Follow You Down - Bethyl Fanfiction

Lunge, Hit, Back Off

When the two finally broke apart, both were breathing heavily, foreheads pressed together. Daryl took the moment to kiss Beth's cheek, neck and brow, heart aching at the smile he drew from her breathless lips. He wanted nothing more than to continue, to rip those tantalising pyjamas off her small frame and touch everything that lay beneath, to make her pant and let out another high breathy moan. But, as he looked at her, sitting above him and smiling down at him like he had just saved her from a pit of snakes and handed her a prized possession she hadn't seen for years, Daryl accepted that it was more than just a desire for touch on her side too. She didn't just want to be touched, Beth wanted to be loved.

Daryl wrapped his arm around Beth's waist before twisting, lifting his legs up and laying them both on the bed, pulling her to lay on him, wincing at the strain on his chest. He could feel Beth prop herself up to make it easier for him before settling down over him, head beneath his chin.
Neither spoke and after a while he heard Beth's breathing settle into a slow relaxed pace. He closed his own eyes after a while, half expecting to wake up alone, having dreamt the whole thing.

Daryl could see it, him an Beth against the world. He could see her standing by his side, hand in hand over it all, having beaten the new reality that constantly clawed at the walls and fences. He would protect her from it all, forever. She wasn't a burden. Protecting her would be his privilege.

 -

The yell of Carl's voice woke Daryl first.  Eyes snapping open, he instinctively pulled Beth against him, eyes adjusting to the darkness that still surrounded them. It was still the middle of the night, what was Carl shouting about? He concentrated on the words the teenager was saying.
Walkers. Herd at the fence. It's going to come down. Help. Beth was stirring by the time Carl had gotten it all out, raising her head from Daryl's chest.
"What-" Beth was cut of by Daryl moving under her, hurtling to his feet. His feet were in his boots and he was grabbing his crossbow as Beth got up, hearing Carl's repeated cries for help. Daryl grabbed her wrist as she reached for a knife that was on the table.
"No, you're stayin'." He grunted, the thought of her facing walkers was not one he could be distracted with.
"No I'm not, I can help!" She said fiercely, pulling against his hold on her.
"Beth don't-"
"You shouldn't be goin' anyway, you're still hurt!" She contested, yanking her wrist free. Daryl didn't have time to argue with her. He had to protect his home. He leaned in and pressed a hard kiss against her lips and met her eyes with his own.
"You're stayin' Bethy, please." He used her daddy's name for her which made her falter, teeth coming down on her lip. All it took was that moment of hesitation for him to stroke her cheek with his hand and turn, breaking into a run out of the cell door, leaving it open. 

Beth stood, hand still open towards the knife as she watched her family run past Carl, pulling on clothes and grabbing weapons. Daryl was gone. Into danger without a second thought. She took a few steps toward the cell door before Carl looked at her, yells stuttering for a second at the sight of her in Daryl's cell, dressed the way she was. Beth hadn't even thought about how it looked until Carl's eyes widened at the view. Beth's cheeks burned and and she retreated back into the cell, rummaging for a shirt. She had to help, everyone was going. They had to save the fence. She was swamped in Daryl's shirt, rolling up the sleeves to her wrists, leaving the bottom of the shirt to hang over the shorts. Beth took the knife and hurried to her own cell to pull her boots on, grabbing a hairband. Sheathed knife in her mouth, Beth gathered up her hair as she ran out to Carl, tying it in a pony tail. She pulled it tight and took the knife in her dominant hand, her left reaching for Carl's.
"Come on!" She urged and he turned to run with her.

The evening was a lot cooler than Beth had expected, the sky clear of clouds with the moon hanging heavy and bright, lighting their way. Thankfully Carl had put his shock aside as they ran, hand in hand towards the fence, instead rambling off methods of killing walkers to her. Beth frowned in concentration at his words, trying to take them all in. His crash course was going to save them all. Beth was going to help. She would be useful and save them all. She hadn't seen such a hoard since the farm, and panic threatened to set in as the sight of them all pushing against the fence, making it bow under their force while, on the other side, her family fought desperately to take them all out. 
"-Don't forget to step back after every kill, don't let their arms get near you-" Carl continued, getting his own machete ready, gun rattling on his hip.

Beth couldn't help but search the group for her loved ones. She knew Hershel would be inside, but Glenn and Maggie could be seen near the centre of the herd, stabbing and lunging, already covered in dark walker blood. She then found Daryl against the fence, having abandoned his crossbow to dual wield knives, taking out walker after walker.

Carl and Beth skirted around the corner and into the narrow corridor of fencing. If the outer fence came down it would take out both and they would be trapped in between. Beth forced the images of their savage deaths out of her mind and squeezed Carl's hand.
"Get the ones on the edges too!" Ricks voice boomed above the hacking and growling of their enemy. "Carl, Beth get those ones!"
Rick it seemed, didn't question Beth's lack of experience as most would. She had been ready for him to tell her to leave, to go and watch over the children with her dad, but he didn't. Beth understood how desperate the situation was and Rick could see that. But him yelling her name had caught the attention of Maggie and Daryl, who had both stepped back from the fence to look over at her and Carl as they made it to the herd, detaching hands.

"Beth!" Maggie yelled, but the youngest Greene pretended she didn't hear, facing the herd against the fence. Daryl seemed to not say a word, turning back to the threat. Beth gripped the hilt of her knife and took a nervous step forwards.
"Lunge, hit, back off." Carl reminded her, demonstrating with a female walker who's eyes rolled back as his machete was dragged out of her head. Beth nodded and picked a smaller looking male target, who was crushed against the fence, arms pinned down. She gritted her teeth and lunged, eyes squeezing shut as she felt the blade break through the weakened skull of the creature. It took a lot of effort to pull the knife out and when she did it was followed with blood that splattered on her hair and cheek. Beth stumbled backwards, raising her arm to wipe the blood with her sleeve, looking at the biter she had just killed.
"Great Beth!" Carl encouraged, already going through a group of them in the time she did one.

With a great groan the fence bowed further, bringing the blonde back to reality. She shifted the knife in her hand before lunging again, as Carl had taught her, taking out another and then another and then another. She thought she was getting the hang of it by the time she had done her seventh kill, standing almost against he fence, reaching up to get the taller walkers behind the others against the fence. She couldn't help but look into the eyes of every one and think of the person thy once were. It felt like murder. She was killing whatever was left of them. But it was them or her family and that pushed her on.

Beth was up on her toes, reaching up to stab a tall walker when she felt it. A hand grabbed her shirt through the bodies piled against the fence. She let out a high squeal as it desperately pulled at the shirt, she could feel the cold fingers and long nails through the material. Beth tugged back against the hand and managed to get free just as another deadly hand wrapped around her ankle. She hadn't stepped back. Beth had gotten too close to the fence. Realising her mistake she tried to back up, but the relentless grip on her boot had her toppling onto her back, eyes wide and terrified, crying out in fear. Beth struggled against the pull of the dead, knife still in hand, propped up on her elbows, breathing laboured.

Two strong arms appeared under her arms, wrapping around her chest.
"Rick!" Daryl's voice was loud behind her head as he pulled her backwards, fighting against the hands on her foot. More came through the fence to clutch hungrily at her boot. Beth couldn't help the whimpers that left her mouth between hyperventilating breaths. Daryl called for Rick again before pulling Beth back with an almighty tug. She let out a yell as her ankle was twisted in an unnatural way, Daryl desperate to get her away from those hands.

Rick ran over to them and crouched by Beth's foot, raising his hatchet to bring it down on the first of the hands, hacking at it. Daryl kept pulling despite Beth's yelps of pain from her twisted ankle. Beth heard Maggie scream her name, but couldn't look away from her own foot as Rick cut through the second wrist and another hand fell limp to the ground.
"Focus on the herd!" Rick shouted at Maggie without looking up, bringing his hatchet down on the last wrist, severing it in one. Beth was dragged back until she heard Daryl's back meet the other fence, holding her tightly against him. Rick crouched over her ankle, rolling it around to check her skin, Beth squeezing her eyes shut. "You're not scratched, you're okay." He told her before standing and going back to his position, working on the herd again, calling to Maggie to tell her the good news. She looked over at Beth who was covered in blood, chest heaving while Daryl held her against him, his own face one of shock and fear. 

The fence was starting to tilt back upright again, but Beth took no notice, too busy trying to breathe. Daryl reached under Beth's knees and pulled her legs up into a foetal position, as if those hands were still reaching for her. The blonde whimpered again as her ankle rotated from the movement. He then slid from behind her and tipped her chin up with his bloodied hand. 
"Stay here, don't move." He said in a voice that was a lot stronger than the expression of ghostly shock on his face. Beth nodded, hot tears mixing with the blood on her face. He then turned to her section of the fence, as if he could block her from the whole fence collapsing, from the whole world.