A/N: Sorry it's taken me almost a month to upload a new part. I'm really hating college right now; my schoolwork has been taking up most of my time, and probably still will for the next month or so. I'll work on getting more up; reviews (even a simple "Hey upload more already") help remind me that I need to put more up for all of you. In any case, here's the next bit! Hope you enjoy!
Melissa followed the three wrestlers as they weaved through the cars. "Do we have anything to carry stuff in?" she asked, realizing that she'd left the backpack full of ammo under the Prius. She would have to remember to grab it before they left.
Cody and Damien shook their heads. "We don't really have anything."
Seth stopped with a sigh, looking around. With a soft "Aha" he walked over to a nearby car whose trunk was open. He pulled out two hiking backpacks and tossed them at the duo. He fished around a little more before he found a small one for Melissa, which he threw to her. "Carry what we take in that."
Melissa nodded and slung the small bag onto her shoulders as Seth resumed leading them through the cars. As they reached the doors of the convenience store, Melissa pulled out her knife, feeling the blade rest easily in her hand. Seth pulled the door open, causing a small bell attached to it to ring.
"I hope that doesn't draw anything in," Seth muttered.
"Or out," Melissa said, pointing towards the dark interior of the store. "Do we have a flashlight? We always seem to be leaving them in the car."
Seth reached into one of the pockets on his cargo pants and pulled out a flashlight.
"You guys and your pockets," Melissa muttered as Seth handed the flashlight to Cody.
Seth laughed softly. "Let's go."
Cody turned the flashlight on as Melissa led them into the store. Half the shelves had been knocked down in hasty attempts to grab things; a lot of stuff was scattered over the floor.
Melissa looked down one aisle as the door closed behind them. "Now where would they keep the medicine?" Melissa murmured. "Would they keep it behind the counter?"
Seth shook his head. "Not basic stuff like Tylenol and Advil. That'd be on a shelf somewhere."
"Or on the floor," Melissa griped as she stepped down on something. She grimaced when she realized she'd actually stepped in something. Cody pointed the flashlight towards the floor, the bright light revealing a dark puddle of blood.
"So much for clean shoes." Melissa moved away from the dried blood, more on edge now. The puddle of blood probably had an owner wandering around in here.
She led them down an aisle, her gaze sweeping over everything left on the shelves and the floor. She slowed when Damien and Cody started shoving some of the food into their backpacks. Coming to a stop at the end of the aisle near the back wall fridges, she thought she heard something. Peering down into the darkness along the back wall, she could almost swear she saw something moving in the shadows. "Hey, I need the flashlight," she hissed. Cody raised the flashlight for a moment, illuminating what Melissa had heard and seen. A male zombie was crouched in the corner, loudly tearing chunks of skin from a dead body.
As soon as the light reached the zombie, it turned around, its cloudy eyes searching. It growled almost quizzically before stumbling to its feet. It teetered for a moment, and Melissa saw that a large portion of the right leg muscle was missing. It lurched forward, snarling as it caught sight of live prey.
Melissa brought the knife down on its skull as it came closer. The one hit was enough, and she yanked backwards, pulling the blade out with a sickening squelch. The body fell to the floor with a thud, and Melissa looked back at the others. Seth was now scanning the room, clearly trying to see if there were more zombies around. Damien and Cody, however, seemed shaken by her casual killing. "What?" she asked harshly as they stared a bit too long for her liking.
"You didn't even blink. You just…you just killed it," Cody stammered, looking a bit shell-shocked.
Melissa frowned. "Yeah. Me or him," she said, remembering the words Dean had offered her when she had first killed a zombie.
"But…but that was a person!" Cody protested.
"Have you never seen anyone kill one before?" Melissa asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Only once," Damien whispered. "Some soldiers hauled Tamina out of the car and murdered her when they realized she'd been bitten."
"I'm sorry," Melissa murmured, feeling bad. "But that…" She gestured at the body of the zombie. "… It wasn't alive anymore. They don't have any feelings, any notion of right or wrong. He'd eat me as soon as look at me, and I don't intend to die, not after what I've been through."
Damien nodded. "It just makes no scientific sense that the dead can get up and walk around."
Melissa shrugged. "We're stuck with it, whether it makes sense or not. Let's hurry up and find what we need. I don't like it in here."
They resumed searching, now moving more carefully through the aisles as Damien and Cody picked up things they needed.
They were looking down one with all the shelves hanging askew. Melissa squinted, trying to read the labels of what had been here.
Seth came around the corner, and something crunched loudly under his boot.
Cody jumped in fright. "What the hell was that?"
Seth bent down to pick up what he'd stepped on. Cody shone the light on it, revealing a package of cough drops.
"We're in the right aisle then," Damien muttered, crouching down to look at the items on the floor.
"Let's hurry up then," Seth said, looking antsy.
Melissa was also feeling more on edge; there was no knowing if there were more zombies in here.
She crouched down, shoving any medicine she found into the backpack. She didn't care what she grabbed; any medicine was better than none.
After cleaning the aisle of any products on the floor, they all stood, looking around the store. "I think that should be everything," Cody said. "Our backpacks are pretty much full."
"Let's get out of this building then," Damien said, taking the lead as they headed back towards the door.
Melissa looked over at the counter, where they hadn't checked. She wondered for a moment if there was anything worth grabbing; usually it was just cigarettes and cash, as far as she could remember. She had just looked away when something moved from behind the counter, scrambling over it and crashing to the floor on their side. It blundered right into Damien, causing him to fall over into a pile of shattered glass.
Damien shouted in surprise and fear as he fell. Cody managed to shine the light in Damien's direction, showing that it was a zombie that had come from behind the counter.
"Help me! Help!" Damien cried out.
Seth darted forward, kicking the zombie in the chest, causing it to lurch sideways and fall next to Damien. He stomped down on the zombie's skull, a loud crack sounding as he did so. The zombie however, didn't die and started to attempt to get back to its feet.
Cody rushed over to help, bringing his own foot down on the zombie's skull, similar to how Seth had done. The skull caved inward with another loud crack. This time the zombie did not move.
"Is…is it dead?" Damien stuttered as he scrambled to his feet.
Seth kicked it in the chest, and nodded when the corpse did nothing. "It's dead."
Melissa realized she had done nothing but stand and stare as Damien was attacked. She felt horrible about it, but everyone was fine, luckily. She shivered, hoping she wouldn't freeze up like that in the future.
Seth motioned for everyone to follow him. "Let's get out of here."
Melissa trailed behind the others, giving the store one last glance as Seth closed the door behind her.
"Back to Dean and Roman then," Melissa said.
"And Alicia," Cody reminded her.
"And Alicia," Melissa amended. She had forgotten Alicia was with them; Melissa blamed it on having not seen her yet.
They quickly made their way back through the cars, all breathing a sigh of relief as they reached the Suburban, where Dean was leaning against the car reading a book. Melissa wondered with a frown if it was the book from her backpack.
Dean looked up as they approached. "There you are. I was starting to wonder what happened."
"There were two zombies that needed their brains smashed," Melissa commented.
"Ah. You find anything good?" he asked.
"Lots of medicine, surprisingly," Cody spoke up. "There's probably something in here to help Alicia."
Melissa opened up the small backpack that she'd packed full of medicines. She grimaced as the first thing she saw was a laxative. "Don't need that," she muttered, miming throwing it over her shoulder.
Seth snatched it from her hand. He laughed when he saw the package. "Keep it in there anyway. Won't hurt to have it, just in case." He laughed again.
Melissa rolled her eyes as she sorted through the rest of the medicines. There were several allergy medicines, along with two bottles of cough syrup. She had to refrain from yelling "Aha!" as she spotted a box of Aleve at the bottom of the bag.
"Anything good?" Dean asked her, leaning forward to look over her shoulder. Melissa pointed to the box, wondering if she shouldn't be too obvious about it with Damien and Cody.
Dean stood up, looking over at Cody and Damien. "Find anything that can help Alicia?" he asked them casually.
Damien nodded as he pulled something out of the bag. "We found a box of Tylenol," he said. "It should help reduce the fever."
"That's good. All Melissa seemed to find was some laxatives and some allergy medicine," Dean lied.
Melissa looked at him sideways as he rolled his eyes. Apparently they were going to be keeping the extra medicine a secret from Damien and Cody.
"Why don't you put your backpack in the car?" he told Melissa, giving her a warning look that Cody and Damien wouldn't see.
Melissa nodded, opening up the back seat door and tossing it in; she also retrieved the backpack full of ammo out from under the Prius.
Seth, who had been watching quietly up until now, spoke up. "Wait, where's Roman?"