Darkest hour

Chapter 1

There were no attacks the previous night, but still almost none of our group had slept soundly.
The glass windows and doors of the small grocery store that housed us had long ago been shattered, the shards now littering the floor. Paint and plaster from the walls was mostly peeled away, some parts of the walls were completely gone revealing the rotted, old support beams and boards. Empty shelves had been propped up against the openings to try too keep out infected as much as possible, they did their job for the few that had tried pushing against it.
A cool autumn breeze had been blowing through the openings of the shelves and windows constantly, bringing with it the faint smell of rotting corpses that were piled up outside, and mold that was covering that what was left of the walls.
Moans from about half a dozen infected that were still up and walking outside created a constant ambiance, and another unknown far off sound that grew ever louder with every minute that passed.

Scott Jones, our hunter and our best sniper was posted on the roof of the building, he was sitting down in a foldable beach chair, binoculars held to his face looking out over the parking lot, with an old Remington 400 rifle by his side and his walkie talkie sitting on the roof ledge.
He was tall, around 6ft, relatively thin and dark skinned. He wore dirty, darkly colored cargo pants, a blood stained green T-shirt with a bullet proof vest underneath, a light winter jacket, and a camouflage baseball cap that covered his extremely short hair.

The rest of our small group of 6 were downstairs in the shopping area of the building. Jessica, Scott's 20 year old daughter was also awake but posted at the front entrance. She looked very similar to Scott but with long dark hair tied back in a pony tail, and a small bit shorter than him. She wore tight ripped jeans with a buck knife on her hip and a 44. Revolver in one of her hands held against the wall she was leaning against while staring outside into the foggy morning.

My best friend Andy lokin, my wife Raven and our 4 year old daughter Sophie and I were all resting on the floor in sleeping bags near the back of the store with the rest of our supplies.

Raven and Sophie were curled up together sharing a sleeping bag, Raven's hair back in a pony tail and Sophie's loose on her shoulders. Sophie looked almost exactly like Raven but instead of chocolate brown hair and brown eyes, Sophie had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She had on her small, dark purple sweater and bright, worn blue jeans and a small, bright green and blue turtle beanie that barely covered her head.
Raven wore cargo pants, a grey T-shirt, and a old dirty leather jacket with a M9 handgun laying in a holster by her head.

I was awakened by the sound of my walkie creating a loud crackling noise and Lucas's voice coming through.
"Damian?"
I turned over sleepily and fumbled around to find my walkie and held the microphone button.
"Yeah what is it Lucas?"
"You're gonna want to get up here and see this."
"Alright give me a minute I'm on my way"

I switched off the radio, unzipped my sleeping bag and got up out of it, grabbing my ar-15 and machete as I stood up and pulled on my trench coat.
Before I could walk away I felt something softly tap my ankle, I looked down to see a half awake Sophie tugging on my pant leg.
"Daddy, where going?"
I crouched down next to her and moved the hair out of her face.
"I'm going upstairs to see Lucas sweetie."
She reached out her arms wanting me to lift her up.
"Daddy take Sophie."
"Alright come here baby."
I put my hands under her arms and lifted her up, her arms around my neck and legs around my stomach and I started walking to the staircase in the back hallway of the store and up onto the roof to where Lucas was.

"What's wrong Lucas?"
He stood up and held out his hand with a pair of binoculars.
"Look out there, at the edge of the parking lot, the tree line on the far side."
I set Sophie down in his chair and took the binoculars, looking out at the edge of the parking lot where Lucas told me to, there were a few dozen figures slowly walking out of the foggy tree line and towards the building.
"Lucas, go downstairs and get everyone up and ready to move in five minutes."
"Got it."
Lucas grabbed his rifle and quickly turned around and ran over to the staircase going inside.
I looked back out to the large group of infected, they were about a quarter of the way across the parking lot now and you could very clearly hear the loud groaning of over a hundred of them, endlessly flooding out of the fog.
"Alright sweetie its time to go get mommy and leave okay?"
Sophie nodded her head yes, I lifted her up again and rushed down the stairs carefully to find Andy awake standing at the bottom of them.