Ch.3

It was another sleepless night. She had tried to sleep, but after Daryl woke her up because she was screaming again, she didn't even try to close her eyes. She ended up just staring blankly into the night, her whole body numb from the nightmare. It was the exact same one from the previous night. It started with The Governor bringing her daddy and Michonne out. Rick going down to try to talk to him. Then Michonne's sword raised high in the air, and then swinging down to her daddy's neck. But in her dream she was frozen in place. She couldn't move, she couldn't scream; every inch of her was frozen. And then she watched as The Governor killed everyone else around her until Daryl woke her up.

When the sun started to rise she saw Daryl begin to stir. He had fallen asleep despite his feeble attempts to stay awake; at least one of them was able to get some much-needed rest. The half empty can of beans was still sitting infront of her, still untouched by her hands. The fire had gone out a few hours ago, and since she didn't know how to start a fire, there was no way for her to warm them back up for him.

She continued watching Daryl as he slowly woke up, his eyes darting straight to her with a worried expression and he opened his mouth to speak. "Any sleep?"

"No."

"Any walkers?"

"No."

He reached across the pile of ash and charred sticks to the can. He titled it back and she watched as he looked from the can to her, the worry on his ace becoming more and more apparent with every passing second.

"You didn't eat," he sounded disappointed.

"Not hungry."

"You haven't eaten anything in two days, Beth. You need to get something in you."

"I'm fine."

"Tell me that when you pass out."

She ignored his comment and decided to change the subject. "Are we going to head back to the road?"

"Ain't no point, chances of us finding our way back to it are slim to none. We're deep in the woods, and that herd of walkers could be waitin' for us." He started to get up and walked over to the backpack that was sitting a few feet from him.

"Then what are we going to do?"

"Keep moving the way we've been going. We'll get to the meet up spot."

"Do you even know what direction we're supposed to be heading?"

"Sort of. I got a little mixed up after the herd yesterday, but I'm pretty sure we should be heading that way," he said as he pointed straight ahead.

"I'll get our stuff together so we can head out."

"Not so fast," he said, turning from the backpack to her. He tossed her an unopened bottle of water, and Beth scrambled to catch it before it hit her in the face.

"I'm not thirsty."

"I don't care if you're not thirsty. You're drinking it."

Beth opened her mouth to say something defiant, but she was quickly cut off.

"We're not going anywhere until you drink some of that."

She looked from him to the bottle of water in her hands. She really wasn't thirsty, and she really didn't want to drink anything. Her eyes glanced back to Daryl and she could tell by the look on his face that she wasn't going to win this little fight. She began to open the water, defeated, and slowly put it to her mouth and took a little sip. Before she could even bring the bottle down all the way, Daryl had rushed over to her and pushed it back to her mouth.

"Uh-uh, you gotta' drink more than that. A little sip ain't gonna do you no good."

She took a mouthful this time, and when she saw that he still wasn't satisfied, she took a few more. The water sat heavy in her stomach, and in a way she hated him for making her drink it. But if it meant that they could start moving again, she would drink the water. She wanted to make it to the meet up spot as soon as possible. She desperately wanted to know if anyone else had survived, and most importantly, if Maggie had made it.

After Daryl was satisfied with how much water she had drank, he offered her beans, but she refused, so he quickly shoveled them in his mouth. Wasting food wasn't an option, and if she wasn't going to eat them, that only left Daryl. Once he had finished, they were on their way again, heading the same direction Daryl had pointed out.

Beth wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings, she wasn't even sure if Daryl was still by her side until he threw his arm out in front of her, stopping her from going any further. She looked up to see seven walkers beginning to surround them. It wasn't a large heard like yesterday, but there was no way of outrunning these ones.

"Get out your knife," he whispered, gently tugging at the sharp object attached to her belt.

He swung the crossbow off of his back and aimed it at the closest walker, shooting it dead. The death of that one walker alerted the others to their presence, and before she had time to think a walker was pulling at her arm. Daryl turned and stabbed it in the head with his knife before turning back to the walker just in arms reach of him.

Beth was struggling to get her knife out, her fingers fumbling with the button holding it in its holster. When she finally got it out she looked up and saw a walker heading towards her. She had killed them before, but killing them without the safety of the fence was a completely different thing. At the prison she didn't have to think, didn't have to contemplate the walker's next move or whether there was another approaching her from one of her blind spots.

She started backing away, not knowing what to do. She looked to Daryl, hoping he would come and help her, but he was taking down a walker and had another swiftly creeping up behind him. She tore her attention away from him and back to her current dilemma when she heard the snapping of teeth just inches away. The walker was right in front of her, and without thinking she stabbed the knife into its head.

Her relief was short lived, because before she knew it a walker who had snuck up from her left side was grabbing her arm. She tried to push it away, but the motion only caused her to fall to the ground, the weight of the walker nearly incapacitating her. Her knife had fallen from her hand, and she was frantically reaching for it. Her fingers could just touch the handle, but with the walker on top of her it was nearly impossible to reach any further. Her heart was pounding and her breathing was becoming more and more difficult as the weight of the walker shifted further up her body.

Her eyes swelled up with tears, making her vision blur and making it even more difficult to make out what the walker was doing and where her knife was. She decided to take a risk and with all the strength she had left in her gave the walker's head one big push back, and in the second it took the walker to regain it's composure, she had grabbed her knife and jarred it through the skull of the walker. Blood spattered on her face and clothes, and she felt as its body went limp on top of her.

She was pinned beneath it and couldn't get out. She wiggled around but to no avail. Any strength she had left was used with that final push, leaving her too weak to roll the thing off of her. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to catch her breath, and was relieved when the weight was lifted off of her. Opening her eyes she saw Daryl looking down at her, reaching his hand out to help her up. She took it, and when she got to her feet she was light headed. Her stomach ached and she felt queasy.

"You alright? You get bit?" Daryl grabbed her and looked her over, checking for any bites.

"No, I-I don't think so."

"You feelin' alright? You look a little pale." His eyebrows furrowed with concern when he looked at her.

"I'm fine."

She was panting, still finding it difficult to breath. The world was spinning, and her stomach churned. She rushed over to the nearest bush and threw up, collapsing to her knees. Daryl was quick to her side, holding her up as she began to vomit again. When she felt better she turned to face him, but kept her eyes from meeting his.

"You good now?"

"Yeah." She was embarrassed and could feel her cheeks grow flush.

"Can you stand?"

Beth shook her head yes and started to get to her feet. Daryl stayed close by her, fearing she would collapse again. Her head was pounding, but she felt better than she had a few minutes ago.

"You need to eat something. You have nothing in your stomach, you're too weak to fight…you're lucky there weren't more of them." Daryl paused, looking at Beth, a grin forming on his face. "You did good though. This your first time killin' a walker outside of the prison?"

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna' need to teach you better fighting skills, how to properly use a knife. But first you need to get cleaned up. We need to find a river or a lake."

Author's Note: I just wanted to thank everyone who has read, favorited, followed and/or reviewed. Your support means so much to me! I have decided that I will continue with the story. I plan on posting another chapter tomorrow. But after that postings will become less frequent due to school, so I think it would be safe to say that you can expect about a chapter a week.

Once again, thank you for all of your support. I love reading your reviews!