Chapter Twenty Eight: Entreaty
Entreaty: an earnest or humble request.
Day 66
As the steady stream of scuffling walkers began to thin, Daisy loosened her tight grip around Sophia, though her hands remained firm on her arm. She looked around and caught the gaze of Rick under a nearby car, and then of Lori and Carol who were huddled together under another. Carol was staring at her daughter, face pale and hand over her mouth to dissuade her from crying out for Sophia. Daisy tried to shoot her a reassuring look, but Carol remained just as panicked, dewy streams of tears falling from her eyes.
There was a tug from Sophia, Daisy looked down and saw her looking up with wide eyes, Daisy gulped and shushed her quietly. Glancing over at Rick, she raised her brow and gestured towards the street to ask if it was safe. His line of sight drifted upwards and to the left, then he shook his head emphatically. Daisy also looked, huffing a silent sigh of relief as she noticed a lone straggler edging along after its walker buddies, her grip tightened around Sophia.
After they were sure that the entirety of the herd had passed, each of the group warily emerged from their hiding places. Sophia quickly slipped from Daisy's grip and collided with her mother, mirroring Carl who was reluctantly hugged to his own mother's chest.
"Alright, there?" Daisy glanced over at Merle who had moseyed up with the others, she shot him a smile and a quick thumbs up, "Wasn't so sure, you bein' a dumbass 'n all." Her smile fell and she rolled her eyes. Daisy bent down and tugged her neon backpack out from under the car and strapped it to her back, pulling them tightly and secure.
"Speak for yourself." She muttered as she passed him, approaching Rick who stared warily after the hoard of walkers that could be seen swarming down the highway far off, "Where to next, bossman?" Daisy smiled wryly at Rick.
"Uh...back, maybe." He scanned the cars that had piled up to block the road.
Daisy hummed, "Maybe we could move a few? Looks pretty clear ahead, past these ones." She gestured towards the nearest cars.
Rick turned thoughtful, "We could definitely do that." He turned as Shane approached, then proceeded to relay her plan. Daisy bowed out and edged along the guardrail towards the open passenger's side door of a shiny black SUV. She leaned in and rifled through a small Barbie backpack, finding a rotten apple, a colouring book, two red crayons and a packet of Hot Cheetos. Daisy pocketed the crayons and Cheetos, then knelt on the seat to lean further into the front.
"Ooh." She drew out the exclamation as she noticed an unopened bottle of—undoubtedly very expensive, she noted as she recognised the label—whiskey sitting innocently in the centre cup holder, Daisy threw that into the pocket of her backpack for either Merle or Daryl and edged out.
"Anything for me?" Merle's voice asked behind her, she startled and hit her head on the roof of the car.
"Shitting...what, Merle?" Daisy shot a glare behind her—which intensified when she saw that he was staring at her ass as she shuffled out onto the road, "Not anymore, perv. The bottle of Pappy Van Winkle I may or may not have in this rad backpack now belongs to your brother."
Merle narrowed his eyes suspiciously, trying to decipher whether she was bluffing, "Better be lyin', nasty mother..." He trailed off as he caught her warning glare, then huffed and walked away. Daisy shook her head free of Merle's nonsense and made her way to the next car. As she was rifling around in the glovebox—scoring a box of 9mm bullets and a roll of Hubba Bubba tape—Glenn's voice called in after her.
"Hey, uh, can you put it in neutral? And help me push it."
Daisy quickly shoved her newest discoveries into the backpack, then clicked the gearshift in place and released the parking brake. As the car began to slowly roll forward at the slight incline of the street, Daisy hurriedly landed on the road and rounded the car to push next to Glenn and Shane.
The car gained speed and they soon released in as it crashed into the guardrail, a sizeable space left behind for their cars to travel through. Daisy noted that a few other cars had been moved, and the road ahead was clear. On the road again, she lamented as they all moved towards their respective cars.
Day 67
Upon arriving at the town closest to the highway where they had been set upon by the massive hoard of walkers, Rick and Shane decided it was best to stay the night. Daisy stared through the boarded up window in front of her at the illustrious main street of Senoia, Georgia; compared to Atlanta, it was a one-horse town. They had huddled up in an abandoned Pizza shop for the night, Daisy claiming a deserted corner of the store as her temporary home.
Though the sun had barely risen, Daisy was nursing a Sprite that she had lifted from the smashed-in window of the soda machine. Wrinkling her nose at its warmness, but it wasn't flat at all, even after two months. Daisy flicked through another page of the comic she had surfaced, grimacing slightly as Archangel sliced a man completely in half at the waist...and now Wolverine is stabbing him in the back with his rad claws. The violent bloody images didn't faze her as much as they should have, though, living in an apocalypse in which the dead frequently rise would do that to a girl.
"What're you reading?" A small voice asked, Daisy wriggled around in her sleeping bag to face Carl.
"X-Force comic." She said shortly, holding it up so that she could continue to read the words in the small light streaming through the gaps in the boards covering the window.
"What's X-Force?" Sophia's voice added, her wide eyes joining Carl's.
"Like X-Men?" Carl guessed.
Daisy hummed, "Yeah, kinda. Like X-Men but...with looser morals." She looked up to see Carl seeming confused and Sophia seeming anxious—if her wide eyes had any indication.
"Daisy?" Rick called quietly over to her, she looked up with question in her gaze, "Can you c'mere?"
Daisy sighed lowly and snapped her comic shut, shooting the kids a mockingly annoyed look as she stood and shuffled over to where Rick was standing with a tired yawn. Behind her, she heard a pair of giggles and the rustle of the comic, she thought to stop them but decided a comic would not hurt them too devastatingly.
"You called, boss?"
Rick seemed to restrain himself from protesting them nickname, "Would you be up for a supply run with Glenn?"
"Sure," Daisy agreed wholeheartedly, "Where to? And what for?"
"T-Dog's in a lot of pain and we're running low on painkillers." Rick grimaced, Daisy mimicked him as her gaze wandered over to T-Dog who was clutching his arm to his chest—when they had been hiding from the herd of walkers, he slipped and sliced his forearm open on a wayward piece of metal, "Thanks for this, Daisy." He patted her on her shoulder and left her to it. Daisy quickly found Glenn and proposed they leave presently.
"Uh, yeah...just let me..." Glenn rifled around in his duffel, finding his hat and slapping it on his head with a smile. They headed towards the entrance to the pizza shop, Daisy detouring momentarily to retrieve the knife she had forgotten that she did not have on her—as well as emptying the neon yellow backpack to store their supplies in—and exited promptly.
"Where d'you think pain meds'd be?" Glenn widened his eyes towards her. Daisy hummed for a second, scanning the deserted street, her eyes lit up.
"Probably that drug store right across the street." Daisy quirked a smile and pointed a finger down the street a ways, then headed towards the store, Glenn hurrying along after her. Within minutes they were off the street and at their destination, the bell above the door tinkling lightly as they entered.
The store was uniform, and quite small, a few aisles filled with scattered medical supplies and an open window on the far wall. Daisy moved towards the window, peering in to see a shelf loaded with prescription bottles. Figuring that the strongest meds would be in the back, she hoisted herself up onto the counter and edged into the sequestered room, ducking under the edge of the window.
"Glenn!" She called back in a harsh whisper, he turned to her with wide eyes and pink cheeks from where he had been staring wistfully at the small section dedicated to prophylactics and contraception, "Get your head in the game, Glenn. C'mon, back here." Daisy chuckled to herself as she scanned the shelves, there was a low thump as she heard Glenn presumably knock some products off the shelves. With a groan, Daisy remembered that she knew approximately nothing when it came to medicine, "Glenn, what the hell do I get?" When she heard no reply, she turned around, "Glenn?"
"Not Glenn." Daisy's eyes widened at the unfamiliar voice, a heavyset, balding man was standing in the middle aisle, Glenn restrained with a heavy arm over his neck and a knife pointed at his head—Glenn's own knife.
"Whoa, whoa! We don't want any trouble!" Daisy's voice shook and her hands were raised in an attempt to calm the man.
"What're you doin' in here, stealing everything?" The man sounded angry, "People need this medicine!"
"Wh—? I know!" Daisy was confused, "We have a friend, he was hurt and is in a lot of pain. We just need something to help him, that's all." Her voice turned pleading.
"There's more of you?" Panic started to shine in the man's eyes, Daisy knew that if she did not assuage that panic, he could act irrationally and hurt Glenn.
"We don't mean any trouble. We have other women, and kids?" Daisy added hopefully, the man's arm loosened around Glenn's neck, "Look, can you please lower the knife?"
"You won't...y'won't attack me?" He confirmed, Daisy shook her head emphatically, hands raising higher. The man dropped his grip on Glenn and backed away quickly, knife lowering fractionally. Glenn gasped and moved towards Daisy, then stopped just behind the nearest shelf, "Your friend, he wasn't bit? He's just hurt?"
Daisy nodded with wide eyes, the man lowered the knife even more, "I...know a vet, he could help." A shaky breath shuttered from her throat, Daisy dropped her hands to rest on the bench.
"That would...be good." Daisy looked over at Glenn for guidance, he was just as visibly panicked as she was, "What's your name?"
"I'm Otis. And you?"
"Daisy...that's Glenn. We, uh, need painkillers...you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" The man set his lips into a firm line, nodding in unsure agreement.
"Probably best to go oxycodone, or morphine." Otis informed her, Daisy cleared her nervous throat and shot a meaningful glance towards Glenn before turning her back on the two and searching the shelf once more.
"Glenn, wanna come here?" Daisy called back as she examined two entirely identical bottles of pills. Opening the bottles, Daisy hummed indecisively at the tiny pink pills in one, and tiny blue pills in the other; deciding to go with the blue, Daisy closed the bottle and placed the morphine pills on the counter, sliding them towards Glenn's open hand. After another minute of wary shuffling between bottles, Daisy also slid a bottle of tiny white oxycodone pills towards Glenn, leaning against the counter, asking in a quiet voice, "You think we should trust this guy?"
Glenn not-so-covertly glanced back at Otis who was shoving a few supplies into his pack, Daisy noticed that he included tampons, and sincerely hoped he had women in his group and got them for only that reason.
"Maybe..." Glenn started, leaning his head close to Daisy's, "Maybe we should ask the others?"
"Yeah. I just don't think we can risk T-Dog getting an infection." Daisy grimaced, the group had gotten worryingly small since its dire yet abundant beginnings, "Hey, uh, Otis?" The man looked up warily, standing with his pack tight around his shoulders, hand still grasping Glenn's knife, "We need to consult with the group...would you want to meet outside the bank down the street in an hour? If we aren't there, you'll know they said no."
Otis stared at her with narrowed eyes, then lightened as he seemed to gather that she was not a threat to him, "Deal." He edged out of the store and Daisy looked through the store window as he moved down the street and out of sight.
"Man, I hope that was the right move." Daisy sighed as she vaulted back over the counter, "At least we got the pills." Glenn shook the bottles with an irreverent smile, making Daisy snort and shake her head.
"Let's go...hopefully not face the firing squad."