UNDER EDITING 𝐺𝑅𝐴𝑉𝐸 𝐷𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐴𝑃𝑂𝐶𝐴𝐿𝑌𝑃𝑆𝐸 ✔︎

A Scare At Base

(Cooper's POV)

After parking the car, we make our way up to the tiny grocery store.

The automatic doors were, of course, not working, so I force them open with ease. We walk inside and notice that there were surprisingly a lot of items to choose from.

"Looks like we beat everyone else here." I say. After I take a good look at the shelves and aisle signs I pull out a list of things we need.

"Here." I split the list in half and hand the other half to Lexi. "You find those items and I find these." She looks at me worriedly. "Oh, uhm... we're splitting up?" She says.

"Yeah? What's the big deal?" I say in a confused tone. I really was confused. No one is here, obviously, because nothing has been touched.

"No, it's not a big deal. Just last time my brother and I split up, he was almost eaten by a zombie.." she says trailing off.

I roll my eyes. "It'll be fine. You have a weapon just in case, that doesn't mean that there's actually any threat here." I see her think for a second, and then she nods. We separate and look for the items.

(Lexi's POV)

I walk around while glancing at my list. I maneuver myself through shelves and grab the things I need while placing them in a grocery basket.

After finding all of my items I head back to the front of the store and wait for Cooper to finish.

I wait for about five minutes before Cooper walks up to me with all of his items in hand. "You got everything?" He says. I hum a yes in response. "Alright."

Before we can make it out of the store, a loud groan is heard. A... weird sounding groan. Cooper seems to be on high alert at once.

The entire store is silent, until we hear it again. This time... closer.

Cooper sets down the items he has onto the ground and I copy his action, wondering how this is helpful at all.

Before I know it, Cooper is dragging me inside an aisle quiet as a mouse.

My back is pressed up against the shelves while he stands in front of me, holding up a finger to his mouth. Be quiet, he mouths.

The noise seems to get a bit farther from us. Cooper huffs and loosens up a bit.

"Why did it sound like that? The zombie?" I whisper. Cooper huffs. "There's a lot you don't know."

I give him a confused look and he glances around, hoping no creatures are near.

"We call all of those things zombies, as you know. But there isn't just one kind. It's kind of like how animals have different species. We made sort of a list of the zombies based on characteristics like strength, smarts, and other factors. I can pretty much recognize them by their groans as well."

"What... what do you call them?" I huff in curiosity, still glancing around.

"The normal, slow ones are swayers. They are the most common. You and Noah have probably only ever seen those." Cooper shrugs.

I nod, wanting to know more.

"The next ones are the hunchbacks. This one is mainly named from looks but they are basically zombies that are always hunched over, like an old man. The only catch is that they're almost... hypnotic. You get one glance at them and you can't move... unless it's killed, obviously."

Cooper looks up in his thoughts. "There's just one more.."

"The runners. A bit self explanatory, I know. The fastest of the zombies we've seen. Pretty much pick a target and never stop chasing it until it's dead. Only ever seen one of those. Luckily my shotgun took care of it."