Fighting Walkers - With Him (The Walking Dead, Series three - Beth and Daryl) ✔️

Chapter sixteen: Home?

Chapter sixteen: Home?

My eyes opened like a bolt of lighting from the crackling of the leftover fire. I looked at my surroundings and noticed Daryl sleeping on the ground next to me. We must have dozed off last night, tired from the running and tired from life. I slowly sat myself up. I was stiff from lying on the ground all night. There were probably a few good beds in this house but we both dozed off on the floor without a care in the world.

I left Daryl sleeping on the floor and headed into the kitchen where I took a granola bar and a glass of juice that I found in the fridge. I looked out the window, outlooking the garden out back and I could see many black dots in the distance, moving. I squinted and saw that they weren't just any black dots, they were walkers coming towards this house.

"Dammit." I cursed to myself, this could have been a goldmine for a while. There was food, water, a fireplace. This was perfect and now we had to leave. Well, we would have to leave anyway if we wanted to get to Terminus. But it was nice to have a break every once and a while.

I headed into the living room to see Daryl still sleeping on the ground with his crossbow next to him. I didn't want to wake him, he looked so peaceful. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The only thing that filled the silence was the moans of the walkers.

"Daryl," I knelt down and nudged him, "we gotta go."

"What?" He mumbled, opening and closing his eyes again.

"Walkers." I stated, annoyed.

"Can't you just take care of it?" He mumbled.

I raised my eyebrows at him, he must not understand that it was not just two single walkers. It was more than a dozen and I'd be dead before I got to the second one. "It's a heard." I said.

His eyes shot open and he quickly got up. He took his crossbow and headed into the kitchen where he looked out the window.

"They're getting closer." He said as he hurried towards the front door. "Hurry up!" I followed him as he opened the front door but the walkers from yesterday were standing in front of it, waiting for us. Daryl slammed the door shut before the dead could get inside. "Isn't there a basement?"

I shrugged. "I don't know but we need to leave."

"No shit," he glared around the place, "we'll hide in the basement and just ride it out."

"Ride it out?" I yelled. "We can't ride it out, the walkers won't leave!"

"Well, we don't have any other options unless you want to fight those yourself." He snapped.

"Fine, the basement it is." I said as I followed him to a small door.

He opened the dark basement and headed in first. "It's all clear." I followed him and shut the door behind me and locked it. I headed down the stairs as Daryl lit a few candles. He must have taken the matches from the fireplace. Smart. I headed to the back of the room as I heard things getting knocked over and walkers travelling around the house. "Quiet." Daryl whispered as I slid down to the ground from the wall. He sat next to me. "We'll just ride it out. They don't know we're in here."

I sighed. "But will they leave?"

He nodded. "Maybe, who knows? But I bought snacks."

I laughed. "I didn't see you take them."

"You were too busy worrying about the dead." He chuckled.

It all fell silent as we heard the walkers trash the place with us underneath them and they didn't have a clue.

*

"It's been quiet for a while." I whispered to Daryl who looked up at the ceiling.

He grunted. "Just a little bit longer, they could be just silent." We've been here for hours, scared that the walkers would somehow find the basement and knock the door down. A walker did bang on the door a few times but left a few seconds after nothing was heard.

"I'm pretty sure it's safe-" I was interrupted by a door slamming shut. I sat here frozen next to Daryl.

"What the heck?" We heard somebody shout. "Dammit!" We heard the gunshot of what I assumed was the unknown person shooting a walker. We heard mumbling and then silence.

"Do you think he's good?" I whispered to Daryl but the door opened and a light shined through.

The human being, nice or not, came down the stairs with a shotgun. Daryl and I were tightly next to each other. "Well, looks like you two have been here a while." A man's voice echoed throughout the basement. "Well, come on."

Daryl and I got up and followed him up to the house. "The name's Ken." The guy extended his hand towards Daryl and then to me.

"Daryl." He shook Ken's hand.

"Beth." I faintly smiled and shook his hand. Ken looked in his sixties and it looked like he hadn't shaved in awhile. I looked around the house and saw the walker remains and the house trashed. "We're sorry." I said.

He shrugged it off. "It's okay, it was bound to happen at some point. So, where are you two headed?"

"Terminus." I said as we all sat in the living room.

"Oh, yes," Ken mumbled, "I've heard of that place."

"Really? Have you ever been?" I asked with a grin.

"No, but I know a guy who has." He told us.

"And?" Daryl cut in before I got to speak.

Ken didn't say anything for a while. "You would think that Terminus would be a place where people can go to survive but that's not the case." Daryl and I looked at each other, confused. "You would never think that people can go as low as they do in this world, wouldn't you want to stick with the survivors instead of kill them?" He finished.

"Kill?" I asked, afraid.

Ken looked at both of us, preparing to speak. "Yes. Terminus isn't a sanctuary, it's a kill zone."