The Undead (Lauren/You)

Chapter 13

The truck eventually came to a stop at the edge of what seemed to be like a very popular street before all of this happened. I took a deep breath and made sure that everything was ready to go and loaded, and that I had everything that I needed. Someone began handing out backpacks that we would place what we found in there and I took it to sling over my shoulders. "Alright everyone, listen up." Daniel called out while everyone was getting situated. He climbed up in the bed of the truck so that he was in view of everyone and hopefully out of the line of sight of zombies for a little bit. "We are going to split up into two large groups, myself leading one as Lauren leads the other. I know many of you don't know her yet but she has exceptional skill in dealing with zombies and she will keep you safe. If I find out anyone gives her any trouble you will have to deal with me, so don't let that happen. If that's settled, let's move out."

Everyone began dispersing out of the truck where Daniel would simply split them up by how they came out. Each time someone jumped off the truck he sorted them either on his team or onto mine. I was stood there with my SMG strapped to my chest waiting on Daniel to finish up so that we could go our separate ways. There was a nice mix of experienced and the less experienced people on each team so I wasn't that worried about how all of this was going to work out. When all of that was finished, I cleared my throat after not talking for so long. The ride was pretty far out since we cleared everything that was close to camp. "Okay people, let's move." I waved my hand for them to follow me as we began walking in the direction opposite of where Daniel had left. We had to be extra quiet because we had never been here before, and we didn't know what to expect with how many zombies were going to be here.

Granted that's how we had to treat every mission but this was different because we had never ventured this far out. With the luck we seem to be having, there could be some freak accident in how different minded zombies could be in different areas which could mean they are more vicious. Who knows? I certainly didn't. I shook my head to get myself out of my thoughts because this needed my full attention, and I had people that might not know how to defend themselves quite yet so I need to make sure they're taken care of. We eventually came up onto the first building we were going to raid so I motioned for everyone behind me to come to a stop. I looked back at Normani, who was thankfully on my team, and signaled for her to make sure everyone else was going to be safe while I scoped out the building. It was needed to make sure that there weren't like a million zombies waiting for us on the other side of that wall.

Upon first look, there wasn't any that seemed to be here but in my time dealing with these kinds of things, I knew that wasn't true. They were hiding around here somewhere. I waved my hand behind me in a way to state that it was okay for the team to start following me into the building. I let go of the automatic gun strapped to my chest to grab my knife, killing the two zombies that appeared to be eating a recently dead corpse on the floor. Besides those two, it seemed to be quiet in the building. I noticed that everyone was now in the building and waiting for my next move. My eyes scanned the building and I was straining my ears in hopes that I could find something. This was way too quiet for my liking. Behind me, everyone was cautiously surveying the surroundings; the quiet too much for them as well. This just goes to show how normalized this whole thing has been that we can't even rest in a comfortable silence anymore.

I took another step towards the back of the old store, my back facing my team. Another couple of seconds had passed until there was a loud bang further back in the store, and soon after that an even louder sound that rang through my ears. I heard several gasps behind me and a faint "Ed!" There was a stinging pain in my side that quickly began to spread throughout my body and increase in the amount of pain I was in. I fell back into the aisle that was behind me, knocking more products off of the shelves as zombies began to make their appearance by growling. My team began to scramble, not knowing what to do. Eventually the more experienced bunch instructed the newbies to use their knifes or anything quiet rather than their guns to kill the zombies. We didn't need to attract anymore than we already had by the loud gunshot. I clenched my side in pain, doubling over until I was on my stomach so that I could crawl towards the team.