Beth:
I woke up to Daryl crawling out of bed. He pulled on his jeans, button-down shirt, and vest before slinging his crossbow over his shoulder. He turned around and saw me awake. "Oh hey. Didn't know you were up." I smiled at him. "Yeah. I am." I giggled. "You ready to go?" He nodded. "Yeh. We can go as soon as you're ready." At that I stood and dressed in what I had with me. My jeans had a big, bloody hole in the hip and my shirt had blood spattered all over. "Carol really got me." I said under my breath. Daryl heard me and looked down. "Yeah. She did." When I was ready to go, Daryl handed me his knife. "Until we find ya somethin' to carry with ya." I took it and put it through my belt. "Okay. I guess we should go now."
We ate breakfast and said our goodbyes to Morgan. He looked down at the hole in my jeans, showing my dark, thick scar. "You're gonna need some new clothes. There's an old shopping mall down the way a bit. I don't think it's been looted much. There aren't any signs marking it and it's kinda back aways. Before the world went to shit it was on the verge of bankruptcy anyways. Not many customers. You could check there for some supplies." Daryl shook Morgan's hand firmly. "Thanks, man. For everything." Morgan nodded and looked at me. "You gonna be okay on that leg?" I hugged him and nodded, trying not to cry. "I'm sure I will. Thank you for saving me." He squeezed me tighter before letting me go. "You should be thanking your friend here. Carried you almost ten miles from that prison." I looked over at Daryl. I had no idea we were that far from the prison. I smiled at him and grabbed his hand. He squeezed my hand and we said our final goodbyes and left.
Daryl:
"I recken' we head for that shopping mall and see what we can find." Beth nodded. "Yeah. Maybe there'll be a car there." "Maybe. Morgan said it was back aways so be lookin'." We went about five miles without seeing anything. Another three and there it was. "I see it!" Beth was pumped about maybe findin' a car. I wasn't so sure there was such a good chance of that with there bein' so few customers.
We cleared the stores one by one, sittin' outside the front window of each one n' bangin' on the window to draw walkers out. There weren't many, just clerks n' maybe ten others. Surprisingly, there were actually a few cars in the lot. We picked out the smallest to save gas. I told Beth I'd hotwire it when we came back out.
"Where should be go first?" Beth looked around. "There's a sports store, a gas station, a coffee shop, a department store, and an auto shop." I looked down at her leg. Winter was comin' and we wouldn't last long in what we had on. "Better check that department store. And we can find parts for that car in the auto shop." Beth nodded and we walked toward the department store.
Beth:
I went straight for the Juniors' department when we got into the store. "Find what you can and meet me back at the front. See if you can find yourself a coat." I nodded. When I got back there, there was surprisingly a lot left there. I picked up a bra, a couple pairs of underwear, a t-shirt, and sweater, a pair of jeans, some socks, and found a black peacoat-style jacket in my size. I also grabbed a pair of combat boots. I changed right there into the t-shirt, jeans, boots, and undergarments, and left my old clothes behind. I snagged a couple stocking caps off a rack on my way back to the front. I figured Daryl might not think to grab a hat, and he'd probably need one soon. I got back to the front and Daryl had grabbed pretty much the same things I had, minus the bra (obviously) and the hat. I handed him one and he chuckled. He had gotten a leather jacket for himself. It was a nice one. He'd changed too, and was wearing his vest with a new button-down and a pair of work boots. We were set on clothes for a while.
We threw the extra stuff in the car and headed for the auto shop after Daryl checked out the car more thoroughly. He said we needed a new battery, otherwise the car was good to go. So we went in and got one. It was a pretty quick trip. When the battery was in, we hit the sports store next.
Daryl:
I knew exactly where we needed to go in the sports store. We needed a bag and some weapons. Hopefully the firearms hadn't been raided. It didn't seem like the rest of the stores had been.
Of course the only store in the entire damn mall that was popular was the sports store. All that was left in the weapons were a couple hunting knifes and some ammo. There were bolts though. Not many crossbow carriers I recken'. I grabbed the bolts and knives and found a big duffel bag and a baseball bat. Beth followed me out of the store and back to the car.
I found half a can of gas in the gas station and Beth found a few boxes of cereal in the coffee shop. We put our stuff in the car, I wired it, and we were off.
