07

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Daryl clicked the flashlight he had found, back on. It illuminated the darkness, through it didn't eliminate their nervousness. He lead Juliana and Beth cautiously into a backroom. Juliana gripped the cold metal of her gun, and had to take her hand away at one point to wipe the clamminess from her palm to get a better grip. As the light flicked around the room, it became more obvious that it had once been a kitchen. Stacks of garbage were piled almost to the ceiling, thrown into the corners of the room. Pots and pans were scattered, with empty cans of food and bottles mixed in.

While she had become irritated by Beth, Juliana was confident in Daryl's ability to be okay on his own. When Beth began to wander into another room, she followed her quietly, using the faint light of the small flash light Beth had also picked up her guide to where she was headed.

Beth stopped in front of an open pantry, flicking the light upwards to the top shelf. "Beth," Juliana whispered harshly at her as Beth stepped over a dried-out walker who looked like they may have been trapped underneath some shelving. Beth continued, climbing up the shelves to reach the bottle. Pans clanged together, causing Juliana to tense, gripping her gun tighter.

Managing to get ahold of the bottle, she stepped back down, bottle of whatever alcohol it was in hand. With their backs turned, they both were caught off guard when a walker came ambling out from an open walk-in cooler. He caught Beth first, and she slammed down the bottle over his head. It shattered, spraying glass and a red liquid all over the floor. Beth kept the walker away as best as she could, striking him in the face again with the sharp edge of the broken bottle. She had begun to raise the butt of her gun to end the fight, when Daryl came up next to her. He reached out, pulling the butt of her gun down as Beth pulled out her knife, slamming it into the walker's eye socket.

"Thanks for the help," she panted.


Juliana shot a glance to Daryl who kept his eyes on Beth, "You said you could take care of yourself. You did."

***


Downstairs the trio came upon what once was a gift shop. Of course, the main staples were brightly colored polo shirts and khaki pants. Juliana wandered away from Beth and Daryl as they browsed the gift shop. It wasn't her style; too bright and clean for her tastes. Looking over her shoulder, she watched as Beth took a bright yellow polo and white cardigan off their hangers, a small smile on her face as she went to change in the small fitting room.

Shifting her attention to Daryl, she watched as he mashed the buttons on the cash register, shaking it slightly to get it to open up.

"Make you should buy it dinner first," she teased, cocking an eyebrow in his direction. Daryl only responded to her with a grunt, stepping back from the register. He lifted the flash light up, scanning it around the room an old corpse came into view. She was strung up onto the wall, her shirt ripped open and a sign that said: RICH BITCH, around her neck. She had been cut in half at the waist and her upper body placed on the lower half of a mannequin.

Beth moved to the woman, trying to pull her body off of the stand, "Help me take her down."

Juliana slid her gun so it rested on her back and stepped forward. Of all the things that they had all seen, this bothered her. She tried not to think of the torture that this woman probably endured, or what she was thinking of as she started to slip away.

"It don't matter," Daryl said, watching as Juliana and Beth started to move the upper half of the body, "She's dead."

"It does matter," Juliana told him, staring him down thoroughly the dimly lit room. Daryl cast his eyes downward, looking away from her. When she turned her gaze away and looked to Beth, the two of them exchanged smiles, finally coming to some sort of understanding between the two of them.

Unfortunately, the woman was stuck on there, and no matter how much they pulled or tried to move her around, she wouldn't budge.

"Here," Daryl muttered, stepping forward with a large cloth, draping it over the woman's body. It wasn't exactly what they were trying to achieve, but it helped, and they left the shop to go back the way they came.

A clock chimed in the hallway, causing them all to look around in fear that more walkers would pop out from places they hadn't checked yet. Daryl nudged them all forward, and as they peered in a room, two walkers wailed from the opposite end of the room. "Come on!" Daryl hissed. Juliana cursed under her breath as they pressed forward, only to be met with more walkers coming from the other direction. Cursing under her breath, they took off down the hallway and into what was a locker room.

The walkers had followed.

Juliana quickly slid her gun off from around her shoulders, knowing that it would be a bad idea to fire any rounds in here. Daryl had already slammed the end of his crossbow into one's skull before dropping it and picking up a golf club on the ground. Juliana used the butt of her gun, striking the face of another as hard as she could.

He took care of the last walker, using the club again he smacked it until it fell to the ground. It groaned and snapped in his direction, and instead of hitting it in the head he continued to play with it, as if he were the cat and the walker were the mouse.


"Daryl," Juliana called out quietly, "Daryl!" she repeated, louder this time. Daryl continued his onslaught, finally hitting the head of the walker so hard, it exploded, splattering on Beth's new clothes she had found. Nothing was said between the three of them, and as Beth turned to take off the blood-stained cardigan, Juliana and Daryl looked over at each other, and she couldn't help but feel oddly disappointed in him.

***


Finally making it into the bar felt like a weight lifted off of Juliana's shoulders. If this was all Beth wanted, they could finally be done with this place and move on.

While Beth moved behind the bar, Juliana slid up onto a barstool, setting the gun down on the counter amidst broken bottles and garbage. She leaned forwards carefully, brushing away some of the glass that was in her way before she laid her forearms down. She watched as Beth rifled around, finally pulling up a half empty bottle of something clear. She smiled widely at Juliana and made her way back around the counter, sitting down next to her.

"Have you drink yet?" Daryl asked, still rummaging through tables and shoving valuables into his bag.

"No. But I found this!" she placed the bottle on the counter in between her and Juliana, "Peach schnapps. Is it good?"

"No." Both Daryl and Juliana answered in unison.

She sighed, "Well, it's the only thing that's left."

Daryl busied himself at throwing darts at the picture of a group of rich, white guys on the wall while Juliana and Beth peeked into cups and glasses, trying to find a clean one. Beth tried to clean out a cup to no avail before giving up, "Who needs a glass?" she said to herself.

Juliana watched Beth carefully, noticing how she hesitated to open it up. Licking her lips, she finally mustered up the courage and grabbed at the bottle, dragging it closer to her. She played with the cap, slightly unscrewing the top before stopping. Her lip began to quiver, and Juliana's heart began to break. For as much annoying shit Beth had done these past days, they had been through a lot together, and Beth had just lost her father.

"Beth," Juliana whispered quietly. Beth didn't look up at Juliana as she began to cry. Looking over her shoulder to Daryl, an expression of worry on her face, she noted that Daryl had been watching; assessing the situation.

He came over quickly, yanking the bottle off of the counter and smashed it into the ground. "Ain't gonna have your first drink be no damned peach schnapps." He told her, making his way over to a side door and opened it up, "Come on." He told the two of them.

Wiping the tears from her face, Beth got up and Juliana followed, pulling the gun from the counter and slipping the strap around her shoulder again. As she followed after Beth out the door, she stopped for a moment, giving Daryl's upper arm a squeeze and offered him a soft smile. She knew what he had done. Daryl, of course, only stared down through his shaggy hair at Juliana for that moment until she stepped out into the sunshine.

Once again, they traveled on.

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