Same Song, Different Album | Dean and Lisa
Dean stuck close to Lisa as they entered the deserted town. They’d tried not to scout too far out, but lack of essentials forced them to go out of their comfort zone. He took in the dusty cars and open doors, gun in hand in case anything surprised them. He wasn’t going to take any chances.
Dean took a moment to glance over at Lisa. She looked cleaner and healthier since he’d run into her in the woods weeks ago. She looked almost like the woman he’d left behind. But neither of them were the same. The world had gone to shit, and Ben with it. Deep down, he still blamed himself. He should never have left them alone. If he had been there, he could have held the walkers off to get them all out safely. Or at least long enough to get them to safety. But Ben was dead, and Lisa was with him. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He couldn’t.
He shook off his dark thoughts and grinned over at the woman. “And over here we have your typical creepy Southern ghost town.” He tried to keep interactions between them light when he could. But he had to admit that sometimes he felt strangely awkward around her. He tried to fight through it. “Which is great, because that leaves us with a pharmacy and bar to raid. Hopefully the good stuff’s still there.” He stopped and looked at her fully. “Where should we hit first?”
“Pharmacy. Better to just get the important things first then hit the bar later.” Lisa gave Dean an appreciative smile at his attempt at humor. In reality, she hated everything about making runs into town; they were a thing of ritual dislike. It was difficult to go around town undetected back in Battle Creek because those damn walkers had started crawling in all sorts of places. Rations were scarce and the roads were always heavily littered with debris. The soles of her shoes were so worn down from running that she could now feel every dip, rock, and bump in the ground she walked. She reminded herself to keep an eye out for a nice pair of boots so she could replace her fading boat shoes with something a little more durable.
Lisa no doubt had some feelings of anger towards Dean since he left them but those feelings were constantly quelled by her steely determination to protect herself and her son. But now that Ben was gone, so was the edge of that determination. Inside she was completely destroyed by the loss but she needed to keep going. There was no one but Dean now. And Lisa would do everything she could to make it work.
The pharmacy was not hard to find. It was one of the few buildings left intact, for whatever reason, although the glass on the door had been smashed in. Stepping carefully over the debris, Lisa followed Dean inside. They scanned the area to make sure no walkers were around and quickly bagged the essentials and a few extra goodies, like Lisa’s favorite conditioner. “Alright, I think it’s time for the fun part, don’t you?” she said as she and Dean hopped back over the broken door frame.
