Lupe remains at the window's ledge and stares at the floor. She can't believe her outburst about the bike. It was just a goddamn motorcycle. She wishes she was strong enough to pretend it didn't matter. But it does. She hates the damn things.
Big clunky boots settle into her vision. They are different boots. Well worn and matte from years of use and no one to shine them for him. She hesitates to let her eyes crawl up the rest of the body, but she does. Daryl stands there, looking down at her blankly.
"I got a truck," he offers. Daryl looks around at the groups, all talking intently. He stares down at her again. "Wanna get out of here?"
She nods slowly and stands up, following Daryl aimlessly as he leaves Deanna's house. They start walking off and Lupe pauses, glancing back at her house.
"Can I bring Barbacoa?" She blurts.
Daryl pauses. "Who?"
"Barbacoa." She points back at her house. "My dog?"
Daryl scoffs. "Yeah, bring the damn dog." Lupe makes a disgruntled face at him and then walks off.
Not much later, he's by his truck, leaning and sharpening his knife. She comes strolling down the street with the dog happily trotting at her side. Climbing rope is tied carefully around the dog's chest and shoulders to make a harness. He huffs a small laugh and stands up. Lupe's smiling so wide, almost as wide as her pet. She looks really happy with the mutt by her side and Daryl can't really blame her. They made an adorable pair.
"She can sit in the bed," he grumbles on principle.
Lupe laughs in his face. "You can sit in the bed for all I care. She's going in the back seat."
Daryl scowls at Lupe half heartedly and she just smiles winningly in return. "You're a pain in my ass."
Lupe continues smiling as her and the dog trot over to the other side of the car. "You're not the first person to say that to me." She opens the back door and lets Barbacoa jump up. "I count it as a badge of honor at this point."
Daryl huffs and climbs in the cab with her. The dog automatically scrambles up and over the middle compartment to try and get on Lupe's lap. She pushes the dog back gently and gets her to sit, but Daryl has already been a casualty of her giant tongue. He wipes the dog slobber away and tries to keep the smile off his face. Lupe and the dog are really sweet together.
Their journey to the library is rather quick. The drive is mostly silent except for when the dog would wine and a walker would come stumbling out of the woods. When they arrive, the area is pretty clear. The trees on the other side of the road look pretty thick, but they don't think they'd disturb much over there. When they start getting out of the cab, the dog is basically hopping in the back.
"Can I let her out to run around? She'll kinda do a circuit and then come back eventually," Lupe asks with a smile.
Daryl's face pinches in confusion. "How'd'ya know that?"
Lupe stiffens. She looks over at Daryl and a slow, sweet smile spreads on her face. "We were practicing…"
"Where? She was supposed to be in quarantine and you ain't supposed to leave the gates without back up," he growls.
Her smile somehow got sweeter. "Well, it was… while everyone was asleep…" she looks at the dog with her face pressed up against the window, tongue licking the glass. "She's very quiet, so I let her do circuits around Alexandria. I gave her treats when she got back to me and kind of fashioned the behavior into one I can request."
"She was supposed to be in quarantine." Daryl scowls.
Lupe's cheek twitches as her jaw clenches. "Everyone was sleeping. It's fine."
Daryl snarls, "It's not fine. Don't be keeping secrets from us. Don't go lyin' to us. Rick does what he does for a reason."
"A reason?" Lupe snaps back. "He was gonna lead out an undead herd of hundreds basically for the aesthetic. That plan would have gotten us killed."
Daryl takes a threatening step towards her. "Rick's done nothing but keep us safe. He's a good leader."
Lupe glares right back at him. "Rick is human and humans make mistakes. He was wrong. I've been wrong too. I'm not saying he's a super villain who planned to kill us all. I'm just saying it was a bad plan that would have killed us all."
Daryl eyes her up and down, tucking back the huffing anger in his chest. Rick is his brother and he wouldn't tolerate any disrespect. The man had done everything he could to keep their group safe. He has his problems, but everyone does. Rick's a good man. Daryl supposes she's not quite privy to that yet, and she isn't really contesting it. Daryl nods sharply at her assessment. Rick hadn't had any better ideas. She did.
Lupe opens the door for Barbacoa, putting up a hand to keep her from automatically jumping out. She gets the lead and helps the dog down. The dog's whole body wiggles excitedly as she looks up at Lupe. Barbacoa eventually sits, though her tail wouldn't stop wagging the entire time Lupe slipped of the faux harness.
Lupe grins down at the dog. Folding her hand, showing four fingers squeezed together and her thumb on her palm, she makes a tight circle from her elbow and says, "Encuentras." The dog shoots off.
"What's she gonna find?" Daryl asks, staring out into the empty area.
Lupe raises a slow eyebrow at him. "You speak Spanish?"
"Enough to survive a construction site so no one slapped me when I had a question," Daryl mutters.
Lupe grins. "Ya veremos, gringuito."
They wait for a bit and Daryl pulls out a cigarette. Lupe's head whips to him, eyes predatory. He stares back at her nervously for a bit, but when he puts the cigarette to his mouth she looks away. He squints slightly. "¿Quieres uno?"
Lupe snorts hard. "Now that's a bad accent, but the effort is greatly appreciated. I miss speaking it." She bites the smile away and looks at the outstretched arm with a cigarette at its furthest tip. "Haven't had one in a while," she says, arms wrapping around herself. "It was a destructive habit for me."
Daryl scoots over to her and holds it out farther. "Don't have to be now." He shakes it at her a bit. "Can just be us shootin' the shit till yer dog gets back."
Lupe gives him a weak smile and takes the proffered cigarette. "Thanks."
He helps her light hers, then his own. He has to admit the look of pleasure she makes on her first hit is something he never thought he'd be privileged to see. He smiles half way until he hears clattering. Looking at the other side of the library the dog comes trotting back, covered in muck.
"Good girl!" Lupe smiles and props the cigarette between her lips. She kneels down and pets the dog, wiping away the muck from her face with her bare hands and sloughing it onto the ground. "Should be clear around the perimeter now. We can head inside and let her do it again."
Barbacoa's head pops up, ears perking and her eyes go wide, staring at something behind Daryl. Daryl turns, with his bow up and ready. A split second later he fires. His bolt nails a squirrel to the tree through its eye on the other side of the road.
"Whoa…" Lupe says, staring up at him in awe, "Que chido." She smiles. The dog looks up at Daryl with perked ears and a tilted head, then she turns back to the trees. A moment later, she shoots off into the brush. Daryl and Lupe watch as the dog bolts, full speed, and scrambles right up a tree trunk, nearly all the way to the branches, snarling and growling as she does. Lupe sprints forward, but Daryl grabs her. The dog looks like she's doing okay getting down, scrambling slowly with her nails digging into the soft bark.
Barbacoa comes trouncing out of the brush with something in her mouth. She walks right over to Daryl, sits down and drops the thing in her mouth at his feet. She looks back up at him with her big pit smile, and her tongue lolls to the side.
It's another squirrel. His eyes actually go wide in shock and he looks at Lupe. "She just climb a damn tree to nab a squirrel?!"
Lupe chuckles, wide eyed herself. She shrugs and smiles. "Bitches gotta eat." She turns towards the library, walking and finishing her smoke.
The dog waits at Daryl's feet, smiling. He looks down at Barbacoa and grunts, "Good girl." He pets her head gently and then got into rubbing on her jowls. She leans into his hand and he can't help but smile. He loved animals, but never got a chance to have them. His dad was a bastard. His mom was dead. And Merle couldn't event take care of himself. He was like a pet and a baby all in one. Daryl hadn't had the time for anything else. He chuckles. "I'ma take you out hunting then mutt." The dog shakes her head so vibrantly little bits flick off of her. She looks back up at Daryl with that same open mouth smile.
Lupe pats her thigh and the dog immediately takes off, bounding to her side. Daryl lets out a gruff laugh and follows them into the entrance. They knock on the door and wait for a few minutes, but nothing comes crashing against it. They know that doesn't mean the place is empty, but it's promising. Daryl reaches for the door and the dog gets ready, body bending like it gonna pounce.
"Wait…" Lupe asks, putting out her hand to Daryl. The dog looks up at her and Lupe makes a movement with her hand, one finger around chest height, swooped to point up. The dog immediately sits and Lupe pets her affectionately. "Conmigo," Lupe says, patting her thigh softly. The dog eases up and waits in a more relaxed position closer to her side.
Daryl raises a brow. "You were barely in quarantine for like two days."
Lupe rolls her eyes. "Look we barely slept. Okay? I was too excited. I had a dog!" She opens the door and they step in carefully. Lupe has her sling shot out and the dog stalks carefully at her side. Daryl is on the other side of the dog, his bow up and ready.
The Library is dark, quiet, and musty. Daryl shoots a corpse stuck behind a book cart. Lupe gets one with her sling shot between the shelves. Barbacoa is at her side, wriggling and whining.
"Encuentras," Lupe says. The dog is off through the dark library, silent and low.
"What are we lookin' for?" Daryl asks, voice soft and low.
Lupe flicks her head to the side and whispers, "This way…"
She goes off and Daryl follows behind. She's careful through the space and he's almost invigorated by her skill. She walks with the sling shot drawn, eyes scanning, and her gait silent. He trails after her in a very similar way. Each of them check opposite directions and stay out of each other's line of fire. They travel through the dark, taking out a few more walkers in the shelves. They occasionally hear the clatter of nails and a growling walker, soon silenced by a damning snarl.
Lupe stares at the isles intently and she suddenly stops. She gets closer to the label on the nearest wooden bookshelf and squints at the letters and numbers. "I think this is it." She walks through the isle and starts scanning. Her face suddenly blooms with a delighted smile and she jumps excitedly when her eyes find a spot on the shelf. She goes to grab something, but she's too short. She grunts, glaring at it above her.
Daryl sidles up to her with a grin. "Need some help shorty?"
Lupe looks at him, scowling and smiling at the same time. "Yeah, get on the ground and pretend to be a stool so I can get up there and grab the book I need."
Daryl has a sharp grin trying to spread on his features. "I got a better idea. Which one is it?"
She points. "The red and black one with the A in the circle."
He reaches up easily to grasp it and pulls it down. He stares at the cover. "Anarchist Cookbook?" He glares at it and then at her. "Why the hell you need a cookbook so bad?"
Her smile twitches with something knowing. "Open it up. Any page really," she says, her hands fluttering.
His eyes squint in doubt, but he opens it right up. "Home — brew blast — cannon?" he reads tentatively. "What the fuck?"
Lupe's smile thins out. "It's basically Tactics to Fuck up Your Fascist Government 101. Not written during the best of times or by the best of people." She grabs the book out of his hand and flips through it. "But over the years it's been updated and a lot of anarchists lean more towards a radically collective approach to communities. Except An-Caps, they suck ass and aren't really anarchists either. This book has a lot of information about home made explosives, but it also has some useful tips for survival during the collapse of society."
Daryl scoffs. "Shit, wish we had that in the beginning. Never heard of it before and it don't sound like something a publisher would touch. Why's it in a library?"
Lupe snickers. "Well some librarians keep a copy for research students and such." Her smile stretches. "Also sometimes anarchists go in and put them in public libraries just because. We seem to have gotten lucky." She tucks the book in her bag and smiles at Daryl. "All done. This will help us with figuring out how to destroy the undead." She lets out a whistle, a distinct fluttering tone. Daryl immediately hears the scrambling of Barbacoa coming their way.
The dog is at her side and sitting in a blink. He shakes his head at both of them. "Jesus, I was right to think I need a tank around you," Daryl grunts.
Lupe grins. "Probably."
"You really just work at a grocery store before all this?" He grumbles.
She looks down at her dog and pats her thigh before she starts walking. She smiles fondly. "I also bartended at a strip club."
"That where you got all your weird ass knowledge?" he chuckles.
Lupe grins wide. "No actually, weirder and scarier things happened at the grocery store. The strip club was timid in comparison."
That actually makes Daryl laugh.
"What?" Lupe asks. The sound of his laughter is completely alien, but rather nice. With that thought, her cheeks heat and her grin dissipates.
Daryl's grin is fond as he stares off. "M'brother used to drag me to strip clubs all the time. Shit experience if I'm gonna be honest, but that's all his fault. Him and his friends would always fuck something up, get too wasted. Usually got our asses thrown out right quick. Just remembered a time it was funny instead of sad." Sighing he continues, "Dancers were always nice about it though. Kinda figured they knew what he was on sight. I hated going with him, but it was better than getting a call that he was in jail again." He shakes his head of the memories. "Keeping Merle controlled was like trying to stuff a hurricane in a shoe box."
Lupe scoffs. "Yeah, I can say we definitely had those types." She laughs, thinking about her time at the club, behind the bar and up on the platform. She loved dancing and it was a good way to make solid money when she needed it most. "We had a good place. Lots of great people I worked with, and the boss was no one to fuck with. She was an old school hard ass and could eat bikers for lunch, probably chew your brother up like gum." Her smile is wide. "Our place rocked. Wish you coulda come to ours, I would've showed you a good time."
"I'd'a liked that," Daryl responds.
It took them both a bit too long to realize what had just transpired. They quickly change the subject and start muttering nervously about their weapons. The dog sticks to Lupe's side and they all walk out together in a stilted awkward silence.
Daryl can't stop blushing and cussing at himself inside his head. He is wildly upset that he insinuated he'd enjoy something that forward with her, after all she's been through.
Lupe is jittery and is consumed in her self flagellation. She was invasive. She's disgusted with herself for offering such a thing, especially after Daryl said he hated going to the clubs.
The dog trots happily between them, looking at each one with a huge smile on her face. She is just happy to be a part of a pack.