Survival

Chapter 3

   I made it to the gas station before the others did.

Good, I thought. I'd much rather be alone right now.

The convenience store had no power, with only the morning light streaming through the windows. Otherwise, looked pretty normal: fridges filled with all kinds of drinks, shelves lined with boxes and boxes of foods, and a counter with chewing gums and mints. Miscellaneous items dotted the store here and there --- post cards, pocket knives, knee socks, and so on. Why anyone would stop on a long drive, fill up their gas, and buy knee socks was far beyond me.

There was a lone zombie trapped beneath a fallen shelf. Its limbs flopped about as it fought to free itself from its prison of metal and boxes of assorted fruit gummies.

I stared at the zombie. Until now, I never really had the proper chance to get a close look at them. You know, with all the fearing for my life and whatnot. The skin wasn't green as I thought it'd be. Instead, it was a dry and sickly gray, almost as if it had never seen the sun or had suitable care. This zombie specifically looked pretty intact --- no dangling or missing body parts. But you could still see the infection in the eyes. They looked robbed of all sense and joy, only a hollow husk for a soul hidden behind bloodshot eyes.

I placed a foot on top of the shelf and pressed down. The zombie squirmed and growled in pain. Placing all my weight on it, I jumped on the shelf. The zombie's bone cracked under my weight. I jumped again. A snap and a pause. There was no squirming, nor growling. It was dead. For good this time around.

The sound of the door opening and closing behind me told me that my friends had just walked in. Everyone fell silent without daring to make eye contact. You could almost feel the tension beckoning you to go ahead to try and cut through it.

No one dared to break the silence. We just listen to its deafening screams as it slowly drives us insane, rather than face our issues.

Sadly, I never liked silence.

"Hey," I said half-heartedly.

The silence grew louder.

"I'll secure the perimeter." David hurriedly whispered. Wendy muttered something about looking around and Joan was already shoving supplies in his bag. So much for trying to make conversation.

Were they really afraid of me, though? What did I do wrong!? Joan's the one they should be afraid of! But, no, I had to be the grown adult and pretend that one of my friends wasn't a school shooter and that everything was hunky dory. Just get everyone fixated on what important, here.

Mercifully they seemed to know what they were doing. Wendy found the keys to the back room and explored around and confirmed that we were the only ones here. Outside, David was making sure everything was locked up and shut down to stop anyone from getting in – human or zombie. I leaned against the service counter and took a random packet of gum without being particular about the flavor. It tasted like plain old bubblegum. The flavor that takes so many people back on a nostalgic trip to more innocent days. Days when we were naive and had no problems to deal with. All I needed was some kind of coping mechanism; the flavor was irrelevant.

The world is going heading to an end before brunch, I thought. Things felt so different from this morning. This morning, my biggest concern was having to sit through the pep rally in the afternoon. This morning, I was laughing with my friends about a character in a children's book. This morning, we weren't worried about if or when something would come out and try to kill us. Truly awful how things can change for the worst so rapidly yet take forever to improve.