Red River Blue
Chapter 80
Like the experienced hunter that she was, Harley enjoyed stalking her prey before she pounced. She spent her two days in her new camp simply watching. Beta was quick for a man of his large size. He was also so quiet that at first, Harley wondered if he talked at all other than to threaten people. When she finally heard him utter a few words to one of the other whisperers, he spoke in a low gravely monotone, not saying any more than what was absolutely necessary. Unlike the rest of the whisperers, Beta wore his mask at all times. Harley was pretty sure he even slept with the disgusting thing on. Something that both intrigued and sickened her. But as she watched him she began to realize that despite these oddities, like all people Beta remained a creature of habit.
Every morning, the big man got up while most of the camp was still asleep. He stalked silently through the camp, heading for a private spot about a half a mile away. A wide creek curved along the northern side of the Whisperer camp. It was where they got their drinking water. Beta followed it, walking about half a mile upstream to a spot where trees thinned out into a small sunny meadow. Harley's first assumption was that the man had some hidden stash of food there. But when she followed him, she saw that he wasn't eating. He was just sitting and staring out past the creek into the meadow, his back casually braced against a large tree. Who would have guessed the terminator was a nature lover, Harley thought to herself with a laugh.
Once she had her fill of spying, Harley headed back to camp to decide on her next move. Every morning, Beta was alone. And unaware. It would be easy for her to hide in the tree he liked to lean against and shoot him dead with an arrow the moment he sat down for his morning bird watch. But that felt too easy. Too simple. Harley told herself that she was waiting to kill him until after she figured out where Alpha's horde was. But the real truth was, after what these sick wackos did, killing her cousin and her best friend, Harley wanted to make them suffer the way Beth suffered. The way her Aunt Carol was suffering. The way she suffered when the Wolves killed Spencer in front of her. A quick death was too good for the likes of him. Like a cat, Harley wanted to play with her meal before she sunk her claws in. She wanted to turn him against Alpha, the way Negan said they should. She wanted to make these freaks pay.
Beta woke up the same time he always did. The moment the sun peeked over the horizon, his eyes blinked open. He rose silently from his sleeping area, which was nothing more than a ripped sleeping bag laid out across the hard packed dirt. He rotated his shoulders, stretching his back out as he walked quietly through camp. The woman that had the baby used to be the only person he would see up at such an early hour. Sometimes, Beta would fetch her a bowl of water from the creek before he continued on his way. Feeding the baby made her thirsty. But now that her baby was long gone and she was dead, there was no one. Only him and the dead.
Beta stopped at the edge of the creek, lowering himself down to one knee and cupping the cool water up with his hands until his thirst was quenched. Rising, he followed the creek upstream. Before he even got close to his favorite spot, Beta could sense that something was off. He had a strange sinking feeling in his stomach that was increasing the further he walked. Beta lifted his hand, resting it on the hilt of his large bowie knife. He felt ready for whatever threat lay ahead. But he wasn't ready for what he saw when he rounded the corner where the trees opened up. Beta stopped, frozen in place as he considered his options.
The morning sun was reflecting off the surface of the water. And standing in the deepest part of the creek was the blonde woman Alpha let into camp a few days before. The one that earned her place in the pack by saving Alpha's life. Since that moment, Beta spent the majority of his time trying not to think about her. He tried to pretend that he wasn't even aware of her existence. But despite his resistance, he found thoughts of the woman creeping in around the edges of his mind when he lay down at night to sleep. And now there was no avoiding her. She was standing waist deep in the slow flowing water. Her head was tilted back, small suds forming in her wet hair as she scrubbed at it with the tips of her fingers. With her arms up, her naked breasts were on full display. They were large for her lean muscular frame. And tipped with dark pink upturned nipples. The creamy flesh of her breasts quivered slightly, jiggling with the scrubbing motions of her hands. And before he could stop them, a flood of pornographic images filled his mind. He pictured himself pulling this gorgeous creature onto his lap. Feeling her hips rock against his as he sucked the hard buds of her nipples into his mouth. Beta adjusted his pants, willing the images away as he approached the woman.
"What're you doing?," he barked. The woman's eyes popped open, her body tensing. He'd obviously startled her. But she was quicker to relax than he expected. She eyed him with an irritated glance before answering.
"Takin' a bath," she announced, as though any idiot with half a brain ought to know what she was doing. She raked her eyes over Beta's own filthy body before she added in a mocking tone, "...maybe you've heard of it?" A little smile played at the corners of her lips and Harley bent her knees, sinking down and dunking her head under the water to rinse the soap out.
"What're you doing here?," he clarified, gesturing around. "This is my spot."
Harley waded through the water, wringing her hair out as she picked her way up the side of the small ravine. She wasn't in any hurry to answer his question. And she knew that in itself was probably driving the big man a little nuts. Using her hands, Harley pushed the water down off her body before she grabbed for the large beach towel she kept rolled up in her bag. It was the size of a twin size blanket, but made of super thin cotton so it rolled up small and dried quickly. Wrapping it around her torso, she finally turned back to the large man behind her.
"We are free," she quipped. "Isn't that your motto?" Harley flashed another wicked grin at the man before she lowered herself to the ground and began digging through her bag for the hard plastic comb she planned to use to rake the snarls out of her hair. "Look," she added. "...I didn't know this was yer spot. I'll find somewhere else to wash up from now on." Harley glanced up at the man's large hulking form before she decided to put a little icing on the bullshit cake she was serving him. "I'm sorry I bothered ya like this Alpha," she said. "It won't happen again."
"I'm not the Alpha," he corrected, finally sinking down into the grass to her left. Harley feigned a look of shock, hoping her acting wasn't too over the top.
"Oh," she exclaimed. "I'm sorry. I knew there was an Alpha and…" She paused for a moment, making sure he noticed that she was looking him up and down. "...I guess I just assumed it was you, since yer the biggest and the strongest."
Harley tossed her comb on top of her bag, lifting her arms as she began to braid a section of her hair that had come loose. Beta didn't say anything. But she could tell from the way he straightened his shoulders and puffed his chest out that he liked her observation of him. Harley wasn't much for flirting or silly romantic games. But she'd been watching her mother get her father to do what she wanted for years with nothing more than a smile and a wink. Harley favored the man with a shy grin, making brief eye contact with him before quickly shifting her eyes down to her feet. She was enjoying this more than she expected. It was sort of reeling in a fish. A really big fish.
"That woman I see you with is the alpha then?," Harley asked. "...your wife?"
"She's not my wife," he said, quickly speaking up to correct her error. "I'm not married."
"Oh!," Harley said, hoping she sounded excited and surprised. Really, there was no surprise at all. She already knew the big brute slept alone. Because she'd been stalking him and watching his every move since she arrived at his pathetic excuse for a camp.
"I'm Harley."
"We don't have names," he said, though his tone indicated he didn't totally object to knowing hers.
Harley rose to her feet. Unwrapping the towel from her body, she hung it on a sunny branch nearby to dry. Beta wasn't staring directly at her naked body, like she expected. But he was definitely sneaking a few peeks in her direction as she stretched her arms out and began pulling her clothes on. When Harley pulled her tank top down over her head, she rubbed the well worn gray fabric between her fingers. It was Beth's shirt. One of her favorites. And Harley felt a pang of intense rage at what these freaks had done to her kind and gentle friend. She fought back the urge to grab for her bow and put an arrow through the eye of the man behind her. Instead, Harley reached for her MP3 player, unplugging it from her small solar camping charger and untangling her headphones from around the device.
Lowering herself back down onto the ground, Harley plugged one of the headphone earbuds into her ear. She always left one ear open. To listen for the dead. And the living. As Harley began to scroll through the playlist on her device, she noticed the large man to her left was leaning forward, looking at the tiny screen with intense interest. Harley turned, offering Beta the extra earbud.
"It's mostly country," she warned as he reached for the other half of her headphones. Beta had to fiddle with the mask on his face, lifting up the side of it to expose enough of his ear to get the bud into it. Once it was in position, Beta leaned towards her again, reading the band and song titles as she scrolled through her lists. Harley shifted, offering him the device so he could scroll through it himself. Beta hesitated a moment before he reached for it. And Harley wondered if they were breaking some strange whisperer rule by listening to music. Or maybe even the device itself was against the rules. She hadn't seen any modern convenience items back at their camp. Not even a flashlight. Most people traveled light. Harley could fit everything she needed to survive in her backpack. But the whisperers traveled bare. Most of them didn't even have basic camping supplies or fire starting kits. They were half starved, eating worms and foraging for anything remotely edible. And now, Harley was wondering if that was because the items that would make their lives easier were forbidden.
"You like Half Moon?," Beta asked, clicking on one of the songs. Harley nodded, lifting her shoulders in a slight shrug as the music began to flow through the tiny black cord and out through her side of the headphones.
She didn't just like Half Moon. She loved them. Like poster on the back of her bedroom door for years loved them. Her Uncle Daryl took her to see them in concert for her tenth birthday, when they opened up for Creedence. He didn't have money for actual tickets. Uncle Daryl never had any money. So he boosted her up and they climbed over a fence, sneaking into the concert. Harley could still remember it. Like it happened yesterday. Daryl put her up on his shoulders, so she could see the stage. And the music was so loud it was almost like she was feeling it instead of listening to it. When she got home, Harley immediately started begging her mother for a guitar.
Harley blinked her eyes open, shaking off the memory. She needed to focus on the task at hand. And that was getting the big galoot next to her to tell her where he kept his pet walkers. But as Harley took another look at him, this time with the concert fresh on her mind, suddenly Beta was looking strangely familiar to her. It can't be him. There's no fuckin' way. There's no way the front man of Half Moon is sitting next to me in a walker mask. It seemed like something out of a dream. A really weird twilight zone fever dream. It was unbelievable. But it also made sense in a weird way, offering the explanation for why Beta never took his mask off. He was fucking famous.
Harley leaned back, staring out over the meadow. She'd figured out Beta's secret. Now she just needed to figure out how she was going to use it to her advantage.