Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or its characters. Only my OCs and original ideas.

We had to get moving. The walkers are starting to notice us, and I wanted to keep my skin on my body, thank you very much. I looked around quickly, and spotted a small fenced in convenient store. I motioned with my head to Merle, and we ran over to it. I climbed over the fence, and Merle followed, though with a little more trouble. He was older than me, so it would be harder for him to do all of this physically exerting stuff. I open the door of the store slowly, keeping to the shadows. I slowly slipped inside, listening for any growling noises. There were none that I could hear, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything in here. I looked around, knife raised, since that was the only thing I had with me. All my other weapons were in the truck that LEFT US BEHIND. I had a gun, but I had given that to Merle. I'm not saying I trust him with a gun, but I will not let someone, even if I don't like them, die on my watch. I nodded to Merle, and he rushed in, with his gun, well my gun, raised. I walked to the back of the store, and checked all of the rooms, to make sure nothing was here. There was no one. I walked out back into the store area, and saw Merle with a big bag of cheddar and sour cream chips in his hands. I smirked. Men. They are always eating. I was never allowed to eat much. That's why I was kind of tiny in build. Dad would only give me so much as a 7 year old would eat. But my brother's friends would always give me and him some of their lunch. But it still didn't make much of a difference.

"Hey girly! I ain't gonna ask again. You want one?" Merle said impatiently. I came back to reality. I must have been so deep in thought that I didn't hear him over me any. I walked over and took a handful. I popped one in my mouth. It was the most wonderful thing I had ever tasted.

"These are really good" I commented, going back for seconds.

"Ya act like ya never had these before" he said.

I looked up at him. "My dad never let me eat more than a toddler. About once or twice a day. At most. He wasn't the nicest son of a bitch, my dad." I told him.

"Yeah, neither was mine" Merle said. He turned to look up at me. His eyes actually lacked that asshole kind of look in them, and looked a little concerned and questioning. "Your daddy beat you?"

I hesitated answering. I nodded. "That wasn't the worst that he did" I nearly whispered.

Merle must have seen the hurt in my eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm not the type for mushy lovey shit, but no human deserves that" he told me.

I smiled. He actually cared. A little. "What about you?" I asked him.

Merle nodded back. "Didn't beat up on me as bad as he did my baby brudder" he said. "Took most of his anger out on Darylina."

I nodded. I started pacing around the store. I pace when I'm thinking or nervous. Right now, I was doing both. I looked out the window at the back of the store into an alley. There was only one walker back there. And a really nice new green and black mustang. Looked like the owner bought it just before the apocalypse. I turned to Merle.

"Watch my back" I said.

He nodded and grabbed his gun off the shelf and followed me out to the back. I opened the door to the mustang and sat in the drivers' seat. The key was still in the ignition. Finally, a bit of fucking luck for us. I got out and went to the back of the car. I put my hands up against the top of the back door and shook the car. I could hear the gas sloshing around in the gas tank. We had enough to get to the edge of town where the truck was parked. I had followed the others in with it, but decided that if something like this happened, I should leave the truck at the edge of the city. I had driven it back when the others were first going in to collect supplies. So, it was just sitting in there with me and Griffon's things in the back. I turned to Merle.

"I think this car can get us to the edge of town, where my truck is parked. We'll drive back to camp with both." I told him.

"Okay, but I'd feel more comfortable drivin' the truck." Merle said. He looked to the car. 'It's purty damn nice, but I don't know how to work this kinda shit."

I smirked. "I'm kind of bad with new shit like this too, but I did learn about trucks and cars and mechanics and all that shit. I think I can drive it." I said calmly, but on the inside I was freaking out. I've never even been near one of these high tech cars, but it would be nice to try one out, see if they are as good as the ads say they are.

"Let's go back in and grab as many things as we can." I said.

We headed back inside and found a bunch of the reusable shopping bags. I went to the canned food isle and started to throw some into the bag. We went isle by isle until we had what we needed. I looked behind the counter and found cigarettes for Merle. He said that his brother likes cigs too, so get some for him. I saw some sunglasses, Ray Bans they looked to be. I picked them up and tried them on. They fit good and kept the light out. I put them back in my bag and continued with my "shopping", if you could call it that. I found a bunch of candy behind the counter also. I stocked up on everything back there, from Swedish Fish to chocolate bars to warheads. If there were any kids back at the camp, they might enjoy these.

"How many you got? Back at the camp?" I asked Merle.

He thought for a minute. "Prolly 'bout 20 or so."

"Any kids?" I asked.

"Yeah, 'bout 5." He answered.

I nodded. "Well, my bags are full. We better get going if we're gonna get there before dark"

"Yeah, let's go" he responded.

I picked up all my bags and carried them out to the car. I put them in the trunk, which was rather small for such a nice car. Merle stuffed the rest of the bags into the back of the car. I looked to the sky, and saw it was already dark.

"We'll have to wait until tomorrow to leave. Maybe we can hit a few more smaller stores." I reasoned.

"Sounds good, we just better hope Darylina don't lose his cool too quick" He answered.

We went back in to the store. I found a blanket and put it down on the floor. I went to keep watch, but Merle stopped me.

"Get some rest girly. I got watch covered" he said.

I didn't know if I should trust him or not. I mean, this is a matter of life and death if no one is on watch. He did stick with me this far. I nodded, and went back behind the counter and laid down on the blanket. I curled up, and went into light slumber, just in case I was needed.

I woke up a few times during the night when Merle would rustle a bag or walk around the store. I opened my eyes again, wondering what had woken me up this time, but saw the sky starting to lighten up. I sat up and stretched my arms. I got up and wrapped the blanket into a ball and tucked it under my arm. I looked out to Merle, and he nodded back. I motioned my head to the door, and we walked out back to the car. I checked both ends of the alley, and saw that it was clear. I peeked out at the main road, and saw that there weren't many walkers out there. I walked back to the car and looked at Merle.

"There are barely 10 walkers out on that main road. We can make it, but we have to be quick." I told him.

"Okay then. Let's go." He said.

I got into the drivers' seat and closed the door. Merle got into the passenger seat. I turned the key, hoping it would start. I heard it sputter and rumble in protest, but it finally started up. I backed out of the alley, and started down the main road as quietly as I could. It was really hard to not rev the engine or test to see how fast it would go. That would make noise, but damn, that would be a lot of fun. WE drove for about 5 minutes and I finally spotted my truck up ahead. I pulled up beside it, and stopped the car.

"Nice truck" he commented. " '84 Chevy k10, right?"

"Yep" I answered.
He got out and climbed into the drivers' seat. He looked back to me. "Keys?" he asked.

I took them out of my pocket, and rolled down the window on the passenger side of the mustang. I threw the keys to him and he caught them. He stuck them in the slot and it started up right away. I leaned over to the passenger window.

"I don't know where this camp is, so you'll have to lead me to it. I'll be right behind you." I told him. I looked back and saw that the walkers were starting to come for us. I pointed back at them and smiled at Merle. "Let's have a little fun with those shitheads"

Merle smiled and put on some gas and started to drive out. I waited until he was almost out of sight, and then revved the engine as loud as I could. This is gonna be fun. I slammed my foot down on the gas and the tires spun against the blacktop. The squealing of them only made the walkers angrier. I smiled as the car took off down the road. I got to going pretty fast. I looked at the speedometer and saw that I was going about 90 miles per hour. Nice. I was up beside Merle before I knew it, and I slowed a bit so that we were going the same speed. I rolled down the window of the mustang.

"So how far out is this camp?" I yelled over the engines.

"It'll prolly be close to dark til we get there" he answered.

I nodded and was about to roll the window up when I realized that this was a free as I have ever been. I rolled all the windows down and shouted at the top of my lungs as I whizzed down the highway. Most people would just shut up and focus on getting home, if you could call it that, but I felt free for the first time in my life. Like, free. No more beatings, no more starvation, no more living in a shitty house. All of that was gone. And for the first time in my life, I felt relaxed, that everything was going to be okay.

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Please leave a review! It helps me so much. If you have any suggestions or comments, I would love to hear them! Thanks for reading! I'm trying to get back on my schedule. Easter really screwed it up, with all of the stuff I had to do. But I will be going back to 2 chapters per week, Monday and then sometime later, like Friday or Saturday. Thanks again! You guys are awesome! 3