Chapter 8 - Sarah

"Are you sure you're real? It's felt like forever since I've seen you. And you have a girlfriend? Didn't you swear off girls so you could focus on sports?" Asked Sarah.

"Alright, alright slow down. I missed you too, we'll have to talk about how you ended up here and all that good stuff." Said James.

"I don't think I've properly introduced myself, I'm Mavis. I didn't know we we're dating but I guess it was only a matter of time anyways. I'm very glad to see you safe, I know James was worried sick despite not showing it. Was it just you two in the store?" Asked Mavis as she introduced herself.

"There was 8 of us until those 2 savages came. They're easy to get away from so I decided to stay since the store was so big. We had a lot of hiding spots, but the other 6 decided to try and find somewhere else to stay. We watched them die from the window as a ton of savages sandwiched them as they ran." Explained Sarah.

"I'm sorry to hear that, watching people die sucks. Let's try to make sure that we don't have to deal with that pain anymore. No one needs to experience that anymore." Said Mavis.

The group makes its way to other stores with no luck in finding anyone else. All the places were either abandoned or not occupied in the first place.

(The drive back) "Well I guess we broke even today. We lost two people today, we'll have to hold a service for them later. But I found you, that's got to be some kind of silver lining." Said James.

The group makes it back to the mall at around 4 pm

"Alright guys I know we didn't find much more than supplies today, but thank you all for coming out to help. Go get your fill to eat inside. You've all deserved it for helping so much." Said James.

Sarah sees Mavis whisper to James. James laughs and walks towards Sarah.

"Hey you want to come to our leaders meeting?" Asked James.

"Plural leaders? Are you not the only leader here? Asked Sarah.

"Yeah, Penelope, Mavis, and Marcus are all leaders here. I'm sure Penelope will be happy to see you." Explained James.

"Well isn't that nice, you two ended up in the same place. How'd a bum like you become a leader though?" Asked Sarah.

"Because I'm a natural leader of course. And because no one else wanted to, so I just stepped up. Penelope just kind of became one too over time since she helped me out so much." Explained James.

Everyone heads inside to break off and do their own things. Mavis, James, Marcus, Penelope, and now Sarah head to the office to talk about the not very successful day.

"So, not a very successful day huh? We lost two people, but we did gain one very important person." Said Penelope as she nods at Sarah.

The group continues talking about the day and how the next day will work. Sarah sits there awkwardly daydreaming most of the time during the conversation.

"Alright, you ready to see where you're staying? Asked James.

"Is it near you? The malls kind of big, I'd rather not sleep too far from you." Said Sarah.

"That's cute, but you don't have to worry, we have 8 people on watch at all times up on the roof. Also you're in a store about three stores down from me with a couple other girls. You'll be fine." Explained James.

"You can come visit our room whenever you want to of course. We're on the second floor of Scheels. Over by the golf section. Feel free to practice your putting whenever you want. We actually plan on going to the golf course one of these days, it's not far from us and their mower still works." Explained Mavis.

"That sounds like fun, do you guys usually do a lot of fun stuff like this?" Asked Sarah.

"We try to do fun things like this as much as we can, it's too easy to get down in the dumps here. People need to be able to take their minds off of everything that's going on. I got here just a while ago so I haven't been here for a quite a few things, but they've done things like watch movies, have tournaments for various things, and a number of other things that are safe to do around town." Explained Mavis.

"You talk a lot, but yeah that sounds like fun to me." Said Sarah.

The trio makes it way to what was once a Hallmark for Sarah to drop off the couple items she has.

"I guess you didn't have much time to grab any of your stuff huh? Why don't you come to Scheels and pick out some new clothes, or you can go to the storage area. That's where we put all the things stores had in the back, but it's not exactly organized yet." Said James.

"Let's just go to Scheels, I could go for some sweat pants." Said Sarah.

The trio spent some time looking around the store for clothes that'll fit Sarah. They then proceed to head up to the second floor where Mavis and James have a very unique looking room setup. They had what looked like a cardboard castle built over their bed.

"Welcome to our castle, we've been kind of selfish with the sleeping arrangements here. I deserve it though, I worked real hard." Said James with a wry smile.

"You're still a nerd huh? Why did you build a castle around your bed? Asked Sarah.

"Well, because I deserve it of course. I'm so busy making sure this castle isn't falling apart, so I had to make my own just for me. And Mavis of course." Explained James.

"Well as long as you're not secretly a nerd anymore. It was kind of sad watching you hide it." Said Sarah.

The group continues talking, explaining how they ended up where they ended. Telling the stories of how these two groups ended up together, and how the savages might be getting smarter. Before they know it, its 10:30 pm and they're all ready to sleep.

"Alright, well I guess I'll go back to my bunk for the night. Thanks for talking to me for so long." Said Sarah.

"No problem Sarah, I'm just glad you're back." Said James.

With that, the trio departs and calls it a night. With James and Mavis settling into their cardboard castle, and Sarah going back to an empty store with a couple beds in it. The three beds that are in the room are separated by shelf in their own areas so they have some privacy.

"Well I guess this is home now, sure beats what I had before. Looks like the other 2 are asleep." Said Sarah.

Sarah plops down on her bed and before she knows it she's getting shaken awake by James.

"Good morning, it's time for the tour." Said James with a smile.

"Oh good morning. What time is it, I feel like I just fell asleep." Said Sarah groggily.

"It's already 10:00 am, you slept for quite a while. Most people are out looking for people again, we had a lot of volunteers this time. All we have here at the moment is 9 guards, their replacements, and us." Said James.

"You're one of the leaders aren't you? Aren't you supposed to be one of the people looking for survivors? Asked Sarah

"Well that's why we have four leaders. So we all get some time off here and there. Plus they all agreed that I should spend some time with my sister, so here I am. Now get up, this malls bigger than when you were in it last." Said James.

"Well, I'll get dressed then. Do we have working showers somewhere here? I don't remember there being a shower here." Asked Sarah.

"Well surprisingly we do, one of the older guys was able to hook this shower in the appliance store up to the plumbing and is getting water to it that would normally go to one of the water fountains. So water is still working here, we have no idea how long it'll work though so we've been stockpiling some. We do have years' worth of various water bottles that we've filled up already though, so water shouldn't be a problem for a long while." Explained James.

Sarah goes ahead and finds some hygiene products in target and heads over to take a pretty cold shower. It may have been cold, but it was much more enjoyable then sitting in her own filth. After she was done feeling clean again she met up with James who told her that she was going to get the grand tour.

"Alright, so you've seen all the stores, so I'm just going to show you the repurposed places. Like over here in this store, we keep a bunch of extra weapons in case people break theirs. I see you just have a butterfly knife, so if you want to pick something out you can." Explains James.

Sarah looks at the huge claymore James carries around everywhere in his sheathe.

"I think I'll take this one." Says Sarah with a smile.

Sarah had picked up a rather large combat knife, but didn't look like she'd take no for an answer on this choice.

"Alright, well moving on. We have 7 watchtowers that we've put together that watch all the directions. There's also these barricades we have at every door except the side entrance doors. Since they're not made of glass they can break through them. So you don't have to worry about savages breaking in to the mall at any time." Explained James.

"I definitely feel pretty safe here. It feels like a ghost town since everyone is out searching for new people though. So do we have like limited power here?" Asked Sarah.

"Well yes and no. We have a few generators in the basement and we haven't even gone through a hundredth of the cars fuel outside. There's also a few dozen gas stations in this town as well. Fuel won't be a concern for years." Said James.

"Is that everything? There really wasn't all that much to show." Said Sarah

"Yeah I guess you've been here too many times for me to give much of a useful tour." Said James.

"Oh well, why don't we do something fun? Like watch a movie, or play a couple games. We've got to have an unlimited amount of board games or even console games to play." Asked Sarah.

"We have a kid named Spike who's dedicated himself to playing through all the games in Gamestop. I think he's played through like three of them so far.

"Oh I just thought of an even better idea. Let's play one of those digital board games, that's an amazing idea." Said Sarah.

"Hey do you guys mind if I join you too? I just got off of watch. Asked Sierra.