End of the Living

Chapter Four

I was sleeping a deep but dreamless sleep, my eyelids still felt heavy as lead and refused to open for me. I decided to give in again when I felt someone shaking my shoulder, which gave me a sense of familiarity.

"Rose."

It was a man's voice, I was too sleepy to register who's but I knew deep down it was somewhat familiar. I felt like a kid again when I was with my parents, on those early school mornings where I was curled up in my white bed sheets snuggled up to one of my dolls. My Father would always have a hard time waking me up because I'd sleep just like this and he'd have to gently shake me awake.

"Rose. We're here."

This time, instead of hearing my Father's usually kind and warm tone, instead I heard Hunter's annoyed one near my ear and feel a cold sensation against my temple. I cracked open my unwavering heavy eyes, the scenery being a bit blurry as I blinked my eyes to clear it. Out of the large truck's window, I could see a massive parking lot and what looked like a store to be the size of a Super Walmart.  It probably was but I was being jerked around the car and my vision was too blurry to make out what store it was.

The parking lot was huge and empty, save for a few other trucks and cars that seemed to have been abandoned and a few walkers who staggered around or crawled on the cracked pavement. Hunter drove straight through the parking lot, barreling over whatever walker was in our way as he swerved around to the back of the massive store. In the back was a door outside and what looked like massive industrial garage doors to load storage into which laid locked tightly and possibly even rusted shut. 

Outback was also two other cars: One being a large Mini-Van painted a dark blue and looked a bit scratched up and the other was another truck except painted silver and had a lot of dents in the painted metal and blood stained on the grill and tires.

I could only imagine how many zombies that car has bulldozed through.

The truck came to a stop alongside the other cars, we then got out and I followed Hunter to the small door made for people. He unlocked it and opened for me, gesturing me inside with the "Ladies first" thing. The moment I stepped in, I saw darkness in the massive storage area, I walked further...and heard the familiar sound of strained groans and the rattle of chains accompanying it. 

Hunter's hand grabbed mine loosely and started to lead me through the dark, his other hand held a flashlight that lid up ahead of us and I could see what I thought made the noises. A zombie was near the door, having a strong durable dog collar around its throat with a long heavy chain attached to a metal beam that supports the ceiling. Its face was decayed, only strings of flesh holding it's swinging jaw as it groaned and attempted to swing its scrawny and bony arms at us. One of its eyes was dangling by the optic nerve while the other was looking a different direction like it was a crooked glass eye.

It screeched and groaned as we passed, wildly waggling its arms at us like it could grab us and have us for the next meal.

"Jeez...You have a guard Zombie?" I asked, somewhat disgusted while the other half of me was a bit surprised. Hunter chuckled beside me and joked about how it was much cheaper than have a guard dog.

Yeah, because how much a guard dog is in this situation is the highest priority. 

We walked past the zombie and a few others chained back or were just dead...Well, fully dead. We finally came to a door in the large area, he unlocked it and let me in first, once inside the door he closed it behind me and walked ahead of me between large shelves. The mountains to me were like huge walls, towering above and acting as barriers between each aisle, I remember when I was a kid I'd get lost in aisles like these and end up landing on my bandaged knees and crying hysterically like I was kidnapped or my mother had vanished into thin air. Of course, Dad thought I was such a baby from it and would try and soothe me in his own gruff little way:

"Stop crying, you can't cry when you're an adult and you're lost. You have to learn to find your own way, Rose."

Those words, although cold and rather stiff like the military dad he was, always seemed to soothe me.

But now that the world had ended, the thought if my Dad and younger brother, Eddie, survived or not would be constantly swimming in my head. Eddie was 10 when I moved out, he's probably  12 now, scrawny and slim like a little skeleton when I had left and probably still is. The image of my Dad fending off zombies with his handgun as Eddie would cower behind him as a scared cat would occasionally flash in my mind, but it did make me feel safe somehow, knowing that under my Dad's strength and willpower that they're both safe.

Hunter, seeming used to this store like it was his own home, walked out of the massive rows of shelves until we stepped out to the front area of the store, the sight was rather surprising. Against the sliding glass doors were piles and piles of things you could find in furniture stores, model beds were lined against the glass like a barricade, behind it were chairs or even some smaller shelves stacked and even a few other items I could barely make out in the dark. Some light from outside the doors crept in through the cracks of the makeshift walls and into the front of the store, to my right was a small cluster of tents around a large firepit a few places would sell, the ashes and smell of burnt wood permeated that side of the building. 

Stacked up beside the tents on tables, were piles of weapons, they ranged from simple kitchen knives and shovels to handguns or even machetes crusted in blood. 

To my left, there were three people huddled near what looked like a door to the break room for employees...who were probably dead by now. It was a girl, a boy, and a woman. The girl looked to be around my age but surprisingly looked very good given out current situation, her amber hair was flowing down her shoulders in waves that curved at the very ends of her hair, her blue eyes would be looking at the two brightly as she spoke to them and her clothes seemed rather clean with a bit of dirt around the shoes and ankles and some sports tape on her hands.

The boy looked okay as well, he had on glasses that were crooked on his face and taped at the sides to hold them together, his tan skin was dusted with dirt and his video-game t-shirt was slightly tattered at the ends and showed off his scrawny arms to the word, his baggy pants held up by a tight belt was hiding his legs save for the bandages that were wrapped outside one of the legs.

The woman seemed rather joyful, her blue pants and jeans were stretched out far from her rounded belly with her hand on the underneath and the other on top of it as her back arched forward and back a bit. She looked like the average mom you'd see, her dark blonde hair pulled into a side pony with a dirty scrunchie as her friendly eyes looked warmly at the other two.

"Becky, Danny, Cat! I brought a little lady with me!" At my side, Hunter's voice rang out which halted the three's conversation and turned their head towards us, looking rather surprised to see me at his side. Their eyes, being rounded with surprise, stared at me as they came over. "Rose, this is Becky-" His hand gestured to the pretty young lady, "Danny" He gestured to the boy in crooked glasses, then finally moved his hand to the woman. "And Catherine." 

Finally, his hand came around to my shoulder which warmed it and his hand came before me. "Everyone, this is Rose." 

The three didn't move to say anything, but then the woman, Catherine, came up to me and took my hands in her warm and gentle ones as she gave me a kind smile. "Hello Rose, you can call me Cat."

Becky smiled at me too, seems to be a more social one like Catherine as Danny stayed quiet but gave me a half smile.

"Oh you should meet the others, they're in the break room," Becky said, taking my hand from Cat's as she leads me away from the others to the break room.