"so, tristan, are you seeing anybody?"
"julia, it's the apocalypse, i don't think he'll have the chance to." kane turns to tristan, "no offense, you're plenty hot."
"um, thanks?"
"oh my god, can you guys not flirt with him for one second?" amelia sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.
they were in the truck, driving down the barren highway where old cars littered the sides. they used to block the whole road, but they since cleared the way once they needed to go to other areas. the pharmacy was already in sight, they just needed to make a u-turn and they were there.
"hey, there's the thing!" julia pointed to the store.
"the thing?"
"y'know, the pharmacy. which reminds me, you guys haven't actually told me why we're going there anyways."
"so you just joined us without actually knowing why we're going here?" kane asks.
julia hums, "yeah, i thought the the new guy was cute so didn't feel the need to question it." she says, smirking as she side eyes tristan.
"dude, sometimes i worry for you."
the car finally halts in front of the pharmacy, behind another truck. the outside was a mess, with several bodies laying on the ground, like trash that was carelessly blowin in the wind. colorful grafitti was painted on the walls of the store, either it was paint or blood, was hard to tell. the whole block was dead silent except for the occasional whistle of the wind that would echo throughout the street. the whole place felt surreal
"you guys go in, i'll stay here in the car." kane turns the ignition key off, the rumbling of the truck coming to a stop. "just scream if you guys need help."
amelia opens the door, stepping outside and looking at their surroundings. it looked like nothing moving was in sight, and the buildings beside the pharmacy was chained up, preventing anything inside to come out. this town was one of the first ones to be evacuated, so it was safe to say that most of those things were weakened without eating anything for a long time.
"see anything?" julia asks, putting her foot out of the vehicle and also looking around.
"negative, but we should get out of here before sun down. this part of town tends to get particularly cold, and we shouldn't stay around for that to happen."
julia shivers as if it was already night time, "yeah, wouldn't want that..."
she and tristan eventually stepped out, with amelia tossing a knife to tristan. "take this."
"woah, what for?" he fumbles the knife around, almost dropping it.
"sheesh, be careful. i dont see you carrying around your rifle, so i think a weapon is a must have." amelia says, her tone almost condescending, which leaves tristan raising an eyebrow at her. but amelia brushed it off.
they step forward, with amelia leading the other two. the door was barely swung open, which was good for them since they didn't need to break in and create noise. she holds her rifle closer, grabbing her flashlight from the pocket of her jacket and opening it.
the torch came to life, a beam of strong light coming out of it. julia also grabs her flashlight, but the light flickered weakly before becoming stable. "gosh, i hope this lasts.
"do i get a flashlight?" tristan asks, smiling hopefully.
"no." amelia deadpans and peers inside the crack of the door, shining the light inside. it didn't look like there was any immediate threats near the opening, so she slowly opens to door wider, providing just enough for them to slip in.
the outside was already a mess, but the inside was just unsightly. even more corpses scattered the room, under toppled shelves and some leaning on the counters. the smell hit them first, a mix of carcasses rotting for months and spoiled products. they could only cover their mouths for protection but it barely did anything.
they stepped inside carefully. luckily, some parts of the store had open lights, providing just enough for them to step over the bodies, but the dried blood made the floor sticky. julia tried her best not to gag, and tristan only scrunched his face in disgust.
most of the shelves were empty, probably scavengers already scoured this place clean. but some products were left on the floor, albeit covered in blood. the back of the store was the check out counters, and in the flickering lights, it looked like the back door was closed.
"scavengers may have not bothered with the drugs, so there might still have some left." amelia points out. she turns and shines her light at tristan, "you check it out, we'll be here and see if their might be salvageable goods."
"w-wait, you're not going with me?" tristan says in disbelief. "what if there are those monsters in there?"
amelia scoffs, "im sure you can handle that, you look like you're a big boy. i mean, you did put a gun to my head earlier so im sure you can do something as simple as-"
"fine, fine, i'll go. geez..." he scoffs, beginning to walk towards the back of the room.
"oh! and make sure that those bodies are really dead, you don't want them to suddenly attack you. just stab 'em in the head!"
"w-what?" tristan yells back, but amelia had already turned around, ignoring him.
"great..." he muttered to himself, continuing onwards to the counter.
