The supermarket looked nothing like a supermarket on the inside. The shelves had all been cleared, pushed to a corner where they were stacked against each other; the only shelves left standing were the two behind the untouched register which contained necessities: disinfectant, bandages, napkins, knives, daggers and most eye-catchingly of all, pistols. When Leo reached for one of the pistols, Jo revealed they were empty and that the ammo was being stored in the register and the drawers behind the counter which explained why the register hadn’t been moved to some corner of the supermarket like the shelves.
The enormous space that had been created from clearing the shelves was filled with mattresses with people laying or sitting on them, backpacks next to their mattresses, some empty, some bulging. There were exactly thirteen people in here, although there were seven empty mattresses which meant that this was a space meant to accommodate twenty. Caleb was sitting on a mattress, Wally and Tam opposite him watching as he excitedly revealed the content of his backpack and dipped his hands into his pockets to reveal the candy and chocolate he’d gotten from the gas station.
There were three doors in the back of the supermarket. One led to a store area which now served as both a store and kitchen and everything edible was being kept there. The second led to a toilet and a makeshift bathroom. The third door led to stairs that went up to a space just as big as the one below, with rifles on shelves that ran along the walls, cans of gasoline at the foot of the shelves. There were desks and chairs up here and only nine mattresses, four of which were occupied at the moment. Brianna sat on a chair, her legs resting on a desk, a bowl of cereal in her hands and a bitter expression on her face when she noticed Leo walk inside.
“Guys,” Jo called out loud, placing an arm around Leo’s shoulder, a wide smile on her face. “Look who decided to turn up out of nowhere today.”
Faces turned to stare at Jo and Leo, some of which Leo recognized, a warm feeling spreading throughout his body as he saw old friends that he’d long since believed were dead. They all looked different from the last time they’d been together but Leo found it much easier to recognize them than he’d found it with Tam.
Izzy and Bob had both grown taller and leaner, both of them spotting stubbles on their faces now and overgrown, unkempt black hair. They rushed off their mattresses and ran towards Leo, both of them simultaneously trapping him in a tight hug which was easily one of the most uncomfortable group hugs Leo had ever been a part of but somehow still his favorite.
“Leo!” Izzy exclaimed. “How the fuck are you alive? We thought you died when you and D got separated from us all those months ago.”
“Where is D anyways?” Bob asked.
Leo’s face fell, and Bob understood immediately. He placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder and gave him a sympathetic nod. “It’s okay. You’re not the only one who lost someone in all of this. We understand.”
The pain in Bob’s voice wasn’t at all subtle and Leo decided to change the topic as quickly as he could so he wouldn’t have a breakdown in front of them. “How long have you guys been here?” He queried, genuinely wondering how long they’d been camping in a building he was positive he’d gone past on multiple occasions.
“Two months,“ Izzy answered.
“Eh, give or take,” Jo scratched the back of his head. “We spent a full month marooned in the area around Jefferson, getting picked off one by one by those nasty fuckers. Eventually, we decided remaining camped there would only lead to us being wiped out much faster so we got our shit together and decided to move. Raided whatever stores and police precincts we could, got supplies and weapons, found people along the way, lost some people too. Vick—,” Jordan’s voice broke off. There was that pain again, the same one that’d been clearly etched into Bob’s voice.
“How long you been here?” Izzy asked. “Only just getting here?”
Leo shook his head. “When the incident at Jefferson occurred, I made a run for it with Tyler, Deb and my brother, Godwin. Godwin and I got separated before I even made it out of the school and Tyler went after him. No idea if either one of them made it out. Deb and I did and we got pretty far from Jefferson before things went to shit. We were surrounded and even though we did manage to escape, it wasn’t without a mark. She got bitten.”
“Oh shit,” Jo murmured. “She became one of them.”
“And I had to take her head off myself when she tried to bite me too,” Leo’s voice cracked but he cleared his throat and continued. “Called my parents and things only got worse. The call, their screams. I had to get home to be sure they were fine even though a part of me knew what I’d find. So I got to my place and found it surrounded by those things and my parents were one of them. So I ran.”
“Shit,” Bob murmured.
“Yeah,” Leo inhaled deeply. “Shit’s about right. Heck, shit was all the played through my mind the first couple months of this mess. Eventually, I decided that if the world was going to descend into chaos then I might as well cause some chaos of my own. Started to kill as many of those things as I could and made my way from safehouse to safehouse, going on the move as soon as too many Fleshers started to pop up in the area.”
“A post-apocalyptic nomad,” Jo grinned. “That’s the type of cool shit I like. Badass wandering the wastelands with nothing to accompany him other than his trusted ax and loyal pet dog.”
“Actually, I have a trusted shotgun and a loyal set of daggers,” Leo smiled. “Axes are too cliché. Too much of a mess too.”
“Just wait till you see the shotguns we have,” Jo winked. “Top tier bad boys, military grade weaponry.”
“How do you have military grade weaponry?”
Jo shrugged. “From the military, I suppose. Not like there’s anyone left at the barracks to tell us we can’t touch the weapons or machinery there. No law, no order, that means everything’s free for all. You want something, take it. Only thing you gotta be afraid of out there are the damned Fleshers.”
“You steal any tanks?”
Jo frowned. “What?”
“You got into military facilities in an apocalypse and didn’t think a tank would be something that could come in handy?” Leo queried.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Can you pilot a tank?” Izzy asked.
Leo made a pfft sound and shrugged. “Can’t be hard. Probably a manual in there or something. You’ll learn on the go.”
“You’re crazy,” Bob snorted. “The military doesn’t just let anyone man those vehicles and you think a bunch of teenagers and young adults would be able to pilot em easily? We’re dealing with one apocalypse already, we don’t need another.”
“I could pilot one,” Bri spoke, turning around in her chair to stare at them. “Tank, chopper, trucks, cars, bikes. I know my way around wheels, regardless of their sizes. What you get for being born into a military family.”
“Your entire family is military?” Leo asked.
“Was,” Bri corrected. “Pops was a General, brother was a Captain. Mom was a pilot in the Air Force. So other than the intense self-defense training I was forced through, I also learned my way around vehicles. Can’t pilot jets, of course, but choppers are fair game.”
“Huh,” Leo murmured. Bri’s military family background explained her somewhat cold demeanor: it couldn’t have been easy growing up like that, possibly enduring different sorts of drills each day. Now that he knew how she’d grown up, he was relieved Jo had stopped them from fighting earlier. In hindsight, she probably would have killed him had the fight gone on.
“Like I told you earlier, pissing her off isn’t a good idea,” Jo whispered into Leo’s ears. “She’s scary dangerous.”
Leo smiled. Something about knowing just how dangerous she was weirdly made her much more attractive to him. When Bob nudged him in the shoulder and pointed out he’d been smiling like a dork for far too long, he cleared his throat and glanced at Jo. “Where’s Scott? Tam mentioned him earlier.”
“He’s out,” Jo answered. “Scott and Etchie, they’re scouts. Best we have. Every morning, they head out, scavenge for resources and at night, they return after scouting the area to make sure there’s no immediate Flesher threat. You’ll see him tonight. He’ll be ecstatic when he finds out you’re alive.”
“You’re not worried about the two of them?”
Jo scoffed. “Leo, it’s been a minute since you’ve seen us but trust me, Scott’s not like you remember. Put him in a room with a hundred Fleshers and I’d still fancy him to make it out alive and unbitten.”
“Holy shit,” Leo murmured.
“And Etchie, well, most of the people here call him Charge. That’s because he has a penchant for turning nearly anything into a lethal explosive. Two of them, there’s no worries about them not making it back.”
Izzy and Bob introduced Leo to Tiwa and Colin, both of whom were much taller and bigger than Leo was and appeared somewhat intimidating at first. They both had unkempt black hair, although Tiwa’s was somewhat shorter and where Colin had patches of hair on the sides of his face, Tiwa spotted a full beard on his face. Their complexions were contrasting, Colin with a light complexion whereas Tiwa was much darker. After speaking to the both of them for a while and participating in a game of chess, he found them much less intimidating. Tiwa was cheerful and full of jokes, some of which were rather odd while Colin was full of hilariously offensive remarks that riled Tiwa up.
Leo spent most of the day familiarizing with the people at the supermarket and stealing glances at Bri, looking away just in time to avoid being caught by her. A part of him was glad to be around so many people again, especially when some of these people were people he recognized and was friends with. When he wasn’t chatting, engaged in a game of cards or chess or stealing glances at Bri, he was being pestered by Caleb who’d taken a liking to Leo.
Finally, when nighttime started to replace daytime, the supermarket got quieter and quieter, its inhabitants aware that any noise at dark hours like these could attract the sort of company they didn’t want. The people in the supermarket got comfortable in their mattresses, speaking in low tones and hushed whispers now, dim flashlights illuminating the supermarket sufficiently.
Bri, Jo, Caleb and Leo stood by the supermarket’s barricaded entrance, looking outside as the streets got darker, patiently waiting for Scott and Etchie to arrive from their day of scavenging and scouting. Caleb had a frantic expression on his face and had been tapping on the glass windows in a panicked manner, only stopping when Bri rubbed his head and calmed him.
“They should be back by now,” Jo muttered. “Never this late. They’re never this late. Never. Any moment now.”
“Relax,” Leo spoke, noticing Jo was just as frantic as Caleb. “They’ll make it back.”
“What if they don’t?” Caleb asked.
“They will.”
Bri shook her head. “I’m going out. I’ll find them. Better to be out there searching than in here panicking about it.”
“No!” Jo exclaimed. “No one’s going out. Not this dark. The Fleshers are already coming out, it’s far too dangerous.”
“And we also have a rule of looking after each other, don’t we?” Bri queried. “If anyone’s going to go out there and bring the two of them back safely, it’s me. I’m your best bet.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“There’s three possibilities right now, Jordan. First is that they’ve been bitten and that they’re turning right now. Second is that they’re dead. Third’s that one or both of them is hurt and they’re stuck somewhere for the night with Fleshers closing in on them. There is a fourth but deeply unlikely possibility and that’s that they lost track of time or chose to ditch. Scott wouldn’t lose track of time and he wouldn’t ditch either.”
Jo sighed. “I can’t send you out there, Bri.”
“Good thing you’re not sending me then, buddy. I’m choosing to go after our friends,” Bri smiled. “If I’m not back in three hours then you know what that means. Don’t think too hard about it, just assume that I’m dead or one of them, alright?”
Jo nodded. “Get what weapons you need. But be careful out there, Bri. If there really are smarter Fleshers running around then that means nighttime’s deadlier than it was before.”
“I’ll watch her back,” Leo spoke up, going behind the register where his shotgun was resting. He lifted the shotgun and slung the strap across his shoulder. “Let’s go find our friends.”
“You’re joking, right?” Bri lifted an eyebrow over the other. “I’m not going out there with a liability.”
“Great. Let’s get going then, shall we?”
“No way I’m having two of my people go out at dark,” Jo shook his head. “No fucking way. One, that’s a risk I can take. Two, that’s not going to happen. Leo, put the gun down.”
“Longer we stay here arguing about who is or isn’t going out there, the closer Scott and Etchie are to being dead or becoming Fleshers,” Leo hissed. “Appreciate that you care about me, but Scott’s my friend and I’m not interested in losing more of those. Especially not on the same day I just learned he was still alive. I’m going out there, Jo. If you’re going to keep the door shut, so help me God, I’ll create another way out.”
“That’s a scary threat,” Bri chuckled. “It’s settled. He comes with me. But I’m going to make this clear now: I haven’t known you long enough to be willing to risk my life for yours. Anything goes south out there, Scott and Etchie take priority. Not you.”
“Hurtful, but okay.”
Bri sighed. “Very well, then. Let's go save our friends."