…

Chapter Seven. Cookies.

Daryl had been working on a car in the garage of their house and it had ample trunk room as well as plenty of space in the backseats and they could easily tie things to the roof if they needed to. Jack had refused to stay behind so with Daryl driving and Beth in the passenger seat, the fox had perched himself on the middle console, staring out the front windshield as Daryl took them down the streets to the front entrance of St. George's subdivision.

"How long is gasoline good for?" Beth asked. She had been looking out the windows at everything as they passed though admittedly, there wasn't that much to look at. The world's decay seemed to be the same everywhere. She turned her head to Daryl after her question.

Daryl shrugged. "If stored the way it should, could last from anywhere from six months to a year. After that, quality goes down and you run the risk of ruinin' your car and the engine. Not sure how long we got left with the gas we have," he answered what he knew would be her next question and Beth gave a nod. "But even with all of that, havin' some gas is better than no gas."

"I wonder if there's a way we can make our own gas," Beth wondered out loud, speaking more to herself than to him, and Daryl smirked a little as he concentrated on the driving now that they were on the main road. If anyone could figure out how to make gasoline, it would be Beth.

The hotel was a Double Tree by Hilton and as the building began visible through the windshield, Daryl's foot eased off the gas. The car slowed down and both took stock of their surroundings. One good thing about walkers – not that there was a damn long list he could write out about what was good with them – was that they wandered. One walker shuffled away and then two and then three and soon, it grew into a herd, just mindlessly walking forward. If there had been walkers at this hotel – and they weren't stuck inside – they just wandered away.

Outside, neither of them could see anything. He glanced to Jack, the fox at full attention, but he didn't seem to sense or smell anything either. He and Beth then looked at one another. She looked scared as she always did when they were going into a new place but she also looked hopeful. Odds were that this hotel was hit up a long time ago – maybe one of the first places people like him and Beth hit – but maybe they hadn't gotten everything. If anyone could find anything remotely helpful to them, it would be Beth. Daryl had no idea what to expect once they got inside but whatever was waiting for him, he wasn't going to scared or hopeful.

"You still want to do this?" He asked her.

"I do." She didn't hesitate.

Daryl turned off the engine and they moved slowly. He had oiled the doors so they didn't screech when they were pushed open. He took his crossbow – already loaded – from the floor and swung it in his arms as Beth's knife was already pulled from the sheath hanging from her belt. Jack hopped down and instantly began sniffing the ground. As quietly as they could, they closed the doors again. Shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, Beth looked up at the hotel – five floors – and Daryl came to stand at her side, looking around. It was quiet. That didn't make him relax. If anything, the quiet only made him more alert.

"I made a list," Beth said and pulled a piece of paper from the back pocket of her jeans. "Everything we need will be on the first floor so I don't care how many floors this place has." Daryl smiled a little at that. "We won't even have to go into any of the bedrooms. If there are walkers trapped in there, they'll stay in there. We need the kitchen and supply closets. Also… if my family went on vacation, we usually stayed at Double Tree hotels. They would give you chocolate chip cookies at check-in."

"Seriously? You think there's some left?" There weren't cookies anymore. Unless a person had hoarded a bunch of boxes and packages, cookies was something people grabbed if they found during their scavenges. It had been a while since Daryl had had a cookie of any kind. Beth had been trying to figure out how to bake cookies without eggs or milk but so far, no success.

"No harm in looking," Beth smiled with a shrug, reading his mind. She missed cookies, too.

Other things on the list included everything in the kitchen that was still good. Hotels had breakfast every morning as well as room service menus. There was going to be plenty to take – hopefully. She really hoped for flours, baking powders, spices, rice, noodles and anything else. There was also toilet paper, tissues, complimentary toiletries, blankets and pillows.

They moved slowly towards the wide automatic front doors that led into the lobby. Through the glass, the sun provided enough light for them to see that there didn't seem to be any walkers. Seemed. But they obviously couldn't see everything and Beth handed Daryl her knife as she took the crossbow from him. It took him a bit of time, muscle and grunting but finally, he wedged the knife between the two doors and twisted the blade so the two doors finally separated. He still kept wrestling until he had just enough space. When he did, he kept his foot between the two doors to keep the space open. Beth handed him his crossbow again and it was like a dance of maneuvering that they had done before. She moved her body past his and slipped it between the two doors and Daryl pulled his food back. Sideways, it was still a tight squeeze but Beth managed. And once there, she began to push forward as well as backwards, doing her own grunting as she forced the doors open when they clearly didn't want to move. Jack certainly had enough space for himself and he slipped past Beth's legs.

"Good girl," Daryl told her when she had gotten it open for more than enough space, and she smiled when he said that. It wasn't the first time he had said those two words to her but every time, it did something to her. It made her feel warm and fluttery.

There was a bench against the wall and Daryl dragged it over without making as much noise as he could and kept it between the two doors until they decided to snap shut. Once in the lobby, they both stopped and looked around, their ears straining to hear any kind of noise from inside. But there was nothing. Just their breathing in this monstrous hollow cave. Still, neither relaxed. They weren't stupid or naïve enough to do that. Beth headed towards the front desk and Daryl followed after her, his crossbow to his shoulder and ready to fire at a second's notice.

Standing on her toes, Beth looked over to the other side of the counter. She winced and pulled herself back when she saw the decaying body on the floor, a gun at their side and a bullet hole right at their temple. No matter how many times Beth saw the aftermath of someone's suicide in this new world, she couldn't get used to it. She supposed it was a good thing she couldn't. No matter what kind of world, it was still such a horrible sight.

Going around the counter, she carefully stepped over the body to look beneath the counter – seeing all of the computer wires and cables to black, dead screens, towers and printers. And when she saw it, she almost laughed. She looked at Daryl as he moved around the counter to join her and she nearly felt tears building in her eyes. It was stupid. She told herself that. It wasn't the most amazing find in the world. Bags of rice. Boxes of pasta. Bottles of water. Those were the things to look for. This was just… not important whatsoever. But when she saw the basket, she couldn't help herself but think it was one of the most amazing finds yet. It would make them feel normal – at least for a little bit. It was like the bread or the potato chips she was able to make. Normal foods they knew. Don't get her wrong. Cinnamon bark and nettle soup were delicious and they both loved eating them – and whatever new recipes Beth was able to make – but the truth was, if the world wasn't the way it was now, they would never be eating those things. They would still be eating all of the normal foods any person could find in a grocery store. She would figure out how to make these herself – eventually. A lot of experimentation, trial and error, but she would figure it out. But for now, this was the way to go.

"You alrigh'?" Daryl asked, noticing her wet eyes, thinking it was over the dead guy on the floor. He knew how Beth could get no matter how many dead bodies they saw.

Beth sniffled and nodded. Silently, she reached under the counter and pulled the basket out, setting it down again so Daryl could see the piles of chocolate chip cookies, individually wrapped in plastic within. She then looked to Daryl and saw his widened eyes at what he clearly thought, too, was an amazing sight.

"I'm great," she smiled.

…

Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!

I've been reading some of my old stories and watching random episodes from S1-S4 and I just miss being in love with this show like how I used to be when I was obsessed with it. It made me sad but I have new ideas for this universe and a House Call one-shot between Daryl and Abby so yay for that!