Girls from the Valley

[D/N]

(Deanna Hull [with Ruby Forrester] continued from Hunger for Freedom)

It was OK. She didn't eat much.

She'd said that several times over the past week -- hell, the past decade -- and it was correct. Dee didn't eat much. Never had. Blame her mother, maybe; blame her for an infancy filled with cheap, shitty food Dee left after a few bites even as a two-year-old. Dee's palate had been weaned on leftovers, on stolen milk smuggled home from Jack-In-The-Box, and on other fresh cardboard carbs and fiber courtesy of young Melody Hull, who loved her fucking kid but by god it was hard to feed and clothe and raise and work and party all at once, wasn't it?

But it all worked out fine. Dee never made those maybe-bullshit-anyway connections between then and now, and even if, she probably wouldn't mind. She'd never worried about getting fat. Never had to make the agonizing choice about whether to splurge on the super nacho fries, because the super nacho fries never appealed to her. Sure, she liked chocolate and stuff, but only to nibble. And now, well now even as she guessed her weight was dropping close to that magical two-digit range that spelled 'severe eating disorder get help girl', she felt mostly OK. Because she didn't eat much.

But she wasn't stupid. She knew they had to.

Good thing for dead kids.

It was dark, and Dee and Ruby were moving west. They'd stopped at the shopping mall for a brief spell, because it was familiar territory to Dee and she liked that. But Kyran wasn't there, and neither was anyone else; she'd psyched herself up beforehand, mentally congratulating her having figured out that he'd be there because it was someplace they both knew and it made sense, and they waited a few hours before it started to cut too deeply. Ruby was looking for Ami Flynn, suggested howbout they just keep moving west, and Dee was cool with that.

Now she grabbed Veronica McDonald's bag from the floor of the shoe store, backed up, and squealed as her foot rolled over something, barely managing to keep her balance. What the fuck was that? It wasn't Veronica, because that body was right in front of her, and it wasn't R.J. either, so shifting her flashlight from elbow crook to palm Dee shone it around the floor and illuminated a tire iron. Well then.

Dee hesitated only a second before scooping the new weapon up and adding it to Veronica's pack, then called out to the street.

"I got a bag!"

-----

Sitting under the stars with Ruby Forrester, Dee tore open the survival bar's wrapper and crammed half of it into her mouth, chewing as quickly as possible. There was no taste, no joy in eating. It was an obligatory act to stave off starvation, nothing more. Which was fine; she was used to that. She unscrewed one of Veronica's water bottles and drank half of it too, and at least the water some coolness, some refreshing value to it.

Ruby'd been able to pick up a bag as well, nearly tripping over Stephanie Wright's body in the dark about ten minutes ago, so between them they had something resembling supplies now. Wouldn't last much longer, but hey, there were always more dead kids.

There was one ration bar remaining with Veronica's other stuff. Dee picked it out and dropped it next to the tire iron, then zipped open her own bag and transferred the iron over. It was heavy, but wasn't like she'd been carrying a ton of weight around. She figured she could handle it.

"Guess I'll keep that," she said to Ruby and herself, and half-smiled. "Better than a Freddy Krueger glove, and you've got the gun."

Dee guessed she was glad she'd waited up for Ruby back at the garden, and not just because of the gun. Ruby had also saved her fucking life apparently, because yes, Sharon Austin of all people had tried to kill Dee. Shoot her in the back with a crossbow. Dee was having some problems processing that, which she guessed made it all the more amazing that she'd managed to survive this long. Dee didn't think that Ruby had killed Sharon back there. At least she hadn't bothered to check. She also couldn't guess whether or not she'd be happy if Ruby had.

After that, they hadn't talked much about Sharon. Ruby'd asked Dee about the incredible non-plan she'd cooked up with Kyran et al, and Dee had a bit of a laugh as she tried to explain it, and Ruby seemed somewhat disappointed that it wasn't anything better. Although if Ruby had killed Sharon the attempted killer, maybe they were carrying on the spirit of the plan after all.

They hadn't talked much about the plan after that.

But Dee was still glad she'd waited up for Ruby.

Soon they'd break for the night, because they weren't going to find Kyran or Ami or any other killers to kill in the dark like this. And come morning they'd keep moving west. Dee finished the mushy food bar and tossed the wrapper over her shoulder, indifferently littering, then slipped the second one into her bag beside her new weapon.

"You can keep any of Stephanie's stuff, that'll be good for me for awhile. It's OK. I don't eat much."

(Deanna Hull continued in Lucifer Fell)