Dear Readers,
Thank you for reading my first fan fiction story. I sure hope you're enjoying it. I'm having a great time writing it. I would love your feedback both positive and constructive. It's very exciting to receive followers and favorites, and most of all reviews.
Best, Janessa.
They got in the truck together. Beth drove.
"I never left the prison Daryl, never left the farm either, not since the turn. No one allowed it. That's why I wanna drive today. I wanna be your partner, Daryl, not your dependent."
"My partner ey?"
"Yes your partner," she replied.
"Eyes on the road" he told her, and turned his face to look out the window hiding his grin.
"We look for gas first," he spoke as they drove along a winding country road. They drove nearly an hour covering many miles, not seeing anything except green pastures.
"There," she pointed ahead with her chin.
There was an intersection where five roads met at a traffic light. A number of stores stood on a strip with a large parking lot out front, and abandoned cars everywhere. On the opposing corner, stood a gas station.
"Must be where all the country folks come to buy gas an' provisions. Prob'ly all been looted," he said.
They noticed a combination pharmacy and general merchandise store, a grocer, a hardware store, a post office, a diner, and a small office building.
"Pull up ta the office buildin'. We can go inside, observe for a while, create a plan."
Beth came to a stop in front of a small, one-story office building that contained three small offices.
"Get your knife out, and follow me," he said. Daryl walked ahead, his crossbow up and ready.
She followed closely behind Daryl, alert, her knife out.
They made their way toward the door of the office building, looking out for walkers or people. The lock was already vandalized and the door opened with a push.
Daryl was alert looking straight ahead as they traveled down a narrow hallway.
They knocked on the first office door and waited to discover walkers. They heard growling. It wasn't that loud, maybe one or two, they thought.
"Beth get the door" Daryl told her.
She opened the door toward her, tucking herself behind it. A large male walker charged straight out, arms outstretched toward its prey. Its teeth were scary, like a vicious beast. Daryl was in position a few feet back, crossbow aimed and ready. Pow! He shot a bolt through its head. The walker fell back, dead.
Daryl collected his bolt, entering the room further, Beth behind him.
They repeated the process on the two other offices. Daryl took out two more walkers with his crossbow in the adjacent room.
A small little kitchen sat off to the side of the main office through a doorless opening.
A female walker charged out of the kitchen toward Beth.
Beth was short, so killing walkers required special measures for her.
She had a very long knife. As the walker came toward her, she held the knife handle with her two hands, planted herself with a wide stance, and positioned the knife in front of her at an upward angle.
Using the walker's momentum to her advantage, Beth stabbed the walker under its chin in the soft, fleshy tissue, and pushed the blade up and in toward the brain. The walker dropped to the ground, dead.
Daryl's heart beat wildly as the walker charged Beth.
Beth was traumatized. She felt like crying.
"Y'okay?" Daryl asked her, taking a moment to check in with her.
"Yeah," Beth replied. Breathing heavily, she retrieved the knife from the walker's head and looked at Daryl.
He saw the tears welling up in her eyes.
"Good work. Smart girl." He said nodding his head in affirmation toward her. C'mere, he said.
He reached his right arm out and she came to him, resting her head on his chest. He embraced her with his right arm. His left arm was occupied holding the crossbow.
This was a big accomplishment for her, and the mixture of emotion and fear overwhelmed her.
"You did a good job," he reiterated. "It's gonna be a'right." He held her for a minute.
Beth wiped her tears away, took a few deep breaths and collected herself.
"'Kay, get your knife ready. We're here to get supplies. C'mon. You can do this."
They stood in front of a window, looking out assessing the situation. They were looking for people, walkers, any threats or danger.
"We need to siphon gas from a car or two," Daryl said.
"I think we should try for that pharmacy and general store," Beth added.
"A'right. Gotta hit the grocer, and the hardware store, but gas first. We gotta stick together. Stay close."
Beth was lookout while Daryl siphoned gas into the gas can they brought from the farm house. He emptied the gas can into the truck's gas tank. He repeated the process until the truck's tank was full. He continued until he had a full gas can as reserve.
"Park in fron' a the general store," he told her getting in the passenger seat.
Beth drove the truck to the front of the pharmacy that also served as a general store. The other stores were in close proximity. The desolation of the parking lot was eerie and creepy.
Daryl led them to the door, his crossbow ready, her knife out. He tapped loudly on the glass of the front door. They waited for any sign of walkers. Nothing. The door lock was compromised already. They pushed open the heavy glass door, entering.
"Stay close" Daryl said to Beth motioning her to follow close behind him.
They moved slowly and quietly, crouching low, so their heads could not be seen by a walker or human in the next aisle.
The store carried a lot of miscellaneous items, and small enough to navigate easily and quickly. They found backpacks and took two each.
They walked to the medicine section and Beth felt she had the situation well in hand, having helped her Dad with his veterinary practice.
"I got this Daryl, go do your thing."
It looked like the place was free of walkers so Daryl agreed."
"'Kay." Daryl nodded and walked through the first aisle of deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, soap, shaving cream, nail clippers, mouthwash, dental floss, Vaseline. Mostly sample sizes and one or two odds and ends remained, but he grabbed whatever was around, throwing it into his pack.
Next aisle contained non prescription drugs, Advil, Tylenol, allergy pills, first aid kits, cold and flu medicine, Nyquil, stomach relief, alcohol, peroxide, bug spray, hydrocortisone cream, antibacterial cream, band aids. Anything useful he grabbed, tossing it in his pack.
Next aisle, paper products and various dry food items. He grabbed TP, batteries, expired Cheeze-its, condensed milk, sugar, corned beef hash, canned soup, bouillon cubes, olives, tuna. He took it all.
As Beth finished up with the medicine she proceeded to the feminine hygiene aisle, She grabbed tampons and panty liners, summers eve douche, condoms, KY jelly.
Next aisle, she picked up chocolate bars, a romance novel, pens, a notebook, perfume, lip gloss, a hair brush, shampoo, conditioner, fragranced soap, moisturizer, lady razors and shaving cream. She piled it in her pack.
"Beth, I been down all the aisles. You need anything else from here?"
"No I'm ready."
"I grabbed some thermoses. We can have a portable supply a water when we leave the farmhouse. Let's put these packs in the truck, an' check out the grocery store."
Beth grabbed a handful of large tote bags by the checkout area to bring to the grocery store. "We can use these," she said.
Similarly, the grocery store was picked over. There were no walkers inside, but it smelled putrid. They stepped around bodies.
"Take only canned and packaged food Beth. There's disease in here."
They walked to the canned food aisle and while it was picked over, they took anything left sweeping it into their bags.
She grabbed canned vegetables, stew, chili, fruit, tuna and milk. She also found some pasta, rice, powdered milk and soup mixes. They worked quickly motivated by the foul odor.
"I think we're good. We can always come back. Don't wanna risk bein' out here too long. Plus I wanna make one more stop," Daryl said.
While they packed up the truck with the food items, Daryl said, "Need ta check out the hardware store. Need ta reinforce the front and back doors with extra latches, an' the barn too. Could use some shovels an' some gardenin' tools. Maybe we'll find some seeds in there, maybe a few more buckets for the well."
"Alright," she said. "You're gonna need help carryin' it all."
They emptied the contents of two backpacks into tote bags, and entered the hardware store with the backpacks.
Nothing moved inside the dark, musty hardware store.
Daryl selected what he needed from the aisles and handed Beth anything small enough to go in the pack. She took two buckets and used them as containers too for packets of seeds and small garden tools. She only took a few since they lacked the capacity to carry bulky or heavy items.
Meanwhile he took all he could carry that was too large for the backpack. He was limited because he was also carrying the crossbow.
"This is all we can manage for now, but it's gonna make us safer" he said. "We'll be back here. We'll take the other car next time. Gas that up."
They filled the truck with their huge haul.
"I'll drive us back, partner," Daryl said, looking at Beth with a faint smile.
She grinned, "Roger that partner," she replied getting in the passenger side.
Back at the farmhouse they parked the truck right in front of the farmhouse door. They unloaded the knapsacks and tote bags from the truck into the farmhouse. Daryl unloaded the hardware into the barn.
Beth started unpacking the food right away and organizing it in the kitchen pantry.
"I can make rice pudding with the condensed milk, rice and sugar," she said. "We got cinnamon in the cabinet. You like rice pudding?"
"Yeah," he answered awkwardly, unaccustomed to being catered to. "Ya don't gotta" he said.
"Why not? I want to. You get us rabbit." She answered.
"A'right, he said. "You wanna put the food away, and I'll take the rest a this stuff upstairs, put it in the bathroom? He asked.
"Yeah sure," she replied.
Daryl carried most of the non food items upstairs. Some food might be in these packs, he thought, but he could pull it out, bring it back downstairs.
He dumped the contents of the first backpack onto the master bed. He put all the medicine that could fit into the medicine cabinet, and the rest in the vanity drawers.
Turning the second backpack upside down, Daryl saw tampons, summers eve disposable douche, condoms and lubricant fall onto the bed. His face flushed with embarrassment as if he was seeing something he wasn't supposed to. He picked up the condoms.
"What the hell are these for? Holy shit! What is this girl thinkin'?" he asked himself.
Flustered, he closed his eyes and put everything back into the pack leaving the packs on the bed.
"I put away the medicine," he told Beth in the kitchen. "Left the rest a the stuff on the bed. Looked like your private stuff and I didn't wanna see it."
"You don't want to see my private stuff?" She turned, looking him boldly in the eyes, smiling.
"Damn girl's flirtin with me," he thought to himself.
"No!" He hurried outside to the woodpile and chopped wood for kindling, until it got too dark to continue.
Thank you for reading. Please review, telling me what you like and don't like! Many Thanks! Janessa.