Ian had a theory that Aaron and his mother kept a stock of food for themselves and didn’t distribute it properly. I understood what fueled this theory since we both knew what they had or should have but I also thought maybe they were trying to be smart and make the food supply last as long as possible.
That’s not to say Aaron isn’t a self-serving jerk who would do something like take my water. I’m willing to share of course, we’re all crazy thirsty but I want to have control of how it’s distributed.
I noticed a box in the corner of the storage room.
“Did you check that one?” I asked pointing to the back of the room.
“No, I completely overlooked that one.” He said.
He made his way over to the box and opened it with his pocket knife.
“Jackpot,” he said with excitement.
“What’s in there?” I asked.
He held up two cans of chili for me to see with a big grin on his face.
I smiled. “Awesome. That’s the best score we’ve gotten in a long time.”
“Well, I could think of a better one we could get,” he stated and winked.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, “shut up Ian.”
“How you’ve been able to resist me for so long Cate, I just don’t know.”
I laughed, “Look Casanova, you need to get over yourself a little bit.”
“Well, don’t come crying to me when your opportunity has long since passed and I’m dating a super model,” he said.
“You live a very interesting fantasy life there don’t you Ian?”
Just then I heard it. The shoveling of feet and the growling. I turned to see two zombies making their way towards us.
“Damn it,” I said, cursing myself for letting my guard down. I knew I shouldn’t do that, not even for a second. Danger is constantly around every corner.
I put my gun on the floor and pulled out my hunting knife to conserve bullets and not make too much noise.
“What’s going on?” Ian asked.
“We got company. It’s just a couple though,” I replied as I made my way to the zombie in front.
It began to move its jaw, trying to get a bite but its reaction time was so slow and it was just biting air. I stabbed my knife deep into its skull.
After pulling my knife out of its head, I did the same with its friend.
Just then, as if on que, a hoard of about twenty came around the aisle way.
“Shit,” I muttered.
I couldn’t believe it. The place had been so clear. There was no sign of a single zombie on the premises let alone a damn group of them. They were worse in a group. Being together seemed to make them faster, almost competitive with each other. Whatever it was, it was never good for the living that were anywhere near them.
“We got trouble,” I called to Ian as I made my way to my gun.
I picked it up and shot at the hoard coming at me. I got three right in the middle of their grey decaying skulls when Ian grabbed my arm and pulled me into the stock room. He shut the door behind us.
“Help me with this,” he said, indicating the shelfs that were in the room.
I helped him push the shelf in front of the door. We got it in place just in time as there was a window in the door and I could see just how close the zombies had gotten.
“How are we going to get out?” I asked a little winded.
He pointed towards the back of the room where there was another door.
“That leads to a hall where there’s a delivery entrance,” he said.
I nodded, “Should I lead the way, since you got to carry the box of chili?”
“Might be the best plan, though I don’t like the idea of a woman being the first in the line of fire.”
“Very chivalrous of you but I’m guessing that box would be uncomfortable for me to get to the car, so the line of fire might be best.”
“Yeah, right. You just like pretending you’re a badass,” he said.
“There’s no pretending, I am a badass.”
Just then there was a scraping sound as the zombies were beginning to work together to get the door we blocked open. They had managed to move the shelves about four inches.
“Enough jokes, we got to high tail it out of here,” Ian said.
I headed towards the door as he put his gun strap over his shoulder and grabbed the box.
I opened the door slowly. I was overwhelmed by the small of rotting flesh. It was very dark in the hallway. I got out a flashlight and shined it down the hall. There didn’t appear to be any zombies but they had been there. There were body parts and blood lining the hall.
“Yuck,” I said as I made my first steps into hall. “Do you think we’ll ever get used to seeing this?” I asked Ian.
“I don’t want to get to the point of being used to seeing this,” he replied as he shut the door behind him.
“Well, do you think we’ll get used to the smell enough to where we don’t feel nauseous or feel like passing out?” I asked. I was partly making conversation to keep myself from panicking. Ian was used to this tactic from me by this point and he went along with it.
“Most likely not but it could happen, if we
