Ch.2

He felt the hot sun glaring down on him and opened his eyes. He must have fallen asleep sometime during the night, and he hoped that Beth had too. He looked around their camp for Beth, eyes still adjusting to the brightness, and found her sitting across from him, poking the ashes of the fire with a stick. By the looks of it she hadn't gotten any sleep. The circles that had started forming under her eyes yesterday were five shades darker and she looked paler. Her posture was slumped, which made her look frail and weak.

"You get any sleep?" He was still hopeful that maybe she had closed her eyes for even a half hour, but all hope vanished when she shook her head no. "We'll head back to the road, try to find some food and shelter."

As Daryl gathered his crossbow Beth just stayed by the absent fire. She finally got up when he motioned for her to follow. He knew the direction they had come from, so he wasn't worried about finding the road again. After about a half hour Beth still hadn't said anything. He was getting worried about her.

"Yah' know, when Merle died, I didn't know what to do." He looked back to her trying to gauge her reaction, but she kept her head focused on the ground. "He was the only family I had; wasn't much, but he was still my brother. When I saw him like that, as a walker, I was mad. Mad at him for leaving like that and mad at The Governor for doing that to him."

They walked a couple of more minutes, neither of them saying anything. Daryl was trying to get her to talk, but it wasn't working.

"Beth, I can't even begin to imagine what you're goin' through, but I need you to know that it's alright to cry, that I'm here for yah' and you can talk to me." He risked a look back at her, and while she still didn't say anything, her eyes were looking at him, taking in every word he was saying.

They walked another fifteen minutes. They were almost to the road, about another half hour would get them there. Beth was still trailing behind Daryl but he could hear her soft footsteps so he knew that he hadn't lost her.

"Whenever I close my eyes I see him." The voice reached him as barely a whisper, soft and laced with sadness. "And when I fall asleep I see The Governor and what he did." Her voice was beginning to crack, and he knew that she was about to cry, but this time he didn't pull her to his chest. "Do the nightmares ever stop?"

She had stopped walking, and so had he. He turned to face her, happy to see that she had kept herself from crying. He thought about what to say. He could lie to her and tell her that it gets better, but the truth was it never would, you just get used to it.

"I'm not gonna' lie Beth, you're never going to forget it. The nightmares, they might go away, the memories won't." He hated being so brutally honest with her when he knew that she wanted to hear something different. "I'm gonna' keep you safe. We'll find the others, and everything will be fine. I promise."

She started walking again, and he waited for her to be by his side before he began walking. They were at the road within a few minutes. From what he could see, there hadn't been anyone walking through there in the last few days. They walked down the road with no trouble; they had been lucky not to see any walkers, and Daryl figured that was because they had all been drawn to the prison.

In the distance he saw what looked to be a car. When they got closer he could see that the windows were cracked and the metal was rusted. He wondered what had become of the driver. The keys were in the ignition still, making his heart jump with excitement. But the excitement quickly faded when the car wouldn't start, and by the looks of it, he assumed it was out of gas.

While Daryl had been busy trying to start the car, Beth had been rummaging through the items left behind. There wasn't much, and barely any of it was useful. There was one blanket, but the real prize was a backpack with three cans of food and five bottles of water in it and a can opener. He knew it wouldn't last long, but they needed any food that they could find.

Daryl heard a noise that caught his attention. He had heard it too many times before to mistake it for anything else. The low, guttural moaning from hunger and a need for human flesh; the light sound of a breaking twig and shuffling feet. Beth hadn't realized the sounds yet, and he wasn't going to wait to see if she did.

With one swift move he grabbed Beth's arms, careful not to hurt her, but strong enough that she couldn't break free. He put his finger to his lip and hushed her, telling her to be quiet. He pointed in the direction the noise was coming from, and through the trees he could see the walkers approaching, and there were more of them than he could count. Beth grabbed the backpack and shoved the blanket in it, and then they started running.

Beth started running further down the road, and Daryl followed at first, but it quickly became apparent that they weren't going to make it if they stayed on the road as the walkers were already blocking their path up ahead. He grabbed her arm once again, this time not being as gentle, and yanked her towards the woods. She stumbled a little, but Daryl helped her regain her balance before letting go of her.

They ran deeper and deeper into the woods, and this time Daryl knew that finding the road again would be a hopeless cause. The walkers would erase any tracks they had left, and the tracks of the walkers would be too numerous and aimless to follow. The walkers were right behind them, practically biting at their heels. And then all of a sudden something caught their attention, diverting their hungry gaze from Daryl and Beth. Slowly but surely they all began to head in the opposite direction. He wasn't sure what it was, but he figured it was a deer or some other animal, and Daryl was thankful for it.

They kept running though. Daryl wanted to make sure they were as far away as possible from the walkers. He didn't want to run into them again. When he felt safe he slowed his pace.

"Time to take a break," he said, sitting down on a nearby tree stump. "Still got the water in there?"

Beth reached into the backpack and handed Daryl one of the waters. He eyed her when she didn't grab one for herself, but brushed it off as her still being scared from the herd they had just managed to avoid.

"We should probably keep moving, best to be as far away as possible from those things." He stood up from the stump and started walking.

"Aren't we going to go back to the road?"

"Nope, too dangerous. Besides, no way to know where the road is now. The walkers erased any of our tracks." When he looked at her she looked mad, like he had just said something to upset her. Then he realized that he had. "Don't worry, we'll get to the meet up spot."

He hadn't realized how long they had been walking. When he looked up at the sun it looked like it was about to start setting, and he knew that they should try to get a fire started and get something to eat. He knew that the herd of walkers wouldn't be able to reach them overnight, but tomorrow was a different story.

"Can you collect some sticks? I'll get a fire started." He looked into the backpack and grabbed one of the cans. Beans. Not the best, but they would do the trick. "I'll cook these tonight."

As he carefully opened the can with the can opener, Beth went off to find sticks. He was careful to keep an eye on her, making sure she didn't venture too far. She came back with an armful of sticks and placed them at his feet. He easily assembled the fire and began cooking the beans. He looked through the backpack and was thankful when he found a spoon.

When the beans were done he ate some of them, being sure to leave plenty for Beth. He handed the can to Beth. He watched as she just poked around at them with the spoon, not bothering to actually eat any.

"You need to eat. You're already getting too skinny." His words obviously didn't reach her because she placed the can on the ground and curled up into a ball.

She needed to get her strength, and she needed rest. He suspected that something big was ahead of them, but he didn't want to scare her with what he knew when it could turn out to be nothing. Earlier that day he had begun to think that someone was watching them, and he was almost certain that it wasn't anyone from their group. And if it wasn't anyone they knew, there was no way of telling if they were friendly.

Author's Note: Once again, this chapter is just testing the waters to see what you guys think. Daryl and Beth have a lot ahead of them! Beth isn't in the best physical or mental state, and Daryl is becoming suspicious of their surroundings and who else could be there. Please leave a review to let me know what you think!