Land of the Dead

3) Shopping Spree

"Roughly about fifty minutes."

Alice groaned and leant back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest for the twentieth time. She gazed out the window and yawned.

"The closest supermarket, aye?"

"Remember, that house is cut off from the rest of the town by the surrounding trees. That's why it take's so long to get there."

Alice stared out her window, noticing a flesh-eater in the distance. It was weaving throughout the trees, not fast, but not slow either. It had probably noticed them or found another prey.

"How did you first find out about the end of the world?"

Slate laughed quietly, cutting himself off when he saw Alice's serious face. "I was driving the Subaru over to Flynn's house. I came to a stop at an intersection, which was blocked off by Police tape. Something was burning in the distance..." Slate stayed quiet for a moment.

"Did they set a house alight because there were flesh-eaters in it?"

Slate looked over at Alice for three seconds before shifting his gaze to the road again. He remained quiet. Alice frowned at him.

"Come on, spill!"

"You're persistent, aren't you Alex?"

"Alice!" She hissed.

"Whatever. Anyways, it was weeks before New Years when the outbreak had started, you know that. On New Year's Eve, Flynn's family decided to host a party, 'cause why not, you know? His family and friends got together. Then the fire started...I don't know how it started, but most of Flynn's family and friends died..."

"How did he survive then?"

"Ivy saved him from an agonizing death." Slate took a deep breath before starting up again.

"When I saw the fire blazing I hopped out of the Subaru and ran towards Flynn's house. It was then I noticed them. The cops had turned. The firefighters had turned. The other few survivors of the fire had turned. It was just Ivy, Flynn and I. You know, I'd heard about the whole zombie thing before, on the news, but I'd never really accepted it. People still moved on with their lives, mainly because it hadn't affected the area they lived in yet. That day, however...that's when it caught up with us. That's when I knew it was real."

Alice nodded and Slate finished there. He bit his lip. He was partly lying. She seemed to buy it, so he would play along. The truth about how he had found out about the apocalypse was dark and twisting. He wouldn't dare reveal anything to a complete stranger he didn't even seem to like---he felt like he could still get caught out for the things that'd happened in the past.

It angered him that Flynn had fallen into Ivy's trap. These two strangers were now a part of their group that used to only consist of four people, one of them now dead, or technically undead. He mentally cursed. Stop thinking about her, he thought to himself.

After a few prolonged minutes of silence, Slate spoke again. He wanted to interrupt his train of thoughts. "How did you find out about the apocalypse?"

Alice bit her tongue. She didn't want to speak, but something made her. Tears started to form at the edges of her eyes but she blinked them away.

"Jett had called me to tell me something weird was going on. He mentioned that he'd heard footsteps from downstairs. I was driving from work back to my apartment at the time. His words were so rushed and barely audible, but I managed to catch onto the fact that he believed someone else was in the house apart from them."

Alice coughed and continued. "I heard screaming in the background, and then Jett started shouting. There was a long pause, before he begged me to come back. I didn't want to, because something had happened between us but...when all the power went out, and we lost signal...I couldn't contact him. I had no choice but to return. That's when I found out about the apocalypse. The person screaming, you know, in the background...that as my mother. She was killed." Alice took a breather and rolled down the window.

"Oh, well...I'm sorry about that."

Both Slate and Alice remained silent for the duration of the car ride. As soon as they made it to their destination, Slate parked the car outside of the Supermarket. Alice took out her fully loaded AK-47 and Slate took out his handgun. They both quietly slipped out of the car.

"I'm surprised." Alice said as she shot down a zombie in front of her. "There aren't as many flesh-eaters around as I thought there would be."

"I'm surprised too." Slate shot another flesh-eater in the head. It doubled over.

Alice took out the last flesh-eater in sight by whacking it on the back of its head with her gun, before blowing its brain to bits.

"This one here, its eyes were gouged out."

"Really?" Slate came over to Alice. "Interesting. It's started decomposing already."

"It's been quite a while since the apocalypse began, Slate, I'm pretty sure they'd start decomposing already." Alice hoisted the gun onto her shoulder.

"Well?" She gestured to the supermarket and Slate nodded. They walked over to it and Slate tried to unlock the door.

"It won't budge." He kicked at it with force but it only swayed back and forth a little. He banged on the glass angrily with his bare fists.

"Hey, stop it."

"It. Won't. Open!" Slate said with gritted teeth, feeling the door frame, searching for any cracks or imperfections.

"Jeez, don't lose your temper like that."

Slate kept on the kicking the door.

"Stop it! Can't you hear something?"

"Hear what?"

"Can't you hear it?" Alice shouted. Slate stopped and backed away a little.

Growling. It was coming from inside the supermarket. Alice and Slate slowly backed away from the front doors as the zombies banged against the window, the glass starting to crack against the zombies efforts.