Screwing up his courage, Dave walked into the store. His heart picked up in pace for a moment as the door closed behind him. Had those doors really been that loud? or was it that Dave was really that jumpy?
Slowly and quietly, Dave walked past the aisles, checking for anything that might be considered a threat. It was a simple store with only a few aisles and Dave saw nothing. Even with the sensation of being trapped in a closed space, Dave quickly relaxed a surprising amount through not seeing anything dangerous. Dave's emotions were an out of control roller-coaster.
Needing something to carry the supplies Dave returned to the counter to grab a few carry bags. He didn't delay any further. He grabbed a bunch of soup cans - being certain to grab those that had self-opening keys on them. A few tins of meat and a good supply of water. Finally, Dave grabbed a few large note books and some pens. He didn't grab too much as Dave considered that going light in order to be able to run from danger might be really important.
Before leaving Dave wanted to grab a cold drink from the freezers at the back. Near the freezers was door for "employees only" that Dave hadn't noticed on his scan of the aisles. The door was at first slightly open, but as Dave approached it was slammed opened. Dave panicked but could do nothing more as a scream arose from the room beyond.
Dave uselessly raised an arm in defence, as a screaming middle aged man ran by and dashed out the store. Seeing a lack signs that one would see on the functional dead, Dave broke from his frozen state and ran out to the street in order to follow the screaming man. The man was clearly sprinting as fast as he could back in the direction that Dave had come from. Dave almost immediately gave up on any idea of following the running man.
As the sprinting man ran off while screaming loudly, Dave almost called out to him before having a sudden urge to be silent. There was no reason for it, but Dave was certain that the city around him was listening for any noises. Dave could almost imagine thousands of invisible eyes turning to follow the sound of the running man.
The running man was still screaming as he turned into a side street. Suddenly the screaming stopped. After a short pause, and equally suddenly, the screaming restarted only louder and in a manner that Dave doubted a human could make or should. The screams became gargles. And then silence.
With a creeping sensation of terror, Dave glanced about, quickly making certain that he was still undiscovered.
Fighting a rising sense of uncontrollable panic, Dave lugged the bagged supplies over his shoulder. The cold drink forgotten, he continued to jog along the street. This time, as he weaved among the abandoned cars, Dave did all that he could to hide the sounds of his running. Dave could see that the streets were empty, and yet he had heard someone die a horrible death which left him with a deep unease. Whatever was committing murder Dave hoped that it would remain unseen.
Time was short. The daylight was running out. Dave needed to find a safe place for the night. But after all that he had seen, Dave wasn't so sure that there were any safe places any more.
* * *
Dave hadn't jogged far when he noticed a change to the buildings around him. He was on a main road and the streets were lined with various shops and eateries. They weren't the tall buildings of the central business area but the two story kind with a facade. As Dave went past side streets he could see hints of residential areas. Most were tightly packed terraced houses with a few family houses scattered about.
As Dave was in the middle of passing one of those side streets he heard the noise of what he thought were voices. They weren't very loud and had Dave been more distracted then he might have very well missed hearing them. Dave paused. Alert. Focusing his hearing as best as he could. Was is a threat, or was it actually other people in a similar circumstance to his own?
Dave couldn't help but walk towards the faint noise. Curiosity getting the better of him.
The noise came from a single family house that had a large brick fence. The front gate seemed locked so Dave wasn't too sure how to get in at first, causing him to walk about looking for an easy way in. The neighbouring house had a small fence at the front that Dave could easily step over. The bottom half of the adjoining fence was concrete with the upper half being reinforced wood slats.
It was a bit fiddly getting himself and his bags of supplies over the fence, but Dave was able to step up onto the lower concrete part. Looking over the fence, Dave noticed that the lawn on the other side was actually higher than the sidewalk and was held in place by the lower concrete part of the fence. It wasn't a far drop, so it was easy enough for Dave to foist his supplies over the fence and onto the lawn of the house from which the noise was coming from. Without the burden of the bags, Dave quickly pulled himself over the fence and onto the lawn.
Leaving his bags where they were, Dave walked over to the fence that faced the street. Dave leaned on the fence and looked up and down the street. He could see nothing. Or more precisely he didn't see a single roaming human-like figure. That made no sense to him. Dave glanced at the house behind him. There were clearly voices coming from within.
