"Over here!" I said, casing the lurker in front of me to turn around. I saw that the lurker was a police officer-and a female one. The entire bottom half of her jaw was gone, making me gag and hold my knife tighter. She limped towards me, growling and reaching her arms out. I walked towards her fast, kicking her legs out from under her and stabbing her straight in the forehead, then I stabbed her in the eye to double tap.
I heard more growling and looked behind me, seeing another lurker. This one was a male, and also a police officer. I grabbed my pocket knife out of my boot and aimed, backing up a few steps so I wouldn't get hurt.
I squinted and aimed for anywhere on the lurker's face, and threw my knife. Spots of blood came out of his forehead as the knife lodged itself into it's brain. I smirked and walked over to the dead body, pulling out my knife and checking his pockets for loot. I knew my brother needed more ammo, and we both needed more food.
I let out a growl of frustration when I found only handcuffs and a key, but I grabbed them and put them in my backpack just in case. I put my knife back in my boot and walked over to the woman with the missing jaw, and looted her. I found a bottle of water, ammo, a silencer, an apple, and another pocket knife.
"Pey!" a voice said. I turned around and saw my brother a few yards away, waving me over with his machete. I internally laughed and jogged over to him, following him inside of a broken down gas station.
"Tyler and I already cleared it, it's fine." he said, turning on his flashlight. I followed right behind him, grabbing my hunting knife from my pack and holding it, ready to defend myself.
"Tyler?" I whispered, looking around while staying close to my brother.
"Adam!" a voice said. I realized it was Tyler and Adam-my brother-and I followed it. We ran around aisles, me grabbing the rest of the food that was there-which wasn't much.
"Guys?" I asked, looking around after I grabbed some bottles of water. "Where are you?"
"Staff room!" Adam said. I followed his voice until I saw a short, narrow hallway with doors on each side. I walked down it and looked left and right, seeing that the second door on the right had a large sign on it that said: "STAFF ONLY"
I walked into the room and saw Adam and Tyler, both of them digging through cubbies and looking at jackets that were left behind. I walked to where Tyler was, seeing he was looking at a hoodie.
"I think that might be a bit small for you, Ty." I said while chuckling. He turned to me and smiled, holding the hoodie up to my small body.
"Take this." he said, shoving it in my arms. I stumbled back a bit, and turned the hoodie around to look at it. It was a plain gray hoodie, except there were no strings on the front. I took of my pack and slipped the hoodie over my head, seeing Tyler and Adam were watching me.
"Thanks, Brotato." I said, smiling at him while I put my backpack back on. Him and Adam exchanged glances, then went back to searching. I walked out of the room, going back to the aisles and deciding to get more food and water to last us more than a few days.
After a few minutes I heard a growl, then another. I turned around and came face to face with a lurker. I screamed and it held out it's arms but I grabbed it's shoulders and forced it back.
"PEYTON!" Adam screamed. I heard loud footsteps and felt the struggling lurker stop moving, then fall limp onto me. I shoved it off, breathing heavily while Tyler took care of another lurker a few feet away. I looked at Adam and he looked at me, and I ran toward him and hugged him, tears flowing down my face.
I've always been tough since this started, I had to be. There was an incident which caused Adam to break down, and not function. Luckily, Tyler was staying with us and he was there to help me put Adam back together. Until my brother was better, I was the one holding us all the three together; the glue in our little group. I've nearly fallen off of a building, been swarmed by lurkers, almost was shot in the head, and gone alone on raids without anyone knowing. But I've never been that close to a lurker before, being that close to getting bit or scratched; being that close to death.
"Shh, shh, Pey you're okay..." Adam said, swaying us gently. "I'm right here..."
"I nearly d-died..." I said, tears flowing down my face. I wanted to stop crying, I needed to stop, but I couldn't.
Adam let go of me and looked me in the eye, seeing fear in them.
"You're strong, but I'm telling you, it's okay to cry." he said. I shakily nodded my head and hugged him again, quickly turning back to my task before I was attacked. Adam kept close to me, letting me have the flashlight while he had his machete to cover me.
"Adam." I said as we walked around the store again to make sure we didn't miss anything. "You don't have to baby me. I'm fine."
The truth was, I wasn't fine. Tears were still coming out of my eyes, but I hadn't actually cried. I wasn't sobbing or breaking down, just water kept coming out of my eyes, and I couldn't stop it.
"I'm not trying to baby you." Adam said, taking a deep breath. "I'm trying to keep you safe." I rolled my eyes at this, seeing we went around the whole store and took everything that wasn't extremely out of date.
"I think we should go." Tyler said, coming out of the Staff Room. "It's going t be dark in about an hour or so."
"Let's go." I said, grabbing my hammer. I wanted to be ready for death this time.