One week later

Eddie stood guard inside the doors of the barbershop. Seeing nothing outside, he glanced over his shoulder at Lilly. She sat at the farthest stool from the windows, her scrawny body not even filling the seat entirely. She was staring at herself in the large mirror before her. They'd found a pair of old, banged-up scissors in one of the drawers filled with combs and hair elastics. She clutched the scissors in her right hand, hovering near the ends of her long hair.

That man had grabbed her by her hair. That was how he'd pulled her back to him. She'd resolved after a couple of days that she could no longer afford to have long hair. She hadn't said a word about her feelings on the subject, but she hadn't needed to. The sorrowful look in her good eye spoke volumes.

Hesitating no longer, she began hacking away at her hair. Eddie clutched their gun, staring out the broken barbershop windows. The arrhythmic snip, snip, snip of the scissors echoed through the empty shop as Lilly shed the last of her pre-apocalypse femininity.

They couldn't stay here much longer. Lilly had said so yesterday. That creep was still around, and he would surely find them before too much longer. There was no safety as long as people were actively pursuing them. Now that her eye wound was as healed as it was going to get, they would eventually have to move on if they wanted to survive.

Lilly murmured something.

"Huh?" Eddie turned his attention back to her.

"My mother loved my hair long." she repeated, keeping all emotion from her voice.

"Oh."

She snipped off a few more chunks. He noticed that she missed a few times. Her depth perception was still adapting to only being able to judge things with the signals from one eye. Her thick, wavy locks fell to the floor around her in clumps of varying size and length.

"I'm sure it'll still look nice even when it's short." Eddie attempted to console her, realizing once the words were out of his mouth just how petty and irrelevant they sounded.

Lilly breathed a heavy sigh. "It shouldn't matter. It doesn't matter. The thought just crossed my mind, that's all."

He wished he could leave her post and stay at her side. This was obviously an emotional moment for her. She was all about being the best survivor she could be – her long hair had been the one vulnerability she'd mysteriously left unmended. With the mention of her mother, he now understood why.

Spending a week stowed away in a back room together had taught them a lot about each other. When all you had to entertain yourself was conversation, talking quickly became a favorite way to pass the time. At first Lilly had mostly just listened, but after a while she had started to open up and tell him some stories of her past. One of those stories had been her mother's battle with cancer throughout Lilly's teenage years, and her loss when Lilly was just sixteen.

"Do you think this is short enough?" She spun the stool to face him. Her hair now just reached her shoulders.

"Um..." It was still long enough to be grabbed. Easily. He wasn't sure how to tell her that.

Thankfully she seemed able to read his hesitation well enough. She sighed, then resumed cutting.

Eddie glanced outside once more. There was nothing out there but a few walkers passing by on the far-off street. He stepped away from the window, took one more look outside just to be sure, then slipped over to Lilly's side.

Her cutting was jagged and uneven, the result of both cutting the hair herself and only having 50% vision with which to do so. "Hey, uh," Eddie leaned on the back of the stool, meeting her eyes in the mirror. "You want me to, maybe...help you cut it?"

"I don't need help." came her immediately reply. She snipped off a lock in front, significantly shorter than the bit beside it.

He had come to know her well enough to determine that her curt responses like that were often sidesteps, not refusals. He paused for a moment. "Will you show me how to cut it?" He reworded the question in a way that didn't make it look as if Lilly could not perform the task adequately herself.

Lilly hesitated. Then she handed the scissors to him.

Eddie gingerly placed his hands near her jawline and drew her hair behind her in one handful. He let it fall behind her to lay out what would constitute a relatively even line to cut along.

Lilly didn't say a word as he carefully snipped away at her hair. But her eyes traced every bit of it as it fell to the floor.

"Okay, that's enough." she said. He'd barely taken off another inch.

"Lilly..." He didn't argue with her, but his tone was enough to convey the message. She was being difficult. He wouldn't have dared to disagree with her when they'd first met, but after spending every waking moment of the past week in her company he had begun to learn when it was "acceptable" to object to her orders.

Lilly growled.

"It can still be grabbed at this length." He kept his tone as neutral as possible. "It's not safe. You know it, I know it, and creeps like that guy at Save Lots know it."

Lilly seemed about to protest. Then she lowered her tense shoulders and exhaled. "Don't cut it any shorter." Her words were spoken more like a concession than a rebuttal, as if she were allowing him to do something. "Just straighten it out."

"I already straightened it, it's-"

"Straighten it some more."

He realized what she was getting at. It was a concession. A very roundabout, defensive concession. He continued cutting.

Despite its greasiness, Lilly's hair was really nice. It was a little rough, and thick and wavy – the kind of hair you could bury your hands in when you were kissing her.

He cleared his throat, surprising himself with that thought. Lilly glanced up at him in the mirror. He quickly averted his eyes. Come on man, now's not the time for that shit, he reprimanded himself. Still, he couldn't help but think about how things could have been if they hadn't met under such terrible circumstances. All of his girlfriends had been like Lilly. Lovingly aggressive. Aggressively loving. Abigail and Lilly probably would have been the best of friends.

"Are you going to cut it?" Lilly interrupted his thoughts. "Or are you going to just keep..."

Eddie realized with a surge of embarrassment that, instead of pulling her hair back to cut it straight, he'd simply been running his fingers through its remaining length. Lilly's good eye studied him in the mirror's reflection. Her expression was difficult to read.

"S-sorry." He untangled his fingers and resumed snipping. Lilly rubbed her glassy left eye and looked away.

He cut until her hair just barely reached her chin. It still could be grabbed, but far less easily. The attacker would have to be quite skilled at hair-pulling to grab her by this length. "Do you want to stop there?" he asked.

"Yeah...that's good." She slid off the stool and brushed the stray hair off her lap. "It's safer than it was."

"It still looks nice." He was no barber, but the cut had actually turned out pretty decent. It almost didn't even look like it had been hacked at by someone with 50% vision and then finished by someone who had never cut a woman's hair in his life.

"It doesn't matter if it looks nice or not. It's the only safe option." She paused. "But thank you."

Eddie dismissed her gratitude with a smile and a headshake. They hesitated for a moment, just watching one another. Eddie felt his face warm as he recalled his thought from earlier.

"You have a look on your face." Lilly broke the silence that had settled over them in that moment.

"Huh?" Eddie blinked. "A look?"

"Yes. A look."

"I see...and, um, what kind of look would it be?"

Lilly crossed her arms over her chest. She pursed her lips, not entirely unsympathetic in appearance. "I know what that look means," she said. "Eddie..."

He braced himself for a scolding. He knew it was stupid to be thinking of that sort of thing in this sort of world. But he couldn't help thinking about it every once in a while – he was human, after all. And a romantic human, at that.

Lilly sighed, searching for her next words. "You're a sweet guy." she finally said. "Any other time I would've jumped on a guy like you. But in this world...people can be torn from you so easily. I'd rather not get any more attached to another survivor than I have to. You know?"

The confession surprised him. He'd expected a tongue-lashing, not an honest rejection due to circumstance. "I understand." He nodded. "It's totally fine. I'm sorry for getting all weird in the first place."

"Well, it's not really 'totally fine'." Lilly ran a hand through her short hair. "Because it's already happened."

"What's already happened?"

"I'm more attached than I'd like to be."

Her good eye pinned Eddie with a piercing stare. He practically flinched under her harsh gaze. But it was hollow, her glare. She was trying to be irritated, to be disgusted with him and maybe with herself. But the feelings simply didn't ring true.

"Well, if it means anything, I think it's good to get attached to people." He did his best to maintain eye contact, even under her scrutinizing glare. "It keeps you feeling human. It gives you something to live for. Something to wake up to every morning."

"Something to fear losing every minute."

"If you detach yourself from everybody then what's the point of living?" The argument rolled off his tongue before he even knew what he was saying. "Sure you have nothing to lose, but that's because you have nothing."

She raised an eyebrow, apparently as surprised by his refutation as he was.

"And I'm not talking about sex or romance. I don't even care about that shit," he added. "I mean just in general. I had nothing for months before I met you. Every day was a game of convincing myself life was worth living. It wasn't a game I was very good at...and some days I'd lose. I'd sit on the hood of my car and wish I wasn't too wimpy to kill myself. I actually felt like being dead would be better than living the shitty, bare-minimum existence I had going for me then."

Lilly opened her mouth to say something, but Eddie pressed on.

"When I met you," he continued, "Suddenly I had something to live for. Yeah, I was scared shitless at first, but it was exciting. It was something new, and it gave me hope. And then I got to know you. And hell, I really like you. Not in a weird or creepy way, but just as one person who really respects and admires another person. Who just enjoys the fact that the other person is in their life. That's how I feel about it."

Lilly maintained a poker face, but she was watching him intently.

"Since we've been together," Eddie said, "I haven't thought about killing myself once. And yeah, I'm afraid of what might happen in the future, but I'm not gonna let that stop me from enjoying other people as much as I possibly can."

Lilly bit her lip, still just watching him.

Her stare unnerved him, but he persevered. "What I'm saying, I guess, is that it's not bad or stupid to get attached to other people. Maybe you think it makes you weak, or vulnerable, but you know what? I think it makes you strong. Because it means you haven't let this shit-ass world ruin your whole life."

He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he'd expected from Lilly, but it wasn't the one he got. Lilly studied his face for a moment. Then she pushed past him and walked away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Eddie followed her to the front of the barbershop. She stared out the window, refusing to look at him. "You're not, like, mad or-"

"Someone's outside the store." Lilly flattened herself against the opaque doorway and peered out the door's scratched glass.

"What?" He immediately dropped to a crouch beside her. A glance out the window told him Lilly was right. A dingy-looking man in jeans and a t-shirt was sifting through the garbage cans out in front of the clothing store. His pale face was caked with dirt and grime, and his clothes hung off him even worse than Lilly's.

"I don't recognize him." Lilly whispered. "He's not one of the Save Lots regulars."

The man tried the front door of the clothing store. Locked, of course. He investigated the front windows for weaknesses, but found them all securely boarded.

"He knows there's something good in there." Lilly narrowed her eyes on him. "He knows that's why it's so heavily protected."

"What are we gonna do with him?"

"He probably has friends. Even if he leaves, we won't be safe. He'll tell them he found something good and they'll all storm the place."

Eddie swallowed. "Then...we have to..."

Lilly exhaled a heavy breath. Drawing her handgun, she nudged the door open ever so slightly.

The man, apparently unaware that a store could have side or rear entrances, began kicking at the boarded-up glass. The noise was enough to cover Lilly and Eddie's footsteps as they crept across the lot.

"He's gonna get in." Eddie breathed as they slipped behind an abandoned car a stretch away from the storefront.

"He's making way too much noise." Lilly peered over the trunk of the car. "He's going to attract walkers."

They both knew the man had to go. Eddie guessed Lilly was hesitant to approach him because of what happened the last time, with the Save Lots guy. This man seemed violent, and he seemed desperate. Desperation was one of the most dangerous motivators in an apocalypse. A man with nothing to lose had nothing to fear.

Lilly lifted her gun and aimed it over the car at the man. "Fucker has to go." she muttered. Her hands trembled slightly as she clutched the beat-up weapon.

Her desire to kill the stranger had an obvious source. The man before them was not just another survivor, not in Lilly's eyes and not really in Eddie's either. Whoever the man may have been, to them he was the wild-eyed man in the blue truck. The man who had tried for Eddie's life more than once, had possibly taken Wyatt's life, had harassed and degraded Lilly, and had attacked her and taken her left eye. He was the same fear, the same frightening unknown. The same feeling of betrayal, as one realized that other survivors could very well be the most dangerous part of this new world.

Lilly struggled to fix the gun on the man. It was clear she couldn't aim as well as she once could.

"We have to do this." Eddie said, as much to himself as to Lilly. "He's dangerous. He might – he'll hurt us."

Lilly nodded almost imperceptibly, clamping her teeth down on her bottom lip.

"Sometimes you – you just have to do it." he continued.

"Yeah. I have to."

The man managed to kick a sizable crack in the front window. Once the glass was shattered the boards and clothing racks wouldn't be enough to hold.

Eddie knelt beside her, and rested his head almost against Lilly's. He looked over the barrel of the gun at the same time she did. Cautiously he laid his hand over Lilly's as she settled a finger on the trigger.

We can't let what happened before happen again. He wasn't going to lose the only good thing this shit world had given him. This man was a predator trying to hunt them down. The world was full of predators now – the prey had to fight back, or die.

"Not just you." he whispered as his finger curled around the trigger. "What we're doing now...it's on both of us."

He couldn't be sure who finally pulled the trigger. His finger was laid on top of Lilly's, and they both pulled back at seemingly the same time.

The crack of the gunshot rang out in the open air. A flock of birds settled in one of the tiny parking lot trees all scattered in different directions, screaming in fear. The man outside the store sank to his knees and then collapsed forward.

They hadn't managed a headshot. Investigating his body they found they'd hit him in the high chest. Lilly jabbed her knife into his temple as quickly as she could.

"Every walker for miles heard that." She laid the man back down on the pavement. "We search this guy, then we hole up and hope that cracked glass holds until we can get out of here."

Eddie searched the man's front pockets. He found nothing but a small, dull knife. Flipping the man over, he investigated the back pockets. There he found something of interest.

"What's this?" he asked out loud as he fished the folded-up map out of the man's jeans. A piece of folded notebook paper tumbled out from inside. Lilly caught it and opened it.

The map turned out to be a United States road map. On it a red path was clearly marked from Warner Robins, Georgia up to northern Ohio, practically into Michigan. It ended in a spot marked with a bold 'X'.

"Guess this guy was heading to Ohio," Eddie murmured.

"Look at this." Lilly pushed the notebook paper into his hands. In quick, scratchy script, the paper read:

Ian,

We tried for a place called Wellington in Ohio. We've heard from others that it's the only safe haven left that we could get to without a boat. If you find this, if you're still alive...that's where we'll be.

The kids are starting to believe you're dead. I'm not sure what to believe...but I'll be waiting for you. I won't give up hope.

Sophie

P.S. - I've heard it's cold up there, so try to pick up some winter clothes on the way if you can.

I'll see you soon.

Love you.

They stood there in silence for a long few moments. "That explains why he was trying to get into a clothing store so badly." Lilly eventually said.

"This guy was a dad." Eddie felt like he was about to throw up. This guy had a family waiting for him in Ohio. He must have been on this way there. This road led right to the northbound highway.

His hands began to tremble as he clutched the map. Lilly shook her head as her good eye scanned the note again and again.

"...We had to do it." He repeated his justification from before. "He was going to take everything we had."

"Right." Lilly crumpled the note in her hand. Her gaze fell to the body lying near them. "You're right."

"This doesn't make us bad people. We were – we were just defending ourselves." He wasn't sure how much he believed what he was saying, but it sounded good. "He was in our territory. We had to defend it."

"Of course." Lilly weakly agreed.

"And now we have to pack up whatever we've got and leave. Because walkers are definitely coming after that gunshot, and there's a crack in the front window, and that creep from Save Lots is still around here somewhere, and we're kind of sitting ducks if we stick around."

That seemed to pull Lilly out of her disorientated state. "Yeah, you're right." She took a step toward the store. "We have to go."

They left the man, but kept his map and note. As they hurried inside the back entrance Eddie considered what the note had said. A safe place in Ohio. If people were traveling all the way from Georgia to reach it, it must've been pretty significant.

Apparently Lilly was thinking the same thing. "So...'Wellington', huh." She descended the shelves of the back room with their crucial supplies in tow. Eddie grabbed a gnawed cardboard box and filled it with the food they'd hidden on high shelves due to the mice.

"You think it's a real place?" he asked her.

"I don't know." She dropped an armload of medical supplies into the box he held. "The map seems pretty specific, so it I guess it's likely that it at least exists. Or existed at one point. How safe it really is, though, we don't know."

He brushed the rest of the food into the box with one swing of his arm. "Wouldn't it be nice if there was a safe place like that, though? Hell, I'd love to be able to stop and take a breath every once in a while without worrying about getting my ass chomped."

Lilly stuffed the last of their belongings into the box, then folded the flaps shut. "It's a long way from here."

"I don't have anything better to do."

Lilly scanned the room for any supplies they'd missed. The place was picked pretty clean. It was funny how quickly supplies ran out when you were a duo instead of a lone survivor.

"You're actually considering this?" she said. "This...'Wellington'?"

"Well, I don't – I mean, maybe. Like you said, we don't know anything about it. But it'd sure as hell be nice to have a safe place as our destination."

Lilly nodded, though she said nothing in response.

After packing up their remaining supplies, they raided the storefront for anything that could be useful on the road. As expected, Eddie spotted a band of walkers through the window. Though their approach was slow and they were still distant, the swarm was sizable enough to cause some serious damage once they descended upon the building. He warned Lilly that they were coming. She had already noticed them.

"What if Wellington doesn't have walkers?" Eddie asked as they were grabbing up some last-minute supplies.

"I wouldn't set my hopes that high."

The first walker reached the store quicker than they'd anticipated – it must have emerged from the nearby trees. It began punching the weakened glass of the front window with its dead-weight fists. Small spiderweb cracks formed across the glass' surface.

Lilly hesitated at the rack of women's wool coats, not unlike the one Eddie had procured the first day he'd set foot inside the store. She picked one up and held it for a moment. It was a very dark brown, so dark it could almost be mistaken for black in the poor lighting. She slipped it on over her leather jacket for just a moment. Though it was a bit short, it fit her size-wise. Taking it back off, she draped it over her arm and then grabbed up a pair of gloves and a hat hanging on the rack beside it.

Picking up on Lilly's unspoken message, Eddie began collecting some cold-weather clothing in his size. He was just grabbing a hat more suitable for winter than his ratty beanie when the first walker demolished the glass. It was stopped by the wood and furniture, but surely not for long.

"Okay, get absolutely anything else you need to get right now, and then we've gotta go." Lilly was right back in command mode.

Eddie snatched up a pair of scarves on the way out. Lilly picked up the cardboard box of supplies they'd compiled, and they hurried out the back entrance. They'd just made it into the RV when a walker appeared around the side of the building.

"This hunk of shit probably won't make it all the way to Ohio," Lilly said as the RV's tired old engine turned over. "But it'll get us out of here."

Eddie slid the box under the RV's table. He stumbled a bit as Lilly floored it forward. Just like the first time he'd ridden in the vehicle, he held onto the cabinets for balance until he made his way up to the front.

By the time they were out on the road walkers were pouring out of nearby buildings. Lilly navigated the familiar car maze in the road, and left their makeshift former home to disappear behind them.