Chapter 2 – Scavenging
July 16th, 2013
I woke up disorientated and with a pain in my back. I sat up and realized I was lying on a hard wooden floor with my blazer underneath my head like a pillow. The events of yesterday came flooding back and I frantically looked around the room. Fin and Amaro were lying on the floor not far from me. I saw Cragen on the couch in the main room of the cabin and I remembered that Melinda and Amanda had slept in the one bed the cabin had. Everyone else still seemed asleep so I quietly stepped outside to get some fresh air.
As I opened the front door of the cabin, I saw Melinda pacing back and forth on the porch. I called out to her,
"Melinda? What's going on?"
She was out of breath and a sheer look of terror present on her face.
"My husband and daughter never showed up last night! I have tried calling but cell service is down or non-existent out here. I know something has happened to them. I don't know what to do! Liv, I think I have lost them."
She then stopped, put her face in her hands, and started sobbing. I walked over to her and put my arm around her. "Don't think like that. It was hell getting out of the city yesterday. I am sure they are held up somewhere and will arrive soon." She nodded her head and tried to regain composure.
I could hear voices inside the cabin and we both went back inside. Everyone looked exhausted from minimal sleep and trying to process what to do with the apocalypse arriving. Cragen said he had some canned food in the pantry that would probably last a few days, but we would need to try and get some more supplies.
Melinda spoke up, "We also need to try and buy some medical supplies so if there is a pharmacy nearby, we should go there as well."
Cragen responded, "There is a small grocery store about a mile away that should have some food and some pharmacy items."
We decided that Nick, Fin, Amanda, and I would go to the store and Cragen and Melinda would stay at the cabin. Melinda wanted to be there in case her family showed up. Cragen insisted that we all carry our guns since we didn't really know what was happening out there.
We ended up walking to the store since the main road was clogged with traffic and none of the cars were moving. It was a quiet walk to the store as we were all deep in our own thoughts about what was happening. There was a tension in the air, and I felt like any of us could snap at any moment. We finally arrived at a small building that had some wear and tear, but also had a small-town quaintness about it. A sign above the front door read, "Joe's Grocer." There was an OPEN sign hanging on the glass front door but there was an eerie silence and feeling of abandonment.
I placed my hand on my gun and said, "Everyone stay alert. Something feels off and I don't want anyone getting hurt."
Nick opened the door with caution and walked in first with the rest of us behind him. The place was a mess inside and looked as though most of the supplies had been ransacked. There was no one behind the counter and the place was dead silent inside. We grabbed some cloth grocery bags hanging nearby and each started filling them with dry goods and other supplies. I noticed there were medicines and other pharmaceutical supplies towards the back of the store. I opened my bag and started filling it with bandaging supplies and over the counter medicines we may need.
I suddenly heard a noise, almost like a scraping, coming from behind a door that appeared to lead to a back room. I put my ear up to the door to try and see if I had really heard it or if I was imagining it. I heard the scraping noise again and thought that someone must be in there. I opened the door up when suddenly a man charged at me. His skin had a greenish tint to it, he was groaning, and he smelled like rotting flesh. I started to walk backwards as quickly as I could and pulled my gun on him. I yelled, "Stop, police!" I then noticed that he had a gunshot in his chest and was shuffling his feet while groaning. Ok, this was clearly another case of a dead person walking. Before I could react and shoot him in the head, he had run into me, and I fell to the ground. I was holding him off me with my gun still in my hand. He was trying to bite me, and I was using all the force I had to keep that from happening. Suddenly, I heard a gunshot, and he collapsed on top of me.
I rolled him off me and looked over to see Amanda holding her gun out.
"Liv, are you ok? Did you get bit?"
I was out of breath and gasping, "Yeah, I'm ok. He didn't bite me but that was too close. Let's get out of here."
We gathered up our bags of supplies and headed out of the store. We walked through the small parking lot and could hear that same groaning that I heard in the store. I looked behind me and noticed six zombies headed towards the store.
I yelled, "Look, walkers! We need to move now."
Fin looked at me and said, "Walkers?"
"Yes, walkers. We need to call them something. We need to walk faster."
The group of walkers looked over towards us and headed in our direction. They must be attracted to noise and must have heard Amanda's gunshot.
We arrived back at the cabin out of breath after running the whole mile back. Cragen and Melinda stared at us with worried faces.
Cragen said, "What happened? Why are all of you out of breath?"
I gasped out, "We had a close call, but we are all good."
In my head I was thinking the complete opposite. We are nowhere near good. It appeared that we were living in the apocalypse. The end of the world was here, and we would have to fight nonstop just to stay alive.