Lock and Load

Morning came, Natalie was the first one up, and was staring at Greg while he was still asleep. She wanted to be mad at him, he left Florida without even saying goodbye. But, she couldn't blame him. Hell, if she had the chance, she would've gotten out of Florida a long time ago.

"I can't hate him for leaving," she thought.

Natalie and Greg had a long history, ever since elementary school, to be exact. They dated off and on again for the longest time, and he made some extremely stupid decisions. Some of which, Greg still beats himself up about.

"I'm sorry," Greg mumbled, still asleep.

Natalie stared at him.

"He must be dreaming," Natalie whispered. She left the room. She went into the kitchen, wanting to get food. During the time she rummaged through the fridge, Madison walked in. "Oh, hey Madison," Natalie said.

"Nat, why aren't you telling him?" Madison asked.

Natalie grabbed a drink, and stared at Madison. "I don't know, maybe it's because I'm afraid," she said. "I haven't seen him in the past few months, and now, he's back." Natalie had tears coming out of her eyes, they hit the floor one at a time. "It's like nothing happened for him." She had a tear run down her face. "Its like he just forgot."

Greg woke up and limped to the kitchen to grab some grub. He stepped in to find Madison and Natalie conversing. "Morning, Cass," Greg said. He called Madison, Cass, because they're huge Supernatural fans.

"Morning, Dean," Madison replied.

Greg said nothing to Natalie. He nudged past her and grabbed a bottle of orange soda. He popped the cap off and took a huge swig of it.

"Madison, are the others up?" Greg asked.

"I think, I'll have to check," Madison answered.

"Well, if they are, tell them we'll be leaving in an hour," Greg said. He left the kitchen to grab his gun. He punched the wall as hard as he could, all the blood in his body boiled. "Damn it!" He softly growled.

Guillermo and Star rolled out of bed and threw their clothes on. Star felt like she was in a nightmare turned into a peaceful dream. The whole world could end right now, but, she'd be okay with that. "Guillermo, I have to ask you something," She said.

"What is it, beautiful?" Guillermo asked.

"Well, do you think we'll live through this... well, I don't know what to call it," Star asked.

"I believe we will, now that we're reunited," Guillermo answered. He didn't know what to believe, but, he couldn't say that. Not in front of his girlfriend.

While both of them were in deep thought, Madison came into the room, and shot a perplexed visage to the both of them. "I was half expecting you two to be asleep, or making out," she said.

"Shut up, Cass," Guillermo laughed. "Anyway, what's going on?"

"Greg told me to make sure you guys are up and moving, we leave in an hour," she answered.

"All right, we'll be out shortly," he said.

Madison closed the door and trotted to where Greg was lounging. He sat on the couch with his .45 in his left hand, just looking at the ground. "Yo, Dean," She called. He looked up for a minute. "You look like you're weighing out the pros and cons of putting a bullet in your brain."

Greg didn't know how to respond. She wasn't wrong, it would definitely give him sweet, sweet euphoria. But, he'd leave everyone he loves behind. That's something he couldn't bear the thought of. "No, just, trying to keep positive in all of this," he said. "Its just... with my fiancee dying, then coming back as a zombie, I don't know what to do now."

"Greg," Madison whispered. "You loved her, and she loved you, right?"

"Yeah," Greg answered.

"Then, you have to continue living for her," she said. "She wouldn't want you to kill yourself while your friends are still alive."

Greg shed a few tears, and he reminisced about Alicia.

"Don't die, even if I do," she whispered.

Greg snapped back to reality, those words being repeated in his brain. "It's not my time, not yet," Greg whispered to himself.

An hour passed, Guillermo and Star had loaded up the truck with everything. Greg walked outside with two pistols strapped to his side. Natalie and Madison walked out, carrying all the food into the back of the truck. After everything was loaded, they got in the truck.

"So, where do we go now?" Madison asked.

"Well, first, I suggest we stop by a gun store," Greg said. "We need more ammo, plus, a few more weapons couldn't hurt."

"Agreed, I'm pretty much out of pistol ammo," Guillermo said.

They drive off to Oldsmar, Florida.

"If memory serves," Greg whispered. "Yep, there it is."

There was an old flea market right off the road on Oldsmar. It was old, and huge. But, whenever there was something of interest, they always had it. And, best of all. "Ammunition as far as the eye can see!" Greg screamed silently.

They hopped out of the truck and began searching for the gun shop. One small problem arose, though, the market was too big to stay in a group.

"We're not gonna find anything in there if we stay in a group," Guillermo said.

"If that's the case, I think we should split up," Madison said.

"I suppose it can't be avoided," Greg said. "Okay, Madison, you take Natalie and search the Northern area. Guillermo, you and Star tackle the West side. I'll handle the East."

"On your own?" Natalie asked. "That's dangerous, you could get killed."

"Its better this way, if we explore all three directions, we'll take less time in here," Greg explained. "Now, enough arguing, go. We'll meet back here in ten minutes." They split off into different sections.

Natalie and Madison were stepping silently through the shops, all while checking for firearms and weapons.

"Hey, Nat," Madison called. "You know, we never got the chance to talk much after Greg interrupted our conversation in the kitchen."

"Is this really the best time, Maddie?" Natalie asked while sighing.

"Well, there may not be another time for a while," Madison said.

"What is it?" Natalie asked.

"When Greg left, after his parents died, did you cry when he didn't say anything?" Madison asked.

Natalie hesitated for a moment, but, she didn't want to sound like she was lying. "No," she scoffed.

"Huh, really?" Madison asked. "You didn't cry a little?"

"No, I didn't fucking cry!" Natalie screamed. "Now, drop it." They searched for the guns in a long and awkward silence.

Guillermo and Star had little to no luck finding ammunition so far. All they've found so far is silverware and old shops.

"Jesus, you'd think a flea market would have gun shops everywhere," Guillermo said. "Why are there so many forks?!"

Star tried to contain her laughter, but, was failing miserably. But, even she had to agree with him. Every shop they passed by had some kind of silver cuttery. This was getting to be frustratingly difficult for the both of them.

But, they stumbled upon a gold mine not long after. They couldn't find guns or ammo, but, they did find melee weapons all within a knife shop. Knives, claws, even swords.

"Hot damn," Guillermo exclaimed. "It may not be guns and ammo, but, this is a close second."

"Okay, let's grab some knives and meet them back there," Star said.

Greg, who had been scavenging the East side all on his lonesome, didn't have much luck either. He didn't mind being on his own sometimes, though. It was peaceful, he didn't have anybody breathing down his throat. He didn't have to deal with Natalie and her ridiculous antics. "I didn't have to deal with all the drama," Greg thought. "That's mainly the reason why I left."

He marched through the corridors, keeping his gun in his hand. He passed by a lot of shops, none of them had guns. But, after a while, he had lucked out. Sure enough, the market had a gun shop, and had the pleasure of finding it.

"Jackpot," Greg whispered, as he strolled on in. Although, he saw something that caught his attention. Blood, all over the floor, leading to behind the counter. Greg looked behind the counter, and saw a bloodied and beaten body. Well, what was left of it. The legs had been sawed off, and the arms were torn off as well. But, that didn't compare to the giant hole in his stomach where his intestines once were. "Poor bastard," Greg whispered, as he started grabbing ammo.

As he was finishing his scavenging of all he could carry, something clicked behind him. It sounded like a gun, getting ready to fire a bullet, and the bullet was aimed at the back of his skull.

"Don't move," someone said.

Greg stayed still and smiled a bit. "What are you waiting for?" Greg asked. "Go ahead and shoot me, I won't fight you."

The person hesitated, maybe they couldn't deal with killing a person. Maybe they just wanted to torture him, who knows. They took the gun away, and he turned around.

The person he saw looked familiar, long blonde hair, tall (especially for a woman), ocean blue eyes, all around just cute. She looked at Greg, and then someone came screaming around the corner.

"Elizabeth!!" They shouted. "Someone's here!" She ran into the gun shop to see Greg and the girl.

"Yes, I'm well aware," she replied. "Thank you, Mitch."

"Wait a minute," Greg said. "Elizabeth... Mitch?" He stood awestruck by them. "Matthew Mitchell?!"

"Greg?!" He asked. He looked over to see that he was right. "Holy shit, you're alive?!"

"I was gonna say that to you," Greg said. "Its good to see you both."

"How'd you get here?" Matthew asked.

"Well, I'm not alone, I've got my friends with me," Greg explained. "We stopped by to grab some ammo because we were out. I didn't expect to find you two."

"Likewise," Elizabeth said. "We hiked here just to grab food and guns."

Just at that moment, the sound of footsteps trampling through the hall resonated, and the rest of the group had found Greg and the other two.

"Whew, I thought I heard you," Guillermo said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, and I found more survivors," Greg said.

Matt looked around, he saw all of his friends. He hugged them all. "I'm glad to see you guys again," he cried.

"We're glad to see you too," Star replied.

The reunion was heartwarming, but, that soon changed after a car door was shut. Greg heard the door, as did everyone else. Everything went silent. Greg motioned to Guillermo and Matthew to grab the ammo bags. They threw them over their shoulders and tiptoed quietly out.

They made it halfway through the market before they heard screams, which came directly in front of them. Two psychos, both screaming and laughing were trying to shoot them.

"RUN!!" Greg screamed.

They darted to the left and continued forward. The sounds of guns being shot and bullets hitting the ground filled their ears.

They finally made it to the truck, still trying to avoid being shot.

"Get in, I'll hold them off!" Greg said, as he pulled his pistol out and shot back. He shot at the two psychos, and was dead on. He wounded one of them, he was still shooting. And the other fell to the ground after being shot straight through the heart. But, he wasn't that good.

"Okay, who shot him?" He asked loudly as he looked behind him. He saw Matthew holding a pistol that had smoke coming out of it. "Okay, thanks Matthew, let's just get out of here."

"I'll take that notion," Matthew said. They loaded up and drove off.

As they left the flea market, Connor walked out of the building, watching the truck drive off in the distance. "Run, run, little dogs," he cackled. "It doesn't matter where you go, I will find you."