The men followed the stranger the short distance down another alley and out onto a side street. When they emerged, they saw her dismount the horse in front of what used to be an auto body garage and look around in all directions, obviously checking for walkers. It had become a daily habit for those who were fortunate enough, or unfortunate, depending on how you looked at it, to continuously be aware of any potential threat stumbling into their direction.
They pulled up just in back of her and quickly exited the vehicle. She stood and looked down the street, the opposite direction from which they came, drew her gun, and took aim at a lone walker stumbling towards them. She pulled the trigger and the walker slumped suddenly before hitting the ground. She holstered her gun again and met Glenn's impressed gaze and moved towards the concrete building's front door.
"Well, come on in.", she uttered as she opened the door and led the horse inside. The group walked into a dark room that smelled distinctly of motor oil and horse. Rick and Daryl reached for their flashlights and took in their surroundings. Two cars that were being worked on at one time were still on lifts above their heads and there were tools and car parts all around them. This was obviously where the horse had been kept. There were a few small piles of manure.
"I nev'a was much of a housekeeper." she joked as she led the men to the right of the large room and into an office. She opened the door and went immediately behind the desk and retrieved a backpack and a sleeping bag. The men looked around and saw a decent amount of canned food and water stacked against the far wall; enough to feed one person for over a month. She also had a handful of extra blankets, what looked like fire wood, and a few more boxes of rounds that must have come from the gun store.
Glenn peered just past the firewood and exclaimed excitedly, "Where'd you get all that liquor?" There were about ten bottles of assorted inebriants.
"I thought you were all done with booze, little man?" Daryl teased.
The young lady chuckled. "Yea, I found it all. Seemed like a shame to leave it behind. I figured I could always use it to barter or somethin' if I really needed to."
"This is a pretty nice setup you got here, uh..." Rick paused. "I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name yet."
She looked up as she jammed a pair of jeans that were hanging from a nail on the wall. "Prudence Dorsey...Well, 'Pru', actually. No one ever called me by my full name."
"Good to know you, Pru. I'm Rick. This here is Glenn," he pointed, "And Daryl." She gave a forced half smile and nodded.
"You have a really strong accent. You're not from here originally, are you?" Glenn asked.
She scoffed in reply, "That obvious, huh? Yeah, no. I'm from Jersey. My sister and I started to move south when everything turned 'cause my dad, like most old people from Jersey, retired to fuckin' Florida. Tried for weeks to get to him...Then one day I woke up and realized how stupid it was to keep trying. Even if he was still alive, which I know he isn't, I'd never find him." She pocketed a small hunting knife and stuck a claw hammer through one of her belt loops. "Besides, if I did find him, he'd kick my ass for getting' my sister killed."
Rick cleared his throat. "I...I'm sorry about your sister."
"Me too." she said softly.
There was a crunching sound. Daryl pointed his flashlight downward to look beneath his boot to see a small pile of animal bones. He knelt down and picked through them, picking one up to inspect it. He gave it a sniff and looked up at Pru, dumbfounded. "You? Caught a wild pig?"
"A piglet." she corrected without glancing up. "But yea, a day or two ago. I was out looking for water and it wandered through the yard of the house I went into. The best I've eaten in a really long time."
"Why haven't you caught a pig yet, Daryl?" Glenn asked honestly. Daryl turned and whipped the small bone at him.
Glenn flinched. "WHAT?" the young man cried.
"Okay, let's get going." Pru declared. She pointed to the supplies on the floor. "Can you guys grab some'a this stuff and help me out here?" Rick, Glenn, and Pru crouched down to retrieve the materials. "I'll cover us." Daryl offered as he followed them out. She grabbed the horse's reins and led her to the door behind the three men. "So, you promise you're not just gunna shoot me and run off with my stuff." she half joked.
"We ain't like that." Rick assured. He looked to Daryl who nodded and slowly opened the front door of the shop. He spotted one walker just on the other side of the truck. A second was down the block a ways, meandering slowly in their direction. He burst through the door and silently dispatched the shambling corpses.
"Okay.", he grunted as he hopped into the truck's bed among what they'd gathered earlier. He motioned for the other three to toss Pru's supplies in the back with him.
She quickly hoisted herself up onto the horse's back. "How far out is this camp of yours?" she asked Rick as he closed the driver's side door.
"About five or six miles down the road. It's not bad."
"Okay. Keep it at about twenty five so we can keep up with you." she shouted as she brought the horse into a trot beside the truck.
As the truck picked up speed, it pulled a safe distance in front of Pru and the horse. As Daryl rode in the back, he searched through the things that the group had collected on their outing. He found a fifth of Old Crow, cracked it open, and took a huge slug of the booze. The alcohol felt warm and comforting traveling down his throat.
He looked at the bottle. Studied it for a bit. Glenn had been right. Today's run had been successful. A new crossbow. Booze. He looked up from the bottle and took another swig, then turned to meet Pru's eyes as she rode the galloping horse behind the moving vehicle. He shot her a scowl.
"Too bad we just ended up with another goddamn stray." he thought silently.