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The Caged Beth Sings

Eight months.

We had been on the road for eight long, exhausting months. Without a home, without a bed. It was some of the hardest months of my life.

It had also been the most surprisingly education months, too. I had a feeling everything I learned now would be useful to survive in the future.

Lori's baby was almost due, so Hershel had been increasing our lessons. Of course, we couldn't afford to use up any supplies for it so he had to resort to simply telling me, but I absorbed the information like a sponge. Every single day I became more passionate and that was something that delighted him.

I had become almost like a shadow to Daryl- when he hunted, I followed. When he prepared his kills for eating, I followed. When he made new arrows for his crossbow, I followed. I wanted to know everything he knew about how to survive.

At first, I think I irritated him by how much I hung around. After all, I was just a clumsy kid who occasionally scared away a meal. In fact, he told me piss off a couple times in the early days. But when I actually listened and left him to it, he must've missed my company. He actually started inviting me along, showing me exactly where to aim on an animal and which tracks meant what.

Today, I didn't follow him as he busted down a door, raising his bow as he scanned the abandoned house. Rick, T-Dog and Carl went in after, weapons up to their eyes so they were ready for anything.

Carl had changed a lot recently. He became stronger, more experienced. I didn't want to say he was cold, because he made sure I knew how important I was to him often. But his eyes were definitely harder, always narrowed in a way that worried me. I think it had a lot to do with his parents deteriorating relationship.

Lori had started to distance herself from her family, or maybe it was the other way around. I, myself, had definitely felt our bond breaking. But she was still carrying that baby, and while she was I would protect her with everything I had.

I wasn't the only person who learned a lot out here. The Greene family had become a key part of our group. Hershel had his wisdom and morality, Beth brought a kindness to the group that kept us human, and Maggie was one of the strongest people here now. Her and Glenn were by each other's side constantly, being each other's defence when the time came.

My respect for Carol grew every day. It took a lot of guts and strength to change her life around the way she had. A lot of people would've easily given up after going through so much pain but she only came out stronger. Her skills with a gun had improved a lot, then again everyone's had, and she had shown time and time again her loyalty to the group.

Rick Grimes was still our ever determined leader. His tight hold on the position never wavered, although we all knew it was only because no one else could be trusted to make the same hard decisions he did. He's the one who kept us all alive out in the wild and I owed him my life a hundred times over by now, that's for sure.

"All clear." Daryl called out, waving a welcoming arm through the door. The rest of us entered the house, taking in the vines and dirt covering every wall, dust settling on each surface. Still, we had stayed in worse places for longer times.

I looked up at Daryl expectantly, and he nodded his head once, heaving his crossbow over his shoulder. That meant we would be hunting today.

I grabbed my gun out the holster on my leg, screwing the silencer into place and placing my finger beside the trigger.

'Only for emergencies.'

Daryl opened the back door and we stepped out into the bright daylight, my T-shirt ruffling in the gentle breeze. Winter had been hard, and I was so happy for summer to be back again.