Chapter 21
After breakfast the next day, Eleanor and Glenn made their way into town to pick up a few things. She'd gone numerous times before and she'd become familiar with the town and the shops there. Maggie had also taught her how to ride a horse so she wouldn't have to ride behind Glenn every time which made it a lot quicker to get to and from the town as they could get the horses up to a steady gallop.
As they approached the town Eleanor scanned around the main street. They'd normally just visit the pharmacy and a small grocery store as both had everything they needed, but Eleanor would always eye up a tiny clothes store that sat on the corner of the street. She'd really wanted to pick up some new clothes as it'd be nice to have something else to change into, she only had her jacket and the tank top and cropped sweats that Maggie had given to her and she wanted to pick up a pair of jeans or something that covered the bottom of her legs for when the winter months came. Similarly, some of the other people back at camp could do with some warmer clothes and she'd thought it'd be good to pick up something early in case anyone else happen to run by and raid the store.
"Hey Glenn, I'm just going to check out that store over there," Eleanor said, pointing towards it at the end of the street.
"You really think we should be wandering around checking out new stores? We don't know what could be in there." Glenn said with the familiar expression of concern etched across his face.
"I was thinking we should start stocking up on warmer clothes for winter." She suggested.
Glenn hesitated but agreed that they'd go after they got everything they needed from the other stores because he wouldn't let her go by herself.
They quickly went through the grocery store, picking up some of the few canned foods and snacks that were left before they moved onto the pharmacy. Lori had given Eleanor a specific list so she wandered around picking up the items she wanted. Conditioner, moisturiser, face wipes, well isn't Lori living the life; Eleanor thought as she glanced around the shelves. She turned towards Glenn who was at the end of the aisle looking at something, with his back to her. Eleanor crept closer to Glenn, trying to remain quiet as she peered over his shoulder at what he had in his hands.
"Condoms eh?" Eleanor laughed, giving him nudge making him jump and his face became red at having been caught, "Well at least someone's getting lucky." She joked.
"Yeah, well maybe you should pick some up for you and Daryl." Glenn taunted, scowling at her for making him feel embarrassed.
Suddenly Eleanor's face was the one that was red and she tried to speak, stuttering because she didn't know how to respond. She knew Maggie would tell Glenn that she liked Daryl but she still felt embarrassed at being confronted by it.
Glenn sniggered at her blushing and her lack of words, satisfied that he'd gotten her back as he tucked the box of condoms into the front pocket of her jacket and gave her a pat on her shoulder, teasing her as he walked away. Eleanor sighed, placing her hands on her cheeks to ease her embarrassment from the situation and she quietly continued picking up the items on her list, sulking as she went.
After they got everything they needed from pharmacy they left and pulled up outside the clothing store Eleanor wanted to check out, climbing off their horses and tying the reins on a nearby lamppost to keep them from straying. Glenn pulled out the baseball bat he kept hanging from one of the bags connected to the saddle of his horse, while Eleanor drew Merles knife from her jacket.
They slowly walked to the entrance of the store, checking around them as they took each step closer. Glenn placed his face up to the door of the store, it being mostly glass, trying to look to see if he could spot any movement from inside. He peered back at Eleanor and gave her a shrug indicating that he didn't see anything and he put his hand slowly on the door knob turning it but shook his head when he saw it was locked.
"Break the glass," Eleanor said, motioning towards the baseball bat in his hands.
"Won't that make a lot of noise?" Glenn asked worriedly.
"Not loud enough to attract any walkers that aren't already close by. It isn't double glazed." She replied.
"We shouldn't be attracting any walkers, especially the ones that are close by."
"Do you see any walkers close by?" Eleanor said lifting her hands up rotating in her place, "It's a ghost town."
Glenn hesitated again but readjusted his position by the door. It was true that since they began coming into town they'd only ever come across a couple of walkers and they'd taken them out easily. Glenn gripped the bat in his hands firmly, touching it on the glass before pulling it behind his head. He looked over at Eleanor and she gave him a reassuring nod to continue. Glenn swung the bat, hitting the glass causing it to shatter easily; the resulting crash hadn't been as loud as he thought. Glenn used the bat to clear the remaining glass from the door frame before cautiously taking a step inside.
Eleanor followed behind him and they swiftly looked around, checking behind counters and in between clothes racks for any walkers. They peered back over to each other giving a nod to indicate that it was clear and Eleanor began searching through the racks for suitable clothes.
She picked up general things for everyone, warm jumpers, thick trousers and plenty of socks before shoving them into her bag. Eleanor then took the chance to find some extra clothes for herself, she was the only one who only had one change of clothes and even those weren't hers. She found another tank top, a button up plaid shirt, along with a pair of jeans for herself and crammed them into the bag too before making her way over to the men's section. Carl was just a kid and she knew he'd need larger clothes for when he started having growths spurts. She picked up a few things for him and made her way outside to secure her bag to the saddle on her horse.
Eleanor gaze was down as she reached the door, zipping the bag closed when she heard the sound of moans. Her eyes instantly shot back up as a walker lunged at her, grabbing onto her in the door way, pushing her back into the store, digging its fingernails into her jacket as its mouth snapped opened longing to tear into her skin, rotting flesh hanging from its face as it snarled at her.
Eleanor struggled against it letting a yelp and calling out of Glenn. He scanned back over to her, his eyes widening at the sight of the walker clinging onto her and without hesitation dropped his bags, grabbing the bat and rushed over to help her push the walker off.
As they shoved the walker back Glenn swung the bat at it, knocking it down to the floor and Eleanor took over, pushing past Glenn as she clutched onto her knife, immediately kneeling on the walker to keep it down and propelling the knife into its skull, killing it.
Eleanor let out a small grunt in frustration before yanking the knife back out from the walker and looked over her shoulder at Glenn, "Well that was close." She joked, letting out a nervous chuckle and rubbing her hands through her hair as she glanced back to the walker.
"We should probably get back." Glenn said nervously, trying to catch his breath. Eleanor nodded and they attached their bags securely onto the horse's saddles and mounted them, slowly making their way back towards the farm.
Once Eleanor and Glenn arrived back they took the horses back to the stables, removing their bags and began walking back towards the camp.
"Do you think we should tell them about what happened?" Glenn asked readjusting his bag on his shoulder as they walked.
"Yeah, there's no reason not to." Eleanor replied to Glenn, as she got Rick's attention by giving him a small wave.
"It was a close call, you could have got hurt." He said concerned.
"But I didn't… and that's all that matters. We took care of it." Eleanor glanced back over to Glenn giving him a reassuring smile.
As they got closer to camp everyone began to gather around, Rick, Shane and Dale coming to help them with the bags.
"Did you have any trouble?" Rick asked, taking a bag from Eleanor and placing it over his shoulder.
"Uh yeah…" Glenn hesitated, "A walker came up from nowhere, caught us off guard."
"We took care of it though, no problem." Eleanor reiterated wanting Rick to know that they handled it, the last thing she wanted was for Rick to play daddy and ground her from doing the town runs.
Rick frowned, shaking his head at them, "Well make sure you're more careful next time." Eleanor could see he was annoyed with them, that something bad had almost happened because of their carelessness but it was only because he cared.
"We got some clothes, figured it'd be good to stock up early on some warmer ones for the winter." Eleanor said, "Oh, and I got some extra clothes for Carl because well, he's a growing boy." She joked, shaking her fist cheerfully as she said so. Rick let out a small chuckle and thanked them for their consideration.