Her light, his fire

30

Suggested Music:
(It's not like you -Paper Kites)
"How we live, really live, and I'll keep trying"
We had to stop as the sun was beginning to lower, we were completely thrown off track and knew little to no way around. Our maps useless. We stayed inside an abandoned barn in the middle of the woods. Elliot played with Genesis as they laid on there backs staring at the stars that peaked through the large hole in the ceiling. Genesis knew each and every star by heart as Eli pointed at different ones. "That's Taurus the bull, you see that red star that's Aldebaran." Genesis told Eli. Eli smiled as he looked closely. I watched them smiling, so much had changed in the little amount of time, in two days I had found out my son, the one I thought was gone was alive.. and he was perfect, I could see Daryl in him... Daryl.. I thought. How would he respond? How do I explain this to him? Would he be happy? My mind raced if the different possibilities as I stared at my little boy. Eli shivered slightly as he wrapped his arms around himself. "You cold buddy?" Genesis said, Genesis took off his jacket and placed it on Eli, leaving him completely vulnerable to the cold. I turned my eyes away from Eli and onto Genesis. "Your not gonna get cold?" I asked him. "I'll be fine." He said as he sat up against the wall. "You two get some sleep, gonna be a long day tomorrow." He said to me. Eli slowly sat up and came over to me, I tried my best to get him comfortable as he laid beside me. My arms wrapped around him. I placed a kiss on his head as I closed my eyes and forced myself to fall asleep.

That morning I woke up to Elliot tugging on my shirt, I slowly opened my eyes as the sun peaked through. I slowly lifted my head then my body as I sat up. Genesis was standing by the door, waiting for us. "Let's get moving." He said as he turned to look at me. I pushed myself up as Elliot headed before me, I grabbed the crossbow from off the ground and followed behind them, rubbing my eyes. I was exhausted but we had to keep it pushing. Elliot walked beside Genesis as he looked over a map he had drawn out, he tried to replicate the ones we had but lost as best as he could. "I counted how many steps we took from when we were on the track, repeated each time I went to sleep and each time I woke up. Six-thousand and seventy-five steps. Which is around three or four miles." He said to me. "So we aren't too far away from the tracks, we just have to find it." He added. That's when we heard it, it was loud catching our attentions above us flew past a helicopter. Genesis looked at me as we began to run towards a gap in between the trees to see it clearer. "Tha hell?!" Genesis said as he watched it fly. "You think that's them?" I shouted to him, Elliot watching it fly as curiously. Then we heard growls, many of them. The helicopter was attracting a horde of walkers and they were headed straight to us. They came from behind the trees towards us. I quickly yanked Elliot behind me as I pulled my bow over my shoulder and began firing. "That shit is attracting them fuckers!" Genesis shouted. He pulled his machete and began hacking as fast as he could. "There!" He said pointing at a open field ahead of us. "Go there's to many!" He then said to me. I tightened my grip of Eli as I began to run towards the field Genesis behind me. Quickly took his jacket and began swinging it into the air. "Genesis!" I said not wanting to take the chance. "We have to hope Beth." He said to me, the horde of walkers got closer and closer, Eli stayed behind me holding on to my leg as I kept reloading and unloading the bolts into the walkers close enough. Genesis kept flagging down the helicopter, the helicopter slowly started rotating back towards us. slowly making its way to the ground. I held Elliot's hand tight as i kept firing at the Walkers. I got down to my knees and held Elliot right as Genesis stood over his swinging at the walkers that were surrounding us, The propellers blew dirt around us as the wind blew our hair. I covered my eyes and Elliot's trying to keep the dirt from getting in them, it finally stopped as the doors opened, four men came out firing into the horde, I could hear the bodies thumbing to the ground, Genesis stopped hacking and watched the four men in big white armor take out the horde faster then what we could've done. Once there were no more left they surrounded us pointing their weapons. "Drop your weapons!" The man ordered, I slowly took the crossbow and laid it on the ground and Genesis dropped the bloody machete onto the ground. What's your names?" The man then asked. "I'm Genesis, this is Beth Greene and her son Elliot!" Genesis said. I slowly slipped my hand into my
Pocket and pulled out a picture of Maggie. "I'm Maggie Greene's sister! The woman from hilltop! I'm looking for her son Hershel, my nephew." I said holding her picture out and showing it around to the men who surrounded us. "Maggie Greene?!" A woman's voice said as she pushed through them, she wore a suit, her hair light blonde almost white, and glasses that sat on her nose. "Your name is Beth Greene? Her sister?" She questioned. "Yes!" I said. "Where is Maggie?" The woman then asked. "She's... she's dead." I said. "Jesus.. put your weapons down." The woman told them. "Get them on the helicopter before we attract the dead." She then ordered. The men snapped to attention as they escorted us to the helicopter, helping us in. The woman sat in front of me as they bucked us in. "Im Georgie." She introduced herself. "Maggie was a citizen at Commonwealth, a great help to our community. She left when she received a letter about her sister returning after seven years, and I can see that was true.. may I ask what happened? To Maggie?" She asked me. "We ran into a group of people.. bad people.." Genesis spoke. "I'm so sorry." Georgie said to me. I slid Maggie's picture back into my pocket as the helicopter began to take flight. "Get comfortable! It'll be a long flight!" She shouted over the sounds of the helicopter.

DARYLS POV:
We had finally returned to Hilltop, Enid opened the gates as we went inside. She helped unpack the carriage. "how is everyone holding up?" She asked. Daryl shook his head as he placed the ring in his back pocket. Enid let out a small sigh as she nodded her head and put the boxes to the side. She grabbed a couple apples and feed them to the horses. Aaron hoped off and helped grab the rest of the stuff. "Tara inside?" He asked Enid. "Yeah, She is." Enid told him. Daryl watched Aaron head inside as Enid walked over to him again, her arms crossed. "It's been awhile.. I hope she finds him.. I should've went with her." She softly said. "You know she wouldn't have let you." Daryl mumbled. "Wouldn't have given her the choice." She then said. She lightly nudged Daryl giving him a small smile "You should relax a little, get some sleep, take a shower. I hate seeing you like this." She said. "Like what?" He asked. "So anxious." She then said. "I ain't anxious." He said shrugging her off. "You are, and you know you are." She said. "Whatever girl." He said with a smirk. "I'm glad your back, Tara was afraid you'd stay in Alexandria.. wouldn't blame you, but we need you around here." She said slowly walking away from him. "Welcome back home." She said heading inside. Daryl could see Connie sitting on the steps, she smiled at him and then waved, he walked to her and sat down beside her as some people from hilltop took care of the carriage, she wrote down on her notepad. "How are you?" It said. "Why everyone keep askin' that?" Daryl mumbled. She quickly wrote on the next piece of paper and showed it to him. "We've all most someone.." she said with a frown. "I know.." he mumbled. She placed her hand on top of his and gave it a squeeze, then went back to writing something. "What did they say at the meeting?" She wrote. "Nothing important, same shit.." he told her. She frowned again and flipped to the next page. "We gotta do something." She said. The sound of two men fighting quickly broke there conversation, two men shoved at each other, Connie and Daryl quickly stood up as people surrounded them. Daryl walked towards them, Enid, Tara and Aaron coming outside. "Don't you dare speak her name!" He man shouted as a woman tried to hold him back. "Fuck you!" The other man shouted, Daryl grabbed the man by his collar and yanked him out. "Tha hell's your problem?" He said tossing him to the ground. "This asshole thinks what happened to our communities is some damn joke!" He shouted. "That true?" Daryl said looking at the man who was being held back by the girl. "Might as well be! You and your little counsel ain't doing shit about it, just sitting like pussies waiting for them to strike again! It's a fucking joke, and so are you." The man said. Daryl got extremely close to the man. "That's what yah think?" He growled. "Yeah it is." The man said lifting his chin. "Daryl!" Tara said. "Laugh again, and ill make sure your ass is out there eating the horses shit. We'll see what's funny then." Daryl said shoving the man back, and walking away from him. "Daryl.." Enid said as she reached from him, but her jerked away and headed inside. Aaron helped up the other man as he looked around the people staring. "There's nothing to see here, we won't fight our own." Aaron said dismissing them. "We won't fight the others either.. so who do we fight?" A man said with his arms crossed before turning and heading back to what he was doing. Tara looked at Aaron, both of them knowing what this was causing within the communities. No one was happy, no matter what result came out of this.