Minke lounged in front of the TV. Yet another zombie warning flashed in bright neon colours - "We might have, uh... unleashed hell on the world. Be careful."
Her uncle staggered in, half asleep.
"You still watching that bull?"
He stretched and whacked his arm against a shelf, which fell down on contact.
Minke sighed, and went into the kitchen to make breakfast while her uncle tried to fix the empty shelf.
Well, she was GOING to make breakfast, preferably with a lot of bacon, but all the meats were gone. The ham her mum was planning to cook that evening, the bacon, and even her uncle's tofu patties that substituted for meat were taken without a trace of what had done it.
So she just made peanut butter toast instead, a small breakfast but an OK one.
Her uncle disappeared upstairs to his study and Minke wandered outside. She decided to go to a shop she liked - Remi's. It was an everything store, brand new. Lots of people had set up these stores - stocked with anything you might need in the zombie apocalypse meant to be happening now.
A loud bell clanged somewhere in the far back of the shop. The walls to the left were stacked with guns and axes, the right wall with food and storage, but the middle was filled with camping gear and linens.
From a small age, Minke had loved tents. Not camping, she hated holidays and sleepovers, sleeping in a bed that wasn't hers - but these were different.
Standard issue tents and food packs were sent to houses, but those tents were old. Cheap ones meant for holiday campers and not zombie attacks.
These were expensive modern industrial strength tents. Shoots that collected rainwater and filtered it so you could have showers, solid walls with extra padding incase of sharp claw like fingernails trying to rip your face off. Electricity conductors, shelves, separate sleeping areas for up to 5 people. 4 rooms. The best you could have for surviving zombies.
But Minke and her uncle didn't really believe it was the zombie apocalypse. As her uncle would say, "bull." Although the special effects frightened her, the ones for warning shows, well... they could be real. She had to consider it because if she was wrong it could mean her life. But not in this part of the country.
Minke picked up a couple of packets of grain and slabs of steak because her meat was missing. She left them on a shelf in an extremely modernistic tent and went exploring - this tent was the usual. She found the first secret compartment - underneath a blow up couch cushion attached to the floor.
A plastic water tank, shoe stand, but there was something that bothered her. She was looking through all the compartments for what it was - she was growing uncomfortable, when a large bang resounded through the store and the tent lurched to the side.
A frightened looking shop attendant stepped hurriedly through the window of the tent and zipped it up, then started covering all opening with duct tape.
"What are you DOING?!" Said Minke in a scared whisper. Her senses told her to stop all sound as she heard scraping footsteps struggling to unzip the tent.
"Half turned!" The attendant breathed, pulling Minke through to the middle of the tent. There was a heavily padded cabinet barely visible, in fact Minke wouldn't have known it was there but for the shop attendant's obvious knowledge on her products.
Minke and the attendant cramped together in the small space.
They couldn't be heard now.
"Half-zombies?" She got out. "What-"
"They've been bitten and are changing now!"
Raspy voices, drunken murmurs screeched outside.
"We're survivooooors! Wee need help!
It was a lame attempt at luring them out. Minke peered through a gap in the edge of the cabinet frame. There was sizable dents in the tent wall, and blood smears were soaking through the small duct tape holes.
The attendant whispered, "the food!"
Minke pushed the door open slowly, dropped to the floor and crawled out of sight of the windows to her food. She tucked it in a shelf above the attendant's head, and tucked herself in, drawing breath to make more room.
"The apocalypse is real?" Disbelief shuddered through her. This was the way important things in life happened - deny them, and of course they're real!
"I thought we should get the food incase they wait for us." With a meaningful look to Minke that answered her questions - "yes, idiot, didn't you see the warning programs all
over EVERY channel?"
"How do we get out?" Minke panicked.
"We'll last for a while. If we are trapped."
"Starving to death is no better than zombie death!" Minke argued.
"But when they're zombies they'll forget about us. If you could keep your memory of human life as a zombie, there wouldn't BE any zombies!" The attendant smirked.
"And they'll go?"
"In about an hour, I think so."
Minke quietly opened the packet of grain snacks. She ate a few quietly and offered some to the attendant, who took some gratefully. Minke found out the attendant's name was Cenna. They tried talking normally for a while, but eventually settled down and whispered ...
How were they going to escape?
