[b]Finn Loughty // Nicole Brenn - Food Court - Nathalie Soltero [@wolverbells] [/b]

  Finn didn’t realize it but relief flooded his features as Nathalie ran over to them. [b]“Oh my god, are ya’ll okay?”[/b] Discreetly eyeing her over to check for any walker bites and injuries she might have gotten while she was gone, he was thankful she had come back healthy and in one piece. [b]“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to help.”[/b] Surprised and grateful for her concern, he met her eyes. “No need to worry. It was my fault. I took care of it.” He’d rather face the walkers alone than her or Nicole. 

[b]“I, um, I found some stuff. Do y’all want to get moving before more of them come and then we can see what we managed to score? I got some stuff for Nicole too.”[/b] Nicole’s eyes lit up, knowing exactly what she was talking about. 

  While Nat went to grab her findings, Finn noticed his sister was unusually quiet. He let out a contemplative sigh and turned around to face her. He knew it would be better to bring this up sooner rather than later. “I’m not mad at you, Nicole. [i]I[/i] caused those walkers to come out. I didn’t want something to happen to you because of my doing. You should have left those walkers to me. Because if something would’ve happened, I never would have forgiven myself.”

   Nicole’s head stared down at her shoes in slight shame. “I still don’t know what happens to me when I see one of those dead things. I can’t seem to kill them no matter how hard I try.”

   Finn’s hand tilted her chin up to look at him. “You’ll learn.” The side of his mouth went up in a half-smile. “Now. I need your pack because I found so much food in that pantry to last us for the rest of our lives.” Nicole handed it over to him. With haste, he went over to the pantry and filled her backpack with everything he could so he didn’t keep them waiting. He felt around in the darkness to see if there was more but the pantry was far more emptier than he thought. It seemed like there was more in there when he first looked inside but he was deceived. He was able to fill Nicole’s pack to the brim with the remaining food. Returning to the spot where Nicole and Nat were waiting, he handed Nicole’s pack back and grabbed his and hoisted it over his back.

   A laugh escaped Finn’s lips as Nat smiled sheepishly at them with a bottle of wine,[b] “I have wine!”[/b] He didn’t remember the last time he let out a laugh. Probably the last time he had a drink. Perhaps they could celebrate their findings with a little bit of wine tonight. 

    “I found a bolted pantry back there with some food,” he explained in a low voice to not attract any more attention, pointing in the direction to where it was. “I believe someone took some of the food in there and locked it so that he would come back in the future to grab the rest.” He paused as the sudden remembrance of the promise he made to himself earlier. Selfish desires invaded his thoughts, trying to tell him to keep it to himself or ask for some kind of ‘payment’ in return. After all, so many men did it. Disgusted, he resisted it. Those weren’t men. They were pigs. If someone did this to his sister, he would cut them into pieces. 
  Returning to reality, he glanced over at Nat. ”Oh, I almost forgot. I wanna give you half of everything I got from there.” Nicole stared at her brother in genuine surprise. He continued, “For the food you gave us and for your help in leading us here. No strings attached. I promise.” His tone was earnest and his gaze sincere, because he wanted her to know that he was dead serious about it. He never would want to take advantage of her.

   Finn frowned as the sounds of distant groanings reached his ears. That was their cue to go. He remembered the way they came in and decided to lead them out, towards the mall parking lot.
   “Do you have a place to stay tonight?” Nicole chirped in, glancing at Nat. “We have a shelter about ten minutes from here if you wanna come.” 

   Finn didn’t say anything at first. He didn’t like to bring others to their shelter, afraid they might attract other people and they would overtake their place. But, if she needed a place to stay, he could allow her to stay for a little bit. He cleared his throat, “We need to sort through the food so you can take your half. If you want, we can take you to our shelter and we can do it there and you can take some time to rest over there. It’s up to you,” he looked at her with anticipation, wondering what she wanted to do.