Survivor: Zombie Nation

Rich grabbed his axe and stepped out of the car, stretching his back and long legs with a short groan, "We'll gather up everything we can, yell if you need any help...ah..." he cracked his neck with a satisfied sigh and hoisted the axe over his shoulder, "Come on Tabitha," he said cheerily enough, "Let's get this stuff packed up before someone else does!"

So far there didn't seem to be a single zombie around, but he kept his eyes and ears open. Walking across the concrete he checked through the glass to see if any were inside...the place was a mess but...he didn't see anything. Yet. Rich pulled open the door and stepped inside.

I smiled at Dylan's back, it was nice to have a man around, someone to take charge and lead. I won't lie, I was still scared, scared out of my mind, but Dylan made it almost bearable, like some sort of breaker against the storms.

I stepped in after Dylan, the place was messier, well, than how my brother had his room back home, well, before he started to munch on Chad's innards.

I looked about, We should get a bag or something to carry stuff?" I whispered quietly.

Rich looked over his shoulder at the timid girl and winked, making a finger gun at her, "Bang! Right on the money, Tab! I'll gather things into a pile for us and you can pack them up... there might be bags behind the counter!"

Walking confidently over to one large freezer Rich set his axe down to fill his arms with bottles of lukewarm water, bringing it to a clear spot on the floor and setting it down for Tabitha to handle. She seemed a little skittish, and while Rich WOULD fuck her if he got the chance...well...it seemed less likely than the other girl. Besides, being nice to both of them would have Z un-thawing enough to spread those legs of hers...hopefully.

Humming to himself Rich gathered up nonperishable foods and added them to the pile, along with some fruit drinks...but all the milk had long ago gone bad. Pity, he wouldn't have minded some chocolate milk. Moving to pick his axe back up after scouring the store for anything else useful he wondered how Z was doing.

Zarita watched them go inside for a moment, then grabbed up her bat. She didn't even bother grabbing the gun. They couldn't afford to draw any attention before they'd filled the truck up with gas, so if any zombies came, she was going to have to deal with them head on. She might not act like it, but Zarita hated having to use the bat. She hated having to get so close to the undead out to kill her. Any little slip-up or inattention might be the last mistake she ever made and it scared the shit out of her, the idea of becoming one of them.

After all, what happened to her if she did? Was it like something else possessed her body, with her somewhere, somehow being conscious but unable to control her body and its urges? Was it like she was inside, dormant, unaware of anything while her body ran a muck? Or was she dead, and only her body continued to function on? Those were things she sometimes pondered, but she wasn't curious enough to want to find out first hand.

"Stop that, right now," Zarita muttered to herself. Scaring herself would do no one any good. She made sure to close the doors, although she left the doors unlocked and left the key in the ignition. She opened the hatch for the gas tank then headed 'round back.

She was familiar with this particular chain of stores and knew they had an auto-shut off that made it so the power had to be turned on from the breakers outside rather than inside the store. She eyed the lock that kept the switches locked from public use then used her bat to break it off. By the time she managed it, she was sweating.

"Bet they've already finished inside," she said to herself, pulling the thing open and flipping the switches. She didn't turn the lights on, not wanting to advertise their position as the sun was starting to set, but made sure the pumps were on and working. Then, she headed inside.

I nodded at Dylan's back and moved towards the counter. He seemed so confident, so self assured. It was almost comforting the way he took charge of the situation. I pulled out what was left of the plastic bags just behind the counter and walked down a different aisle to see what there was to eat. I dumped the pile of bags, thinking of how nice it was to have someone else, two someones else left in the world. There were more, Jake said so, and there was Jake, leaving his small notebooks with his symbol out for all to see.

I loaded in some potato chips and cans of fruit and so forth and then dumped in a can opener for good measure. Some how, this was all going to get better, even with the zombi.......I stooped dead and looked back at the counter and the aisle and even the garage convenience store. I had just wandered around pondering things in an almost daze and hadn't even seen, let alone checked for infected. I shuddered, I could have been bitten at anytime, daydreaming and feeling good about myself.

I moved carefully, looking about, I was scared, I hadn't checked anything out. I put the bag by the door and then walked over to the freezer and noticed the billy cans just down that aisle, "I'll, I'll get the cans for Buffy to fill okay." and moved towards the cans, gathering them up, trying to be quiet as possible and grabbed a handful of tie downs as well.

"Sure thing," said Rich as he finished packing the last of the things away, "I'll get these bags in the truck then help you two fill the cans..." he paused and then looked at Tabitha, it finally sinking in what she'd called Z, "Wait...Buffy?" he asked, a grin on his face. He got the reference...but it was still kind of weird.

Shaking his head he let it go as he picked the bags up, carrying several at a time. Striding out to the car with his axe under one arm he kept his eyes open for zombies. They could appear at anytime, but so far they didn't seem close. Honestly they preferred areas where people might be and around here looked pretty fucking abandoned. Why stay where there was no food, right?

Rich pushed the bags into the truck, going back to grab the last of them and shift them in as well. It was nice to know they'd have gas and food for sometime... it wasn't like civilization was gone completely...just...derailed a little. You could still find food if you knew where to look and bases, or camps, of survivors. Usually in the country which was easier to defend than a city. Rich wasn't really worried. Life goes on, and so would he.

"You girls need any help?" he asked cheerfully when he was done putting the bags away. He leaned nonchalantly on the handle of his axe as he asked.

When she came around the building, Zarita saw Rich putting stuff in the truck, but there was no sign of Tabitha. She was likely still inside then, she deduced. She went in, pushing the door open with her hip as she kept a grip on her bat.

"Tabs, it's just me," Zarita called as she entered, not wanting to spook the girl and get mistaken for a zombie. She went over to the register, turning on a bunch of the pumps so that the three of them could each use one to fill the cans and the truck simultaneously.

She walked around to the other girl and grabbed the cans. "I'm going to start filling these up. Why don't you grab more food? Can never have enough, after all."

With a nod at her, Zarita turned and headed outside.

I looked up at Buffy, "Ummmm okay," I said to her back as she walked out. I grabbed another petrol can and turned to tell Dylan that I was going to grab some more food when I noticed he wasn't in the room anymore. I whirled around and saw him outside leaning on his axe.

Cold fear gripped my stomach and I felt suddenly cold and afraid. I moved quickly around the goods stand and grabbed one of those shopping bags, the eco friendly ones that were so popular back before all this mess and pushed in lollies and cans of food without even looking at them.

Hopefully, just hopefully, this place really was empty of infected.

"Pumps are on, you can gas up the car," Zarita called out to Rich as she went to another pump.

Setting the empty cans on the pavement between two other pumps, she grabbed the a hose from each and crouched down between the two to fill two cans simultaneously. The faster they finished, the sooner they could get going. She didn't relish trying to manage her way around the gas station in the dark, and no way were they going to turn on any lights. She had had enough zombie fighting for the day.

I piled the bags at just outside the door, wedging it open with them and went back in for one more bag of stuff. This one I piled in a few torches and batteries. I felt my heart beating in my chest like some hammer ramming against a wall. It pounded loudly in my ears and I felt the terror in me mounting. Please please please don't let there be any infected in here.

Was that the step of something? I knew my mind was probably playing tricks on me, but I also didn't care. I grabbed the bag and ran. I've learnt one thing during this whole deadly episode, and that is, if you're going to stop and see what made that noise, you're not going to live. I've run more often than not since the zombpocalypse began.

I pushed open the door and made the mistake of looking back and my leg hit something. I went piling onto the foyer ground, the bag in my hand skittering forward, though only a few things spilled out. I looked back and cursed myself. I had tripped over the the same bag that I had used to prop open the door. I got up and yanked it out of the doorway and slowly got up. I was more embarrassed than anything else, sure that Buffy and Dylan had seen my ungracious spill.

I gathered up the bag and didn't look up at them, my cheeks burned with embarrassment.

Zarita stopped pumping gas at the sound of running, and she looked toward the door in time to see Tabatha trip on the bag she'd had holding the door open. Her eyes traveled behind the girl on the floor, half ready to get up and head over there to help her when she noted that there was nothing else in the building. What had scared the other girl enough to make her run was beyond her.

She almost called out to her to ask if she was all right, but she saw enough of Tabatha's face to note that she was completely red in the face. Zarita was sure that she'd only embarrass her further, so instead, she went back to pumping gas into the cans, acting as if she'd not seen a thing.

Rich watched Tabitha fall from the corner of his eye but quickly looked away again to concentrate on filling the car up. She was fine and he didn't really care if she fell down as long as she didn't slow them up. To help along his reputation with Zarita he might have gone over to help, but seeing as how she clearly saw the same thing and did nothing, he let it be.

When the car was filled up he closed the tank up and filled up what was left of the containers, picking them up with a small grunt and placing them in the trunk of the truck. They had a lot of extra gas, but considering the size of the tank inside the truck, Rich knew full well it wasn't nearly as much as it seemed. However it was better than nothing, and it would be sure to help them in a pinch, maybe in more ways than just filling up their car.

"Alright," he said cheerily, clapping his hands together, "Is that everything? We ready to head out on the road again?"