Staying Alive//TWDFanFic

Twelve

Daryl came back late last night and woke Rick up immediately. He brought a kid named Noah along with him, everything happened so quickly I wasn't even able to process that he's here yet. I left him alone because I honestly had a bit of resentment toward him for just leaving without telling anyone, especially me, I assumed I meant something to him but this proved otherwise.

Rick approached me after awhile and brought me over to Daryl, he motioned toward me, "Tell her." I looked at Rick in confusion as he walked off, leaving Daryl and I alone. I crossed my arms, "Tell me what?" He looked down at the ground as he spoke, "You remember how I told you that I saw Beth get taken in a car with a white cross on the back windshield?" I nod but he wasn't looking at me so I sighed, "Yes." He continues, "Well, while Carol and I were on our run, we found a car and made sure it drove so it'd be a 'just in case' type thing. As it got dark, we were walking back when that car passed us." He finally looked at me, "We followed it to Atlanta, they have Beth holed up in the hospital there. Carol got taken there too before Noah and I came back." I just nod and wait for him to continue but he doesn't so I just nod one last time before going to walk away, "Wait." He says. I look back at him and he asks, "Will you go with us to get them back?" I cross my arms and think of something shitty to say to him but come up short, plus the situation is inappropriate to make it about us right now. "Yeah, I'll go. Whats the plan?" He explains Noah has been telling him about some woman named 'Dawn' who is apparently their leader, our plan is to lure out two of her officers and basically kidnap them to make a trade.

Sasha, Noah, Rick, Daryl and I head out to the car Daryl had nearby and make our way to Atlanta. Rick drove as Sasha rode up front with him, I was in the back seat in the middle of Noah and Daryl. I glanced at Noah, "How do you know Beth?" He sighs, "We escaped together but she ended up getting caught by them and brought back." I nod, "So you were staying there with her? How is it?" He shook his head and looked away as Daryl chimed in, "It's not a paradise, so we need to get them out of there." Rick looks at us through the rearview mirror, "Don't worry, we will." I just nod and stay silent. After a few minutes of silence, Daryl tries to grab my hand but I pull it away quickly, he sighs deeply as he leans in close to my ear to whisper, "I'm sorry I just left without saying anything, I had to do it though. I had to try." I glance over at him and nod, "I know, I'm just- I don't know." I shook my head because I felt kind of stupid for being mad at him instead of just being happy he's back.

We got to Atlanta and managed to get Dawn's attention by having Noah shoot his gun at the sky for a bit. Rick, Daryl, Sasha and I hid and waited for them to show. They finally came about 15 minutes later and managed to tie Noah's hands behind his back with zip ties before the rest of us stepped out. We approached them slowly as we aimed our weapons at them, Rick was able to talk them into coming with us after tying their hands behind their backs. We took them to an abandoned building and waited it out as Rick talked them into radioing for Dawn to make the exchange.

**(If you've seen these episodes; I'm rewriting them from here on out.)**

I wasn't involved in what happened as Rick went to meet up with them, I stayed in the building with the two cops they captured from earlier, along with Sasha. Daryl went to the roof to watch it go down, along with Noah. I leaned down next to the male cops, "So, what's the big deal with this Dawn? If you guys hate her so much or want to get rid of her, why haven't you?" The bigger white male looked up at me, "We've been trying to slowly phase her out and get Bob to take over." He nods toward the smaller black male, I glance at Sasha who is obviously stunned by the mention of the name, 'Bob', she just shakes it off and continues speaking to the female cop near her. Bob glances up at me, "I've known her a long time, way before all this and I know how to talk to her. You should go with what I say." I shook my head and scoffed, "Not going to happen but nice try." The bigger male looked up at me, "He's right, you know, none of what you guys are planning to do will work." I roll my eyes and walk over to Sasha, "Do you got this? I need to step outside for a moment." She nodded before looking out the window beside her.

I stepped outside to look for somewhere secluded enough to relieve my bladder. As I finished up, I heard a soft thump noise come from the inside so I pulled my pants up quickly, grabbed my rifle and ran back inside. I saw Sasha lying on the ground and the female and bigger male cops were looking at me with a panicked look on their faces, "Wheres Bob?" I asked, the female answered, "He knocked her out and then ran out the doors, we don't know where he went." I nodded and went to go check on Sasha before she sat up and motioned for me to go ahead, I ran out the doors and ran right into Rick. I fell to the ground and felt a little dizzy from the impact before I sat up and pointed toward where I assumed Bob went, "One of them escaped and I think he went that way." Rick just nodded before running toward where I pointed, Daryl and Noah came up behind him as I stood back up, "You okay?" Daryl asked, I nodded and started laughing softly, "Yeah, I just crashed into Rick and felt like I slammed into a fuckin brick wall." They both glanced at one another before following me back inside.

We waited around for Rick to come back, when he finally did, the male cop's radio started going off with the sound of a woman's voice, "Licari? We got word they want a trade, we're willing to go along with their terms. Tell them to meet us here immediately, they'll be ready and we'll be armed." I glance at Rick who nods for me to go ahead, I grab the radio from his shoulder to respond, "We'll be there in 5 minutes." No one responds so we head down there.

Grady Memorial wasn't more than a few minute walk away from us so we got there quicker than I expected. I shoved the female forward when she started backing away due to walkers being ahead of us, "Chill out, we've got it if they get too close." She just nodded with a worried look on her face as we kept going. They guided us through the hospital until we got toward the top floor, Rick took lead as usual and opened the door slowly, everyone else followed closely behind him. We kept the officers in between us so they couldn't get away even if they tried, I saw Daryl's demeanor soften as he caught sight of Beth at the opposite end of the hallway. They approached us with their weapons held up directly at us so we followed suit until Dawn and Rick started talking, "Your two for mine." He says, she just nods and brings Carol forward first, they help her out of a wheelchair before she asks, "Where's Lamson?" Licari speaks up from beside me, "He was killed by rotters, we saw it happen. Nothing we could do." She looks skeptical but just nods as we swap Licari and Carol quickly. I watched Dawn's facial expressions as she eyeballed all of us, Rick spoke up, "Now Shepherd for Beth." She nods before exchanging, Beth for some reason runs directly to me and hugs me, I just look at Daryl and notice he's smirking before she pulls away and smiles at him. I smile at her as she glances at me before Dawn tries to pull a fast one, "Now all we need is Noah and we'll be done." Beth immediately glares at her before she steps up and says something to her that I was too far away to hear, I could tell by Dawn's facial expression that she didn't like what was said though. I saw Beth grab a pair of scissors from her pocket slowly as she continued to speak to Dawn before swiftly stabbing her right before a gun went off. Part of her skull flew back and hit me in the face before I screeched and another gun went off as I heard Dawn trying to say it was an accident. I saw Beth laying on the floor and immediately went to her side and started crying as I tried to lift her up. Daryl leaned down beside me and whispered, "I got it." A silent tears streamed down his face, the other officers offered for us to stay with them but Rick declined before we made our way back out.

I stayed behind everyone and just watched as Daryl carried a limp Beth. I didn't know her well but I couldn't help but cry anyways, I cried even harder once Daryl stepped outside and I heard Maggie's cries as she dropped to her knees. I knelt down beside her and put a sympathetic hand on her back, she looked up at me and started crying hard again before falling into me, I caught her and just held her for a bit while the others helped Daryl get Beth wrapped up and put into the truck.

We went back to the church and had a funeral for Beth. I just felt numb to the whole thing, it shouldn't have went down like this. I just shook my head as Rick started to bury her before walking off. The tears were streaming down my face but I was just so numb, I didn't even know why or how I was crying when I felt nothing. I gave Daryl his space as we walked back to the church but he ended up coming up beside me anyways, he handed me the cigarette he was puffing on as he walked up. I took a few drags before giving it back to him, we both stopped behind everyone, "Are you okay?" I asked. He shook his head, "Nah, but I will be." He tried to force a smile but couldn't, I put a hand on his shoulder, "I know she meant a lot to you, it's okay to cry for her you know." He shrugged me off before he kept walking. I just shook my head and sighed, he'll feel it when he wants to, I guess.