The doors bounced back and forth as the wood barring them shut was pulled from the handles. Daryl, Glenn, Mila, and Sasha all took a few steps back so that they would not be within arm's reach when whoever it was that had barricaded themselves in came out. One of the doors eased open, and the three people they had protected slid through the threshold, hands raised by their shoulders.

They were young men, probably in their mid-twenties, standing about the same height. Glenn edged by them to check the room for others, gun raised, but reemerged a few minutes later with it lowered and stood to their side. The first to have come out had short, wavy brown hair and green eyes. He had a very 'college boy' appearance and an air of innocence that Mila could not fully understand; perhaps it was because of his full cheeks or maybe because of the fine, soft-looking hairs that clouded his upper lip like darkly-pigmented lanugo. Mila thought to herself how he had probably never had to shave before as she studied his clean-looking jaw. Underneath his jacket, she noticed a black T-shirt with the Dodge symbol plastered over his chest.

The boy to his right wore a gray hoodie with the sleeves rolled up at his elbows and had tawny hair that looked as if it had been windswept upwards into a short, spiky pompadour. The shadow of a beard and goatee masked his face beneath his broad nose and brown eyes. His face was pallid and he was sweating. The blood on the floor had come from him, as he held a torn, green cloth over his left forearm that had turned crimson from the blood it had soaked up. Although they were all white, the third was more darkly-complected than his fellows, having a distinctive tan. His most outstanding feature was his piercing blue eyes; white, threadlike lines extended from the outer edges of his irises towards the darker, gunmetal blue circles around his pupils. His hair was such a deep brown that Mila had first believed it was black before the frayed ends gave it away.

The one in the middle wearing the Dodge shirt spoke first. "I'm Zach. This is Josh-" he motioned towards the bleeder, "and Ant." They lowered their hands to their sides slowly.

"Ant is short for Anthony," said the blue-eyed one, looking nervously between Sasha, Mila, Glenn, and Daryl; his gaze lingered on the latter. Daryl lowered his crossbow, eyes still narrowed, so Sasha and Mila did the same.

Zach paused a moment before hastily speaking again. "Uuh, we were students at the University of Georgia before everything happened. We've been in here for a day, holding up, waiting on those things to get distracted long enough to stop banging on the door. I guess that it was you guys that distracted them."

"We killed them," Sasha said severely. "The front door was locked. There wasn't a back door. How did you get in here?"

Zach pointed with his thumb towards the left of the building. "We busted out a window to get away from the ones on the road. We didn't know there were some already in here."

"'S that what happened to your arm?" questioned Daryl, pointing towards Josh's injury.

"Yeah," he answered.

"Show me," Mila ordered, trying to sound as authoritarian as possible. Josh blinked in surprise and pulled the towel away from the wound. Blood trickled slowly from its edges as the bandage peeled off. A long, straight laceration stretched from the crook of his elbow towards the distal end of his ulna. Mila strained her head to get a closer look; it was deep.

"I can't get it to stop bleeding," he said weakly.

"That's because it's gonna need stitches," she ruled.

Daryl looked at the crew of fraternity boys, studying each one of them deliberately before exhaling loudly through his nose. He glanced at Glenn who gave a small nod. "How many walkers have you killed?"

Zach's eyes darted between his companions. "I don't know. As many as it took to make it from Athens to here."

"How many people have you killed?"

Ant's mouth fell open as if he was offended by Daryl's question. "Look, man, we're not those kind of people. We haven't killed anyone."

"Why?"

"Because there's no reason to!" he acclaimed defensively. "Teeth-gnashers are everywhere, man. Better to spend up the energy and ammo on them!"

Daryl looked down at the floor and nodded, his temple working as he chewed his lip. "It's jus' you guys, righ'?" he drawled.

"Yeah," said Ant, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

"Why don't you come back with us? We got a camp. Lot's o' people. Food. Shelter. Water. And we could use some extra hands."

The boys glanced between each other quietly. "Can you help Josh?" asked Zach tentatively.

"I can help him right now," Mila offered.

"Wait." Glenn interrupted. "You said you were running from walkers on the road. Do you know where they are?"

"No. They were all over the road about half a mile back, but they should be gone by now. We had to cut through the woods and leave my car, which, by the way, we really need to go back and get. It's a new car and it's got a tank full of gas, ammo, and lots of food," he explained.

"Which way?" Daryl asked.

"North of here."

"That's out of the way," Sasha noted aloud, seeing the cogs in Daryl's mind spin.

Daryl raised a hand to his jaw and rubbed the wiry hairs on his chin. "How many were on the road?"

Ant answered this time. "Maybe twenty. Twenty-five at the most."

Daryl thought for a minute, still stroking his chin. "Alrigh'. You stay and patch him up," he said pointing at Mila. "Sasha, you stay with 'em. If we ain't back here in two hours, go on and start back to the prison. We'll catch up when we can." Sasha looked as if she was prepared to protest but Daryl leaned in close to her ear and whispered something. Mila thought she heard him say something about not leaving her alone which made her frown slightly. With a silent nod, Sasha turned back to face Josh.

"See you when you get back," Mila said, casting a worried look towards him and Glenn.

"See you then," Daryl replied, turning on his heel. With his finger, he signaled for Glenn and the two boys to follow him and they started out of the store. Sasha followed them to her post and stood watch at the front doors.