CHAPTER 2

Joel stood with his hand on the door and motioned for Hannah to go right and Jessie to follow behind. Nodding his head in a silent count he opened the door. The flashlights pierced the darkness and they scanned the room.

"Clear!" Hannah said.

"All clear," Joel said. They had made their way into town and were checking the buildings. This was their third stop and it was a small grocery store. Coming in through the back, they made their way to the store room. Hannah jumped when she saw two bodies hanging from the ceiling, a bullet hole in each of their foreheads.

"Room's clear," Joel said. "Check those crates over in the corner, I'll see if there's anything in the cooler."

Hannah sifted through boxes. "You think one day our children won't have to see corpses around every corner?"

"Yeah, I hope so."

Jessie was still staring at the bodies. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," he said. "One day we will be able to put these people to rest."

"Jessie, help me open this cooler," Joel said, pulling at the handle. Jessie grabbed the lip around the door and pulled. "Just a little more!" Joel said, wincing and placing all his weight on the handle.

The door opened a few inches, then flew open from the weight of the two men. Joel and Jessie fell backwards into the far wall. The stench from the rotten air was followed by walkers as they rushed out of the cooler toward them.

"Move!" Joel yelled, pushing Jessie to the side. He reached for his machete but it wasn't there. Hannah had loaded her rifle and was getting ready to fire. The walkers, a man and a woman lunged toward Joel. He tried to push them back but their combined weight was squeezing him up against the wall.

"I don't have a shot!" Hannah said. "Get out of there!"

The walkers were gnashing their exposed teeth and Joel was trying not to get bit but he couldn't hold them off for long. Holding them off with his left arm, he grasped with his right hand and found an empty glass jar. He smashed the jar against the concrete wall and managed to hold onto a large piece of glass. He buried it into the head of the closest walker. Its mouth stopped moving but it was still held up by the crushing force of the male walker pushing them together. Joel pushed off the wall and forced the walker into the middle of the room. Jessie was waiting with his knife and landed a direct blow into the back of its head.

"Nice job," Joel said. He found his machete under some newspapers and placed it back in its sheath.

"We need to be more careful," Hannah said. "You won't always be so lucky."

"I'm fine. Luck is about all we have right now." His flashlight reflected off the cans of food in the cooler. "It looks like our luck is changing."

They gathered up the cans and decided to find a place to sleep for the night. There was a small post office in the town that had a rear delivery area that was completely surrounded by a chain fence. Joel secured the fence and made a fire to heat up some of the cans of food.

Joel always liked food that was hot. There was something special about eating hot food rather than eating it warm directly from the can. Maybe for a brief moment he could remember the camping trips his family used to take when he was younger. Making a fire was usually too risky but here they were protected from wandering walkers and the adjacent buildings provided good enough cover to block unwanted visitors from seeing the fire light.

Mixed vegetables and a can of cabbage were a welcome delicacy. There was also a can of pumpkin pie filling and they all took turns eating a spoonful at a time. Joel saw Hannah smile and it brought more warmth to his soul than the fire or the food. For a moment it seemed she relaxed and stopped worrying about who would die next or what bodies were lurking around the next corner.

They lay on their backs, staring up at the stars as Joel and Hannah listened to Jessie read a small Bible he carried around in his pocket. The fire cracked and popped and there didn't seem to be any walker activity as the sound of crickets and frogs filled the night air.

"So, what did you do," Hannah said, "before."

"I was a self defense instructor up near Canton," Joel said. "I trained the new recruits for the police departments all over Cherokee county."

"Really? So you taught people how to beat up other people?" She laughed.

"We live in a scary world," Joel said, catching himself. "Well, it was scary before. Now it's… I don't even know what it is now. It's just survival. It used to be fending off an attacker with some grappling moves was enough to scare people off. Now people are shooting other people without even thinking about it."

"But I'm sure your training helped people and probably saved lives, too."

"Maybe," said Joel, changing the subject. "How about you? What did you do? No, wait, let me guess." He hoped she wasn't a housewife with an undead husband roaming around somewhere.

"Marksman in the military?"

"You've seen me shoot, I'm not that good."

"Okay, um, roller derby…er. Roller derby person. Roller derby-ist!"

"What?" She laughed and threw a small stone at him which bounced harmlessly off his shirt. "No, what is the matter with you?"

"Alright, I give up. What was your claim to fame?"

"You'll laugh."

"I promise I won't."

"Promise?" she said, flipping over and staring at him. Joel turned over and smiled at her. She looked beautiful in the waning firelight.

"Promise."

"Agricultural biologist."

"You know, that was going to be my next guess!"

"Shut up!"

"Wow, you really know how to handle a gun for a pencil pusher."

"My father used to take me hunting. We owned a large farm in Alabama and he taught me everything he knew about farming. He never had a son so I guess he figured I would take over the farm some day."

"Did you?"

"I had other plans. I wanted to go to college and become an independent woman, away from the smell of gasoline and dirt."

"And you still became an agricultural biologist?"

"Even though I rejected the farm, I still loved the processes of plants, the endless natural cycle of life, death and rebirth. I always had a fascination with a tiny seed becoming something larger than itself."

"Because you wanted to become something more?"

"I guess so," Hannah said. "but then my dad died before I finished college and my mom sold the farm and I just kind of wandered around..." She flopped onto her back and sighed. "Then the whole world went to shit."

Joel wanted to ask her more, like about boyfriends but he figured that could wait for another day. He threw a few more pieces of wood on the fire and closed his eyes. This might be the most peaceful sleep he's gotten in a long time.

"Well, we're still here." Joel said. "Maybe Jessie's right and there's some greater reason for us being here."

"I hope so," Hanna said. "Night Joel."

"Night Hannah."

As the fire burned Joel thought that in the morning he would tell Hannah that he wanted to go to Terminus, that he believed that a safe place existed and that he wanted more nights like this one…

Joel awoke to the barrel of a gun pressed to his cheek.

A/N - I will be uploading the cover for this story later tonight! Also, thanks to daniaus for the review! Stay tuned for chapter 3! ~ JB