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Beth hadn’t known how to approach Daryl since the song incident at Walmart. She had kept her distance from him for a while after that, afraid she’d say too much, afraid she already had. But staying away was almost as hard as keeping her mouth shut. Beth’s body and soul yearned to be near him. She’d spent most of her time moping around; cleaning this and that, reaching to get spots Lori couldn’t reach due to her belly. But as Beth left Daryl to skin the deer they’d caught that day after weeks of training, she bounced into the cabin happy, not only because she’d been successful in the hunt, but more because she had been able to spend a day alone in the woods with the archer.
The group was scattered about having their own conversations, but Beth was looking for the leader.
She found Rick (and Lori) in the kitchen. “Lori, we’re eating deer tonight! Daryl and I caught two, actually, but one had been bit. Anyway, Daryl’s cleaning the good one now.”
“That’s great, Beth,” Lori responded, bringing a hand to rest on her growing belly, while keeping her eyes on the blonde who beamed back at the both of them, lighting up the whole room. Lori smiled back, “It’s good to see you smiling again.”
Beth blushed and turned away shyly, hoping they would assume it was because of the deer. “I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about, Rick,” she spoke finally, turning her attention to the man.
The husband and wife pair looked at each other. Beth and Rick mostly talked about Carl or the weather, or just some other random chatter. But Beth’s stance and air about her had changed from giddy over the deer, to total business when she’d turned to Rick. And that made them pause. “What’s on your mind, Beth?” Rick asked.
“When Daryl and I went on that run, we saw this prison,” she started, speaking more enthusiastically with her hands now. “Its fences looked to be intact from the road, and Daryl thinks it’s overrun by walkers, but if the fences haven’t been compromised, not only would that be an ideal place for us to possibly settle down for a while, but a safe place for Lori to have the baby,” Beth’s eyes motioned toward Lori’s ever-fatter belly.
Rick leaned against the wall closest to him, taking in what Beth was telling him. His hands reached to fumble with his beard thoughtfully. He looked from Beth to Lori and back again. “How far was it from here?”
“A 15-minute drive or so,” Beth responded, pointing in the direction of the prison through the walls.
Lori looked at Rick; for once since they heard news of the cabin she had pure hope in her eyes. “Rick, it’s worth a try.”
Beth nodded, “I was thinking they probably have an infirmary, too. Who knows what else.”
Rick tilted his head as he took it all in, still petting his beard. “Let me think about it. Talk to Daryl about it.” He left the room and out the back of the cabin in search for his right-hand man.
The pregnant woman turned to Beth, “Thank you. I’ve been worried about delivering this baby for weeks now.”
Beth walked forward to embrace Lori with a one-armed hug. “My gut tells me the prison is where we’re supposed to be. Rick and Daryl will figure it out and we’ll do what we’ve got to do. But for now, we must prepare dinner.”
•••
When the group gathered around the dining table for dinner, it almost felt like someone was having a birthday. There was just such an insatiable energy sizzling amongst them, probably because this was the biggest meal they’d had in over a month. Rick and Hershel sat at either end of the table, with Carl at Rick’s left, who was sitting next to Carol, and Glenn next to her with Maggie at his left next to her father. Beth was at Hershel’s right and she motioned for Daryl to sit next to her, with T-Dog on his other side, and Lori next to him at Rick’s right.
Hershel nodded as the last of the stragglers sat around the table. He grasped hands with his daughters, Glenn grabbed Maggie’s happily in return, and Beth reached her palm out to Daryl. He stared at her for a minute and then down at her hand. She didn’t blink or hesitate, just nodded at him as if he needed permission for something so innocent. Beth almost giggled as T-Dog and Daryl grasped each other, she could almost hear Merle’s snarling jokes in her head at his brother holding hands with a . . . well she dared not even think it. Hershel waited until the whole table was connected, before speaking over them all. “Dear heavenly Father, thank you for giving us another day, for providing food for our bodies and nourishment to our souls. We humbly offer our word to you, oh Lord, and pray that your will be done. Amen.”
Some around the table grumbled amen, but as hands were dropped, they immediately began digging into the food in the middle of the table — slices of deer meat, a bowl of mashed potatoes, and green beans. It was practically a feast compared to the beans and rice they’d grown accustomed to during the winter months. Quiet but excited chatter filled the room, but Hershel cleared his throat again. “I just want to brag that my sweet Bethy helped hunt this wonderful meal for us today,” as if Beth and “kill” just couldn’t be in the same sentence.
“So you stood there looking pretty while Daryl caught dinner?” Maggie teased.
“Hey!” Beth kicked her sister under the table. “I actually killed the lovely meat you’re eating, thank you very much.”
Daryl grumbled beside her, stuffing his face with food. “She’s getting to be a pretty good shot,” he agreed with a mouth full of potatoes.
“You two make a pretty good team,” Carol admitted, speaking aloud for the first time that night. Everyone at the table turned to her, and her eyes got wider. The subtle bitterness in her tone wasn’t as subtle as she’d heard it in her head, apparently.
Daryl nudged the blonde’s side, pulling her eyes from Carol. “Yeah, we’re pretty good,” he said, grinning cheekily. Meeting his eyes made her stomach tighten, and all the guilt she felt from Carol’s words faded away.
She smiled back and nodded, catching her father’s eye as he stared at the exchange, but said nothing. The group turned to their own conversations as they finished their meal. When Lori started to get up to collect dishes, Rick grabbed her arm to pull her back to the table.
“I wanted to wait until after everyone was finished with dinner to bring this up,” Rick said as all eyes turned to him and he cleared his throat before speaking again. “Beth and Daryl saw a prison just a few miles from here on a run recently, and I’ve spoken to them both about it, thought about it, and it sounds like a good place we might be able to settle down for a while. A place for Lori to have the baby,” he intertwined his fingers with his wife and smiled. “And it probably has supplies, a cafeteria, and an infirmary.”
“You don’t think it’ll be picked over?” T-Dog asked and the rest of the group nodded in agreement at his thought.
“The front yard’s overrun by walkers,” Daryl replied. “I figured no one’s tried, but with all the ammo in this place, and our manpower…I think we could handle it.”
Rick nodded to Daryl, “Daryl and I are going to go in the morning and make sure the fences are still secure. If all seems well, we’ll head out at the end of the week if y’all are all okay with it.”
“I think it’s worth a look-see, Rick,” Hershel said in his gruff twang, putting the conversation to rest.
•••
As the week came to a close, Rick led the group toward the gates of the prison. Daryl and the rest covered the man as he clipped a small hole in the chain link of the outermost fence far off from the entrance. Carol, Glenn, Maggie, T-Dog, Hershel, Beth, Carl and Daryl slipped through the fence as Rick held the wires apart. Lori brought up the rear, as Rick wanted to keep her close, and Rick went through last. Glenn immediately went to work tying the wires back together.
There was a rocky path between the two sets of fences surrounding the prison yard. The group kept close as Glenn finished up the fence, and then headed toward the entrance. Walkers growled from both sides of the fences, following the fresh meat around.
“It’s perfect,” Rick said, as they reached the opening of the gate. “If we can get that gate closed up there,” he pointed with his weapon toward the innermost fence, “prevent more walkers from getting in, we’ll take the field by tonight.
“So how do we shut the gate?” Hershel asked, slightly out of breath.
“I’ll do it,” Glenn stepped in. “You guys cover me.”
“No,” Maggie shook her head. “It’s a suicide run.”
Glenn turned to her, “I’m the fastest.”
Rick butted in and took charge. “No, you, Maggie, and Carol draw as many as you can over there. Pop ‘em through the fence. Daryl, go back to the other tower,” he walked around the group, stopping at each person as he mentioned them. “Beth, go with Daryl, you’re a pretty good shot,” he handed her a gun, even though she still had her bow. They didn’t have unlimited arrows. “Take your time. Don’t use ammo you don’t have to. Hershel, you and Carl take this tower,” he pointed at the tower in front of them. As everyone scattered to do his or her jobs, Rick continued, “I’ll run for the gate.”
Glenn handed him two carabiners to lock the gate, and he, Maggie, Carol and T-Dog started running, yelling, agitating the walkers, who immediately responded and headed toward the noise.
Beth and Daryl took off toward the far tower. They climbed up the stairs and made it toward the railing just as Rick took off toward the inner gate. Without skipping a beat, they each started picking off the walkers around Rick. Bullets and arrows flew around the yard, and Rick made it to the gates, kicked the closest walker in the chest and closed the gate, latching it with the carabiners.
“He did it!” Beth whooped next to Daryl.
The archer threw his left hand in the air and twisted it in a circle, “Light it up,” he yelled to the rest of the group.
Rick showed up at the top of the tower closest to the prison, and everyone started shooting, knocking down walkers.
Within half an hour, Rick was shooting the last walker through the face and he surveyed the land triumphantly. Beth and Daryl headed down, and back toward the group and made it to the tower where Hershel and Carl were just as they exited their tower. Hershel clapped Daryl on the back before wrapping his arms around his daughter.
“You okay?” Beth asked Lori as they walked through the gate and into the newly cleared field.
“I haven’t felt this good in weeks.”
Carol, T-Dog, Maggie and Glenn followed and the former practically skipped into the yard. “Oh! Oh, we haven’t had this much space since we left the farm!”
A lone walker’s torso lifted up and snarled, but Glenn was right there, with his foot on the walker’s back and speared a pole through its skull. The rest of the group was laughing, dancing and whooping at their luck.
By nightfall they had a small fire, and cooked a meal. Daryl stood on top of a turned over car on guard and Rick walked around the perimeter.
“Tomorrow we’ll get all the bodies together,” T-Dog broke the silence around the campfire. “Want to keep ‘em away from that water. Now, if we can dig a canal under that fence, we’ll have plenty of fresh water.”
“And this soil is good,” Hershel added. “We could plant some seed, grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, soybeans.” He looked up, spotting Rick, and pointed, “That’s his third time around. If there was any part of this inner gate compromised, he’d have found it by now.”
Beth watched Carol, as she took a plate to Daryl. She smiled and shook her head to herself before turning back to the group as they continued their small talk. She pretended not to notice as Daryl went to rub her shoulder, but thankfully her father’s voice pulled her attention away.
“Bethy, sing Paddy Reilly for me,” the blonde looked to her father. “I haven’t heard that, I think, since your mother was alive.”
“Daddy, not that one please,” Maggie spoke up.
Hershel turned to his other daughter and nodded, before looking at the fire. “How about ‘The Parting Glass’?”
Beth smiled and nodded at her father. “Of all the money / E’er I had / I spent it in good company / And all the harm / E’er I’ve done / Alas it was to none but me / And all I’ve done / For want of wit / To memory now I can’t recall / So fill to me / The parting glass / Good night and joy be with you all,” the blonde sang to the group and as she started the chorus she noticed Carol and Daryl join the group. She smiled a little under his gaze.
Maggie joined in the song now. “Oh, all the comrades / That e’er I had / Were sorry for my going away / And all the sweethearts,” Beth’s eyes flashed to Daryl’s, who was still staring at her. She blushed, but hoped the dim light of the fire would keep anyone from noticing.
As the song concluded, Hershel was smiling wider than he’d had since the outbreak. And Beth couldn’t help but match his look.
“We better turn in. Got a big day tomorrow,” Rick addressed the group.
Carl looked at his father, “What do you mean?”
Rick smiled down at his boy. “Look, I know we’re all exhausted. This was a great win. But we’ve got to push just a little bit more,” he looked around the group, meeting each person’s eyes. “We can handle it, I know it. These assholes don’t stand a chance.” Rick nodded as he stood, and everyone went about laying out sleeping bags and blankets. Beth saw Lori follow Rick as he left the group and frowned as she went about making a bed for herself. She knew Lori and Rick had problems before, she was hoping things would be better this time. Beth wished she could talk to Rick about it, wished they had a relationship like that. She suspected the tension between him and his wife was what led to his long weeks of guilt after Lori’s death. Hopefully, Lori wouldn’t die this time.
•••
Clearing out the cell was rather uneventful; it was weird setting up camp in a prison, even the second time around. But the cells felt so secure, almost like they were invincible.
Beth picked a different cell on the first floor from last time — the one second farthest away from the back. She pulled her bags on to the lower bunk to start unpacking, and the first things she came to were her two journals. One filled with the past, and the other filled with her worries for the future. She tucked away the old one underneath her mattress and placed the mostly empty one on her side table. But when Carl started to pass hers, she stopped him.
“Hey, that cell is taken,” she called out, putting away the last of her things.
Carl rounded the corner and hung from the outer wall of her cell coolly. “There’s nothing in it.”
“Well Daryl told me he wanted that one. You can take it up with him.”
The young man stood tall, faltered a little, and cleared his throat. “No, no, that’s okay. What about this one?” He pointed to the cell on the right.
A hand came up from behind Carl, and clasped his shoulder. “Son, I think your mom wants you next to her, over that way,” he pointed with his free hand toward the entrance of the cellblock. Lori could be seen leaning out of her cell and waving.
Carl sneaked a last glance at the blonde, before skulking away.
Chuckling, Hershel turned back toward his daughter. “I think that boy’s got a crush on you, honey.”
Beth swiped at the air, as if she could push that reality out into the world and away from her. “Oh daddy,” she laughed lightly, turning her attention to the man. “There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about,” Beth pulled him onto her bunk. “I don’t think you should go with them to clear out more cell blocks. I think you should stay with Lori, just in case.”
“Oh, dear, the baby’s not expected for another few days.”
“Now you don’t know that daddy,” Beth protested.
Hershel put a hand on her forearm, and smiled. “You and Carol could take care of it, if something happens. I believe in you.”
Beth felt tears forming in her eyes, but tried to push them back. It wasn’t that Hershel believed in her, she’d always known that, it was that he wouldn’t listen, and she didn’t want his leg to be taken again.
“I’m going. I can do this. It’ll be alright, Bethy. We’ve all got jobs to do,” Hershel stood and his hand slipped from her shoulder.
She watched her father walk out of her cell, and she stood. “Daddy wait,” he turned. “Watch where you’re going, okay? Keep an eye out for your feet.”
Hershel smiled at the reference of his old phrase. He always told her that when she tripped over herself. “You know I will, Bethy.”