The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 54 - Have Faith

"Picked up the pace right here. Got out in a hurry. Things went bad."

"Wouldn't kill you to have a little faith." Beth shot back.

"Faith." Daryl scoffed. "Faith ain't done shit for us. Sure as hell didn't do nothing for you're father." Beth spun around, but didn't say anything. Daryl looked like he at least regretted saying it and that was enough. He was mad; at the governor, at his men, at karma, at whatever he could blame. Beth was optimistic. She was optimistic because she had to believe she would see her sisters again even if she would never see her father. She could see Carl and Judith. Lizzie Mica, Molly, Luke; the kids she looked after all the time in the prison because that was her job.

But there was one truth that Daryl hadn't mentioned. Something that had been eating at him since they left the prison. This horrible stomach turning feeling that Beth hadn't seemed to realise... one he had only realised after the panic to get out had subsided and they were sitting at a fire place in the dark, in silence...

If Beth wasn't on that bus...

Kat sure as hell wouldn't have been.

They moved on until they reached the train tracks. A small group of walkers were there, surrounded by blood and torn bits of meat as they ripped apart three bodies. Daryl took them out with a few arrows and collected them before going to move on, the only sound stopping him being Beth's sudden outburst of sobs as she stared at the bodies.

It wasn't them. They weren't even identifiable. It was the sudden reality kick that they could have been anyone. Glenn, Maggie. She didn't believe they were, but that didn't mean anybody else was safe.

Daryl waited, they moved on and lit another fire for the second night.

-

Glenn woke on the collapsed walkway after being knocked down by the explosion, neither him nor Kat noticing the other bellow or above. She had only just left the prison, going back with Martinez to find Luke and Molly and had never seen him. He went back inside and packed a bag filled with supplies and armoured himself up in the prison guard body suits before ramming his way through the herd. But he stopped when he saw a girl, hidden behind the enclosed barricade that went into one of the Cell blocks. He didn't recognise her, she wasn't one of their people. But Glenn found himself going back. He took out the walker at the fence trying to get to her and opened the gate, quickly snatching the gun she held in her hand. It was fully loaded. He took off his helmet to speak to her, but she hadn't so much as looked his way yet.

"It's full. You didn't fire a shot?" She shook her head. "Alright. Let's go." She didn't move. "Let's go. You just gonna stay here, huh? You just gonna die?"

"I was apart of this."

"I know."

"So what are you doing?"

"I need your help."

Glenn shoved a piece of cloth into a bottle of alcohol and then handed her back her gun. "We're gonna run out of bullets. Back up." He lit the cloth on fire, kicked the gate open and threw it at a parked car, ignighting the bonent before closing he gate again and allowing the walkers to gravitate towards the flame. "Alright. I need you to stay ahead of me. I'll cover you but I can't do it alone. Alright?" She nodded as Glenn put his helmet back on and picked up the backpack.

They left, firing as they ran and sprinting into the cover of the trees. They came out at a road and finally were allowed a moment to breathe.

"Did you see if any of my people got out?"

"All I saw was my sister in that field. She wasn't supposed to be there. She had a gun, by they just... swarmed her. She wasn't supossed to be there. I did it for him. I trusted him. And then he just killed that old man."