*Lily's POV*
We had been driving for a while now and it was beginning to get dark. To be honest, I think everyone in the car was waiting for the fever to hit Beth but it didn't...or hadn't.
"Where are we going to go?" Carl asked after a further few moments silence.
I looked at him in the side mirror, "I don't know. We'll just have to see what we can find."
He looked down as Rick honked twice, signalling for us to pull over. I gave Beth a small smile as I climbed out, "Are you staying in here?"
She nodded, "I don't want them all staring at me."
I gave an understanding nod and followed Carl over to where Rick had spread a large map out over the hood of Carol's car, "Has anyone got any suggestions?"
Glenn bit on his thumbnail, "We should head East."
Rick was nodding, "That was our plan before we found the prison. We'll head East," he turned to me, "How's Beth?"
I glanced back at the Land Rover, eyes widening when I noticed she wasn't there. I rushed over, maybe she was just lying down, but of course she wasn't. She was gone. "She's gone!" I exclaimed.
Maggie came over, "What? Why wasn't anyone watching her?!"
The rest of the group came over, Hershel looking around for his youngest.
"Why the hell weren't you watching her? She's your sister!" Daryl yelled.
I held my hands up, getting inbetween them, "Stop it! This is not the time nor the place! We need to find her!"
Rick shuffled his feet, "Maybe she left to turn..."
I shook my head, "Guys, she couldn't have been scratched." I mumbled, "She was in front of me. I remember pushing her in front of me! If anyone was going to be bit or scratched, it'd be me."
Rick ran a hand over his face, "Are you sure?"
Nodding, I grabbed my bow and arrows from the floor of the car, "Yes. Now can we please go look for her? She's probably terrified."
Daryl already had his crossbow in his hand and Rick grabbed his gun. "Alright, Daryl and Lily go that way," he pointed towards the woods, "Glenn, Maggie and I will go the opposite way. Carl, Hershel and Carol, you stay with the cars and Judith." By the time Rick was done giving instructions, I had already taken off into the woods.
"Lily!" I heard Daryl call, his heavy footsteps quickly catching up to me. "Don't go runnin' off like that." he growled, grabbing my wrist.
I shrugged him off and kept a few steps ahead of him, more focused on finding Beth than my own safety.
***************************
We had been searching for a while now and darkness had crept on us quicker than we had anticipated and neither of us had thought to bring a flashlight.
I stopped when I felt little droplets of water falling from the sky seconds before a freak downpour started, gasping as the cold water soaked through my clothes to my skin. I could faintly see Daryl holding his hand out to me and I grasped it tightly.
"Ye gotta stay close!" he said loudly over the rain.
I nodded and started following him through the woods.
"Could this get any worse?" I muttered to myself and to my dismay, it did. I jumped as a flash of lightning lit up the forest, a loud crack of thunder following shortly after.
Loud noises attracted walkers. I could only imagine what this was doing to them.
Daryl was looking around, shaking his head before looking the other way.
I slowly looked up at him as I realised what was going on, "You don't know how to get back do you?"
He scowled down at me, "It's wet. The rain has fucked with the trail. Just give me a minute."
I rolled my eyes, "We don't have a minute! We're in the middle of nowhere, we can't see five feet in fron of us, I'm cold, I'm wet and to be honest, I'm terrified! We're out in the open! Exposed and we're prob-"
Daryl clamped his hand over my mouth, making me freeze. That's when I heard the faint growling. If I could hear it over the rain, that meant that they were close.
Daryl pulled me backwards slowly, moving us until we were against a tree.
My breathing picked up as the silhouettes of the many walkers came closer and I gripped the wet material of Daryl's shirt.
"C'mon." he said just loud enough for me to hear and he started leading me to the left, away from the walkers.
As he pulled me through the tress, the rain started letting up and we could now see that there were walkers everywhere.
"Oh my god..." I whimpered, fisting the material of Daryl's shirt again.
They were in every direction and we had no chance of getting back to the others, not even if Daryl knew the way.
"We're goin' to have to run." he hissed as a few walkers turned our way.
"Where?!" I cried, tripping slightly as he pulled me into the cover of the thick trees. I couldn't see much, just flurries of green from the leaves as we ran past them, narrowly avoiding getting smacked in the face with them.
We stumbled through the last of the trees, discovering a road.
I looked back and could hear the snarling and the shuffling of feet heading our way.
Daryl placed his hand on my lower back and gently pushed me forwards, towards an abandoned car. After quickly checking to make sure it was safe for us to hide in, he pulled me in and quietly shut the door.
My breathing was heavy as I rest my forehead against the back of the drivers seat.
Daryl rubbed my back and I turned to see him looking back, squinting his eyes so he could try and see where the walkers were going. He cursed slight, turning to me, "They're coming this way."
Of course they were. He swiftly pushed me down onto the floor, ignoring my yelp of pain when I smacked my knee off the door before laying down himself. "Shh." he whispered as we heard the dozens upon dozens of walkers shuffling past us.
I didn't notice that my hand was shaking until Daryl wrapped it in his own, calming me slightly. My breathing hitched when I noticed one of the passing walkers peering into the car and I braced myself, preparing for the fact that we were most likely going to be seen, letting out a sigh of relief when the walker backed away before moving on with the rest.
We stayed down until we were sure that the last few of the walkers were a decent distance away before Daryl finally sat back up.
"What do we do now?" I asked as I hoisted myself from the floor.
He pushed his wet hair from his face, "We should wait here 'till morning. There ain't much point in going back out there just to get ourselves even more lost. If that makes sense to ye."
I nodded then scooted over so I was beside him, resting my head on his shoulder, "I'm sorry that I was short with you...I was just scared."
His hand tangled into my hair, making me look up at him. "I know," he whispered, leaning in to press a kiss to my lips, "I know."
