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I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Chapter 7

The hay was warm at least. After he'd spilled his guts and they'd called it a night, making their bed on the hay, Beth had fallen asleep quickly; his chaotic thoughts kept him wide awake. He shouldn't have said all he said. It showed his weaknesses, and she didn't need someone weak. She needed someone strong. It was strange for him, being so close to someone 24/7, just that person, and what he was feeling was strange too. In another life, it would have strangled him. He had always been the kinda lone wolf, not in the Emo pouty teenager kinda way, but solo was just SOP for him...his most efficient and previously preferred mode of operation. He made the group thing work, made some friends, really became part of a family, but they still recognized him as a loner...for the most part. Carol had challenged that and tried to break through his barriers, but he just couldn't let her. Beth was different. In this situation, there was no room for fantasy. Beth realized that...maybe she had been one of the only ones who had realized that all along. He was who he was, did what he could and wanted to do, and she didn't expect anything more or less than that.
Beth had fallen to the hay beside him, just as she'd stayed by him every night since she was attacked. Her head rested near his shoulder, and her hand always found its way to rest over his heart. Maybe even in her sleep, she was gonna make sure he kept his promise not to die.
Just then, the night became alive with the yips, barks, growls, and howls of a coyote pack setting off to hunt. Their music was a welcome sound to him; it had been close to a year or more since he had heard the woods so alive. It seemed even the predators in nature had been silenced by the onslaught of the apocalypse. Maybe...
His thought was shattered as Beth shot up from her sleep beside him, breathing heavy and clenching his shirt in terror.
"Daryl...they're so close! They can't get in...can they?" Her frantic hushed whisper made him shake his head from his reclined position.
"Good God farm girl. Never heard a coyote before?" Daryl sat up, putting a protective arm around her, drawing her close.
"They never got so close...they stayed in the woods..." Beth was shivering, whether from fear or cold, he didn't know.
"Well, it just so happens that this barn's near the woods. And last time I checked, I barred the door from the inside."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure..." Daryl bit back his sarcastic comment about the fact that coyotes couldn't open doors anyway. It was unnecessary considering her state, and it would come across as cruel rather than calming. "Come on Beth, back to sleep...I got you." He pulled her back down to the hay with him, reaching over to gently stroke her hair. "Don't worry, even if they could get in, they wouldn't eat you...you're too skinny...not worth their time."
"Not helping..." Beth whispered as the choir of coyotes continued.
She reached across the expanse of his chest, trying to pull closer, but there wasn't anymore distance to close. All he could do was wrap his other arm around her and try to sooth her. He knew that all her fear couldn't just be about the coyotes yipping, but he couldn't see inside her head.
"Think about it this way...they wouldn't be out there makin' all that noise hunting if there were walkers around." This was taking him back to his original thought before Beth woke in a start.
"You think...?" Beth questioned.
When he bent his head up and looked down at her, she was looking up at him with expectant yet sleepy eyes.
"I don't think. I know. Coyotes are afraid of humans, and we don't even really ever bother with em or wanna eat em. Walkers on the other hand will eat anything livin' while its still alive."
By the time he finished, the coyotes had moved on. He could hardly hear them off in the distance, and Beth had fallen back asleep. He could feel her steady heartbeat and rhythmic breathing against his side. It was comforting.
Maybe nature is starting to right itself. One thing was evident. The walkers "lived" to eat, so the conclusion had to be that they ate to "live" as it was. What happened when they ran out of food or the food figured out how to evade them? Would they move on and eventually "die"? Would their brains freeze in a hard winter...harder than they had in Georgia most of the time, and if so, would they be able to switch back on when they thawed out.
He was no thinker...no scientist...but he knew nature pretty good. Maybe if someone else out there had the time to think about the bigger picture...but he sure in the hell didn't. He had one priority now, and it wasn't the world.
It was pretty clear that the walkers were beginning to move about in giant herds to find food...they'd all experienced that first hand. What was also clear was that he needed to find a place for them that offered very few walker dining options. Whether that meant heading to more remote regions of Georgia or leaving the state-maybe heading somewhere like the Dakotas or Montana that had vast regions with sparse population-but that was a huge step. A long dangerous journey, unfamiliar terrain, lack of supplies and shelter, it could mean life...or death. He would have to think on it more, but it was a definite possibility. Such a move would also almost guarantee that even if the rest of their group was alive, they would never see them again. Would Beth be willing to make that sacrifice? He had the feeling that she would follow him. But would he be able to make her give that up? One step at a time. They needed a more concrete direction. They couldn't just keep stabbing blindly into the wilderness "away" from what had happened. Maybe if it was just him...but it wasn't. He needed to figure out where they were and where they could go. He needed a map, an address...and that meant stepping back out into the open.


Beth was struggling to keep up with Daryl. He was pressing hard, and she couldn't help feeling fatigued. Daryl wasn't doing it on purpose, he just seemed to have one speed, and that speed was "go". And today, for whatever reason, he seemed to be especially driven. He had to be in amazing shape to keep his momentum. She tried to think back to the cabin when he had been briefly without a shirt in front of her, but she didn't remember much of that day and couldn't pull the image up in her mind. Well, she didn't need to imagine to verify his "athletic" nature. It was funny to think back to high school where the football and basketball players spent endless hours in the weight room hoping for the resulting chiseled abs, but Daryl achieved his physique by living.
Daryl had noticed her lagging a bit earlier in the day and had taken the backpack from her. With the bag secured across his back, his crossbow in hand, all their guns and ammo except the gun she carried and her two spare magazines, as well as his knives, he still managed to take down two stray walkers they had met along the way, and provide dinner in the form of two fat rabbits, all while keeping them heading forward. Her Momma had always teased Daddy by saying that men couldn't multitask, but Daryl seemed to have it pretty much down to an art. Just as she was about to give up and tell Daryl she needed to stop, he turned back to her, his breath as even and unlabored as if he were taking a pleasant afternoon turn around the garden.
"Let's take a break. I need a breather."
He most certainly did not need a break...he probably just didn't want her to feel bad about needing to stop. He gestured for her to follow him a little further into the woods where he found a log for her to sit on and a tree for him to lean against. For the past few hours, they had been traveling along a tree line bordering a clear cut path for the endless row of power lines. They had stopped just before a steep incline that she had been dreading for a half a mile or so when it first appeared on the horizon.
"Daryl, I'm sorry...I'm so tired. Can't we just find a place where we can maybe rest for a day?" She was ashamed to have to place such a burden on him and couldn't look at him, not wanting to see disappointment or disgust on his face.
"Yeah, I was thinkin' we might need to do that. I'd like to keep movin', but that won't really do us any good if we can't run or fight when we need to."
He didn't really seem bothered by the notion, and that lifted a bit of worry off Beth's shoulders.
"And it always seems to come down to the fighting and the running." He passed her a refilled bottle of water he had just taken a leisurely sip from.
"Thanks..."
"I'll tell you what. We'll keep an eye out for a good place to rest a day or two, and if we find a car that runs, we'll take it."
They hadn't actually seen any cars to take, but the promise that they would, given the opportunity, sounded like heaven. Daryl's immediate plan always seemed to have avoided the idea of a car though.
"I thought you wanted to stay off the roads?" Beth questioned, taking another drink of water.
"Yeah, I did, but plans change. I'm kinda out of fight or flight mode. We need a more concrete plan, or at least a more concrete means to make that plan happen. And at least if we find a car and hit the road, I'll be able to figure out where we are. I know what we are running from. It might be a good idea to make sure we're not headed in the direction of something worse."
She idly wondered if Daryl was the kind of man who fit the cliché of not wanting to stop and ask for directions. Probably not. As a tracker, he seemed to have his own personal internal GPS going for him.
"Come on Lil' Bit. Lets see if we can find us that car."

Notes

Comments

@Smokey85
Awww...thank you so much for coming back to read! You are amazing. I truly appreciate it!

Aireabella Aireabella
3/30/19

I am so happy you are back! I love your stories and always look forward to your updates! Thank you for sharing your work :)

Smokey85 Smokey85
3/26/19

@McDrogoInaNewWorld
So glad that you enjoyed it! It always makes my day when I can make people happy by doing what I love! Thank you so much!

Aireabella Aireabella
6/14/18

Yay!!! Another great chapter on the books, can’t wait to see what happens next!!

@blesdirishangel
Thank you so much for coming back to my fic and for your comment! I am glad that you love the update. You are amazing!

Aireabella Aireabella
6/7/18