You thought death could keep me from you? // A Bethyl fanfiction

Chapter I - Freedom only takes a year and a bullet to the head

It wasn't easy. It was never easy. 

It could have been, she thought, but you just had to play the hero, didn't you? 

It had been six months since they came to rescue her and six months since they left. 

She didn't blame them. Getting shot in the head does usually mean death. Especially in this world. 

She was glad they had left her in some boot. Who knows what could have happened if those walkers hadn't stormed them. She could have been buried six feet under, heart still beating, and no one would have been wiser. 

It had been six months since she almost got out of Grady Memorial Hospital. And today, she was going to try again. 

Her family needed her, and she needed them. She was getting out tonight. And nobody was going to stop her. 

But what if they're dead? Or worse, what if they knew you were alive, but they didn't want you anymore?  I mean, who would want such a useless teenager who can barely take care of herself? 

She shook her head, muttering "I am strong" under her breath, pushing that dark voice to the back of her head. She had to focus, or she'd never get out. 

Living at Grady hadn't been so bad this time around. She woke up a few days after the accident, as Edwards had so fourth named it. He had explained everything to her in a hushed tone, her injury, Daryl shooting Dawn, her family attempting to leave only to be blocked by a hoard of walkers. Apparently, a stout ward with a black goatee by the name of Joey Barton had seen them put her body in the nearest car they could find. Then, after the hoard had cleared, Edwards and a couple other officers pulled her body from the car and immediately started treating her. How they knew she was alive was a question still floating in the air, but nobody would ever answer her. It made her suspicious of course, but she quickly decided to let it go. She was alive, and it was thanks to them. 

"How are you today Beth?" Asked Amanda Shepherd from behind what used to be Dawn's desk. She had taken over as head of Grady after the accident.

"Good." She replied curtly. Dawn might have been a total bitch, but Shepherd was somehow worse, she was all beady eyes, filled with malice. Beth knew she was up to something. She didn't trust her the way she trusted Dawn. Although, trust is a big word. And she wasn't quite sure how to define her relationship with the latter. 

"I wanted you to know that I'll be out tonight. Me and a few fellow officers are going on a run. We're running low on supplies, and even if our numbers have stagnated these past few months, we barely have enough for us."

Why don't you just let us go then? Less mouths to feed that way. She thought. 

"Okay." Beth knew about the run. She had overheard officer Bello and Franco the other week. That was her cue to escape. Edwards would be in charge of the facility, and Beth knew that he would neglect his position and stay in his office, staring at paintings and eating extra food, despite their diminishing stock. 

That evening, true to her word, officer Shepherd, Bello, Franco and a few others that Beth cared not enough about to remember their names left. As planned, Edwards made a snappy remark about the stupidity of leaving at sundown for a run and retired to his office. 
Beth too went back to her room. She had been planning this for a week straight, barely sleeping as she played the plan over and over in her head. She thought of at least ten different scenarios and how to get out of them. She had wrapped up half of her food every day in a pillow case and hid it under her bed. She had stolen some clothes that belonged to a newcomer, Cassidy, that she found in the laundry room. The only thing she lacked was a weapon, but she'd have to make do without. Stealing a gun would be way too risky, even with Shepherd out of the building. 

A few minutes later she was dressed and packed; the light blue sweater reeked of sweat and rotten flesh and her jeans were full of holes but it would do. She pulled the straps on her bag taught and without a final glance, left her room. 

Shepherd hadn't taken all of her officers with her. Oh no, that would be too glorious. But the ones she had left behind were dumb and bored, therefor not much of a threat to Beth.
She walked down the immaculate hallways, heart in her throat and armpits prickling. But nobody seemed to be out. Even the wards were in their rooms, chatting and having fun while the boss was out. She could hear Mozart's piano concerto playing faintly from Edward's office, and had to force herself not to sit next to the door and listen. 
She passed the lift reluctantly. This was the part of the plan that would either make it or break it. Of course, being alone and unarmed meant the basement full of walkers was completely off-limits, so Beth had spent days perusing the hospital trying to find a way out. And she did; a few strides past the elevator to the left was a door that lead into one of the patient's room. The man who was in there died a few days before, so Shepherd had sent Beth in to dispose of the body and clean up the room, but in doing so, she had noticed something out of the window: an escape route. It was a swing stage. 

Beth pried open the window and clambered out onto the scaffolding. It swayed uneasily, and Beth willed herself not to throw up. The swing stage was suspended a few metres above a patio that overlooked the parking lot that she had almost escaped through. 
She took out a length of rough rope out of her backpack which she had found in the supply closet and tied one end around her waist and the other around one of the metal bars of the scaffold. She pulled the rope tightly, testing its strength, and swallowed hard. In small, unsure motions, she climbed over the side of the swing stage so that she was dangling over the edge, between it and the wall of the hospital. Then grabbing onto the dangling rope she jumped off of her foothold, and fell. It wasn't very graceful, she hit the concrete wall several times, bouncing back off of it to come crashing back down again, but it was over in the matter of seconds as the length of rope ended and pulled tightly on her waist, stopping her from falling any further. 
She swayed there for a while, suspended from a scaffold by only a rope, as she swallowed down a cocktail of bile and extreme relief.
Then she pulled at the tight knot that kept the rope around her, and dropped down to the patio below. 

She examined the situation below her, on the parking lot; a few walkers, visible in the dying sun, blocked her way, if she had some sort of weapon she could knock them out and escape through the gate. She didn't have time to waste lying on her stomach on top of a patio, searching for weapons, so she scooted over to the side and swung her legs over, finding a foothold in the dips of the window, and slowly made her way down to the parking lot. 
She ran for cover behind a brown brick wall belonging to the neighbouring building, she picked up a loose brick and paused for a second reminding herself of the importance of getting out alive, reminding herself of her family, and then, without hesitation, she ran. 
Walkers groaned, their heads snapped towards Beth and their outstretched arms grabbed at her. She swung the brick, connecting it with their faces with as much power as she could muster, their decomposing bodies were soft and their skulls broke away with ease. 
A few more metres. 
More bodies came at her, but fueled with determination, she dodged, killed, clawed through them, and with a few more adrenaline-filled steps she was on the other side of the gate. But she didn't stop running, she ran and ran until the reds and purples of the sunset turned inky. She ran with the moon as her only torch. She ran until the orange hues of morning shone through. She ran until she couldn't run anymore. 
Out of breath, hungry and dehydrated, Beth Greene collapsed in the back of a red car, and fell asleep. She was finally free, and all it took was a year and a bullet to the head.

Author's note:

Heyaaa, hope you liked this little introductory chapter to my new fanfic. Next chapter will probably be a massive time-skip so you don't have to endure the entire trip the Washington DC.

Thanks for reading <3