Chapter 11
Five minutes later, Elliot was standing in the garage, keys in hand. She had been a bit surprised to find that it took her a few minutes to recall where she had last placed her keys. She eventually found them in a basket that had been sitting forgotten on the first floor kitchen counter. Elliot had also located a brush and pulled her hair back, and put on some shorts and a tank top. It couldn't have been past ten o' clock, but already it was getting hot outside. Fanning herself with her journal, Elliot unlocked her car and peered inside for the first time in several weeks.
It was just as empty as it had been when she left it. There was no evidence at all that implied anything about Elliot. Nothing about her job or hobbies or personality. She looked over the back seat to the trunk empty of everything but a tire changing kit. She opened the glove box to see nothing but car registration papers. She placed her gun on the dashboard and put the keys in the ignition just as Nathon entered the garage.
He entered on the passenger side, and picked up the other gun Elliot had placed on the seat. He sat down and Elliot put the car in reverse. She opened the garage door and backed out slowly, keeping an eye out for any reanimated that might have been huddled around the gate. With the window rolled down and her hand on her gun, Elliot drove slowly out of the driveway and onto the street. The only reanimated visible were at the end of the block, and had only just noticed them. Elliot was going to wait to drive up closer and get a better shot, but before she could even shift into drive, they both fell to the ground, shot from the house. Glancing at the second story windows, Elliot just caught a glimpse of Sarah's hand smugly wave before being pulled back inside the window frame. Sarah could show off all she wanted, it wasn't going to intimidate Elliot. In fact, Elliot was started to get pretty annoyed with all of her gun slinging. She glanced at Nathon, who simply shrugged in response.
As they started the slow drive down the street and around the corner, Nathon asked what the plan was.
"Same as last time, really. Except we'll be getting even more supplies and it'll probably smell even worse in there. We want to grab all the bottled water left on the shelves, and also any of the cans and dried food. There's no hope for any more milk or produce, but we can get ingredients to make our own bread. We also need to check the storage in the back. We weren't as thorough last time because we were in a hurry and we didn't have a lot of space on the bikes. I'm actually pretty surprised we were able to live off of that food for this long."
"Alright then." It sounded like this trip would go more smoothly than the last one, at least. Elliot pulled into the parking lot and drove as close as she could to the entrance, backing up so the rear of the car was only a few feet from the automatic doors. Elliot and Nathon stepped out from the car, and cautiously stepped inside the store. Elliot motioned for silence, and walked along the length of the front of the store, looking down each of the aisles, poised to fire. She looked down the last aisle and was a bit surprised to find that the store seemed to be completely abandoned.
"Weird." Elliot mused as she walked back over to Nathon, who looked relieved to not have to shoot anything.
"Looks like there's no one here. The place isn't even ransacked, I don't think anyone else has been here since our last trip." Elliot let her troubled mind wander for a moment before Nathon cleared his throat and she snapped out of it. "Right. Let's get started."
Nathon found he was having a little too much fun strolling down the aisles with his cart, using an outstretched hand to push everything on the shelf that looked to be of any use into the cart without any effort. By the time he had gone up and down three of the twenty or so aisles he found that his basket was full. He exited the aisle and walked to the entrance, giving a wide berth to the Pharmacy counter. Elliot had taken a cart behind some swing doors marked "Employees Only", and told Nathon to get the food and that she would take care of getting pet supplies and everything else.
The automatic doors opened and Nathon threw all the boxes of rice, crackers, and noodles into the trunk somewhat carelessly. He was just turning his cart around and was going to go get some more food when he heard Elliot scream from the back of the store. He ran toward the sound, pulling the gun from his belt.
Elliot was in the back of the building, where all the food soon to be shelved was stored, behind the walls that held the milk and yogurt. The room was dark and the ceiling was high, revealing the air conditioning and heating lines. It was dimly lit, the only light coming from small windows placed high up the bare cement walls. The smell of rotten dairy products was nauseating, and Elliot had her shirt pulled up over her nose. She had already looked through the area, but it too was devoid of reanimated. Digging through the crates stacked high in the back, Elliot knew there wasn't anything interesting back here. She was about to leave and go find some dog food when she heard loud banging from above.
Her hand reached for her gun instinctively, letting her shirt drop from her nose, which she instantly regretted. Rancid cheese had to be some of the worst smelling stuff in the world. She noticed in the far corner of the room a metal ladder screwed into the wall that led to the roof. The bangs were getting softer, but they were definitely coming from the roof. Oh, great, infected on the roof. How the hell would they even get up there? It must be stuck, or it would have just toppled off the roof already. Elliot walked over to the ladder and began to climb. The trap door above her wasn't even locked. Elliot made sure her balance was steady before pushing up the door and aiming her gun. Sure enough, there was an obviously infected man standing a few feet away from the door, moaning softly. He turned around at the sound of the trapdoor, but Elliot fired before she could see his face. This area was just as dark as the room she had come from, and Elliot realized the trapdoor was covered by another small room. The guy must have come to work sick and passed out up here before he could unlock the door and get out on the roof.
Other than the man now fully dead on the floor, this room was completely bare. Elliot sighed and started to step down the ladder. Just as she was about to drop the door, the man's head snapped back up, and his arm grabbed her wrist. Elliot yelled and yanked her arm away. A glimpse of his revealed that the shot she had made had only managed to skim the top of his head. Elliot fired again, making sure to cover her eyes and mouth as she did so, so none of its blood got into her system.
The only thing wrong with this action was that it meant she lost almost all grip on the ladder, and she barely had time to scream before tilting backwards, falling off, hitting her head on a crate, and landing unconscious on top of dozens of packages of decomposing cheese.