Beth wanted to say she kept her guard up. She wanted to say that she was constantly checking their surroundings, especially because of their run in earlier, but truthfully?

She found herself relaxing as the distance between the three of them and the town increased.

She and Ezra had returned to the house immediately after the encounter in the woods. Noah had been been surprised to see them back so early, but was quick to throw their things back together and get on the road again.

They packed up the few household items they thought might come in handy out in the woods quickly, Beth only pausing when she noticed Noah putting a few of the comics in his pack.

"Comic fan?" She asked him with a soft smile.

Noah looked down at his pack, his face a little flushed, "Figured they might keep us entertained out there. Plus I figured... Never mind."

"What?"

"Well..." He zipped the pack up and put it on his back, "We're still looking for your people too, right? Maybe one day, you can give them to that boy you knew."

"Oh." Now Beth had to look away. How did someone respond to that?

Of course she believed her family was still alive. She had to. Just like she had to believe Daryl was still alive. She had to hold onto hope because without it she wasn't sure what she would do.

"Thanks," She said after a few moments of awkward silence.

The sun was high in the sky when they finally stopped for a break. They had covered a good amount of distance in their travel so far. She figured they put about three hours distance between them and the other group.

"So..." Noah said as he leaned against a tree, "Anyone want to tell me why we high tailed it out of there and why Beth keeps checking over her shoulder?"

Beth took a sip of water from one of their bottles before handing it back to Ezra. The nice weather from the morning had quickly turned against them. She felt sweat trailing down the side of her face.

"Ezra and I ran into two men in the woods," Beth told Noah, "They weren't so friendly."

Noah stood straighter, his eyes going wide as he looked between his two friends, "What? Are you two okay? What happened?"

"Nothin' too bad. One of 'em was a little too pushy though. Wanted us to come back to their camp with them. Ezra took care of them though. Put an arrow through his arm."

"Shit!" Noah looked at the young girl, appreciation shining in his eyes, "You did?"

Ezra's cheeks tinted a light shade of pink and she suddenly became very interested in the bottle she was holding. She nodded her head, "Yup."

"Wow." Noah sighed in relief, "I'm glad you guys are okay. Maybe we shouldn't split up from now on? I know I probably wouldn't have made much of a difference today, but I don't know what I'd do without you guys."

Beth looked at Noah as he said this. He seemed hesitant, not wanting to look back at her. She could tell it embarrassed him to admit it, but she could understand.

She didn't like to think about it, but she knew it was pretty unlikely she could survive on her own out here. At least not for very long.

There was safety in numbers, a fact she had learned the hard way when she was taken from Daryl.

She wasn't blaming him, not by any means. She understood completely that the blame was on her shoulders and hers alone. If she had fought harder… been stronger… Well it didn't matter now. But she would be lying if she said she hadn't wondered if she still would have been taken if they had been in a bigger group.

Three against one ain't exactly fair odds, Greene.

Wouldn't have stopped you.

Shits different. I'm bigger 'en you are. Got more experience. Just ain't the same.

Despite Inner Daryl's opinion on the matter, Beth still felt responsible for not fighting harder. But right now she needed to focus on what was going on right now.

Beth hesitated for a moment, "Yeah, you're right. There's not enough of us to be splitting up."

Noah nodded, relieved that she agreed with him, "Shame you didn't get a chance to get a rabbit though."

He dug through his pack and pulled out a small package of white, powdered gravy, like the kind that came with frozen chicken fried steak. "Would have gone awesome with some of this."

Beth smiled softly, "Yeah, it would've. Day ain't over yet though. If I see some tracks we can try again. Or we could shoot some squirrels. Squirrels are pretty good."

"Sounds solid to me."

"Did you find anything else?"

He shrugged, "The other houses were swiped clean, like you said. Found these pushed all the way to the back of a cabinet."

He pulled out two can. One said cream of mushroom. The other was stewed tomatoes.

"Better than nothing." Ezra spoke up.

Beth nodded, "Good job, Noah."

Glenn. Go to Terminus. Maggie.

Glenn. Maggie.

Maggie.

Beth had to read the message over and over until Noah and Ezra noticed she was frozen to her spot. They came to stand next to her and Ezra read the message out loud then paused for a moment.

"Isn't your sister's name Maggie?" She asked Beth.

Beth nodded.

Noah walked up to the sign and studied the map under it. "It's not far from here. Do you wanna go check it out?"

Beth almost jumped. Of course she wanted to go check it out. But she kept herself still. After all, how long had that sign been there? A few days? A week, two? How long had she been in Atlanta anyway? Time seemed like a blur since the prison...

Maggie might not even be at Terminus anymore, what ever the hell Terminus was.

Ya won't know til you go. The hell you doin' still standin' here?

What if... What if she isn't there anymore? What if somethin's happened and she's...

The image of her father's head barely hanging onto his neck flashed in her mind and she felt dizzy for a second. Right now, Maggie was neither dead nor alive, just gone. Wasn't that better? She could still hope to see her sister one day, but if she saw proof that Maggie was dead... Could she get past that?

'Course you can. Shit, you really think Maggie's gonna let herself get killed? Or Glenn for that matter? Get your ass movin' girl. Wastin' daylight over here.

"Earth to Beth..." Ezra shook her hand in Beth's face, "You wanna go?"

Beth bit her lip, "What about Richmond?"

"Richmond can wait," Noah said, "Terminus isn't even a days walk away. And she's your sister! We gotta go check it out, right?"

"Okay. Yeah, let's do it."

Beth was quiet and tense as they walked down the tracks. She tried to stay positive. She knew her inner Daryl was right. Maggie was the strong sister. If Beth survived this long then Maggie definitely did too.

Yer too tough on yourself. Ya always been strong.

Not like Maggie though. Maggie is always the one people relied on, even before all this started. She really stepped up after Shawn went to college, even more so after Mama got sick.

Ya don't think people relied on you? Shit I don't know what half of us woulda done without you back at the prison. You spent more time with Lil' Asskicker than her own blood. You made sure everyone ate enough or slept. You kept us sane.

Thinking of Judith made Beth's heart ache.

Lil' Asskicker's fine. Just you wait. Fuck, I thought you were supposed to be miss positive fuckin' peggy over here?

Beth's lips tugged upwards for a moment.

You're right. I should stop thinking so negatively. Bad things happen, but we can get through them. Just like Atlanta. Just like the prison and even the farm. Our family is strong enough to make it through.

Damn right we are. Now stop being a downer an' talk to real people for a little while. People'll start thinkin' you're some kinda freak or somethin'.

Fuck you.

Despite herself, she smiled.

When she saw it, she wasn't really sure what she was looking at. An old train station. Fences that reminded her of the prison, which had fallen, just like the fences at the prison had. Walkers milled around the burnt and charred remains of what looked like a beautiful sanctuary for survivors.

At first, all she could do was stare. It was like time had stopped. An image of the prison swarmed with walkers seemed to flash before her eyes. Her heart was pounding in her chest, blocking out any other sound. She could feel Noah and Ezra's concerned eyes on her, but she ignored them.

She wanted to think this wasn't the place they were looking for, but the giant sign hanging from the roof with the name 'TERMINUS' on it completely destroyed that hope.

Before she could really think her actions through, she took off running towards the building.

Her friends called after her. She felt hands wrap around her arm and reacted on instinct. Her mind reverted back to that day at Grady when she escaped. Her elbow collided with a face, Noah's she assumed, but in that moment he wasn't Noah. He was Gorman. Or O'Donnell. Or Dawn. It didn't really matter.

He let go immediately and she kept running. As she neared the fences she pulled out her knife.

Her arrival had caught the attention of the closest walkers.

She was in pure survival mode, dispatching them as soon as they neared. She briefly acknowledged the fact she was not acting alone. Noah, despite his injury was right behind her, taking out anything that tried to come up behind her.

Ezra kept guard a little farther back, shooting ones that threatened to overwhelm them.

They pushed farther in and everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Until it wasn't.

"We have to get inside!" Ezra shouted, they were all now standing back to back, walkers slowly crushing in on them.

Noah ran to the closest door, checking inside for walkers. He nodded to Ezra and she ran in. Noah stayed at the door staring at Beth, "Come on, Beth!"

She followed him in and he slammed the door shut behind her. As soon as they were safe, he turned to look at her, "What the hell was that?"

She noticed his bloody nose but only felt a slight twinge of guilt. Right now she could only focus on one thing and that was Maggie.

She had to find something, anything that could put her sister here. She had to know, without a shadow of a doubt that Maggie had either made it here or not.

And if she had been, if she was still here, she had to put her down.

"I have to… find her." She said quietly, "This is on me though, you two should head back to the woods."

"How do you suppose we do that, Beth?" Noah snapped, his swollen nose bleeding slowly down his lips, "We're stuck in here."

He wiped his bare arm against his nose as Ezra glared at him, "Noah! Shut up... Beth, we're not leaving you. We're in this together, okay?"

Ezra reached out and put a comforting hand on Beth's shoulder.

Noah had a point though, now they were stuck. The room they were in now was some type of hallway. There was only one other door at the end of the hall, instead of dwelling on the trapped feeling threatening to overwhelm her, she headed that way.

The two others followed behind her.

She knocked the hilt of her knife against the door, listening to it reverberate through the room connected on the other side. She waited a few moments. When she heard nothing from the other side, she slowly cracked the door open.

It was dark, but light from outside managed to squeeze through the cracks in the old roof and shined through the dirty soot covered windows lining the walls, so they could at least see where they were walking. The room they were in was huge.

It had tables and banners. It looked like this was their main base of operations before Terminus had fallen.

Beth's hands lightly grazed the technical wires and metal machines sitting on an old desk in the middle of the room. Connected to the machine was an old microphone. She toggled the switch, briefly curious of whether or not it would still work.

It didn't.

She frowned but otherwise kept moving.

She noticed Ezra and Noah leaning over one of the tables. They were looking down at the signs that were unfinished.

Terminus. Arrive and sur –

The last letter jutted off unnaturally as if the person painting the words had been caught off guard. The paint brush that had to have been used to create the sign was laying on the floor, dried in a small pool of red paint.

Noah sighed, "Who would do this?"

Ezra just shrugged, unsure of what to say.

An image of the Governor's face filled Beth's head, reminding her of just who or what would do something like this. In this world, the more you had, the more you had to lose. She had no doubt someone had followed the signs leading to Terminus and decided to take it for themselves.

Once more pushing the thought of the prison away from her mind. She walked away from the table, hearing Noah and Ezra follow behind her.

AN.

Wow. Writing this chapter was… tough. I'd like to start this by apologizing for the ridiculous wait. Part one has one chapter left then there will be a slight time jump. I've changed my mind about the 3 part thing. Next part will be a time jump, with flash backs. Good news is, Beth and Daryl will be reuniting sooner than planned. I'm actually excited to see how Beth will fit in with the newer seasons, especially how she'll deal with Negan. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter within the next few weeks.

Thanks for sticking with me!