The Zombie Apocalypse with MCR (Complete)

False Alarm

I wind the window down for Pandora and relish the sharp breeze as it whips around the inside of the car.

My morning is fruitful. I'm looking for food, which is getting harder and harder to find. Still, I know where to look. Healthy food is few and far between, and we're relying on tinned food a lot more than we used to. Processed and packed food is, of course, still good to eat. All that sugary shit will outlast us, I've no doubt about it.

I've been considering planting a garden for a while.

Seeds are still easy to find, and we'd have proper, healthy food to fall back on. If I planted enough, perhaps I wouldn't have to venture out so often.

And I'm sure gardening is better for your health than fighting corpses.

Still, we'd have to move. The garden isn't big enough and doesn't get enough light, and we'd have to settle somewhere permanently. Somewhere fortified. They'll all hate moving again-

Pandora gives a little yap.

I'm loading the boot of the car, sweating lightly, relying on her to watch my back.

Automatically, I turn to survey the big, empty car park.

There is a line of trees, about a hundred yards off, but there is no movement that I can see.

But Pandora is on her feet, tail low, nose in the air.

I look again. Back to the squat red-brick building I broke into an hour ago. To that line of dark trees. The dusty, empty, cement road. The three other cars in the car park, dusty too, baking in the weak sun. One has flat tyres and a shattered windscreen, splattered with rust-red blood.

My hand is on my gun - MP7, long range, 30 rounds ready to go.

Pandora snorts a breath and looks up at me.

"Idiot," I give her ear a tug, "Scared me there."

Glass shatters from a long way off.

The sound frightens me so much I almost shriek.

Pandora barks once, a furious burst of noise.

"Hush!" I hiss, dropping to my knees to clamp a hand around her furry snout.

It came from the dark of the trees.

It must be a thick patch of woodland, because the canopy of leaves is heavy enough to cast shadows.

I see nothing. I hear nothing.

"Hello?"

Pandora whines in response to my voice, which is calm and steady and just loud enough to attract attention. Perhaps it's against every horror-movie rule, to call into the dark, but I can't stand the tension.

If it's a corpse, my voice should spur it into action.

If it's a human, they might approach.

A long, horrendous minute of absolute silence.

Glass shatters again. It's louder, more forceful. A cry of fear follows swiftly.

Definitely from the trees. Perhaps they're lingering in the dark. Looking out at me-

Pandora barks, and wriggles out of my grasp, and streaks across the car park.

"Wait, Pandora!" I shriek. "Stop! Pandora!"

I scramble up so desperately I scrape my hands on the ground. I'm across the space in a breath.

But once I reach the edge of the concrete, which gives way immediately to dry, cracked dirt, my legs and knees and stomach locks. I stop hard enough that my feet almost slide out from under me, and I kick up a great cloud of dust.