Daryl's Girl

Chapter 147

We walked throughout the night and kept going well into the morning. Neither one of us looking back, leaving the past in the past. I still had my inner demons, but thanks to Beth, I knew there was a way to get past them. We ain't dead. We get to start over.

With that in mind, I found I had a new respect for the teen. She was stronger than she gave herself credit for. She had proven that to me and did things her own way. It was only fair I try and make up for being an ass. We were stuck together aftef all.

"Hey." I called iver to her. Beth stopped and turned around. "Still wanna learn to shoot?" I asked, raising my crossbow.

Some sort of warm feeling crossed over me as Beth nodded and a meaningful smile crossed her face. I just put it down to the alcohol still in my system.

I wiped my mouth to hide the smile kreeping onto my face and showed her how to hold my crossbow. I was surprised to find she picked it up quite quickly and let her keep a hold of it for a while. It was a strange feeling not holding it, but I managed to distract myself with teaching her how to track.

As I did, it bought back the moment back on the highway after Atlanta. It was one of the first days I'd met Lily and I remembered how, that night, she'd stepped out to get some air and the two of us ended up heading off into the woods to look for Sophia. Back then, even from the moment I first layed eyes on her, standing with Tyler in the woods, I felt something I hadn't felt before and knew she was different. Even now, teaching Beth to track, it reminded me of when I had taught her that night and another smile crossed me face. I was surprised to find it a warm feeling. Maybe I had changed more than I realised.

"Hey. Look." Beth said cheerfully, breaking me from my thoughts. I looked over to her and she was looking down at a set of prints. They looked to be walker prints. "Lets see where they go."

I nodded and let her go on ahead of me, holding my crossbow the way I'd shown her. Maybe she had more going for her than even she realised. She just had to have faith in herself.

"Are we close?" She asked after a while of tracking.

I looked down at the tracks and nodded. "Almost done." I was impressed she'd been able to keep on top of them. Even I lost the trail a few times on my first go and my old man made sure it wouldn't happen again when we got home.

"How do you know?" She asked again, looking down the sights on my crossbow.

"Signs are all there. You just gotta know how to read 'em." I told her.

Beth just lowered the crossbow and stepped forward. "What are we tracking?"

"You tell me." I looked down. I knew it was a walker, but if she really wanted to learn, she had to figure it out for herself. Beth turned around and looked at me as if I was crazy. "You're the one who wanted to learn."

She just sighed and looked down at the ground. "Well. Something came through here." She pointed. "The pattern's all zig-zaggy. It's a walker." She said, turning to me with a smile, proud of herself.

"Maybe it's a drunk?" I teased.

She turned back round and raised the crossbow, rolling her shoulders. "I'm getting good at this. Pretty soon I won't need you at all." She giggled.

"Yeah." I scoffed. "You keep on tracking." The thing was, I was scared to think she might be right.

As she continued tracking, we made our way around some overgrown bushes and trees to where Beth suddenly stopped. I was just about to ask her what was going on when she turned to face me. "It's got a gun." She said and I looked around her to see there was a walker kneeling on the ground in front of us.