“Should we bust it?” Ian asked.
“Maybe there’s a back door? I don’t want to bust the glass unless we have too. I don’t want to bring attention to our mission,” I said pointing to the stragglers.
Ian nodded and led the way to the back of the building. There was a door that said employees only. Ian tried the door and it was unlocked.
Ian looked at me with a look of confusion and a bit of worry. I shrugged. It was just as unusual as seeing glass doors not busted, finding a door unlocked and unbolted or not blocked by something.
Ian led the way slowly inside. I shut the door behind us, careful not to make any noise. We listened before heading forwards but didn’t hear any shuffling or growling.
“Where are the vending machines?” Ian asked.
“Upstairs,” I said.
Ian led the way up the flight of stairs to the right. The upstairs had an open view of the down stairs which I took the opportunity to look and see if I could see anything moving but I didn’t.
Ian had me lead the way to the little rest area where the vending machines were.
When we got there, Milo immediately laid down next to one of the tables while we got to work.
The machine with the food still has a ton of snacks in there. Probably most somewhat out of date but stale chips were better than no chips. The machine also had a little bit of blood on the door flap where you reach in to get the snacks after paying. I looked closely at it. It looked fresh and it was of a live human. The zombie blood had an odd black color to it and seemed to be thicker.
“Should that be concerning?” I asked Ian pointing to the blood.
“Whoever it belongs too, I don’t think they’re here anymore. The good news if there were any zombies they’d be on this.”
I nodded in agreement.
I handed the crow bar to Ian. He used it to pry the vending machine open. I went about adding the food into my bag. There were tons of chips, peanut butter crackers, and candy.
“This was a good idea Cate,” Ian said.
“Thank you. I have them occasionally,” I said and laughed.
“What about the soda?” Ian asked pointing to the machine to the right.
“Mmm, warm soda? That sounds fantastic,” I said sarcastically.
“It’s better than no soda.”
I nodded, “The water in there is more important but we can get some soda. But we can’t take a lot. Too heavy.”
Ian began to pry open the soda machine.
Milo began to growl. I looked at him. He had his head up but was still lying down. He was beginning to growl more aggressively.
“What is it boy?” I asked.
He stood up and began to bark.
“Shh,” I said.
Ian had stopped trying to pry open the machine. We were both listening hard to figure out what was causing Milo's sudden annoyance.
There was a crash from downstairs. Ian and I looked at each other and without a word knew what to do next.
Chapter 3
Ian led the way downstairs and Milo was behind me. When we reached the ground floor, there was a noise that sounded like a bunch of things scattering on the floor followed by a glass breaking.
Ian looked back at me.
“Do you think it’s a friend or foe?” He asked.
“Most likely foe but we’ll be alright. Milo will go for the throat.”
Ian gave a little laugh and started to move towards the noise that had come from the other side. Ian had his gun at the ready, I had my knife out.
We didn’t hear anything else as we continued forward.
“Maybe they’re gone now,” I whispered.
Ian shook his head, “No, they’re still here.”
Ian put his hand up for me to stop. We were quiet as we listened. There was a shuffling sound that reminded me of the dead.
“Is there a zombie in here?” I asked.
“It’s not growling, “Ian said.
“They don’t always growl,” I pointed out.
“They do though, they really do,” he said.
There was more shuffling. Ian began to walk forward.
As we past one of the aisles, I saw a vase fall off a table.
I patted Ian on the shoulder and pointed down the aisle. We slowly made our way down the aisle when this blur of red came out from behind a couch lunging at Ian.
It took a minute for me to realize it was a girl of no more than 15, maybe 16. She was dressed in jeans and had a red coat on. She was screaming and started kicking and punching on Ian. Though I doubted she could inflict much pain on him.
I put my knife away and grabbed her arm mid swing. She then tried to turn her rage on me but I managed to catch her other arm before she made contact.
She was still screaming and yelling causing Milo to bark. Her long black hair was wild and in her face. Her brown eyes were wild and puffy with a lack of sleep.
“Calm down,” I said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
She was still struggling to try and fight me. The yelling was getting louder.
“Put a cork in it!” I yelled.
She looked momentarily
