Our main problem was the truck. Second to that came the matter of supplies.
"Wait so you're saying we only have enough for three more days?" Donald asked, looking horrified. Aubrey and I had called a meeting that morning to tackle these two issues, and so far they weren't going down well.
"Basically." I sighed.
"Well what are you gonna do about it then?" Bumper grumbled, folding his arms. Aubrey merely raised an eyebrow.
"Beca seems to think that our only option is to keep looking for a town, and I'm inclined to agree. Basically we're going to keep driving, just in shifts, no more stopping. Our only hope is to find a town that has survived." Aubrey said in an authorative tone, and I nodded my head beside her to back her up. Everyone else looked somewhere between confused and scared, but they all agreed to the idea, and soon we were sorting out driving shifts.
"Basically we just need to switch between two or three people. Chloe, Jesse and I will switch between us in the car throughout the day and night, and Aubrey, Stacie and Donald can all sit up in the cab and do the same." Thankfully, Donald had been voted the third driver over Bumper and Fat Amy, neither of whom I trusted with such a task, although both for different reasons. Bumper was a douchebag, nothing more to it, and therefore more likely to cause some kind of accident than anything else, and Amy… well, Amy was enthusiastic and erratic in her behavior, and much as I liked her I didn't want her in charge of a large speeding vehicle containing other people either. We set off quickly after that, not wanting to linger for any longer than necessary in any one place, particularly as we had already been there a few hours. We'd only been met with a few of the infected in that time, and between us we'd been able to draw them away from our little 'camp' and trap them. Still, that wouldn't work forever, and we didn't have long to find a town. Three days in fact. Funny how time is so fluid that even though none of us were counting the minutes of the hours anymore, we were still counting the meals we had left on our fingers as though there were anything we could do about how few we were left showing. We drove practically non-stop for two days, only stopping once to refuel both vehicles and a few more times beside that for bathroom breaks. Jesse took to keeping watch out of the sunroof for hours on end, scouting for any signs of a town as Chloe and I switched over between the two front seats. It was a strange routine that we fell into blankly, hardly noticing our resignation to the end until we realised that as the sun set on the third day, we were sharing around our last can of tuna in the car.
"I guess that's it then." Chloe sighed glumly, tipping her head back to stare up at the ceiling.
"Yup." I replied, still driving.
"We're sure to find somewhere soon though, right?" Jesse mumbled hopefully.
Three more days later and the answer to that was still no. By then, we were all living off acorns and pretty pink clover plants that we found on the roadside, and what few squirrels Jesse and I had managed to shoot. We stopped our headlong rush East for these gathering sessions, and were attacked every time. As the days passed we got weaker however, and these attacks became more and more difficult to defend against. Hope was beginning to drain from everyone's eyes, and when I kissed Chloe goodnight it was never quite so sweet as it had been. Perhaps if I had died back then, that would have been enough. I could have died happy at least. These thoughts kept me awake even when I was meant to be sleeping. Surely this was it for us after all.
And then, somehow, we were saved.
"BECA! Over there - I see buildings!" Jesse shouted down to me from the sunroof, and I could tell that he was waving frantically to the truck behind us.
"Are you serious?" Chloe sat up in her seat, gripping the headrest to twist her body up to face Jesse.
"Yeah!" He dropped back into the back seat, grinning like a maniac.
"Just a little farther down the road, it looks like a village of some sort."
"Did you see any people?" I asked, my suspicion flaring.
"No, but we have to pull over Becs, we have to check it out." I sighed. He was right. So, as the building he was talking about, a small convenience store, came into view, I turned off and pulled up on what appeared to be a normal street in a normal little town.
"I can't believe we made it!" Jesse was saying, a few tears making their way down his excited face. Chloe too was expressing her relief, and I saw the others getting out of the van and hugging each other as though we had literally reached the end of our entire journey. I knew differently though.
"Jesse, I still want you on the shotgun, Chloe, take the hammer. I'm not taking any chances, I don't care how hungry and tired we all are, we're not losing any sense to that." They seemed to sober slightly at my tone, and soon we were all standing together outside the shop, Jesse, Chloe and I at the front of the group holding our weapons loosely. It occurred to me that I hadn't ever spoken to Chloe about that day she had attacked the infected alongside us, but I brushed it off, realising that would have to wait a little longer. We all watched as Jesse reached forward to grip the door handle and slowly turn it, eliciting a small 'clunk' as he did so.
"Guess they forgot to lock up." Stacie whispered hopefully. Either that or they didn't have time, I thought to myself, tightening my grip on the handgun. The door creaked painfully as Jesse pushed it open, and we followed in single file tight on each other's heels as he entered cautiously. It was gloomy in the shop as the only source of light was through the grubby windows, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust enough to make out the rows of shelves that lined the shop.
"Okay… it looks clear. You lot gather as much shit as you can carry and take it to the truck and the boot of the car. Chloe and I will scout out the rest of the shop, okay?" I hissed, and everyone muttered their acknowledgements, already beginning to go about their tasks.
"What about me?" Jesse whispered, brow furrowed.
"Can you watch their backs on the run? I need someone with a weapon with the main bulk of the group. Chloe can watch my back, right?" I directed this last part to my girlfriend who stood at my elbow, and she nodded profusely.
"Okay." Jesse sighed, relenting. I could tell that he was confused by my decision to take Chloe instead of him, but he wasn't one to argue. I motioned for Chloe to follow and began to make my way over to the back of the shop, where another door stood slightly ajar. She was so close behind me that I could feel her breath on the back of my neck, but I didn't time to consider how that made me feel, how it brought a wave of heat to my cheeks and a tingling to the pit of my stomach. It seemed odd to me in that moment, where everything seemed almost normal that Chloe and I had never actually had time to do typical relationship stuff. Like, sure, we kissed plenty, and we cuddled every night, we talked all day, played childish games, laughed, sang, held hands and heck we even killed infected together, but I guess what I realised we were missing was dates; alone time. Even sex. We hadn't even considered anything of that nature since we were together, and now it was on my mind I realised how insane that was, mostly because Chloe was beautiful and she was also hot as fuck and god, the more I thought about it the more I realised I really, really wanted her. Beyond that door we found a pretty bare supply closet, containing nothing but a dirty looking mop and bucket and some cleaning supplies. I bit my lip. Control yourself Mitchell.
"Are you okay, Beca? You've gone kinda red." I turned to face her, realising that my face was indeed burning.
"Yeah, it's nothing." She was looking at me with confusion, but was that all? There seemed to be something more in her eyes, and I noticed it spark a little as I leant forward and pulled her into a deep kiss. Before I could move my hands to where they were aching to be however, we were interrupted by a shout from the shop, and the sound of scuffling feet. We jumped apart and grabbed our various weapons, running back into the main shop area.
"What's going on?" I gasped, staring at Jesse and Donald who were now struggling to restrain an elderly man, who was batting at them with a stick.
"Get your hands off me! This is my store you son of a bitch, let. me. GO!" He managed to clock Bumper in the head with the stick at this point, and he yelled angrily.
"Dude what the fuck?! I'm not even holding you!" He growled, rubbing at his head as we all tried to contain our laughter. I walked over to them now, setting my face into a more sombre expression.
"Okay, so we need to know what the state of this town is sir." The man huffed.
"I ain't sayin' nothing until these bastards let me go." I sighed, and nodded to Jesse that they could release him. He pushed away from them grumpily, brushing off his clothes which were so hole-ridden and faded that I thought it hardly mattered if they were a little creased following the encounter.
"This town," he began curtly, "is fine. I don't know where y'all are from, but you may want to consider learnin' yourself some manners. If you want somethin' from me that's no way t' go about it."
"I'm sorry, sir, we've just come from a rough situation, we can't afford to take any chances. So you're saying that you've had no infections here?"
"Infections? Of what, flu?" I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
"No, the virus, you know, RA7?" He just shook his head.
"Can't say I've heard of it. Anyhow, everyone here is fine, and we don't need your kind around here messin' that up for us so do yourselves a favour and move along, huh?" He glared at me, and I decided that it was time to leave before he noticed his missing stock.
"Okay sir, well thanks for your time, and sorry again for intruding."
"Darn right." He muttered, turning away and hobbling off towards the till.
"Gogogo!" I hissed, hustling the others out of the door as fast as I could. We emerged into the light blinking and grinning.
"Well he was as mad as a banana bender taking on a boomer!" Fat Amy exclaimed cheerfully, and we all stared at her in confusion. She merely shrugged and smiled.
"Okay then. If you're saying what I think you are though, then you're right about him being completely insane; I don't think he even knows what day it is." I sighed.
"Well, do you?" Aubrey cut in, raising an eyebrow challengingly. That shut me up.
"She's got you there, Bilbo." Bumper laughed, and I glared at him. He'd been the one person who consistently got at me about my height, even though I wasn't that much shorter than everyone else anyway, and it was really starting to piss me off.
"Fuck off, Bumper." I spat, before turning back to the others. I really didn't know how much more of him I could stand.
"Right," I began, trying to regain control of the chattering group, "I say we split up and search the rest of the town, try to figure out what the situation is."
"That's a good idea." Jesse smiled at me encouragingly, and Lily added something unintelligable, to which we all just smiled and nodded awkwardly.
"So I think three teams is probably best. Chloe, Jesse and I will be the team leaders as we all have weapons and experience. Any objections?" Bumper looked as though he wanted to argue, but both Aubrey and Amy were glaring at him with such malice that he kept his mouth shut.
"Okay, so Chloe, you go with Aubrey, Stacie. Jesse, you can take Donald, and Amy, and I'll go with Bumper and Lily."
Everyone shuffled into their teams, Chloe beaming at Aubrey and Stacie as she practically skipped over to them.
"Okay let's head out then. Jesse, take that street to the left. Chloe, go round the other side of the shop and go right from there; I'll take this way." I nodded to the road straight ahead of us. The others nodded and set off, still whispering excitedly. I watched on happily as Chloe and Aubrey linked arms, laughing away at something that Stacie had said, before turning back to Bumper, who was glaring at me, and Lily who was looking slightly mortified as usual.
"Okay let's do this." I sighed, and we began trudging up the road. I was taking care to avoid stepping on the trash that littered the street, but Bumper was making as much noise as possible, or so it seemed. I cringed as he stomped on a half-empty crisp packet.
"Bumper, would you mind walking on the road instead of the garbage? We kinda need to stay quiet." He muttered something that was probably highly offensive, but after that he did seem to take a little more care of where he placed his feet.
"I don't see anything. Do you really think that this place has survived?" He whispered after a few minutes.
"No, I don't, and that's why we're checking it out." I was beginning to feel like I was being watched.
"Hey, what's that over there?!" Bumper hissed, suddenly grabbing my arm. I spun round to face the direction in which he was pointing, just in time to see a shadow flashing across a window inside one of the houses.
"Cover me." I whispered, beginning to creep forward. It was pretty likely that this was going to be one of the infected, and if it was then I didn't want to bring my presence to its attention. I crouched down underneath the windowsill as Bumper and Lily stood just off to my left, and slowly peered over the sill. I was met with a pair of started green eyes, the owner apparently as shocked as I was. We both screamed and fell backwards, but I quickly leapt up and ran back to the window. A young girl sat inside a little way away from the pane, staring up at me. She looked to be about fifteen, with jet black hair and a slightly grubby face.
"Hi, it's okay I'm on your side. Can you come out and talk to me and my friend for a second?" I asked, putting on a smile. She shook her head rapidly.
"No, my mom says I can't go outside without dad." She looked as if she was about to burst into tears. I adopted another tactic.
"Okay, well can we come in? We just need to find out a few things, we're lost you see, and we don't have anything to eat." She glanced around nervously, before getting up and walking in the direction of the door.
"Lily, keep watch out here." I waved to Bumper, and we moved to the doorstep. The door opened moments later, after the sound of several heavy bolts being drawn back and locks undone echoed out. I beamed down at the girl as she peered out from behind the door, and slowly stepped back to let us enter. We stopped just inside the door, and Bumper held it just slightly ajar behind us.
"Okay, so we need to know if there are any infected in this town." I began, bending down slightly to be at the same height as the girl. She was trembling slightly.
"I'm sorry, I-" She was cut off by a large man carrying a double-barreled shotgun looming out from a door to her left, and aiming straight as me. I raised my hands and stood back up to my full height.
"Nice catch, Emilia. The sergeant sure will be pleased with us." He had a deep, gravelly voice, and when he spoke I could see that he had several missing teeth.
"Uh, there's got to be some sort of mistake here sir, we're just passing through." Bumper said, adjusting his grip on the door. The man simply leered and shoved the girl behind him roughly.
"No mistake. You're coming with us."
We'd been shuffling through empty streets for what felt like hours now, and I was beginning to get bored with it. Not to mention the hunger that was clawing at my stomach like an enraged grizzly bear. Still, this had been the perfect opportunity to get the scoop on what was going on between Aubrey and Stacie. The moment we'd been reunited, I knew that something had changed between them, but up until now, I hadn't been exactly sure what that was. Now, I knew; they were so in love with each other! The very notion made me want to squeal like a little girl and jump up and down, but I knew I had to be subtle about it if I wanted to get them to admit to anything. I'd tried to get Aubrey to talk to me about it a week or so ago, but, to my dismay, she had remained tight-lipped throughout.
"So, how have you two been holding up in the truck then?" I started, my tone sickly sweet and innocent. Aubrey raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, good I guess?" I chuckled.
"I was just asking. You know, you two seem awfully close now. Is there something you want to, you know, tell me? Possibly?" I giggled as Aubrey's eyes went wide and Stacie's face split into a grin.
"FINE! Chloe, you win. Stacie and I… we're, um…" Aubrey trailed off.
"Dating. We're dating." Stacie laughed, suddenly pulling the blonde into a dazzling kiss. Only then did I allow myself to squeal and leap around.
"YES! I knew it!" Aubrey tried her hardest to scowl at me, but couldn't help smiling along at my antics.
"Whatever. You're so childish, Chlo." I stuck my tongue out at her.
"You love it. Okay, so serious business now, we need to see if we can find anything useful like food and make sure there are no infected around." The others nodded, and we began walking with more purpose. I thought I heard something like a shout off to my left in the distance, but Aubrey and Stacie didn't react and so I figured it was nothing.
"Jesse, I'm all for making sure this place is safe, but seriously I think I saw a diner back there, can we go make some chips or something? I'm seriously hungry." Amy was moaning, just like she had been the whole time we'd been searching the town. So far we'd found nothing; no infected, no people, and no food, much to our dismay. I was trying to remain impassive to that fact, although I had to admit that at the mere mention of food I was starting to feel my resolve crumble.
"Amy's right, we've found nothing so far, it wouldn't hurt to break into one of these shops and get something to eat, we won't be fit to defend ourselves otherwise." Donald added. I sighed, finally giving in.
"Okay, okay. We'll head back to the diner." Amy thrust her fist into the air, cheering quietly.
"I'll lead the way, shall I?" She grinned, beginning to walk briskly back the way we had just come.
"Oh, now you move quickly." I grumbled, shouldering the rifle and speeding up to catch up with her, Donald doing the same.
"I know what I want." was her reply. Soon, we were standing outside the diner in question. It was dark inside, and from what I could see of the interior through the thick layer of dust coating the window, it was pretty trashed.
"Okay, we need to do this slowly and carefully." I whispered. Unfortunately, Amy didn't do anything slowly and carefully, and she rushed past me, booting the door down with one foot before charging straight in, coughing at the sudden explosion of dust that her actions created.
"Amy!" I groaned, signaling for Donald to follow me in as I jogged after her. She was already in the back room, chucking boxes and packets through and onto the counter.
"Don't sweat it J, there's no one here." my gaze fell on a second, closed, door on the back wall, adjacent to the one through which Amy's voice drifted.
"Yeah, I'm not so sure…" I muttered under my breath. "Donald, can you take watch on the door? I'm going to check through there."
"Alright." He jogged over to the main door to stand watch as I moved to the one in the back. I wasn't sure why it was freaking me out so much, but a part of me was convinced that something was behind this door, something terrible. I reached for the handle, my hand shaking slightly. As my fingers clenched around the cold metal I forced myself to take a second to breathe, to calm my nerves. Then, in one swift motion, I yanked the door open and put the rifle to my shoulder, finger on the trigger. What then fell out at my feet caused me to turn to the side and gag; three or four putrid, rotting corpses, each bound with rope. They landed with an unpleasant 'squelch' which caused my stomach to do a second flip.
"Oh god oh god oh god." I whispered, stumbling back.
"What's going- oh." Amy asked, emerging from the larder just in time to see the bodies, her face falling.
"We have to get out of here now, it's not safe." I said, my voice flat. She paled, and nodded, forgetting what food she had found and heading straight for the door.
"Everything okay back there?" Donald enquired, having noticed our expressions. I merely shook my head.
"We're not safe here. We have to get back to meet the others, we have to warn them."