We had been driving for a little while before we stopped. After leaving a town with nothing, completely empty, it was getting harder and harder to pretend that our supplies weren't running out. Everyone had started to notice, but Rick wouldn't tell us what the situation was because somehow at least, we had all been kept fed, only skipping a few meals so that we didn't have to question it. I trusted that he would never let any of us starve, or let the food completely run out without anyone knowing

Some of the others had gone to look for a creak, bed of water or something to collect water from or wash their clothes. I don't know, I wasn't really listening. I just sat in the car and watched Rick as he walked from the back of the vehicles to the front of the line, before looking over Carl's shoulder to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

They had just recently started letting Carl keep watch, after him always offering, Rick decided to give it a try. He was still unsure of whether it was a good idea or not, I could tell from the constant pacing to stand around Carl, but he was getting more at ease with the idea.

Maybe he just didn't want to make Carl do any of this work. Kill walkers, runs, they were all hard jobs, especially for a kid, that maybe he was just watching out for him. Why push these things onto your son when there's other people around also willing to do the heavy lifting?

It wasn't my turn for watch anyway, and it had been so hot that day that I had started to feel a little ill. I just leaned my head against the seat, still sat with my body facing out of the car in case anything did happen to us. This way, no matter how ill I felt. I would be ready.

As Rick walked next to my door, he stopped, his eyes flickering to the tree line like he had been startled, seen or heard something. I stood, reaching across my body and pulling my knife from my holster. I stepped around Rick and followed his gaze, watching for a walker, but a second later, Daryl emerged over the roadside barriers.

Rick sighed audibly, turning away and continuing his rounds, and I sat back down in the car, my body facing the tree line Daryl just came from. He glanced around at some of the others, nodding at someone in the car in front of me, who I assumed was Lori as she was the only one that was still in that vehicle, before he turned in my direction.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

They had all gone together, and though a fair few had gone down to keep each other safe, it was off that Daryl would come back alone unless something had happened to any of them. I stared at him anxiously.

He obviously noticed the worry, because he shook his head, placing a hand on my shoulder. "They found some water, wanted to boil it by the creek so they wouldn't have to do it later. Won't be too long."

Daryl squatted down next to the car, before rifling through his backpack that he dropped on the ground. I turned, facing the side of the road, resting my feet on the body of the car, again I rested my head back against the seat, but kept my eyes on the treeline Daryl returned from, making sure there were no walkers that may have seen him joining us.

"Y'okay?" Daryl asked.

"Just hot," I mumbled.

I glanced at the blue sky, very very sunny the same as Daryl, and he nodded. "Yeah, s'pose it's gettin' warmer."

Again, he continued looking through his bag, and I closed my eyes, resting my arms in my lap as I mumbled in agreement.

"I forgot to tell ya," Daryl said after a while. "I grabbed that radio ya left in the storage units."

I looked down at him just in time for him to pull the small device from his rucksack, and shake it back and forth like a bell. When he had my attention, he lowered his arm before swinging it up and tossing the walkie to me.

My hands flew out to catch it before it hit the ground or the car door, and I looked down at the device in my hands. "Thanks."

"Guessed ya still wanted it," he said with a nod. "Jus' in a hurry was all."

"Yeah."

I wanted to thank him more, but ducked my head to hide my smile. I'd spent enough time with Daryl to learn not to make a big deal out of his gestures, that me thanking him over and over and over again would annoy him so much that he may leave me behind to melt on the side of the road. If I treated this like the big deal that it was, then I may never get a good gesture from him again.

Later on, when everyone came back with water and laundry they had taken out, they packed the cars and waited for instructions from Rick. "We'll keep moving, head to those houses a mile up," he said.

No one argued, and we all got in the cars and drove until we came across the next set of houses. After we cleared them, getting rid of any walkers inside, we started looting. A group tool the one next to us, and I looked in this one with Daryl and a few others.

I dropped my bag on the ground next to the sideboard with a loud thump! It was on the heavier side lately because I had been dragging around the survival manuals with no chance to read them yet. There were also some in the car, some that the group managed to grab as we escaped the storage units. I wondered if I'd ever get a chance, if things would ever calm down for us.

If things got worse I'd have to drop them eventually, leave them behind because I couldn't carry them forever. Daryl seemed confident that I didn't need them anyway, so the must not have mattered all that much.

Maybe I would find more.

Opening the drawer of the sideboard, I hoped for something useful like batteries. Instead it was stuffed with so many papers that exploded upwards the second the drawer opened. Just a bunch of rubbish post, the kind that my family would throw out the second it came through the letter box. The papers looked to be like a bunch of leaflets, either posted to the house or collected on outings.

Nothing that really mattered anymore.

I pushed the papers aside, hoping maybe there would be something better underneath, but there wasn't. One of the papers caught my eyes, which was a brown colour. The name of the shop was shown in a sign that looked like the light brown wood of a tree stump. Outdoor Hut.

It was just some camping, outdoorsy kind of shop, although, knowing America it could have been something more.

I had seen a few hunting stored over the winter, none stocked, but ones that definitely used to sell weapons, guns. Maybe this place was the same. It couldn't advertise everything being sold there, but it had a few items, some on the side of camping and climbing, the other that looked useful for hunting.

There were steps behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see Daryl.

"Where is that?" I held it out to him, pointing at the map placed on the back of the leaflet with a red circle showing where it was, "do you know?"

Daryl's lips pursed in thought as his eyes flicked over the flyer, "Not too far from here."

That really meant nothing to me, despite Rick's lessons in map reading, there had been no indication that 'not far from here' was a unit of distance.

"How close?" I asked.

He shook his head. "A Couple of miles."

"What's a couple of miles?" Rick asked, sauntering in curiously.

"Some camping store," Daryl responded, "in a mall."

"Do we need anything from there?" I wondered.

Rick shrugged his shoulders absently as he looked at the map on the leaflet, "Not necessarily: clothes, tents. But it's worth a look. Maybe some other stores with food, that's what we're really looking for right now."

"It could have a baby shop?"

I suggested the first thing that came to my mind when he mentioned other shops. We needed baby stuff desperately, and it had bothered me that we had seen nothing in any of these houses. I guessed when the apocalypse happened people would have taken their babies and their stuff, but none of them died?

Wow, that was dark.

Rick nodded, "Yeah, maybe."

"Are we going?" I pressed again.

We needed some supplies more than anything, and maybe a mall could do that for us. These houses we found were also really bare, and it didn't surprise me that the leaflet was the most useful thing here.

"Town over was looted, can't imagine it's gonna be much different here," Daryl uttered passively, saying everything that had been running through my mind at a hundred miled per hour.

Keep up, Daryl.

"We don't have much of a choice," Rick conceded.

The camping store I found for us was inside a shopping centre. A mall, as the Americans would call it. Not a huge one, just big enough that the town nearby had a leisurely place to visit. There didn't seem to be much else around, or we would've come across a highstreet or something by now.

Glass littered much of the main floor, leaving much of the area covered in a shiny debris that crunched under my boots. Amongst the rubble, the ground was also caked with a layer of dust that Daryl mentioned had no footsteps in it, meaning no one had been here for a long time, and it was less likely that this place had been completely looted.

Many of the metal shutters that had been pulled down were now degraded, rusted and worn from months of exposure to the rain and snow. It was dark and eerie, the only light coming down from the glass ceilings above us, but even those were blocked out from a thick mask of vegetation.

Glenn glanced back over his shoulder occasionally, checking to see that I was still behind him while he walked at Maggie's side. I thought it'd be mean if I stepped to the other side, but I did it anyway, wanting to watch his face the next time he looked back and didn't see me.

When Glenn looked back the next time, he did a double-take before flipping his head over his other shoulder, spotting me grinning at him. "Don't do that," he stopped, waiting for me to catch up and walk at his side, before placing a hand on my shoulder. "Stay close."

"I am," I said.

There was a rattling from behind me, and I heard some quiet growling that was all too familiar to me. My head whipped back to see Carl standing by one of the closed shutters to one of the shops, seeing two or three sets of greyish fingers reaching through the slats to get him.

"Carl," Rick called him back, "stay away from the shutters. We don't know how many there are in there. It doesn't sound like a lot, but we don't want to fight if we can just avoid it."

Carl only nodded, walking back towards the others. Rick and Daryl had already searched through most of the building, making sure that none of it was overrun before we went to the camping shop.

"They won't get through?" I asked.

"They haven't so far," Rick said.

"We tried riling 'em up," Daryl added. "They don' got much fight."

"Should we be looking through some of these stores before we leave?" Glenn asked.

"Clothes maybe," Rick answered. "Just some stuff to have around for when it starts getting warmer. I can't imagine many of these stores would have much worth taking."

The camping shop came into view seconds later. The shutter to the camping shop was already opened, probably from when Rick and Daryl came through. Maybe it was already open, to begin with.

"Over here," Rick called out in a hushed voice.

Much of the store was torn apart, and looted, but there was still equipment and supplies. There were a few brand-new, still packaged tents. The group decided to swap out some of their tents for those at least. Even the tents they'd taken from the storage units were older models, and somewhat worn down. Another of their tents had a broken zipper. It wasn't something that mattered much, but while they had the option to swap out the old for new, they did.

There was a rack with some rows of accessories and small objects, lighters and such. Spotting packets of hair bobbles, I grabbed some. They were easy to lose and I needed more anyway.

"Hey, Ace!" Glenn called.

I stepped around the aisle, seeing the way he examined the shelves.

"There's backpacks," He waved a hand, showing me.

"Nope," I said curtly, turning away.

"But these—"

"—Don't care. If I hear one more complaint about my backpack, I swear to God!"

The backpacks he found were probably much better than mine was. Made to withstand our travelling, weather, and probably held more. It never seemed like we were getting off the road any time soon.

Too bad for me and my stubborn self, I guess.

I heard some chattering amongst the group as I walked around, searching the shelves. The store had been cleared, so we were mostly at ease, but everyone kept their voices lowered, still careful.

I found a pack of batteries, and a small lantern I passed to T-Dog. He took it with some other supplies. From what I could tell, they were just packing some of the stuff we were taking and leaving them outside the shop until we were ready to leave.

When I turned around, I saw the counter and tills, where people would have paid for their things after shopping, when something caught my eye.

"No way."

I jumped up, climbing on top of the counter and pushing myself to my feet on the wooden surface. When I gained some balance, I stretched across the gap behind the bench to the back wall. My foot moved across to a table against the wall, mindful of the dusty computer my leg brushed against.

Above my head, hooked on the wall was the red, curved shaft of a climbing axe. There was a black rubber grip with a small metal point at the bottom. The grin worked its way onto my face as I wrapped my fingers around the handle.

The pick itself extended in both directions, the silver colour wearing like the red paint of the shaft. It was clear that while this tool has never been used, the wear-and-tear was very visible. My eyes wandered upwards to the broken glass ceiling over the main room. Rain had damaged a lot of the contents of the shop, and even though the axe was not directly under the broken window, the exposure to the weather had taken its toll.

I jumped down from the table behind the counter, holding the axe in my hand. The axe wasn't damaged in any way, still very usable despite the wearing colour. Holding the handle, I held it out in front of me, bending my elbow a little and flicking my wrist to test the weight.

"Woah, that's awesome," came the small voice from behind the tills. Carl was staring at me, at the axe, in awe. He had a small smile on his face, but I could tell he was trying hard to suppress how fascinated he actually was. "Can I look?"

I had to stop my face from scrunching up in dismay, a purely selfish expression. I wanted to play with the really cool climbing axe. Still, I reached over the counter and held it out for him to take.

Carl held the handle in two hands, not expecting the weight it held as he waved it around in front of him like a sword.

"This is so cool!" He grinned, leaving behind the tame facade he had built. "What is it?"

"A climbing axe, ice pick, whatever you want to call it. People use it to climb mountains or cliffs."

"Cool," he nodded.

"Carl!" Lori called from across the room. "Put that down."

Carl rolled his eyes, audibly sighing. I'm surprised that Lori didn't hear him. Who knows? Maybe she did. His eyes met mine for a brief moment, and he dropped the axe down on the bench in front of us.

It annoyed me that she wouldn't even let him look at it. I was never going to let Carl keep the axe, because I wanted it for myself. But even if I didn't want it, it was another weapon, another means of killing walkers. There was no reason for her to tell him to put it down.

"Suits you right," I tried to joke, "you probably don't even know what Tomb Raider is."

He frowned, "What?"

It disappointed me that I was right. "Told you so."

As Carl strolled off, I examined the axe again. I wondered how practical it would be for everyday use, and not the use it was meant for. With a frown, I put the axe on the counter and went to look around more.

I'd found some more clothes for myself, so had others. I didn't know what everyone else was grabbing, I did see someone take an extra pair of shoes. That was smart, most of us were still wearing winter attire. Something for the warmer weather was a good idea.

After a while of quiet exploring, Glenn was getting ready to take some stuff out to the car. I grabbed a bag he'd missed due to his hands being full, and followed him outside.

"Find anything good?" I asked.

"Socks," he smiled. "Never thought I'd appreciate a new, clean pair of socks so much. Toothpaste too."

I laughed, "yeah I found some myself, and some bobbles."

"Bobbles?" Glenn raised a brow, turning his head to me.

"Hair ties," I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes, though I was sure he heard it in my voice.

"Why didn't you just say that then?" He asked, still smiling jokingly. We stopped at the car and he put the bags down on the ground.

"I did," I grumbled quietly. I couldn't tell if he heard.

A loud bang came from inside the centre, making both me and Glenn jump. Neither of us knew exactly what it was, but we both knew that it wasn't good. He shared a quick moment of eye contact with me before glancing back to the shops.

"Oh man," Glenn mumbled before breaking out into a run.

"Can't we have one thing go right?" I asked no one in particular, quickly running after him.

Inside the shopping centre, the noises continued, growing louder and louder the closer we came to the camping store. There was shooting and yelling, with he growls carried over the top.

From what I could see, one of the shutters that kept the shops on lock down, had completely broken. Rusted from the exposure to the weather from a broken glass ceiling, the metal runners had completely detached from the shutter, and it was now laying on the ground in front of some restaurant.

There was more loud banging from some of the other closed off shops too, which was bad, seeing as they were all rusted and weak. Just as Glenn turned to me, there was a loud bang! My head shot around to see another metal shutter on the ground, with walkers heading towards us.

"We have to find the others and get out!"

I nodded, running after him into the store.

There was shooting coming from various parts of the room, but I couldn't see anyone behind the shelves around the shop floor. I looked around for some of the others, and when I went to speak to Glenn, I saw that he was gone. He couldn't have been far, he was looking for some of the others, so he had to be in the room with me.

I ran around some of the shelves, further into the shop and coming across the counter I had been at earlier.

"Guys?!" I called out.

"Ace!" I heard Maggie's voice call back, but I couldn't tell where from with all the other noises masking her calls.

I went to follow her voice as best I could when I was slammed back against the counter, the side of my arm awkwardly hitting one of the tills. A woman snapped down at me, but I managed to slide my arm over her collarbone, using all of my strength to keep her away from me.

The edge of the counter dug hard into my lower back. With some difficulty, I succeeded in bringing my hand up and stabbing the walker in the head. In my position and panic, the knife went in at an off angle, going diagonally upward just behind it's cheekbone. The walker fell limp against me, causing more pain into my back.

Just as I tried to push its heavy weight off, another walker came from just behind. It pressed its body up against the other corpse, sandwiching it between us as it reached and pulled at me.

The undead walker, although behind the dead walker, was pushing against more on the left side which was a relief. My right hand was still up, gripping the hilt of my knife lodged into a skull.

The walker's fingers reached, tangling and pulling at my hair, and the sleeve of my coat. I tried to pull myself away, but couldn't move or go much further being against the counter with the weight of two bodies against me.

I whimpered in surprise in fear as I tried and failed to pull the knife from the walker's head. AI pulled again, and again, and again. The only thing I'd succeeded was wobbling its head back and forth. I couldn't get my knife.

Unsure what else to do I let it go, with another free hand I tried my best to push them off of me. I panicked again, as my movement caused the dead walker to slide a bit to the side, allowing the other one to have easier access and get closer to me. It's face was contorted in desperation, jaw chomping to hope for any amount of flesh it could rip from me. Pushing wasn't working, I couldn't fight off the other one if it got to me.

I whipped my head around, a low yelp escaping my lips as it caused my hair to pull against the walker's grip. Then I saw it, the axe I'd found earlier. It was far, laying there, useless on the counter.

I leaned to my right, the dead walker slipped more and I felt the undead walker gip onto my coat harder, able to get closer. I reached hard, fingers just barely grazing the red handle. With a few motions, groaning, and finger flicks, the axe was closer. Finally with my fingers I pulled it forward, sliding it against the counter until I could wrap my fingers around the hand.

I lifted it up and did what I could to straighten my stance. It was hard doing much with the corpse blocking much of my movement. Finally, I brought the axe up, a bit to the side and swung it hard.

The sharp pick end of the axe pierced the walker through the temple, making a loud shunk! sound. Its dead weight dropped against me as well. I slid to the ground onto my butt, back against the count.

I was tired, sore, and very sure my back would be bruised, and I could barely catch my breath. But still I used what energy I had left to push the corpses of me, using my knees and feet as extra strength against them.

A quick look around showed me no more walkers were in my vicinity, at least not after me. So, I took that moment to breathe, really considering what had just happened. How close it had been.

I heard yelling, the sound of objects falling and snapped out of it. I put a hand to the walkers forehead, and gripped my knife with the other, effectively pulling it out. My eyes went to the other walker and I reached for the handle of the axe, it came out quick, easy, no extra strength needed.

Yeah, I'm keeping it.

I brought myself up and made my way toward the yelling. I had to help, we had to get out.

Why can't anything go right? Why can't we just have one day?

"Mom!"

That was Carl, somewhere in the store. I sprinted towards where I had last seen Lori, where I heard Carl's voice, ignoring the calls of Glenn when he realised that I was no longer with him.

Carl was there, holding his gun up to a walker, but he wasn't shooting it. The walker had Lori pinned to a wall, and she was holding its wrists, pushing its arms backwards into its shoulders to keep her distance. But its mouth was growing closer, the corpse using its dead weight to overpower her.

"Lori!"

I ran towards her, pulling the axe up behind my head and swinging it down as I neared them. My momentum, and the pick lodging into the walker's head sent the corpse hurling away, lying dead on the ground.

"Mom!" Carl cried, running forward and slamming into her side. "Are you okay? Did it get you?!"

"N-no, I'm okay." she assured him before looking at me, "thank you."

I looked down at the axe in my hand, suddenly aware that I now had the perfect weapon. I hated using the knife, hated it. Killing a walker that close was doable for me, but I always had the impression that I would mess up, and if I did mess up that close to a walker it could be the end.

The axe was longer, kept me further away from any threats. If I could learn to use it right, there was a chance that I could keep my distance while I killed walkers. Still, if anything went wrong with this method, I would have my knife as a backup.

"I am so keeping this," I announced, looking around the room.

"Come on!" Lori patted my back gently, urging me on and we ran out together.

I ran with Lori, we weaved through some aisles, avoiding more walkers before making it out of the store. I saw Daryl near the doors, he looked at us and called out, waving one hand wildly for us to get out, the other holding his crossbow.

I'd been so focused on the exit, I didn't see a walker lunge at me from the side. Before I could do anything, a bolt was shot through its head and it fell. Glancing around quickly, seeing that no others were very close, I bent down to pull the arrow out of its head, putting my boot on its face for momentum.

I heard my name being called, stopping was probably really stupid, but I knew Daryl didn't have infinite bolts and I had the extra second to get it. I continued to run after, Daryl held the door open for me and I ran past him. Lori was already outside, I saw her arms around Carl before turning back to check on me.

I was too out of it to really listen as Rick addressed us all outside the store. I knew he was checking for everyone, I did the same, head whipping around wildly. Everyone was accounted for. It didn't seem like anyone was hurt.

Once he knew we weren't missing anyone, we all made our way to the vehicles. I slammed the car door shut, not allowing myself to breathe until we started moving, and the mall was shrinking in the distance.

I know, I know. The Tomb Raider game where she uses the red climbing axe didn't come out unil 2012, but I really wanted Ace to have this weapon and seeing as she's British, it makes perfect sense to compare her to Lara Croft. So, now you have your own mini Lara. Just know in this universe that game came out two years sooner, seeing as the Hyundai they drive around in is a 2013 model, so I'm sure you can accept this novelty change.

Bit of a shorter chapter, but I did just spend a couple of days writing 48 which is 10,000 words long, so at least you got that coming for you at some point. Winter is officially over now as well, so get ready for season 3 next chapter! One of my favourite seasons, so I hope you enjoy that when it comes your way.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think :)