Chapter Twenty-Two

Beth pours the water from the canteen down her arms to wash away the sweat and gore from the fight before placing it back in the trunk, looking from Blade and Abigail to Theo and Jackson. Scared to even make a sound in case she makes the wrong move. Blade has a dagger in hand, twirling it around so lightly you wouldn't think he could toss it between your eyes in heartbeat. Abigail's fingers rest on the trigger to her bow that she has yet to put away and both Theo and Jackson have their guns in hand, mindlessly aimed at their new companions and Beth gulps.

Wishing there was some way to break the tension between the group though she knows it's never going to happen. Years of mistrust and hatred lay piled up between this group of people and it'll take a lot before they ever start to trust each other.

Beth's left in the middle of it, wondering how in the hell she got here. Drugs, that's right. Because they need antibiotics for the on the coming storm and here lies her easiest chance to get there. Sure, the five them could have made it before nightfall but there's always safety in numbers and she knows these two can fight.

Well, she knows Blade can fight, and she's pretty sure that Blade wouldn't have a companion like Abigail carrying around such a weapon if she couldn't use it. So, yeah, they both can fight.

"Never expected to see you again," Blade says, tearing his gaze away from the two vampires.

Abigail raises her bow just a tad bit higher and Beth takes in a deep breath. "Especially in such company."

Beth forces a smile on her face, knowing she's going to have to be the voice of reason here. "Yeah well, they're actually some of the good people. They helped me out of New York when the outbreak started and they've helped secure our home, Alexandria."

"At what cost?" Blade sneers at them.

Theo takes a step forward and Beth places a hand on his shoulder to keep him back.

"They aren't like that. They don't feed on humans if they can help it."

Blade chuckles, shaking his head as he glances at Abigail. A look passing between them that says they'll never believe it. Beth goes to defend the brother's again, determined to get Blade on her side when Jackson grabs her arm, shaking his head.

"Forget it, Z. He believes what he wants, and if rumors are true then I can understand. Considering the vampires he's been fighting."

Blade's attention snaps to him. "What would you know about who I've been fighting."

"Plenty. Their the reason me and my brother left New York alone for many years." Jackson gives him a friendly smile and pulls Beth further away from Blade. Determined to get her back in the car and on the road, considering they need to be in some form of shelter by morning.

"Where's Scud?" Blade asks, stopping her retreat.

She gaps at him, unsure of how to answer at first. "In Georgia."

He gives her a questioning stare, wondering what the rest of the story is and she shrugs."We got separated. I went to New York with a friend for the weekend and..." She throws her hands up, caught somewhere between crying and laughing because, really, what are the odds.

She fought tooth and nail to stay with Scud, even before she realized he was Daryl she fought to stay with him, and yet here she is.

"So you couldn't change anything after all." He says, giving her a sympathetic smile and she shakes her head, trying to push away the tears as she thinks about all the effort she put into being with him.

"Georgia's not far. I'll get back there again someday," she takes a deep breath as she turns to Theo and Jackson. "Right now though, we've got to get to the local doctor's office for some antibiotics."

"You got people sick back at your base?" Abigail asks with concern written all over her face for the first time since she met Theo and Jackson.

Beth shakes her head. "We're just preparing for the worse."

Abigail nods, glancing around her once again and Beth takes a deep breath.

Knowing she's only going be able to rest if she tried.

"You want to come with us. At least help us get some supplies, we could split it if you want."

"Z," Theo hisses at her, grabbing her arm to pull her away and she jerks away from. Glaring at him as she takes another step toward Abigail.

"I know B will be fine, what about you? There's a flu going around, which I guess makes sense if there are no vaccines, but it gets bad real fast and by the time you realize your sick your turning. We could get some medicine for you."

Blade glances at her, his eyes wide and Beth swears she sees what could almost be fear in his gaze before he blinks and says, "Guess we could help you get there as long as we get a share. Got others back at the warehouse that might need it someday."

Beth nods, taking a deep breath because Blade admitted he's got his home base set up somewhere close and that means some part of him still trusts her, if not the rest of her group. She's not about to turn a blind eye to that and nods toward the car.

"Come on, we should be there by morning."

By the time she reaches the front of the car, Jackson and Theo are both glaring at her. "I hope you know what you're doing, Z."

Beth gives him a hard stare. "He helped me before."

"Don't mean you gotta pay back every debt ever owed," Jackson says, opening the door for her. She slides in as Theo slides into the other side, seeming to take back their respective positions when Abigail steps to the front passenger seat.

"Blade wants to get his bike and he'll catch up with us."

"And how's he planning on doing that?" Jackson looks to Theo with an incredulous look. "We've got to get going."

Abigail holds up a radio that she holds up to her mouth. "You close?"

"Not much farther, just let me know what direction we're heading." Blade replies from the other end and Abigail just smiles at Jackson.

Rolling his eyes, Jackson crawls into the back seat, forcing Beth to the middle as Abigail climbs in the front and relays to Blade what road Aaron shows her on the map. Within a few minutes, a bike swerves in front of them, forcing Aaron to hit the breaks. Theo curses and rolls down the window to flip Blade off despite the scowl from Abigail but otherwise, nothing else is said. Blade stays in front of them, sometimes heading further ahead to scout the street before returning to inform them of a roadblock.

Beth's impressed, especially when they manage to find the small town they were looking forward to well before midnight and the doctor's office that Aaron promised had a whole stock of medical supplies is just on the corner.

Beth's heart is racing at how easy this all was. Besides the slight hick-up at the start, they've managed to make it in record time and now they've just got to worry about getting into the building and out again. If all holds up well.

As they're rushing down the hall and frantically searching for a way to block the oncoming walkers Beth should have known better.

This world is never that simple. Abigail and she hold the doors shut as Theo and Blade look for something to seal them closed. They've got no idea where Jackson and Aaron have gotten off to seeing as they were separated by the cluster of walkers waiting inside the back room where the medicine was supposed to be.

Beth takes a deep breath as she tries not to despair seeing as they've managed to clear out most of the backroom just by luring them into another part of the doctor's office altogether.

"Why the hell are there so many of them?" Abigail asks, turning to push on the door.

Beth does the same but it's Blade that says, "Probably just looking for shelter. I noticed a pile of blankets or two in some other rooms before we ran into them."

Abigail and Beth share a look, wondering when the hell he managed to get a glimpse into other rooms without saying a word but don't get to say much else as Theo rushes over with a broken table leg and manages to jam it between the two handles. Locking them in, but most importantly locking the walkers out.

"Great, now we just gotta get out of here," Abigail says, shaking her arms out.

Beth leans against the wall trying to catch her breath. She's not sure when she became so out of shape, but she's just going to blame it on being behind the Alexandria walls for so long.

"I told you to stay home," Theo says, leaning on the wall next to her.

She smiles at him. "Why? So you could have all this fun?"

He glares at her and she can see his hand twitch like he wants to strangle her but doesn't move. Not after the last time he attempted to with their new companions around.

"I'm fine. Just a bit winded is all."

"Hmm," is all he says as he pushes off the wall and heads towards the two small windows on the other side of the room. Their just big enough for them to fit through and together the four of them manage to shove them open and crawl out.

Beth takes a good look around her. Happy to note that their not as far from the back of the pharmacy that she originally thought and heads in that direction.

"We gotta find Jackson and Aaron," Theo says, picking up his pace to walk around the building and Beth agrees with him. Though she still grabs his arm to slow him down and give him a hard look of her own.

"We got to be cautious as well. No more surprises."

Theo takes a deep breath and nods. Rubbing at his forehead because they don't know what happened to his brother and friend. Beth pulls his hands from his head and steps closer, ensuring that he staring at her as she says, "We'll find them. I promise, but we've got to be smart."

"She's right. No more mistakes." Blade gives them both a hard look and Beth nods, squeezing Theo's arm so that he'll respond as well and she wants to apologize for even dragging him out here, but she bites her tongue and gives him a long look.

Hoping that he can see her apology there. He shakes his head and walks away without a word and a weight settles in the pit of her stomach. She'll make it up to him, to them, when they get home. For now, they've got medicine to grab and another possibility brewing in the back of her head. If they survive this of course.

Which, thankfully, the window to the medicine stock room is easy to get into. Thanks to Jackson and Aaron already being in the back of the room. They both look exhausted and there's blood smeared across their shirts that Beth notices the moment she slides into the room.

"What happened?" She asks, heading to ensure neither of them has been harmed.

Jackson waves her off. "We ducked into a room the moment the group of walkers stepped our way. We tried to get your attention but you just sprinted in the other direction."

"So why so much blood?" Theo asks, pointing at his shirt.

"A few walkers followed us, nothing we couldn't handle," Jackson explained. He gives Theo a long look and a smile grows after a bit. "Why? Were you worried?"

"No," Theo barks, taking a step back.

"You were, you were worried." Jackson insists, shoving at his brother's shoulder.

"No, I wasn't, whatever." Theo turns away, "Come on, Z, get your medicine so that we can go."

He's running his fingers through his hair again, looking at the ground and Beth sends Jackson a smile that he returns.

Of course, Theo was worried, they were all worried there for a second and Beth has to take a minute to reassure herself that all his well before heading over to the cabinets in search of the antibiotics. Not exactly certain of which ones she's going to need to make it through the flu but she's got a list of basics from Dr. Edwards before she left and a few others that he said were a little riskier but needed for the worst flu cases, not to mention she's got a vague memory of all of them huddled around the cell block as her father spouted off a few necessities before heading into the quarantine area himself.

She's holding her breath that he's not doing that this moment but it's better than the memory that's to come in the following weeks and she pushes that as far back as possible while concentrating on the task at hand.

When everything is safely tucked in her to bag and she's ready to go, she follows them out of the window and back around the doctor's office. The large group of walkers is still huddled inside that room they locked them in and she wishes she could put them out of their misery but there's too many and not enough time so she runs past them to the front with the rest of the group and high tail it out of town in their cars.

The drive back took just as long, seeing as they had to skirt around a small hoard making their way to the small town. Beth gazed blankly out the passenger side window as Aaron followed Blade through the back roads. Wondering if she was making the right decision.

She just couldn't rest not knowing all the possibilities and when they stopped just a mile from the Alexandria gates she let out a heavy breath.

Still wondering if this was the right decision. She's the first out of the car though, rushing toward Blade before either of the brothers could talk her out of this decision. It's something she's been wanting to do for ages and with Blade here, she knows she can make it down to Georgia in just a couple of weeks.

"B, there's a favor I've got to ask," she says, stepping in front of his bike so that he can't drive off and completely ignore her.

"Z, we've talked about this, it's too dangerous," Theo says, striding toward the bike. Beth only gives him a cursory glance before turning to plead with Blade.

He looks from Theo to Beth and before removing his sunglasses. "You want help getting to Scud."

"Please, I have to find him."

"And what happens to your younger self that you say is wandering around," Blade asks, giving her a long look.

Beth sucks in a breath, shaking her head. "She dies either way."

Tears well up in her eyes and she wipes them away because she doesn't know that for certain. Daryl's been teaching to fight, even to hunt and track a little. Things she didn't the first time she left the prison but he's hoping to help her.

Even a little and she smiles whenever the new memories sear themselves into her brain but she doesn't think it'll be enough. She thinks of Grady. Of Dawn and the bullet that goes through her head and she knows it won't be enough.

"Please, B, I need to try."