Pissin' our pants yet? (TWD ff)

Chapter 1: Hail to the king

From the other side of the road, as you make your way out of the last line of trees, you observe the huge mall again. The cracks on the asphalt as nature is taking over extend to the building. Decorative trees and plants around the parking lot and the entrance have also grown wild but not enough to cover the vision from the top to bottom windows. Once more, showing the coast is clear, after observing the building for two days.

The image of isolation and abandonment of the huge mall in front of you is almost melancholic. You remember when places like this would be a spectacle of the consumerism the world was drowning in. When the green papers were all that was important in the first world. That is over now. Green papers mean nothing, they can't buy you food, drinks, a safe place or help anymore. Now it's you against everyone else in order to survive, in order to keep your integrity. Who you are. Your mind, your heart and soul.

Inside the abandoned building, the floor is a display of dead bodies. Most of them are already too rotten to distinguish anything but bones inside the putrid flesh. Some bodies are missing big chunks or parts of their corpse, probably chewed off after being attacked. Most people perished only a few days after all of this started, only to rise again and take others with them. It couldn't have been more than a week later, when the silence started to reign and little groups started to form. Suddenly there was nothing left. Just those things walking the streets, attacking anything alive that crossed their path; this rekindled the real need for community to help each other survive for some, or unleashed the perverse desires of those with sick minds and souls.

Fresh meat is all those walking dead care about because they lack the mind to think. No reasoning, no feelings; just an extreme hunger keeps them walking their senseless steps. One can cut them in half and they will still crawl with their meatless fingers to try and take a bite. As scary as that can be, they are still less dangerous than people. The cannibals, who prefer to chase people for meat instead of animals. The rapists, the thieves, the murderers... All of those can use their brains to do what can only be held by nightmares. That's what rules were made for in the olden days, before all this, to keep them at bay. There are no rules anymore. Chaos has won. A deceivingly silent chaos that makes you forget there's a lot to fear sometimes.

You thank the fact that most of the top-to-bottom windows are shattered in tiny pieces all over the place, so the air can flow and freshen, otherwise, it would be unbreathable. When everything started, owners of places like this tried to close the establishments and people would break in for supplies. When it was evident the end of things was coming, old laws lost their sense and chaos won over reasoning. Most of the malls and supermarkets miles around are in similar condition, which makes them accessible, but unlikely to be a good place for shelter or to hold any supplies anymore.

To your surprise, the place hasn't been scavenged yet, probably due to the horde gathered inside, as the remains and waste suggest. Maybe it was even that what broke the windows; a large amount of eaters, attracted to a sound from outside could perfectly pressure the windows until they shattered.

The dead creatures are not interested in canned goods, pasta or dried food, that you know, and seeing that those things are untouched or have just fallen to the floor to a sloppy passerby, gives the cue. Walkers are thoughtless assholes, humans aren't; most of the time. The last ones would kill for a stock like this one. And, there's the fact, the parking lot is packed. Meaning, that whoever went inside never left or it's long gone. The main road is clear so far.

Your caution to observe the place for so long before taking your chances of intrusion was based on the fact that some hordes act like programmed computers with the order to go back to a determined spot at a certain time after they have been roaming out. That's the case, at least, if they haven't been disturbed or led away by something more interesting; and for what concerns you, there's nothing interesting around. Even the squirrels are careful not to touch the ground these days. During that time you've also been looking for fresh human trails on the little woods surrounding the building and when you've been sure there's none, you have finally given in to the urge for supplies. You have taken the ugly car you've been using lately, driving it from the dirt road inside the woods to the parking lot. The thing is dirty, rusty and the left window on the back left passenger has a full crack on it covered with tape; not the fanciest thing to drive, but unlikely to be stolen or draw attention to. It even has low consumption, so it works well enough for you; for however long that may be.