Lucy's pov:
I watched Zack doze off almost instantly; he really had been exhausted. He really needed this rest, especially after all that he had done to protect me and to get my plush back.
Not being able to sleep again, my thoughts wavered towards the two people Zack had let in. They seemed nice enough but I still didn't fully trust them. However I did trust Zack's judgment. Maybe this time things would be different?
I sighed softly and lay my head against Zack, looking down and fidgeting a little, not knowing what to do without Zack to guide me. I found myself silently wishing for Zack to wake up soon.
"Hey.." Emily began quietly, scooting slowly over to Lucy, "You're name's Lucy right? My name is Emily."
"Oh uh, h..hello" I answered nervously, fidgeting a little with my shirt.
"You seem really attached to him" Emily noted, motioning towards Zack, "He must really be very caring huh?"
"Yes miss, he i..is" I replied, snuggling closer to him, "W..without him I wouldn't be here now."
"You're quite lucky to have him as a friend then. Times can be hard without someone to have your back now" Emily said, looking down.
"He..he's more than that. He's a brother t..to me and I love him" I corrected, my tone a mix of nervousness and a slight proportion of it shyness.
"I see" she said, sounding a little distant as she said so, which gave me the feeling that she must be thinking of something. However I decided not to push her.
"Y..yeah" I said, hugging Zack's arm and burying my face in his shoulder.
"Lucy, it's okay, don't be scared" Emily comforted, gently putting her hand on Lucy's shoulder. "I know we just met and all but I promise we're not going to hurt you. If something bad happened regarding trusting others before" she paused, before continuing, "Well I promise everything will be fine."
"A..alright" I said, the nervousness fading away already.
"Good" she said, before giving a smile, "Perhaps we can even be friends once we get to know each other better, yeah?"
"Yeah, perhaps" I murmured, looking away and staring out of the window. The storm still hadn't let up and if anything seemed like it was at the peak of it's intensity now. Rain was pouring down like a flood from above and the outside was as dark as an abyss, with the only light coming from the headlights of the car piercing a few feet in to the dark. This was going to be a long and dangerous drive.
Emily had gone to looking out the window again, staring in to the darkness while her brother kept driving, humming quietly to himself.
I glanced at her neck momentarily and noticed a thick, light pink scar running down it. Immediately my curiosity increased and I thought about asking her about it, but I decided it would be best if I didn't. Whatever had happened had to be personal, and I didn't want to go around asking those questions to people I had just met.
"Hey g..guys?" I asked a little hesitantly, "How long will we be on the road exactly?"
"Well it depends, but if we want to get to Canada I'd say at least a two day drive without rest" Felix answered.
"Is there enough fuel to get us there?" I replied, getting a little worried that we might run out in the middle of nowhere.
"No, but there's bound to be functional gas stations along the way, so we'll be alright. There's no need to worry Lucy" he reassured, speeding up the windshield wipers.
"I hope so."
***
"Hey guys? I see a gas pump up ahead. Should we refill the car's tank here?" i asked, looking back at them.
"I was thinking the same thing. I'm going to pull over now" Felix said. He slowed the car down and brought it to a halt next to one of the filling stations. "Okay, you guys I'm going to fill the car up and head inside the shop. Wake Zack up too; I'd much rather have someone watching my back in there."
"Hey Zack, get up" Emily said, shaking him awake, "Felix said you and him need to check the store for supplies, so you need to get up."
"Aw I was just getting to the good part of my dream though" he said sadly.
"Once you get back you can sleep to your heart's content" she replied.
"Oh bother it all. Fine, I'm going" Zack said, too sleepy to be annoyed.
"Splendid! Glad to have you on board my dude" Felix grinned, punching him in the arm playfully.
"Hey that hurt you know!"
"Sorry, my bad"
Groaning, Zack lumbered out of the car, rubbed his eyes a little, and walked with Felix to the shop. Just before that though, he looked back at me with a reassuring smile and said, "Don't worry Lucy, I'll be back soon."
"Okay!" I replied with a smile of my own, though inside I was praying hard that the shop not have any sort of creature lurking inside.
"Please be okay Zack" I whispered, watching him enter the shop.
---
Zack's pov:
A scary silence surrounded the abandoned shop; a silence so quiet that my breathing disrupted it. It radiated from the store in large doses, and suddenly I didn't feel like going in there. The darkness in there, and the silence..it reminded me all too well of my time in the hospital.
But like last time I..no, we needed supplies; Lucy needed those supplies.
And this time I wasn't alone. I had someone to watch my back this time, and this time I would make it out safely too. Everything was going to be fine; everything had to be fine..for Lucy's sake.
We got to the front door, but to our dismay it seemed to be boarded up from the inside, so we went around back to find another entrance. And lo and behold, there was an empty window frame next to another boarded up door.
The window seemed to be have been smashed in, as there was glass on the head of the frame, but not on the sill or the jamb. That was lucky for us as it left some wiggle room.
"Zack, keep your gun at the ready" Felix ordered, keeping my dagger in hand, "We don't know if we'll be alone in there."
"Got it" I responded, doing exactly as he said, before climbing in to the store.
I landed on the floor with a loud crunch and cringed, the silence now disrupted as if I had set off a bomb. Looking down, I realized I had landed on thousands of tiny shards of shattered glass that used to be part of the window.
I chided myself silently; I should have been more careful.
I had landed in a very narrow aisle. There was only enough space for one person to walk through at a time, and there was nothing stocked on the shelves. So we had to journey deeper in to the store.
Suddenly a sickening odor hit me. I took a deep whiff, and cringed in disgust.
It was blood, and there was a lot of it.
"Keep going" Felix whispered, nudging me forward. "The sooner we get the supplies the sooner we can get out of here.
"Something horrible happened here" I said quietly, moving forwards.
"Yes, and I don't have any intention of finding out who or what did this. Let's just hurry up and get this over with" Felix responded, sounding a bit uneasy.
Up ahead one of the cabinets had tipped over, blocking our way partially. However there was a slight space to crawl through beneath it.
I had seen this many times before in movies and video games alike; this just screamed that there was something on the other side, waiting for me to come in to it's reach.
I wasn't going to be deterred though, and so I lay down and crawled through the narrow space. Quickly, I glanced left and right as I stood up on the other side, gun at the ready. However there was no zombie around; only corpses.
"Oh Jesus the smell here is terrible" Felix muttered under his breath, covering his nose.
"Yeah" I agreed, inspecting the corpses. There were five in total, but as I got close to the first one I realized why it smelt so horrendously bad.
"Oh sick!" I said in disgust. The corpse looked like a man's, and something had ripped it's chest open. He lay in a pool of his own dried blood, his rotted guts spilt out and torn to shreds. One of his arms was severed apart, and his eye balls had no eyes in them; almost as if something had torn them out.
"G—god, I—I can't" I gasped, falling to the ground and coughing violently, the contents of my stomach trying their absolute best to hurl themselves out of me.
"Zack! Look at me! It's dead. It's just a corpse, and I don't need you throwing up because of his shredded guts. Got it?" Felix said, shaking me.
"Y—yeah" I sputtered.
"Come on now, those supplies won't get to the girls themselves" he said, pulling me to my feet. "Lets give the bodies a quick search before checking any other aisles."
"A..alright" I managed to say, not quite over the gore of what I had just seen.
The other bodies were slashed up just as horrifically as the first, and there was nothing on either of them. The last one however, caught my attention.
It's guts were torn out like the others, but the smell of blood coming from it was exponentially stronger, and the blood around it looked significantly redder.
Wait....
I crouched and ran my finger through the red pool, and shivered as I brought my finger back up for inspection. Blood coated the tip of my finger, and ran down in multiple little streams.
This man had died very recently if his blood hadn't dried yet, but there didn't seem to be any signs of bullet holes in him. So then..
Just then, a drop of blood fell down on to the floor in front of me.
I froze..and slowly more droplets began to splash down in front of me, creating ripples within the great blood pool. And then, a piece of flesh fell from just above me, splashing fresh blood all around. And then came a deep vicious snarl.
"Frick" I gulped, looking up.
"Zack look out!" Felix yelled, shoving me out of the way just as the undead creature jumped down on to the floor and snarled. It darted towards us, blood dripping from it's mouth. It grabbed Felix's legs and toppled him over, dragging him away through the blood of it's previous victim..
"Zack help me!" he cried, flailing about and trying to break free from the deadly grip.
"Let him go bitch!" I yelled, pulling out my gun and shooting three bullets in to it's head. The creature squealed and let go of Felix, who scurried to his feet and backed away hurriedly.
"Die fucker" i said, taking out my dagger and digging it deep in to the neck of the writhing creature, twisting it left and right until it's screams stopped and it fell limp, black blood now painting the floor.
But before i could get too relieved, more shrieks erupted from nearby, and I cursed under my breath.
"Fuck, there's more of them" Felix said nervously, sprinting to the dead body of the creature and pulling out a gun from it's trouser pocket. "Get behind me Zack, stay away from the walls, and keep your eyes on both the ceiling and the floor."
I hurriedly complied and I stood back to back with him, our hearts racing, and our palms sweaty. My breathing quickened, and my skin was probably pale.
The store had gone deadly quiet, and only now I realized how poor the lighting actually was. We were sitting ducks where we were. I started to panic inside, glancing up and down and right and left, trying to be on top of the situation.
"Stay calm" Felix whispered, "These fuckers smell fear, and take advantage of it. Don't show weakness to the enemy."
"O..okay" I said, trying to calm myself down.
Then, like a flash I saw a lean, dark figure in the shadows, staring right at me. First one pair of eyes, then another popped up, and another..
"They know we're out numbered" Felix murmured. "Get ready Zack. They won't observe us for much longer."
I nodded, and locked eyes with the beasts. "Bring it on assholes" I thought, grabbing my knife in my other hand.
p.s: new chapter! yay! Finally!! I'm very sorry for it being so so late. Laziness and all. I know it's not excusable and i need to lessen it, and i will.
I hope you like the chapter though! love you guys!
Also i'm alive!! xd Idk just wanted to say that lol