No Longer Living

Chapter 2

Light streamed in through the small slit in the window directly into her eyes, and she started awake pulling the knife out of her belt holding it underhanded in a defensive position.  Realizing that there was no danger she slid it back into its holster.  Slowly she rose and stretched out her stiff muscles, she spotted Seth’s vacant pile of clothes as she was folding up the tattered blanket.  After placing it in her pack and snagging her rifle off the ground, she started to search the area.  

“Seth?”  There was no response, she could hear something making noise though, and he had to be here somewhere.  She continued to follow the noise, and as she rounded a corner she saw Seth standing at a clothes rack going through them.  He was standing there with only an undershirt and a pair of boxers on.  She gasped and quickly flew back around the corner “I’m sorry” she said, although not too loudly.  

“I..I..It’s f..fine” he stuttered quickly, she heard him shuffling and putting on clothes.  “I’m decent now, it’s safe.” She hesitantly rounded the corner, he’d put on a pair of pants but was still looking for a new shirt.  Luci moved over to the rack to help him, she glanced up over the race at his face which was burning red against his pale blue eyes, and his sandy brown hair that was shoulder length and parted down the center of his head.  Then her eyes trailed down to his chest where she could see his muscles being hugged by the undershirt, suddenly her face flushed, a little embarrassed at her trail of thought.

“How about this one?” she held out a plain black cotton t-shirt.

“That works” he quickly slid it on then placed a jacket over top of that.  “Okay so what’s the plan for today?”

“You need a pack and supplies, also weapons.  Blunt weapons seem to work the best for close combat, but i don’t really care to get that close.”

“My aim sucks so I’ll take the blunt weapons, and you can take ranged weapons.”

“I think that’s a solid combination.” She said kind of smiling at him.  “Do you have everything you want from here?” He nodded on quick nod “Okay then let’s move….wait” she walked over to one of the broken overturned racks and pick up a long metal pole. “Take this for now.”  They moved over to the door that they’d used last night, glancing through the slits in the boards to make sure that the coast was clear first, they opened up the shop to face the morning.

She put a finger to her lips telling him to be quiet, then she started to move and he followed close behind.  They moved swiftly and silently through the streets until they reached the sporting goods store.  She approached the door which she’d locked from the outside the last time that she’d made a trip there.  Sliding board out of the handles she opened the door slowly, they stepped inside, then she engaged the lock on the inside of the door.  Once again she brought her finger up to her lips, telling him it still wasn’t safe to speak.  Effortlessly she navigated the store with her pistol in hand.  She gave him a pack that was the same as hers only grey instead of black, then got him dehydrated food, and granola bars, all of which were low in stock.  They went back to the baseball section and he got a metal and wooden bat, both of which he zipped into his pack with their handle sticking out of the top for easy access and transport.

She gave him a look that asked if there was anything else he wanted.  He moved his hand down to her hip, and her face lit up red, but then she felt him tug at her knife holster and she understood and took off back to the hunting department.  She found him a large hunting knife, and she found herself a duel pistol holster that was now slung around her shoulders and fastened, then dug through the broken glass cases and found nothing.  She turned and headed toward the stockroom, the door was unopened and locked from the inside.  Sliding her knife from its place at her hip, she inserted it in the crack between the double doors.  With it she searched until she found the notch and pushed it inward into the other door.  The lock gave way and the door swung open revealing a relatively undisturbed stock room, she found this strange.  the store outside of this room was torn to pieces why hadn’t anyone ventured into this room yet?

She didn’t feel right, she knew that it was off, but they needed supplies and there wasn’t much left to scavenge on the outside.  Silently she moved through the stockroom searching for anything; Rippers, weapons, food.  That’s when she saw it, the gun storage, they were locked in a cage for safety reasons probably.  She started towards the gun case and spotted a Ripper stumbling around, silently she moved over to it pulling her knife out of its holster, just as she was about to impale its skull she heard a clang of a metal bat as Seth pulled it out of his pack, but she wasn’t the only one who noticed.  The Ripper turned and rushed toward the noise but found her first, she put her put her hands around its neck to try and keep the snapping teeth away from her flesh.  Seth ran over to her and smashed in the Rippers head, sending another metallic clang through the stockroom.  As the Ripper collapsed she silently thanked him, and turned back toward the gun closet.  She didn’t have any keys for the lock and who knows where any would be, she pulled a small pouch out of her pack, and opened it up to reveal a set of metal tools to Seth.

“Woah, you know how to use those?” He gawked as she took two out of the pouch and inserted them into the padlock.

“Yeah i do, now keep your voice down, we don’t know what’s in here.  Though that little skirmish might have woken everything up already.”  She whispered as she worked to open the lock as quickly as she could.  As she felt her tension wrench give way and the lock snap open she released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in the first place.  “Okay let’s hurry.”  She walked into the gun closet and found another pistol identical to the one she was already carrying, and loaded up on all the rifle and pistol ammo she could carry.  She also took down a rifle from the wall and handed it to Seth along with more ammo for him.  Looking around for anything else that could be useful she found silencers quickly grabbing two and attaching them to her pistols.  “Okay let’s get out of here” As she turned to walk out of the closet she spotted Rippers, loads of them swarming around the dead one.  They’d heard them alright, and they were blocking the exit.  She had to think, and think fast.  Looking around fervently she got an idea, motioning to the shelves she had Seth follow her and they climbed up on top of the shelves and slowly and silently made their way across the top of them until they were by the door.

They both climbed down the wooden shelving, Luci reached the bottom first, and as Seth was coming down the wooden shelving creaked with the unfamiliar weight.  Every Ripper head snapped in their direction, it was time to go, disregarding stealth Seth jumped down and they both sprinted toward the door.  Seth grabbed the handle and slammed it closed behind him locking it back into place, the Rippers mindlessly pounded on the door, urgently trying to reach Luci and Seth, but they weren’t going to wait around to see if they would get their wish.

Luci and Seth made it out into the street as quickly as possible, breathlessly Luci whispered “Let’s get the hell out of this city.”

“Agreed.”