Dead Days

Chapter 4

The woman answered my question, "I am Carley, and this is Matt."

'Matt' gestured for 'Carley' to put her gun away, "We have a group in the back. Maybe you would like to come back with us?"

I was quiet for a moment, "Sure." I figured it would be better to stay with others than by myself.

Carley handed me my ax from the ground before leading me towards the back. I followed after grabbing by things. We quietly made our way to the back of the store, where the workers would usually keep stock. There was a small clearing among the giant shelves, a few tents set up in a half circle. There was a small campfire in the center, everything else kinda surrounding it.

Matt wandered off to the campfire, something was being cooked above it. Carley had left me as well, going into one of the tents.

I awkwardly stood there for a few moments before deciding to join Matt by the fire, sitting in the lawn chair next to his. He was busy cooking, so I decided not to bother him and look around.

I watched a man approach me. His ginger hair looked like it hasn't been combed since the beginning of the virus outbreak, and the same thing could probably be said about his clothes. Well, at least his jacket. His jacket was rather dirty and littered with stains. "Who did Matt drag in?"

I didn't answer him, but that didn't stop him from holding out his hand for me to shake, "Anyways, my name is Carl. Nice to meet you." At seeing I wasn't going to accept his handshake, he put his hand down and sat in the chair next to me.

Just as Carl was going to try to make small talk once more, Matt stood up and yelled out "Dinners ready!"

Many people started coming towards the fire, including two little girls around the age of eight or nine. Everyone gathered around the fire as Matt started filling bowls with the food, the brown-haired little girl passing out the bowls while the other one, the one with blonde hair, was making sure everyone had a spoon and napkin. I was one of the last ones to get a bowl.

I dug into the food. It was mostly just beans but had a sweet taste to it. Looking around, I saw a few cans of peaches, which I assumed was also in the beans.

Once everyone was pretty much done eating, they all separated and went to their tents. Except me; I didn't have one. I remained sitting in the chair as the fire died down, Matt not wanting to burn down the building by accident. The brown haired girl came and sat on the ground next to me, brushing the hair on a doll that looked like it was supposed to look like her.

It wasn't much longer until Matt came over, putting his hand on the little girls head. She looked kinda like him, she must be his daughter. My theory was proved correct as he introduced her to me, "This is my daughter Makenzy, but we call her Mac for short." He then looked down at her, "Why don't you go over to mom and get ready for bed? It's getting late, sweetheart."

Once he told her to go, she listened and did, running over to a tent that had what I assumed was her mother in front of it, beckoning her over.

Once she was gone, Matt looked back to me, "We have some extra tents and sleeping bags in a little stockpile over there. You can help yourself to get some, and you can but any supplies you'd like over there as well. You don't have to if you don't want to, but you can. If you need any help or anything, let me know and I'll help ya."

With that, he walked off.

Once he was gone, I got up and went to look at the pile. Looking through the supplies, I decided on a smaller tent and a dark green sleeping bag.

I took the things to an open space an the end of the half circle of tents, setting the sleeping bag aside so I could set up the tent. After attempting to put it up a couple times, I decided to just give up, so I just grabbed the sleeping bag and opened it next to the dying fire. I guess this is an okay spot to sleep.

I quickly fell asleep.