For Alex to hesitate the decision, even for a moment, was enough to highlight the extent of the risk ahead of them. The group needed food. But the walkers were piling up by the hour and the hope of rescue returning was slowly dying.

Everything they had planned was to ensure their survival. The simple fact of the matter was that it was now the dead against the living. Survival was the only thing that set them apart from the infected. If Tobias and Alex could bring back even a little food, it would ensure the groups survival for a little longer.

Next door, the house was empty and the only sign of life was the faint movement coming from the kitchen. Alex followed the noise and found Tobias pacing the room. His head snapped towards the creak of the door but relaxed at the sight of the anticipated face.

"What took you so long?" he asked impatiently, drumming his fingers on the work surface.

"Zoe." she replied bluntly, shrugging on the large backpack he had laid out for her. "She knows what we're going to do."

"What?! You told her?" He groaned, running his hand through his hair. "If she messes this up for us and we can't bring back some more supplies, I don't know how long we're going to last in here."

"Calm down, she figured it out for herself. She tried to convince us to stay, but I think she understands." Alex reassured "She knows not to tell anybody either. If anyone was to follow us, we'd al be at risk."

Tobias did nothing but let out a long, aggravated breath.

"Look, don't blame me." Alex began sternly. "If it makes you feel any better she's covering for us. Making up a story the adults will believe so we don't get busted. And she's promised to check in on Rae for you."

"Okay. Fine. I'm sorry. It's just that this is risky enough without having to worry about someone screwing things up for us back here."

"I trust Zoe. She won't say anything." Alex nodded "Now stop fussing and let's get going."

They moved towards the door and into the garden ready to start the supply run. Neither of them knew exactly what they were doing, but there was no turning back now. Using an old, up turned bucket, Alex scaled the back fence and dropped herself into the alleyway behind. She could hear her heartbeat thumping in her ears as she scanned the area for the un-dead. All clear. She tapped three times on the fence panel behind her and a muffled scramble was followed by Tobias landing with a faint thud next to her.

"Which way now?" Tobias barely whispered tightening the straps on his backpack.

"Well that way is the fence." she responded pointing to the left "If we go that way, we'll be spotted. Either by the dead or whoever is on guard."

From where they were stood, the animalistic moans of the walkers and the foul stench of their skin was more prominent than ever. There was at least 15 of them no more that 50 feet away, just out of sight. One wrong move would bring the whole lot down on them. One sound would mean death. They were completely exposed now they were on the outside of the fence.

"So this way it is." He breathed, gesturing to the right.

Alex nodded and moved silently alongside Tobias. As they approached a corner, Tobias' arm flew out to stop Alex and pushed her backwards. The pair were pressed against the garage wall behind them, Tobias with his finger to his lips and his other arm hovering in front of Alex's stomach.

Peering around the corner, Tobias could see a lone walker on its knees, hunched over something. The tear of flesh from bone and the putrid stink of guts indicated the walker was preoccupied with a fresh meal.

"It's distracted." Tobias mouthed "We can take it down. There's only one."

He removed his knife from his belt and slowly approached the walker with Alex following suit. She stayed slightly behind holding her breath as Tobias advanced on the beast. It's head turned at his approaching footsteps, it's nose picking up the scent of the live flesh.

Before it could get to its feet Tobias lunged, burying his knife through its eye socket and into its brain. The snarls stopped instantly and its body went slack, but Tobias' eyes were glued to the monsters last feast. Alex approach wanting to see what he was looking at.

"Alex...No...don't look." Tobias warned turning and shielding the sight from Alex with his body.

Too late.

A little girl, no older than 8 or 9 years old. Her stomach was torn open and her guts were spilling onto the pavement around her corpse. Her fresh blood stained her dress red and spilled from the corners of her mouth. Alex froze at the sight, her stomach churning. Tobias let out a long shaky breath.

"C'mon lets get out of here." He said pulling Alex gently by the arm.

Alex nodded and allowed Tobias to guide her away.

The roads were eerily quiet apart from the rhythmic pat of the duos feet as they began the treck to the other side of town.

Before long they reached the small side road that turned off to the shops, and slowed to a halt. Outside the shops, there were around six walkers aimlessly wondering up and down the road. Just like before, Tobias raised his finger to his lips and Alex nodded. She couldn't help but feel slightly patronised. She knew that noise could attract them, but this wasn't the time nor place to start an argument.

The number of walkers in front of them was too many to take on without risking drawing more. But, if they were quiet enough they could slip past them and into the shop.

"How are we going to get around them?" Tobias mouthed, unnerved. Alex had an idea and scanned the floor around her. A stone lay in the gutter a few feet away. She picked it up and turned it in her hand. Tobias looked confused.

Hoping her plan would work, Alex threw the stone as hard as she could at the window of an abandoned car. The dull thud of the rock against the metal meant she missed her target. However, the noise did attract the attention of a few walkers, which stumbled over to the car. But it wasn't enough. She found another rock and this time sent it hurtling through the windscreen, shattering the glass. Just as Alex suspected, the sound of the car alarm rung through the air and the small herd limped towards the sound.

Tobias looked impressed and Alex smirked to herself as the path to the shop cleared up. Hopefully, thee alarm would not be loud enough to attract many more walkers kept the heard occupied for a while.

They took their chance and made a beeline to the shop. The shutters were up and the large widow was broken. They were obviously not the first visitors to Tontos. Alex went in first with Tobias covering outside. She made a quick sweep of the shop and beckoned Tobias to follow her in when she knew the coast was clear.

Inside, shelves were upturned and packets were ripped open. The shop had been cleared with only the odd dented can lying on the floor. The pair wasn't sure what they expected but it definitely wasn't this wasteland.

"Fuck!" Tobias raged kicking shelf and running his hand through his hair. "What on earth are we going to do now."

"Keep your voice down!" Alex retaliated sharply.

Tobias fell silent. The only noise was the distant wail of the car alarm and the faint snarls of walkers. With a defeated sigh Alex bent down and picked up one of the cans and put it into her backpack.

"It was our choice to come out here so we cant go back empty handed." she reasoned, feeling under a shelf for any supplies. "There has to be something right? There's always something."

She went off around the shop picking up a few cans that weren't too damaged and any other odd items she could find. With a huff, Tobias followed suit, picking up and clattering a row of shelves to retrieve a chocolate bar that had fallen out of sight.

Alex popped her head out from one of the shelves at the back of the small shop

"Shush you don't want them things hearing us."

"They won't hear us over that alarm." he reasoned, reaching his hand to the back of the shelf and pulling out a packet of crisps with a smirk. Alex rolled her eyes and carried on scavenging.

After only 10 minutes, they had cleared what was left in the shop and were loading their bags in the eerie silence. What they had found didn't even half fill one of the backpacks. There was no where near enough the amount of food they hoped to bring back and were both severely disappointed. Tobias shrugged on the backpack with the food in as they readied themselves to leave.

"Wait..." Tobias stopped in his tracks as he was about to duck out of the broken window "Do you hear that?"

Alex listened but heard nothing. She wrinkled her brow confusion.

"No...?"

Suddenly their eyes met and their faces fell.

No more car alarm.

"Shit! Get back!" Tobias hissed stumbling backwards into the shop as the herd of walkers advanced on them. The old cars battery must of died, allowing the walkers to hear the two children in the shop. And now they were ready for their next meal. They flooded the shop as both Alex and Tobias took down the nearest walkers to them.

"There's too many of them! We need to get out now!" Tobias shouted, panic flooding his voice.

"There's a door at the back but it's locked." Alex replied, taking down another walker.

"Cover me. I'll try and get it open."

Alex nodded and they both made a beeline to the back of the shop, walkers hot on their tails. Tobias slammed his whole body weight at the door repeatedly but it had little effect. Alex took down another two walkers but they were advancing quick.

"Anytime today Toby!" She breathed, lunging at another walker with her knife.

At that he stood back and with all his strength began kicking at the door with the base of his boot. On the third kick, the door flew open.

Just as a walker tackled Alex to the floor.

It took all her strength to hold the rotting body the snapping jaws away from her face. Instinctively, Tobias drove his knife into the back of its skull and pulled Alex to her feet, the both of them breathing rapidly and buzzing with adrenaline.

"Looks like I just saved your life." he panted.

Another walker lunged, but this time at Tobias, grabbing his arm. Fortunately, Alex was quicker, shoving her knife through its eye.

"Looks like we're even." Alex smirked.

She grabbed his upper arm and dragged him into the small room, slamming the door behind them. Walkers slammed relentlessly into the other side of the door as Alex dragged a heavy shelf in front of it to hold it closed.

Alex's eyes swept the room in slight relief as she took off her backpack and left Tobias holding the door alone. Tobias glanced around in confusion but soon smiled and tossed Alex his bag as he continued to hold the door. The locked door lead into the shops store cupboard that was stacked with seemingly endless boxes food. Alex hurriedly filled both bags to breaking point with cans and packets of all variety.

"Brilliant." Tobias beamed, straining to hold the door "But please hurry and find us a way out of here."

Frantically, Alex scanned the room for an escape route. A small window that they could reach if they scaled one of the shelves. Alex pointed to it and Tobias nodded. With that she climbed the rickety shelves and pushed the window.

Locked

"Crap." Alex hissed

"Just break it, it's old." Tobias groaned from behind her. The walkers had piled against the door prying it open slightly, theirs hands grasping through the gaps of the door and the other stack of shelves that kept it from bursting open.

Alex took the base of her knife and slammed it with all her might against the old pain of glass. Sure enough the glass cracked but didn't quite break, so Alex lay flat against the shelf and kicked at the window until it shattered. Her foot went straight through the broken glass, slashing open the back of her right calf. It wasn't too deep but the blood and pain caused her to panic.

"You're alright!" Tobias called "I'll get you back. I promise. We'll both get back."

Alex bit back the pain and looked out the window. All clear. She tossed out both of the now very heavy bags and looked back to Tobias.

"Okay, you go first and call me when you're out of the way. The second I let go of this door, these monsters are gonna get in here so I don't wanna land on you okay?"

"Okay. When I shout, you get yourself out of there."

With that Alex jumped out of the window and landed on the tarmac the other side, a stabbing pain ripping through her leg.

"Clear!" She shouted, yanking herself and the bags out the way.

The slam of the door and clatter meant Tobias was on his was up and out. Alex held her breath. Within seconds, Tobias had landed next to her, picking up and shrugging on his own bag. He pointed to her leg which was slowly oozing with thick hot blood.

"Does it hurt much."

"Yeah," she wasn't going to lie "but I can still run."

"Let's go then."

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Alex sped off at a full speed sprint with Tobias by her side. Their lungs felt like they were filled with knives as their short ragged breaths came in gasps. Their muscles screamed at them to stop but they didn't slow their pace until they reached the alley way to the square. Tobias hurled both bags over the fence into the garden of number 14 and squatted into a position for Alex to climb on his hands and over the fence. She then leant over and caught Tobias' arm as he jumped up, helping him up and over the fence.

The pair collapsed side by side onto the grass, their chests rapidly rising and falling. after a few moments, when their breathing slowed to a more regular pace Alex sat up on her elbows.

"We did it." she smiled, relieved

"We sure did." Tobias wheezed, returning a goofy grin from where he was lay flat on his back. "Thanks for saving me back there...when it grabbed me I mean."

"It was no problem" Alex said laying back down herself. "Thanks for saving me too... and for getting me back alive"

Tobias chuckled earning a bark of breathy laughter from Alex.

"I did promise you, didn't I?"