Exploring the Wasteland.

Day 5

The sun was beating down on the asphalt as our bus slowly pulled into another ghost town on our journey north to the border. "Let's get out and look for anything useful" Brennen took control of the situation. "Water bottles, canned foods, anything medical, if you think it's helpful or we can use it, take it." We split into pairs. I was with Maddie and Brennen was with Jake. I felt uneasy splitting up from them for the first time since everything began. Brennen looked to us, "You two head east, we'll head west and we'll meet back here in 30 minutes. Stay sharp and remember to be as quiet as possible we don't know if we're alone here".

I nodded and looked back to Maddie who was behind me nervously shuffling her feet. "I'm not overly comfortable with this" She mumbled. It was too late as Brennen and Jake had already turned a corner and disappeared.

I smiled to reassure her "You'll be fine, you're with me". It didn't seem to visibly work, but then Maddie wasn't ever really sure of most things in her life up until that point. We started walking down the road we were already on before turning into an alley that took us in the opposite direction of Brennen and Jake. We found a small corner store with a boarded-up door but no obvious signs of life. I banged on the door twice quickly to see if there was anyone - or thing inside. I paused for a few moments for a response but heard nothing. I took my multi-tool from my pocket and started prying the boards away from the door frame. The square piece that made up the middle section fell away from the rest and clattered to the ground.

"Fuck! That made way too much noise" I checked behind me and then down the alley. Nothing was coming... not yet anyway. I ducked through the gap I just made and turned to Maddie. She was like a deer in headlights. Eyes wide, almost frozen.

"Come on" I held my hand out for her take and helped her in. As my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the store I smiled as I saw there was a lot left. I opened my backpack and began filling it with supplies, I started with toiletries, tampons, condoms, toothpaste and dry shampoo. I knew at the nearest opportunity I was going to shave my head, but I grabbed it anyway. I turned and saw Maddie collecting tinned food from the other side of the store. She looked terrified.

"You okay dude?" I called to her. She jumped and dropped the cans she had in her hand and they clattered to the floor.

"Fuck!" She swore. I heard what sounded like metal scraping and moved towards the back of the store to check.

"Hello?" I called out hoping no one replied. I returned to the front of the store and hopped over a counter and found boxes of cigarettes and alcohol. I grabbed two boxes of the cigarettes along with a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum. One for drinking and one for medical applications. I heard the metal scraping again and turned to check on Maddie. Suddenly everything was in slow motion. I saw a creature crawling along the aisle towards her, "Maddie lookout!" I screamed but it was too late. She turned as the creature that used to be a person sunk its teeth into her calf. Then she was screaming and begging and I was running towards her. I grabbed my knife from my belt and stabbed down into the creatures head. It was way too late, Maddie's calf was spurting blood all over the floor, you could see the muscle and tissue beneath the skin. She was screaming and hyperventilating. I could feel the panic rising and I had to force myself to breathe. "Someone help us!" I cried out.