Chapter 5
The girls tread the hauntingly silent streets with Claire in the lead, tugging K-Mart along by her hand. Her firm grip on K-Mart's hand sent a warmth which permeated from the origin of the hold and where it settled beneath the flesh of K-Mart's chest. K-Mart took the comfortable silence as an opportunity to gaze at Claire as she focused on the roads ahead of them. The read-head eyes were narrowed with a sharpness as keen as the glint in an eagle's eyes as they surveyed their landscapes for their next prey, but there still was a soft humanity behind those piercing blue eyes of hers which made her unbearably attractive.
K-Mart felt the fire in her stoke into a full-on blaze as her eyes analyzed all the little nuances of Claire's features from her pale, smooth skin, and the faint lines crinkling at her middle brow as she continued to concentrate with an unwavering focus. K-Mart felt a smile involuntarily creep onto her lips and she placed a surprised hand over her mouth with her free hand and traced the upturned curve. Her heart fluttered and the back of her knees felt weak from desire. She wondered to herself, if this was what true love made one feel.
Claire didn't let her guard down for even a fraction of second. After that strange Steve Burnside introduced himself, Claire has been on edge. She replayed the conversation over in her head and felt her stomach lurch with both fear and hate for the guy. She regretted not shooting him down when she had the chance, but all she could do now was protect K-Mart no matter what the cost. Hr mind focused on the small soft hand in her own calloused one and she made an oath to never let anyone harm the girl beside her. The road was so empty and long, but she'd continue to trek forward as long as she was still breathing until she'd find a safe place to make a home for K-Mart because she deserved to have a place where she could call her own.
"Claire," K-Mart softly called out, and Claire ceased in her steps.
"What is it K-Mart? Are you hurt? Did you see something?" Claire spewed out her questions in a frenzy, but K-Mart just nodded her head no with a slight smile on her face.
"No, nothing like that," K-Mart replied and continued to smile. Claire fluttered her eyes and waited for K-Mart to continue. "I just wanted to say thank you… for everything." K-Mart's eyes softened and grew somewhat sad, but her smile did not falter.
Claire was taken by surprise at K-Mart's sudden forlorn disposition. "You don't need to thank me, K-Mart…" Claire whispered, and roved her eyes around their surroundings - still in defense mode.
K-Mart giggled softly. "Always so alert," she teased and Claire scoffed.
"I need to be if we have any chance of making it to Carlos' group all the way in the desert."
"I think we should just forget about them and make our own little spot close by," K-Mart suggested, and elicited a raised eyebrow from Claire.
"What? Are you crazy, we will never survive on our own, especially in this area. It is just too dangerous here," Claire analyzed and started to press forward, but K-Mart stopped her when she didn't move.
"I don't think we should keep going," K-Mart said, fear clear in her voice.
"Why? What has got into you?" Claire was starting to grow impatient from K-Mart's childish and naïve suggestions.
K-Mart couldn't even answer Claire's question herself, but an instinct within her warned her of some impending danger if they continued onwards towards their destination. She felt it beneath her breast, close to her heart, but it resonated from within her soul like some beacon or compass guided by some guardian angel. She wondered if one of her family members was sending her a warning from the afterlife - whatever the source of the uneasiness, K-Mart could not shake the bad feeling starting to grow and echo within her.
"I can't explain it, but I feel like something bad is going to happen." Her voice was small and uncharacteristically sad from her usual chipper tone.
Claire considered her seriously for a minute, but her logical reasoning couldn't accept a change of plans based on a feeling. "You're probably just dehydrated or tired. Don't worry so much. I'm here and I promise I'll protect you," Claire assured and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
K-Mart's expression remained unsure, but she looked into Claire's resolute eyes and agreed to press forward. She took a hesitant step and forced her body to move towards their destination.
Claire couldn't help but inwardly laugh at K-Mart's silly premonitions. She was the last person to believe in phenomenon's such as intrinsic warnings, but then, she would have never believed in flesh-eating zombies before either.
She shook the thought out of her head and logic once more took over in her mind and she remained primarily focused on the road in front of them. She knew the best chances for their survival was to meet with Carlos and Alice's convoy because only the two of them would never last for long, and Claire hated to admit it, but she needed help. Who would be able to survive a zombie with only themselves and an immature teenager? No, Claire had to bring K-Mart to safety and that was where Carlos and Alice are.
K-Mart's breathing was growing shallow and she felt slightly faint as the sun continued to beat down on them relentlessly with its strong rays. She lowered her hat to place the brim securely over her eyes, but the hat only squeezed her head suffocating her temples and she took it off in a huff. She placed the back of her hand over her forehead and felt her temperature radiating dangerously from her skin, but she didn't want to tell Claire, afraid she'd only solidify her weakness to her and she wanted to prove to Claire that despite her age, she could hold her own. But despite her will, her vision swam before her and distorted to nauseating blurs and only streaks of red from Claire's hair swirled in front of her eyes. She forced her legs to continue forth, but she started to buckle and Claire felt the limpness in K-Mart's hand and she spun around to see K-Mart falling to the ground. Fortunately, Claire grabbed her in time before she hit the floor and she cradled the girl's head on her lap. K-Mart's eyes were closed, but she was still breathing in very shallow short bursts.
"K-Mart!" Claire cried out worriedly, and grasped the sides of her face. "K-Mart," she repeated, "Talk to me," But K-Mart wouldn't respond to either of Claire's touches or cries. Claire easily scooped the smaller girl in her arms and frantically searched the area for a safe place to rest and quickly picked a convenience store closes to them. She jogged to the store's entrance with K-Mart dangling limply in her arms. As soon as she reached the front of the store, she peered in to the window display, but only saw darkness. She had no other choice but to take a chance and enter the store despite not knowing fully who or what may be inside. She pushed the door open with her shoulder and held her breath.
Her eyed did their best to adjust to the change of light and she flickered her eyes over the store for any movement. She didn't see any disturbances save only for the disarray of bottles of pills under the lone flickering light at the back of the store. Claire was breathing so loudly, she found it difficult to hear any of the ambience which may warn her of any danger, so she tried to calm herself and her breathing settled into a soft, neutral rhythm. Claire decided to settle down behind the store's counter and placed K-Mart gingerly down after setting a blanket on the ground.
Claire surveyed K-Mart for noticeable injuries, but there were none on her. She touched her forehead and pulled back fearfully. She was burning up! Claire frantically roved her eyes around the store for any medicine and saw one lone bottle on the shelf. She quickly ran over and grabbed the bottle, but to her disappointment, the bottle had been emptied. Claire growled in frustration and searched the store for any more medicine, but it appeared it had been wiped clean long ago when the breakout first hit. She ran back over to K-Mart and took a small handkerchief from her pocket and wet the cloth with the little water they had left. After making sure the cloth was sufficiently wet, she carefully laid it against K-Mart's burning forehead. She looked helplessly at the unconscious girl and prayed she would wake up soon.
"K-Mart," she whispered softly. "Why didn't you tell me you were sick? You idiot," she scolded, but her tone held no anger in it, but instead, it was laced with sadness.
After making sure K-Mart was still breathing, Claire resumed searching the store for anything she could use, but only discarded bottles and broken glass littered the ground. She spotted the entrance to the store's storage area, but paused when she realized how unbelievably dark it was back there.
Claire clicked her tongue impatiently at her on cowardice and said aloud, "Come on Claire. Are you still a child? Afraid of the dark are you? You've killed countless of the undead, but a little lack of light has you frozen? What a coward… K-Mart needs you," she finished softly, and steeled herself for the worst. She released her pistol from the holster and took a defensive stance with her gun upraised close to her head. She took a deep breath and edged her way towards the doorway while she listened closely for any signs of zombie trademark shuffling, but she only heard silence. When she reached the threshold, she peered in and was met with a view of darkness so black it was like a wall in front of her.
Claire took her small flashlight from her pocket and turned it on to direct the small beam of light around the room. What she saw made her jaw drop and her legs buckle beneath her. She fell on her behind with her arms splayed out behind her. In the storage area were countless rotting corpses horribly dismembered by something inhuman. Some of the bodies were zombies, but some retained humanized features, but were indiscernible from the blood and gore marring their faces. Claire felt what little she ate reach the peak of her throat, but she quickly laid a hand over her mouth before anything could come out. She got up and leaned against the counter bedside the door and breathed in deeply between dry heaves. Claire had seen many macabre things in her past, but this topped the list and broke the radar of disgusting things she's seen. Claire froze when she realized that whatever or whoever had done this might still be around. Quickly, she made her way back to Claire and dipped her hands beneath her to pick her up, but a noise stopped her and Claire felt the blood in her veins freeze, cease to flow from the sheer terror flowing through her like deathly ice. Claire's ears strained to hear a low shush-shush noise coming from the back room - akin to a corpse dragging itself across a floor. Claire's eyes widened in fear and all she could do was lift K-Mart in her arms to head for the door.
Claire willed herself to move to the entrance, but the door had been locked shut from outside. Impossible! Claire screamed in her mind and she pulled fiercely on the door, but it wouldn't budge, it only rattled from the sound of the chains wound around the outside. Claire felt a scream wanting to tear from her throat, but she was so terrified, it left her mute and only a whimper came out. Claire still hear the shush-shush sound making its way towards her and despite not being religious, she prayed for a miracle.