Hello, lovelies! Okay, so I am both super nervous and super excited to present the last two chapters of Heathens. Like I said, there will be a sequel (which I will likely post the first chapter of tonight), and I truly, truly hope you will join me there. This chapter title belongs to a song that is near and dear to my heart, "Bloodflood" by alt-J. It is perfect. So without further adieu, here is the first of the last chapters.

28. Bloodflood

Mason

"Do you think…do you think she'll like me?"

"I think she's gonna love you. She's all about the misfits."

"Oh, so is that why she loves you?"

"Goddammit, stop being so salty. For reals, though, I'm so excited for you to meet her. I think the three of us are gonna be tighter than Olympian spandex."

"That is a lovely thought."

Beth

Last night, she'd killed a man.

Pushed him into the elevator shaft and down he went to splatter into walker food two hundred feet below.

She couldn't get it out of her head.

It wasn't that he was a good man, because he wasn't.

It wasn't that he didn't deserve to die, because he did.

It was that she'd killed him for Dawn. Because Dawn was too weak to do it herself, until it was too late. Just like with Gorman. Just like with everyone.

Use everything you can use. That's what the place was. People using people to get what they wanted. They had taken the stigma and twisted it into something wicked.

This place was a poison.

Mason

"Rick and Beth and I went out once on a scavenging mission. It was supposed to be real simple, but we got caught in a storm and had to take refuge in this old, sketchy gas station. I mean, like it was total Jason Vorhees caliber sketchy."

"Sweet."

"I know, right? Anyway, so after we siphon the last of the gas and pick over the dregs of food no one else wanted, we're sitting around, listening to the storm, and Rick's telling ghost stories like he thinks we're five years old. Except… Okay, don't ever tell him this but he's really good at making up scary stories. Like, he was kinda freaking me out. Shut up, Eugene. Anyway. He's telling ghost stories, I'm acting all big and bad for my girl, when all of sudden we hear this pounding start up outside along the walls."

"I'd be willing to bet my fake doctorate that you screamed."

"Only on the inside."

Beth

I was like you when I was younger.

Looking at Dawn now, standing in the doorway of her room, Beth remembered these words from the night before. She'd pretended they meant nothing but inside her heart had trembled.

Had Dawn really been like her? Had she read bedtime stories with her dad? Had she had a sister? Had she loved someone, sung in front of a crowd around a campfire, kissed someone who tasted like moonlight?

"Your people are coming for you. Gather your things and meet us in the hall in five," Dawn said, her face carefully cleared of any emotion.

Beth nodded, but her neck prickled with foreboding.

Dawn was planning something, she was sure of it.

Quietly she dressed in her old clothes, the ones she'd found at the golf court with Daryl. It felt good to wear yellow again.

She paused to examine herself in the mirror.

You're wrong about what happened, I didn't use you. And I will remember.

Rick and Daryl were coming to rescue her and Carol. In five minutes she would see them. In five minutes she'd be with her family again.

She'd see Mason again.

This is important. Maybe the most important thing you do in your life.

After a moment's hesitation, she slipped the scissors into her sleeve.

Mason

"It was walkers, trying to get in out of the storm. They didn't even know we were there, at least not at first. So Rick immediately comes up with one of his plans- once you get to know him a little better, you'll know what I'm talking about. This particular plan involved him and me running out of the building in different directions, firing our guns to draw the walkers away."

"You two sound like bona fide gunslingers."

"I think we were in a past life."

Beth

She stood behind the rest of them, Dawn and her officers and Dr. Edwards. Carol sat in a wheelchair beside her. Beth reached for her hand and they held on tight, waiting.

When Rick's face appeared, in the window of the door down the hall, her heart began to pound.

Dawn spoke into her walkie talkie. "Holster your weapons."

There was silence on the other end. And then the door opened.

Rick and Daryl trailed behind Dawn's captured officers, and the sight of their familiar faces sent a shard through her chest. And there was Tyreese, Sasha, Noah. She wanted to run to them, and it took a concerted effort to stay where she was.

"They haven't been harmed," Rick said.

"Where's Lamson?" Dawn replied.

"Rotters got him," one of the kidnapped officers replied.

"We saw it go down," the other added.

"Oh."

Beth stiffened. It was just one word, barely audible. It trembled with emotion, but something lurked behind it.

She didn't believe them.

Mason

"Of course, as you can probably guess, shit did not go according to plan."

"Obviously."

"The walkers broke through the windows and came surging for us. We were goners."

Beth

"One of yours for one of mine."

Daryl brought his cop forward first. Dawn nodded to one of her officers, who wheeled Carol over to him. For a moment, Beth felt horribly alone.

Rick brought his captive next and Dawn grabbed Beth's arm to lead her forward. She resisted the urge to pull away, focusing on Rick's steady gaze, on Daryl waiting behind him.

When she got to him, Rick kissed her forehead in a way that reminded her painfully of her father. And in a way, she knew, Rick had become like a second dad to her. He was the dad of the whole group, and she felt instantly safe with him around.

Never assume that someone will be around to save you. You have to save yourself.

Mason's words came back to her then, snapping her back to attention. It didn't matter that Rick was here. It didn't matter that Daryl was here, or that the others were.

Dawn was up to something. They weren't safe yet.

"Glad we could work things out," Dawn said.

"Yeah," Rick growled, and the group turned to leave.

"Now I just need Noah."

Mason

"It was Beth who saved us, my little Viking queen. While Rick and I were about to launch into his plan half-cocked, she kicked over the gasoline cans and told us to run. She was so serious in that moment, like total queen-leading-her-people-into-battle serious, that neither of us argued or asked what she was doing. As we ran to the back of the store, she lit a match and tossed it behind her."

"Badass."

"Hell yeah it was badass. So the walkers were all drawn to the light and we managed to fight our way out the back after all. Rick said afterwards that… Is that it?"

"Grady Memorial, right?"

"We're here."

Beth

Rick turned around with a dangerous expression and the group followed. Daryl stuck close to Beth, like he didn't want her leaving his sight.

"That wasn't part of the deal."

"Noah was my ward," Dawn said. "Beth took his place and I'm losing her, so I need him back. My officers put their lives on the line to find him. One of them died."

Daryl growled. "No. He ain't stayin'."

"He's one of mine, you have no claim on him."

Beth's blood boiled. Claim on him? He wasn't Dawn's property.

This world breeds a special kind of wicked.

"The boy wants to go home, so you have no claim on him," Rick said.

"Well, then we don't have a deal."

There will always be monsters, like the Governor.

"The deal is done!" Rick snarled.

"I-it's okay," Noah said, limping forward.

Rick tried to stop him, but Noah just shook his head. He looked more tired than a boy his age had any right to look.

"I gotta do it."

"No," Beth said, her voice trembling. "It's not okay."

"It's settled," Dawn said.

Squaring his shoulders, Noah limped as steadily as he could back to Dawn, back to fluorescent lights and bleach and fresh air on the other side of sealed windows.

Noah who had snuck her candy, who had taken her beatings, who reminded her of Mason, who helped her escape.

"Wait!"

Beth ran after him before she could stop herself and wrapped him in her arms. He laughed a little, but there was only desolation in his voice.

"Beth. It's okay."

Dawn watched them both, a smug little smile playing on her face.

"I knew you'd be back."

Beth went absolutely still, her eyes flickering up to meet hers.

One day you might run into someone like that. And I don't want them to trick you into mercy.

Blinking tears from her eyes, Beth faced Dawn with her head high. No more pretending to be meek. No more hiding who she was. She wanted Dawn to see that she wasn't a little girl, she was a fire with a woman's form.

They do not deserve to live.

"I get it now," she said, and there was Mason behind her, that imaginary phantom, her love, her strength, her moonlit kisses and afternoon tea.

Her wrist flicked lightly. The scissors slid into her hand. Easy peasy.

They cannot be allowed to live.

The scissors flashed as they descended.

There was a single spark of triumph. She felt that very clearly.

Dawn's gun went off and Beth's head flew back, painting the barren walls red.

Mason

She could hardly keep from running ahead of the others as they approached the hospital. She was finally going to see Beth again, the final missing piece to the puzzle.

There were walkers milling between the fences, but they took them down easily. Eugene walked beside her, sticking close like he was uncertain of his right to be there. She meant to give him an encouraging smile but it turned into an ear-to-ear grin.

She was going to see Beth.

She was going to see Beth.

Before they could reach the entrance, the doors opened.

Sasha and a boy Mason didn't recognize came out first, and then Tyreese, guiding an unsteady Carol.

When Rick followed, she stopped in her tracks at the look on his face. He was crying. Something was wrong.

Behind him came Daryl, who was crying, too, and carrying Beth.

Crying and carrying Beth.

She couldn't make sense of it at first. It didn't make sense at all. Her body was so limp. Her head lolled lifelessly against Daryl's chest, staining his shirt red.

Staining it red

staining it

red

Someone was screaming, but it wasn't really a scream. It was the wail of someone in deep and irreversible pain.

"Beth?" she whispered, but Beth wasn't there, Beth wasn't there, Beth wasn't there.

The truth of it hit her all at once, or maybe the air turned into lead, or maybe she was dying, maybe she was

(dead)

crumbling into the earth.

"Beth," she whispered again, just once.

Her vision slipped away, or maybe it was the world itself.

As always, Eugene was there to catch her, but she was gone before she knew she was falling.