Driving past the grocery store was worse than I had thought it would be.
I could see some cars parked around the back, and a dozen people by the door. They were talking to each other and looking around the door for signs of who it could have been. But when I drove by, they all turned and stared. One started to run to the car and wave their arms around calling me into the parking lot. I sped up.
Once I passed them, I realized that they didn't look angry or threatened. Only... surprised. They probably didn't see many strangers. Especially live ones.
At this point, I didn't know where I should try to go. Now that I had actually seen those people, they looked kind of nice. And I didn't really know what was in the woods. I was in foreign territory, and I had no clue what I was doing. The last time I was in a group, they had treated me like shit for something I had done long before. "Maybe I should go to the park and see what's there. And then decide." I said to the empty space. I pulled out the map and started to look for places that might have some things that I could use on my way to the park. The only thing that seemed useful was the hardware store and I had already been in there.
I decided to be quick about this, I would drive to the park drive around a little bit and then decide.
The park was not nearly as far as I thought it would be. It took barely five minutes to drive there. The suprise was how big it was. Driving up to it, I could see the over sized trees. They were huge, and would provide protection from any Dead on the ground if I got high enough. I had never actually seen one climb, just kind of run over things.
The distance between the trees seemed wide enough to drive through, so I carried on without getting out of my car. I got past the first few trees and realized that it would be quite dark in here. Although the trees were kind of far apart, they had a lot of foliage. This seemed way to dangerous. What if a Dead came out of no where behind me! I would never see it. It was way to dark in there to stay. I decided I would take my chances with the live ones.
I was making my way back through town when I saw the hardware store again. I slowed to a stop, it wasn't like anyone was going to drive up behind me. I saw the girl slumped against the counter, her hand pulled up to her shoulder by the belt, a shovel sticking out of her brain. I kept driving.
I came to the library once again. If that guy was still in there, maybe I could stay with him. If he could actually live out of a library, I would guess that he has a ton of resources and is quite well off. I pulled right up to the side of the road next to the library. The building was extremely close to the road, the stairs into the building were buuilt directly from the side walk. The Dead on this street seemed to be more focused on something farther down towards the hardware store and the park. I jumped out of the passenger side door and bound up the steps.
When I walked into the library I realized immediately that I could no longer hear the music. The classical music that could have put me to sleep, was replaced by utter silence. I walked over to the librarians desk and didn't see anything different from when I was here earller, other than the fact that the guitar was missing.
Maybe they went out to get something to eat. But why would they take a guitar to find something to eat? Maybe they tried to leave and someone or something got them. I don't know, it wasn't really good to dwell on someone I never even knew or let alone met.
I kept moving, I drove to back to the grocery store. I was terrified.
They weren't outside anymore. I looked like they hadn't fixed the cardboard, but I did realize something I hadn't before. One of the front windows was a warning against people that there were Dead inside and that no one should come in. How fucking smart.
I pulled around to the back, parked with the other cars, grabbed my bag and the map, and ran to the window. The Dead that had been there earlier were killed and pulled off to the side. I could see their blood trails.
The window was still open, inviting me in. The same crates were in the same place and I hoisted myself up, once again. As I dropped in I heard someone's voice in the distance. It sounded kind of far because I couldn't really distinguish what was being said. It sounded like a woman.
I started down the first aisle until I realized that if they did want to kill me, I didn't have anything to defend myself with. I walked back to where I came in and searched for something, anything!
"Ah. Here!" I whispered as I found a crowbar near some door. I tip-toed back down the aisle and crouched down once I reached the end. I could finally hear the woman.
"That's all they took? No water? Or guns? Some beans and cookies?" she said to the man standing next to her.
"And some granola bars..." he said, mostly to himself.
"Well, let 'em have it. They probably needed it more than we did." What? They would just let me have it? Who the hell are these people? A soup kitchen? I wish I was that well resourced. I realized that if I didn't come out of hiding real soon, someone would catch me and that would make everything much worse. I walked out to where I thought they could see me and whistled. They looked my way and both gasped.
I probably looked like major shit. My pants had been cut for just below the knee to my upper thigh and my legs were dirty and tanned from walking for a few days. My shirt was dirty from sleeping on the ground and wearing it for a couple of weeks. My hair was choppy and knotty, and I had a few bald spots. I knew I had a few healing bruises on my face from the last camp I was at. And I had to have a few pimples, considering I didn't have much exfoliator or moistuizer. Let alone a shower.
The woman started towards me and I lifted the crowbar to show that I didn't want her coming near me. She put up her hands and started to back away. I pulled my bag off my back, opened it and spilled the contents on the ground. The last thing to come out was an empty cookie box.
"Sorry for eating the cookies, they reminded me of...something." I said in a small voice. The woman's eyebrows went up to her hairline and the man's knitted together.
"It's okay, we've all been there." the woman said and then gave out a short awkward laugh. She started towards me again, this time reaching for the food instead. She leaned down to pick the cans up and handed them to the man.
She was extremely tall, and obviously fit. She looked to be about 50, but a good 50. The man was similar, he was fit but not tall. He seemed around the age of 50 as well. After taking the food back, the lady shooed the man with her hand, and he walked away immediatley. She seemed to have him on lock.
"Hello. My name is Sue. What's your name?"
"Vita." I retorted quickly. She looked kind of surprised.
"Italian?" she asked, her eyebrows had disappeared into her hair by this point.
"Uh... Maybe, I guess." I mumbled.
"Sorry, I have a thing with names. As a child, I had tons of baby name books. I would memorize what they meant and where the came from. I loved it! I then went on to linguistics, which only made my weird obsession worse!" She laughed to herself, I gave a small smile.
"So is it only you and your husband? Or..." I looked around us for anyone else. I didn't see or here much.
"No, there are quite a few of us. We all lived in this town when it happened. Are you from around here?" She asked, not moving a muscle. She seemed to be eyeing the crowbar wearily.
"No, I came up here looking for someone." I didn't know how much information I could tell this woman off the bat.
"Are you from New York?" She questioned, her eyebrows were no where to be seen. I knew she had them, I saw them when she was talking to the man.
"Nope." I responded.
"Oh, well. Do you plan on staying in Liberty for very long?" she said, as her eyebrows came back down.
"It depends on how long it will keep me."
"Hopefully, for a long time." The man had come back with a smile, and wrapped an arm around Sue. "I'm Joe. How are you?"
"Tired. My name's Vita." I stuck out my hand for a handshake.
"I can tell, do you want a shower?" He asked, as he shook my dirty hand.
"A shower?" I asked, awe struck at how amazing this place was.