I Made It. ~ a Beth Greene survival story.

Chapter 17: Doomed

     I made my way back into the small town, determined to find the group. They have to be around here somewhere, I thought. If Glenn had any chance of surviving the bite, they must have had to remove one of his limbs as quick as possible, so they must be in the area. Why didn't they respond to the gunshots?  The more I thought about it, the more my hope was being torn up inside of me. Dead or alive, I was going to find them.

     I crept behind an old antique store in order to avoid the walkers rioting by the fire. This whole town would soon burn if I didn't hurry. I shuffled behind in a dark alley with Daryl's crossbow in hand. The pain in my wrist was almost sickening, but I had to ignore it. I wish I had a better weapon, but it was too late to try to retrieve mine or Noah's gun.
I was using a weapon I could barely load. As I reached an opening in the street,  I carefully examined both directions looking for any sign of walkers or the search group. When there were no signs of walkers, I crept across the street. As I placed my foot upon the curb, my boot was immediately greeted with thick pool of blood. Human blood.

     I slid the tip of my boot against the curb in an effort to remove the blood, but the fresh liquid remained. As I looked down the sidewalk in front of me, I saw a feint blood trail lead around the corner of the street. Without wasting a second,  I scurried down the blood riddled path in hope of finding my friends.

     As I jerked around the curb, I was pounced on by a walker. There was no time to aim the crossbow, and I was left helpless as the beast fell on top of me. I waited for the moment the walker's teeth would dig into my jugular, but before it could, a gun shot rang out.

     "Daryl?" I asked, still out of breath as I attempted to push the corpse off my body.

     "Guess again." A man said in a hoarse tone. I felt the walker yanked off of me, revealing the man I previously had met.

     "Who even are you?" I brushed the dirt from my clothes.

     "Just call me Nathan." He reached his hand out for a handshake.

     "Thank you." I said as I began walking, avoiding his handshake.

     "You can't just leave!" He yelled as he chased me down the sidewalk.

     "I need to find my friends." I stopped and looked him dead in the eye.

     "Look, I already told you this town was dead!" He stared me down. "There's no sign of your friends around....alive anyways."

     I gave Nathan a blank face as I slowly titled my head towards the side walk.

     "No signs, huh?" I mocked him.

     "Oh....." His face changed. "Maybe I could help you find them?" His voice grew more serious.

     "I can find them on my own." I began down the sidewalk. "Don't you have some camp you should be heading back to? It's late."

     "You see that's the thing," He grabbed my arm and jerked me towards him. "I don't have place, so would you be so kind and tell me where you've been holdin' up?" He gave an almost evilish puppy dog face, awaiting a response.

     "I don't think.."

     "Then don't think!" He cut me off. "Just give me directions,  I'll make it."

     "No!" I yelled back. "I don't know you, and it's not my job to be bringing people back anyways."

     Nathan's expression grew dark, almost sinister. He shoved me against the wall and began to feel me up.

     "I tried to be nice.." He gave an evil smirk, "But I guess we're going to have to do things the hard way."

     He violently shoved his hand up my shirt, reaching for my breasts.

     "Get your hands off me!" I cried out desperate for help.

     "Why would I do that?" He leaned in to my ear. "The fun's just getting started..."

     I furiously fought back, using all the strength I had, but I wasn't a match for his strength.  I'm hopeless.

     "Now why don't you tell me where this set up is of yours...," He whispered as he began kissing my neck. "And we'll end this right now."

     "Go to hell." I locked my eyes on him, fighting off tears.

     "I'm gonna make this hurt." He said, flipping me around and shoving my face into the wall. He used one hand to hold me against the wall, and used the other to try to pull my pants down.

     "Stop!" I yelled as tears dripped from my face.  "Alexandria! It's called The Alexandria Safe Zone!" What have I done.

     He stopped fiddling with my jeans. "Where is this, Alexandria?"

     "You take the old dirt road I threatened you from!" I began bawling.

     "Good girl." He said, shoving his entire body against me, kissing my neck once again.

     "You told me you'd stop!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying as hard as I could to break his hold on me.

     "I just couldn't resist." He blurted out, continuing to feel me up.

     All of a sudden, I felt his grip release from me. I fell onto the ground, whiping my tears away, and I heard the sounds of something banging against the wall. I quickly looked up, it was Daryl. He was viciously slamming Nathan's head against the old stone wall. I noticed the blood thicken on the surface of the stone, trailing down the wall with each blow.

     "Daryl that's enough!" I yelled, but he kept going. "DARYL!" I yelled louder.

     He finally released Nathan's head, and his body fell onto the ground. I jumped up from the ground and ran into Daryl's arms, nearly drowning in my tears. Not a word was said between us. It was silent as I bawled into his chest.

     "You...."  I heard a feint voice from on the ground. "You think this is over?" Nathan muttered.

     I released myself from Daryl, and we both turned our attention onto the nearly dead Nathan. He had an enormous dent on the side of his head, and one eye had popped from his socket. How he survived Daryl's blows for even a second suprised me.

     "They got what they needed," His voice faded, "They're already on their way."