Chapter 10

A faint whipper made me open my eyes to see the brightness of day flowing in through the windows. Lucic and Luna were both at the door, whining their heads off. "Alright, I'm up." I said sitting up. I looked over at the pillows next to me. They hadn't been used, and the blankets were still tucked in. Daryl had never gone to bed the night before.

I yawned and stood up, then went to put on a fresh pair of jeans and a tank top before letting the dogs out. Ember was also up now, so I picked her up and brought her to the RV for breakfast. Everyone was already still around with their plates of fruit and rice.

"I was starting to wounder when you were going to join us." Jacqui smiled. She looked to be feeling better, but she didn't look to be feeling bad the night before.

"Sorry, I slept like a rock." I laughed then went into the RV to feed Ember then got a plate for myself. Outside, I sat on the walkway next to Carol and Sophia who were just finishing up their plates. I quickly ate my food then put out two plates for the very energetic dogs.

"Luce, come here would ya." Lori said. I followed her to the outside of the main office where Rick had a few of us gathered.

"Okay, we are going to clear out the storage rooms for food, blankets, anything useful. Lori, T-Dog and I will take the kitchen. Dale, Daryl, and Glenn, take the car garage next door. There's bound to be something we can use in there. Jacqui, Carol, Andrea, and Lucy, take the linen closets. I've counted four of them." Rick said. We all nodded at the plan and got to work while a lonely Shane kept watch on the RV.

The first linen closet was deep; packed with pillows, towels, pillow cases, and blankets. We were more concerned with blankets then pillows. Winter was coming and with no power or heat, it was going to be a long, cold one. We took hand fulls of then and brought them to the bigger van and stuffed half of it with the blankets.

The next closet was full of toilet paper and bathroom supplies. We took as much as we could fit in the bottom closet in the RV. After we had cleared the first two, we took a brake and had a small lunch of left over caned fruit.

"Hows your leg holding up?" I asked Jacqui through a mouth-full of pineapple.

"It's starting to get a little sore, to be honest."

"Why don't you sit out the next one. I think we can manage."

"You sure you wouldn't mind?"

"Not at all." I smiled. "But could you just check on Ember for me. She's in room 3 in her crib. I believe Luna is in with her."

"Can do hun." We all got up and got back to work. The third closet was just more blankets and towels. We collected some of the towels and got them into the RV where we ran into Rick and the others.

"Is that the last of it?" he asked us.

"We got one more." Andrea sighed. Our faces were covered in sweat from the carting things around.

"Anything good?" Lori went through the van.

"Mostly blankets and towels, some soap." Carol said.

"What about you guys?" I asked. Rick pointed to a shopping cart overflowing with cans and boxes of food. "Guess we hit the jack-pot!" I said, very excited.

"We got lucky that this place served breakfast and lunch." Rick said.

In the distance thunder rolled around. It was just after four and the sun was just starting to get in its setting mode, but it was still a basically a clear sky.

"Boys back yet?" Andrea asked just as T-Dog came around the conner of the main office with a crate of vehicle parts in his hands. Daryl, Dale, and Glenn followed him, each with their own crates. When they put them down next to the RV, Andrea ran over and gave Glenn a bear hug.

"Come on Andrea, lets finish the last one." I said when Jacqui came out of her room. "You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, lets hurry up. I heard that thunder and even with a clear sky like that, a storm isn't far off."

We went to the last closet only to find it locked.

"That's weird, all the others were open. Why is this one locked?" I asked. We all just shrugged and went into the main office for the key that was sitting out on the desk.

"Maybe they kept all the good stuff in there." Andrea said.

"Like what?" Jacqui asked.

"I don't know, Play Girl magazines?" she said in a low voice.

"Girl you done gone and lost your mind. You know the coffee and tea is in there." Jacqui laughed. "What I wouldn't do for a cup of coffee." She drifted off into her little day dream filled with a golden cup of rich coffee as she unlocked the door. "Tea, coffee, anything like that would be amazing." As she pushed on the door something scrapped on the other side. When the door swung open, a thin, taloned hand took hold of Jacqui's arm and brought it to its rotted face. With one deep snarl, it took a huge bite into my dear baby sitter's wrist then another massive chop into her neck. Her mouth released a glass shattering shriek as I pulled her from its infected jaws. She stuttered at the blood that ran off her arm and dripped onto the tile floor beneath us. Her leg gave out and she collapsed.

In the shock, all I could do was pull her far from the standing corpse, back outside. Andrea took care of the lone walker then ran over to us.

I sat with Jacqui, shacking as much as she was on the ground with her. "You're going to be fine, just fine." I sobbed. I couldn't lose her too. She was all I had left of old life other then my dogs, but I could only speak with her. She shook in my arms as blood drained from her veins onto the floor. Carol ran over from the closet with a crisp white towel that I took from her and gently pressed to the gushing wound.

"Andrea, get help!" I howled. She quickly ran right into Dale and Rick who were just rounding the corner of the building.

"What's wrong?" Rick demanded, but with one look, he knew what happened. T-Dog, Glenn, and Daryl then flew around the corner.

"What do I do?" I cried as tears burst out of my eyes. Jacqui's breathing was becoming labored and deep. She was quietly starting to cry along with me.

When T-Dog saw his wife he screamed, "Jacqui! Oh my God!" and bent over to us, taking her hand.

"No." Glenn said softly. His mouth, like many others, was hung open. Jacqui looked at everyone's faces, giving away how bad it was. She wasn't going to make it. No, not anymore.

"Hang in there. Please." I pleaded.

"Baby, it's okay."

"No, you can't leave me. Not you too." I said, barely audible. She reached up and put a bloody hand on my cheek and smiled. "We need you here." I said into her hand.

"Baby, do you remember the lullaby?" I nodded, confused. "Could you sing it to me? Let me hear that you know it." Her voice was broken and raspy.

I had to think hard but the lyrics soon came to me. Everyone stood around us as I began to sing in a low, hoarse, crying voice, "Sleep my little angel, fill your dreams with hope and love." I paused, to hear her slow breaths. "I'll be watching over you, no harm will come to pass." Another pause, still slow, inconstant, breaths. "Sleep my angel, no harm will come your way." Then nothing. She was gone. I broke down and held her lifeless body to me and cried, deep, painful tears. The one thing left to my long ago past, gone forever.

I may have been twenty four, but I still needed her, now more then ever.

After a few minuets, T-Dog took the body. Dale came over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. Andrea did the same on the other one, but I couldn't handle being around everyone right now, so I wiped a tear away and ran for it.

"Lucy!" Andrea called after me. I could hear a few different pairs of feet chasing behind me, but I quickly out ran them. With my knife at my side I took off into the near woods. Knowing that being on the ground wasn't safe, I ran to a tree with a broken branch that hung low, and climbed it. I got to about fifteen feet off the ground and perched myself on a thick branch. I was able to see the motel and the RV from that spot and let myself try to let some of the pain go as more thunder rolled around the slowly darkening sky.

On the ground below me Andrea and Dale were running around, calling out my name. "Lucy! Where are you?!" Andrea yelled, just under the tree.

"Andrea, we can't be loud out here. We'll just have to wait for her to come back on her own terms." Dale said. She followed him back to the motel where I saw T-Dog put a gun to Jacqui's head and reluctantly pull the trigger. The shot was followed by deep, powerful thunder, then a steady rain. The wind never picked up so I stayed in the tree, not the least bit concerned of the lightning. The sky was dark early from the clouds, but in the few openings to the sky, just enough moonlight shined through to see around.

After a few hours, I was running empty on tears and my face was raw from the rain, salty tears, and snot, but I still had no reason to get down. I could see people starting to get ready for dinner in the RV, but I wasn't the least bit hungry, not now, not anymore. I felt almost completely alone now, which was stupid, seeing as my group was just yards away from me. Every now and then I could see a head pop up and look around. But even with my group here, I felt like I was in my own world of ice. Then I thought how selfish I was being. T-Dog had just lost his wife and he was still contributing to the group. He even did the shooting. What had I done? Nothing, thats what. I felt worthless. Did I even deserve being with these kind people that took me, a stranger, into their group and took care of me, feed me, gave me a place to live, protected me. I was weak.

"You huntin' squirrels up there or somethin'?" a voice asked below me. I picked my head off my knees and wiped away some snot before looking down.

"Squirrels?" I repeated, sniffling.

"If you are, then you are doing a shitty job of it." I hadn't heard this voice in over twenty four hours, and frankly, I really needed to hear it. "We'd starve if it were up to your hunting skills." Daryl teased. I reached over for a pine cone on a near branch and tossed it down, just missing him. A bolt of lightning struck in the close sky, causing me to jump. "Your gonna go and get yourself fried, stayin' up there." I looked up. He was right, the storm was just above us and a tree wasn't the best place to be, so held my breath and slowly and very carefully climbed down. I let out a little sigh of relief when my feet were both planted in the mud. "Dinners done in the RV. Thought you might be hungry." Stray moonlight glistened on the dripping water from his face and hair. I shook my head, food was the last thing on my mind. "Well, just come on anyway." he said with a hint of annoyance, turning to the RV. I followed him into the RV where Andrea ran up and hugged me, with Glenn in her footsteps.

"Luce, don't you ever do that again! You scared the crap out of us." She looked like she would hit me at any second, but I knew she wouldn't when she relaxed her face and smiled. "We feed Ember and put her to bed in her crib in Rick's room. The dogs are in with her."

"Thank you." I said quietly.

"Did you want some dinner?" Lori asked from the booth. I shook my head at her.

"I'll just go get Ember then go to bed."

"She can stay with us for awhile. We don't mind." Lori said. I nodded, turned and left the RV.

"Stay with her tonight." I heard Andrea tell Daryl.

I got into the room and showered and changed by candle light in the bathroom. I dried my hair with a towel then went back out into the bed room and laid down. The door opened a few minuets later and Daryl walked in with another candle. I rolled over when he sat down on the still made side of the bed while I wiped away a tear.

"How well did you know her?" Daryl asked softly.

"I knew most of my life. She was like another mother to me."

"Mom never home?"

"She and father went away a lot for work, so Jacqui would move in with us for weeks. Sometimes even months." I sniffled. "What about you? I never hear you talk about your family, your father, mother, brother." I asked.

"I lived with my father, but Merle pretty much raised me. He toughened me up when I was young." He looked over at the floor.

"Did he teach you to hunt?"

"No, I learned all that when I went off by myself."

"Raised by a brother, living in a broken home with an absent, drinking father and no mother." I put my hand out and touched him.

"I never said that 'bout my dad." I just looked at him, knowing I was right anyway. "But, your right." he put the candle down on the nightstand next to the bed.

"I never asked, did you find your brother in Atlanta?"

"Just his hand."

"Hand?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.

"Yeah, he cut it off to free himself, but thats all we found."

"I'm so sorry."

"What about your family? Where are they?"

"Well, before I found the group, my mother and father were on a cruise in the middle of the ocean somewhere. I was with my sister when everything happened, and when our parents got home, we packed up and left, just when things got bad. Emily was in a van with her close friends, mom and dad were in their car, and I was in a truck with the horse trailer." He leaned back and listened intently. "We were all driving towards Atlanta when we got split up in a traffic jam. That was the last I saw of them."

"If you were going to Atlanta, how did you find us?" he asked.

"I knew the city wasn't safe anymore, so I stuck to the outskirts of the towns and cities until I ran out of gas. Then I road Paille 'till I found everyone. When I found Jacqui here, I felt safe again. She was family to me and I didn't feel alone anymore."

"And now you are alone." he sighed and I shook my head.

"No, I have my dogs, the group, Ember." I paused, "And now, I have you." He turned towards me and I planted an unexpected kiss on his cheek. He quickly returned the favor by grabbing me and pulling me onto his lap.

"Listen, I'm sorry about last night. I thought we were going to lose you and Andrea to those monsters."

"I know." I said, pulling his face to my chest where I held him close and pet his damp hair. "You were afraid."

"I can't lose you, Lucy." He put his hands around my back and pushed his face deeper into my breast plate. "I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you. Lucy, I love you." I pushed him back, almost in shock. Had he actually just said that? His face held the look of fear, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown. He must have been scared that I hadn't felt the same for him. Did he mean it? He just exposed his weakest spot to me, and he had given me no reason not to believe him. I loved him too. There was not a doubt in my mind that I loved him.

He looked at me then down at the floor again. I took his face in my hands, guiding it towards me. "I love you, too." I said quietly and pulled his face to mine, before plunging into his lips. He again wrapped his large, strong hands around me and pulled my body closer to his. Slowly they slid to the small of my back as our tongues met and traveled into each other's mouths.

I pulled one of his hands from my back and placed it on my breast then folded my legs around him and pulled him as close as I could. He pulled back slightly to take off his shirt, giving me an opportunity to catch my breath before I mimicked him and pulled off my night shirt, exposing my bare breasts for his eyes to devour.

He took one look at me before guiding me to a laying down position and taking his place on top of me. My hands explored his chest as our tongues got better acquainted. He moved from my mouth to my jaw line where he left a row of quick but passionate kisses. Then he went to my neck and did the same before lowering to my chest. I shivered with every touch of his lips. They were soft and hungry.

Little whimpers built up in my throat as he continued to travel lower. When he got to my belly button, the stiff hair on his chin tickled the sensitive skin around it, making me let out a few whimpers. His hand grazed my healing arm, causing me to flinch.

When he went a little lower, I sat up, pushing him off of me. "Daryl, wait."

"Sorry. Is this too much?" he sat back on his knees.

"No, it's just... Well see, I'm..." I felt too embarrassed to tell him.

"You're what?"

"Well I'm, err..." I started to fuss with my hair.

"What is it Luce?"

"I've never... Before."

"What?" he asked, clearly not getting the message.

"Daryl, I'm a virgin, okay?" I sighed and look down at my hands.

He put a hand under my chin, pushing my face up to face him. "Luce, I don't care about that." I looked into his shining blue eyes. "And I didn't plan on it. We have to be careful."

"Careful?" Now I had no idea what he was talking about. Why would he care who caught us. There was no one else in the room and it wasn't anyone else's business. Then I got it. "Oh, no, we're set." I got up and pulled a condom out of my backpack, and handed it two him.

"Okay, you're sure you're ready?" he double checked. That was what I loved about him. He actually thought of someone other then himself.

"Yes." I smiled and sat back on the bed. I was finally ready for it, I was sure.

"Okay." He took the condom from my hand and pulled me in for another deep kiss. He quickly moved from my lips to my breasts, were he suckled on my tender nipple for a few moments. I reached for his belt and unbuckled it. "Eager much?" he softly laughed. I smiled as he pulled back to take off his pants and shoes while I slipped out of my sweat pants. I laid back on the bed, completely exposed. Daryl stood next to the bed, bare and clean.

He slowly took his place above me and put his hands on my thighs. He gave me one last questioning look and I nodded, ready. I spread my legs for him and he rubbed the silky skin on my inner thighs. It reminded me of when Shane did it, but Daryl was gentle about it. His rough hands glided on my skin till they reached their final destination. He took two fingers of each hand to spread my lips and started to rub their moist, inner flesh in circular motions. I had to bite down on my lip to keep quiet. His touch sent me into a dreamlike trance.

He took one finger and traced a line up and down the center, just between my lips, gliding over my tender, throbbing clit. "Daryl." I moaned. He then moved them further down until they found an opening, which they repeatedly slid in and out of. I grabbed hold of the blankets and braced myself. I watched Daryl carefully take out the condom and gently slide it down his stiff shaft. Once covered, he took hold of my hips and drifted into me. I let out a faint moan once he was in place. He took a moment to allow me to get used to him inside me. My knees went up when I was ready and he grabbed them, starting to thrust gently in and out. "Daryl." I mumbled. It hurt a little at first, but as he continued on in at a slow pace, the pain melted away, as pleasure took it's place.

The faint light from the candle reflected off our sweaty bodies. He leaned forward and pressed his body against mine, as he started to speed up. Our breathing became quick and heavy. He buried his face in the lower part of my neck and reached down to continue rubbing my clit. I kissed his forehead and kept letting out small moans. When he was getting faster, I pushed his hand so that his rubbing would become a little more aggressive. Our muscles tightened up as I felt something. I let my legs coil around him as the sensation grew stronger and used my legs to push him deeper into me. Then all at once we both reached our climax and I came. "Daryl!"

He became still and tried to catch his breath, as did I. When he pulled out of me, he stood up and pulled off the condom, tyeing an efficient knot at the end and threw it in the garbage. I was still trembling when he got into the bed next to me.

"Virgin my ass." his gruff voice said. I think it was a compliment. I shook myself under the blankets with him. When he saw me shaking, he got serious. "You okay?" I nodded, assuming it was normal. "You did fine." he said before kissing my cheek. I rolled over to face the wall and Daryl did the same, scooting as close as he could get to me. When our bodies were pressed up against each other he put an arm around my side and I smiled.

"Goodnight Daryl."

"Night Lucy." he yawned. We both quickly feel into a deep, heavy sleep in each other's arms.