I woke up earlier than everybody else. Big Mick had actually fallen asleep right by the front door barricade. I don't think a horde of biters would be able to get by him should our barricades fall down. And besides, Mick isn't the type of guy you would want to wake up too early. He has a tendency to get a little grumpy when he gets up too soon.
When the sun came up, everyone was still fast asleep. Rather than just sit around in the lobby, I got off my ass, grabbed my axe, and moved about the rest of the office. Even though Cyn and I did a quick sweep of the place the night before, I wanted to be sure there would be no surprises waiting for us.
Walking down the small corridor and checking each examination room, everything was nice and clean. I guess heading off to the dentist isn't much of a priority when the world decides to come to an end. Although, seeing some of the dead things' rancid teeth, those bastards sure could use a dentist.
The last room at the end of the corridor gave me a decent enough view of the road out in front of the building. There was a small group of five or so biters meandering by the office, but other than the dead things, all seemed quiet.
"Reid?" Cynthia called out to me from back in the lobby. "Where are you?"
"I'm here, Cynthia," I answered. I didn't know if I was bragging or complaining.
Cynthia was rubbing her neck. "That floor was not comfy."
"I slept like a baby."
"Good for you."
"Jealous?"
"Yeah. What were you doing back there?"
"Just checking things out. Making sure there were no surprises waiting to jump out and bite us."
Mick got up from the floor and stretched out his arms. "Screw this floor."
I chuckled. "You slept like a rock, Mick."
"It wasn't easy, let me tell you, Reid."
"We could just use you as a barricade."
Mick laughed. "If you pay me enough."
"So what's the first order of business for today?" Angie asked us.
"I think we should work on the barricade out here in the lobby and cover up these windows," Janice replied.
"Before we work on the front doors, we better check on the back door Just in case we have to get the hell out of here in a hurry," said Mick.
"The door looked pretty sturdy," Angie said. "At least from what I could see when we were running up here."
"Let's take a look," I told Ang.
The back door to the building was the first door on the left in the main hallway. The staff had been using the area as a storage closet. But the back door was a thick metal and locked in place by a big, sturdy deadbolt.
"Keep an eye out for a set of keys, Ang," I said. "They could come in handy."
"Will do, Reid," Angela replied. Before we rejoined the others out in the lobby, Angie spied mop that was resting inside of a bucket.
"We can clean later, Ang," I said.
Angie sighed at me. It reminded me of Cynthia. She then broke the mop handle across her knee. "Now I have a weapon."
"Impressive," I replied in my best Darth Vader voice.
Back out in the lobby, Angie handed the other end of the broken mop handle to Nicole. Good, now we were all armed.
"How's the back door?" Mick asked me.
"Pretty sturdy. I'd say it would take a few biters to knock the thing down. We could probably stack up some chairs or something in front of it and the door should be fine," I answered.
"Good."
Looking at the building's thin, rectangular windows, Cynthia had an idea. Rather than try and barricade them, Cyn just taped printer paper over the glass. The stenches, and anyone else wandering by, wouldn't be able to see inside the building.
"What do you think of our new curtains?" Cynthia asked me when she finished taping the last piece of paper over the glass.
"Not bad, but I prefer my curtains in Mauve," I answered.
Cynthia let out a frustrated sigh. "You are an ass."
"I know."
Mick, Janice, Nicole, and myself moved two of the heavy examination tables from the examination rooms and placed them in front of the lobby doors. It would take a good amount of biters to get through those, so all in all, the office was rather secure. Next on our agenda? Improving our supply situation.
After the group moved out of the lobby and into an examination room, we started to discuss where to get food.
"There's restaurants and stores lining this street," Nicole said. "Area was booming back when things were normal."
"Well, business had been dead these past few months," I remarked.
Mick laughed, but everyone else groaned at my little joke. They're just jealous.
"It's only the late morning. Who's up for checking out some of the nearby shops and restaurants?" Mick wondered. "Really not much else to do now that the place is secure."
I volunteered first, "I'll go."
"So will I," Janice said.
Angela looked at her older sister, "Cyn, do you think it would be okay if I went out with Reid and Janice?"
"Oh man, I don't know, Ang. You can't really handle yourself," Cynthia responded to her kid sister.
"Just get them in the head."
"That's part of it."
"It could be good for her, Cyn," I said. "And hey, I might get to touch Angie's butt again."
Angela started to blush. Cynthia just rolled her eyes at me, "Reid, you're really ruining this whole end of the world crap."
"Once again, I know."
"Please, Cyn? I want to go. I'm tried of waiting around and worrying while you guys go out there."
"Oh, it's a real hoot out there, Angie. Let me tell you," I said sarcastically. "Believe me, I'd rather call a delivery service than have to go out there and deal with the biters. Then you have the other assholes like Carter."
"Don't forget Peterson," Cyn added.
"How could I?"
"But I want to go," Ang said once more.
I looked at Cynthia, "Hey, it'll give you a break. You won't have to put up with my stupidity"
That go Cynthia to relent. "Fine, you can go, Angie. But be careful."
"I will," Ang responded.
"And, Reid? If I find out you touched my sister's ass again, I'm chopping off both of your hands."
"Can I touch your ass instead then?" I wondered.
"No!" Cyn yelled.
Rejected from playing grab ass, I grabbed the duffel bag and headed for the back door. I opened the door and looked outside; there were no dead things wandering around out back. I told Janice and Angie that we were all clear and we left the building.
"We should just try one of the shops closest to us," Janice whispered.
"Shop or restaurant?" I asked.
"Remember what happened at the last restaurant we tried?"
"Unfortunately."
"We should try one of these stores closest to us."
There was a store only half a block away from the office. Janice, Angie, and I hurried through the parking lot and over to the back of the buildings.
"There's no dead things, but there's no back door to the place either," Janice said when she looked around the corner and into the narrow alleyway.
"Is it really safe checking out the front of the building?" Angela asked us.
"Well, at least we get to look right inside the place. If it's full of eaters, we just turn and run away. Preferably as fast as possible."
"Okay then."
I offered to go and open the front door. Thankfully, I didn't have to open it as the window glass had all been shattered. All I had to do was lean in and take a look.
"Anyone home?" I asked into the store.
The response I got was a biter charging out from around the store counter. She was wearing a black tank top and dark green shorts. The flesh from her right shoulder had been eaten away, revealing bone and muscle. She barreled towards the door and reached out through the broken window.
"Fuck," I gasped. It's a good thing the door was locked from the inside or else the dead thing would have been all over me.
The corpse snarled and growled as she tried to grab the front of my jacket.
"Sorry, Ma'am," I said and drove the blade of my axe into the undead creature's forehead.
Angie and Janice hurried around the corner and up to me.
"Boy, Reid, you sure do have excellent luck with the ladies," Angela remarked.
I popped the blade free from the biter's head. "I know, right? I had to let this one off easily. She wasn't my type."
"Are there any more biters in there?" Janice asked.
I pushed the lifeless body of the eater back into the store. "I'm not sure. But this is the only one that came charging after me, so who knows." I popped my head into the building once again, "Anyone else in there trying to turn the front of my neck into supper?" I asked, but, all I got was silence. I reached into the broken window and felt around for the lock. After I unlocked the door, Angie and Janice walked into the store and I followed.
The counter of the store was enclosed by that thick, bullet proof glass. Of course the cash register had been taken, that wasn't surprising to me at all. The shelves had been knocked over or sat askew and it looked as if most of the items in the store had been picked over. Didn't look like we'd be filling up the duffel bag anytime soon.
"Should we try someplace else?" Angela asked us.
"There's still some stuff here, Ang," Janice replied. "We should get what we can."
I handed the duffel bag over to Ang. "Start shopping. Go crazy if you like. Money is no object."
"Really? You can't do this?" Angie responded.
"Hey, you're the one that wanted to come out here with us. Either that or you can clean off the rotten bits of brain matter off the end of my axe."
"You know what? I'll go shopping," Angela responded. Ang started picking up food items off the floor and shelves.
"I'll check out the freezers," Janice told me.
"Okay. I'll see if there's anything useful behind the counter," I said.
I walked around to the back of the counter. What I saw laying on the floor made my stomach turn. "Oh man," I said, turning away.
"What is it?" Angela asked me.
"A body."
It was a shirtless man laying face down in a pool of blood. All he was wearing was a pair of black sweatpants. Huge bits of flesh had been eaten away from the man's neck and back. I realized that the dark red blood pooling underneath the body was pretty fresh and we could potentially have another biter on our hands.
Before I could rush forward and chop off the biter's head, he reached out and grabbed the counter and began to pull himself up. The dead thing's face was covered in blood and all I could see was his beige-tinted eyeballs.
Janice saw me raise my axe above my head, preparing to take out the biter. She wasn't paying attention to what could be lurking in the store's freezers. Another biter burst out from the back and almost grabbed Janice. She managed to get her pipe wrench up in time to prevent the stench from biting her forehead.
Angie shot up to her feet and looked at me. "Don't worry about me, go help Janice!" I yelled.
Angie dropped the duffel bag and rushed over to Janice's aid.
The biter behind the counter pulled himself up and lunged forward, preparing to grab me by my midsection. In a downward fashion, my axe chopped down into the top of the stench's skull. I quickly pried my axe free and went to help out Janice and Angela with the other biter.
However, I didn't need to. Angie had rammed the broken mop handle deep into the other biter's left ear and her and Janice were hovering over the creature laying at their feet.
"Are you two okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," Janice answered quietly. She was still a little shaken up.
"You weren't bitten or anything, were you?"
"No. I'm fine, Reid. Angie saved the day."
"Ang? You still with us?" I asked her when I noticed that Angela was just staring down at the dead guy with a blank expression on her face.
"Y-y-yeah," Ang stammered.
"Cynthia's gonna be so proud."
"Yeah, Ang. Wait til your sis hears about how you saved me," said Janice.
Angela snapped to. "I guess I can handle myself after all."
Janice pointed to the broken mop handle sticking out of the undead creature's ear."Now you have to pull that thing out of there."
"That's what she said," I quipped.
Janice and Ang both looked at me and said at the same time, "Seriously?"
Like I was going to pass that up.
After gathering what we could from the store, which wasn't much, the three of us decided on what to do next. We could either just go back to the office, or venture out a little further and try our luck venturing down the road a little further and seeing what was in those buildings.
Janice looked down the street towards a pharmacy. "You know, there could be more useful things in there. Maybe we should check it out?"
Angie shook the duffel bag. "Feelin pretty light here, guys. Maybe we should."
So off to the pharmacy we went.