~*𝔸𝕟𝕖𝕦𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕞*~

-Chapter 4-

I crawled over to close the small gap between us, Maverick wrapping his arm over my shoulder. I snuggled up against him, my head resting on his shoulder. He rubbed my arm soothingly; I could feel the heat radiating off of him. He had always let off a lot more heat than most, it was nice. It didn't take long before I had fallen unconscious, safe against Maverick. 

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Once I woke again, the dim skylight shone in from the windows scattered along the front of the gas station. I looked around, my vision blurring in and out. I gave them a soft rub, blinking aggressively. Mave wasn't here anymore. I stood up, stretching my arms out. I had stayed in the same crouched position pretty much all night. 

I flinched back as I saw Maverick leave the employee's office. He was holding a couple of candles and a Zippo lighter. He looked over, finally noticing me leaning against the counter before speaking up, "I found some shit back there...a backpack to carry shit and a few candles," he motioned toward the candles in his hands, "so we can see at night instead of having to simply rest the night away."

"At least it's something. Anything we could use as weapons?" I spoke back, yawning softly once more. I hadn't slept well; nobody could blame me after what had happened less than a day before.  Maverick shook his head softly, placing the candles down on the counter. I figured as much, considering it was a gas station. We had nothing since Maverick lost his axe whilst running back to trigger the dorm alarms. 

"I suppose, just look for anything packaged that we could use." Maverick took a thick board he had found under the register, sticking it between the handles on the front entrance. "And if we plan on staying here longer, we'll need to block off these windows. Those things are starting to scramble into buildings." He pointed out at another building, where the faint silhouette of people- zombies, could be seen in the shattered windows. 

"I don't plan on staying here much longer...It's only a matter of time before those things truly overrun the city." I started gathering things from the shelves, whether it was small blister packs of over-the-counter medicines, or food items that hadn't been completely ruined by people running rampant through the store hasting for supplies. Maverick went back into the employee's office, to look for anything else that was useful. 

I flinched down as the sound of an explosion went off in the distance, cracking through the vacant quiet air. It was most likely the remnants of the military who attempted to stop the zombies before they spread outside of town. It all felt like a horrid fever dream or a short horror film that never seemed to end. 

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Eventually, we gathered everything we had scavenged and piled it onto the countertop. It was an assortment of things, from packaged foods and water to travel-sized essentials. It wasn't the best pile of goods, but it would benefit us for the coming week. Maverick even ended up finding an emergency medical kit in the back room--full of small bandages and mostly expired supplies...It seemed like it hadn't been replaced in over a year. 

Maverick took the duty of packing what we needed into the backpack he had found. We left behind anything that would spoil quickly, agreeing there was no point in wasting valuable space on items we couldn't use. "I thought gas stations carried guns nowadays." Maverick quipped with a smile, slinging the bag over his shoulder. 

"I mean- with the rise of robberies in the area, I'd expect it." A small smile tugged at my lips. I snagged a Kit-Kat bar from the pile of things we were leaving behind, opening it up before taking a bit from the corner, the familiar crunchy taste hitting my tongue.  I offered it to Maverick and got a slightly concerned look from him. I tilted my head, a tad confused. 

"...Why do you eat it like that?" Maverick spoke in a bemused tone, his eyebrows knitting together before he took it from my hand with a small chuckle. "You're a fuckin' weirdo." He rolled his eyes, breaking one of the bars off, and eating it individually. He handed it back after eating another one, letting me have the final bar.

"No- It's just more convenient than taking oh-so-long to individually eat each piece like you're some type of Kit-Kat connoisseur." I mocked him, talking in a pepped-up tone before scoffing and rolling my eyes playfully. I popped the last piece in my mouth, chewing and swallowing it down before sticking my tongue out at him. 

Maverick chuckled but froze suddenly, his eyes darting past my shoulder toward the front entrance. His eyes widened so much, that I half-expected them to pop out. I could barely blink before his sudden grasp around my arm pulled me down behind the counter. But whatever he had seen, seemed to already notice the fact we were in here. The loud shutter of the glass door seemed to shake the entire gas station, the sound echoing violently. 

"Fuck---we need to go!" Maverick abandoned his plan of hiding, hauling me back up to my feet before shoving me toward the back exit. I looked up at the vibrant sign, that warned that the door would start blaring once it was opened. I pulled away from Maverick, but his grasp tightened as he pushed open the door. The only word I had heard him say, was "Run!" before my legs took over my body and carried me at a desperate pace. The rumble of growls filled the air, and I didn't dare to turn back as we hurried like our lives depended on it--because they did. 

The icy wind clawed at my face relentlessly and mercilessly, my eyes tearing up as we pushed against it. I had a gut feeling that Maverick had no idea where he was going, by the way, his head was on a swivel and his turns were seemingly random.  That was until Maverick stopped in his tracks and suddenly leapt for an apartment latter that was barely higher than him.  He climbed up frantically, turning back to look down at him. I followed after him without hesitation, reaching for the latter. 

 I let out a loud yelp as multiple pairs of strong hands clamped onto my leg. My grasp nearly faltering before Maverick grabbed ahold of me, pulling me up. I kicked the thing below me in the head repeatedly, until it finally let go with a guttural snarl. I scrambled the rest of the way up, panicked as Maverick hauled us into a small window, causing both of us to go crashing to the ground.  My breath was heavy, nearly drowning out the loud snarls and the clangs of metal outside. 

Maverick was just as shaken up as I was. "I- didn't think we were going to get out of that alive-" He gulped down air, his hands still grasping my shoulders. I couldn't summon a snarky comeback to his stupid actions, the words caught between my pounding heart and my rapid breaths.  After almost 5 minutes of just sitting in panted silence, he finally let go and slipped off the bag of supplies. He shut the window, muttering something under his breath about whether those things could climb.

My stomach churned as I approached behind him, the grotesque look of the figures below us twisting abnormally, clawing for the latter they couldn't grasp. "Jesus Christ," I muttered. "We aren't getting out of here anytime soon..."

 Maverick sighed and stepped away from the window, rubbing the back of his neck. "Guess it's time to settle in for a while." He spoke, tossing a lopsided and faux innocent grin my way.