𝖆𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖒 | d.f. | book two

🌹 soraya27 🌹

9:40am

"ah-ha! see! took an hour but a grocery store!" i cheer, pulling in to the semi full parking lot.

"good! because i'm starving," matt groans behind me.

i park in front of the store, putting the emergency brake on.

"stay focused," alex says, staring out the window at the store.

"you feel something?" i ask him, slowly taking my seatbelt off and looking around.

"no, just keep a lookout. i don't trust ann," he says, taking his seatbelt off.

"okay. we'll break up into teams. powered person with a non powered person," i order, and turn to look at everyone in the back. "grays my partner."

"alex and i will get beverages: water, soda, whatever we find," matt speaks up.

"seph and i can do perishables. we'll need to get camping gear to heat things up," juniper says from the back.

"okay. gray and i will try to find toiletries and things like that."

"sounds perfect," persephone agrees.

"and if you happen to see a map, grab it. it would be greatly appreciated," i say to everyone with a smile.

we all climb out of the car.

my stomach hurts slightly since taking the meds persephone gave me. the pain is doable and i can move around, but i'd rather not be dealing with a stab wound at all.

we walk inside together.

"ah fuck," matt whispers as we all stare at the scene in front of us.

dead people everywhere; blood all over the floors.

it should be expected now, but nonetheless it's still a shock.

this is what everywhere probably looks like.

max20.

"in a way, it could be worse," i speak up, "they could come back to life and try to eat our brains." no one laughs. "hm. let's keep moving." i grab gray's arm and drag him toward the body washes. "how you feeling?" i ask him. "you're up and moving, but, are you okay?"

he stops in front of reusable grocery bags and grabs the rest of them off the rack.

"my body is sore, but i'm fine. i just want to get to apple," he tells me.

"you sure you okay?" i ask. "you were unconscious for quite some time. did you see anything?"

"i'm fine ray."

"c'mon, gray, it's me."

"i know, but right now we've got bigger problems."

"they'll never be to big for me to wonder if you're okay," i tell him.

"i think we're involved in something... huge," he finally reveals, passing me two bags.

"huge?"

"like, take what we believe in and throw it out the window huge."

"what- what does that mean?" i ask, a tinge of anticipation sitting in the pit of my stomach.

"i don't want to sound crazy-"

"look around us, crazy doesn't exist anymore," i say, stepping over a dead persons legs.

"while i was unconscious... my twin brother- ethan- visited me. he told me that "she" sent him to me. that my entire family fought to come see me but only one person could come to me."

"she?" i question.

"e told me something big and beautiful is coming and that we'll be ready when it happens."

"big? beautiful?" i continue to question, smiling. which turns into a grin, and finally a laugh, a genuine laugh. one i haven't had in so long.

"what's so funny?" gray asks.

"i don't know," i chuckle, "but you know what your encounter with your brother gave us?"

"not really," he says, shaking his head.

"more answers than we've ever gotten before. we know now that this shit is bigger than our world. how big? we've yet to see!"

"you seem... happier? i don't know if that's the word i'm looking for."

"i'm turning a new leaf gray. getting stabbed will do that to you," i tell him.

never once did i think i would die from this stab wound, but i could've. i could've bled out. i could've went into a coma. if i get a new chance to live. then i got to do things different than before.

"i can't believe dominic actually did that," he sighs.

"i honestly don't believe it myself. but you saw your brother- i saw dominic's mother."

"dom's mom?!"

"yeah! it... didn't make sense either. actually, she said something similar to what your brother said. something about something missing. the entire thing happened so fast."

"well apple's missing. was she talking about that?"

"no, other than apple. something else is missing."

we walk up to the body washes and soaps, beginning to stuff the bags with soap bars, shampoo, and conditioners.

"people? a place? a thing?! are we going to end up questing? we stay on the move already, so questing isn't that big of a stretch," gray says.

"we have to tell everyone. this is amazing news gray. thank you! thank you for waking up," i grin, and give him a hug.

"you're welcome," he chuckles.

we fall silent as we pick items off the shelf.

everything feels morbid.

dead bodies. the silence of the world.

should i feel happy?

what is there to be happy about?

i grab razors and shaving cream, while gray grabs deodorant and lotion. i grab a few pain relievers and meet gray with two full bags.

"do we really need tissue?" i question.

"i'm an outdoors type of man, but everyone is probably not like me," he says.

i chuckle.

"you're right."

we walk over to the tissue and grab as many packs as we can carry.

"we might need a second trip. we still need to find some cleaners and a whole bunch of batteries when lights go out."

"this is why you're here gray. you fucking genius!" i praise.