Darkness came quickly. Cicadas and nocturnal bugs called through the dark. It was funny to think that not too long ago, a lot of the sounds they could hear now, they couldn't hear before. Every flutter of a leaf that fell to the ground, a twig snapping somewhere in the woods, the wind whistling through the canopy; it was all so much louder now.

They had moved to the house that sat in front of the trailer, settling themselves in the screened in porch. Beth was sitting with her back up against a support beam next to the door. Daryl and Juliana sat next to each other across from Beth, with the moon illuminating each of them so they were still able to see each other.

"I get why my dad stopped drinking," Beth mused out loud, looking over at the two of them. Juliana was sitting cross-legged, picking at the frayed ends of her boot laces.

"You feel sick?" Juliana asked, glancing up for a moment.

"Nope," she paused, "I wish I could feel like this all the time. That's bad."

Juliana huffed at her comment, lowering her eyes from Beth to continue picking at her laces, "You're lucky you're a happy drunk," she mumbled.

"Yeah I'm lucky..some people can be real jerks when they drink," she teased, trying to lighten the mood between the three of them.

"Yeah, I'm a dick when I'm drunk," Daryl admitted. He had been holding his knife, and was now carving random lines into a beam in front of him lazily. It only lasted a few moments before he lowered it to his side. "Merle had this dealer," he began. Juliana lifted her head to look over at Beth. Merle had been Daryl's brother until The Governor killed him and he turned. Both she and Beth knew Merle and Daryl had a rocky relationship, but it didn't change the fact that he had lost his brother.

He continued on, "..This janky little white guy. A tweaker. One day we were over at his house, watching TV..wasn't even noon yet and we were all wasted. Merle was high. We were watchin' this show, and Merle was talkin' all this dumb stuff about it; and he wouldn't let up..Merle never could," he exhaled, "Turns out it was the tweaker's kid's favorite show, and he never sees his kids, so he felt guilty about it or somethin'. So he punches Merle in the face," Daryl made a single punching motion with a balled up fist, "So I started hittin' the tweaker, like, hard..as hard as I can. Then he pulls a gun, and sticks it right here," with his opposite hand he lifted up two fingers to the side of his head and then dropped his hand to his side, "He says, "I'm gonna kill you, bitch." So Merle pulls his gun on him. Everyone's yellin'..I'm yellin'. I thought I was dead. Over a dumb cartoon about a talkin' dog," his voice trailed off finally.

"How'd you get out of it?" Beth asked.

"The tweaker punched me in the gut..I puked. They both started laughin' and forgot all about it." He paused, picking at slivers of the boards of wood that made up the floor, "You wanna know what I was before all this?" he looked at Beth, then to Juliana and back to Beth, "I was just driftin' around with Merle...doin' whatever he said we were gonna be doin' that day." He drifted off into his own thoughts, rolling his head back to Juliana's direction again.

"I was nobody," he said, peering at her through the dark, "Nothin'. Some redneck asshole, and an even bigger asshole for a brother."

"You miss him?" Juliana asked softly. Daryl just stared back at her.

"I miss Maggie," Beth said, "I miss her bossing me around," she giggled a little at the memory, having the attention of both Daryl and Juliana by now, "I miss my big brother, Shawn. He was so annoying and overprotective." Another small laugh escaped her, but the memories were quickly washed away soon after.

"And my dad," she added, "Who do you miss?" she asked Juliana.

Shrugging, she drew her legs up to her chest, "My dog," her answer received a small smile from Beth.

"Lucky dog," Daryl mused quietly.

Juliana smiled slightly at Daryl's comment before turning her attention back to Beth. "Herschel was a good man, Beth. The best."

She nodded, "I thought," her voice drifted for a minute and returned as she gathered her thoughts, "I hoped he'd just live the rest of his life in peace, ya know? I thought Maggie and Glenn would have a baby and he'd get to be a grandpa. And we'd have birthdays and holidays and summer picnics," she swallowed, trying to keep her emotions in check, "And he'd get really old..and it'd happen, but it'd be quiet. It'd be okay. He'd be surrounded by people he loved." She let out a short laugh, swallowing hard. Juliana's eyebrows furrowed with concern as a cry left Beth's lips.

"That's how unbelievably stupid I am," she choked out, grabbing a jar of moonshine next to her and took a drink.

Juliana kicked out her legs from their drawn up position and slide carefully over next to Beth, wrapping her arm around her shoulder after she had finished her drink. She drew Beth in for a side hug, and she accepted, sniffling as she rested her head against Juliana's chest. Juliana placed her hand on the side of Beth's head, stroking her hair comfortingly.

"That's how it was supposed to be," Juliana whispered to her.

Beth let out a heavy sigh, pulling away from Juliana. Pulling her arm away from Beth's shoulders, she watched as Beth roughly rubbed the tears away from her face.

"I wish I could just...change," Beth said, looking at both Juliana and Daryl.

"You did," Daryl told her. His comment made Juliana look over at him. She could faintly see his features were softer in the dark, and it made her heart jump.

"Not enough," Beth interjected, "Not like you or Jules. It's like you two were made for how things are now."

"We're used to it," Juliana started, "..things being ugly." Daryl nodded in agreement at her.

"Growin' up in a place like this," he added.

"Well, you got away from it."

"I didn't."

"You did," Beth assured him.

"Maybe you gotta keep on remindin' me sometimes."

"No," Beth drew out the 'o', "You can't depend on anybody for anything, right?" she echoed his words, and silence fell between them. "I'll be gone someday."

"Stop," Juliana hissed at her.

"I will," Beth turned to look at Juliana next to her, "You and Daryl..you'll be the last two standing."

Juliana swallowed hard, quickly looking away from her. It wasn't something she had thought about, or something she wanted to think about. Frankly, Juliana wasn't sure if she wanted to suffer through the end of the world until she was old and grey, but she wasn't about to tell Beth that.

"You are!"

Another silence fell between the three of them again.

"You're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon."

"You ain't a happy drunk at all," Daryl said.

"Yeah I'm happy, I'm just not blind. You gotta stay who you are, not who you were," Beth placed a hand on Juliana's arm to get her attention back, letting her know that she was talking to her to.

"Places like this...you have to put it away," she told him, referring to the house and trailer.

"What if you can't?" Juliana asked, peering over at Beth.

"You have to. Or it kills you."

Juliana and Daryl looked at each other through the dark. Though they both grew up in different places and under different circumstances, it was starting to become clear that she and Daryl had much more in common than they had anticipated.

"We should go inside," he suggested.

"We should burn it down!" Was Beth's suggestion.

Daryl stood, yanking an almost empty moonshine jar off of the porch as he made his way to the door. Juliana and Beth looked at each other, thinking that Daryl was going to disagree with Beth's insane idea.

"We're gonna need more booze," he told her, standing at the doorway. A smile lit up Beth's face, and Juliana grinned back at her. Standing, Juliana offered a hand to Beth, who took it, and helped her stand. They wandered back into the house where Daryl was already slinging jars of alcohol around the room. It didn't take Beth or Juliana any time to get in on the action, unscrewing the lids from jars and sloshing it around the counters and tables and walls.

Following Daryl out, they made a line of booze out of the doorway so they were standing a few feet away.

"You wanna?" Daryl asked Beth, handing her a matchbook.

"Hell yeah," Beth grinned, taking the matches from him. She struck a match, and it crackled as it caught on fire. Daryl held out a stack of money for her to light and tossed it onto the porch. The trio started to wander off away from the fire as it spread. Daryl tossed another empty jar into the house, and Juliana heard as it crashed onto the floor.

Shifting her gun onto her shoulder, she stalled with the other two as they stopped to watch the trailer burn. Beth lifted her middle finger in the air. She nudged at Daryl, who in turn, nudged Juliana, and they also lifted their middle fingers in the air. It was a big 'fuck you' to their pasts.

Noticing a handful of walkers attracted to the fire, Juliana gently grabbed at Beth's arm, motioning for her to come. The three of them left the blazing fire behind them, and for once, there was a mutual hope among the group.