When they can barely see the herd anymore, gone over the edge of a small hill, and there's only handfuls of scavengers and [stragglers] left, the slow ones, the ones with broken limbs. Daryl wastes no time, he's off before the others. He puts down four of them on his way to the other side of the road, going full bore to where they'd left the others.
He can hear them, when he propels back into the woods. He can hear one, or more, dragging around. He adjusts his direction just enough to put a knife through the closest.
He can hear Rick and the others coming. He can hear his own heartbeat.
It's a stray thought, sneaky and painful: I just got her back.
When he throws himself over their own noise line, he pulls up short.
They look frightened, but they're huddled in the center of camp, backs to each other in a circle.
Beth stands at his sudden appearance, he's out of breath and sweatin' and got enough gore on him to look pretty fuckin' bad, but Maggie gets there first. "Where's Glenn, where's the others?"
"Behind me," is all he can get out. His shoulders unbunch, just enough, at the sight of Beth, of everyone alright. "Any walkers?"
Abe gestures towards the other side of the camp, where they'd left a body that had come near to their alarm. "Just the one so far."
Beth breaks in, "We could hear them. A lot of them."
Daryl nods. "Time to pack up. Gotta go."
He can hear Rick and Glenn, Sasha and Tyreese and Bob and Asskicker coming, stepping over the barrier. He hears the clatter when someone knocks against it, hopes the walkers are far enough away. Everyone else is shoving shit into bags and leaving anything they didn't need, but Beth isn't, she's come closer to Daryl. Her voice is low when she asks, "What's going on?"
"Can't afford to be out in herd territory anymore. There's a house not far, we'll go there for the night."
"Did you find the end of the trail?"
"Beth, we found-" But then the baby makes a squeak and Beth's already turning. She doesn't move yet, not like Carl, who's head whipped up so fast he coulda broken his neck. He's gone to her, whispering her name over and over. It's too hard for Daryl to watch, too sweet. Too needed.
Beth's frozen, though. Just staring at the little baby, staring at that little spark of hope wrapped up in Carl's arms, now. When she brings her eyes to his, disbelievin', he thinks she murmurs, "I didn't think..."
There's nothing he can do to stop it, he has to touch her. Just a hand to her elbow, holding it, tight. It ain't really enough for him- not when he's just been throwing prayers up while he high-tailed it through the woods. He doesn't know if he could lose her again.
But now's not the time, not for touching, or grand gestures, or trying to falter through words. Instead, he says, "You were right. Go. See her. I'll get your stuff."