Stronger - The Walking Dead Fanfiction

Part 3: Safe

"Beth," Daryl called, lightly pushing the woman to the side, but she bounced herself back onto him.

Beth had her leg intertwined with his, and her arm on his chest. She'd kept him warm that night.

"Good morning to you too," she yawned, still not aware of her position, "shit! Sorry, I forgot to tell you I move a lot in my sleep," she admitted humiliated.

"Thought you were a walker tryna get my brains for a second!" He said jokingly.

"Do I look like one?" She joked back, looking into his eyes, chucking.

"Yu're still on me."

"Oh sorry, I'm so clumsy." Beth said, embarrassed.

She got up and searched her backpack for food, noticing there wasn't much left.

"We'll have to share a tin of beans for breakfast," she said unsatisfied.

Daryl got onto his feet and opened the tin with a knife he found in his backpack.

He scoffed half the 450g tin down, all at once.

"Gosh," she pointed out with disgust, "I'm gonna have to eat from that."

"Ya want a spoon? Maybe a platinum spoon?" He ridiculed, chucking it to her hands which caused the tomato sauce in it to splatter all over her shirt.

"It looks like blood," she said.

"Better than bein' blood itself." He replied.

Daryl turned around to pack the rest of his stuff into the bag, willing to leave soon.

Beth felt the need to change her shirt so she looked through her backpack for a cleaner one.

She took off the dirty one, as she straightened her back quickly to change; she felt Daryl bump into her, he looked like he was about to start a sentence.

He was holding both her arms with his rough hands, and she had hers softly place on his waist.

RWOARR.

Two over weight crippled walkers creeped out from a tree not too far from them and made their way to where the pair was standing.

Daryl let go of Beth and grabbed his crossbow, piercing the ugly creatures' brains without failing.

The walkers fell to their knees weakly and then flat on their heads.

They both breathed heavily in shock but also in relief, "we better get going," Daryl said pulling the arrow out of their heads with a jerk.

"Yeah, we better."

"I wonder where the others are," Beth said,straightening her back, "and how close or far away we are from them." Taking a seat on the hard ground next to Daryl.

He remained silent.

"It's kinda crazy, how we've all been left alone," she said resting her head on his chest, "I miss them. I miss taking care of Judith, and i miss her little rosy cheeks" she paused and half smiled to herself, "I kinda miss Rick's rules, his loyalty," she sighed, "I... I miss my father, I miss him always looking out for me. The most humble man I knew." She agonised.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and onto Daryl's shirt.

He sighed.

"I miss my jerk of a brother." He admitted.

Beth looked up at him surprised by his honesty.

"I've always sucked at keeping people safe yano," he continued, losing his accent for an instant.

Beth pulled herself away from his chest to look at him, putting her weight on her arms, "that's not true," she empathised, "when you helped me pull the trigger, or that time when you saved me from the walker outside the villa," she paused, smiling beautifully with her teeth, "I never felt safer."

"You can take good care of yourself, you won't need me for too damn long," he spat.

"You can't expect me to be dependent forever, and even if I (italic) can take good care of myself, it doesn't mean I won't need you." She replied.

He was looking straight ahead, staring into oblivion.

She let her head rest back on his chest. Beth couldn't help but listen to the soothing sound of his steady heartbeat, and smell the scent of cigarette smoke left on his scruffy long sleeve shirt.

(italic) I feel safe, she thought.

Safe.