“Wait where's Sam?” I ask Ava who was closest to me while I hold my stomach, feeling it churn in protest. Ava was a short girl with dyed blonde hair and green eyes who was typically easy-going and friendly but the usual cheer was currently gone from her eyes and replaced with worry and doubt.
“He went to get his bike a few minutes ago and shouldn't be long.” She says while looking over my shoulder with a nervous gaze.
“Let's hope so.” I follow her gaze. “But in the meantime, I think it could be a good idea if we should distribute everything so that everyone can defend themselves better,” I say while bringing out various items on the floor from my inventory.
“Don't worry about giving me food or water, I don't need it,” I add as Ella and Mia come over. Mia, the last girl of our little group, was of average height with long dark hair and eyes with a crude sense of humour that matches my own.
After briefly explaining why I didn't need food and water the others took the items out of their inventories while Noah stood watch as he didn't pick up as much stuff. With all the loot, apart from Sam's, on the floor, we began to make a pile for each member. We would each have a bat, javelin, machete, shock put, knife, screwdriver, saw, chisel, wire cutters and food and water if they need it.
“Why do we need shock puts and tools?” Asks Ava.
I give her a confused look. ‘Oh right, people can’t just understand my thoughts’ I mentally facepalm. “Tools are useful, remove hinges from a door, cut through a fence, make a hole in something to kill things with less risk.”
They give me a look when I mention killing things and Sam pulls up on his motorbike with his leather jacket and helmet.
“Plus screwdrivers and chisels can be used to stab things pretty efficiently. Sam, Could you add your things to the unsorted loot pile?” I ask
“Umm, sure?” He gives a quick nod and adds his gains to the pile.
“Thanks,” I say.
“Why are you so instant that we will have to kill things?” Huffs Mia.
“Well, I would kind of prefer it if we didn’t die until at least after the first event so it's just a precaution. As for the shock puts they are heavy and can be dropped on things and I believe I get creative with them for my power.” I gesture to my pile which has more of the dense metal spheres but no food or water.
After a general grumbling of agreement, we continue to organise our ill-gotten gains and talk about where we should go next. The original idea was to go to the local supermarket to get food and then go to their homes.
But Supermarkets would be a hotspot for everyone looking for food, but supplies are a necessity. Splitting up is just a bad idea, it's like the first rule of horror films. ‘Not to mention they would have to deal with family members' corpses.’ I think internally
“…Also there might be conflict in the panic and who knows if there are others like our good friend Logon,” I add in
Mai gives me a blank look. “The vampire kid Jacob beat over the head with a chair.” Ella helpfully supplies.
‘I wonder if he sparkled in the sun, focus dipshit.’
“Yeah him, anyway Sam, didn't you used to work at the store? Do you know where the supplies come from?” I ask turning to look at the man in question.
“Sadly not, no” He shakes his head.
“Wait a minute, I did a job interview for a warehouse worker to pack car breaks last week. There were a whole bunch of warehouses and I think the one opposite had the store's truck outside. That could be where they keep the food and stuff.” Noah tells us.
“Where is that?” Asks Ava.
“In Filton, about 15 to 20 minutes drive away.” Supplies Noah.
‘Is there anything else in Filton we could use while we are there? What do we even need? He said it was based on the spinning of a wheel so it would be random…’ I see a pair of eyes looking at us from one of the windows.
“I think we should stop off by The Rocks first, It's an extreme sports store that has stuff for everything from running to motocross and mountaineering. I can direct the way but we need to go. Someone is watching us and we have been here for too long.” I say while grabbing my completed pile, and putting it into my inventory. I stand up causing my stomach once again to churn in protest and I see the others look around warily.
Everyone agrees as they quickly pack up and head over to Noah's small red car as he unlocks it to settle down into the driver's seat. Ella, Mia, Ava and I follow him in with me in the passenger seat to give directions while Ava grumbles about being in the middle.
Once everyone is in the car and ready, Noah drives out and away from the School with Sam following close behind on his bike. Meanwhile, the girls and I were making a list of items we should pick up at The Rocks and the warehouse.
We drive down the previously pristine road for 20 minutes weaving through various crashed vehicles. ‘This really sets the mood for an apocalypse huh? Some real atmospheric stuff.’ I look at the crashed cars and the occasional crying pedestrian.
Arriving at The Rocks we split into two teams. One to guard the vehicles while the other went into the store first before swapping. As we decide our roles Sam takes off his helmet and jacket, revealing a clean-shaven face topped by short brown hair swept to the side. He had a friendly face that matched his kind and social personality. I give a brief wolf whistle before giving more meaningful contributions to the conversation.
After a few minutes of discussion, it was decided that Mia and I were to watch over the vehicles first while the others went into the store with the list of items we developed.
‘I wonder if people are going to try and mug us now there are only two of us? Might be interesting, but I will properly die. I wonder what being stabbed feels like.’
As we waited I used the sharpening stones Noah found in the maintenance container to sharpen my machete and knives. I also talk to Mai and found out that her power is to develop a hive mind if she can physically touch a weaker creature.
After being told about her power my mind rapidly produced ideas on how to catch animals and how it could be used for scouting before coming to the realisation that none of us are going to have any privacy once Mai has her network up.
After the agreed hour time, everyone comes out wearing new and expensive-looking outdoor gear with motocross protective jackets over the top. They found everything on the list such as extreme hot and cold gear, mallets, hatchets, ice picks, group and single tents, motocross gear for protection, Kayaks, binoculars, compasses, fishing rods, bikes and new high-end clothes including shoes.
They hand Mai and me our own gear to put in our inventories before Noah leads us into the store so that we can find fitting clothes at a faster pace. Once inside we are guided to the clothes sections. I quickly find the most expensive pair of steel-caped hiking boots that fit my feet which cost £382.50 and put them on.
Feeling giddy at stealing such expensive items I decided to pick up the pace. Grabbing a fist full of the clothes I'm wearing I will them into my inventory, causing me to undress in the middle of the store. Giving a quick wink to Noah I find some well-fitting cargo trousers to put on along with a rash vest before donning a motocross protective jacket and grabbing spares of everything along with some clothes being a size up in case I develop some body mass.
With the new everyday clothes acquired, I also make sure to get fitting cold gear from the ski section and durable waterproofs. Now that I have finished my stealing spree I head over to the changing rooms to wait for Mai.
After a few minutes of Noah and I doing poses in the mirror like the children we are, Mai is done and comes out in similar attire to the rest of us. ‘It's good there are no people here to judge our socially awkward asses.’
With our business completed we head out over to the others, passing a few strangers that shared the same idea as us to loot The Rock. Luckily nobody wanted any confrontation and we were allowed to leave swiftly.
‘Looks like I will have to wait a bit to be mugged. I’m sure that's a regular person's thought and isn't a red flag at all.’ I snort and head over to the car so that we could head off again.
The drive was similar to the first one, with crashed cars slowing us down and the occasional car that zipped past us in a hurry. It didn't take long to arrive but luckily my stomach settled during the car ride allowing me to be more active in the up-and-coming adventure. I also found we could organise the items in our inventories to save space and allow us to find things easier.
Instead of driving to the front of the warehouse, we decided to stop the car around the back near a fire exit that I would make into an entrance. I look up at the plane dark coloured building towering over us. ‘This is starting to feel like a heist.’ Stepping out of the car I stretch and look at Sam pulling up next to us.
“So what's the plan?” He asks us, assuming we discussed it in the car.
‘Ah, properly should have thought of that instead of going all OCD on my inventory.’
The others glance at me expectantly. ‘That's not a good sign.’
“Well, I will be melting the lock on the fire escape door to allow us to sneak in. Ella will stay by the car with two others to not risk our healer.”
“Ella can heal people?” asks Ava.
“I don't want to just sit back and let everyone do things for me.” Says Ella in an irritated tone at the same time.
“Ok, Ummm, First of all, Ella I know you are perfectly capable but I’d prefer for you to be fresh in case someone is injured. If you get hurt you may not be able to use your power and anyone else who is injured is stuck.” I try to reason with our healer.
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The others, seeing the logic in this, agree with me and together we manage to talk her down but not without a promise to let her help in the future when we are more capable.
“Secondly…” I bring the focus back to Ava’s point. “We should explain our powers first so we all know what we are working with. We should properly write it down in case someone can hear us.”
'Although it may be a bit late for that. Better late than never? I have no idea what I am doing.'
Rubbing my face in mental exhaustion I get my notebook and pen from my inventory to write down my powers and state that I am one of the 7. I make sure to take extra care with my writing after remembering Ella trying to read my notes before.
“Please excuse the spelling mistakes, my pen doesn't have spell check,” I say as I hand the book over to my right for Noah to take. A few minutes pass as everyone writes in the notebook. I get the occasional glance presumably after reading about my multiple abilities but the book eventually comes back into my possession and I skim past Ella’s, Noah’s and Mia's abilities until I find Sam's and Ava’s.
By the looks of it, Sam can manipulate the senses of organic beings. ‘If this can be made permanent then this could be a massive boon for the group. If not he could be a great scout and blind opponents. Maybe even enhance touch if torture is needed… probably best not to bring that last one up.’
Ava on the other hand could produce and control water. ‘Great increase to group survivability. Allows us to drink, clean water and grow crops easier. Could also be used for combat depending on how powerful it could be. producing water at high pressure could cut things pretty well and controlling blood could be kind of cool.’
I gave the book to the others so they could check any powers they didn’t know about while the gears in my head turned thinking about the group's powers and how they could be trained and used. ‘Focus! Ok, we are stealing food. I can melt locks and maybe cause an avalanche of products if the warehouse is set up like it is in those forklift fail videos. Sam could enhance his hearing and know if anyone else is in the warehouse and roughly where they are. Noah would be a good assist but he probably has more use guarding the vehicles as he is best suited as a getaway driver.
Need to protect Ella and Mia wouldn’t be much use. Ava could splash people's eyes and make the floor slippery to help us run away? Soap would help if we can find her any. Not ideal but what can you do?’
I mentally shrug before explaining my thoughts, less bluntly, to the group in a hushed whisper as we stand around leaning against the car. Ella also suggested that we grab as much as we can, and bring it back for the vehicle guards to store before going back in. This way we could hold more food without our inventories filling up.
‘Ideally, we’d just empty our inventory before going in but we don’t really have time to pick everything back up. We’ve been standing here chatting for too long.’
“So Sam can you increase your hearing?” I ask in a normal tone but he flinches slightly so I lower my voice to a whisper. “You've already done it?” I ask him.
“Yeah, whispers would be appreciated until I can figure this out.” He says in a low voice.
‘We should properly come up with hand signals like the army at some point. Maybe…, Focus!’
“Understood, Ava are you ready?” I whisper while turning to see her looking slightly nervous. Despite this, she gives a brief smile and a nod so we head over to the fire escape door where I melt the lock and gag a little.
I try to push the door but nothing happens. ‘Right fire doors properly open outwards for safety and crowd flow.’ I noticed that while the lock is still broken the hole is too small for my fingers now that the metal has turned back to a solid.
I sigh, ‘This is going to make me feel so sick.’ I extend three fingers in a claw-like shape and melt the metal, allowing me to sink my fingers into the door and provide enough grip that I could pull it open.
I try not to dry heave as I bite down on my armoured sleeve to reduce the noise and hold the door open for the others to slip through into the building. ‘I could climb anything, If I could, brain! Focus for fuck sake!’ I remove my fingers from the door and slip into the building to follow my friends.
The inside of the warehouse was dark with a 10m high ceiling and tall 7m shelves stacked with pallets of goods and food creating an oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere. ‘Oh, that might just be the large number of corpses scattered around down the aisles.’ The aisles were long and filled with corpses lying on the floor with half-filled trolleys scattered around haphazardly. The fire escape allowed us to enter the warehouse into a back corner hidden from view.
‘I’m sure that is a fire safety lawsuit right there.’
Due to being at the back, we are around the items such as pots and pans as food would need to be more easily accessible. I look into the box next to us and find door stops. Thinking for a moment I grab a few and use one to hold the fire escape open slightly.
“Guys, where's the food?” Whispers Ava.
I look at Sam “Can you smell any food?” I ask him, keeping an eye on our surroundings.
He pauses and stares off into the distance for a moment before scratching his nose viciously. Shaking his head he then takes in a deep inhale through his nose and proceeds to gag. I quickly cover his mouth and give him an apologetic look.
After a brief moment, he nods and I uncover his mouth.
“I could only smell…Them.” He gestures vaguely at the corpses.
“Damn, Thanks for trying but it looks like we need to look the old-fashioned way” I whisper, crouching down slightly and looking through the aisles.
“I hear something.” Sam suddenly informs us as he follows my movements. “Sounds like people at the front arguing. Maybe 5 people? Some want to gather all the useful stuff and make this their base? Then people talking in, Spanish? Umm, others want to take the supplies and get them to their families. Ok more than 5 people, a lot more.” Sam relays the information to us and we start to hear a lot of shouting from the direction he was gesturing from.
‘This is going to be an intense game of hide and seek.’
“Ooooook, hide from a large group of people, steal their food in a place we don't know. People don't look up, the warehouse will have longer-lasting food on higher shelves. We can climb shelves but not jump between them. Sam, can you enhance your eyes and try to find any top-shelf food?” I mutter my thought processes before looking at Sam.
“That might work,” Ava says.
“I’ll give it a go,” Sam mutters as he stares off into the distance and rapidly rubs his eyes.
‘Maybe our powers each have a disadvantage? Sam gets itchy and I feel sick as a dog. I wonder if passive powers, brain!!!’
I blink and shake my head slightly. Meanwhile, Sam was looking around the parts of the warehouse that he could see. After a few minutes, He begins to lead us through the gaps in the shelves, sucking in our guts as we squeeze through the large boxes of products.
Reaching the correct shelf we scramble up their metal frames and sneak to the front towards the food. We eventually make it to a large box of tinned baked beans which Ava stores in her inventory.
Like this, we sneak around through the warehouse and steal, I mean liberate a lot of food and supplements before dropping them off to the others and heading back in. It was all going smoothly until we were on our last run, due to the filled inventories of both teams, when the shouting gradually decreased in volume and Sam told us to run to the door.
“They plan to block off all the doors.” He tells us as we sprint and weave through the gaps of the shelves back towards the door in a mad rush.
But as we get to the aisles that lead to the fire escape we see 5 large men in their early 30s at the entrance of the aisle looking at us in alarm.
‘Ah, time to improvise then.’
“Howdy folks, how are we doing on this fine day?” I ask in a cheerful voice with a large smile on my face. They stop walking and stare at me before one steps forward.
“Who the fuck are you?!” he yells in a confrontational manner as he continues to walk towards us albeit at a slower pace.
“Names Clint Stewart, at your service.” I give a bow but keep my eyes on the man, the grin not leaving my face.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He growls in a low tone and the others behind him start to walk toward us.
“Looking for my brother, John Stewart, he had a job interview here today and wouldn't pick up his phone. Have you seen him?” I say while dropping the grin and adding a touch of worry to my voice.
More men and a few women begin to join the original 5 after hearing their shouting doing nothing to help our anxiety.
“Bullshit.” Another man said “We haven't had anyone new all week. You're trying to steal our food.” He says pointing at us.
“Yeah, sorry about that. But there's so much here you wouldn't even notice if any is gone.” Ava says in a timid voice.
I sigh, ‘Welp, that didn’t work.’
“I do apologise for lying and for stealing food. But we have taken the little that we need and will be on our way now.” I calmly state as I begin to shepherd us back to the fire escape door my heart begins to beat faster in my chest, causing me to grin slightly.
“Now hold on just a minute, who said you can go after stealing from us!” The man at the front of the pack yells as a gun appears in his hand from seemingly nowhere.
‘Who the fuck brings a gun into work, we’re in England, not the US? There was no blue light from the inventory though and his coworkers looked confused.’
I stop moving and think for a second, I see Ava and Sam tense.
“Sam, get ready to run,” I whisper in hopes he can still hear me. I see him nod ever so slightly in confirmation.
“Damn, that's a nice piece you got man. How about we make a deal then?” I say in a confident voice.
“What deal?” He asks slowly.
“My ass for our lives? I've always wanted a big strong man and Uncle Toby has taught me some nasty shit I could put to good use..” I lick my lips and lean against one of the supports for the tall and heavy shelves. My heart beats faster and adrenaline begins to seep into my system.
‘This is going to make me so fucking sick.’
The man tilts his head away from the gun and looks at me in pure confusion as the gun lowers slightly but it looks weirdly delayed like a slightly out-of-sink video game.
“What?” He asks in confusion.
‘Now or never.’ I think while I channel my power into my hand holding the support and liquefying the metal in my tensed hand, causing it to groan in protest. ‘Come on fail videos don't fail me now.’ I internally mutter just as the shelf begins to topple over.
“Fucking run!” I yell causing Sam to wince as we sprint towards the door and just make it through before the shelf falls to the floor with an almighty crash.
“Start the car! Yells Ava as I violently vomit and laugh at the adrenaline coursing through my veins.
“What happened?!” Asks Noah, getting into his car and starting the vehicle.
“No time, go, go, go!” Yells Sam as he slams the door closed and hops onto his bike popping on his helmet.
I jump into the passenger seat still giggling slightly at the rush of emotions that I long thought dulled making my heart beat rapidly and my lungs gasp for air.
Everyone gets in the car and we begin to drive away and I begin to calm down again.
“What happened?” asked Ella.
“Not much, just offered my anal virginity to some burly guy then caused an avalanche,” I responded, causing Mai to laugh.
Ella doesn't look amused and asks Ava what happened. A short but accurate explanation later has the car in brief silence.
“And you were laughing at that?” Asks Ella with mild concern.
“I think it's a coping mechanism for a sudden spike of adrenaline and fear. I’ve always laughed at weird shit.” I shrug.
‘Or maybe I’m just unhinged? Who knows.’
“Anyway, we should go back to mine and hold up for the night. It's going to get dark soon and who knows what's going to happen next.” I say.
“Why yours?” Asks Noah.
“Yeah, I want to go home.” Says Ava.
“Splitting up properly isn't a good idea at the moment and my house is hidden in a rabbit warren of homes. It also has enough bed space for everyone with four double beds and a sofa bed. Plus, my parents were out today so we have to deal with that.”
‘A lie but better me than them. Too many people are working from home after the pandemic.’ I clench my jaw and sigh as the car goes quiet again as the implication sinks in.
“We should hold a funeral, for the ones we can find.” Says Mia.
“Agreed.” I give a nod.
“Yeah, that's a good idea,” Ava says, starting to choke up.
“So who's up for a slumber party at mine tonight?” I change the subject and turn in my chair so I can see everyone.
“Yeah.”
“Sure”
“Sounds like a plan”
With everyone agreeing I give a large smile before turning to Noah “Looks like I’m going to have girls over before you Noah.”
“Yeah sure, you keep telling yourself that Jacob.” He says with a smirk.
“Hang on a minute, did you get lucky without telling us?!?” Yells Mai from the back.
With the mood shifting to a more humorous direction I smile slightly and continue to add fuel to the fire. It didn't take us long to get out of Filton and head back to my house. Along the way, we pass a few stores that had large crowds of people pushing and shoving to get the supplies within, turning the once boring activity of shopping into a full-contact mosh pit.
‘That didn't take long.’
We look at the site but keep driving, leading Sam to my house where we eventually parked in front of the two-story brick detached house. I take a deep breath knowing what I would find there and get out of the car. I walk up to the large windows of the converted garage and see the lifeless body of my dad slumped over at his desk.
“Guess I was wrong about the days,” I say, staring at the corpse of the man who raised me. ‘I’m going to miss you, Dad, thank you for everything.’ I take a long exhale through my nose before going to the neighbour's garage and melting the lock and lifting up the roll-up doors.
Sam pulls up on his bike and looks around in confusion. “What are you doing? That's not your house.”
“Need a place to store the bodies,” I state simply. Once I was done with the garage I take out my keys and unlock my house's doors.
“Are you ok?” Asks Noah, causing the rest to look at me now, finally figuring out what's going on.
“I will get there. I need a hand moving the bodies through.” I give a brief smile and head inside with Sam following me.
It takes a while but we eventually move the body of my father to the open garage and find the body of my mother at the dining room table, slumped over her partially completed mosaic. My eyes moisten slightly but do not leak. I stand there staring at her unmoving body for a few moments before picking her up and taking her to my father.
I lay her down carefully with the help of Sam and stand there watching them for a bit. After a few moments, I’m about to turn around when I feel everyone hugging me from my back and sides. We stand like that looking at the peaceful expression on my parent's faces before we head back inside the house.
We open all the windows to allow fresh air to circulate through the house as we cook dinner to make the most of the still-functioning gas and fridge. Once everyone baring me has eaten we lock up the house and close all the windows, putting multiple empty glass bottles by each door to alert us of intruders in the night.
House secured, we distributed the food and supplies from the warehouse, it was a rowdy affair as Ella jokes about us not getting her favourite ice cream which may or may not have led to a mini food fight consisting of packaged instant noodles.
We stored the access food in the utility room and attic to not hold up so much of our inventories but made sure they were hidden from view. Now that we were all fed and secure we headed up for bed after setting up a night watch, each person being up for 1 hour and 15 minutes, with me taking the last early morning shift. I let out a long sigh as I undress into my sleepwear but keep a knife within reach of the bed. Letting out a brief call of goodnight I collapse into bed and go out like a light.