Hope's POV

I wake up to Augustus' wet tongue on my cheek. I sniff and sit up, touching my face. I was crying again, and he was wiping the tears away.

I smile sadly and rub his belly before getting up. I had found an old house. It had a bed, a door that could close, and no walkers. Basically, everything I needed at the moment.

I pull out a can of something, looking at the label. It's pork and beans. I open the can and eat half, giving the rest to Augustus, since I had only grabbed two or three cans of dog food.

I open the door and walk outside. It's sunny, and birds are chirping. Augustus sprints ahead, sniffing flowers and trees, chasing animals and all that other dog stuff.

We walk through the forest for a bit before I stop and lean against a birch tree.

What's my plan of action? I can't keep doing stuff like this, being alone. Loneliness holds nothing for me. Sure, I have a dog, but a dog can't talk to me, give me advice. He helps me, but he isn't...Daryl.

Should I try to find any trace of my group? I wouldn't know where to start. I don't even know if they're alive or not. I'm still hanging on to the hope that they'll find me, but I know that my chances are thin.

"Augustus! Come here boy!" I whistle, and the dog comes streaking from a group of bushes. "I don't know what to do."

He sits, tilting his head at me.

"What do you think? If you think I should find a new group, lick my left hand." I hold out both my hands.

Augustus looks at both for a bit before leaning forwards and licking my left hand.

"Really? You think so? What about my friends...my family?" I ask.

He lies down, resting his muzzle between his paws and looking up at me sadly.

"You're saying that I shouldn't even try? They'll find me?"

His tail wags, and I take that as a sign for "yes".

"I'm probably already going crazy. I'm trying to decipher your language for goodness sake." He looks at me. "Plus, I'm still talking to you." I sigh, feeling my eyes ache from pent up sorrow. "Let's keep going, to wherever our feet, or paws, take us."

Daryl's POV

"What made you notice Hope in the first place?" Beth asks.

We're walking through the forest, the next morning. After our little...fight, we went inside and sobered up. We ended up burning the house down, purposely. It was Beth's idea, and I used the money in my bag to help it burn.

For the first time in my life, I had money to burn.

"I'd have to explain a lot," I say. "From before we came to your farm."

"We've got time." She smiles and waits.

I look at her, wondering if I should tell her this. It would feel nice to tell someone about her...

"Some of my group, at the time, found her in Atlanta, alone in a department store."

"Who was it that found her? You?"

"Naw, I was out huntin' back at our camp. It was a little ways out of Atlanta, near a quarry. Andrea, Merle, T-dog, Glenn, Morales, and Jacqui, they went to the city for supplies."

"Morales and Jacqui?"

"Morales and his family left to find some family of theirs, before we left the quarry. Jacqui died later."

"Oh...continue."

"They found Rick and Hope around the same time. Glenn found Rick, and a little while after, they found her. T-dog said he thought she was a walker and smacked her with a shovel."

"Ouch..." Beth touches the back of her head, grimacing.

"She was fine, just had a headache for a while. Anyways, she came with them back to the camp. Rick found Lori and Carl again, and she was...just there. Dale gave her a knife, as a present, the same knife she still carried with her. I was away when they got back, and it wasn't until the next mornin' that I came back from huntin'."

"How do you know all this if you were gone at the time?"

"She told me, once we got to know each other better."

"Ah, got it."

"I had shot a deer, and a walker got it. It pissed me off somethin' awful, and I came out of the forest to find some of the guys pointin' guns at me, probably thought I was a walker at first. Rick and Hope were with them. I started cussin' and kickin' the walker that had eaten the deer, even though it was dead already. I stopped and started headin' back in to camp, wonderin' where Merle was. Hope stopped me, told me he was still in Atlanta."

"Did you like her right then?"

"I was more impressed that she had the guts to stop me. I tried to ignore her, and Shane told me she was stayin' in my tent, since mine was the only one that had room."

"That's what everything started out as? She had to stay in your tent?"

"Yeah. Our camp got attacked by walkers, and I saved her life. She thanked me, and we decided to start off on a clean slate. After that, we talked, and I tried to keep her at a distance, keep her as just a friend, but...she was so understandin', and carin' too. She would clean me up, wipe off the sweat and blood. She didn't look at me like I was just some redneck asshole. She listened to me, wanted to know about my life. She wanted to be my friend. She was the only person I trusted after Merle was gone."

Beth stops walking and sits down on a log, resting her head on her hands and listening. "Continue. I like this."

I lean against a tree. "She had these light brown eyes, they really got to me. They were beautiful, and they looked like they were so full of knowledge. They change with her mood too. Sometimes dark, sometimes light. I tried to ignore it then, but I did find her really pretty. Not hot, like 'I'd bang that'. Pretty, beautiful, the kind of girl you want to marry. She looked confident, but she was also kind and smart. She always seemed to be smilin'."

She nods. "She does smile a lot. It's very uplifting."

I agree. "We left our camp, and went to this place called the CDC. Hope had a nightmare the first night we were there, and she came to my room. I woke up and she was standin' in the doorway, pale and scared. She told me about the dream, and that she was sorry to wake me. I invited her to come lie down with me, and I held her until she fell asleep again. I told her that I felt like I needed to protect her, but that we were still just friends."

"That's really sweet." Beth smiles.

"I felt scared. Scared of what I was feelin'. I had never loved anyone before, and this girl comes along...and she was changin' me. She was makin' me want to become a better man. I actually told her later, how much danger I was in of fallin' for her...she was asleep at the time, but still. When she was shot, I found myself worryin' about her, comfortin' Carl...I was nothin' like my old self. I never cared about anyone, but here I was, at some stranger's house, watchin' over this girl like my life depended on it. She was also the only person who smiled when she saw me comin', and it...it made me feel nice."

Beth sighs dreamily, and I roll my eyes.

"Later, when I had my accident...you know, when Andrea shot me? She found out about...somethin', from my past. She didn't judge me, and she kissed me on the cheek instead. It surprised me. I looked like hell, still smelled like sweat and dirt and blood, but she had been so worried about me and she didn't care. After that, we tried to keep our relationship a secret. I wanted to keep my image the same. I didn't want to show weakness of any kind. Then, she found out somethin' about Shane, it wasn't good. He threatened to kill her if she told but she couldn't lie to us, and she did tell. He attacked her, and she came screamin' to me, T-dog, and Rick, cryin', scared for her life. I felt so angry that Shane would dare hurt her. Once Rick got Shane away from her, I took her back to our tent, and she told me she loved me."

"What did you say?"

"I told her I loved her too...and I kissed her. And, after that...I fell more in love with her each day."

"Do you know all the little things about her too?"

"Like what?"

"Favourite movie?"

"The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Trilogies. She couldn't pick just one of them."

"TV show?"

"She likes stuff like Sherlock and Doctor Who...I think. Shows for smart people."

"Book?"

"Tons. Can't name them all at once. She's a total bookworm."

"Colour?"

"Green."

"Middle name?"

"Rose."

"Animal?"

"Dogs, but she also likes dragons and other mythical creatures."

"Food?"

"Italian anythin'. Pasta mainly."

"Little habits?"

"She wiggles her nose a little after she sneezes, and when she's thinkin' really hard, she'll scratch her bottom lip with her thumb and wrinkle her forehead." My expression falls. "And...she used to mumble stuff in her sleep."

Like my name...

I stop, my heart clenching when I think of it. I miss her so much.

"Wow." Beth's face displays a look I can't place. It looks like surprise and happiness at once. "Do you think you'll ever get married? Like Glenn and Maggie did?"

"I was...thinkin' of askin' her, but then the whole prison got attacked by that shit-head." I sigh, my heart heavy. "And now I've lost my chance."

"She isn't dead. I know it," she says. "She's a strong girl, at least, from what I've observed."

"She is." I look around, observing the sky, the trees. "We should keep movin'."

We move through the forest, and we come across a walker.

"I got this," Beth whispers.

She strides forwards, ready to kill it, but she trips, her foot caught in a trap.

The walker growls and turns around, advancing on Beth. I grab my knife and stab it quickly.

"You ok?" I ask. I pry the trap off her foot. "Can you move it?"

"Yeah...it still hurts. I'll be really slow at walking," she says.

"Alright. Hop on," I turn my back to her.

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Serious piggyback. Come on," I say.

She jumps on and I hoist her up, carrying her through the forest.

We leave the trees, where a cemetery and funeral home stand in front of us.

Beth gets off my back and limps to the door. I open it, and scan for walkers, finding none.

"It's so clean..." she comments.

"Someone's keepin' it that way. We shouldn't stay here long," I say.

We move through the house, where we find some bodies laying on metal tables. On one of the bodies, half the face and the nose look human, but the other half still looks dead, like a walker. I touch my fingers to the human side of his face, and a weird goo comes off on my fingers.

"It's beautiful," Beth whispers. "Whoever did this remembers them as humans, and wanted them to have a real funeral."

I look at the bodies, and she looks at me.

"Let's go find some food."