Zedler, M.D. // Daryl Dixon

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Up in Flames

•seventy-eight•

Beatrix

"Ain't gonna have your first drink be no damn peach schnapps."

Beth had told me about her adventure with Daryl to the country club, and it made me smile. We're just at the part where Daryl busts the bottle of peach schnapps all over the floor.

"He was right, you know, peach schnapps is disgusting," I smile, listening to her story. "Did you end up getting another drink, though?"

"Oh would you let me finish?" Beth rolls her eyes jokingly before continuing with her story.

"My dad always said bad moonshine could make you go blind," Beth said, eyeing the drink that Daryl was pouring her.

"Ain't nothin worth seeing out there anymore anyway," Daryl replied, handing the glass to her.

Beth trusted him and tilted the glass back anyway before making a face and sitting it back down, "That's disgusting."

"And you were definitely right about that. Moonshine is awful," I comment as she tells the story, her hushing me so that she could finish.

She told me about how she had convinced Daryl to play Never Have I Ever, which also made me laugh, until she got to the part about Daryl getting drunk and pissed off enough to drag her outside of the house and use a walker for target practice.

"Daryl, stop!" Beth exclaimed, finally having enough of his shit. She stomped over to the trapped walker and put her blade through its head.

"What the hell you do that for? We was having fun," Daryl's voice got angrier than before.

"No, you were being a jackass!" Beth yelled, no longer caring about who or what was around. "If anyone found my dad—"

"Don't! That ain't remotely the same," Daryl yelled back at her, not holding back.

"Killing them is not supposed to be fun!"

"What do you want from me, girl? Huh?"

"I want you to stop acting like you don't give a crap about anything! Like nothing we went through matters. Like none of the people we lost meant anything to you," Beth threw her hands up in the air in anger. "It's bullshit."

"Is that what you think?"

"That's what I know," Beth was certain.

"You don't know nothin'," Daryl's voice dropped low.

"I know you look at me and you just see another dead girl. I'm not Michonne. I'm not Beatrix. I'm not Maggie. I'm not like you or them, but I made it. You don't get to treat me like crap just because you're afraid!"

"I ain't afraid of nothing," Daryl's teeth were pushed together, his words seeping out from in between.

"I remember," Beth paused, wondering if she should say what she wanted to say, but fuck it. She should. "When that little girl came out of that barn, right after my mom. And I remember when those men had Beatrix back at the hotel. I remember when she gave herself up for you at Woodbury. You were like me. And now god forbid you ever try to feel anything again!"

"Can't feel anything, huh? You know all about that. You lost three boyfriends and you can't even shed a tear. Your whole family's gone and all you can do is go out looking for some hooch like some dumb college bitch."

"Screw you, you don't get it," Beth was taken back by what Daryl had said, but she wasn't about to let him know that.

"No you don't get it!" Daryl finally broke. "Everyone we know is dead!"