Chapter 2: Chocolate
The sun was just beginning to filter in through the blanket covered windows of the third floor loft. Scattered across the open space were empty cans, food wrappers and torn and dirty clothes. In one corner of the room, a small pile of empty food cans, and a couple of partial water bottles sat, waiting for the occupants of the loft to drink them. In another corner, curled up on a pile of blankets and clutching a piece of pipe, slept one of the two occupants. A young Korean man with a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. The other occupant, a young teenage girl with a long braid down her back, sat peering out the bottom of the covered window, fiddling with the strap of the compound bow in her arms. Looking across the room at their almost non-existent pile of goods, she realizes, with great disdain, that they are going to need to go on a run today to pilfer for more supplies. With great reluctance, she hauls herself to her feet and makes her way to the sleeping figure in the corner, while thinking about the last run they went on a few days ago.
Flashback
"Glenn, give me a boost here," Rosabelle whispers out, standing below a small high window in a back alley, "There might be something we could use in there."
Glenn links his hands together and bends down. Rose steps into his hands and he lifts her up, her head and shoulders now above the windows ledge. Cupping her hands around her eyes and pressing her face to the glass she peers into the dirty window.
"What do you see, Belle?" Glenn asks, voice strained with the effort of keeping the girl up.
"We are in luck, Glenny boy! It's a diner kitchen!" Rose says in excitement for the feast that they will potentially be having. "Plus, I don't see any of them damn Geeks in there either."
Hopping down from Glenn's grasp, she makes her way over to the door that leads into the back entrance of the diner. Rose grabs the handle and pulls with no luck. The door is locked.
"If we can get that window open, do you think you'd be able to squeeze through? You could then let me in from the inside." Glenn quietly questions.
"I have a better idea," kneeling in front of the locked door, Rose pulls the bobby pins that are holding her long hair out of her face and quickly ties her hair up into a ponytail with the elastic around her wrist. She then begins to bend the pins and shoves them with great practice into the keyhole of the deadbolt on the door. After a few silent seconds, a small click is heard and Rose turns the knob with ease and pushes open the now unlocked door. "After you."
Glenn looks at Rose with surprise in his eyes. "It kind of frightens me that you know how to do that, you know?"
"What can I say, I'm a Dixon."
Making their way into the kitchen, Glenn and Rosabelle begin to search through cupboards and shelves for anything of use. Not seeing anything of great interest, Glenn begins to head over to a door of the pantry on the other side of the clearly previously looted space, while Rose pulls herself up onto the large counter to check the higher cupboards. Pulling open a cupboard door and searching inside Rose excitedly exclaims, "Jackpot!"
"What did you find?" Glenn calls out from the empty pantry door.
Turning around and holding up her prize with a grin on her slightly freckled face she states, "Chocolate!"
"Chocolate?"
"Yes, chocolate. I love chocolate!" Joy evident in the young teen's eyes, as she turns back around to search for more treats.
Chuckling softly, Glenn moves on to the next door realizing how easy it was to forget that his companion was still in fact a child. Yanking the door to what appeared to be a freezer open, Glenn let out a horrified gasp about a dozen reanimated corpses stand in front of him with claw-like hands reaching towards him and the smell of rot emanating from their snarling mouths.
"Oh my God!" Glenn cries out in fear. He takes a quick step backwards to try and avoid the grabbing hands but trips over the door frame and falls hard to the ground.
Hearing the snarls and the sudden cry from her 'brother', Rose jumps from the counter while stringing an arrow into her ever present compound bow.
"Glenn!" she cries out, seeing the man on the floor with a Walker leering over him and with many more of it's 'friends' close behind it. Rosabelle rapidly fires her arrow at the decomposing skull, while running to Glenn. The young man quickly grabs a piece of pipe lying on the floor and pulls himself to his feet using the shelf behind him. Wielding the pipe like a spear, he shoves the pipe through the heads of a couple of the Walkers nearest to him, as Rose continues to fire arrows into the crowd. Having cleared the Walkers that had already made it out of the freezer, Glenn grabs Rose's hand and pulls her towards the door to the alley. As they run, she grabs as many of her arrows as she can, out of the now permanently dead brains.
They sprint into the alley and slam the door shut behind them, leaning against it to catch their breaths.
"Glenn, you alright? You bit?" Rose asks still out of breath, but looking over her friend with worry in her voice.
"No, I'm fine. Are you OK, Belle?" He questions still gripping her small, calloused hand in his own.
"I'm good."
The two stood there in silence for a moment longer, before they decided that they better get moving before more Geeks showed up. After a few minutes, Rosabelle suddenly stops in the middle of the deserted road, with a look of disappointment on her face.
"Belle? What is it?" Glenn inquires when he notices that she has stopped.
"I dropped my damn chocolate," she dejectedly says, pouting with her eyebrows furrowed.
Glenn starts to laugh and walks back to the girl he now considers a sister, throwing an arm around her shoulder, "Come on, Princess. We will find some more next time."
"Glenn! Come on man, it's time to get up! Glenn!" Rose calls while shaking the shoulder of the sleeping man.
"What?" The now partially awake man grumbles out, rolling over to face the girl that just tore him from slumber.
"We need to go on a run remember. We are out of food and just about out of water." She states while pointing to empty cans in the other corner. Offering her hand to Glenn, she pulls him to his feet and the two each begin to pack their meager belongings into their backpacks just as they always do when they leave the loft. They climb out of the window and down the fire escape, Glenn jumping down off of the lowest platform and then helping Rosabelle down after him.
The pseudo siblings walk quietly down the Atlanta streets, weaving around abandoned cars with their weapons raised. "I'm gonna find some more chocolate today," Rose says with determination.
"I bet you will, Belle." Glenn agrees sarcastically.
"You bet your ass I will." She counters.
After walking for a few more blocks, the pair came across a large department store that they had looted from in the past. They loaded up their packs with as much food and water as they could and headed out the doors to make their way back to their loft. Moments after they stepped out into the afternoon sun they knew that they were going to be in big trouble.
Rosabelle and Glenn were standing in the middle of an intersection with a massive hoard of Walkers beginning to surround them. Raising their weapons in defense they, turn around to go back the way they had come from, only to see it being blocked off by the shuffling bodies. Standing back to back, the young team prepare to fight with everything they've got, but knowing deep down that there was no way they could make it out of this mess alive and unscathed. Sharing one last look, the two begin stabbing and shooting at the approaching Walkers.
Both continue fighting off the dead, calling warnings and defending each other. They managed to push their way back to building, allowing them to only have to watch three sides. Rose didn't think that they could last much longer, but she knew she couldn't give up. All of a sudden, out of the corner of her eye Rose could see something large quickly approaching. It was a van and it was plowing down all of the corpses in its way.
"Glenn, look! The van!" Rose exclaimed pointing at the approaching vehicle with her compound bow.
The van suddenly came to a stop in front of them and a bald black man hollered out of the open window, "Get in!"
"Go Belle, go! I've got your back!" Glenn yelled pushing Rose in front of him.
She quickly flung the passenger door open and jumped over the back of the seat to open the sliding rear door.
"Glenn, come on!" she screamed, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him in to the van as he threw his pipe at an approaching Walker. Sliding the door shut, she screams at the unknown driver, "Go!"
The older man takes off down the street, tires squealing and bodies flying. Rose looks down at Glenn lying on the floor of van and quickly throws her arms around the young Asian and he wraps his arms around her in return. Once they finish their relieved embrace, Rose climbs back into the passenger seat and looks over at the man driving.
"Thanks," she simply states.
"Your welcome. You two looked like you could use some help," he says sincerely making eye contact with Glenn in the rear-view mirror.
"You're right about that," Glenn sighed out, "I'm Glenn by the way, and that's Rosabelle. Thanks again."
"It was no problem. I'm Theodore, but everyone calls me T-Dog."
Looking out the window as they are rapidly exiting the city, Rose turns to the driver and asks "Where exactly would we be going, T-Dog?"
"I am with a group that has set up camp by a quarry just outside of the city. As long as you and Glenn don't mind, Rosabelle, I was going to take you back there with me. We have food and water, and we haven't seen any of those dead things up there." T-Dog answered.
Sharing a look with Glenn, she blurted, "Alright, we will check out this camp. But I ain't gonna make any promises that we are gonna stay. And call me Rose; I think I'm in trouble or somethin' when I hear Rosabelle."
"Alright Rose," T-Dog says, "I think you two will get along well with the group."
The group sat in thoughtful silence for the next few minutes, and then Rosabelle turned around in her seat to face Glenn in the back of the van with a cheeky grin on her face and a chuckle in her voice, "Hey Glenn, I told you I was going to find me some chocolate today."