Protector || Shane Walsh

Chapter 8

I stop at the section for iPods and go through a messy pile of products on the bottom shelf.

Right at the bottom of the pile is a charging cable for my iPod. This particular cable charges via cigarette lighter.

I can't believe my luck..

My body fills with excitement.

I can charge my iPod! I can listen to music again!

I quickly put it in my backpack before adding a couple sets of earphones, just incase my current ones happen to break.

Still wandering through the music section, I see something else that fills me with excitement.

A silent disco set.

I check the box and see it's compatible with my iPod. It also comes with six pairs of headphones.

This will be so great to have at camp.

I carry the box out of the store and put it behind the passenger seat. Not necessarily important for physical survival, but it's definitely important for mental survival.

Next, we head to the sporting goods store a few shops down.

Not surprising, all the baseball bats are gone. And everything else that can be used as a weapon.

Shane throws a sleeping bag at me and I catch it. Then he grabs a couple spares for camp.

I wander down the tent section and look around.

There looks to be only a couple big ones left but then I spy a lonely, single tent up on the top of the shelves.

I drop my sleeping bag and climb up until I can reach it. I quietly jump back down as Shane walks down the isle, eyeing the package in my hands.

"You're welcome to use my tent, you know?"

I smile warmly at him. "Thank you, that's very kind, but I don't want to intrude. And I'd like to have my own space." I say, picking my sleeping bag back up.

"What if I wear my uniform?" He cocks an eyebrow at me.

I laugh at him, shaking my head. "Shouldn't have mentioned that, huh?"

He smiles and winks at me.

"Let's keep moving." he says and leads the way out of the store.

As I follow, I think back to our earlier conversation of what if we had met in the cafe, pre-virus.

I know for sure I would've been a bag of nerves on the inside. Him coming in all confident and handsome and in uniform. And if he flirted with me; butterflies ten fold. I definitely would've flirted back and tried hard to make him the best coffee ever, to keep him coming back for more.

Oh, how different life could've been.

Instead we've met in these horrible circumstances.

But he's met me and seen me at my worst and still seems willing to have me around.

He's probably just glad to be around any human in general these days.

Yes I admit, I find him very attractive and alluring. Doesn't mean I need to act on that attraction. This isn't a world for relationships, casual or steady.

This is a world of survival of the fittest.

Alliances is all there's room for. Nothing more.

I doubt he finds me attractive anyway. I'm probably just a dirty, sobbing mess in his eyes and his comments about flirting with me are most likely him just trying to be nice.