible death. Against those odds, all else seemed like a good plan.

Beth grabbed the knife around her waist and tried very hard to stab the man in front of her in the chest. And it wasn't a half bad attempt, she realized. It was faster than anything she had ever done before.

But he was quicker than her, of course he was. He grabbed her arm and threw the knife away. Mocking her with the speed with which he did it — and not only with the speed, but with the proficiency. Proficiency which, unfortunately, she sorely lacked.

But that's okay; that had been only a diversion. Beth wasn't that dumb; she knew the hit wasn't going to make it. But at that moment, in that split-second in which he turned to disarm her, she quickly bent a little bit to grab the knife that was hidden in her right-foot boot and stabbed the man right in the thigh.

Making him scream like a freaking dying cow.

God, Merle was really, really making her stick with a crappy language.

But she did it; the guy was making a lot of noise, all of them were.

Good.

They didn't know if they were supposed to grab her, help the guy on the ground, shoot her...So they were all making a lot of noises.

Great.

Two guys then grabbed her brutally, while three others went to help the awful man screaming. To try and stop the bleeding in his leg, she supposed.

She took that moment to scream as high as she could, struggling against the grasp the men had on her.

That was her chance.

They tried to shut her down, but she kept struggling and trying to run away. She wouldn't give up.

Until one guy punched her in the face so damn hard, she was sure it almost broke her nose. She was lucky. If he had aimed a little to the left, she would have a broken nose.

And, in that god-forsaken world, who was going to put it in the right place? It wasn't even an esthetic matter, fuck no. She needed the nose to breathe; she needed her nose in the right place.

And yet, there wasn't a sign of the brothers. What if that had been all for nothing? What if she wasted all of her strength in vain? She had caused a little distraction, yes, but it wasn't going to help her in the long run. In fact, it wasn't helping her right now. It did cause her a little bit of satisfaction to sink that knife in the leg of a man who had wanted to hurt her in who knows what ways. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to save her.

When had she ever been enough to save herself? Never.

She felt the depression that had been clinging on to her whispering in her brain, whispering in the ears. What did you think, Beth? Did you really think that this would be enough? That you were going to make it? That you were going to save yourself? What a joke.

And yet, her arms didn't stop struggling; her foot didn't stop trying to run away...She was still trying to save herself. She was at war with herself.

Beth was trying not to give up, and yet everything in her brain was telling her to do so. It was like she was two persons at once, and she didn't know how long she could fight the other half, the bad half.

And suddenly, there was noise. The sound she had wanted to hear. Fight. Good, the brothers had arrived. Thank God for small mercies.

XxXxXxxXxXxXxXxXxx

There were a time and place for planned, silent arrivals. And Beth knew that the Dixon brothers preferred to wait for those times. They had a reason for it — and an excellent one at that. Being as quiet as they were was tough, Beth could attest to that. Almost nobody could hear them approaching, and it made the enemy vulnerable. It was a perfect situation for silent murders.

Unfortunately, Beth knew she had put them in a situation that waiting wouldn't be possible. If they wished to save her, that's it. And so, probably going against every instinct they gathered in all their years, Merle and Daryl, came blasting. Shooting every man in sight.

It would've worked great too if Beth hadn't made so much noise, attracting every. Single. Walker. Within' hearing distance.

The undead started to emerge out of the wood, slowly, but surely. One biting the neck of the guy who had punched Beth, causing him to release her and scream in a way that would haunt her forever.

At that moment, hell broke free.

Gunshots were being fired at all seconds; people were running, the walkers were chasing all unfortunate souls in their path and Beth was trying to hide somewhere not infested with dead people.

She needed to get to Merle; there was no time to waste.

She didn't know what she was going to do. The only thing she knew she had to do was find Merle, and yet that meant very little in the chaos that had become the little path of the forest they were occupying. She couldn't even see him; there were so many walkers.

Almost like the farm.

She saw a lot of the bad guys. The type of guys who took advantage of the apocalypse to corner women in the middle of the woods to force them to do unspeakable things. She didn't even know what they were going to do to her; maybe they wanted to rape her, maybe they wanted to torture her, maybe they wanted to keep her or just kill her. She didn't know what kind of sociopaths they were, only that they were some kind. And that enough for her not to want any type of contact with them whatsoever.

She wanted the brothers; she wanted Daryl and Merle.

In the weeks they've been together things had been awkward, sad, miserable... all sorts of things, yes. But it had also been good. They really did try.

Merle tried all he could to make her someone stronger, someone more capable, someone who would know exactly what to do in the kind of situation she was in. He had been trying a lot with her. He wasn't the most patient guy in the world, but he did try, and she didn't even know why.

She was very grateful, even though she knew she hadn't shown one bit of her gratefulness to him. And that made her a little sad, did he even know how much she appreciated all he had done for her? All he continued to do?

And Daryl, she had spoken to him so little. And still, he had offered her advice when she needed, saved her life on the farm, and he was there, right now, trying to save her ass. When he could've grabbed Merle and ran away. They could've just left her there, for all they knew she had left them behind. No one would blame them; there was nobody to blame them around.

They could survive very well on their own. Merle and Daryl surely didn't need her; she was the one who needed them. She was the one who needed someone else. She needed them. Desperately.

She needed to find them, right now. Because if she didn't, even if the other guys miraculously disappeared, and she was there all alone, she wouldn't be able to make it. And not only because she didn't have the capacity to do so, not only because she wasn't able to, but 'cause she didn't want to. She didn't want to be alone.

Beth had lost her mother, her brother; she didn't know where her father, sister, and boyfriend were... They were all she had. They were sort of like a family to her. And, even though she knew they didn't think of her as family — maybe not even close, they were still there for her. And that was more than most people in her life had done.

So, she straightened her shoulder as much as she could, and took the safety off her gun. And she went to face the world.

Beth walked away from the tree she had been hiding, only to immediately face a walker. A walker that almost fell on top of her. It was instinctual, she shot it. Blood started to pour out of the wound right on her face, almost making her sick. But she had done it; she had killed for the first time. Only there was no time to think about it, not even to mourn. She had to get up and do it again, and so she did. She pushed the body off of her and got up again.

Only to find out there weren't so many walkers anymore. Only to find Merle unconsciously being held by two of the bad guys. Only for her to run, because the bad guy who had been talking to her, the one with a really dark face and a wound to his leg, was pointing a gun at Daryl. He was trying to shoot Daryl; he was going to kill him.

And at that moment, she screamed as loudly as she could:

"DARYL!"

And everyone turned to face her at once, the gun in his hand firing the shot. The horrible shoot.

She never did see where the shot hit, only that Daryl immediately doubled up in the ground, bleeding.

She was running in his direction.

No, no, no. Not Daryl.

That couldn't be happening.

He was bleeding from only God knows where and nobody was doing anything to help him. She was going to help him; maybe she could help him. She was going to save him.

But before she could reach him, the guy who shot Daryl, the man who talked to her, the guy who represented all the bad things that had happened that day, stopped her. Grabbed her.

And she shot him; she was so angry.

A wrong shot.

She meant to hit his chest, but instead only scrapped his shoulder.

Fuck.

He grabbed her and hit her on the head with his gun.

And there was darkness and nothing else.

AN2: Soooooooo, don't leave me hanging! Tell me what you all think about it and, please, let me know what you guys imagine will happen. I'm curious. Kisses to all who guess correctly.