Into The Darkness

Chapter Nineteen

Alex woke me up by kissing my forehead, I smiled at him. I will never get tired of waking up to him every morning.

"It's time to get up, we need to get ready to go." Alex pulled the covers off of me. I groaned and slid out of bed to put clothes on. For once, I was actually sleeping well, and he just had to ruin it. After I was ready, Alex and I left the bedroom and I knocked on the other's bedroom door.

"It's time to get up, we leave in twenty minutes!" I shouted through the door. Alex and I grabbed our things and went out to the living room.

Addison was already up and looking antsy. "So where are we going?" She asked.

I pointed to Alex and myself. "We are going on a run," Then I pointed at her. "You are staying right here so your ankle can heal." she went to protest but I silenced her, "Don't worry, Addie. We will keep a lookout for your dad okay?"

She nodded and began fidgeting with her blanket, "I hope you find him."

I leaned down and hugged her, "I do too."

Once the other's met us outside, Alex began barking orders. "Okay, June and I will take the lead. If something goes wrong, turn on your flashers and we will stop. Let's be quick and quiet."

Mason, Frank and Addie were staying put. I told them to just stay inside all day and we will water the garden when we get back. I don't want anyone getting hurt while we are gone.

Alex drove while I looked at the map. I always get a knot in my stomach when we leave the safety of our home for a run. We've had a lot of supply run's go bad, so it's a valid feeling.

"So you think this will go smoothly?" I asked.

"I'm sure it will, but just in case, stay close to me." He squeezed my hand.

I watched the trees pass by as we drove towards yet another city. There was the usual creepy scenery, Rotter's, burn homes, burnt bodies, wrecked cars. It's pretty much the same chaos everywhere we go.

As we drove through the city, Alex spotted a small strip mall and pulled into the parking lot. There was trash and carts littering the lot, but I didn't see any rotter's. We stepped out of the car and waited for the others to join us before we approached the first store. It was one of those 'buy in bulk' stores so I'm hoping we get what we need here then we can just go home.

Alex explained to the group what we were after today while I peeked into the windows. I didn't see any rotter's or blood, but this is a big place. I doubt it's empty.

We stepped inside, and I whistled loudly trying to get the attention of anything inside. After a minute of silence, I pointed to the right, "Paul, you Sandy and Holly go that way. Alex and I will clear this side. We can meet in the middle, and once it's clear we can start grabbing supplies."

Alex and I slowly made our way down the dark aisle. I'm used to these situations by now, but shining my light all over this pitch-black store is making my heart race. We made it through three aisles before we walked up on a rotter. It was oblivious to us, just facing the shelf looking at nothing. I pushed it against the shelf and slid my knife into the back of it's head. It fell to the floor, sending what was on the self tumbling to the ground with a loud echo.

I could hear more rotter's growling around us so Alex and I crept around the corner. There were three more of the rotten monsters mulling around in the next aisle. Alex and I worked quickly to take them out, and slowly made our way to the middle of the store.

Once Paul and the others made it to us, I told everyone to grab a cart and get to grabbing. The store was actually still pretty full. Alex and Paul loaded up the supplies to fix the back porch up for Addison. We also found air mattresses and plenty of blankets. Nobody should be freezing this winter. I found the camping section and began filling my cart with most of the items on the shelf. Water straws, matches, batteries, rain ponchos. Once my cart was full I met the others at the front of the store.