TAINTED

First Petrichor

She'd been fixing a hole in the fence when it happened, loud screams that made her cover her ears and a very humorous but also mildly concerned brown-eyed glance from her yardwork companion had catalysed her first apocalyptic experience.

A slimy and disgusting hand had decided to burst through freshly done wood and grabbed her by the shoulder, showing off teeth that hadn't been cleaned since the fourth century. The brunette lurched backwards, grimacing at the sight of- whatever that was. Then she frantically scrambled to the garage and shut the large door, relieved to be greeted with the sight of Axor wielding a machete and his hand offering her a nail gun.
She vividly remembered his promise to buy her more nails if they got out of their current situation alive and had decided to hold him to that word for quite some time.
The rest of their experience from clearing and fortifying Celeste's home had been fueled entirely by a major adrenaline rush pumped with blood, sweat, and fear. She couldn't even recall much, just the piercing sounds of metal striking through rotten flesh and a blade slicing open undead corpses until there wasn't enough left of them to function anymore.

Now here she was three and a half weeks later, fixing another hole in a different fence and a different house. Her golden eyes narrowed with concentration, doing her best to ignore the sounds of multiple zombie groans. She couldn't complain however- it was much better than the last time she'd had to fix a fence. This fence was metal instead of wood- she was less likely to die.

"Hey, Cel?" A voice cut through her thoughts and her focus broke, her arm leaning into the edge of the metal, cutting a line down her arm. The brunette sighed and immediately reached for a bandage from her toolbox.
"Oh shit- sorry," Her friend immediately panicked and set down the cup he was planning to give her, moving to help with her arm.

The groans got louder- and she felt one hit the fence behind her.

"It's fine," She should've paid more attention anyway. "What's up?"

He waited until she was done wrapping her arm to retrieve the cup, get comfortable, and then answer her question. Axor smiled like an idiot and handed her a glass of water, plopping down on the grass beside his friend. Celeste reluctantly took it and leaned her back against the metal, feeling her shoulders heat up from the warmth of the sun, yawning and stretching her uncut arm.

"I think we're going to need to go shopping." Axor sighed, shaking his head. They both knew this was the definition of impending problems. "We're on our last case of water bottles."
Shit.

"It's been three weeks, do you think stores are gonna have anything?" She didn't have to make eye contact with him to acknowledge the concern in both their heads. His exhale of frustration answered her question- she knew as much as he did. Axor pulled a notepad from his pocket and handed it to her, letting Celeste skim through it, neither of them speaking a word.

Water, basic meats, fruits/vegetables, propane tanks, assorted gases, chemicals, spices, toiletries, generators, nails, knife sets, assorted weapons, candles, flower seeds, CC, AC, and much more were listed on a total of three pages in neatly printed handwriting. It all looked like basic necessities- for the most part- only a few stood out to her.

"What's AC and CC?" Celeste asked him, doing the papers a once over, simultaneously running through her head to think of anything else they might need.

"Clothes for the two of us- pretty much everything we've worn has zombie scent on it, we won't get any changes in zombie behaviour even with the flowers unless we fix the attire."

Celeste paused, she'd totally forgotten about their incident with the flowers and undead. Axor had accidentally exposed them to flowers and all of a sudden every zombie in the area had become docile and calm- he'd devised a theory to adorn the entire home with calming aromas and more flowers, in hopes that he'd have a breakthrough on how to ward off the chaotic and apocalyptic creatures. He was rather disappointed when he found out that other survivors had already broadcasted this information- he was hoping to get it patented. Celeste nodded in agreement, getting new clothes that weren't contaminated would probably be a smart idea.