"You call them 'infected'."
"Actually, when this first broke out I hid out for a few hours with a window cleaner. It was him who called them 'shitters' when he saw what they were doing. I'm not a big fan of that name so I've gone with 'walkers'. Oh. By the way I'm Dave."
The man nodded. "And what happened to the window washer?"
"He had a grandmother over the north and went over the bridge to find her. I nearly went with him, but I couldn't shake the idea that it was important to get out of the city as soon as possible. I'm not sure if was the right thing to do, but I let us go our separate ways. Maybe I should have stuck with him. I guess I thought that there would be more survivors if I headed west. It's alarming just how few survivors there are."
The man turned his head about as if scanning the streets. "There's nothing on the streets."
"I think that they only come out at night," said Dave misunderstanding.
"What?" the man was clearly startled.
"I'm only beginning to collect some data," said Dave pulling out a notebook from a bag, "but I'm trying to figure out what is going on by recording patterns. So far I've noticed that as it gets dark they come out, and when morning comes around they disappear. But I'm not sure if there's a reason behind this."
Dave had thought to mention that he had heard a talker, but even Dave found the idea of the talking dead to be too hard to believe.
The man looked at the notebook carefully. "Is there anything that you need?"
"As you can see," said Dave returning the notebook to his bag, "I'm carrying some bits and pieces in a shopping bag. A backpack would be better for carrying things, so I'm looking for a camping store. Also a camping store would have a variety of other camping gear that could help out. I was actually walking along this street looking for such a store when I spotted you instead."
"There's one on the next block," said the man pointing west along the highway. "It's on the second floor so it's a bit hard to notice. There's a florist store on the ground floor. When you see a place that sells flowers, look to the side and you should find some stairs going up."
"Argh. I was hoping for a store that's more open. I don't like getting into a place where I can't see into easily."
"Do you want me to come along?"
"I can't do that," said Dave. "You look military so you probably have a lot that you need to be doing."
"Strange."
"What do you mean?"
"Most people would have insisted that I be their personal bodyguard or else that I hand my rifle to them."
"I'm not going to pretend to be all virtuous. I really would like it if we teamed up. But I know nothing about you. You could be in the middle of doing some mission that's really important and I would only be getting in your way and in the process endanger hundreds of lives. And as to your rifle, I don't know anything about them. I'd probably do something stupid with it and get myself killed."
"You really are a strange one."
"Maybe you're right," said Dave. "Before this happened I was just a brain dead office worker. If I'm going to live through this then I need to change. I just haven't figured out how to do that."
"You've survived this far. That's better than most people."
"That's pretty grim."
"Yes."
"You're army right? Do you know if the army has set up any evacuation zones?"
"Oh, I'm not army."
Dave looked uncomfortable. "I don't mean to be rude, but are you a gang member?"
"What?"
"It's just in Australia the only people who can get assault rifles are the army and crime gangs."
"Oh," said the man acting embarrassed. "I'm just part of an emergency plan called DOA."
"Emergency plan? I guess that's a hint that you're needed elsewhere. I let you get on with your work. Thanks for telling me where the nearest camping store is. You were a great help."
"Ah, sure," said the men. He turned his head about as if looking. "I'll be off then."
"Good luck."
"You too."
And with that Dave and the unnamed man went their separate ways.
"Dead on arrival?" asked Dave to himself. "What an odd name."
* * *
Dave stood in front of a small florist store. The store front was open as if waiting for customers. Many of its flowers had wilted and yet there was still a pleasant scent coming from the store. Dave looked to the right of the florist and saw a set of stairs going up. A small sign above the store declared that the stairs lead up to a camping store. Dave wondered how the store attracted customers with such a small store front. The stairway up looked clear of any dangers.
Taking a quick look back and forth along the street, Dave began to climb up the stairs. On reaching the top of the stairs he paused and looked about the store. The lights were off but the store was still well lit thanks to the daylight coming in through a surprising number of windows. The surprise came from how large the store was. This store wasn't the size of the store below it. Clearly this camping store was made from joining the area above at least three ground floor shops.
Dave might have felt a sense of urgency but he needed to balance that with caution and so he slowly entered the store and tried to look about the aisles for any kind of dangers. He was on edge and at the slightest sign of danger Dave was prepared to simply run for it. However as he walked about Dave couldn't find anything to be concerned about. That isn't to say that he completely relaxed, only the
