"SHHhhhhhhhh," Daryl pulled her back farther behind the cash register just as two of the men came towards the back of the store. This was his worst nightmare, once again. There was no way anyone was coming near her, it would be over his dead body.
His terror over something happening to her was real and Daryl pulled her close against him, rocking slowly willing them to go away. There were four of them, with weapons and one had a grudge against him in particular.
If only there was a back door.
They both held their breath as the two men scavenged the store and then were joined by the third, Ed remained outside it seemed. The trio came dangerously close to where Daryl and Lucy were hiding but never passed the counter since it didn't even occur to them to look for medications.
These guys were going to fail apocalypse 101 for sure. You needed more than half a bag of pretzels and 75 condoms to make it in this world. It would have been comical if they weren't in this situation.
Daryl still kept a death grip on her and scooted them farther away and behind some boxes, almost to the storage area. He quickly looked around for a back door, but there wasn't one. He pulled Lucy close against him, wrapping her hands around his back and shielding her, willing this horror show to be over.
They could hear them dumping things out and singing old classic rock songs like they were drunk in a bar. These were not good people and Daryl and Lucy were going to have to wait this shit show out.
Lucy struggled and Daryl held her tight.
"No,no,no,no," Daryl pulled her close, willing them to just go away.
They did take a lot of the stuff that Lucy had planned to grab, but they didn't touch the baby things, so that would still be possible. But they were like wild animals the way they came through the store, opening food, taking one bite and dropping it on the floor.
It pissed Lucy off that they were littering, and being wasteful; there was no reason to do that shit. People used these times to act like they always wanted to act and a lot of the times that was crude.
The waste of food was what annoyed her most of all, even more than the grandiose stealing of the condoms.
They ran rampant through the store, knocking shelves over and acting like wild animals for ten minutes at least. Ed was outside as a look out it seemed and all Lucy could think about was Carol and Sophia.
Hopefully Rick, Merle, and Andrea were way out of sight too.
"Come on Ace, The governor is waiting…" The third guy hollered.
"Alright, alright," He bellowed, "But I gotta drain the monster before we go." He reached for his zipper.
From behind the counter Lucy whispered to Daryl, "Asshole…" And he put his hand over her mouth again.
"Can't you zip your mouth for five seconds?" He hissed as the first guy dropped his pants and proceeded to take a piss on a magazine rack nearby, ruining all the books Lucy hadn't gotten a chance to look at yet. Daryl tightened his grip on Lucy and would not take his hand off her mouth.
"Thats a fucked up thing to do, you know some people actually know how to read…" His companion complained.
"Fuck you dickhead. You pissed on Motor Trend." The third guy joined in.
"Come on," Ace zipped his fly, "He don't like to be kept waiting…"
As they walked out the last guy out was singing to himself "Hot Blooded" and that made Lucy cringe in her boots.
"What a jackass, everyone knows the only good song by Foreigner is Dirty White Boy…" She commented as she and Daryl stood up.
"Do you have an opinion on everything?" Daryl asked and she turned to him and just gave him a look of impatience.
"Pretty much," She laughed.
"Lucky me," Daryl rolled his eyes and shouldered his crossbow.
"Who the hell is the governor?" Lucy asked.
"I don't fucking know," Daryl replied, "Sounds like a douchebag."
"Don't think I wanna know either...:" Lucy murmured as she stepped over the mess the men made, grabbed her basket and continued gathering supplies.
/
On the other side of the mall and out of sight of the car load of men, Merle, Rick and Andrea waited and waited, staying out of sight because they saw the two trucks roll up on the pharmacy where Daryl and Lucy had gone. They men driving came in like bats out of hell and the three of them peered out the window of the Sears store they were in.
"Who the fuck are those yahoos?" Rick asked as they ran to the truck they had all loaded up.
"Nevermind them, look over there," Andrea pointed to the sky which looked foreboding and dangerous and it was headed their way. There was a storm on the way and it looked to be a doozy.
"Great, just great, we're about to star in my favorite movie," Merle laughed.
"Twister is your favorite movie," Andrea remarked as they ran for the truck.
"Well, yeah," He laughed, "What's yours?"
"Frozen," She laughed, "Do they know where to meet us?"
"We'll come back, it's getting dark and we need to out run this bitch or find a place to ride out this storm."
"Remind me to grab walkie talkies tomorrow, we could have really used those today." Rick mused as they drove out of the parking lot, hoping to outrun the storm and find a place to bunk down for the night.
/
Daryl and Lucy waited until they were sure the three men were gone. They jerked around outside shooting cans that they lined up on cars in the parking lot and stirred up every dead thing within five miles. As they looked outside, the parking lot was overrun again as the men peeled out, burning rubber and smoking their tires.
"What a bunch of idiots," Lucy complained, "I am not telling Carol we saw him."
"Neither am I." Daryl replied.
The sky got dark all of the sudden and it wasn't like you could look at a weather app and see what was coming your way. It was the early fall, still warm as hell and thunderstorms were always a possibility.
When Lucy and Daryl came outside, well after the designated meet up time, it was windy and hailing. That only meant one thing, a tornado was coming.
"Fuck!" He exclaimed and pushed her back inside, "You see that green sky?"
"Tornado?"
"Come on, we ain't getting anywhere that way," He pulled her back into the store and they ran out the back into the mall proper. The inside loop was the safest place, where the restaurants were.
They took off running before they were seen by any of the straggler walking dead in the mall proper, and ended up inside a restaurant. Daryl secured the door behind them and lit his lighter to see what was what there.
"Welcome to Applebees, home of the two dollar, watered down long island iced tea, and shitty mojitos." Daryl laughed as he put a bolt in the two bartenders dressed in striped shirts that were stuck there.
"I always loved the sampler platter here and the margarita's," Lucy laughed, remembering days gone by, when you could go to a restaurant to eat. It seemed so long ago, the world was a different place then.
Daryl had not been a fan of the place and just huffed, people went on dates to places like this and he wouldn't have been caught dead here before the turn.
Once they made sure the place was safe and there were no surprises, Daryl locked the outside doors as well, while the wind roared outside.
"This is going to be a doozy," Lucy observed as they listened to the destruction taking place outside and said a silent prayer for Merle, Rick and Andrea's safety.
He rolled his eyes, "Wonderful."
"How will we find them?"
"Merle knows that whenever we got separated in the woods we would head east in a straight line, he'll wait."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"Does he have a compass? Do you?"
"Don't need one sugar," He pointed to his head, "It's all up here."
"Alright, I'm thirsty, what's your poison?" Lucy asked as she made her way to the bar proper and lifted the gate.
"You know," He replied.
"Yeah, I think I do," She answered. "Remember on Lost when Sawyer and Kate played never have I ever?" Lucy asked with her eyes shining, and he had seen her like this a few times, it usually spelled trouble for him.
Her entire face lit up with mischief as she went behind the bar and moved some stuff around, until she found what she was looking for. Sometimes she was just like a little kid when she was happy and excited. It made him smile and not many things made him smile.
"What is it with you and that show anyway, it wasn't that good."
"First of all, yes it was and second it was my Dad's favorite show, every Tuesday morning he would call me and we'd talk about what happened," She paused, then added, "He would have liked you."
Daryl was taken aback by her words, the idea of someone's father approving of him was way out of his wheelhouse. He was Dixon trash because of his father, but clearly she thought differently.
"I think the two of you would have gotten along just fine." Lucy continued, "He was a Ford guy too."
He reached for her across the bar and placed his arm over her shoulders, "I know you miss him."
"Yeah, I do," She laid her head on his shoulder for a minute then she was back to what she was doing, "So do you remember? The game?"
Daryl just shook his head amidst the clinking of glasses, and sighed loudly, because he knew she was going to have him playing that game soon enough, Merle would say she was leading him around by his dick, and it was true, "Yeah, live together or die alone right?"
Lucy rummaged around the back of the bar until she pulled out the Jack Daniels, his favorite. Daryl rolled his eyes, whenever she and he started drinking the truth always came out and he wasn't quite ready for it yet.