MAD MAX, the walking dead

seven: SINNERS AND (NONEXISTENT) SAINTS

"RULE NUMBER ONE OF SCAVENGING  – THERE'S NOTHING LEFT IN THIS WORLD THAT ISN'T HIDDEN."

***

Delilah Owens grew up going to church.

More specifically, she grew up drinking in the church basement after hours. It was the one place the adults never guessed that their rebellious teenagers would go at night. It was even more likely that they knew exactly what their children were doing – because they had done the same thing in their youth – and simply didn't care. So, their friends would steal a few bottles of communion wine, and she and Josh would make their way down to the dugout basement of the church.

This felt like that.

Sitting around the circle, people laughing and drinking communion wine by candlelight. It felt all too familiar.

They'd gone to a local food bank earlier in the day and picked up some food. Max, Tara, Maggie, and Glenn had gone to a local town to do some scavenging. Surprisingly, there wasn't much trouble along the way. Max wasn't quite used to that.

"You know, I didn't want to say anything when I looked this place up in the phone book, but," Tara said, gesturing to the messy storefront in front of them. She, Max, and Maggie stood watch outside of the store with guns on their arms as Glenn checked the inside. Maggie made sure to inform Max that Glenn was a good scavenger beforehand. Max didn't doubt that. "But I just can't imagine a gun store having leftovers nowadays." Tara finished.

"Don't look good, does it?" Maggie said, smiling slightly with her expressive eyes and familiar southern Georgia accent. Max nodded.

Suddenly, a crash sounded within the store.

The three women cocked their guns simultaneously, walking up to the storefront with their guns pointed toward the glass windows. The atmosphere went from joking to tense in a millisecond. They listened intently for a moment, worry crossing over Maggie and Tara's faces. There were slight sounds of struggle, but no screaming.

Glenn came out a moment later, his gun in hand. He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. The women lowered their guns.

"Was it a walker?" Tara asked, craning her neck in an attempt to get a better look inside the building.

"Uh, yeah." Glenn stuttered his answer. "It was a – it was a walker."

"Really?" Maggie and Max spoke at the same time, their eyebrows raising in suspicion. Max narrowed her eyes in confusion. Glenn bit his bottom lip for a moment before clearing his throat in shame.

"It was a stack of boxes and a mop," He admitted. "And I tripped." He scratched the back of his neck again.

Max was the first one to laugh. Tara and Maggie joined in quickly, their large smiles out of place along the desolate street.

"Still..." Glenn continued, laughing slightly himself as he pulled out three silencers. "Got what we came for." The women exchanged looks of surprise.

"You actually found something?" Tara asked, her mouth wide open as she Glenn handed her the silencers.

"Three silencers stashed in a mini fridge." Glenn said proudly. Max sent him an encouraging nod, which he returned. "Rule number one of scavenging – there's nothing left in this world that isn't hidden."

***

"You mind if I sit?" Abraham asked her, his smile a little too wide to be keeping watch in the darkness outside the church instead of inside of it.