Lee stuck the last zombie with his pocket knife, clearing the parking lot. "This place seems a little too quiet…" Christa whispered.
"Yeah…keep your guard up." Lee said, moving from the almost empty parking lot over to the nearest store. It was a small store, with two wall-sized windows either side of a small black door. The sign above the door wrote in a classy font 'Joe's Antiques'. "Worth a look, I suppose." Lee thought to himself. He opened the door and stepped through, there was a small jingle of a bell as he opened the door. Lee quickly looked up and grabbed the bell, silencing it.
Lee looked around. The place was filled with old grandfather clocks, dusty musical instruments, all different kinds of faded jewellery, and different antiques of no use to Lee. He looked around by the cashier desk in the corner of the store. Lee noticed an old golden pocket watch in a glass booth next to some other old rings and necklaces. It was still ticking. He decided he liked the look of it and lifted the glass case. He picked up the watch and checked the time. It was nearing five in the after-noon. He smiled and put it in his pocket. "DIY shop's been raided, found this hatchet tucked away though. Anything here?" Omid asked, slightly out of breath as he walked into the antique's shop.
"Just this watch. Thought I'd grab it. My dad had one like it I think." Lee said, lifting the chain up from his pocket.
"Sweet." Omid said.
Lee heard a growling from next to him, coming from a door near to the cashier desk. "Here, give me the hatchet." Lee said. Omid passed him the hatchet and Lee gave Omid the flip knife in return. Lee placed his hand on the old stained metal doorknob and pushed the door open slowly. He peaked through the crack in the doorway and spotted an old walker standing there with its eyes fixated on nothing, just swaying side to side slowly.
Lee readied the hatchet and burst through the door, swiftly landing the hatchet in the walker's head. The walker toppled to the floor. Lee looked at it, it was an old man with a few specks of white hair on its head, wearing a bloody and messy shirt under a tired and faded vest. There were broken glasses hanging round his neck on a chain. "Must've been the owner of the store, poor bastard." Lee said.
"Hey, there's a safe over here." Omid said, crouched down in front of a secure black safe with a large electronic dial on the front of it. "Might have something useful inside."
Lee squatted in front of it and inspected the electronic lock. He twisted his head around the room and spotted a small post-it note on a notice board on the opposite side of the room with a four-digit number on it. He walked over to it and ripped it off the notice board. "1-9-5-5." Lee read aloud.
Omid tapped the number in and the safe beeped before automatically opening. Inside was a silver shining revolver, and a few stacks of money. Omid took out the revolver and handed it to Lee. "Sick." Omid said.
Lee inspected it, checking the ammo, a full round. He tucked it into the back of his pants. "Clem can keep my gun, I guess." Lee said, carrying on outside of the store.
Omid and Lee crept across to the next store that Christa and Clementine were already inside. It was a smaller version of a large chain of clothing stores that Lee recognised. He walked in and, to his surprise, whilst a lot of the shelves and hangers were empty, many were completely fine and untouched. Lee looked around the store, his heart began to race as he couldn't find Clementine or Christa. "Clem?" Lee whispered, not wanting to be too loud, lest he attract walkers.
"Just in here." Christa said coming from a girl's dressing room. Not long after Christa came out from the dressing rooms holding Clem's hand. She had a new pink hoodie on, a slightly shorter skirt, just in case a walker could get a hold of it and a new pair of tights on, but still the same old hat, of course.
"You look great, sweet pea." Lee said.
"Thanks, Christa helped me choose it." Clementine said, looking at herself in a nearby mirror.
"C'mon, Lee we need to get you into a new outfit." Christa said. She looked around on a few shelves.
Lee rolled his eyes and chose any old thing that fit him that was nearby. He took the clothes and wandered into the dressing rooms. After he had gotten dressed he looked in the mirror in his dressing cubicle. He was wearing a new pair of jeans, these ones less ripped up and scraped, a red t-shirt under a plaid buttoned up shirt and a brown jacket. His face had little splotches of dirt on it, his hair was messy and had grown since last time he saw it and he had extremely noticeable bags under his eyes. He shrugged this off, not blaming himself for this considering everything that had been going on. Lee left back into the main store.
Clementine was waiting there on her own, looking at other jackets for kids her age. Lee walked over to her and picked her up, holding her close to him. "Hey, sweet pea. You okay?" Lee asked. Clementine gave a bright smile, something that Lee hadn't seen since they had left Savannah.
"Uh-huh." Clementine said, with her bright smile that only she could do.
"Great. How are you feeling? Just thought I'd check in after everything that's happened. We just can't seemed to get a break, huh?" Lee said.
"I'm okay. We just need some time, that's what Christa told me." Clementine said.
"That's right. We just need to find a new vehicle and get moving again." Lee said.
"Why did we have to leave the car?" Clementine asked.
The question hit Lee like a brick, he had almost completely forgotten that. "Look…it's…there was just something in the trunk of the car, and I didn't want you to know about…it was really sad, that's all." Lee said, his voice getting slightly choked up by the thought of it.
"Hey kids." Omid said, jokingly. He and Christa both had a new outfit on, as well.
"You guys ready to get moving again?" Christa asked.
After they had agreed, the four left the clothes shop. It was the closest store that went back on to the highway, the group simply jumped the small wooden fence and carried on back up the long road, back to wandering aimlessly.