Three against the world

48

Beth pov

The walkers just came out of nowhere, I led most of them away but now I didn't know where I was, it was still dark out by the time I found a shack, it was almost completely empty except for half a stale granola bar and a bottle of water it will get me through the night at least. Slumping against the wall the adrenalin started to wear off, my eyelids were heavy and I let sleep take over, I'll figure it out in the morning.

"Man I wish I was there to see that cops face when you turned all badass" the both of us laughed "do you think they're going to be there" y/n shrugged "if Rick has the kids he's going to want to find a safe place for them. If not we'll stay the night and head off again" a silence fell on us, the only noise was the rustling trees and our footsteps on the gravel "What's that" y/n bent down and picked up a wrapper "big cat, Michonnes favourite" her eyebrows creased, "gotta be a coincidence right?" she just shrugged and carried on but the look in her eye changed, it was like she knew we were going the right way.

———

"Alright, remember what I taught you?" It was blustering outside today and y/n dragged me outside of the prison into the woods "I get lost, make a trail to follow back"

"Right, but what do you do when there's walkers behind you?" She's been trying to teach us how to find out way back or at least survive until someone finds us "keep going straight, find water or a town" she nodded "good, we don't have time today but next time we'll try it" I didn't want to, be out here by myself it was scary "your scared" it was a statement more than a question "good" she handed me a full roap of squirrels "being scared means adrenaline is pumping through your body, that will keep you going longer, but make sure to find a place to rest before you crash, me or Daryl will find you just keep going in a straight line, mark the direction your going"

The morning sun pushed its way through the old shrunken boards right into my eyes, waking me up. "Leave a trail" I groaned. I didn't leave one, no markings, nothing. All she has is the footprints from the walkers. I don't want to risk following them back in case some are still there, I don't have the energy to fight them. "Keep going straight, find water or a town"

"You got this Beth. Find your family" after some words of encouragement I got to look around the shed in the daylight, the only thing that was useful was a crowbar. Every few feet I would mark a tree with an arrow showing what direction I went. They were going to need it, there was nothing around, only trees and the occasional critter.

"What happens if someone follows my arrows" y/n had her arms wrapped around me to fix my hands, she was teaching me how to skin a squirrel "I've been teaching you self defence, you have taken down Daryl, you can fight them off, use your gun as a last resort, make sure you hit the head, no need for them to suffer, even if they're attacking you" I looked from my squirrel to hers, I still had a long way to go there was more meat on the skin than the bones "i'll ask Daryl to sharpen your knife when we get back, it'll help"

All I needed now was to catch something, the sun was at noon-ish. Another one of the many things y/n taught me was how to read the time of day by the sun. It's the only thing that stuck this hard. She used to have a pocket sundial but that broke after the farm. I decided to save the other half of my water for the afternoon.

The rest of the day was just full of trees and forest sounds, the occasional walker that I could avoid but nothing noteworthy, I couldn't even find one of Daryl's marks. he would mark the trees if he went hunting in the area if I found one of those I would be on his trail old or new, both would have led me home. All I found was a small river just as the sun was setting, I needed to rest, it was getting dark faster this time of year. "Looks like I'm sleeping in a tree' ' making sure I was out of earshot from the water so it wouldn't disguise the sounds of walkers or other people. I climbed up one of the trees and made myself at home for the night.