Among the Dead

Carrie

Carrie

At fourteen years old, Carrie was the youngest in the scouting party. She had yet to figure out how her crossbow worked even after so many hours shooting at straw bales. It gave such a kick when the trigger was pulled that she was scared being in the field with it would actually get her killed more than help her.

Food was their goal, water they have found plenty; one of the perks about water not having an expiry date and regular rainy days. But food rots and not everyone has the stomach to eat the fluffy rabbits or the sweet dear the hunters bring in; which Carrie thought was silly because at the end of the day, did it really matter where the meat came from?

There was a small corner shop up ahead and so far the group were safe. The shop looked run down, all the windows were smashed and the door hung limply on its hinges but there was a chance there was something inside that they could eat.

Bert was the oldest and most trained out of the group so he had everyone wait at the corner of the shop while he crept towards the door to check if there was anyone inside; or anything.

Without saying anything he waved them forward and straight into the shop where he quickly propped the door back into place and wedged it shut with a plank of wood laying next to it.

"Okay, split up," Bert said softly but his voice could be heard by everyone, "Grab as much as you carry but get as many tins as possible as they last longer but anything that still looks fresh enough to eat; grab it."

The group put their weapons away but kept them close enough to draw and split up.

Most of the shop had been smashed up, shelves and their products spilled over the floor.

Carrie found herself wandering over to the freezers which somehow had been left on and hummed so loud she was surprised the others couldn't hear them.

They might not have freezers in their camp, but having something sweet like ice-cream to eat tonight sounded too good to miss up on.

She opened the freezer chest and started to dig around for her favourite; rocky road, it had been so long since she last had a tub.

She almost shouted for joy when she found a tub but as she removed it from the chest, she screamed and dropped back inside.

Under all the ice-cream tubs was a decomposing head. It's lips had peeled back to expose the blood stained teeth; the milk white eyes looked out but saw nothing and a wound against its scalp that was black with clotted blood.

"What do you think you are playing at?" Bert snapped as she spun Carrie around. "You could bring a horde to the door, are you trying to kill us all?"

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, "I didn't expect to find a head in the ice-cream."

Bert frowned but checked the freezer chest. "Lucky for us, it's just the head and looked like it's been taken care of."

"Why would someone put a head in the freezer instead of burn or bury it?" Carrie asked.

"This might be someone's stash we're stealing from and they put the head in there to scare people away from it," he explained and scratched the stubble on his chin as he looked around the shop. "We better get out of here soon in case they come back."

He tried to drag her away when Carrie protested about leaving her ice-cream. "What do you need ice-cream for?" he demanded, "It's been around the dead for who knows how long."

"For Christ's sake Bert, lighten up," Matilda, the only woman who came on the scavenge, snapped, "We're not all built to live at the end of the world; a few of us need home comforts." She snatched up two pots from the freezer and tossed one at Carrie. "You also don't want to be around us girls when we're cranky and without ice-cream."