The Rot: Book 2

Chapter 7

Maurice, Cyn and I hurried back to the van.

"How is it?" Mick asked us.

"Well, the parking lot's not too bad. Only two biters in there," Maurice answered. "But, we can't see the entrance or inside the store."

"So what are we doing?"

"I'm going with Reid and Cynthia to the entrance and see what's going inside of the shop."

"I'll come too," Philip volunteered.

"Okay. Mick, if it's all clear in there, we'll let you know, and then I want you to drive the van around to the back of the store."

"Will do," Mick answered.

With Phil now part of our group, we made our way over towards the parking lot of the grocery store. The two dead things that were inside of the lot were a male and female wandering around. The male dead thing was towards the middle of the lot, while the female was lurking around the far side.

Philip, Maurice, Cyn, and I darted across the street and over to the store's entrance.

The glass door remained intact, although the top and bottom panes of glass were riddled with bullet holes. Some of the stores front windows were too.

"Well that's not foreboding at all," I said.

"Yeah, I know," Maurice replied. "Phil, I need you to keep an eye on the biters in the parking lot."

Philip nodded, "You got it."

Maurice slowly pulled open the door of the shop. Cyn and I stood behind him, ready to take care of any eaters that charged out at us.

Maurice looked back at Cyn and I, "I still can't see anything," He whispered. "Just some cash registers."

"Damn," Cynthia replied.

"I'm going in," Maurice said.

"So are we."

"Phil, wait here."

"Okay."

The three of us snuck inside of the store and stayed near the entrance. I couldn't hear anything, and the inside of the grocery store didn't smell like any dead things were around. It was difficult for us to see anything moving about due to the only light coming into the building was from the front windows.

"What do you think?" Maurice whispered to Cynthia and I.

"Get ready," I replied. I then drove the butt of the axe handle down onto the floor, trying to lure out any corpses that might be inside. After four quick bangs, we heard it; the snarls and growls of the biters.

"Oh piss," I sighed.

One of the dead things came running right down the center aisle of the shop.

 It was a heavyset man with long stringy blonde hair, wearing a filthy t shirt and jeans. His work boots made a deep clunking noise as he charged towards the store entrance.

"I got him," Cynthia said.

When the undead creature made it past the cash registers, Maurice and I took a step back so Cyn could take care of the dead guy. The biter reached towards Cyn with his pudgy, filth-stained fingers and tried to grab her. Cynthia moved to the biter's left side and quickly drove her knife into the side of the eater's skull. The dead guy stopped his charge and fell right down to the ground.

"Man, he hit like a sack of shit," I remarked.

Cynthia went to pull her blade free from the corpse's skull, but she pointed down one of the aisle ways, "There's more."