Beth:
My vision was blurry and I had the worst pain all the way down my left leg. All of a sudden I felt a searing, stinging pain in my hip. I tried to scream but nothing came out. There was a hand wrapped around mine. I could tell it was Daryl's. I recognized the feeling of his calloused hands, and I calmed down a little bit. But I heard another person in the room. We weren't at the prison anymore. Where were the others? My heart was racing as something stung my hip over and over again. I focused on Daryl's voice as he talked to me, and everything went black.
Daryl:
"Beth? BETH? Morgan what's wrong with her? Help her!" I was getting more and more nervous by the second. I was losing her. I cursed Carol under my breath, hoping she had turned and no one would ever put her down. "I'm doing the best I can. I'm not a doctor, but I'm trying. She's been hit in the face umpteen times, she blacking out. She probably has a concussion. Try to wake her up and keep her awake." I started talking to her and she came back to me. "Beth. . . Beth it's gonna be okay. I promise. I'm sorry I wasn't there in time to keep her from hurting you. This is my fault. Please stay with me. . . Please." I put my head down on our hands on the table next to her. I kissed her hand and she squeezed a little. "Beth?" She moved her eyes toward me. A lump started to rise in my throat. I swallowed, hard. "Hey" I smiled at her as best I could. "Hey" she squeaked out. She smiled back weakly, then gasped as Morgan pulled the needle through her hip for the last time and tied the thread off. "All done with your leg, hun. On to you lip." Morgan moved to her mouth. She didn't even flinch this time. It was nothin' next to the stitches in her hip. "You're doin' great, Beth. He's almost done." When Morgan finished stitchin' her up he wrapped clean gauze around her thigh and up her waist. "All done. Help me move her to the bed."
Beth:
I woke up the next day to Daryl sitting in a chair by the bed, his head his crossed arms, his hand wrapped around mine. I tried to sit up and he must have heard me, because he opened his eyes and sat up. "Hey, slow down there." I laid back down. "God this hurts!" I winced as the sheets rubbed against my leg. "What happened anyway?" Daryl looked at me, astonished. "You don't remember?" I shook my head. Ouch. Whatever it was got me good. "It was Carol. She dug a knife into your hip and punched you in the face until you bled. Theres a huge hole in your leg and your lips busted open. Your nose is probably broken and you probably have a concussion." I lifted the sheets and looked down at my hip. The bandages had already started to bleed through. "Wow. What happened to her?" Daryl looked tired, and sad. . . just. . . sad. He'd had a pretty shitty day, hadn't we all though? "Walker got her. Thank God she's gone. I hope no one ever puts her down so she can walk the earth forever and rot down to nothing." A pain shot through me at the thought of Carol walking around, dead, forever, eating the living. "Daryl, no. I don't care what she did. No one deserves that. We shouldn't wish anything like that on anyone. It doesn't matter who they are." "Beth, she tried to kill you." I just looked at him. "I don't care. We're all living in this world, and we need each other to survive. Even when those people turn bad, we can't just hope something worse happens to them. Otherwise, how much better are we? None." Daryl looked down at the ground. "I forgive her, Daryl. You should too." His gaze stayed on the floor. "I don't think I can do that. I'm sorry. I'd die without you. She tried to kill both of us." I nodded. I understood where he was coming from, even though I didn't agree with him, and I could live with it. After all, I was still alive because of him, and apparently he was still alive because I was.
Daryl:
Beth was awake and talking a lot quicker than I thought she would be. She was definitely a fighter. And I loved her. So much it hurt. "I'm just glad you're alive, Beth. I need you."
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6 months later. . .
I was running. And running. And running. Screams came from a house in front of me. I kept running but I never got any closer to it. The screams were Beth. The got louder and louder and louder. I keps screaming back to them "BETH! . . . BETH! . . . BETH!" Suddenly the screams cut off. The scenery changed. I was outside the house. In back. I was standing in front of a grave. I looked around me for Beth but she was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the ground started to shake and the dirt in the grave started to split and Beth crawled out. She was a walker. She lunged toward me and I didn't have it in me to put her down. She opened her mouth to bite me and everything was black.
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I woke up sweating and yelling. Beth had rolled over toward me and was holding me. "What's wrong?" I couldn't even speak. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Beth looked at me sadly. "I understand." And she held me closer. I didn't even try to stop myself from crying.
When I calmed down, Beth whispered in my ear. "You know we need to leave soon, and head back toward the prison. Right? We need to find the others." I nodded. "Tomorrow. But you have a limp. You won't make it that far." Beth shook her head. "I'll manage. At least I can walk. And it's not that bad of a limp. It's slight. And it won't last forever. So we leave tomorrow morning. You should try to go back to sleep. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. . . ever."
