Before You Go: Part 2 (Bethyl Fanfic)

Chapter 2

Beth:

I woke up in Daryl's arms, my head against his chest. I stayed still for a few minutes, taking in the smell of pine and lake water that had soaked into his clothing, before inhaling deeply through my nose and stretching out. "Hey. Sleep well?" I looked up at Daryl's smiling face, feeling a smile tug at the corners of my own mouth. I nodded and laid my head back down on his chest.

"Did you?" His chin brushed over the top of my head as he shook his.

"Oh. Why?" He looked down, putting his face up against mine. His breath was warm on my face as he hugged me tighter to him.

"Too busy thinkin' 'bout how I almost lost ya', then. . ." He trailed off, so I finished for him.

". . . And then I almost lost you." He ran his hand up and down my back as we talked.

"Yeah. Sorry 'bout that." I cupped my hand over his cheek.

"Don't be." He nodded, still looking troubled, before standing up with me in his arms and setting me down on my feet.

"We better get going. We got a lotta stuff to find." I nodded and followed him as he started up the steep incline to the top of the mountain, reaching back to grab my hand and help me up. When we got to the top we traveled into a small town on the map, where we found a couple stores on a plaza. I was shocked that the top of the mountain would have so much life. . . or what would have been life, had the world not literally died. Daryl didn't seem as surprised, though. He must have been to the mountains before. What was I thinking? Of course he'd been up here before, we couldn't have gone that far from where we had originally lived before the apocalypse.

As we approached the plaza, we decided to split up so we could work faster. Daryl placed a chaste kiss on my lips before heading toward the grocery store that took up an entire side of the square. As he walked away, I called after him. "Be careful!" A knot formed in my stomach as he got farther and farther away from me, as I got more and more worried I may never see him again, even though I was sure he'd be fine. He slowed to a stop, before turning halfway around to look at me with a warm, reassuring smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Always." And with that, he turned back and continued walking as I headed for the rest of the stores. Daryl had gone to the grocery store because food was what we needed most and he could carry more than I could. I went to the clothing store first, hugging myself as the chilly breeze put goosebumps on my skin. I knocked loudly on the front door, glancing over to the grocery store where Daryl was clearing walker after walker with ease as they stumbled through the front doors of the store at him. I turned back to my store, where only two walkers slammed their hands against the window, scratching and biting at the glass. I opened up the door and jumped back as both walkers dove for the opening, reaching for me and gnashing their rotting teeth as they came closer to me. I grabbed at my knife, sliding my hand along the blade as I ripped it out of my pocket, lashing out and stabbing the first walker in the head then taking out the second one the same way. I looked down at the palm of my hand as crimson blood poured through the long, thin line down the middle of my palm. I pulled my knife out of the second walkers head and used it to cut and tear a strip off of my shirt and wrap it around my hand to slow the bleeding. 

When I finished wrapping my hand I double checked for more walkers then adjusted my backpack and stepped inside. To my surprise, not a lot was missing from the store. Most of the racks were full so worked quickly, picking up a brown, deer skin jacket for myself, a pair of combat boots, a pair of hiking boots, and a black leather jacket for Daryl. I changed into mine and put Daryl's in the first pocket of my backpack, leaving the store and heading for the rest of them. I came back to the meeting spot with the clothing, a tent, two flashlights, two sleeping bags, and a large quilt. Daryl came back about ten minutes later than me carrying his bag, which was about half full. Apparently food was the first thing everyone thought of when the apocalypse started, so the grocery store wasn't as full as the stores I'd hit, but we got more than enough to last us a while. There were a few cars in the parking lot, left over from the people who hadn't made it out of the stores alive. We picked a small hybrid, which would be easier on gas. Daryl hotwired it while I loaded the supplies into the trunk and backseat. When it was running, we got in and headed back to our little ledge.