The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 13 - Ticking Time Bomb

I nodded and ran to grab them. It wasn't a hard job, but it also wasn't easy. We could have used someone like Daryl. She wasn't a very big cow, barely half grown, so the two of us could manage moving her, but that didn't make her light. The fence was the easy part, something we'd done a thousand times, but in total the task still took us a few hours.

"When we get back, I want to grab one of the horses, see if I can track that coyote. We don't want this happening again."

"You should talk to Daryl." Dad said as we threw the last of the tools into the back of his car while the cow now lay in the back of the truck.

"What?" I asked, perhaps a little too quickly.

"He's a hunter, he can track."

"I know how to..."

"Katherine." My father said sternly, cutting off my protest.

"Alright." I reluctantly nodded. "I'll talk to him."

I cranked up the music in the truck for the ride back to the house, dreading what was coming. It wasn't that I hadn't spoken to him at all, I had... with Randall... and other people in the immediate area. He had come down for breakfast this morning, but no doubt he would have headed back to his camp spot by now which means he'd be alone and even if he wasn't we'd definitely be alone while tracking the coyote.

I'd had one night stands before and I didn't doubt that he had either, but I'd never had to live in the same general area as them after, that was the whole point of sneaking out. Avoiding the awkwardness.

But things have to get done. We have a farm to manage in the middle of the end of the world. Drama belongs back in the pre-apocalypse world.

On the way back down to the house I veered off track to head to Daryl's camp, pulling up by the now dead fire as Daryl came from the other side of the ruin to see who it was. I didn't look in his direction until I had opened the door and stepped out, leaving the engine on so he knew I wouldn't be here long.

"Got a job for you if you're interested." I stated. He only stared for a moment before glancing in the direction of the truck where the dead cow lay and then back to me. "We think a coyote was the one that spooked it. I'm going to see if I can track it down, we don't want it to happen again, but my father wants you to help." I explained, a slight bit of emphases over the word 'father,' but not much. I decided I didn't want a direct answer at this moment so instead I continued talking. "I'm heading back to the house, meet me there in fifteen if you want to come." I finished and then jumped back in Betty, taking off down the hill and pulling up out front of the shed.

"Kat?" I heard Maggie the second I got out of the car.

"Hey, you speak with Glenn?" I asked nonchalantly as I let down the tailgate to the truck, getting ready to unload the beast in the back.

"Kat, we need to talk." Maggie stated, instantly catching my attention as I dropped what I was doing.

"What is it?" I asked wearily.

"It's Beth... She's fine." Maggie quickly added on the end before I could say anything. "Dad's with her now, but... Kat, she tried to commit suicide and please let me finish before you say anything." Maggie yet again quickly added. "She wanted to this morning, not long after you left. I was watching her, but I left her with Andrea and she thought the solution was to let her get it out of her system."

"She what?!"

"Let me finish. She left her alone in the room and when I got back up there, Beth had locked herself in the bathroom and cut her wrist, it's not too deep, dad is stitching it up now."