Survival

Spreading

Months after the incident at the prison, Dylan and Charlotte have been staying at an old Walmart.

Dylan's leg has gotten good enough to walk normally on it.

"How did you sleep?" Dylan asks Charlotte as she walks up to Dylan, who was walking down the aisle, looking for something to eat.

"Good. I had a really nice dream." She plops down into a beanbag. "I was with my daddy, it was nice. But I spent a lot of time playing with the toys." Charlotte said she wanted to sleep in the toy aisle, Dylan gave her an air horn so that she can call for help easily.

"Okay, that's fine. Just try to get enough sleep okay?" Dylan says, taking a box on granola bars and opens one.

"I will." Charlotte takes the package of cookies that she has been eating.

"You should eat some of these." Dylan offers Charlotte a granola bar.

"Okay." Charlotte says happily taking the bar and opening it.

The girls sit there and eat granola bars and cookies.

Dylan goes to get some lemonade. She comes back and Charlotte drink half the bottle right away.

I gotta keep her safe Dylan thinks as Charlotte wipes lemonade from her face.

"Are you okay Dylan?" Charlotte asks as a tear rolls down Dylan's face.

"Hmm? Oh yeah." Dylan zones back in and wipes her face.

I can't stop thinking about that man. I let him die. He was right in front of me. Dylan thinks about the nightmares she's been having. I could have helped him.

From the front of the store there's a breaking of glass. Dylan stands up, taking her hand gun. She looked down the main aisle to see what happened.

She walked a little closer to the doors and she sees a group of those things walking around the store.

She follows them as they walk to the meat section.

When they get there they start to devour the meat. Dylan almost pukes as one of them crunches down on maggots and rotting meat.

They tear through the plastic as the meat spills.

Dylan walks back to Charlotte, trying to be quite.

"Come on, we have to leave." Dylan whispers to Charlotte.

"What? Why?" Charlotte asks, her face worried.

"We're not safe here, we'll be able to come back, but now we have to leave." Dylan's says pulling a shopping cart close to her, loading it full of food and drinks. "Come on get in." Dylan lifts Charlotte up and puts her in the large part of the cart.

They move towards the doors. Grabbing supplies as the pass by, blankets, pillows, shoes, clothes, a large tent, and more food and drinks.

Once they're outside of the store Dylan pushes the cart towards the truck faster.

Instead of emptying the cart the just lift it into the back. They quickly climb into the truck. Dylan buckles Charlotte up and turns the car on.

Dylan drives out of the parking lot. As they turn Dylan see a hoard of those things.

"Oh fuck." Dylan turns the other way and drives out of the city.

Dylan speeds down the road, leaving the city. Just then a plane flies over head. A small capsule drops from the plane.

As Dylan drives closer to the capsule she sees its releasing gas onto a small group of people. She watches as the gas eats away at their skin.

They are all screaming as they tear at their own skin, trying to stop the pain.

Some of the people that seem to be turning quicker attack the others, ripping into their bodies.

Dylan speeds up, leaving them behind.

They're spreading it. Dylan thinks to herself. Are they ever going to stop?

Once Dylan gets a few miles from the city the pull the truck to the side of the road.

"Okay, we should be safe here." Dylan tells Charlotte. "Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm okay." Charlotte responds. Holding up her teddy bear. "Look, I gave Mr. Bear an eye patch." She says proudly.

Dylan looks and sees a black cloth taped over Mr. Bears eye. She smiles, "good job, it looks great."

"Thank you. Mr. Bear says it feels a lot better now."

"That's good, I'm glad he's feeling better." Dylan looks in the bed of the truck, all their stuff is still there.

"Do you want to sleep in the truck tonight, or should we put up a tent?"

"I'd like to be in the tent, I never have before." Charlotte responds.

"Okay, I'll set it up."

Dylan gets out of the truck and pulls the tent from the back. After a good 20 minutes of reading the directions, she finally gets it standing.

"Here we are!" Dylan says proudly.

"Wow! This is so cool!" Charlotte shouts as she crawls into the tent.

"I'm glad you like it." Dylan looks up at the sky, probably a few hours of daylight left.

"What do you want to do before we go to sleep?" Dylan asks.

"We could play checkers!" Charlotte shouts back.

"What? We don't have checkers." Dylan asks, a little confused.

"Yes we do! Look!" Charlotte runs to the bed of the truck and pulls a board game box.

"Wow, when did you get that?"

"I found it in the toy place."

"Okay let's play."