— EVER SINCE BETH GAVE NATE the ring to give to Zoe, he hadn't stopped looking at it, and fiddling with the ring since he had first been given it from Beth; the man now wanted nothing but to search for Zoe, he believed that she was out there alive somewhere, and he believed Beth when she said that Zoe was out there somewhere. Nate felt whole again with the thought that Zoe was out there somewhere, like he actually had something to live for again, and something to fight for, because now, he knew that he wouldn't stop until he found her. They burnt down the shack with the rest of the Moonshine inside, and set on their way again, hoping that maybe they would bump into anyone from the prison, out here surviving like they were all doing, too. It gave Nate comfort to think that they were all out there surviving, maybe even looking for survivors, too, and he liked to thinly hat everyone had the same hope, and they weren't about to give up; at least, not until they found one another again. The man thought that days had passed since they burnt down the shack, but in all honesty, he had no clue, as the days were just blending in together.

Teaching Beth how to hunt was another thing getting Nate's mind off of the fact that he wasn't by Zoe's side — even if it was bringing back old memories of teaching Zoe how to hunt and track back on the Greene's farm, it still felt good to get everything off of his mind and focus on the task at hand, teaching Beth.. Beth was just as clueless as Zoe was when she was first told how the whole tracking think worked out, but since Zoe had managed to get a good idea on it pretty quickly with his lessons, Nate had hope that Beth could do the exact same thing, too. "Where'd you learn to teach like this?" Daryl asked Nate quietly, as they followed a small distance away behind Beth as she crouched down in front of a footprint, trying to figure out what direction the walker she was tracking went in. From what he remembers, he'd never seen Nate teach anyone how to track and hunt before; Daryl had been taught by Merle, and then he taught Nate, but Nate had never had a younger brother to teach, so none of it made sense to him..

Nate instantly felt a smile reach his face at the memory of teaching Zoe back on the farm, missing how carefree and safe everything was back then, how innocent they all were with this world; because now, they knew more of what was out there, and it ruined the way they all lived. He didn't think that any of them could live in the same way they did before the farm, or even the prison.. Nothing felt like it could ever be safe again, no matter where they were, because somebody would always be out there, ready to bring down their walls again. "I taught Zoe how to track back at the farm, we spent days out there tracking different animals and walkers." The man finally spoke up, after an image of a smiling Zoe holding a dead squirrel reached his mind, the girl having been so proud of herself to catch her first animal. That was when Zoe became good at hunting, after her first catch, the girl just got more confident with what she was doing, and Nate knew that, that would be the key with Beth, to have confidence.

Daryl couldn't help but smile also at the look on Nate's face as the man remembered being with Zoe again; at first, the memories of the girl had brought a frown to his face when he thought he wouldn't see her again, but since Beth had talked to him, to them both, he had faith that they would see the others from the prison one day, and seeing Nate fiddle with the engagement ring every singe minute of the day, was nice to see, and Daryl couldn't wait until they found the girl in question and Nate will be able to pop the question.. "Didn't know you could teach, man." Daryl said, chuckling to himself when he pictured Nate as a teacher. For someone that didn't even truly go to school, he was pretty good with his words when explaining to Beth how to tell which direction someone is walking in just by the patterns on the soil.

"I can't. Not really." Nate admitted, shrugging his shoulders as Beth stood up and carried on walking in the correct direction, Nate raising a brow in surprise when she hadn't even looked back to check she was going in the right direction; the girl had the confidence you need to hunt, and he knew from just that idea, that she was going to be a great hunter and tracker. "I wasn't great at first, then Zoe told me I needed to be more kind with my words, 'cause I was gettin' frustrated with her. I remember her saying that I was acting like Shane, then I completely changed my tactics." He informed his brother, laughing at how he remembered being so offended at being called Shane. Ain't no way he was going to be called that bastards name.

"Shane.. Wow." Daryl chuckled, knowing that he would have hated being told he was acting like that man; he was a complete psychopath.

"Yeah. That really pissed me off." Nate said, looking to the side to see a small smile on his older brothers face, one that he hadn't seen himself since Merle had died. The Dixon's had been through a lot, and they had lost one of their own, but they were still standing, and that alone, was enough reason for them to want to carry on going. "But she's a great tracker, now. So I guess her words helped, in a way." He added, knowing that she didn't mean anything harsh by calling him Shane, that day, he was just in a mood, and the girl knew that, and she used to love getting under his skin.

The two brothers stopped in their tracks when they saw Beth holding up Darl's crossbow, where she believed the walker was, "Are we close?" The girl asked Nate and Daryl, not keeping her eyes off of the tree line in front of her. Nate was proud of how far she had come with tracking, since at first, she had no confidence, and she wasn't getting the hang of things, but now, she was getting much better, and they had only been at it for a few hours.

"Almost." Nate told Beth, looking down at the tracks in the soil then back up at the tree line, knowing that the walker was right through that tree line.

"How do you know that?" Beth couldn't help but ask, not knowing how he could tell where the walker was with just one look at a single footprint on the soil. It surprised Beth at how good Nate and Daryl were at this kind of thing, but then again, they had grown up having to do this because of their dad..

"I can see the signs. You'll learn how to read them with more practice." Nate informed the blonde girl, having been following her moves the whole time and knowing which direction the walker was going in. "You're doing good, now you just gotta figure out the next move." He added, motioning forwards as Beth began to walk onwards again, Daryl following, feeling impressed at how good Nate was at teaching her.

"What are we tracking, exactly?" Beth asked her teacher, having been tracking these prints for a while, but she couldn't tell exactly what they were even following.

"You tell me." Nate answered, not giving her any more information as he knew the girl would be able to figure out what she was tracking herself. When Beth lowered the crossbow and gave Nate a look that told him she was annoyed, the man shrugged, "You asked me to teach you. This is me teaching." He told her, raising a brow at her aggravated look.

Beth sighed, looking down at the ground once again, "Well; something came through here." She informed Nate, nothing down at the prints in the soil, the man nodding as she was correct.. "The pattern is all zig-zaggy.. It's a walker." Beth eventually came to the conclusion, turning around to face Nate to see if she had gotten it right, and already seeing him smiling at her with a small nod, knowing that she had gotten it right. She smiled, "I'm getting good at this. Pretty soon I won need either of you at all." Beth joked, carrying on walking forwards again as she tracked where the walker was headed.

Nate scoffed, looking back at Daryl with a raised brow as the older man rolled his eyes at Beth's words, "Yeah, yeah. Keep on tracking." Daryl told the girl, as they followed behind her yet again, now into a small clearing, where in the distance, a walker was eating something on the ground, having not yet noticed them.

Yet again, the two brothers stayed behind Beth as they allowed her to kill the walker on her own, since she had spent all of this time tracking it, it was only fair that she killed it, too. When she claimed that the walker had a gun, Daryl motioned his head for the girl to go onwards and kill it, so she turned around, taking a deep breath in, before finally slowly treading forwards with the crossbow raised, making sure to be as quiet as possible. The girl was doing good at first, walking slowly and quietly as the walker didn't notice her coming, she was doing better than Nate thought she would have done, and he was actually proud of how far Beth had come from being the afraid little girl that stuck by her fathers side, to a grown adult, and he knew that Daryl felt the same way, too. The two men were watching Beth go forwards, thinking that she was going to successfully kill the walker, but when she buckled down to the ground with a hiss of pain, her ankle twisting in a weird direction, the two brothers sprung into action to help her out, noticing the walker slowly gaining on her after noticing that she was even there. Even injured, though, the girl still managed to shoot the walker in the head, just as Daryl took the crossbow away, and Nate crouched down to the girls level to see that she had gotten her foot stuck in a trap.

Daryl put the walker down in seconds as Nate yanked the trap off of Beth's foot, the girl gasping in pain, "Shit, can you move it?" Nate asked, as Beth's foot was finally free.

Daryl came rushing back over and took Beth's foot in his hands, gently turning it to make sure it wasn't broken in any way, "Yeah, a little." Beth informed the two brothers, trying to move her foot about and groaning in pain again as she did so. They all knew this wasn't good, especially since they were in the middle of the woods; they needed to find somewhere safe to look at her foot properly, instead of waiting here and wasting time.

"We gotta get out of the woods, someplace safer." Nate told Daryl as his brother nodded, instantly agreeing with his words. At his words, Nate helped Beth stand as Daryl kept lookout, picking a direction they thought would lead to a road or some sort, and heading that way..

Beth was growing tired, even with Nate practically carrying her the whole way due to how painful it was for her to walk; he blamed himself for her injured ankle, knowing that he should have checked their surroundings before allowing Beth to go out there alone, he should have checked for a trap as the girl wouldn't have thought to do so — he felt stupid, and so did Daryl, the both of them believing that maybe they could have prevented it. It didn't take long to get to an opening, however, as they had finally reached what looked to be a graveyard with a small house in the centre, looking like it hadn't really been touched since the outbreak first began. Nate sighed in relief at the sight, as they began to walk forwards again, only for Beth to pause, the girl cringing as she took another step forwards, "Can we.. Can we hold up a sec?" Beth asked, feeling bad that she was holding them up, but she needed to rest her ankle, as the pain was becoming unbearable. "I just need to sit down." She added, bending over to rub her ankle, letting go of Nate in the mean time.

Nate and Daryl exchanged a look, knowing that it wasn't a good idea to stay out in the open like this, and it definitely wasn't good to sit down and relax like they were the only people here, because they didn't know if there were others, yet or not. Daryl handed Nate his crossbow and headed towards Beth, crouching down slightly in front of the girl as he motioned for her to jump onto his back. "Hop on." Daryl told Beth, holding his arms out as he waited for the girl to jump ooo bronchus back so they didn't have to sit down in the open like this.

"Are you serious?" Beth asked, not knowing if the man was making a joke or not, but when she looked towards Nate, she knew that Daryl was indeed, being serious.

"This is a serious piggyback. Jump up." Daryl told her, as Nate looked around at their surroundings, making sure there wasn't any danger near, he kept Daryl's crossbow slung across his back as he held his own one up, just in case a walker jumped out at them. That, and the sight of Beth on Daryl's back reminded him of the time Zoe had hurt her ankle, and he had given her a piggy back ride around the farm as she couldn't walk; it was when their relationship was new, and when they hadn't even told each other that they loved one other.. It felt like a life time ago..

They headed onwards as Nate walked in front of the others, keeping his eyes peeled still, "Maybe there are people there." Beth stated, hope clear in her voice as Nate wished that wasn't the case, because if it was, they would probably be in big trouble.

"I hope not." Nate mumbled, walking onwards.

"Yeah, if there are, me and Nate'll handle 'em." Daryl added, knowing that they would kill anyone that got in the way of their survival — they weren't all for killing, but right now, it was just the three of them, and they needed to do what they could to survive.

"There are still good people, guys." Beth stated, not knowing why the Dixon's had always been so funny when it came to finding other survivors, but the two brothers knew that it was because there were bad people out there, and a lot of the others were just too blind to see it. But that's what made them who they were, and what made the brothers who they were.

"I don't think the good ones survive." Daryl then stated, knowing that no one truly survived on their own if they didn't have to do some messed up stuff to be able to do so.

Nate stopped and looked back at Beth and Daryl as they both looked down at a gravestone, seeing the words 'beloved father' written on it, and he just knew that Beth was reminiscing about Hershel. Nate missed him, too, and it hurt him that he wasn't around, too — Hershel was more of a father to him than his own father was, and so was Rick; it hurt that one was definitely dead, and the other one could be. They all stood in silence around the gravestone, taking a minute of silence for Hershel, and for everyone they had lost back at the prison, with it being something they definitely needed. Daryl pulled a few flowers out of the ground and placed them atop of the grave, Beth smiling in response when she knew he did it for her, and in the next second, the girl stood in between the two brothers, holding each of their hands as they looked down at the grave, all of them feeling their heart hurt at the thought of Hershel. He was a great man, and never deserved to go out the way he did..