Breathing the Dead ~ H.S

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE: SORROW

A/N: Next chapter is here, guys! Really long though - sorry about that! 

I creeped up to the walker in front of me; not noticing me since it was busy gobbling up some animal. With a deep breath, I raised my sharpened stick and stabbed it in the back of its head – causing it to fall lifelessly to the ground.

"Nice," Annalise complimented; coming up behind me, "so what died this time?"

I peered gingerly at the half-eaten carcass that was the walker's meal; seeing something that vaguely resembled a rabbit.

"I think it's a rabbit," I told her sadly, "poor thing. I'm so fucking glad I killed that undead son of a bitch,"

"I told you sharpening a stick was a good idea," said Annalise with a grin, "they practically never get stuck in the head,"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry I didn't believe you," I rolled my eyes and tentatively stepped over the walker and its half-finished lunch, "come on. We seriously can't waste any time. We're running out of food – and if we don't find some more soon we're going to starve to death,"

"This is the fifth grocery store we've been to today," Annalise sighed, "look Laura, we need to think outside the square and try to think of other places where we can find food. The grocery stores will be the first things people would've raided. These past four grocery stores have been totally empty. What makes you think we'll get lucky with this one?"

"We need to keep the faith," I told her, "it's pretty much the only thing that can keep us sane in this nightmare,"

"We've lost everything," Annalise said quietly, "what's the point of living if there's nothing to stay alive for?"

"Come on, Lise," I turned to her and placed my hands on her shoulders, "you're the one who's kept me going these past few months. We keep each other alive."

Annalise said nothing for a good long while...until I finally saw a small smile creep across her face.

"You're...you're right, Laura," she said, "alright, what are we waiting for? Let's go get some grub,"

"That's my girl," I replied; ruffling her hair playfully.

We exchanged grins before turning serious again and slowly making our way towards the grocery store; causing me to start biting my lip anxiously. Even though I had told Annalise to keep the faith, I wasn't feeling very faithful myself. Annalise had a good point – grocery stores are full of food, and the first thing people go for when playing Survival of the Fittest is food. We'd been searching grocery stores and mini-markets for about a month now; and every single one of them didn't even contain a scrap of food.

It's been about 3 months since the breakdown at the station – I think it could even have been 4. I've lost count; because it already feels like it happened a lifetime ago. Annalise & I are taking shelter in this old pharmacy store – there were a few walkers lurking around inside when we found it, but after we took care of them it was the perfect refuge. The building was sturdy, all the windows were already boarded up and there was a big metal fence & gate surrounding the whole area. Annalise & I couldn't believe our luck.

There were a few 'healthy' energy bars hiding in a box by the counter; but those were gone and shared out between me & Annalise within a month and a half. Since then we've gone out to find our own food; and that's been our greatest and pretty much only struggle. We've built a fire pit thing in the middle of the pharmacy that we use to cook animals if we find them. We cook them during the day to prevent the walkers from catching any glimpse of the fire during the night; then when night-time finally arrives we have cold meat for supper. It's not exactly the best way of living in an apocalypse; but there are some people out there who could be way worse off than us.