Z

I take a sip of my sweet tea, bundled up in a sweater I found in town a few days prior. The wind was starting to pick up lately; I could tell winter was coming. "So how have you and Daryl been?"

"Good," Rose smiled, feeling a blush creep across her cheeks, "He's so unbelievably sweet. You don't think he could be, but," She sighed looking off towards where Daryl and Rick were talking, "Carol's been so bitchy."

"It's because she's jealous. Don't worry about her, just focus on what is important." I smile at Rose. "But I'm glad y'all are good, we've both needed this, didn't we?"

"Yes, I'm glad we stayed," She responded with a smile, "How's Shane? Rick and him seem to be...avoiding each other?"

"We're actually great, I'm really happy with Shane." I shifted nervously as I watched Rick and Daryl talking before looking at the other side of the farm where Shane was cleaning his gun. "Shane actually did something that Rick didn't... approve of; other than opening the barn.”

She raised her eyebrows and looked at me, “What did he do?”

"He um..." I put my drink down on the porch beside my chair and looked of at her. "I promised I wouldn't say anything but I trust you not to blab." Shooting one more quick glance at Shane, "When Rick and Shane went off to release Randall; Shane came back that night and told me that he killed Randall instead."

"Oh," Rose said, looking to Shane, then back to me, "I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing."

“I know, and I agree with Shane. Honestly, I don't think Rick is cut out to make decisions like that."

"He's too..." Rose paused thinking of the word, "Democratic."

"Hey, do you see that?" I asked, pointing towards Glenn and Shane talking. I watched as they exchanged something secretly. "What do you think that is?"

Rose squint against the sun, "Something Shane asked for," She then looked over at me and winked, "personally. Go find out?" She asked, smirking.

I narrow my eyes at her, suspecting she had something to do with it. "I will. I'll talk you to you later?"

Rose smiled. “I’ll be around,”

I skipped off of the porch and headed straight for Shane and Glenn. Glenn looked nervous and uncomfortable as usual, and once I approached them, he quickly excused himself.

“What are you up to?” I asked, leaning into his chest, looking up at him through my lashes.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” He played innocent, hiding whatever it was behind his back. I reached up and locked my around his neck and brought him to me to kiss him. I snaked my arms down his side while I distracted him and grabbed what he was hiding from me.

“Wait,” He pulled away but it was too late. In my hands was a box of condoms. I looked up at him with wide eyes, and I could see him fidgeting nervously; rubbing the back of his neck. “I can explain.”

“Yeah, explain.” I fought hard to hide my smile, enjoying him look so vulnerable. I honestly didn’t mind, and I had been thinking about taking our relationship to the next level as well.

“Alright, well,” He sighed, trying to come up with the right words. “I really care about you, Bee, but I wasn’t going to pressure you into it, but I just wanted to be prepared in case we do take this next step.”

“Well, I’m glad you thought ahead.” I finally let my smile show and he seemed to relax. “Let’s make good use of these?”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me quickly towards our tent.

Before we could make it inside; a motor could be heard off in the distance and it was steadily growing louder as it approached. The noise was almost foreign; it had been so long since any of us had heard an aircraft. The sound of the blades chopping through the air was in time with the pounding of my heart in my ears.

“Shane, do you hear that?”

I watched as the group started to venture outside to get a better look at the helicopter approaching. They gathered in the middle of the farm, squinting up into the sky to the see the helicopter fly over.

“What? Ain’t nobody seen a helicopter before?” I heard Daryl grumble from behind Rose.

I glance over to Shane to see him struggling to hide the box of condoms. As everyone approached us, he finally just shoved them under his shirt. I giggled behind my hand, causing him to look up at me and smile.

After the helicopter was gone, everyone went back to whatever it was they were doing before being interrupted. I turned to Shane and placed my hands on his hips.

“You better believe I’m going to take advantage of you after dinner,”

“I’ll be waiting impatiently until then,” He promised, leaning down to catch my mouth with his. I felt him slip something into my hands, and it was when he pulled away and started to walk off that I realized he slipped the condom box into my hand.

Rolling my eyes, I went into our tent and placed them into my bag. I couldn’t wait until after dinner.



I found Rose over by Daryl and talked to them for a while before a commotion gained my attention. It sounds like Rick and Shane were arguing over something. I looked back at the couple before running to see what was going on.

“It was a military ‘copter!” Shane shouted, his eyebrows furrowed over his eyes in anger. “There has to be a place they’re going to, they’ll have supplies and a place for us to stay. Rick, you’re a damn fool if you think we should stay here!”

“Now Shane,” Rick tried to control the situation before it could get any more out of control, and I could see the anger building up in Shane. “We have everything we need right here. We have a farm, a house and a lot of land for crops. We’re just fine here!”

“You’re not the boss around here, Rick,” Shane seethed through his teeth. “We should pack up and leave while we still have some daylight.”

I covered my mouth to keep from speaking out as I watched on. Rick had no right to tell Shane what to do.

“We’re not going anywhere, and that’s final.”

Shane attacked Rick, punching him and knocking him to the ground before jumping on top of him.

“Shane!” I called, hoping he would listen to me instead of beating Rick, but I knew he wouldn’t.

Luckily, Daryl jumped in and pulled them apart.

Shane’s lip and eyebrow was busted, a trail of blood falling down his face and he stood up and stared down at Rick, who was now being helped up by T-Dog. Rick’s eye was red and puffy, and I knew later it would be a nice shiner. I looked between them before I saw Lori walk up and grab Rick, and lead him to the house to clean him up. She was shooting glares at Shane, and I bawled up my fist.

Rose’s hand was on mine, and I found myself relaxing.

“Come on, Shane,” He walked over to me and followed behind me to the back of the house where a hose faucet was located.

I pulled off my over shirt and ran it under the water before ringing it out and bringing it up to Shane’s wounds. I wiped the blood off as carefully as I could.

It was silent between us for a while before Shane spoke, “Are you mad at me?”

“I just don’t understand the need to start fights. You could have just packed up your car and we could have just left. You don’t need his damn permission to leave.”

“He’s my best friend, Beth, I want us as a group to leave.”

“Doesn’t seem like much of a friend to me. From my end, it just looks like an ego trip.” I slapped the damp shirt against his face, too mad to be gentle. He winced.

“You think we should leave?”

I shrugged my shoulders, “If you think there is somewhere better than this place, I’ll follow you. But I mean, Rick has a point, babe, we have everything we need here.”

“Alright,” He shrugged himself before standing up and limping away from me. I sighed before pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration.

I could hear Andrea yelling that dinner was ready and I laid my shirt out against a tree stump to dry before walking towards the house.



After all the dishes were done and everyone had the rest of the night to be with themselves, I sat by the fire pit with Shane, the tension was building between us.

“Look, I’m sorry about earlier,” He mumbled, keeping his gaze down on the ground.

“Don’t apologize, Shane. You didn’t do anything wrong. Today has just been one of those stressful days. Regardless of the world ending, we’re still entitled to them.”

He looked up and started to smile at me before a scream echoed throughout the farm.

Alarmed, Shane stood up and ran into the night where the scream came from, and I followed behind just as quick. It didn’t take long before everyone else was running too, scared of what they would find out here.

The closer I got, the more I realized the person that screamed was Dale. Fear flooded through me as I bad thoughts filled my head and as soon as I saw him lying on the ground with his stomach tore open, I knew this was much worse.

I didn’t know what to do, but there wasn’t much to be done. Rick, Shane and Daryl were shouting for Hershel.

The rest of the group had crowded around and started crying, but I was too numb to cry. I didn’t know this man for long, but he was a good man and didn’t deserve this. No one deserved this.
I watched Carl as he walked over to the walker Daryl just killed, and his face drained of color before he took off running. I was the only one that noticed at first, everyone else was busy trying to save Dale. I ran after him, and then I heard the shouts of both our names as we ran.

“Carl! Wait up,” I called after him, but he kept running. His pace slowed a bit, and eventually I caught up to him. "What's wrong, Carl?"

He looked up at me, panting, "That walker, the one Daryl stabbed. I saw him before."

"Saw him before? How?"

"In the swamp, he was in the mud and I took this from Daryl's bike" Carl holds out the gun, "And I was gonna shoot him. I was going to, but I didn't," He started crying a bit, "A-and he killed Dale."

"Oh, honey," I cooed, patting his head to soothe him. "You can't blame yourself for that. What happened to Dale was not your fault. Things like this happen, Carl." I bend down to make myself the same height as Carl. "As for Daryl's gun, I think you should return it and apologize for taking it. He's been looking everywhere for that."

"He'll kill me," he mumbles, sniffling a bit, "C-can you just give it back to him?"

I laugh a bit. "Yeah, I'll give it to him. He's not that bad, you know." Carl hands over the gun carefully and I stuff it into the waist band of my jeans. "Hey Carl, don't beat yourself up about not shooting that walker in the mud. Using a gun is a big responsibility and no one is going to blame you for it."

"I just wanted to protect all of us-" A branch breaking makes him stop speaking, "What was that?"

I look up into the dark woods surrounding us to see the moving shadows of walkers everywhere. I look down at Carl with a panicked look on my face. "Run back to the farm! Warn them!"

“Carl!” I heard Rick shout. “Beth!”

“Run, Carl! Go now!”

He takes off running back towards the farm where everyone was still kneeled down next to Dale’s now dead body. I run as fast as I can without passing Carl, looking over my shoulder every five seconds. Rick, Shane and Daryl were there to greet us.

“What’s going on?”

I watched as they look behind me, trying to find something in the darkness.

“Run! Get everything you can and leave! There’s too many of them!” I shout, scared out of my mind. Shane’s hands are on my shoulders, trying to calm me down enough to make sense.

“I don’t understand,” Rick mumbled.

I shoved Shane off of me, angry that they weren’t listening to me. “A horde! There is a horde coming right for us!” As soon as the words left my lips, the started stumbling out of the woods.

“Carl, run back to the house and warn everyone!” Carl nodded before running back to the house like Rick instructed.

“We’ll need a distraction,” Rick started to run back as well, and we all followed behind, not stupid enough to waste one more second in that spot.

I followed Rick all the way to the barn before turning to Shane and stopping him in his tracks. “Gather as much as you can, and I’ll meet you by the car.” He nodded, and kissed me hard on the mouth. He started to turn, but I held onto his sleeve so that he’d turn back around. “I love you,”

“Love you too,” He smiled for a second before the determined look crossed his features once more. I watched as he ran around, helping people, killing off the walkers that were getting too close, and gathering our things.

I turned back to help Rick to see that he was holding up his lighter. “Meet at the highway,” He yelled over the screaming before he dropped his lighter, lighting the hay covered barn on fire.