Chapter 29 – Lauren

The next morning after a wonderful round of wakeup sex with my biker boy who was extremely generous with his skills, those of us assigned to the supply run left in our two cars to go down to the small main street of Danville. Since we were a group of seven, we divided up into two teams, one group of four and the other three. Michonne, Sasha and I were going to sweep the grocery store again for walkers and check out the back room that Daryl and I hadn't had the time to look at. That left Glenn, Maggie, Tara and Carl to investigate the pharmacy. We decided that these were the two priorities spots today for supplies.

Daryl had already taken off by himself through the woods to see what he could find. He was tracking for game, people and walkers. I said a small prayer to keep him safe.

Our small caravan quietly arrived to the deserted area we were going to search. The two teams made their way to our designated assignments. Weapons were at the ready. Michonne, Sasha and I approached the door of the grocery store with caution. We all have seen these runs go from good to really bad in split seconds. The store was small so it only consisted of four main aisles and the back refrigerated section, which now full of rotten food. I wrinkled my nose at the foul odor. I didn't remember the smell being this bad the other day. I went down the left aisle with my gun in my hand, Sasha took the right and Michonne did both of the middle aisles. There was still no sign of anyone – living or dead.

We stood ready at the door that led into the back. My gun was in my hand ready to go. We had no idea what was behind it. "On three I will open it, okay?" I whispered to the girls. They both nodded yes. With my fingers I counted down…one…two…THREE and I pushed the door open. We waited…nothing happened. Michonne and her katana went sailing through first, then Sasha with her assault rifle and I brought up the rear.

Silently we cleared what looked like a storage room, then the office. We still found nothing.

"Well, ladies, "Michonne said, "We have ourselves a jack pot of food here. Even with all of us, this stuff should last us weeks."

Sasha gave us one of her rare smiles. "We need to get this back as soon as possible. We can't chance anyone else taking it. My mouth is watering just looking at all this food. "

"If we load up the car it will take a dozen trips at least. Too bad we don't have a bigger vehicle," I sighed. "We could get everything in just a couple trips instead of a dozen or more."

Michonne put her katana back in its sheath that she wore on her back. "We gotta do, what we gotta do."

"That doesn't mean I can't whine about it," I laughed. "Let's get…." Something by the back door caught my eye. I saw a set of keys on a hook with a yellow tag. I walked over to the keys and took them off the hook and looked at the tag. "Van keys, ladies. Shall we see if there still is a van?"

The three of us armed ourselves again and Sasha threw open the door. We were in a back alley behind the store and there right next to the dumpster wasn't a van but a small box truck. BINGO!

"Do you think it will start after all this time?" Sasha asked.

I opened the door on the drives side and jumped up. "Let's find out. Say a prayer girls…here we go." I pumped the gas a little before I turned the ignition. It tried to catch but didn't. "That was hopeful and shows that the battery isn't dead. Let's try it again." I pumped the gas pedal again, turned the key and this time the engine finally caught. "Hot damn!" I shouted.

Sasha and Michonne high fived in their excitement.

"Girls," I said getting their attention. "It has three-quarters of a tank of gas!"

"Let's start loading up," Michonne suggested. "I think we should start with the cases of food in the store room first. What do you think?" Sasha and I both agreed to get the big boxes in first then worry about the items on the shelves later.

We had been loading up for about half an hour when we heard Glenn call out. "In the back," I said. The other team joined us in the storage room.

"Holy shit," Carl exclaimed. Look at all this stuff.

"Isn't it great," I said smiling. "How did you guys do?"

"Fantastic," Maggie volunteered. "We cleaned it out of any drugs we made need, medical supplies, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant… anything we could think of that we needed. The SUV is jam packed. Looks like we have a lot of trips to make to get this food back."

Michonne gave her a big smile. "Not necessarily. Check this out." She showed them the box truck we had found. "We're loading that sucker up right now. Four more sets of hands should get this done a lot faster."

The relief that food was not going to be a problem for a while showed on everyone's faces. "Let's get this done then," Glenn said. "How are you doing this?"

We decided that Sasha and I would move the cases we intended to take near the door, so the others just had to pick them up and bring them to truck. With seven of us working, it didn't take long to clean out the storage of food. We were able to get some of the stuff from the front, but we didn't have room for is all. I smiled as I watched Carl and Michonne stuff every candy bar they could into plastic bags. Those two were chocoholics.

We were finally ready to head back home. We quickly decided that Glenn and Maggie would drive the box truck, Michonne and Sasha took the car we came in and I drove Carl and Tara in the SUV. We arrived back home triumphant!