Today we hit 1,000 views. I can't believe it. Thank you so much for your time and the interest you have taken in this story. In honor of the occasion I kicked it in the butt and got out the next update. I have the next one rolling as well, hope to get it out soon!!!

Please vote/comment!

<><><><><>

Jo

Daryl and I were lead as usual. We moved side by side our shoulders occasionally brushing as we swept and cleared each aisle. Glenn and Zack were behind us as Sasha and Tyreese brought up the rear.

When I glanced back after the first aisle I didn't see Bob. I just shook my head. I didn't like going on runs with new people for this reason precisely. You never knew what could happen or how they would react once the pressure was on. I always knew how Daryl would react and could depend on him. I hoped he felt the same way. Zack was new but I liked him. He was a brave kid and if he lived long enough to learn some lessons he would make a useful member of the group.

It took a long time to clear the store. The aisles seemed never ending and they split off in random directions. It was a labyrinth.  Which meant I wasn't one hundred percent comfortable we had in fact cleared the whole thing. Our small group seemed inadequate for such a large space.

Once we returned to the front of the store Sasha nodded as though our work had satisfied her and she repeated all our assignments.

"Alright," she said. "Lets split up, get this done and get home."

The others wandered off. I slid my knives away and stooped down to pull my flashlight out of my backpack. When I stood and turned I flinched. Daryl was standing just outside the ring of my light.

"Everything okay?" I asked, shouldering my empty pack. Daryl wasn't normally one to hover and certainly not over me unless there was a reason.

Daryl spun in a slow circle his lips pressed into a grim line. "Keep your eyes open?"

I nodded frowning. I looked around to see if I could see what had him on edge.

He nodded too as though that reassured him somehow. When he passed me he brushed the back of his hand against mine. "Stay safe," he muttered almost too quiet for me to hear then walked off into the dark.

I shook my head. Some days I didn't think I would ever understand Daryl.

I found a shopping cart and slowly pushed it through the aisles. It was like going back in time. If not for the dark store it could have been any Saturday morning when I went to get groceries. I calmly added things, strolling among the dark aisles in a way that before the outbreak would have infuriated me. I had always approached shopping with more expedience than anything else. For just a moment I felt blissfully normal.

Despite Sasha's direct orders I took a brief detour to another aisle for a personal item for a pet project of mine. Instead of putting the cans in the cart however I loaded them immediately into my backpack. I was just zipping up the pack when Zack came around the corner, a small piece of paper in his hand.

"Jo?" he seemed confused to find me in his section of the store. "Whatcha got?"

I smirked up at him. "Pet project of mine, its for the group." I cleared my throat and stood up, swinging my pack back over my shoulder. "Do me a favor? Keep this between us? I want it to be a surprise."

Zack's interest was peaked and he stepped towards me, glancing around at the shelves surrounding us. I could practically see his brain working, trying to piece together what I might be doing. "Will it be good?" He asked.

"Could be a game changer," I said smiling. "But I don't want to get people's hopes up."

Zack smiled back. "I understand," he said conspiratorially. And then he winked at me.

I shook my head in disbelief. This kid. "Well, I'm going to get my list done before Sasha finds me," I said and pushed my cart away.

I was in the back corner of the store, heading towards the automotive section to get the rest of my assigned things. The only noise I could hear was the creak of the wheels and the gentle sighs of the leather on my sheaths. I strained my ears to see if I could hear any of the others.

I startled when a loud crash echoed through the building. I felt my eyes widen and I took off in the direction of the sound. It was followed immediately by an even louder crash that had the ring of hundreds of breaking bottles. My boots slapped loudly against the cement floor, drowning out any other noise.

I raced around a corner and nearly collided with Daryl. We both flinched and rounded on one another. Daryl held his hands up for a moment until I made eye contact with him. Then we nodded to one another and ran side by side towards the sound.

There was a downed shelf in the liquor section, Bob was laying half underneath it. There was broken glass everywhere and the floor beneath my boots was covered in a thin layer of liquid.

Daryl ran immediately to Bob, flashing his light beneath the shelf. "You alright?" He asked. "You cut or something?"

I frowned as I looked around. Zack and Tyreese came jogging around a corner but they slowed when they saw there was no danger from Walkers. What the hell was Bob doing in this section anyway? His assignment had been towels and blankets.

"No man," Bob said in a strangely calm voice. "But my foot is caught."

Daryl nodded. "All right," he stood and looked at us around him. "He's just caught. Come on, help me out." He said looking at Tyreese who was by far the strongest of us. He tossed me his crossbow. I caught it a little awkwardly but managed to not drop it. He and Tyreese moved to lift the shelf together.

"What happened?!" Glenn shouted, his voice echoing through the empty store. I could hear him running through the store towards us.

"Everyone's all right!" Zack yelled back. "We're over in wine and beer."

I flinched at the loud voices. It was so ingrained to keep silent to not draw attention from Walkers. But the shelves crashing had caused so much noise there was no way there were Walkers here. Despite that the shouting still made me uncomfortable.

Daryl and Tyreese lifted the first shelf back into standing position allowing me to get a better look at Bob. He was laying on his stomach, his backpack seemed to take the brunt of the impact from the falling shelf.

"I was moving fast man," Bob laughed at himself, shaking his head. "I drove right into the drinks."

I frowned as I stared at him. He was lying.

Tyreese stooped down to get a better look. "Man, you lucked out. If this thing had come down on you the wrong way..." Tyreese shook his head as though he didn't want to think about it.

"It was lucky," I agreed, staring Bob in the face. He lifted his eyes to meet mine and immediately looked down and away. Something about my words made him uncomfortable. I glanced over at Daryl but he was entirely focused on freeing Bob.

A soft rumble and creaking drew my attention. I lifted Daryl's crossbow and swung around as I frowned. I couldn't tell where the noise was coming from. It came again. I caught Daryl's eye and he smirked at me dropping his eyes to the crossbow. He didn't hear it. He thought I was just messing around.

"Do you-" I started to ask just as there was a loud crash and the ceiling collapsed overhead as something came crashing through the ceiling tiles.

Daryl jumped towards me, and pushed me back out of the way with a sweep of his arm. I grabbed his arm pulling him back with me
so we were both well out of range. I frowned and blinked rapidly as my eye fought to adjust to the sudden light. Dangling from the rafters was a Walker who had fallen through the roof.

Daryl grabbed his crossbow out of my hands. I dropped my hands to my knives.

Sasha and Glenn suddenly appeared, looking up at the swinging walker with equal parts shock and disgust.

"Yeah..." Glenn muttered. "uh, we should probably go now."

Daryl snapped into action. "Bob's still stuck. Get him out of there." Tyreese moved to help him once more.

The creaking came again and another Walker fell through. This one splattering on impact. The others started to back up slowly as more and more began falling through the ceiling. More that were landing were coming in intact and as they got their bearings they began shambling towards our group. I heard Bob scream from below the shelf. I closed my eyes for a millisecond as frustration n coursed through me. How would yelling help?

I jerked my Kukri knife out of its sheath, snapped my eyes open and stabbed the walker closest to me. I kicked the next one back, clearing some space and pulled Daryl's hunting knife. I closed my eyes for a millisecond again, centering myself this time. I blocked out everything else, the frustration and fear and focused. Then I turned on the Walker in front of me, than the next, and the next. I had put down five when the first gun shot startled me.

I turned towards it to see Glenn on the ground, struggling with two Walkers. I could throw Daryl's knife, but it was better for hand to hand. I sheathed it and pulled my throwing one out from under my arm. I was about to let it go when Glenn finally killed the two of them.

I was shoved sideways by a Walker who came too close in my moment of distraction. I moved with the motion and let myself stumble out into a more open aisle. I needed to keep my focus on myself. Walker's were everywhere. I twisted away from the one closest to me, shoving the small knife up through the bottom of it's chin. When I ripped it away more matter came with it but there was no time, another Walker was right on top of me.

I could hear the others fighting around me, but I had to trust that they could take care of themselves. I killed two more when I heard the thwack of Daryl's crossbow. I whirled in time to see him knock another down, swinging the crossbow into the side of it's head. My stomach turned as I realized he wasn't just fighting for himself, he was trying to defend Bob as well.

Bob continued to yell from beneath the shelf drawing more and more Walker's towards him so they were swarming him and Daryl. He was going to get Daryl killed. This is why I hated new people. I had to get to Daryl. I started fighting my way towards the herd surrounding him and Bob but the bodies were so dense it made it difficult. My boots slipped on the wet floor and the smell of alcohol burned my nose as I stabbed another Walker through the temple to get closer.

Daryl finally pulled his gun and fired at nearly point blank range. The walkers kept coming closer and closer. He backed up onto a stacked up pile of beer cases. A walker reached for him from behind and I let the little knife fly, knowing I wouldn't get it back. It sank into the Walker's skull and it let go of Daryl's jacket.

<><><><><>
Daryl

The ceiling rumbled again over head and I looked up. More debris and supports fell. I could only hope they landed on walkers and not our people.

Looking straight up into the light I could see what began all this trouble in the first place. A crashed Army helicopter was falling through the roof. It didn't look like it burned so the gas must have leaked out and saturated the roof, weakening it. I kicked another walker back. Shitty, shitty timing. The Walkers were all around me now and i fired at two more. That was two less bullets.

Jo appeared like a tornado moving through the Walker's surrounding me as fast as humanly possible. She arced and spun, slamming her knives into their skulls and pulling them out while stabbing with her other hand. But she couldn't keep it up forever. She would tire eventually and the Walkers kept coming. She fought to clear a path of some kind but they were swarming us from behind. What the hell was she doing coming towards the herd?

"Daryl go!" she yelled to me. 

She took out two more that were coming towards me and I watched in horror as she stumbled a step over one of the downed bodies. She tried to catch herself but when she stepped back her boot hit the wine covered floor and slipped out from under her. Bile rose in my throat as I watched her go down in a pile of walkers and broken glass.

"Jo!" I yelled. I immediately lost sight of her as Walkers swarmed her. It was like I couldn't breathe. I jumped down off the boxes, my crossbow up. A walker grabbed after me, I was about to fire but it fell to the floor jerking as Zack fired a second bullet into it's skull just to be sure it was dead. Then he swung and fired at the three walkers leaning over Jo. She kicked the last one back and threw herself to her feet. She was soaked in blood and wine but she was moving. I reached for her, touching her forearm, needing to reassure myself she was alright. Blood was dripping from her hands and temple.

"I'm fine," she promised. But she was trembling. She tightened her grip on her knives and whirled to stab one coming behind her.

"GET BOB!" Zack yelled firing again and again.

I snapped back to the task at hand. Bob was still hollering at the top of his lungs beneath the shelf. I ran towards the fallen shelf once more, swinging my crossbow back out of the way.

A Walker had belly crawled towards Bob and he was only holding it back by it's face. I grabbed it by it's pants and jerked it away from him. Without a weapon in hand I slammed my heel down as hard as I could onto the rotting skull. Blood and black matter exploded everywhere. Zack ran for the shelf. Grunting he lifted it up as high as he could while i reached under to pull Bob out.

"Time to go!" Sasha's voice rang out over the gun shots and sounds of Walkers snarling.

"Let's go, now! Come on! Go!" Glenn yelled.

"Let's get out of here!" Zack yelled triumphantly, dropping the shelf back into place.

I turned away from him, and he screamed. I whipped back around to see out from under the shelf was a Walker with it's teeth set in his leg. Zack screamed again and the Walker jerked him to the ground. Before I could move it sunk it's teeth into his neck and artery blood sprayed everywhere.

"Go! Go!" I yelled at the others shoving them towards the door. I took one step towards Zack, but it was no good, there was nothing I could do. He was already dead.

I turned towards the door to find Jo standing behind me. She pulled her handgun and fired a single shot into Zack's brain. The rumbling and creaking increased from overhead. The chopper was coming down.

Jo latched onto my arm and dragged me away from the body. We were just clear when the ceiling finally gave way and the helicopter came through.

Jo stumbled beside me in shock but I had a hold of her jacket and I pulled her into me to steady her. Even when she had her balance she didn't pull away. Instead she gripped my forearm tightly and propelled us towards the door.

Glenn and Sasha were waiting at the front door both turned towards us with guns raised. Tyreese was holding the door. As soon as we were through Tyreese jerked it closed behind us. Only seconds after we were out I heard the first walkers slam into the glass. Then another and another until I heard the first cracks begin. The five of us ran through the army tents.

Bob already had the truck running for the others. Jo and I ran for my bike. It was only then that I got a good look at her. She was pale and her eyes were wide. There was blood on her hands and the side of her head. I was positive it was hers. She was soaked and smelled like booze.

"Ya okay?" I asked quickly. I reached out to touch her face but stopped and forced myself to stop. I turned back to secure my crossbow and climb on the bike . She climbed on behind me and there was a fine tremble in her hands and arms as she wrapped them around me maybe a little tighter than normal.

"Gotta be," she said quietly in my ear.

<><><><><>

Vote/Comment please! I would love to hear thoughts and opinions on what's happening!