Summary: Young Beth is living a double life. By day, she's a young teen living on her father's farm and being the perfect daughter and sister. By night, she's dreaming of the walking dead and the gruesome things she and her group must do to survive. In this alternate universe where the dead never rose, how will young Beth cope with this severe lifestyle change? AU, One-shot. Inspired by S4:E1::30 Days Without An Accident, as well as the book series Everworld by K.A. Applegate. Rated T for violence and minor gore.

I've been having dreams where the dead walk. They ooze into pieces as people I seem to know kill them, which somehow keeps me alive. I'm dirty in the dreams. I'm mangled by what we go through day by day. But somehow, even after many weeks and months, I'm alive.

"Beth, get down here for breakfast! Daddy is gettin' sick of you holding out until the bus comes!" Maggie spat, dragging her younger sister from her room. Beth glared at her. Ever since she went to Atlanta to see some friends, she'd been leaving every weekend to go see someone. Only Beth knew, but they really didn't want their father to know. If Maggie wanted to keep her secret safe, she better start treating Beth nicer, in the young teen's eyes.

"Well, look who decided to join the living," Hershel grinned, spooning some grits onto Beth's plate. "And you've got ten whole minutes to spare. Sit down, girls. There's something we need to talk about."

Maggie and Beth exchanged looks as they sat down at the table. Ever since their neighbor, Otis, passed away in a farming accident, their father had acted very strangely. They knew that just days before, he'd had some sort of encounter with a young boy, but other than that, they only knew that their father wasn't acting himself.

"I got a letter yesterday from your school, Beth. There's some people that are concerned about you, and they wanted me to know what was going on. Have you been writing anything dark, maybe drawing some gorey pictures?" Hershel asked. Beth shook her head, "No Sir."

"What about the diary of yours? You've never taken that to school, have you?" Maggie asked with an accusing tone. Beth gave her a disgusted look. "No, I haven't read the darn thing. It's just that you're always tied to that thing. Just now she was writin' in it, Daddy, just now!" Maggie exclaimed.

"Well I don't want to accuse her of anything, but if the school is investigating her, I need to know from her what they expect to find. We're all family here, Beth. Just tell me what's going on," Hershel said softly, smiling at his young daughter. She spooned some grits into her mouth after adding a dab of butter and stirring it in. When she was finished chewing, she could hear the bus coming up the road by their house.

"Nothing, Daddy," Beth whispered. "It must be some misunderstanding," she added, grabbing her things and darting out the door.

When the bus was gone, Hershel grinned and looked up to Maggie. She finished chewing some bacon and returned his gaze.

"There is something in that diary, isn't there?" he asked with a devilish grin. He'd always known his girls so well, even before he took over raising them. Maggie gave him a look that she did know, but she simply shook her head. Hershel nodded. "Well, I have to go in tomorrow to inquire about whatever this is. I'll need someone to head over to the Johnson farm for me. Do you mind covering?"

"Are you sure that I can't go with you? There must be someone, maybe Jimmy-"

"I want you, Maggie," Hershel said, pulling the napkin from his lap and putting it onto his empty plate. "You know where to reach me. With so many horses having problems, I'm surprised I haven't had to pull Beth out of school to help me. Maybe they know I was thinking that and want to punish me," he chuckled. "You girls have it lucky. I'd get a cane lashing if I even spoke out of turn when I was your age."

"You've told me, Daddy. Mrs. Anderson is waiting," Maggie murmured. She got back to her breakfast as she listened to her father's truck disappear into the Georgia farms around their land. Her thoughts were on Beth's diary. Whatever was up with her, she hadn't wrote about it yet, but she'd mentioned a secret to it. And Maggie wanted to know what.

When her eyes focused on the latest entry, she dropped the small book. It slid under the bed and out of sight, far from where Beth usually kept it. Maggie didn't care. She wanted to burn that damn thing for what Beth wrote. She knew her little sister was in big trouble now, but she knew she couldn't tell. She had an even bigger secret, at least in her eyes.

She left the room and got to work, trying to push dark daydreams from her mind.

"Beth, wait up!"

Beth's best friend, Annette, always got to school before her. Today she was standing by a pillar near her school's bus lane, a note in her hand. Beth grinned, walking with her into the school gym to wait for the bell.

"He smiled and said you'd be happy with his response," Annette grinned. "You might actually get a boyfriend out of this!" she squealed.

They took seats at the top of the bleachers, the noise from the room seeping into Beth's ears and making her weary. She never had to see this many living people in her dreams, but she saw plenty of the dead, many of them in groups similar to the cliques spread around her.

"Well come on, Beth, read it!" Annette begged, waving her hands in excitement. Beth opened the note, careful to unfold it properly, and focused on the blue scrawl underneath Annette's wispy, perfect handwriting.

'Beth, I know how you feel. But I just can't be with you right now because of my parents. Maybe some other time?' he wrote.

Beth handed the note back to Annette, her face blank. Her friend stared at her in disbelief. She expected some sort of reaction, maybe a few angry words or tears. She expected Beth to do something more than sit there, returning her hands to their original position and looking over the people waiting for the bell like they were.

"I heard a rumor about you," Annette murmured. Beth nodded. She'd heard them all since she started writing songs about surviving, some of the lyrics from the gruesome battles Dream Beth and her group faced. She looked up attentively to her friend. "They say you see death everywhere, that you're barely living thanks to all you see. Is it true, Beth? Is any of it true?"

"Of course not," she smirked, standing as the bells finally rang.

"They're going to find out, Beth. Too many kids are talking for the school not to take action. I'm worried about you. This is small-town Georgia. You could get expelled just for sneezing in the wrong direction," Annette said sternly, trying her hardest to keep up with her fast-walking friend. "Beth!" she hissed, grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her towards her.

But Dream Beth was fluttering around, her instincts sharp from dealing with the dead. Beth instinctively rammed her books towards her friend's head. Annette fell with a heavy thud as onlookers froze, their faces fixed in grimaces of horror and shock.

Beth looked down at what she'd done. Any walker would be killed after a hit like that. But Annette wasn't a walker. She acted like one, reaching out for Beth as she walked away, but she was still among the living.

Beth finally had a reaction as the teachers came over to see what the commotion, or rather a lack of commotion, was about. They saw Beth sobbing over her friend, a huge gash on her forehead. It was a deep wound, and the teachers knew they had to get official emergency personnel to the scene.

Beth would be forgotten, released into the school like the others. Her deeds were known by so many, and she knew the time would come that her dreams' hauntings would haunt her waking life as well.

"Dr. Hershel, I was hoping to keep this meeting off until tomorrow, when we would reveal your daughter's creative writing portfolio and ask her to seek counseling from a reputable source," the principal sighed, handing him a small binder full of loose papers. "But that's not why I called you in today, and that's not why we're even more concerned for your daughter."

"She told me there was nothing going on with her, and I want to trust her-"

"Oh, Hershel, it's beyond that now," the principal interrupted with a stern gaze, handing him a stack of photographs from the scene. "The girl never had a chance, they said. The autopsy will be tomorrow or the day after, but...your daughter did this to her. We didn't know at first because none of us saw it. Then the investigators were able to access a security camera we'd never noticed before," he whispered, flipping on a monitor.

Hershel watched as a young brunette, whom he called Annie when she visited their home, moved towards Beth and touched her shoulder. Beth then spun around at the speed of lightening, the corner of her thick chemistry book penetrating the poor girl's skull. Hershel nodded at the principal's original conclusion: The girl never had a chance.

"What's going to be done with her?" Hershel asked with a heavy sigh. His youngest daughter, his little angel, was a murderer, and he didn't even know what set her off to begin with.

"The police have her now. She's being confined from the others at the juvenile hall until you get a chance to speak with her. Then, this will be carried out," the principal said, handing him an order from a local judge, the only local judge.

"Which institution? I've never heard of this one," Hershel murmured, passing the sheet back. The principal handed him another printout with directions. "I take they want me to wait before I visit?" he asked. The principal nodded. "Well, it looks like your dual jobs finally came in handy, John. If you ever call me Dr. Hershel again, I'll punch you in the mouth," Hershel spat, leaving the office quickly.

Maggie was waiting outside in the pickup truck, angrily spinning a piece of grass in her mouth. When her father emerged without her little sister, she ran up to him to see what was wrong.

"Get in the truck, Maggie. I'll explain things later."

"Listen, Daddy, I read her diary!" Maggie hissed. "There's something wrong with her, isn't there?"

Hershel sighed heavily and stood to stare at his older daughter, "Just get in the truck, Maggie. We'll talk about it later."

Maggie did as she was told, but a few miles up the road, she decided to ask Hershel if there was a boy involved. He shook his head, licking his lips to keep from telling her to be quiet again. He knew his daughter was nervous; hell, he was nervous. But he couldn't give everything away.

"She knows a secret about me. Is that what set her off?" Maggie asked. Hershel gave her a small look and a smirk. "What's that look about, Daddy? It didn't drive her crazy, did it? She's crazy, Daddy, real crazy."

"I know, Maggie, but you can rest easy knowing that's not what your sister was troubled over, at least I hope not. She told me weeks ago. So, you're dating an Asian boy who delivers pizzas? Why am I supposed to find this hard to believe? Is he a drug runner too?" Hershel chuckled. "Get a handle on yourself, Maggie. None of this is your fault. I do expect you to treat your body with respect while you're seeing this man, and if he does one thing to you, I'll-"

"I've seen the methods, Daddy, I know," Maggie squirmed, remembering those hated times she'd accompanied him to castrating sessions. Hershel chuckled loudly at her reactions; yep, she got the message.

"Your sister is far more troubled though, Maggie. She's being committed for her actions. It's understandable after what happened in the school, and I'm not going to argue with it. I...I decided to read her diary myself when I got the call. It took a while to find after you mishandled it, but...it's where you left it," he sighed, pulling in front of their driveway. "The dead won't ever walk, but poor Beth doesn't understand that. We'll just have to support her. It's the least we can do," he smiled.

"So why'd they call you?" Maggie asked. Hershel shook his head; he could have secrets too.

~End