Days Gone By

Chapter 3

I was alone. This wasn't something new, but it did feel a bit strange. Barry had been sitting in bed for the past 24 hours, doing nothing but breathing and staring at the floor. He was probably eating while I was out but I didn't have any proof of it so I couldn't say if he was or not. He had these moments where he would be sad, probably left with his thoughts for too long and then spiraled into some type of depression and want to go back to the way the world was before this Dopanium shit hit the fan. However, they were just moments, this time it felt like he was out for an eternity. I didn't really know why, but I thought it might have had something to do with the group of people we saw. He was scared of them. Scared that we almost got kidnapped, or worse by the one who came close to us. Scared that they could overpower us at any time. Scared that his life would end in the hands of these 4 other survivors just because we weren't with them. I felt the same way too, but somehow I managed to move on from it. This feeling of dread that always stuck around in the back of your head in situations like this was something I was accustomed to, and didn't let bother me because I knew it was just a feeling, and it couldn't do anything to me that would stop me from functioning in life. Sadly, not everyone was like that though.

I never used to be like this. I was very much full of joy, laughter, sorrow, anger, carefreeness, all types of emotions before all of this happened, but that didn't matter anymore. I adapted to survive, and survive I shall, for as long as I can. Laying in bed all day worrying about what could happen would not get me anywhere, let alone to the next morning, so I couldn't follow I'm Barry's footsteps in that sense.

The wind was noticeably colder today, it was almost harsh in nature, blowing my sweater strings into my face and leaves into my feet. We needed to figure this out, winter would be here and we would freeze to death in our house as it was insulated well enough to keep us warm for those long months. We either needed to gather supplies to make our house heated, or we needed to pack up and go somewhere where winter was either nonexistent or very minimal. I would bring it up to Barry when I got back, but for now I needed to focus on what I was currently doing.

Gun in hand, hood over my head, I approached the plaza with the Zellers, Grocery store and dollar store.. Why was I here again? It was to give myself a piece of mind. I wanted to know who me and Barry were really up against - if it was 4 people or more, if they had tons of weapons, if they had Drudgers, tons of supplies, what ever - I wanted to know if we could stand a chance.

So, I got up to the door of the dollar store and peered inside the glass. I out my hand on the handle and pulled but it was locked. I groaned at the limitation, remember the group members discussing locking the door yesterday. I took my hand off and kept looking inside to see if there was another way in. I eventually found a door on the far side of the store, which seemed to lead to the neighboring grocery store. I looked at it more and followed it with my eyes, moving over to the grocery store window and finding the other side of the door there. It seemed so though all of these buildings were connected by staff only entrances, but since there was no staff I didn't think anyone would get mad if I used them. I climbed over to the section of the grocery store window that was broken and slowly walked in. Everything looked as it did yesterday, virtually untouched. It was strange, but I realized that these people were probably not living in the store with the broken windows, and if my hypothesis about all these stores being connected by staff only doors was true then they could be anywhere.

This was a scary fact. If they could be in any of these stores that meant that I could walk into any of them at any point. I wanted to test my theory, so I found the door I had seen from the window and opened it. With a small click and a little push, it opened, I walked inside and was greeted with none other then the dollar store shelves. So I was right, it was all connected. I closed this door softly as to not make much noise. I walked through the dollar store looking for any sign of non Drudgers. After about 20 minutes of looking, I found nothing. I grunted, feeling a bit deafeated. I walked to the right left side of the store and found another staff only door. I opened it and sure enough it lead me to the laundromat next door. The walls were lined with washers and dryers, coins scattered the floor and ripped clothing covered the shelves, laundry soap still dripping from some of the near empty containers. I doubted that the group lived here, it was too run down and left to decay for anyone to call it home, even in this world.