With their guns aimed in front of them, Regina and the others walked off of the truck into the loading room at the back of the center.
Entering the room and looking up at the metal shelfs, there was a biter hanging from a noose, snarling and swinging its arms around.
"Let's keep moving." Regina sighed looking up at the dead woman. She looked young, her skin hadn't decayed that much so that meant this was recent.
Walking out of the back of the store, Regina shivered and her cold breath blew out in front of her. Gripping her ACR tighter, Regina lead the team further into the gigantic building. They could hear the snarling of biters around the store.
"If we split up we'll cover the store quicker. Anything of use grab, watch your surroundings." Regina told them firmly.
Mulan and Philip went left while Regina and Graham went right, Kristoff stayed in the middle, taking down the biters that wandered to the front when they were out there. Regina and Graham stealthily walked around the ails not finding much, but Graham took hold of a cart clutched in the hand of a dead biter. Regina kept her hand on her rifle in front of her and threw things into the cart as they went by.
Oats. Pinto beans. A few cans of peach slices. A jar of pretzels. Some instant oatmeal boxes. This wasn't bad but it wasn't good either.
"Maybe the others are having better luck." Regina sighed.
Graham looked behind them, and pushed moving around the corner he and Regina both stopped abruptly at the sight of a man's body being torn apart by two biters kneeling over him. He had a bullet wound to the head as well, as if he'd self inflicted right at the very end.
"He looks fresh." Graham grimaced.
"Which means he was hiding out or he got in just before we did." Regina sighed and stepped forward.
Graham let go of the cart, and together they both snuck up behind the biters feasting on the man chest. Raising the butt of their rifles, they brought them down hard onto the biters skulls. Regina's hit immediately killed the rotting chunky woman, while Graham had to go in again and hit harder.
Regina looked up at him smirking and Graham just huffed rolling his eyes.
"So are you going to tell me about her?" Graham turned around to grab the cart.
"Tell you about who?" Regina scuffed.
"Oh don't play coy, you know you tell me everything. If not everything almost everything." He shrugged.
"I...don't want to say, things are still early...it could very well go south."
"Do you like her?" Regina nodded. "Does she like you?" Regina nodded again.
"Yes. She told me as such."
"Oh come on Gina don't make me guess."
"You know I hate it when you call me that." Regina groaned.
"Please? You can tell me. My love life is basically none existent. Allow me to live through you."
"No I am not telling you Graham."
Graham pouted and Regina sighed and looked down, grimacing as she realized she was stepping in blood. Turning her head to the side and bending over, Regina pushed the chunky biter woman over off of the man she was eating and reached her gloved hand forward to pick up a set of keys out of his limp hand.
Straightening back up and holding the keys up in the light, as blood dripped from them. Regina arched one brow and then smirked looking to Graham.
"I wonder where these go?" Regina bent down again, rubbing the bloody keys on the back of the chunky biters shirt cleaning them off. Picking up the gun the man used laying near his head, she checked the mag and it was empty. "He must've had one bullet left."
Graham looked behind her and then down the wall to his left seeing a frame to a doorway between some produce racks.
"Looks like he was headed back that way. Trying to get away." Graham looked at the way there was bloody streaks going in that direction. The chewed man must've tried to drag himself to the door.
Twirling the keys, Regina stepped over the bodies and made her way towards the door. Walking up to it she noticed scratch marks on the door, putting her ear to it Regina listened in for any movement. Not hearing anything and looking back over her shoulder at Graham, she nodded to him and looked down at the keys. There was only two so one or both had to work.
Graham left the cart near the door and gripped his rifle aiming it towards the door. Regina put the key into the door and unlocked it on the first try, twisting the handle and slowly inching the door open. Her rifle pressed back against her shoulder, she opened the door wider and quickly aimed at the dark room.
"Flashlight." Regina said over her shoulder.
Behind her Graham quickly took out the flashlight on his hip, clicking it on and attaching it to the top of his gun. With the light shining into the room Regina saw that it went deeper once you turned left. Graham was right at her hip as she slowly inched in, finger placed out near the trigger ready to shoot anything that came at her.
As she got through the door, they could hear scurrying, but it didn't sound like a small animal. They didn't hear any snarling and groaning though.
"Could be rats." Graham said as the light shinned down the path.
"He could've put something back here." Regina whispered.
Regina stopped her creeping as they heard tiny shushes and whispering. Furrowing her eyes she took a breath and stepped forward. There was boxes littering the ground and looking back she saw another door at the end of the path, it was slightly ajar.
"All of these are empty." Graham huffed.
Regina kept her eyes on the door, and nodded her head. "Through the door then."
There was a thump, and they both tightened their grips and aimed at the door.
"Is anyone here?!" Regina called out.
There was another thump and they were only about 6 feet from the door now. If it was a biter they would have heard it by now, but they got now response.
"We aren't here to hurt you. We're good people just looking for food. You don't have to hide from us." Regina tried again walking another foot.
"G-go away!" There was a young girls voice that came through the door.
Regina stood still, "I promise I am not here to hurt you."
"Just take what you want and go!" The little voice shouted again.
Sighing and licking her bottom lip, Regina was trying to think of the best way to approach this.
"Have you been alone in this center for a long time?" Regina asked.
The man chewed up outside the door didn't look that old but still he had a good few days on him. He must've had a child then, probably didn't want her seeing him that way.
"You don't have to stay here...I have a group. We live in a bigger place than this...it has fences and walls. It's safe there." Regina waited.
"I'm not alone. I'm not going anywhere with you, you're a stranger." The girl huffed.
"Can you come out then?" Regina asked "That way we won't be strangers... I can't show you who I am, if you won't come out."
It was quiet for a while and Regina sighed, "Either you come out or I'm coming in."
"This place...where you live, do you have a doctor?" They heard whispering and the girl's voice finally called out.
"We do." Regina lowered her gun slowly. "Two in fact...and a few people who were nurses as well."
"W-we're gonna come out...you better not try anything!" The girl said before the door pulled back a little.
"Put your gun down, but stay alert." Regina looked over her shoulder at Graham. The girl wasn't alone.
The door pulled back and a head of dark blonde hair peaked out, the squinted her blue eyes at the light being pointed her way. Graham pointed the light up at the roof when he saw her struggling to see. She looked about 11 or 12, and she was just up to Regina chest in height. She looked at them and gasped seeing the big guns the were holding.
"Whoa. Hey no don't worry. Safety's on look. Not going to hurt you." Regina saw her step back again and quickly showed her the safety latch. Making sure it clicked so she could hear it.
The girl still eyed her cautiously with her brow scrunched up.
"My name is Regina Mills. This skinny guy behind me is Graham Humbert." Regina introduced them and waited but the girl just stared.
"Ava. My name is Ava Zimmer." She finally huffed out.
"Ava..." Regina nodded her head. "Well it is nice to meet you Ava."
Ava nodded and blinked, slightly looking back over her shoulder.
"Ava. There are three other people here with us. We came here looking for more food and clothing, there are many people in the place we are right now. And the weather is getting worse every day, we came in here to simply help our people survive. Not to hurt you." Regina explained.
"How many people do you have?" Ava whispered.
"108." Regina revealed.
Ava's eyes got big and she shook her a little. "Are there...are there kids there?"
"Yes. About 40 or so, if we're going by 18 and under." Regina shrugged.
"Is your Doctor good?" Ava asked.
"He is very skilled. I have seen people in pretty bad conditions come to him and he helped heal them." Regina smiled. "...Are you hurt?"
Regina couldn't see any signs of blood on the girl. Ava shook her head and looked back.
"My brother..."she told them.
"He was burned before we got here...my father managed to find some cream but he was trying to get the pharmacy open for medicine to help with his pain. His arms are burned very badly." She admitted in a low voice.
"How long have you been here?" Graham asked from behind Regina.
Ava counted on her fingers silently, "9 days." she told them.
"And...how long have you been back here?" Regina asked.
Ava's face somehow got sadder, "We came in through garden section, there was a hole in the glass so we crawled through before we covered it...My father found the keys on a worker the third day and we found this room...every day we snuck around the roamers finding things around the store. We helped him lure a good amount of them out to a big truck out back. But my brother's pain only kept getting worse so we stayed back here." Ava sighed. "He told me he was going to go try to open the pharmacy door. I don't know what happened...We heard him screaming on his way back..." Ava shuddered. "But the door wouldn't open...I kept trying to pull it but it was locked...he was screaming and then there was a loud bang and then he stopped...that was two or three days ago...I can't really tell."
Regina sighed, arms folded across her chest and looked down at the ground. Graham was silent too, and shook his head.
"I am so sorry Ava." Regina's face showed her sympathy for the girl. "Your father must've been hurt but...didn't let himself turn."
But the truth behind his death was that this whole thing had taken a toll on the man's mind. He loved his children so he wanted to keep them safe. But they were here in this building now with strong walls, they had food...they would be fine. At least Ava would, he had already watched his wife and youngest child be eaten alive. He couldn't bare to see his son in pain. So he ran around the super center getting the attention of a few stranglers, yelling and screaming and crying from exhaustion to get them to follow.
He tripped over his feet and hit his face on the smack on the ground, dizzy and panting he screamed as hands grabbed his shoulders and he was bit in the neck. Pushing the demons off he palmed his neck, the pain was shooting through his body and blood dripped through his fingers.
Wailing and stumbling trying to get the key from his pocket, he fell back to the ground and tried to crawl but didn't get far as they grabbed him again. Quickly he took his gun from his hip and screamed as their teeth broke through skin on his legs. He brought the gun up to his skull, he wouldn't let them see him as one of those things. But no one would ever know this.
Behind the Ava, a boy's head peaked around her shoulder. Ava felt him walk up and stepped to the side in front of the door.
"This is my brother Nicholas." Ava introduced him after a few seconds.
He looked about 10, with his brown hair and brown eyes compared to his sister's blue. Nicholas was sweaty and breathing slowly, his arms twitching slightly at his sides.
"Do you think you can get the pharmacy to open?" The boy rasped out.
Regina blinked and thought it over, they could definitely try. And the meds back at the prison were starting to run low again.
"We will definitely try." Regina shook her head. "...The doctors back at camp can monitor you really well and insure you don't have any infections if you come with us."
"There's beds." Graham spoke up, "they aren't very comfortable but we still use them."
"There's also food, even fresh foods. We started a garden." Regina smiled.
"We haven't been around many people." Ava sighed. "There have been some really bad people."
"Everyone in our group is friendly, the children are all well behaved, no one is unsafe." Regina reassured. "The group is filled with so many different people from different backgrounds and they all have unique abilities. We work together every day to better adjust ourselves to this new world around us."
Ava and Nic looked at each other, silently communicating.
"108 people...that's a lot." Ava sighed.
"There's food." Nic rasped out. "We found big boxes of it back here...we've been eating peanuts for days." he scrunched up his nose. "You can have it."
Regina walked the few steps forward to peer inside the room behind the kids. Six rows of four boxes were stacked up on top of each other, and the boxes were marked with what they contained.
"There's lots of grains and rice...we just don't have a way to make them." Ava shrugged.
"We have a kitchen. We have hot meals just about everyday." Graham perked up.
"That sounds really nice." Nic was visibly shivering. He must've been in so much pain.
"Regina?" Philip stepped through the door far behind them. "Oh woah." he saw the kids.
"What did you manage to find?" Regina turned.
"A few cans and some bags of beans some batteries and a few guns in the weapons section but a whole bunch of clothes that will come in handy for the winter."
"Good. Let's make sure we leave nothing unturned...Our new friends Ava and Nicholas here are generous enough to share the food they've found with us. Radio Ruby and Jefferson to bring the trucks around so that we can start loading them up." Regina ordered.
"Go out there and find something to cover up the bodies with." She then whispered to Graham.
Turning back around to face the kids, Regina looked them both over and smiled. They walked further into the room, Regina turned on her flashlight and handed it to Ava. Regina started taking boxes down the hall and Mulan came in to help too after introducing herself. Once the last box was out, Regina looked out to make sure the bodies were in fact covered up.
While they moved the boxes, Regina told the kids to pack anything they had up and Ava handed their stuff to Mulan.
"Let's get that pharmacy open then." Regina smiled.
Walking out of the door and back into the front of the store, Regina made sure Kristoff and Philip and Graham stood in front of all the blood. Letting Ava lead the way, Regina kept her hands on her rifle and the other team members did the same as they were at the kids sides. Two at their sides and two at their front with Regina right behind them.
On the way they took out five biters, each time one of them approached Regina saw the kid's visibly flinch. But still it was like they were popping up out of then air.
"We found a breach in the walls earlier...no doubt where all these fuckers keep coming from." Philip spoke as the walked. "Blocked it off for now."
Reaching the pharmacy, Regina looked through the bars that were pulled down blocking anyone from getting in. Philip, Mulan and the kids stayed back while Regina, Graham and Kristoff walked closer examining the gate. It looked like someone tried to shoot at it, there were blood hand prints all over it but looking through the spaces in the gate they clearly saw the shelves still littered with bottles.
"No doubt a lot of that stuff is expired." Kristoff sighed.
"Yes but Doc and everyone else still maybe able to find use in them." Regina said.
Trying to get barrier up was pointless. There was a key pad lock on the door which meant there was an alarm but there was a key slot too. Maybe you needed one or the other or both.
"Maybe it's a skeleton key?" Graham said hopeful.
Regina sighed and took the keys from her pocket, there was only two and one was bigger than the other. The smaller key worked on the door in the back, but it didn't work when she tried the pharmacy door. So Regina tried the bigger one and the lock clicked, she turned and smiled before turning back and twisting the knob opening the door.