39 2.8

"Let me get this straight, you want me to eat it?" I asked, staring at the shiny clear crystal in my hand. Despite the surface looking hard, when pinched it felt as soft as jelly.

"You've already cleaned it six times, you're already infected, more virus is good for growth with me around, just eat it, I swear you'll be thanking me later."

Hesitantly I dosed it in the last of my water. Despite thinking I was gonna regret it later, the crystal went into my mouth. Even though a disgusted expression was clearly on my face, it melted in my mouth tasting so good, I could swear it would be easy to get addicted to.

Within moments I felt a tingle radiate from my mouth, throat, and stomach, filling my whole body with a wave of euphoria, better than any orgasm. I unconsciously let out a slight moan, leaning against the wall.

"Okay, that was intense, I need to rest and process, and," System stopped talking and I assumed it was currently processing the influx of energy I felt circulating my body for me.

I spotted a door key, peeking out of the dead guy's pants pocket, so I decided to make my way inside the rear door. If they were inside it was likely to be clear, unlike the outside. I wanted to avoid another surprise attack.

I tried to be cautious with each step, avoiding noise, which was hard as I felt like I was floating on air. As I walked along the hallway passing some lockers, I noticed Noah sitting alone at the manager's desk.

"Noah, is my brother okay?" I asked, frustrated at this new sibling bond I had to be wary of. Missing my only child days as Zhiyue. I knew he was going to be mad, oh so very mad. Was it too late to regret my actions now?

Noah jumped up, tipping the chair behind him, before striding over to me. He moved so quickly that I walked back into the lockers. Why did he always make me so flustered and clumsy?

"Why did you leave?" He asked, his eyes repeatedly scanning every inch of my body, "did you get hurt at all?"

I shook my head, hands resting firmly on both hilts, "I'm fine."

He ignored me, his hands began searching my body instead, so I shrugged him off.

"Why do you even care?" I threw in my teenage angst whilst I was at it.

He stopped, glaring at me, eyes ablaze, "why would you think I don't?"

My hands gestured wildly at him, "you're always so angry whenever you look at me."

He laughed bitterly, "if I didn't care, would I get angry each time you ditch me without explanation?"

"I already told you, I was just scared of getting caught back then," I argued, frustrated. I'd only done it once, don't blame me for what Hannah did.

Besides I came back didn't I? What did he have to be so angry about? Who did he think he was to me?

"Why were you so scared of getting caught? It's not like you're the first teenager to sneak a few bottles at a party."

His hand rested on my back, where I knew angry-looking welt marks lay. These scars were there before I entered.

Whilst changing into a sports bra in the changing room I noticed them in the large three-way mirror. I could completely understand why Hannah did not want to be caught. These scars were a build-up of years of abuse. It was no doubt Noah had noticed them during New Year's.

I caved at Noah's intense glare, deciding just to air it all out on Hannah's behalf.

"My dad would have added to them if he'd found out, that's why."

Noah nodded, pulling me into his embrace as if expecting me to cry. Yet I felt no emotional attachment to these scars.

I could remember her fear, her pain. It made me angry. So very angry that the man who had made them and the woman who had ignored him doing, it was already dead. There was nowhere to direct this anger.

"I'm fine," I pushed back, pressing myself against the lockers again.

"Why didn't you tell Will? There's no way he'd stand for it."

"I dunno," I shrugged, trying to think of the reasons why Hannah wouldn't tell him. The only thought that came to mind was, "he wouldn't believe me."

Noah scoffed, turning away to hide his expression.

"You killed him right?"

I was caught off guard by his question. Was he asking if I took advantage and killed him whilst he was alive? What did he take me for?

I shook my head, "he and mom turned, now they're dead."

He nodded, guiding me towards a door, "okay come on, your brother was a mess when I left him."

"Okay," I sighed, reluctantly following him.

"Hannah Elizabeth Branson," Will stomped through the aisle towards me, just as I came through it, grabbing my arm roughly he dragged me away from the rest of the team right back through the staff doors.

After half an hour of scolding, he finally let me go and search the already-cleared supermarket for personal supplies. The rest of the team had already done this and were now loading bags upon bags of shopping onto the back of the truck.

When I was certain no one was watching me toss things like toothpaste and toothbrush in my bag, I slipped back towards the frozen section where the warehouse doors led.

Using the keycard I'd taken from the zombie employee, I swiped the card and slipped through the doors, making sure they shut behind me.

Praying that in the time I was away, nobody looked for me, I scanned the warehouse for hostiles. Finding none I relaxed and reached out to touch crate by crate to load into my space, not caring to check what was inside.

Eventually, I reached a snag, it was full. So I tossed out a lot of clothes I couldn't care less about until everything in the warehouse was now inside my space with room to spare.

The electricity was still running from the backup generators and the products still good for other survivors who came later. Noah had made a point to get just enough, not wanting to overload the truck and waste fuel, so there was plenty left.

I kept reminding myself over and over, trying to dissuade the guilt of my greed. Feeling shit at the thought of hungry survivors breaking down the door to find only rails of clothing from a completely different store.

Quickly shaking the negative thoughts out of my head, I stumbled back through the door, tossing the keycard in before closing it. Hoping that would be the last of my spiraling thoughts.

Happy nobody was calling for me, I rummaged through the frozen and fridge department, grabbing microwave meals, ice, bottles of water, and ready-made meals from the to-go section, which were perfect for a quick meal while no one was watching. Though I tried not to be too greedy so that if the others came by they wouldn't realize.

Eating a sandwich I wandered out of the store seeing everybody was outside now, loading the last of the jeep's supplies.

Another handy thought of Noah's was that he was so paranoid at the thought of the vehicles splitting up, or that one could break down, was to ensure both had food, water, and medicine from the store.

I saw a few fuel tanks in the truck. Not looking forward to sitting beside their stink I wandered over to Victoria and Daniel who were at a corner standing guard and chatting quietly.

"Anybody hungry?" I asked, holding a carry bag of some sandwiches and soft drinks.

Daniel smiled and rummaged for a drink and sandwich tucking in, Victoria simply shook her head.

After a while, I heard Will call out from on top of the truck. He was standing guard up at a height.

I scanned around trying to see what he meant but couldn't see anything. However, I began to hear the sound of shuffling feet. So many feet.

Will's metal bat broke into lots of tiny balls and flung them in the direction nearby us. I heard the sound of metal breaking through bones and flesh on the other side of the lorry beside us.

"Retreat," Noah called out, as he flung his hand in our direction, I saw bolts of electricity shoot from his fingertips toward the zombies now blocking our path. Causing them to drop down and fill the air with the smell of burnt decayed flesh. Not something I was willing to smell again.

I noticed the bodies were quite small, walking forwards I finally saw the full whack of the horde. There were too many to count and a lot of them were little pint-sized zombies. Some even wore party hats. I vomited the sandwich accidentally, making a mess on the pavement in front of me.

Though it had only seemed a short walk to join Victoria and Daniel, looking back it was actually quite the distance. Why, oh why had I cared about Victoria being left alone with this creep?

Only Daniel had a gun. I wasn't sure if we were still just on the noise-free melee or not, so I kept mine holstered and dropped my bag of food to pull out both swords. I noticed Victoria also pulled out one. Daniel, however, kept his knife sheathed and pulled out his gun. He fired at the nearest zombie, the noise echoed in the air drawing all the attention from the horde.

I was caught off guard by the tiny zombies. It was one thing to kill one that looked prepubescent, and another to kill one that still looked like a smiling toddler were it not for the cloudy eyes and blood-stained clothing and mouths.

How many had succumbed to their inherent desire to protect the young and fallen at their hands? I needed to snap out of it.

"Just go," Victoria shouted across the carpark and grabbed my arm, pulling me back around the corner of the building, ignoring both Will and Noah's protests. "I'll keep her alive for fucks sake," Victoria bellowed before dragging me out of their line of sight.

Before Daniel fired his gun we could have made it through the spread-out crowd if we were fast enough. But now they all concentrated on us, ignoring the fact those in the rear were falling one by one to the attacks from the other members.

I briefly noticed fireballs were even being flung around the corner, filling the air even worse with the decayed charred scent.

We ended up where I had killed the zombie earlier. Victoria briefly glanced at the mess of a head and back up at my innocent smile. Shaking her head slightly, she dragged me towards the chainlink fence. The forest was on the other side. I scanned it up and down and pointed toward a truck. Listening to the sounds of Daniel firing his gun repeatedly I decided against bothering to speak. She nodded her head.

In the distance, I heard the roar of engines, Noah and the team were obviously trying to make a lot of noise. Daniel finally stopped firing his gun, to change his ammo. "Stop shooting and come here," I called out as quietly as I could. A dark part of me was wishing to just leave him behind.

Daniel glanced at me then put his gun away pulled out his knife and walked towards the truck that Victoria was already climbing, catching on to our plan.

With our silence and the roar of the engines, those at the rear began to turn away, making me pleased. Though I wasn't certain we could take on the rest, I also wasn't sure I could muster the strength to pierce those tiny skulls, unlike Daniel who had fired at whatever dead thing was closest.

I was envious of his lack of conscience. He was definitely a survivor. I was failing miserably.

Victoria now stood at the top of the truck, an automatic rifle pulled out and pointing at the crown below. "Climb up, I'll cover you."

I nodded. Not needing to be told twice, I swiftly joined her. Sitting, slightly out of breath I found myself cursing at Hannah for spending the last year drinking, smoking weed, and lazing about. Though the body had great foundations, it was out of practice.

Daniel, who looked like he'd only gone for a leisurely walk in the park joined me, also now pulled out his gun and looked to Victoria for further instructions. At least we'd swiftly set up a new chain of command.

Glancing back down at the edge I was sitting beside, I saw many dead, cloudy and vacant gazes staring right back at me. Their arms stretched up as if they would reach me if they stretched enough.

I shuddered and scanned the surroundings. More zombies were coming from all locations, drawn by the noise. This side of the fence was hopeless. The other side was clear, though filled with trees and the unknown.

Victoria was scanning like me, she pulled me up to stand checking me over. "I'm going to jump down to the forest first, whilst Daniel you cover me with your gun. Hannah, you jump next, and then Daniel can jump whilst we cover him. We need to move Northeast, which is this direction," she pointed making sure we were both paying attention, "there should a road after a few miles, we can search for a vehicle and regroup with the rest at the camping ground."

We both nodded, agreeing with her, eager to get going as the truck slightly shook at the growing collection of hungry mouths.