Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Thank you to Sufinkusu for the review and to all the others who have made this a Follow or Favorite.

I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

FIRST NIGHT

They knew they had to find shelter and supplies, but it was nearly dark when they left. It was too late for them to worry about that for now. They didn't want to drive at night because the headlights would make them too conspicuous. They decided to pull over into a patch of woods near the side of the road and sleep in the truck. Actually, Daryl decided. Glenn seemed kind of out of it. He was probably suffering from an adrenaline crash and shock from everything that happened in the past couple of hours. Was it really only a couple of hours? It seemed longer than that.

Daryl pulled two pillows and a sleeping bag from the back of the truck. He gave Glenn one of the pillows, kept one for himself and unzipped the sleeping bag making a blanket. The each propped against a door with the blanket tossed haphazardly over them. Daryl was not a heavy sleeper and he knew he would wake a couple of times during the night to make sure Glenn was ok.

It didn't take long for Glenn to have his first nightmare. Daryl managed to pull him out of it and he wasn't sure Glenn even woke up completely. Daryl put his pillow against the door behind him. He put the other pillow in his lap. He pulled Glenn down sideways so his head was on the pillow. He laid is hand over the side of Glenn's neck and they both drifted back to sleep. The next thing Daryl knew was that it was getting light out.

SHOPPING

Once they were both awake, they started to come up with a plan. Other than the bat, Glenn's only weapon was a shotgun and a few shells. The shotgun was noisy as fuck would have to be a last resort. Daryl didn't think the bat was nearly enough to do battle with walkers, especially if there were more than a couple of them. He needed something better.

"First thing," Daryl said, "we need to get you a better weapon…or two."

"I thought the first thing was going to be getting me new shoes," Glenn said with a smile.

"Well, smartass, with some luck we can do both," Daryl said. Glenn looked at him.

"Not to be a pessimist, but when have we ever had any good luck?" Daryl cocked his head sideways. The kid was right. Good luck was not something they had much of lately.

"We're due," Daryl replied.

Daryl he pulled up to the Academy sporting goods store. Getting out of the truck, Glenn looked at Daryl.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure this place was picked clean early on. If not, it must have been looted since then. This is probably one of the first places that people came to."

"Maybe," Daryl said, "but I want to check something out. I used to come to one of these stores every once in a while for supplies for my crossbow. They ain't in the section with the guns and ammo so there might still be somethin'." Glenn shrugged his shoulders. Guess it wouldn't hurt to look.

Before they even got close to the hunting department, they could see that the entire gun section was emptied of everything. They passed it and went further into the store. They stopped in front of a drop door kind of like a garage door. Daryl knew it was what he was looking for because he was used to shopping there and all of the stores were set up the same.

They broke in and, sure enough, there were a couple of crossbows, regular archery bows, arrows, bolts and stuff for cleaning and lubing the crossbows. They grabbed a couple of crossbows and first thing they did was unbox them. It was much easier to carry them that way. They also took every arrow and bolt they could find and some of the stuff to make sure the crossbows kept working.

"Next thing is your shoes. We need to see if they have somethin' sturdier for you. Let's head over there and see if we can find you a pair of boots." As they were heading down one of the aisles, Daryl's eyes continued to scan around. In passing Daryl spotted a machete of all things that looked like it might have been tossed into the wrong section so it had been missed. He grabbed it on the way by. He already had a really good hunting knife so that would be Glenn's.

They got to the shoe section and located the boots. As soon as they got there, they heard walkers.

"Better make this quick," Glenn said. He grabbed a couple of different kinds in his size. "These will be fine, I'm sure." They saw a fairly large group of walkers headed their way. "Yep, these will be perfect. Best boots ever. Let's get the hell out of here."

They got back to the truck, tossed everything in and took off.

They decided to camp for night. They pulled up a steep hill figuring that the rough terrain might make it harder for walkers to get to them. Daryl did a quick recon of the area and managed to get a rabbit while he was out. They were able to have a small fire and cook the rabbit and Glenn was pretty sure it was the best thing he ever tasted.

They had just finished eating when they were startled by a loud explosion from the direction of the city. It was strong enough that it made the ground shake, even as far away as they were. They didn't realize it at the time, but that was the CDC imploding.

They ended up packing it in early. They were both exhausted. It had been a long day and they both needed to try to get some sleep. Daryl knew Glenn was really hurt by the group. Glenn was a caring, sensitive person and for them to do that to him was devastating for him. It wouldn't surprise him if Glenn had nightmares for a while. Daryl was not happy to be right. As soon as Daryl realized Glenn was having a nightmare, Daryl woke him up and told him it would be ok. He wasn't sure if it was the truth, but it seemed like the right thing to say at the time. Glenn simply moved closer to Daryl until he was laying next to him. Daryl didn't stop him. He discovered that he really didn't mind Glenn invading his personal space. Glenn inhaled and he could smell Daryl close to him. Daryl didn't smell bad. He smelled like something Glenn now associated with safety and he was able to drift back to sleep.

They were driving the next day when Glenn saw something that gave him an idea. He hit Daryl on the shoulder with the back of his hand to get his attention, told Daryl to pull over and indicated where. It was Office Depot.

"The hell? You runnin' out of printer paper?" Daryl asked sarcastically.

"Trust me?"

"With my life," Daryl said.

"Good. Let's go."

The door was still locked and the glass wasn't broken so the store might not be ransacked. It probably wasn't a place people would think to go to. He had Daryl pull around back. Glenn figured it might be easier to break in that way. They got in and did a quick sweep. The store looked untouched. It was probably closed when panic really started and everyone took off. They didn't see any walkers.

"Well?" Daryl asked Glenn.

Glenn walked Daryl to a section near the back of the store.

"Holy fuckin' hell, Short Round, you're a goddamn genius." Glenn looked at him.

"Breakroom section," he said smiling, "and don't call me that, Redneck." Daryl smiled back at him.

The aisle was packed floor to ceiling with food and drinks. There was water, soda, coffee and juice in the drink section. The food section held a ton of vending-machine type items like packages of cookies, crackers, nuts, trail mix and granola bars. There were cases of cereal cups, soup cups and tuna salad kits. And, holy hell, there was a specialty section with packages of cupcakes and brownies.

Glenn pointed and they walked one aisle over where they found first aid kits, bandages, pain relievers and, sweet Jesus, toilet paper!

It was the fucking motherload.

It took a while to go through everything and decide on the best stuff to take. Daryl turned to Glenn.

"Hey, take the tubes out of TP and squash it down. We can carry a lot more that way."

"How do you know this shit?" Glenn asked. Daryl looked at him and shrugged. "We might be able to carry more if we take some of this stuff out of the boxes. There's probably some wasted space or packing material inside the boxes. We probably shouldn't unbox the cracker and cookie packages, but it would definitely work for the first aid stuff and the trail mix and stuff like that."

"Good idea," Daryl said. "Let's get to work."

"I'll go grab a package of trash bags. Those will work well, plus it's added protection if this stuff is in the back of the truck and it rains. It should also keep animals from smelling the food when we camp."

They sorted out everything they wanted to take and put it all by the door ready to go to the truck. They decided the baked goods weren't practical to take a with them because they wouldn't last as long as the other stuff, but that didn't mean they couldn't get their fill while they were there. And, ok, so what if a few packages of cupcakes did make it into the truck. I wouldn't be a big deal, right?

They stayed inside the Office Depot for the night. It would have been nice to have stayed longer, but it was just not defensible. The store was too big and there was no line of sight. They wouldn't be able to tell what was going on outside.

As usual, Glenn had a nightmare, but to Daryl it didn't seem like it was as bad as before. It was easier to wake him up and it was easier for him to go back to sleep. Maybe things were getting a little better.

The next morning, they had a baked goods breakfast. Nothing like a chocolate cupcake to get the day started right.

They started pulling all of the bags and boxes outside to the truck. Daryl went to back the truck closer to the door when he called for Glenn to come over.

"Help me get the motorcycle out of the back."

"Why?" Glenn asked.

"We need the room."

"But you love that bike."

"Yeah, I do, but we can't eat it and we need the space. Food and water's more important."

"I don't want you to regret it, and you know you will," Glenn said.

"Of course I'll regret it," Daryl said sadly. "But at least I'll be alive to regret it." Glenn thought about it for a minute.

"I can't let you leave it behind. Let's figure it out." He thought for a minute. "Ok, you ride the motorcycle and I'll drive the truck. Best of both worlds. We have the space to carry more stuff and you keep the bike."

"Except we won't be together," Daryl said. "Makes me nervous."

"I'll follow you. I'll stay right behind you the whole time. We can always leave the bike later if we need to. We'll have more room in the bed of the truck and we'll also be able to fill part of the cab with more stuff. We make a good team. We'll keep each other safe. If something happens head back to me or I'll get up next to you and we'll take off in the truck."

"Are you sure there'll be room to save me with all those brownies and cupcakes in there?" Daryl said laughing.

"Hey, asshole, those are calorie-dense foods. They're good for energy. Don't make fun or I won't share with you."

SURPRISE

They spent a few days moving around and checking out the area. Daryl had started to teach Glenn how to use one of the new crossbows and they also got to hunt a little bit. Even with the stuff they got at Office Depot, they still need protein.

One afternoon, they came across a small house set off the road. Daryl signaled and they pulled off the road. They watched for a while and it looked abandoned. It was a small house so it wouldn't be particularly hard to clear and secure and it had a yard around it so they would be able to see anyone or anything approaching. This might be a good place for a couple of days.

They decided to take a closer look. Daryl was teaching Glenn some hand signals to use when they had to be quiet hunting. They were sort of a weird mix of military, sign language and, well, just Daryl. Daryl motioned to Glenn about what to do. He either wanted Glenn to: 1) move around to his right, cut across the yard and come in from the other side of the house or 2) steal third base. Glenn was pretty sure it was the first one.

He circled around and went in through the back when Daryl went in through the front. They went through the rooms and made sure they were clear. They both ended up in kitchen. They heard very quiet noise coming from behind a door. It could be stairs leading down to a basement. If that was the case, it could be anything from a rat to a walker.

Glenn covered Daryl as he grabbed the doorknob. It turned out to be a pantry. When Daryl opened the door, they were staring into the terrified face of Sophia Peletier. It took her about two seconds to process what she was seeing before she launched herself into Daryl's arms.

A/N: Reviews are awesome.