Chapter 8 Part 2 - Bite My Tongue

'Shane, open the door.'

Rick was always calm in life threatening situations but he had to admit, right now, he wasn't sure what was going to happen. Daryl and Leah had really fucked the plan up and now, the walkers knew they would be inside. Which meant a whole new 'trapped in a mall' situation would commence.

Ignoring all perks of trying to get loose the screw of the lock, Shane hit the door twice with his gun and the glass broke. Shuffling inside, they all followed. Daryl and Leah last.

'That's brilliant. They're going to get in too!' Leah exclaimed watching the geeks soar forward like they were fans of celebrities and try all at once to get through the door.

'I didn't think of that,' Shane said, cocking his gun, 'but who are you to say anything since you got us in this mess?'

Rick rolled his eyes, 'arguing aint gonna help us. Let's move this board in front of it.'

Taking two sides, Shane and Rick put the piece of board in front of the door, Glenn grabbed a piece of plywood from a sign and held it up, 'let's secure it with this.'

Breathing heavy, Leah ran a hand through her hair. This wasn't happening. She didn't want this to happen. Those pieces of wood wouldn't hold for long - they needed to do this quickly.

'I'll cover it from here.' Daryl said, shrugging his shoulders. 'Ya'll make this trip fast.'

Rick, Shane and Glenn nodded at him once before all splitting up. Before Glenn could pick a piece of wood from the floor though, Shane interuppted him, 'no, Kid. Ya come with me. We need to scout this place quickly. That still don't mean you're getting a weapon.'

Glenn mumbled some profanities under his breath and sauntered off like a toddler. Leah patted him on the back when he passed her but she didn't move yet. She watched Daryl. He wasn't looking at her and instead dragged a cafe chair to lounge on.

'Ya gonna stand there all day, doll? Thought you needed clothes.'

Leah bounced on her heels for a moment and turned to look at Shane and Glenn who were waiting for her. Rick was further up, looking through the sight of his gun as he searched the ground floor.

She wanted to ask him if he meant what he said. She wanted to say sorry. But she couldn't. And so, she walked briskly towards the others, leaving him on his own, just like he wanted.

-(x)-

Leah was scrolling through the womens section of a clothes store. She wasn't particularly bothered with what she got but finding her size proved to be difficult. She had lost a few pounds since the outbreak and so, she had to end up guessing most of her sizes considering she wasn't comfortable with wasting time trying things on.

'Leah, what about this?'

Glenn was holding up a rather revealing corset type shirt and the brunette cringed. 'If I wore that, would I be safe around you?'

The Korean teenager laughed, 'probably not. It's been a while.'

With a suggestive look, Glenn and Leah burst into laughter and Shane was quick to hush them. Scowling at the older man, the pair smiled once more and Leah grabbed a few things, stuffing them into a backpack she 'borrowed' from the sport store.

'You need anything else?' Rick appeared in the store carrying more bags.

'Sophia's medicine.' Leah said, hitching her bag up her shoulder and hooking her arm through Glenn's.

'There was a chemist on the second floor - we could check it out.' Shane offered. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of spending more time here. They were lucky enough to not have come across any walkers inside but the constant pounding on the weening wood downstairs was beginning to make them all feel on edge.

'Let's go.'

The four of them walked quickly to the chemist where Leah began picking up various items - painkillers, caffiene pills, sleeping tablets, cough medicine and cold capsules.

Glenn picked up a few toothbrushes and three packs of paste to go with them with a clear instruction that all of them were his.

Suddenly, there was a crash downstairs loud enough to make all of them freeze. There was an echo of groans and glass cracking under heavy footsteps. Like a stampede of elephants, the walkers moved in with the need to feed. Their inner instinct of hunger blinding all their other notions - they saw blood and meat. Like a predator.

Daryl shot up from his seat, crossbow ready and he managed to shoot a few down before realizing it was useless. 'Guys!' He yelled up from the massive hall he was in, the balconies were empty and then he saw a head pop out from one a few floors up.

'Leah! Find another way out!'

'Daryl!' She shouted down as she watched him run out of sight around the ground floor. Turning to the others she said, 'we gotta help him.'

None of them were too eager to answer her straight away and she noticed their hesitation. 'Come on, let's get down there.'

Rick nodded but it was half hearted, 'okay.' Shane shot him a look he knew all too well. Back in the day, on their missions on the force, Shane would give him that look a lot when Rick would talk nonsense about saving a civilian and risking their lives.

Glenn only rolled his eyes. They ran to the escalators, Leah was in front. She wasn't thinking about what she'd do when they got down there. She had only defended herself from about five walkers, not a whole horde. And she was weaponless. They were depending on Shane and Rick's gun and Daryl's crossbow.

When they hit the first floor, there were already some walkers around. Some were able to run and they headed straight for them. Shreiking in surprise when one of them charged at her, Leah ducked and dodged the walking dead man's desperate grasp.

With the others occupied, Leah circled the man a few times, he was faster than the others but his flimsy balance made him disoriented which was an advantage for the woman with the healing ankle and stupid common sense.

'Okay,' she spotted the walkers shirt underneath the blood and grime and couldn't help but give him a look, 'seriously? You have a Black Sabbath shirt on? I mean, good music and all but that's so old now.'

Of course, the man wasn't paying any attention - only had his eyes on her throat and charged at her again.

Squealing, Leah once again ran to the side, 'I didn't mean to offend you-'

'Leah, please!' Shane shot the man dead and took her elbow in a rough grip. 'Can you not talk to them?'

'We're not gonna be able to get down there.' Glenn said, exhausted. Leah shook her head, not believing what she was hearing. 'We have to run away.'

'No, Glenn.'

Another walker was running towards them and even Rick was beginning to doubt their survival chances if they made it to the ground floor. Shooting it dead, he began to run.

'Run!'

'I'm not leaving Daryl here!' Leah screamed at them and took off in the opposite direction. Glenn called after her but Rick stopped them.

'She's right - we can't leave him here too.'

'Deja Vu?' Glenn rolled his eyes and then followed Leah down the platform towards the other escalators. She was fast when she wanted to be. She was either secretly an Olympian or the best bet, she was on edge because her beloved hunter was in trouble.

Leah was panting, she was hot, tired and petrified. Surrounded by walkers, she realized that the 20 who were originally outside must've brought their friends considering the mass amounts of dead people wandering around here.

She could hear the others a good distance behind her and turning, she was faced with a long dark corridor. A shoe shop on one side and a book shop on the other, she couldn't tell if there was any way to go further up because of the dark.

A few walkers strolled around inside the shops and Leah wanted to call out to Daryl. Suddenly she was grabbed roughly around the waist and pinned against the wall.
Daryl had his body, pinning her to a dark corner, his finger on her lips, his eyes were hungry.

The blue swirls that collided with green had her mesmerized, she could feel her heart pulsing. Daryl had one hand grasping her waist and the other on her neck as if about to throttle her. And Leah knew right then, she didn't have to be around before the outbreak, she didn't have to listen to the camp, she didn't have to know what Daryl was like two, three, four weeks ago.

She knew, right then, just by the malicious predatory look he was giving her, he was dangerous.

And yet, she didn't move a muscle.

Footsteps sounded towards the corridor. Rick, Shane and Glenn froze when they saw the darkness and the lurking geeks. 'Think she came this way?'

Although still looking at eachother, the hidden pair began listening. Shrouded in the darkness like their own personal curtain, they remained out of sight.

Shane glanced at Glenn, 'who cares?'

Rick started, 'what're you talkin' about?'

'Look, she goes runnin' off like that for that fuckin' hick and she puts our asses on the line, Rick!'

Glenn bowed his head, 'Leah's nice.' Although it was a pathetic attempt at defending her, Leah had to smile.

'How long before she opens her legs to him?' Shane muttered but he could hear and the other two looked astonished at what he was saying. 'Why don't we leave them?'
He asked after a while, their tones still hushed.

'What?' Glenn was wide eyed.

'Let's take off. Fire exit,' he pointed to a seperate set of emergency stairs, 'that way. Let's take off.'

Rick walked towards his friend, genuine worry at what his ex police officer partner was insinutating. 'Ya wanna leave Daryl and Leah here? Because what happened with Merle wasn't bad enough.'

Shane didn't falter, 'they won't get out of here alive. Not now. More walkers flooding in, she's weaponless and he's got limited arrows on that crossbow!'

Rick rolled his eyes, 'leave it, Shane.' But the scary thing was that Rick didn't sound concerned with what Shane was getting at, only bored of hearing his voice. His confidence on the situation wavering.

Leah felt Daryl hold her tighter. His hand on her waist practically kneading the skin there and the hand on her neck was now around her throat. He wasn't stranging her... yet.

But the stance would've looked very bad if Rick, Glenn or Shane were to step a few feet forward.

Leah couldn't believe what she was hearing. Daryl only expected them to want to leave him behind. He hadn't expected Leah to come looking for him though. So, they were all wrong.

'Come on, we'll check out this fire exit but,' he pointed at Shane, 'we are coming back to find her once we make sure it's clear.'

Shane could live with that, he figured. Once down there, he could convince them to leave Daryl and Leah behind. Shane cast an evil look down the corridor, completely unaware he'd been heard - if Leah wasn't going to give out to him, he wouldn't let the hillbilly have her. They can both die, for all he cares.

As the sound of their steps faded away and the only sound left was their laboured breathing and the groans of nearby walkers, Leah reached up and placed her palm on Daryl's hand that was moulded around her neck.

He instantly released her, taking a few steps backward.

'Who's Merle?' She spoke quietly and Daryl sighed.

'My brother.'

Leah figured as much and then remembered something Andrea had said, 'you went back to rescue him. Because of that, Amy died.'

Daryl was shocked but didn't show it, he scoffed, 'I dint kill her sister. They left my brother behind.'

So they really were capable of leaving a survivor behind, Leah couldn't comprehend the idea of being left behind by people she was supposed to trust.

'Are we really gonna die?' She asked, her eyes pleading him to tell her what she wanted to hear. And even though Daryl wasn't into the whole 'sugarcoat dying' thing he shook his head and told her.

'Ya asked me once if I could snap my fingers, would I kill ya.'

Leah nodded, remembering, 'you told me you wouldn't, because of strength in numbers. But-'

Before she could finish though, Daryl had his crossbow ready and took her hand, 'it also meant, I wouldn't let ya die.'

And Leah decided then, Daryl was the only person she could trust.

Author's Note: How's this for you guys? You wanted me to upload right away, so I did - even though my laptop went stupid and I'm typing this in the library at my school telling the librarian it's for English.
Not sure she believes me but you guys are totally worth the detention :) Lol.
I hope you like this chapter. I'm watching the Season 2 on FX and am seeing how Shane is turning into a complete psycho! Also, let me know if Rick is a little out of character. I know how determined he is about leaving people behind and I think I rushed his decision (although it's not official yet!)

I thought the scene with Daryl is cute 3

~ Ello Harley

NEXT UPDATE: Sunday
PREVIEW: Daryl studied the woman he was slowly becoming used to having around. She was annoying, idiotic and she thought she was too tough but he couldn't help but smile every time she cursed under her breath or spoke condescendingly to the walkers.
With their intent to kill her, he loved the way she reacted so calm when she had the upper hand.
Of course, when one would get too close, he'd shoot them down faster than Leah had time to scream. He didn't know why, but he technically promised something to her down there - he wouldn't let her die.
That was his promise.

Disclaimer: I don't own WD - only Leah and other fictional characters you don't recognize. If I owned the crossbow wielding redneck, think I'd be wasting precious time writing about him? ;)