Joey POV *LONG LONG CHAPTER*
We were running through the woods in the dark from a large herd of walkers. We finally came through to a clearing. "Come on." Daryl instructed us. Daryl and I watched for the walkers, as Beth tried the car to see if it was working. Daryl looks at the car before motioning to us, "Come on." He lifts up the trunk instructing us to climb in. Beth gets in first and I follow her, then Daryl climbs in and shuts it. We were squished in tight as Daryl ties the trunk shut with a rag. The car starts to shake as we hear the snarling loud. Walkers were slamming into the car as they tried to get around it. Beth grabbed my hand as she tried to slow her breathing. I gave her a nod before closing my eyes, hoping that the darkness would calm me, but the sounds of being surrounded by walkers wouldn't allow me to relax. Beth began to cry slightly and she gave my hand a squeeze. We sat there like that until there was not as many walkers out there, Beth gave Daryl a look but he waved his hand at us. We stayed that way until the morning, just another night with no sleep.
In the morning I looked out the peep of the car, not seeing any walkers, I untied the rag and opened the trunk. The sun was bright and hurt my eyes for a second, but I slowly climbed out of the trunk as did Daryl and Beth. I felt like I had been beat up by being thrown around in the back of the trunk with no sleep. We scavenged anything we could from the car before throwing it into our trash bags. Daryl and I started to walk off as Beth stood there for a moment before following us.
Daryl went out hunting as Beth and I stayed back at our little camp we made. Beth was looking at me for a moment and I looked at her, "What?" She shook her head, "Nothing." I rolled my eyes, "You've been looking at me for a minute now, it's not nothing." She sighs, "You don't have to act like you're okay all the time." I shrugged, "It's not an act." She places a hand on my shoulder, "It's okay to be upset, Joey. You lost your mom-" I pushed her hand off of me, "I'm fine. Let's just build the fire." I started digging the hole for it and Beth grabbed the things to start it. As she did that I grabbed the tire rims and cord to start our perimeter.
When Daryl came back he brought a snake to eat. The craziest thing I had ever eaten where those frog legs my dad forced my mom and I to eat at least once a month. I was starving though, so at this point I'd eat anything. We all sat by the fire eating our parts of the snake, and it wasn't that bad. "I need a drink." Beth spoke breaking the silence. I go to hand her our water bottles and she shakes her head, "No, I mean a real drink. As in alcohol. I've never had one. 'Cause of my dad. But he's not exactly around anymore, so... I thought we could go find some." I look to Daryl and he looked back at me before continuing to eat the snake. Beth huffs as she stands, "Okay. Well, enjoy your snake jerky." She grabs the knife and walks off. Daryl sighs as he throws down his snake. He licks his fingers before reaching a hand out to me, "Come on Jo." I grab his hand as he pulls me up and we follow after Beth. Once we reach her one of a steps on a stick startling her. Daryl turns around and walks away and we follow him.
"I think we made it a way. I'm pretty sure we got to go that way to find the booze." Beth tells Daryl as we walk back to camp. We go to step over the barrier as it clatters and Beth notices, "What the hell? You brought me back. I'm not staying in this suck-ass camp." She flips him off before turning to walk away, I roll my eyes. Daryl grabs her arm, "Hey! You had your fun." She pulls away from him, "What the hell is wrong with you two?" I step forward angry with how she was being, "What the hell is wrong with us? What the hell is your problem, Beth?" She ignores my question directed back to her and looks between Daryl and I , "Do either of you feel anything? Yeah, you both think everything's screwed. I guess that's a feeling. So you both want to spend the rest of our lives staring into a fire" She pauses looking directly at me before looking to Daryl, "and eating mud snakes? Screw that. We might as well do something. I can take care of myself and I'm gonna get a damn drink." Then she walks off. Daryl nods to me, "Come on, Jo." I scoff, "We're seriously gonna go after her again? After she walks away?" Daryl sighs, "I'm just trying to keep us together. If she's persistent on this damn drink, so are we." I roll my eyes before walking off towards Beth.
We walk until we hit a clearing and look up to see a golf clubhouse. Beth looks to Daryl, "Golfers like to booze it up right?" We looked to the other side of the course to see walkers walking toward us. Beth started heading to the clubhouse, us following her. Beth tries to open the door and jiggles it a few times, but it is locked. We go around the side to the side door and it's unlocked so we go inside. The moment we walk inside it's chaos around. Everything stacked against the walls and dead bodies laying about. Walkers hang from the ceilings where people had tried to take the easy way out, not knowing if you're not shot in the head, then you turn. I leaned to one of the table to see a card that had 22 written on it. I reached my hand up to my dad's old necklace, allowing it to fiddle between my fingers. I picked up the flashlight next to the note. "Why are you keeping all that stuff?" I hear Beth ask as I look over to see Daryl shoving money into a bag. The banging of the walkers against the blocked door stopped him from having to answer that question. Daryl pushed open the doors and Beth and I went through before he slammed them shut.
We walked into the kitchen and Daryl and I begin to search there as Beth went further back. We heard glass smashing and we quickly went back to where Beth was and saw her jamming a broken wine bottle into a walkers eye. She looked to the two of us, "Thanks for the help." Daryl shrugs, "You said you could take care of yourself. You did." We head down the stairs and crawled underneath the bookcase, being careful to not get any broken glass stuck in our skin. I followed Beth as she walked into a little shop room. Beth picked out some clothes and then grabbed another set and handed it to me, "You should change." I shook my head, "I'm fine." She sighed, "Joey, you've been in those clothes for a while-" I cut her off angrily, "You're not my mom. Stop acting like her." Beth nodded in shocked and as was I honestly. I didn't expect that to come out of my mouth. I quickly walked away from her to look at literally anything that wasn't her. I sat over on one of the counters as we looked at the dead lady that was cut in half and placed on a mannequin with a sign that said rich bitch on her. Beth comes out in a yellow polo with a white cardigan over it. She goes to take the lady down, but struggles then looks to us, "Help me take her down." Daryl shrugs, "It don't matter. She's dead." Beth sighs, "It does matter." Daryl grabs the blanket next to him and throws it over the lady, "Here."
We walked back into the hallway with the clock and went the opposite way. The clock started chiming loudly, a few times then it stopped. We went to turn into the next room when we saw walkers, and then there were more in the opposite room. "Move." Daryl said pushing us forward. We headed into another room when Daryl turned around and shot a walker with his crossbow. I nodded moving to the next one pushing it back as it grabbed a hold of me. I pulled my knife out and stabbed it in the head. When I looked back over to Daryl he was beating a walker with a golf club. "Daryl!" I called to him but he continued hitting it over and over until he swung and hit it in the face splashing the guts all over Beth's new top. She pulled the cardigan off walking into the neck room as Daryl and I followed her. She walked into the hall and saw the bar at the end of it, "We made it." Then she turns and looks to us, "I know you both think this is stupid. And it probably is. But I don't care. All I wanted to do today was lay down and cry, but we don't get to do that." She looks at Daryl first then to me, "So beat up on walkers or take it out on me if that makes you feel better. I need to do this." Daryl and I start to search the room as Beth looks for a drink. Daryl smashes the glass of a picture frame. "Did you have to break the glass?" Beth asks him. He folds the picture, "No. You have your drink yet?" She shook her head, "No. But I found this. Peach schnapps. Is it good?" He shakes his head, "No." Beth shrugs walking over to the bar and sitting, "Well, it's the only thing left. Who needs a glass?" Daryl hands me a dart before throwing his at one of the pictures of the guys hitting him in the neck. I smile before I throw mine and hit the same guy right in the eye. Daryl smiles slightly looking down on me, "Nice hit Jo." Beth crying stopped us from throwing darts and Daryl walks over to her grabbing the bottle, slamming it against the wall. "Ain't gonna have your first drink be no damned peach schnapps. Come on." He tells us and we follow him out the country club.
We were following Daryl when Beth broke the silence, "A motorcycle mechanic." Daryl looks back confused, "Huh?" She shrugged, "That's my guess. For what you were doing before the turn. Did Zack ever guess that one?" Daryl shrugs, "It don't matter. Hasn't mattered for a long time." Beth sighs, "It's just what people talk about, you know, to feel normal." "Yeah, well it hasn't felt normal in a long time." I said softly. We walked up to a cabin and Daryl nodded to it, "Found this place with Michonne." Beth looked at him, "I was expecting a liquor store." He shook his head, "Nah this is better." Daryl brings us to the side shed where he opens the door and starts putting jars into a basket. "What's that?" I ask him. He hands Beth the basket, "Moonshine. Come on." He walks us inside the cabin and it's trashed. Daryl checks around for anything and once he deems it clear, he nods to the table for Beth to put the basket on the table and she does. He blows into a glass then pours some of the jar into it, "All right. That's a real first drink right there." She sighs as she looks at the glass. "What's the matter?" Daryl asks her. She shrugs, "Nothing. It's just... my dad always said bad moonshine can make you go blind." Daryl sighs, "Ain't nothing worth seeing out there anymore anyway."Beth takes a sip and grimaces, "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted." Then drinks the rest of it. She smiles, "Second round's better." She pours another glass. "Slow down." He warns her and she smiles, "This one's for you." Daryl shakes his head, "No, I'm good." Beth looks to him confused, "Why?" Daryl shrugs, "Someone's got to keep watch." I look at him, "I can keep watch." Beth laughs, "So, what, you're like our chaperone now?"Daryl sighs walking away, "Just drink lots of water." Beth nods, "Yes, Mr. Dixon." I laugh at her comment before helping Daryl secure the cabin. Beth laughs, "Who'd go into a store and walk out with this?" I look to see a pink bra shaped ashtray. "My dad, that's who.Oh, he's a dumbass. He'd set those up on top of the TV set, use them as target practice." Daryl answered. Beth looked shocked, "He shot things inside your house?" My dad never shot anything in our house, but I remember my dad taking me and mom to the shooting ranges to shoot. I would never shoot any targets, I would just color in my coloring books while he taught momma how to shoot. There was always guns in my house with my dad being a cop. I was used to it. Daryl shrugs, "It was just a bunch of junk anyway. That's how I knew what this place was. That shed out there, my dad had a place just like this." He points to the chair, "You got your Dumpster chair. That's for sitting in and your drawers all summer drinking. Got your fancy buckets. That's for spitting chaw in after your old lady tells you to stop smoking. You got your internet." We hear a walker growl and Daryl holds a finger up to us, "It's just one of 'em." I reach for my machete, "Should we get it?" He shrugs, "If he keeps making too much noise, yeah." Beth reaches for the moonshine, "Well, if we're gonna be trapped again, we might as well make the best of it. Unless you're too busy chaperoning, Mr. Dixon." Daryl grabs the jar of moonshine, "Hell, might as well make the best of it. Home, sweet home. You drinking, Jo?" I give him a look, "I'm 15." He shrugs, "I started earlier than that, besides, I won't tell your mom." I smile softly, "Sure why the hell not." He hands me his jar before grabbing himself one.
We were sitting around the table when Beth said she wanted to play a game. "So first I say something I've never done and if either of you have done it, you drink, and if you haven't, I drink. Then we go to the next. You both really don't know this game?" Daryl shrugged, "I never needed a game to get lit before." I also shrugged, "I'm 15, I was only 12ish when this whole thing started." "How do you know this game?" Daryl asks her and she shrugs, "My friends played. I watched. Okay, I'll start. I've never shot a crossbow. So now you two drink." "Ain't much of a game." Daryl says as he drinks. I took a drink as well since back at the prison, Daryl taught me to shoot his crossbow. "That was a warm-up. Now you go." Beth says pointing to Daryl. Daryl shrugs, "I don't know." Beth smiles, "Just say the first thing that pops into your head." He nods, "I've never been out of Georgia." I take a drink of my cup as Beth does, "Really? Okay, good one. Joey your turn." I thought for a moment before I had one, "Never have I driven a car." Beth and Daryl drink. Beth thinks for a moment, "I've never... been drunk and did something I regretted." Daryl nods taking a drink, "I've done a lot of things." Beth nods, "Your turn." "I've never been on vacation." He spoke softly. "What about camping?" Beth asks him and he shakes his head, "No, that was just something I had to learn to hunt." I looked at him, "Your dad teach you?" He nods. Beth and I take a drink as I know it's my turn. "I've never skipped school." Daryl and Beth take a drink. "Really? Like ever?" Beth asked me and I shake my head, "You've met my mom. She would literally murder me." Beth nods, "You're right. I've never... been in jail. I mean, as a prisoner." I give her a look, "Beth." Daryl looks up to her, "Is that what you think of me?" Beth shrugged, "I didn't mean anything serious. I just thought, you know, like the drunk tank. Even my dad got locked up for that back in the day." I gave her a warning look to stop. Daryl motions to her cup, "Drink up." Beth looks at him, "Wait. Prison guard. Were you a prison guard before?" Daryl shakes his head, "No." Beth motions her cup to him, "It's your turn again." Daryl scoffs standing up, "I'm gonna take a piss." Daryl throws the jar down and it shatters. "You have to be quiet." I told him and he scoffs, "Can't hear you! I'm taking a piss!" Beth warns him, "Daryl, don't talk so loud." Daryl looks back at us while he's peeing, "What, are you two my chaperone now?" He zips up and turns back to us, "Oh, wait. It's my turn, right? I've never-- never eaten frozen yogurt. Never had a pet pony. Never got nothing from Santa Claus. Never relied on anyone for protection before. Hell, I don't think I've ever relied on anyone for anything." "Daryl." I spoke softly but he ignored me. "Never sung out in front of a big group out in public like everything was fun. Like everything was a big game. I sure as hell never cut my wrists looking for attention. Never got lost and had an entire group organize a search party to find me, hell when I went missing no one even knew I was gone." I looked away from him hearing the walker growl. "Sounds like our friend out there is trying to call all of his buddies." Daryl said sarcastically. "Daryl, just shut up." Beth told him. He grabbed his crossbow, "Hey, you never shot a crossbow before? I'm gonna teach you right now. Come on. It's gonna be fun. Jo, on my six, now." He grabbed Beth's arm pulling her outside, "We should stay inside. Daryl, cut it out! Daryl!" I followed him to make sure nothing went too far South. "Dumbass." He called for the walker as he shot it to the tree, "Come here, dumbass." He looked to Beth, "You want to shoot?" She panicked, "I don't know how." He grabbed Beth holding up the crossbow to shoot, "Oh, it's easy. Come here. Right corner." I ran over and grabbed Daryl's arm, "Let's practice later." He shoves me off grabbing Beth, "Come on, it's fun. Come here. Eight ball." He shoots the walker in the chest. "Just kill it!" Beth cries. Daryl lets her go and walks towards the walker, "Come here, Greene. Let's pull these out. Get a little more target practice." I ran up to the walker and stabbed it in the head and Daryl looks to me angrily, "What the hell you do that for? I was having fun." I shook my head, "No, you were being a jackass." "If anyone found my dad-" Beth starts and Daryl cuts her off pointing at her, "Don't. That ain't remotely the same." Beth cries, "Killing them is not supposed to be fun." Daryl gets in her face, "What do you want from me, girl, huh?" I step between them pushing them away from each other. "I want both of 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 either of you. It's bullshit!" Beth yells looking between the both of us. "Is that what you think?" Daryl asks her from behind me and she nods, "That's what I know." I shake my head, "You don't know nothing." Beth looks at us, "I know you both look at me and you just see another dead girl. I'm not Michonne. I'm not Carol. I'm not Maggie. I'm not Madison-" I cut her off, "You don't talk about her!" Daryl holds me back. Beth continues, "I've survived and you don't get it 'cause I'm not like you or them. But I made it and neither of you get to treat me like crap just because you're afraid." Daryl looks at her, "We aren't afraid of nothing." Beth sighs, "I remember. When that little girl came out of the barn after my mom. You were like me. And now God forbid you ever let anybody get too close. And you when you couldn't find your mom back at the prison. You're face was just as mine." Daryl pushes past me, "Too close, huh? You know all about that. You lost two boyfriends, you can't even shed a tear. Your whole family's gone, all you can do is just go out looking for hooch like some dumb college bitch." Beth rolled her eyes, "Screw you. You don't get it." I step forward, "No, you don't get it! Everyone we know is dead!" She shakes her head, "You don't know that!" Daryl scoffs, "Might as well be, 'cause you ain't never gonna see 'em again. Rick. Madison, her baby. You ain't never gonna see Maggie again." I try to grab Daryl's arm, "Daryl, just stop." He pushes me off, "No! The Governor rolled right up to our gates. Maybe if I wouldn't have stopped looking. Maybe 'cause I gave up. That's on me." "Daryl." Beth tried but he pushed her off, his voice starting to shake, "No-- And your dad. Maybe-- maybe I could have done something." Beth hugs him from behind. Daryl pulls me into his chest as all three of us stood there sobbing at everything we had lost. We were all any of us had.
We sat on the porch, and now it was night time. "I get why my dad stopped drinking." Beth spoke softly. "You feel sick?" I ask her and she shook her head, "Nope. I wish I could feel like this all the time. That's bad." Daryl nodded, "You're lucky you're a happy drunk." I smile nudging Daryl, "Some people can be real jerks when they drink." He nods, "Yeah, I'm a dick when I'm drunk. Merle had this dealer, this janky little white guy. A tweaker. One day we were over at his house watching TV. Wasn't even noon yet and we were all wasted.Merle was high. We were watching this show and Merle was talking all this dumb stuff about it.And he wouldn't let up. Merle never could. Turns out it was the tweaker's kids' favorite show. And he never sees his kids, so he felt guilty about it or something. So he punches Merle in the face. So I started hitting the tweaker, like, hard. As hard as I can. Then he pulls a gun, sticks it right here," Daryl pauses pointing a finger gun to his temple, "He says, 'I'm gonna kill you, bitch.' So Merle pulls his gun on him. Everyone's yelling. I'm yelling. I thought I was dead. Over a dumb cartoon about a talking dog." Beth looked at him confused, "How'd you get out of it?" He sighed, "The tweaker punched me in the gut. I puked. They both started laughing and forgot all about it. You two want to know what I was before all this? I was just drifting around with Merle... doing whatever he said we were gonna be doing that day. I was nobody. Nothing. Some redneck asshole and an even bigger asshole for a brother." "You miss him, don't you?" I ask and he nods. I continue, "I miss my mom and my dad. Even if he was an asshole too. Carl, Judith, and Rick. I've never seen my mom so happy. And the baby, it wasn't even born yet." Beth nods laughing, "I miss Maggie. I miss her bossing me around. I miss my big brother Shawn. He was so annoying and overprotective. And my dad. I thought-- I hoped he'd just live the rest of his life in peace, you know? I thought Maggie and Glenn would have a baby. And he'd get to be a grandpa. And we'd have birthdays and holidays and summer picnics. And he'd get really old. And it'd happen, but it'd be quiet. It'd be okay. He'd be surrounded by people he loved. That's how unbelievably stupid I am." Daryl sighed, "That's how it was supposed to be." Beth sighs, "I wish I could just... change." Daryl nods, "You did." Beth shakes her head, "Not enough. Not like you. It's like you were made for how things are now. Or like Joey, seems she was made to grow up and survive in this world." Daryl pointed to the cabin, "I'm just used to it, things being ugly. Growing up in a place like this." Beth nodded, "Well, you got away from it." He shakes his head, "I didn't." I nod, "You did." Daryl smiles slightly to us, "Maybe you two got to keep on reminding me sometimes." Beth shakes her head, "No. You can't depend on anybody for anything, right? I'll be gone someday." Daryl cut her off, "Stop." She sighed, "I will. You're both gonna be the last two standing. You are. You're both gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon and Josephine Walsh." I rolled my eyes when she uses my full name. Daryl laughs a little, "You ain't a happy drunk at all." She shrugged, "Yeah, I'm happy.I'm just not blind." She looks to Daryl, "You got to stay who you are, not who you were. Places like this, you have to put it away." Daryl looks at her, "What if you can't?" She shrugged, "You have to. Or it kill you." She then looks at me, "And you Josephine, need to let people help you. Let people in, or you're going to end up all alone." I laugh, "You really aren't a happy drunk at all." Daryl looks out into the woods, "We should go inside." Beth laughs, "We should burn it down." He stands up and looks back to us, "We're gonna need more booze."
We pour the booze all over the cabin splashing it every which way. It was fun to sort of let loose and blow off some steam from everything that has happened to us. We stood in front of the cabin and Daryl looked at us, "Y'all wanna." We looked at each other and nodded, "Hell yeah." Beth and I lit matches and caught the money on fire before throwing it at the cabin. It quickly started to light and we all stepped back watching it burn. Daryl threw another jar of moonshine and we watched it burn. Beth flipped the cabin off then motioned for us to join in and we did. There we stood for a moment, all three of us flipping the cabin off. We then look to see a group of walkers heading towards the cabin, and that was our cue to go. Daryl motioned for the two of us to go and we did. Beth grabbed my hand as she walked forward and I smiled holding onto hers. Beth taught me that even though this life is for survival, it's not a life at all unless you can enjoy the little things.