The expanse of shoe boxes and racks before Madison amazed her. She'd worked in retail when she was younger, just starting out in adulthood, but she didn't remember a stock room being this expansive. However, she wasn't in there for the shoes or compression shorts - her focus was the possibility of a break room filled with food hidden among this maze. Shoes be damned, perhaps she could find a few cans of soup to feed her family and save the preservative-riddled snacks in their backpacks for desperate times.
Her developing survival skills rewarded her with a kitchen separated from the stock room by a heavy metal door. Upon opening the door, the stench of rotting flesh attacked her sense of smell, and a swarm of fat, droning flies scattered around her. It took all she had to stop the retch threatening to empty her stomach. Automatically, her hand grabbed a screwdriver from her back pocket. There was no need for the tool, though. The two bodies dressed in athletic clothing had bullet wounds through their heads, and, even if they hadn't, were past the point of being unable to stand and walk.
Madison ran back out to the stock room. With a tube sock, she fashioned a makeshift surgical mask, and put two other socks over her hands as barriers between her skin and the bodies of the deceased as she dragged them as far from the kitchen as she could.
"There," she stripped the socks from her hands and untied the sock around her face.
"Mom..mom!"
Madison turned to see Nick and Ofelia racing past the swinging doors to the stock room, passing the aisles and racks in an impressive time, their faces pale and eyes wide. Before she could ask what happened, corpses passed through the door and shuffled over the cold floor, locking on to their targets.
"In the kitchen!" Madison yanked the kitchen door open as if it didn't weigh almost three times more than she did. They all scrambled into the pitch black room. "Where's our flashlight?"
Nick felt for Ofelia, and opened one of the smaller pockets on her backpack. With a click, he illuminated a portion of the room, and moved his hand around to search the area. He'd never felt so lucky as when he noticed an LED lantern perched on the edge of the round table in the middle of the room.
Elyza knew nothing about this stranger, but that didn't stop her from asking herself an endless list of questions. Is she all alone? Why was she in a toy store? Why did she carry that bear all the way here? I know this is the apocalypse but god damn, why is she freaking out so bad right now? Why won't she speak, or at least look at me? She hasn't told me her name...maybe I shouldn't have told her mine. Or would that make her trust me more? Why would she even trust me? Why should I trust her? And...why do her pockets look so full? What's in there? It looks kind of like a bunch of bullets, but lord only knows what it could be, she doesn't even have a gun. At least, not with her...
She'd already tried over the last ten minutes to relax the overtaxed girl sitting on the floor, but to no avail. Rubbing her back was definitely not an option, and she most likely wasn't in the mood for food or water quite yet. Even if speaking to this girl to try to calm her was done in vain, it seemed like certain moments were okay to utter complete nonsense, whereas other times the sound of Elyza's voice sent the brunette into another frenzy, with her hands shooting up to cover her ears and scratch her scalp just above them. So her last option was to sit and wait. For fear of disturbing the girl further, Elyza remained still as stone.
Her decision seemed to be the right one. Within minutes, every muscle in Alicia's body slowly slackened, and the girl took in a deep breath through her nose.
Elyza watched with concern, not wanting to speak again or make the wrong move.
Alicia looked up at her, head slightly bowed. Then her eyes dropped to her wrists, now crossed over her lap, legs imitating her wrists. "I'm sorry..."
Elyza hesitated. Could she speak now? Or did the solemn person in her company still need a moment? Alicia's troubled expression made up her mind. "Don't be." Another pause. "Are you okay?"
Alicia released a sigh. "Yes."
"Do you need anything?"
"Bear, please."
Elyza reached to her right for the bear, and stretched her body to place it in Alicia's lap over her hands.
The green-eyed girl didn't move, only sighed again, a lighter tone to it this time. "Thank you."
Elyza nodded, and deemed it safe to get up, pass Alicia farther into the RV, and open the cupboards to search for a snack. Alicia's eyes followed the blonde, which didn't go unnoticed. "Are you hungry?"
Alicia could feel the acid in her stomach burning up the membrane containing it. A package of two Poptarts weren't enough to sustain an eighteen year old for a whole day. On the other hand, her mother always told her it was a polite social convention to deny the first offer, and accept it on the other party's insistence. Or did that only apply to gifts...? Did this food count as a gift? "Um..." Her stomach groaned at her, telling her to make a damn choice already. Fuck social conventions. "Yeah, I'm really hungry," she looked away bashfully.
Elyza grinned. How cute...wait..what? The grin fell from her face, and she was glad Alicia didn't see it. Calm yourself, Elyza. You met her twenty minutes ago. A neutral expression returned to her face. "Sweet? Salty? I have pretty much everything."
Alicia's head perked up, eyebrows furrowed. "Have you had an Australian accent this whole time?" The seated girl turned her whole body, countenance unchanging, to face her new friend.
Elyza couldn't help but laugh heartily. "Yes, since I could speak, I believe."
"Oh...I didn't notice."
Elyza chuckled. "You didn't notice?"
"That's what I just said," Alicia's expression shifted slightly to convey confused annoyance. "Did I stutter?"
"No, no, it's just that my voice is usually the first thing people notice about me."
"I thought you looked like an angel," Alicia said matter-of-factly before she could stop herself. Oh my god. She cursed herself when Elyza lifted a brow with a smug smile. "Uh...you don't seem to utilize Aussie slang as much as I imagined someone from Australia would."
"Well, I'm not really from Australia," she shrugged. "My parents were born there, but they moved here before I was born, said they were worried about a dingo eating their baby."
Alicia groaned at the reference. "You did not."
"I did," Elyza giggled. "But no, I don't know why they wanted to move here before starting a family. Anyway, they were prim and proper, and in no way..utilized-" she crooked her fingers for air quotes, "- Aussie slang."
"Well...good, because I wouldn't know half of what you're saying if you used it."
Elyza wasn't quite sure if the brunette was serious or joking, but she laughed anyway. This girl amused her. "Are you from here?"
"Yeah..." her voice trailed off as she remembered the flames that engulfed the beach houses. Her family had assumed the entire Los Angeles area burnt to the ground, but were proved wrong when they ventured back from Mexico. She refused to let herself think of her home, knowing she'd be unable to cope if it did in fact burn.
It all hit her.
My family.
"We have to go back!" Alicia sprung up and jumped onto the couch to stare out a tinted window. "My family's in that shopping center! We have to get them!"
Elyza's eyes popped open and her blood ran cold. "Which store?"
"The Nike outlet," Alicia's voice wavered and a lump formed in her throat. "All those walkers..." she choked, and her tear ducts got back to work.
"Hey, hey, it's okay, I know what we can do," Elyza stepped up beside her and peered out the window as well, wishing she knew the other girl's name to aid her efforts in comforting. "We can just hop on my motorcycle and lead them down-"
"Your what?" Alicia's voice was bleak and monotone. She slowly turned her head to Elyza, eyes only snapping away from the window when her neck could go no further. "That was you?"
Elyza gulped, ridden with guilt. "I didn't know anyone was in there."
"You could have killed me!"
"But here you are."
"You're gonna be the reason my family dies!" More tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over.
"Maybe not. You guys have lasted this long, that means they're smart. They're probably holed up somewhere in the store. We can make a bunch of noise and lead them away. I have a car hidden like ten blocks down, we can ride to it and then drive the car back so we don't just draw them back with us. Then we'll get your family."
Alicia wanted to be angry, but she couldn't argue. Elyza was definitely right. Even if they were backed into a corner, Nick always had some way out, she thought. The tears slowed to a stop and she sniffed. "Okay." She looked back out the window to the motorcycle parked between two overturned carts. "But...I don't know how I'll do with all that noise."
"Not a problem," Elyza pushed herself back off the couch and rummaged through a drawer under the microwave on the counter. She proudly presented a pair of dark blue industrial ear muffs. "Will these work?"
Alicia's jaw dropped. "Why do you even have those?"
Elyza shrugged. "It's kind of hard to sleep when you hear dead people outside, I ran into Walmart right here and picked them up last week."
Alicia shook her head in disbelief. "Isn't that dangerous? What if they get in here? You wouldn't be able to hear it and you would die."
"Did you not see the door on this thing?" Elyza swung her arm out to motion to the front of the RV. "Well, doors. There's a third one I only close at night. And then, of course, the door to the bedroom is closed too. I'm untouchable."
Alicia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her thumb and forefinger pinching between her eyebrows. She hadn't known this girl for an hour and she already worried for her safety. "Just...be careful." She snatched the ear muffs from Elyza's hand. "And wipe that smirk off your face, you're lucky you lasted this long."
"Luck has nothing to do with it," Elyza chuckled. "I'm just a badass."