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  "Why don't we stay here? We have more food here than we can carry so why leave?" Adam asks.

  "You think we're the only ones going to head this way? We don't know if we can trust anyone else that shows up. Honestly, even if they're trustworthy sharing the food means less for us. And if we dip out before seeing anyone we won't need to feel guilty hoarding food." I say

  "That's fucked up" Adam admonishes me.

  I chuckle before responding. "Yeah, maybe. But I'm not wrong and you know it. We need all the food and water we can get our hands on" I continue. "As for where we go, I may have an idea. farms! We're in the fucking Midwest, head out of the city in any direction and you hit farm after farm. We can hole up in a farmhouse that's miles away from even the closest neighbor's house. Or if that's not good enough we can try finding some old cabin in the woods. Not sure how we'd find one but it's an idea. Alternatively we go get lost in the woods somewhere and put to use all this camping gear we have now."

  Sarah pipes up "A farm might work. might be able to grow food!"

  Adam cuts off Sarah. "Or we stay here and actually wait for other people and get ourselves a whole group working together. Security in numbers and all that."

  The argument continues for a few hours only cutting off when dinner is ready. I keep the option to myself but I've already made my mind up. I'm leaving in the morning with or without the others. He is right about not isolating ourselves though. With our skillset limited as is we do need more people. But I'm going to find others on my terms not waiting around for them to chance upon me. I'm going to get myself setup with a safe place and maybe then I'll work out how to find others.

  After eating I grab a headlamp and wander back to the ammo cabinet to give breaking into it another go. I grab a hunting knife and try to slide it between the doors but there is no gap. Especially not enough for a hunting knife to slide in. I try forcing it in any way and the knife jerks right out and toward my left hand. Thankfully I manage to not cut myself but it definitely convinces me to try a different method. I take a closer look at the cabinet. The steel feels far too sturdy to try bending or breaking the latch. Not to mention I don't have a crowbar or any such similar item. I check the sides and back of the case seeing no weak point. I attempt to knock it over. doesn't budge, it's bolted to both the ground and the wall. frustrated I give up and begin heading back to the others when I pass the door leading to the back stock area. There might be an office we can stay the night in I think. Or maybe we can find some keeps to the store and firearm cabinets. Either way, the backroom will be good for the nice. If only to get out of the open area in front of the store I think to myself as I continue walking back.

  "Hey, any of you see an office or something in the back? It might be a good place to stay the night rather than up here in the open for anyone to walk in on" I say. Both of them shake their heads. "Alright I'm going to go take a look then," I say grabbing the hatchet I put aside for myself earlier. better safe than sorry.

  Sarah and Adam grab their own weapons and follow me towards the back. Sarah and Adam both choose to carry trekking poles. Which seems like a fantastic idea to me assuming the durability holds up. They're titanium rods about four feet in length and end in a spike. The designed use is to aid walking in dangerous terrain by removing stress from your knees and back. But in this new world, we will be using them as spears. They are telescoping poles though so I don't know how they'll hold up to use as a weapon and I hope never to find out. We step through the swinging doors into the shadow encased stock room. Ahead of us is the loading dock with the roller beds used for unloading trucks. Directly to the right of the bay doors would be the regular back door. Left and right look to be stock space. We go left hugging the wall. Walking quietly but quickly peering down each aisle looking for any sort of office or a break room even. Hell, a bathroom large enough to fit the three of us laying down would be good enough. Really anything with four walls and a door would be good. A locking door would be perfect but beggars can't be choosers. We make it to the left wall of the store having found nothing. We double back to the right and head off in that direction. Just to the right of the door, we came into the room open area narrows into a wide hallway with doors on either side. It's so dark back here we didn't see the hallway originally.

  "yes!" I rush over to the first door trying to open it. "This one's locked," I say looking up from the handle.

  "This one is open" Sarah responds from the next door down the line.

  She pushes the door open and shines her light in saying "looks like a break room" She looks over and beckons Adam and I over excitedly.

  "Ahhhh" Sarah squeals as a zombie comes flying out of the dark room and flings itself into her. The zombie and Sarah tumble across the floor. Sarah in her struggle is able to make some space between the two of them during the tumble. But the zombie is immediately chasing after her on hands and knees. The zombie manages to grab onto Sarah's ankles. She continues scrambling backward back down the hallway and kicking at the zombie. She screams again as she gives up trying to get away and starts kicking at the zombie with her other foot exclusively. Having lost the trekking pole she was carrying during the initial tumble she has no other weapon to use.

  Adam and I are only feet away when the zombie rushes from the room and attacks her. I drop my hatchet. I rush forward and grab the zombie by the ankles myself and start pulling it away from her. Sarah continues screaming and kicking the zombie in the face. The zombie's grip isn't relenting in the least. These fuckers are strong on top of being undead. I continue pulling with all my strength feeling myself inching backward inch by inch. Suddenly there is a sickening squelch of a sound. I go flying backward with the zombie having given up all struggle to get to Sarah. I backpedal away looking for the hatchet that I dropped when I grabbed the zombie. Thinking it'll be on me at any moment. But after several seconds of frantic searching, I hear Adam say to Sarah in a desperate voice.

  "Were you bitten?"

  When I hear Adam I look up at the zombie. Noticing for the first time that it's actually dead. A trekking pole lying next to it with blood covering the spike on the end. I sit there for a while longer trying to calm my nerves. Meanwhile, Adam and Sarah are checking her over for any bites or wounds that could turn her into a zombie. I join them not long after but not before I make a detour to close that door. When I make it over I find Sarah's unharmed, just a few scratches on her ankles no skin looks to have been broken. Nonetheless I decide I'll be keeping an eye on her and not letting her have first watch this night. I regain my hatchet and Adam's trekking pole. Heading back to the break room the zombie came from. I push the door open and search the entire room including behind the door and vending machines. I'm somewhat confident that if any other zombies were in here. Or in any of the other rooms, the fight would have alerted them. But I check every meter of the room and call out the all-clear to Sarah and Adam. We spend a few more minutes calming down. Once calm we begin grabbing the supplies and some sleeping gear from the front of the store. We use the gear to set up for the night in the break room.

  #

  Chapter 9

  We sleep late the next morning. Benefiting from the lack of windows in the break room that we made into our bedroom for the night. This also means I wake up in total darkness fumbling and failing to find my flashlight. I must have pushed it away during the night with my tossing and turning. I give up on the flashlight and hit the light button on the wristwatch I liberated from the store. The watch's face reads ten thirteen in the morning. Adam must have heard me fussing about and see the watch light up. He turns his own flashlight on. Shining it up towards the ceiling of the room. It's a faint light but in the dark-room, it's more than enough to illuminate the entire place. This allows me to find my own flashlight. It also gives me plenty of light to find the water and energy bars we brought with us the night before for breakfast.

  Tearing into the energy bar I hop to my feet and head off to the bathroom down the hall. Adam and I searched and secur
ed the unlocked rooms before heading to sleep last night. We found two bathrooms at the end of the hallway. The sinks and toilets have no running water. It doesn't stop me from wanting to take advantage of a comfortable toilet to relieve myself anyway. I may have rushed off to relieve myself before the others so I could be first to use clean toilets. Getting back to the makeshift bedroom I find Sarah is awake now and tying her shoes. Adam is sitting at the table sipping water ready and waiting on the two of us. Leaving behind all the gear we slept in that night. We used spares from the display area rather than unpacking the gear we have in the car waiting on us. And even though we've come to no consensus on what exactly we do next, they follow me as I grab my water and leave the room.

  I intend on doing one last walkthrough of the entire store before we leave. Hoping to grab any last-minute items that we missed. More out of a reluctance to leave the security of the store and all the supplies that we can't pack into the car though. I dislike the idea of leaving it all behind. However, I'm convinced the store is not a safe place to make a home. Plus what do we do when supplies run out. No, we need to move on to a safer, more sustainable location. I ruminate over all this as I drag my feet to the door leading to the main section. We walk through the swinging doors and freeze in terror.

  In front of us, we see multiple sources of light moving throughout the store. We watch the lights bobbing and swinging around the store as the wielders move about. The lights are leaking over the top of aisles around corners. "Fuck" I whisper watching in silence. taking a quick count. There are four sources of light that I can make out. I quietly motion for the others to move back through the door.

  "Why are we hiding? We can all help each other!" Adam whispers the question to me. The irony of him wanting to go greet them but whispering as he says it isn't lost on me. I put my finger up to my lips to shh the two of them as I take a moment to think matters through. Finally saying.

  "OK, we don't know who is out there or if we can trust them. But I agree we shouldn't assume the worst of them. So maybe we watch them and try to find out more before strolling out and saying hello?"

  I look between Adam and Sarah. Neither says anything but both are nodding their heads in agreement. At that, I nod my own head as well. Shutting off my light and indicating they do the same. We inch open the door ensuring none of the lights in the store are nearby before walking through. We move deeper into the store and closer to the aisles. Keeping the stockroom door close by for a quick getaway if we need one.

  "Over here!" A male voice shouts from the camping section. If I had to guess from the sound and where the light is shining from. I'd say he's near the camping food section. He shouts a few more times leading the other lights over to him with the sound of his voice. A couple of the others holler back at him as they all make a straight line to the original voice. One of the sources of light passes right by us, we duck behind the corner of the aisle hiding from sight as he passes us by. I sneak a peek at the back of him as he walks away from our hiding spot. Short hair, stocky build the same height as me at five foot eleven. In one hand he is holding a flashlight in the other is a pipe or metal bar of some sort. It's dark and the light is shining away from him, that's the most I can make out of him. I let him get some distance from us before I follow. Adam and Sarah are right on my heels as I move. We follow until the area opens into the tent display where we stop to watch. We stay at the last aisle peeking around the corner. We can't see them but we are close enough to hear their conversation.

  "Looks like someone got to the food before us," says a male voice. The original one to shout out. "Ain't nothing left"

  "Plenty of camping gear, I walked by the hunting section and all the guns look untouched too!" A different voice.

  "Yeah, we have a bunch of food left from the group a few days ago," A third voice says. "We'll have to get to hunting eventually though." The voice finishes.

  The emphasis on the word hunting definitely has the hair on the back of my neck on edge. I glance at Adam and Sarah's way who both give me stony expressions. They don't look to share my suspicions. The conversation carries on but they are talking about the guns and what gear to grab from the store. The group of men don't say anything too overt but I'm getting bad vibes from them and I want to get away from here. A moment of hesitation later and I shake my head firmly with my mind made up. I pull back away from the group of men. Pulling the others with me as I turn back heading toward the stockroom and backdoor. Intending on jumping into the car and getting away from the store as quickly as we can. It's a short walk back to the stockroom door. Hugging the wall in the darkness we make it to the door and push through in a rush. Right into the path of another person we hadn't seen before. One that apparently split off from the others and into the stockroom. He stands there surprised for a moment before grinning and yelling for the others.

  "Hey!, Found some new friends in the back!"

  I don't trust that grin and he definitely isn't looking too friendly with the way he's holding that tire iron.

  "We were just leaving. You guys can have everything here." I say to him knowing everything we want is already in the car anyway. And hoping that's enough for them.

  "You're not going anywhere. Don't worry though we only want to have a chat and share any resources you have," he says with a small laugh.

  I swallow the lump in my throat hearing the others in the store getting closer. I take a step to the right but the man blocking us follows and shakes his head no as if advising me not to do anything. The man blocking us is shorter than me but he's a good deal rounder than I am. I'd say five foot eight and two hundred twenty-five pounds with a linebacker build. If you ignore how short he is anyway. Seeing the desperation in Sarah's eyes I know I have to do something before things get worse for us. I tense my body looking back at the guy in front of me. He stands about four feet away. He clearly thinks he's far enough away but I draw on my training in Muay Thay and make my move. I take a quick step towards him getting myself a foot closer. I throw a left jab towards his face causing him to flinch. He throws his hands up in a block that would have been far too late if I was actually trying to hit him. Unfortunately for him, the jab was a feint to get his hands high and have him off balance. I take my real strike which is a soccer kick right to the balls. He lets out a yelp dropping the tire iron and cupping his balls as he falls to the ground.

  "Run!" I whisper-shout to the others and point to the back door.

  "The man I kicked in the balls is on the ground whimpering and squealing for the others." I rear up and send another kick across his face as he lies writhing in pain on the ground. The others from the store reach the door and push through it into the stock room. They see me standing over their unconscious friend immediately. I think unconscious but that kind of kick may well have killed him but that's not my worry at the moment. Thinking quickly I know If I run for the door they'll follow me right out and to my car and friends. So instead, I dart into the storage aisles. Two of them followed me, the other two I guess stayed back to check on their friend. In the ensuing chase, I manage to break their line of sight with random turns here and there. I end up in a corner and dead-end with the flashlights closing in behind me. 'shit' I think while looking all around in the shadowy gloom of the corner seeing nowhere to go. From the corner I'm in I have only one direction I can go in and that's back toward the men looking for me. If it was only the one person I would try going through them, but with two I rule that out as a last resort. Instead , I get sudden inspiration while looking at the shelves. I climb the shelving as quietly as I can. With the shelf spacing and the steel support pole running up the side, I'm able to climb to the top as easily as if it was a ladder. Once I'm on the top I crouch among the boxes trying to make sure I'm hidden if they look up. From my vantage point I'm able to see where all the lights are. The two searching the aisle I was just in are still working their way towards the end. And two lights are near the stockroom exit into the store. Not good, I'm thinking I can't hide forever.
If they stay near the backroom entrance they'll for sure see me when I make a break for the back door. There is no way to sneak out either. The damn sun will light the place up if I open the door. And I can't wait around all day, the others are waiting for me outside.

  "Dead end, he ain't in here" I hear one of the two say as they double back up the aisle and away from me.

  Whew, I'm able to take a breath and relax a bit as the two begin their search anew in other aisles. I scan the next aisle hoping the shelves are close enough that I'd be able to make my way along the top but there is no way. I'll have to climb down and back up if I want to go that route. Which is exactly what I do. I make it across the top of four aisles. Only one left between me and the unloading area with the two people at the door and the exit to freedom. I climb up onto the top of the fifth aisle and stop there not knowing what to do now. I rack my mind trying to think of a way to create a distraction. But how? Maybe throwing something but what. Everything around me is boxed up and far too large to throw and if I tried I'd lead them straight to me. Checking all my pockets in my running vest. I have some energy bars and water that's not going to work, I pat my pockets feeling the bulge of keys in my pocket. car keys. 'wait, that's it! I don't need my house keys anymore just the car remote' I think to myself. I reach into my pocket pulling out the keys as quietly as I can avoid any clinking that might happen. I unhook my car remote and slip it back into my pocket. I prep myself to throw the keys looking for a good location. I've only got one chance at this. I decide to climb down first. So I can immediately start running if the distraction works and not waste time climbing down. After the quick descent, I hide in the shadows of the loading bay next to the shelving stand I just climbed down. I decide to throw the keys towards the hallway hoping to pull the two by the door into the hall. I take a breath calming my nerves. I stand up and throw the keys as hard as I can towards the hall. With the shadows, I miss the opening and hit the wall next to the opening.