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  "You one of those things?" the soldier asks me after another two breaths.

  Bewildered I begin to respond "No …"

  "Stop pointing the gun at him, if he was one of those things he'd have done eaten your face already!" I hear from off to the side. The man pointing the gun at me lowers it and leans towards me.

  "Sorry about that, can't be too safe these days," he says before reaching a hand towards me to help me up. "Name is Tom."

  I accept his hand and get out from under the tarp and to my feet. Glancing around I see the other speaker and a third soldier inside the humvee keeping a lookout. All three appear to be in their late twenties or early thirties.

  "That's Nick right there, and Jay over in the Humvee keeping it warm for us," Tom says. I look around for Adam and Sarah who both as it turns out are still sleeping. I reach over knocking on the windshield loud enough to wake up the two of them. They both wake up in a startle and come out cautiously.

  Nick speaks up "Not safe for you all to be sleeping out in the open like that"

  "Yeah wasn't really part of the plan, We've had a hard couple days and it must have caught up with us," I say. "What is going on? do you know of any safe places we can go?" I ask

  "Safe place? Ain't no place safe anymore. Reports are this shit show is happening all over the country. A cabin in the middle of nowhere is probably your best bet. Every military branch was called in to help contain this, but we were outnumbered. And people who got bitten turned in minutes. Not much of the military remains but those of us out there are staying in radio contact. We're doing what we can to clean up this mess." Nick tells us.

  "Clean up the mess?" I ask confused.

  Tom jumps in to answer. "We are patrolling and killing any of the zombies we find. There are about two dozen of us and seven Humvees. It's hopeless but what else are we going to do? If we can keep it up long enough maybe we can actually win out"

  "Two dozen people!" Sarah recites aloud

  "Where are you all staying? Maybe we can join ?" Adam asks

  Nick shakes his head. "Afraid not, our supplies are limited and if we take you in we need to take anyone and that's not going to work, sorry. But, We can give you some food and water. Hope you don't mind MREs"

  "Food and water are great but where the fuck are we suppose to go?" I exclaim angrily at them.

  Tom puts his hand on my shoulder "I know it sucks but we're not in charge. Just following orders." he says as he nudges me toward the Humvee. "We're not supposed to give you food and water either. But we've been scavenging whenever we see the opportunity and can split with some for you guys"

  "Yup, so don't tell anyone," Nick says with a wink As he opens the trunk space of the Humvee. He begins pulling out packages and handing them to Adam, Sarah and me.

  "All together that'll be four days worth of food for each of you. and five gallons of water if you stick to about two liters a day will last the three of you six days." Nick and Tom help us load the food and water into the back of the car.

  "What is causing all this? What is the military doing?" Adam asks

  "Don't know. All I know is my unit was activated with orders to barricade highway forty-one leading out of town. And not to let anyone out of town using any means necessary. We only had to turn back a few people trying to get out of town. Some of the others we're working with report absolute blood baths at their stations in the city. Most of us though were on the outskirts when it all went to hell" Tom answers

  Tom and Nick head back to the humvee and climb in without a second glance.

  "Oh, one last thing. About fifteen miles south of here is a huge outdoors camping store exit 107. We passed by the place yesterday and cleaned up the area outside of the store. We haven't gone into the place yet so you might find zombies inside." Nick says before closing the door and driving off.

  The three of us watch the Humvee drive away receding to the north.

  "Well, that's great. The army is useless." Sarah mumbles dragging her feet as she walks away from us toward the side of the road to relieve her bladder.

  "The camping store seems like a good idea, should we head that way now or wait for morning? we still have four hours of light today." I say

  "It's not going anywhere, it can wait for the morning" Adam responds.

  The early evening hours slip by as we sit around sharing stories of who and what we were a few short days ago. Adam and I already know each other's stories but share them for the benefit of Sarah. I was your typical System Admin working at the local hospital. The job itself is boring with most of my time spent sitting in meetings. Agreeing with whatever nonsense upper management is pushing that week. The worst part of the job would have to be my boss. Jerry was easily the worst boss I've ever worked for and he's only been with the company for little under a year. Outside of work, I'm a bit of a fitness freak. I run five days a week and yoga twice and the rest of the time is spent on video games or Netflix. I recently quit Muay Thai about two months previously and joined the local running group. mostly I was trying to force myself out to meet new folks which is where I met Adam.

  Sarah tells us her story as "I'm a freelance graphic designer, or was anyway. I bartend to pay bills though while building up my design portfolio. I am a huge bookworm. It might be cliche but I can't get enough of the Lord of The Rings."

  "Gamer too?" I ask pointing out the Legend of Zelda tattoo on her arm.

  She lifts her arm to look as if she forgot about it.

  "Ummm not really. Not anymore anyway. Growing up my brother and I played all the Zelda games. So it's sort of a tribute to happy childhood memories"

  A moment of silence follows as the three of us reflect on our past lives.

  "Guess it's my turn" Adam breaks the silence. "Nothing too exciting, I work at LandPasture insurance or LP Insurance as we call it. I manage a dozen agents. All I do is paperwork all day every day but the people are great and the money and benefits are amazing. I can't complain at all."

  Adam has your stereotypical runner look to him. which is to say he looks far too thin and lanky for his size. He's about six foot and I'd estimate his weight to be about a hundred and fifty pounds. He keeps his light brown hair buzzed and knowing Adam I'd wager he keeps it so short so he never needs to fuss with it.

  The Sunset happened a few hours ago and we've only now finished eating some canned fruit and tuna for dinner. Thanks to the Can opener our friends in green supplied us with alongside the food they gave us. With the encroaching Shadows from the sunset, the anxiety of the small group growing. We are only able to see five meters in any direction after full dark hits. A rustle off from the side startles me. Logically I know it was only the wind blowing through the leaves. The same as it has been all day but now that I can't SEE the leaves or trees. Suddenly the wind through the brush is the most terrifying sound I can imagine.

  "Maybe it's time to head back into the car?" I say.

  No objections from the others as we climb in. We decide to take turns keeping watch during the night. Sarah takes the first watch being she took a long nap earlier in the day. Adam climbs into the back seat while Sarah will be taking guard. No use wasting the chance to somewhat layout. The temperature drops to the mid-fifties without the sun. With the three of us in the car our body heat builds up and it doesn't take long before we crack a few windows for some cool air. Though we only open the windows enough that a set of fingers would scarcely be able to squeeze in. This time I don't crawl into the footwell. being less worried about being seen. I lay the driver seat as far back as it will go and use a sweater as a pillow to doze off on.

  My rest is disturbed all night with nightmares. Waking up at what feels like every five minutes. From the movement of the moon, I know the periods of time passing are longer than that. Adam and Sarah switch positions sometime in the night. When he jostles me awake he's sitting in the passenger seat. I hit the clock button on the dashboard, it's just after three am. We're each taking a three-hour turn at guard. Following the rhy
thm of the sun, we hunkered down by eight and were going to sleep by nine. I nod to Adam indicating I'm awake and he's good to go back to sleep. He lays the passenger seat back as this time he's not going to be switching seats again with Sarah. I crack my window open a bit more both for the fresh air but also to be able to hear the outside world a bit better. Even with the moon high in the sky. I can only see fifteen meters or so in any direction and being able to hear well will prove more useful or so I believe. The hours prove completely uneventful to my delight. A few rustles of leaves or grass blowing in the wind but nothing to worry about. This proves to be a long three hours. When the sky finally starts to lighten with the pre-dawn sun I reach over to check the time noting it's almost seven.

  "Well shit, no wonder it felt so long. It's been four hours." I mutter to myself not angry but annoyed with myself for not having a better idea when the sun comes up. It doesn't matter though only would have given me an extra twenty minutes of sleep if we broke the extra hour evenly. I decide to wait another fifteen minutes. Letting the sun get higher before I get out of the car, and begin to pack up everything we left outside. which is only the tarp we still have tied between the car and railing and our trash.

  Adam wakes up as soon as I pull the tarp away from the window causing sunlight to shine right into his face. He gives off a little yelp startled by me standing right next to the car waking Sarah as well.

  I chuckle "Relax it's only me," I say walking away and putting the tarp in the back of the car.

  "Time to go," I say, handing them each a bottle of water and protein bars for breakfast.

  "Hold up. At least let me take a piss first." Adam grumbles at me as he heads to do just that. Sarah follows after him but heading off to the side away from him for some privacy.

  I start the car when I see the last of them shuffling back and climbing in. Wasting no time I pull back into the road and take off at a leisurely pace. mentally reminding myself fifteen miles and exit 107. We run into no trouble during the twenty-five minutes it takes us to make it to the exit. We're able to see the store from the exit lane. It's two quick right turns away. Pulling into the empty parking lot of the building I think about what Nick and Tom said. They cleaned out the area around the building but didn't go in.

  "There could be anything waiting inside for us," I say.

  We drive around the parking lot doing laps as close to the front door as we can. We're trying to see if any zombies are inside. And if we can lure them out by the sound of our car. When no zombies come out to challenge us after a dozen laps I begin prepping myself to head into the store. Parking the car near the entrance and leaving the engine running. Doing more laps isn't going to help us at this point.

  "You two stay here I'm going to check it out first," I say while grabbing the frying pan and getting out of the car. With pan in hand, I do a little walk-run shuffle to the front door. Which in hindsight seems completely unnecessary for what I was planning. I make it to the door and peer through the sliding glass doors. The store is dark and from what I can see completely devoid of people. Living or otherwise. I check the door and find that with a bit of force I can work the door enough to slide open. I step in pass the entrance threshold. Standing there listening for several minutes. Satisfied I walk back out and close the door. I manage to close the door after a few minutes of struggling with it. I take a few deep breaths before raising the frying pan in a bat-like posture. I swing the pan at the metal frame of the door.

  "CLANK! CLaank! claaaank!"

  The sound of the pan against the door sends echoing waves of sound throughout the store. I stand there watching through the glass door. Thinking if anyone or thing is inside there is no way they didn't hear me. After what feels like an eternity watching and waiting but was only five minutes. I turn satisfied and head back to the car.

  "You're insane" Sarah admonishes me as soon as I open the door. "What if zombies were in there"

  I giggle pleased with myself. "That was the whole point, Sarah. Would you rather go in having no idea if any are lurking around in there?"

  Her angry look turns to reluctant acceptance. "Fine but let us know before you go doing any crazy shit again"

  "Yeah whatever mother, let's go," I say with a sheepish grin and a wink.

  The three of us walk up to the door peering through the glass one last time. We force the door open and step into the gloom of the dark store with flashlights in hand and a frying pan in my other.

  #

  Chapter 8

  The three of us stalk deeper into the gloomy interior of the store. The light streaming through the windows is not nearly enough to see well by. The light only penetrates up to the start of the aisles. The light is enough to make out general sections of the store though. To the left of us is the tent display section. The packaged tents are stocked along the wall and in a few aisles tucked in the back left corner. The far right of the store is a small section dedicated to clothing racks. The clothes immediately grab all of our attention. The three of us without speaking come to an immediate consensus and head for the clothing area. Three days without a change of clothes or a shower has us all feeling more than a bit dingy. My second priority is finding baby wipes and deodorant. I'd enjoy not smelling like rotten milk for a change.

  The three of us take turns in the bathroom cleaning up with the wet wipes. After cleaning we all put on fresh clothes including new socks and shoes while we're at it. Adam and Sarah went with hiking boots and I stuck with a pair of trail running shoes. Though I did reserve a pair of boots for myself as well. The last items we look to grab are weapons. Which of course makes the next stop the hunting section and the firearms.

  We are able to access some of the guns themselves but, the ammo is another story. The Ammo is locked in a metal cabinet that we are unable to break into so far. So we give that up for now deciding to come back to it later. We walk through the archery sections looking at bows and even some smaller crossbows. None of us has any training and decide that's going to be useless. Eventually, we settle for hunting knives, hatchets and trekking poles. We load up a few machetes as well. Machetes aren't much for keeping range. But based on what we can find in a camping store, they seem a good bet. The store doesn't even have any damn baseball bats.

  After finishing with cleaning and weapons we head over to the camping packs. Picking out one for each of us. We start Loading them up with food, tents, extra clothes, and sleeping bags. We top off the packs with water filtration straws and water cleansing tablets. We load up duffel bags with even more food. We load them up with all the dehydrated food we can and extra camp stoves and the matching gas canisters. We plan on surviving on our own as long as we can. I don't think any of us particularly thinks the idea of surviving in the woods is a good idea. But from what we've seen staying away from buildings seems like the best idea. Even though the only people we've run into since this whole mess were congenial, I'm still wary of others. This is why around noon while Adam is re-hydrating some beef stroganoff for us I go out to the car and move it around back. Hiding the car as much as can be, behind the big dumpster near the back door of the store. I hide the car For two reasons, first I don't want anyone who had the same idea we had, knowing we're in here. And two, having the car near the back door if anyone does show up and we need to sneak away, this gives us our best option. I may be paranoid due to one too many post-apocalypse movies. In which other people end up being the largest antagonist. But I'm not taking chances when I can avoid it with a bit of caution.

  After the morning in the store, we're finally feeling secure enough to let each other out of our sights. Though we're still sticking within earshot. We all begin browsing the shelves again picking up any little useful looking items. I head to the running section we passed by earlier. At the time we spared only a glance and ruled it out as useless. Now however the runner in me has a few ideas and wants what I could never justify the price tag on before. Like a child on Christmas morning, I joyously look around at all the running goodies. St
uffing handfuls of energy gels and chews into a small bag I brought with me. And stuffing some tech shirts and thermal tights into the bag alongside them. Tights and gels are not my main goal over here. My reason for coming to the running section would be the hydration systems. Hydration belts that let you carry water on your belt along with a fanny pack. allows for easy access to water and some food storage. But the jostling of the water belts always annoyed me. So I wander over to the vests instead which there are dozens to choose from. some that leverage collapsible bottles in front pockets on either side of the chest. Some that use a water bladder in the back, and some that do both. I choose the latter, a vest that uses the small squeeze bottles in the front and a bladder in the back. The back bladder has a hose that comes around to the front for easy drinking. The idea is to fill the front pouches with water and have small food storage in front. The water pouch on the back I intend on leaving empty to accommodate wearing a backpack. But I like knowing I have the option if I don't have a pack on my back. I grab a few in my size and a few in sizes for Adam and Sarah. I don't know if they'll want them. If they don't, more for me I shrug . The last item I grab before heading back over to our campground is a bunch of chargeable headlamps. We found some solar chargers which I know suck for any real charging but it'll work, Slowly but it will work. And our current flashlights batteries will run out eventually. Carrying a bunch of batteries around with us would prove troublesome. Yes, they're small but they are dense and take up space.

  Around two or three in the afternoon, we give up on looting. Satisfied that we've grabbed the most important stuff and as much as we could. The trunk space of the car is full to bursting with bags full of gear and food. We've got two thirty packs of water in the trunk. Two more stashed in the back seat and one tucked away into each footwell. whoever sits in the back will need to straddle the center with a foot on either side. Or sit with feet on the seat. Too bad for them, we need all the water we can carry. The rest of the afternoon and early evening, we spend making plans for our next steps.