Chapter 2: Slipping

Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.

"I'm done packing up the food." I told Lilly as she boxed up the canned goods. She couldn't sleep much either so we decided to pack up our food and our medical supplies. She turned around and looked at me.

"Okay, I'll go get my dad while you go get your friends." She explained.

I nodded and made my way to Jack and Jen's room. I was worried about Jack. His leg looked bad last night. I was just hoping he was fit for travel. I approached his door and was about to knocked but stopped when I heard a strange noise. I slowly and carefully press my ear against the door. It almost sounded like someone eating. I knocked on the door.

"Jack, you awake?" No one answered. "Jen?"

I grab the door knob and slowly turn it and carefully opening the door. Nothing could prepare me for what was on the other side. Jen was lying on the bed her eyes were open as was her stomach. Jack had his back to me as he chewed on Jen's innards.

"Wha-What the fuck?" I gasped.

Jack stopped eating and turned around and faced me. Blood dripped out of his mouth and down his chin. His eyes were as pale white and his veins were showing throughout his face and along his neck. I backed up against the wall of the hallway as he slowly staggered to his feet.

I quickly reached for my gun but he was on me in a second. I restrained him by his throat with my forearm. His teeth snapped at me like an angry canine and his breath smelled like shit. I tried to push him off of me but he kept clawing into my shirt. His teeth almost bit my neck until his head blew up into a red pulpy mess.

I pushed his corpse off of me and looked over to see the old man from earlier aiming my shotgun at my former partner. His face seemed to break into a deeper scowl as he stomped towards me.

"You want to tell me what the hell just happened here?" He snapped.

"I don't know he was infected somehow."

"How was he infected?" He snapped and nudged the barrel of my gun in my face. "How do we know you aren't infected?

In an instant I swat the barrel out of my face and head-butt the old man in the nose. He let out a pained grunt and staggered back clutching his nose. Lilly rushed in and put herself between me and him. She tended her father before looking at me with an angry glare.

"What the hell did you do?" She snapped.

"I protected myself from your deranged father." I said, cocking my shotgun. "He had a gun on me and I had to get it away from him."

"He was infected, how the hell are we supposed to know-"

"Next time you pull a gun on me, you'll get it worse than a smack in the face you got it!" I shouted through my teeth. I wasn't going to explain myself to this miserable old bastard. His expression fell a little but he was still scowling.

I turned away from them and knelt down to my friend's ankle. I lifted up his pant leg and pull off his bandages. His bite was covered in some sort of green puss and it was black all around and it looked like it spread all throughout his leg. Then it dawned on me.

"It's the bite." I said in a grim tone. The two looked at me. "That's how this is spreading so fast. They bite you and they infect you. It's gotta be like rabies or something."

"Shit, so that's it?" The old man asked. "One bite and you turn into one of them?"

"Yeah, I think now is a good time to get the hell out of here." I say as I motion to the door.

Lilly nods and looks over at Jen. I hold the shotgun in my hand. It's strange but it feels heavier than it did a minute ago. If these bites infect us and make us into one of them, does that mean it happens even when you're dead.

"Devon, if what you're saying is true then we need to take care of her before she comes back." She says giving me her father's scowl. I don't even acknowledge her right now. I take aim with my shotgun and hold it against her head. I take a breath and jump when Jen starts twitching.

She looks up at me moaning in pain and agony. Her eyes are pale and empty. I pity her before she starts snarling and clawing at me. Whatever she was last night she is no longer here. She is just this mindless thing with the nothing but killing on her mind. I pull out my night stick and bash her brains in. No need to waste a bullet.

"Geez, Devon." Lilly cringes. I reached down and grabbed Jack's handgun and clips. I quickly go downstairs and tell Lilly and Larry to gather up all the food. I rush over to the fire place and grab Jack's hunting rifle hanging above it. I look over at Lilly.

"Can you handle a rifle?" I asked. She nods.

"Yeah, I was in the army and my dad here taught me when I was a kid." She said. I handed her the rifle and the bullets. I went and grabbed poor Jack's leather jacket off the coat rack when I felt Lilly tug at my sleeve. "Wait, I was wondering if we could stop at the pharmacy. My dad needs medicine and you don't have anything."

"Yeah, we need to be prepared for the unexpected." I suggested.

I grabbed Jack's coat and slipped it on. I got it for him for his birthday, but sadly he wouldn't need it anymore. God dammit, why did this have to happen. I grab my back pack and quickly make my way out to the car without looking back.

(!)

We were driving down to the local pharmacy. The town was hit pretty hard, but there were barely any of these walkers lying around. There weren't even any corpses either. My guess is that they just got up when the walkers were done and their remains just moseyed off into the sunset.

"What a god damn messed." Larry snarled from the back seat. I roll my eyes before I feel him kick my seat. "When the hell are more of you guys going to come in and take care of this?"

"We did, yesterday when we went to the hospital." I grunted. "I saw a few good men in uniform die from these things."

"Not good enough."

I slammed on the brakes and listened sounds of tires scrapping against the ground and the protest of my new friends. I park the car and look back at Larry who is rubbing his forehead after slamming it into the back of my seat.

"You listen here you miserable old fuck," I snarled. "I saw a lot of my friends die yesterday and I had just killed two of my best friends because of this shit. So let me tell you something right now. I did not do all this just so I could listen to your fucking shit."

"Devon!" Lilly shouts, I ignore her.

"If you two don't like me then you can just-" I was cut off by the sounds of screaming and gunfire.

I looked over at a small convenient store and saw a woman with a handgun fending off a few of the creepers while two guys fended them off with baseball bats. I turn off the engine and grab my shotgun.

"What are you doing, we don't know them." Lilly snaps.

"Jen didn't know you either!" I retort and rush out of the truck.

I aimed down the sights and fired upon the walkers. I blew their heads off one by one and so did the girl before they were nothing but a pile of black and pulpy bodies. I approached them and calmly showed them my badge.

"It's alright, I'm a police officer." I stated. The three of stared at me confused before sighing in relief.

"Thank you man." The young Asian man said. "We were on our way out of town before we were jumped by these guys." He kicked at one of the walkers I shot in frustration. "I'm Glenn."

"Devon." I nod to them. The young woman is runs a hand through dark brown hair. I think I recognized her. "Aren't you that new reporter from WABE?" She smiled and offered me her hand.

"I'm Carley." She said. I shook it. "I came here to do a story on the Cherry Blossom Festival when my crew was attacked. That's when I ran into these two."

She pointed at Glenn and the young rotund man hiding in the corner. He had a nervous look on his face. I guess he wasn't much of a socializer. He looked up at me and shrugged.

"I'm Doug." He shrugged.

"Devon!"

I looked behind me to see Lilly with her rifle in hand and Larry, scowl on his face, running towards me.

"What happened?" She asked.

"It's alright, everyone is okay." I said. Lilly was about to say something, but Mr. Happy pushed past her and got in my damn face again. This was starting to get on my nerves. "What now?"

"What now, how about you endangering our lives just now?" He barked. "We don't know these people. They could be robbers for all we know. This whole crisis is bringing the worst out in everyone."

"Including you?" I shot back. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Hey, we aren't thieves or whatever you think we are." Doug snapped. I went to go and calm him down but then Carley started freaking out on them

"Yeah, how do we know you guys aren't some kind of crooks or killers?" She snapped in his face. When Lilly saw this she took offense and she started to freak out. I had to defuse the situation fast.

"Everyone shut the fuck up!" I shouted. This got everyone quiet and their attention. "Look, we are all under a lot of pressure, but we can't go turning our backs on each other. As of now it's us or them and if you aren't going to join us then you might as well join them."

"What are you saying?" Lilly asked.

"I'm saying you have good intentions, but we can't go up against these things alone and we can't survive on our own." This got their wheels turning. "Look, I don't want to discuss this out in the open. Let's get to the pharmacy and talk things out there, okay?"

Everyone seemed to agree on that. We made our way to our vehicles and I told Glenn and his group to follow me. After Lilly managed to calm her gorilla father down we were halfway towards the Pharmacy.

"Okay, when we get there I'll go in and scout the place out." I explained to the two. "When it looks clear I'll call you guys over to clean the place out."

"Devon, we have to talk." Lilly said in a solemn tone.

"What about?"

"About what happened," She said. "I know you're a cop, but we can't take risks like that, especially with the way things are now."

"We need to help people especially with the way things are now." I snapped. "In case you need me to remind you, again, Jen invited you into her home and saved your fathers ungrateful ass!"

"Hey!"

"What, I haven't heard a thank you or a single compliment out of you since the moment we met!" I was losing it and I didn't care, but this old bastard had a heart disease. I had to calm down before things got out of hand. "You know I haven't actually seen you do anything to help anyone. So unless you do something or have any ideas that benefit us shut the fuck up!"

My eyes were on the road but I could feel the two of them glaring at me. Everything was just starting to slip away. When we made it to the pharmacy I felt sick.

I took the keys out of the ignition and pulled my nightstick out of my belt. I stepped out of my truck and looked around the small town. Everything had been boarded up and turned over. I turned back to Glenn who walked up to me with a baseball bat in hand.

"We look clear." I said.

"Yeah." Glenn still looked uneasy.

Lilly stepped out with her dad and we were joined by Carley and Doug who both had the same expression. I looked over at Lilly and I could see that she started to see the error of her ways.

"Hey, look I am sorry." She said. "We've just had a bit of a rough time so far but it's no excuse." Doug was the first to respond.

"Hey, it's okay." Doug said sincerely. "We're all just as stressed, but we can move on."

"Alright, I'll go in first." I said as Carley readied her gun. Glenn quickly stopped her.

"No, no shooting." Glenn said in a panicked tone. I looked at him confused.

"Why not?" I asked.

"These things, they…I don't know why, but they follow the noises. I guess they assume where there is noise there is food. So when we start shooting we might as well be ringing the dinner bell."

Another piece of the puzzle to how these things hunt fall smack dab in my lap. If we were going to scavenge supplies we would need to be as quiet as possible. So Glenn and I make our way in slowly.

The pharmacy was pretty empty. I slowly crept around the corners and aisles of the store and saw one walker strutting around the supply room door. I motioned for Glenn to stay back and slowly crept up behind poor soul.

I raised my baton and brought it down on the back of its head. He fell down, but he didn't go down. I could still hear him slurring and snarling on the ground. He looked up at me and I couldn't help the cold shiver running down my spine at his grotesque features.

His lips were gone, exposing his crooked teeth and rotten gums. His eyes held on iris or pupils and his hair was nothing but weak strands. Killing this thing almost felt like I was doing him a favor. I raised my baton and beat his skull in until his brains splatter out onto the floor.

"We're good Glenn." I whispered.

He nodded and crept towards me. Everything else looked good but we still had the back room to check. I could defiantly hear something crawling around back there. I stood at one side of the door and motioned for Glenn to do the same.

I quickly grabbed ahold of the door handle and whipped it open. There were two more walkers inside and we quickly took them down with our blunt weapons. It was messy, but we managed to take them out. I looked over at Glenn and he looked uneasy.

"Are you okay?" I asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, it's just…I don't know. I thought it would be easy." He said.

"I know. These guys actually owned this pharmacy and we just killed them, but they aren't them anymore. They are just…dead."

We don't say another word as we make our way outside.

"It's all clear in here." I announced. Everyone nodded and quickly made their way in. Larry walked past me and noticed my sad expression.

"What happened?" He asked. I shook my head.

"The owners…they didn't make it." He let out a heavy sigh.

"C'mon, let's get them out of there." I looked at him surprised as he walked in.

"Wait, you're gonna just dump them outside?" I snapped. He grumbled at my response.

"No, I'm gonna put them outside so we don't trip over them as we loot their place of business." He responded harshly. It did seem disrespectful to rob the dead. "Then when we're done I'll put them back inside. Now are you coming or not?"

Not wanting to argue I follow him inside. Doug and Glenn were both carrying out the walker I killed earlier and they both looked uneasy when they did it. I joined Larry in the back room. He was wrapping the old lady up in a cloth before picking her up.

"Devon," Lilly said and startling me when doing it. I looked over at her. "The Pharmacy window is locked and the door is barred."

"Did you search these guys for the key?" I asked.

"Yes, neither of them had the key." She placed a hand on her head and let out a tired sigh. "If I don't get my dad those pills he won't last to long."

"Hey we'll get them." I assured. "Just keep the group together for a minute while I help your dad."

She smile and nodded. I wrapped the old man up and carried him out of the pharmacy. I met up with Larry outside and placed the old man down next to his wife in the alleyway. I looked over at Larry and in was surprised to see a solemn look on his face.

"My daughter is worried about me isn't she?" He asked.

"Yeah, she's just concerned for your health." I told him. "You're all she has left."

"I know, look I-"

"Quiet!" I snapped. I quickly pulled him behind the wall. We both looked down the alley and we both started to panic when a small horde of walkers made their way out into the open.

"Come on!" Larry growled.

He grabbed me by the collar and dragged me inside quietly. Everyone looked at us in confusion as I shushed them all.

"Walkers!" I whispered.

Larry and I quickly and quietly blocked the door. Lilly walked up to me.

"Okay, we keep quiet and keep the door closed. They will wonder around for a few minutes before moving on. If we're lucky someone else will make some noises and draw them away."

"It's pretty much all we can do." I sighed. Lilly shrugged her shoulders and walked back over to the window, still trying to unlock it.

I grabbed my shotgun and sat guard in front of the door. This was not a good day.