A/N: As always, I simple must thank those who read and those who both read and rate! Love the feedback! You guys are awesome!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead, but I do own Alice.

Alice gripped the back of Glenn's shirt tightly; her knuckles were turning white. In her free hand, she held her gun, the safety off. They were creeping slowly past a walker a few feet away. The walker, from what she could see, had its whole lower jaw missing and was dragging a half severed leg. She held a scream in her throat when she saw how disgustingly sunken its face was and its skin peeling off. This had been a person once upon a time, now she had no idea if it was a male or female. It was just a thing now.

Glenn, using his head, motioned down a narrow ally. Andrea frowned, looking confused. He quickly looked at the walker then back to her, mouthing 'department store'. Lucky for the group, the back door was unlocked, but its hinges squeaked as it was carefully pushed open. Glenn gave everyone an apologetic look, but quickly rushed inside. T-dog closed the door behind him, being last to enter.

"What the plan?" he asked, His tight grip on his wooden baseball bat, just in case a walker was near.

"We gotta survey the department store." Andrea answered, looking around the back office they were standing in for anything they could use at camp. "The last thing we need is to be caught off guard."

"Who will go?"

Glenn held his hands up for everyone to see and backed away, leaning against the messy desk. "Not me, I got us here."

"I'll do it." Alice volunteered.

"No way." Morales, a Hispanic, chubby man said. "If anything happens to you, that husband of yours might… Well I don't know what he might do, but I'm not in a hurry to find out."

Merle let out a hyena like laugh as he slapped his knee. "I say we let sweet tits go. Makes no sense for us to get hurt, we got people waitin back at camp for us."

"Fuck you Merle!" Andrea hissed. "Alice, don't listen to the piece of country shit. I'll go with you." Alice just nodded, but kept her eyes on her feet. She didn't want Merle to see how much his words had really hurt her.

Not a sound was heard other than the two women's footsteps. It was hot in the department store and the air smelt faintly like perfume. Alice held her gun close, pointing it at everything she thought moved as she walked cautiously through the racks of clothes. She wanted to prove to everyone that she could pull her own weight without relying on everyone else. She wanted to show them that she had worth. Truthfully, she had never shot a gun other than at un-moving targets. She knew actually shooting a walker was very different, but the desperation to feel worthy and have a place in the group made her want to take the challenge.

She was tired of always being seen as Shane's helpless wife.

A smile made its way to her face when she caught site of her own reflection in a mirror. She had smudges of dirt on her cheek and her hair was down and wild. Her clothes were covered in filth that never really washed out. Even though she looked like she had been rolling in dirt and grass for days, she just had to smile because she looked… Scary. She looked brave. Jessica would be pleased if she saw her sister. Jessica. Alice shook her head, now wasn't the time to start thinking about the past.

Andrea and Alice met up in the center of the store. Andrea was smiling as she looked around, nodding her head in silent approval.

"Nothing's here. That's great." She reached out and touched a shirt. "At one point shopping without having to worry about paying was my dream."

After being told it was clear, the remainder of the group came from the back and quickly starting racing down the aisle. Time was precious and they needed to use it wisely. Alice shoved clothes that she felt she would need into her bag. She had the urge to change out of her old ones and slip on a fresh pair. She looked around quickly before grabbing a tank top and jeans off a rack and ducking into an aisle. When she popped back up, she kicked her old clothes out of site. The feeling of clean clothes against her skin was a pleasure she never knew she took for granted before the world ended. Even through her skin was dirty under the clothes, she oddly felt cleaner.

She walked past a jewelry display case and paused. Her fingers pressed against the glass as her eyes lingered on a silver bracelet with a charm of a cross dangling from it. Other than her wedding band, she had never really owned any jewelry. She felt terrible when she crawled over the display case, reached inside, took it, and shoved it in her jean pocket. It was simple, yet beautiful in her eyes. Alice bowed her head and silently prayed for forgiveness for stealing something she didn't actually need.

Andrea walked over to her, at first giving her an odd look. "What are you doing back there?"

"Huh?" she rubbed the back of her neck shyly. "I just um.. Well I uh.."

"It's cool, no one knows but us. It'll be our secret. Besides, I plan on doing the same."

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"Amy's birthday. I came along on this trip mostly because I want to get her something nice. Don't tell her though."

"I won't." Alice promised, smiling.

"When did you change?"

Alice started to blush. "Not that long ago. I really felt dirty so I just kind of… Changed."

"Say no more. I don't blame you. I just might do the same." She said, looking down at her own clothes with a rolled up face. " So what did you get so far?" she asked, her own bag almost busting at the seams.

"Just the basics. Clothes, soap, shampoo."

"What about your husband? What'd you get him?"

"Huh? Oh um soap and clothes." Alice lied quickly before cautiously climbing back over the display cases and hurrying off to the men's section. She forgot all about him. While quickly shoving in a few men's items, Alice heard gunshots. At first she thought she had imagined it, but noticed everyone had stopped what they were doing and looking at each other.

"What the hell…" Andrea pulled out her gun and held it close to her body.

"Whoever did that just got us in loads of trouble." Jacqui spoke as she backed away from the glass doors. Walkers were starting to notice and surround them. Alice quickly finished shoving clothes into her bag and zipped it up.

"What do we do?" she asked, pulling her own gun out.

"Find the asshole and bring him here so we can kill him ourselves!" T-dog said as he started to pace back and forth, perspiration building on his forehead.

"Who goes?" there was a moment of silence before everyone looked to Glenn.

Glenn frowned. "Wait, what? Why me?"

"You did say you knew the every short cut and ally way like the back of your hand." Morales said.

Alice looked around for a moment, noticing it was too quiet. "Where's Merle?"

"Who knows. We'll worry about that later. In the meantime, Glenn, get going." Andrea gave him a little push as she handed him a walkie talkie.

"Me and my big mouth!" Glenn mumbled as he started drag his feet back to the office they had entered from.

"What do we do?" Jacqui questioned, eyeing the walkers at the door.

"Follow Glenn. We'll hide in the office for now and wait for him to come back." Andrea started jogging to the back, everyone tagging along behind her.