Lucy was still upset in the morning that Dennis insinuated she would be so stupid to believe Daryl because he was good looking and even more upset with herself because it was partly true. She did find him attractive even though he was covered in dirt and blood.

Under normal circumstances she would have never looked twice at him since her eye was usually drawn to well educated businessmen. A couple different men in Atlanta frequented the art gallery she worked at trying to impress her with the amount of money they threw down carelessly to purchase works from the latest up and coming artist. She had finally agreed to go out with one of them, but that was before the city burned to the ground.

It wasn't his looks distracting her the story he told about the little girl convinced her more about his character. The look on his face when he mistook Annie for the girl he used to know couldn't be faked and the way he seemed to forget she was sitting in the room while he recounted the events was too sad. No one could lie that well or seem that torn apart unless the story was a true one.

The sun rose again and she thought of the different shades of color like brushstrokes each one perfectly placed together in a masterpiece. French modernist? Baroque? No she decided it was definitely a Russian abstract and chuckled to herself for still thinking about art the way she would have before Armageddon.

When Annie and Nell woke up, they were both still uneasy about the argument from the night before and they watched Lucy like she might be set off again if they said the wrong thing. Their stares were making her anxious as it often did when other people watched her too closely. She had always felt most comfortable in the rich silence of the gallery or library, most often hoping that no one would interrupt her thoughts.

For hours Lucy paced around the house unsure of what to do with herself waiting for Dennis to wake up so she would not have to keep watch outside. The others continued to nervously watch her from inside. Dennis finally convinced her to take a walk and try to go hunting for a while as long as she did not leave too far from the house.

In the woods, she usually found it much easier to concentrate as long as there was enough daylight to see any walkers. Around others she got too anxious. The constant threat of starvation, snarling monsters, and eventual transformation into said monsters was sometimes too much to handle. Most of her life, she only had to take care of herself.

She had no siblings and her mother left a string of terrible ex stepfathers behind her. Not to mention that her mother died years ago long before there was any hint that zombies would infest the world. Even when she was alive, the two never had a great relationship to begin with so most of her childhood memories were either alone or convincing the nanny to take her out somewhere.

After she caught a squirrel and spent about an hour sitting on a tree branch, Lucy felt better than earlier so she decided to head back. When she approached the cabin there was a walker coming up along the cabin heading toward the front door. Quietly she snuck up on it and stabbed it in the head with her machete before it was even able to turn around. With a sigh of relief she took a couple steps forward and then gasped.

There was a herd of them right in front of the cabin door, about 10 in total, which was too many for her to take by herself. Quickly she ran over to the woodshed and closed the door behind her as quietly as she could so they didn't swarm.

"What are ya doin?" Daryl asked.

She put a finger over her lips and then cracked the door opened an inch so she could get a better look. If they stayed silent, the walkers might pass by the house without realizing they were there, but as she hoped for that outcome she heard Annie scream at the top of her lungs and Dennis curse loudly as he blocked the door with his body. The walkers threw all their weight against the door and broke the glass window right away. Nell and Dennis managed to get a bookcase in front of the door before any of them got in, but that would only hold them off temporarily.

"Goddamn it," Lucy said to herself.

"How many?" Daryl asked.

"Too many, at least 10 and more will come when they hear the noise. I can't get them all by myself. Fuck, Dennis will never be able to get them all out alive. I knew that design was a trap."

"What?"

"There's only one door, the back of the house has a twenty foot drop."

"You folks have a ride?"

"A jeep, but Dennis has the keys. There has to be a way to get them out," she told him.

"Give me the knife," he calmly said to her.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't really have an option. Are you a good shot with the bow?" he questioned.

"Yeah, I have 12 arrows left. It should be close to enough. I suck at hand to hand though after that I'm dead."

"Give me the knife then, I'll do it."

The two stared at each other trying to figure out if the other could be trusted. Even though Daryl didn't care about the others in the cabin, he did want to live through the day. Lucy knew there was no way she could fight all the zombies on her own so there was not much of a choice. At least the keys would keep him from killing them immediately. Right now they all had the same goal: stay alive.

"You were right, it's just me and Dennis taking care of the kid and an old lady," she admitted, "I promised I would take care of them."

"I understand."

"Please don't make me regret this," she pleaded as she took the machete off her belt, cut the rope with one swoop.

As her nerves overcame her, Lucy grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. She knew it was a terrible idea and there was still a chance he would kill them all when he got the chance, but she couldn't leave the shed without that kiss. After months of loneliness and since they were probably going to die on this suicide mission anyway, it seemed like a good idea.

It was a short kiss, no more than a peck, and before Daryl had time to react she had already pulled away and handed him the blade.

"I'll go out first and try to get as many as I can. Then we'll make a break for the door."

She threw the door open and shot an arrow at one of the walkers in the back of the herd. After she knocked off a couple more of them she took a step forward. They began to notice her and started to move away from the door.

"Dennis! In 15 seconds you open that door and make a break for the jeep, okay?" she shouted.

They heard a yell from the cabin and then she started to count down from 15 killing zombies as she stepped away toward the car. Once there were only about 5 left, Daryl ran over and attacked them. His body curled up like a cat and pounced one by one as the snarling freaks snapped their teeth at them.

"One! Go, go, go!" she shouted.

Then the door flew open as the three of them hurried down the stairs toward the car. Dennis led them out and started firing his gun as another group of zombies hurled toward them attracted by all the commotion. As Daryl killed the last walker in front of the cabin, he hurried back to the jeep and hopped in the back seat.

Lucy ran toward the house to retrieve as many arrows as she could and then took Annie's hand to bring her into the backseat. Dennis followed close behind with his keys in hand to take the driver's seat.

"Where's Nell?" Lucy asked.

"She was right behind me," Dennis told them.

They looked back toward the house and saw that she had gone back for something in the cabin. As she came back out, a walker caught her arm and bit down hard into her bicep. She screamed out in pain and Lucy jumped out of the car to shoot the damned creature in the head.

"Come on, Nell!" Lucy yelled.

The old woman shook her head with a tearful smile and threw the bag to Lucy. She took off into the woods leading the other walkers to follow her so that the others could escape.

"Lucy, get in the damn car!" Dennis shouted, which shocked her back into action.

As soon as she got into the passenger seat, Dennis floored the jeep down the dirt road putting the walkers behind them. About a mile down the way after they could no longer hear Nell's screams they finally took a breath to realize that they escaped. All they could hear now were Annie's sobs from the backseat.

Lucy turned around to comfort her and was surprised to see the girl with her arms wrapped around Daryl's neck crying into his shoulder. He looked unsure about what to do and awkwardly patted the hysterical kid on the back.

"Was that her mother?" he asked softly.

"Grandmother… last family member…" Lucy explained. She rubbed her forehead and wanted to cry so she distracted herself by looking in the bag. Inside was all the food and ammunition they were going to take. Dennis must have forgotten in all the chaos and of course she went back for it, always making sure they were well prepared.

She hopped over the center console to sit in the backseat so that she could detach Annie from Daryl, who looked more uncomfortable by the minute.

"Sweetie, let go of him. I got you," she whispered. Slowly Annie let go of him and Lucy put her arms around her trying to think of some way she could convince the kid that everything would be all right. Maybe if she could convince Annie then she could convince herself too, but her mind was blank. All she could tell her was everything would be all right, which everyone knew was an empty promise.

For a long while, they drove in silence only with Annie's sobs filling the car and when she fell asleep it was still a long time before anyone said anything. Daryl seemed to realize how devastated they were and kept his mouth shut not wanting to say something stupid or insulting. He still wanted to ask Lucy why she kissed him, but it was definitely the wrong time to ask about something pointless.

"Thanks," Dennis broke the silence and looked at Daryl in the rearview mirror, "We wouldn't of made it out the cabin without your help."

Daryl shook his head like he wanted to protest, and stated, "Still ain't enough sometimes."

"Where are we going to go now?" Lucy asked.

"No idea, kid. I know we said west, but I can't see how it'll be different than here."

"The prison…" Daryl mentioned.

"How ya mean?" Dennis prompted.

"That's where my group was staying. Should still be there."

"Is it safe?"

"Safe enough, we locked ourselves in at night. Cleared out most of the inside."

"The one by Lafayette?"

"That's the one."

"How ya gonna say you know us?" Dennis fished.

"Not much to say, y'all helped me get out of Woodbury," he replied. Even though Daryl didn't think much of himself, he always had a soft spot for protecting women and children. He hated to think of them trapped with the hot head that nearly beat him to death knowing what kind of harm could come to them. Dennis and Daryl clearly didn't care for each other, but they needed to work together for survival.

"Where's that?" Lucy interjected.

"It's a town of survivors, but they musta all drank the same kool-aid because they're all goddamn psychos now. They kidnapped two people from our group. I got captured when we went to bail them out."

"Why didn't you just tell us that?" Lucy huffed.

"Didn't know if you were with them or not," he stated.

"Well, we're about two hours away should be there in no time," Dennis interrupted. Lucy wanted to start a fight, but they desperately needed a place to regroup so there was nothing left to discuss.

The rest of the journey was silent as Dennis bit his tongue. Lucy's mind raced thinking about the new people at the prison. If Daryl decided to tell them what happened there was a very real chance they would take their revenge on Dennis or maybe all three of them. She promised herself that she would take care of Annie no matter what it cost her.