Land of the Dead
Chapter 3 --- Shopping Spree
"Flynn, we're running low on meds. Not just that, but also food and other critical resources. We only have eight bottles of water left." Ivy spoke in a worried tone. "I'll go-"
"If you go out there you can't go alone. And besides, I don't want you going out there anyway, it's too dangerous."
"Every second we spend on earth is dangerous. Everything we do is dangerous. You can't always protect me from danger."
"I know that." Silence hung over the two for a little while, before Ivy grabbed Flynn's hand and led him from the kitchen into the lounge room, where Alice had moved to. She sat on the sofa, her topaz-brown eyes glaring up at Ivy and Flynn. Soon enough Jett and Slate filed into the room, after spending quite a while pulling arrows out of zombies heads. They set the arrows down on the coffee table in front of Alice.
"We're running low on resources. Slate, would it be fine if you ventured out to pick up as much as you can? Ivy is going to tag along as well...." Flynn whispered the last part.
"Sure thing. What exactly do we need?"
"The usual. Medication, food, clean water. New clothing for these two." Flynn gestured at Alice and Jett.
"I'll make sure to bring back some clothes 'in fashion' right now." Slate said with a smirk.
Alice leaned back on the couch, crossing her arms. She growled and spat out, "How about I take Ivy's place instead?"
"No way! You'll try to escape and get as far away from here as possible!" Jett half-shouted.
"I'll keep an eye on her." Slate gave Ivy a nod. "I think that you should stay behind, anyway. After all, none of us can cook like you. Well, I'm not sure about those two..."
Ivy growled. "Why do I always have to stay behind?"
"It's too dangerous. And besides, what Slate said is true. You're best suited to the kitchen because the dishes you serve taste like heaven." Flynn glanced over at Ivy. She mumbled something and stormed off into the kitchen.
"Okay, go prepare the equipment you need and take the Subaru out. I'll talk to her, don't worry." Flynn vanished from the room in a flash.
"Hey, w-wait! Alice!" Jett stammered as Alice hastily followed Slate into another room. Jett was left by himself, standing in the middle of the room. He sighed and walked over to the window. The sky was overcast, not a ray of sunlight peeking out from the charcoal-grey clouds. The sun that had appeared earlier was now enveloped in complete darkness and the heat was starting to simmer down. The wind was starting to pick up as well, rustling the leaves of trees and making the dry grass sway.
"It's going to rain later." He muttered to himself.
~*~
Ten minutes later, Alice and Slate carried the equipment they needed over to the car. They packed it in the back and jumped in, Slate planting himself in the driver's seat.
"Don't die! Do you hear me?" Jett shouted from the front porch. Slate nodded, and started the car as Alice propped her feet up onto the dashboard. They took off across the field, following the dirt path out onto the broken road.
They went straight for a little while before turning left. The streets were surprisingly empty, not a single flesh-eater in sight. A series of long, overgrown and thick bushes became a blur of greens and browns.
"I only just met you and now we're going on a trip to the closest supermarket."
"How close is it?" Alice asked gruffly, flicking back her hair. It took a little while for Slate to reply.
"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.