Dead or Alive

Chapter 2

I'm walking through the woods around noon. The Autumn leaves rustling above me, with the occasional one fluttering down and landing near my feet. I have the machete strapped to my belt and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol strapped to the other side of my belt. Ahead of me, I saw two lurkers standing there, unaware of my presence for now. I quietly pulled the machete out of its sheath and stealthily approached the two lurkers. I sliced through one's head easily, and I sliced the other one's skull with the same amount of ease. Once they both had fallen to the ground I wiped the blood off the machete on my black, ripped jeans. A week after all of this had started I ended up at an abandoned clothes shop.

I carefully open the door, cautious of whether or not those things were inside here as well. The exterior of the store seems pretty untouched, but you can never be too careful. I walked inside and scanned the aisles. The clothes that I had grabbed randomly were clothes from when I was a freshman, so they obviously don't fit anymore. Since Autumn is coming, a t-shirt and shorts won't be the best things to be wearing. I saw a nice black leather jacket hanging on the rack. I grabbed it and continued looking. I found some black jeans that were in my size so I grabbed those as well. I found a red flannel, a white tank top, and some black combat boots. I tried everything on, and they all fit perfectly. I walked out of the changing room and saw a small group of people with assault rifles in their hands. I ducked and hid behind the counter and watched the group as they surveyed the area.

"I don't see anyone here, Boss," One man said. "Maybe our scouts saw a Lurker come inside."

"No, because Jason said that it was a girl who carefully opened the door. If you hadn't noticed, Zeke, lurkers don't carefully open doors. They can hardly walk," Another man said, who I'm assuming is the boss.

"Fine. Sam, come with me and check out the changing rooms," Zeke said.

The two men walked into the changing room, leaving the leader and three other people in the store. The four of them walked around the store, peering between clothes and down aisles. 

"Why are we even going after this person? Jason said that the woman looked young, no older than a college freshman. If she's here, why not take her back to camp and give her the offer to join us?" One man asked.

"I would love another member, but having one who attempted to steal from us would be detrimental to the group. We can't risk it," The boss said.

"Maybe she didn't know that we took control over the store and all others on this street," Another man added.

"I'm done talking about this. Just find her already. I don't wanna stay here longer than we have to," The boss growled.

The rest of the men walked around, continuing their search. I saw one that was approaching, turn their back to look through some clothes that he had missed. I quickly ducked in a circular rack that the men had looked through previously. Thankfully, no one caught me. I peered out between the clothes and saw that no one was looking in my direction. I carefully, but quickly, ran to the door. I quietly opened it and shut it behind me, silently thanking the bell that sounds whenever the door opens for not going off. I saw that the men were beginning to turn around and walk back to the door. I bolted towards where the shopping carts were kept and hid until they walked out.

"I can't believe that there wasn't anyone there. Jason is so going to get it when we get back," The boss growled.

"Give the dude a break, boss. You've had him on watch non-stop since the outbreak started. He's exhausted and he probably imagined seeing someone enter the store," 

"I swear, if he does it again I'll beat his ass and feed him to the Lurkers," The boss muttered.

Once the group was long out of sight, I began running in the opposite direction. I ran for about ten minutes when I stopped to catch my breath. I looked at the horizon and saw that the sun was beginning to set. I made camp a short distance from the road and began to make a campfire.

"I'm glad that I took that camping trip with my class. Otherwise, this would be so much more difficult," I said to myself.

Once the campfire was all set up, I took a short walk before I lit it to get a better understanding on what is nearby. After a while, I began walking back when something caught my eye. Slumped up against a tree was a man. I pulled out my machete just in case and inspected his body. There was a bullet hole in his head. I sighed in relief and crouched down next to him to see if he had anything useful. In his right hand, I saw an unfolded photograph. I picked it up and saw that it was the man and his family.

"You poor man," I muttered, shaking my head sadly. 

I returned the photograph to the man and looked to see if he had anything else. I saw that he held a 9mm semi-automatic pistol in his left hand. I took it and checked to see how much ammo it had left. It was fully loaded except one bullet was missing. On his left arm, I also saw a bite wound with maggots writhing out of it.

"Well that's disgusting," I said, my nose crinkling slightly. "But thanks for the pistol."

I continued walking as my flashback ended, and saw movement in the distance. 

"They don't look like Lurkers..." I said to myself, curious as to what the movement was.

I took out my pistol just in case, and approached the movement. When I crested the hill I noticed that a small group was there and every member turned and stared at me. Some drew their guns, and others backed away in fear. My eyes surveyed the group until I saw that there were two children in the group as well. I slowly put my pistol back in its holster and raised my hands up as a sign of not being a threat.

"Who are you?" One man asked.

"My name is Amala. I mean no harm," I said.

"We'll be the judge of that."