Pandemic *CANCELLED*

Reality.

Excuse the incredibly long hiatus. I have a bit of a thing for those. I do them by accident so sorry. :)

I finally let go of everything at that moment. Seeing my mum like that triggered something in me, that could never be put back. My friends, family, anyone I cared about had an almost certain chance of either not surviving or being dead already. I faced the facts I turned away from all this time. Dead. That's where everyone was. The place called Dead, one way trip into oblivion. Nothing was safe. Even the safest place on earth could be your biggest enemy. Not a single thing in this entire world could escape the fate of death. Everything has an inevitable end.

Seeing that... thing... Really put me on the spot. My eyes went dark, my head was level. I wasn't afraid anymore. My senses returned, William was calling for me, while trying to fight off a bunch of Infected, I saw a couple too close for comfort, so I grabbed my two knives and started slicing wildly at their heads. It was brilliantly satisfying yet it felt wrong. They were already dead, so why did I feel so shit? Anyway, when there was an opening, I called to William and ran. The moans were gettin louder and more raucous. At this rate, there would be more Infected attracted from outside, and we'd be sealed in. William caught up, and nodded confirming that we should get out of here as soon as possible.

We raced past the sweet store, Fred Perry, the Apple store until we reached the huge John Lewis at the end. Surprisingly, there were less Infected in there than we expected. It was practically empty, unless they were planning an ambush. What? No they don't think I told myself. Except I remembered what William said about how they think and they're not as mindless as they let on to be. I decided that was a load of crap and pressed on. I opened the glass door and was surprised to find William had hung back. I gestured for him to follow and he gestured for me to come back. I turned away and walked on.

"Lucy! Get back here." He whispered harshly. I obeyed this time, pushing my way back through the door.

"What? Now's our chance, there are hardly any of them out there." I whispered back. William shook his head.

"They're planning something. I'm sure of it. Doesn't it seem funny how there is hardly anyone in a giant department store?"

"Who cares, I just want to get out of here as soon as I can." I raised my voice a little. William "shushed" me.

"Desperation makes you careless, besides, we need more supplies, what we  have isn't enough. We need to head to the food department. I think we might be able to blend in again, if we try very hard. Do you think you can do that Lucy?" He asked. It was a tough decision to make, but I ended up nodding. What I wondered was why we couldn't have gotten supplies from another place, like a corner store. I had quite a lot of space left in my bag so I could fit a lot. William explained his intricate plan to me in the corner. We waited for the right moment to go in, but we were spotted prematurely. There was only one, but the rest would follow not long after, so we headed in quickly, shutting the door behind us carefully.

We walked very slowly, careful not to make any stupid mistakes. I was ready. He was ready. We were going in, grabbing what we needed, then getting out.

We split, like he said. I waited behind some displays, near a mirror. I waited for William's "decoy method". It felt like forever before he actually found something to throw. It made a large "clang" sound away from where our target was. I waited a little for the horde to move away. While I was waiting, a few infected came out of the shadows. So this was an ambush of sorts. It was funny to think how something that is technically dead, can still think that well. 

When most of the infected had cleared off towards the sound, we moved. I got up normally, and moved at a steady pace towards the food aisle.

The refrigerators were still. No humming, no nothing. The back up generators hadn't kicked in yet, or they're broken too. We walked carefully and grabbed a couple of sandwiches, drinks, fruit pots, what ever we could find. A lot of people had beaten us to it so there wasn't as much as we'd hoped. 

When we started towards the exit, I spotted a bed-set. I rushed over to it, examining it.

"Hey, William, d'ya think we should take this?"

"Well if you can fit it into your bag, or if your willing to carry it, then sure, go ahead." He said calmly. I went to pull it, when it got caught on the inner corner of the box-thing it was in. I pulled hard at first, then I eventually built it up, putting all my weight into it.

I tugged and pulled that I didn't notice who was behind me. After a while, the bag gave way and I ended up tumbling backward straight into something soft. Like a cussion of something... or so I thought.

The smell hit me first: decay and death. Then the moans came, loud, raucous and gross. The swiping followed soon after. A scratch on my cheek was enough to put my mind in gear. Although I should've been more attentive. 

The grabbing continued and as he got more and more impatient, the growls/moans got louder. I needed to shut him up before the others were attracted to the noise. I pulled out my knife and slashed at his arms. Bad idea. The knife got stuck in his forearm and before I had the chance to pull it back out, he tried to bite. I kicked and he dribbled backwards, slightly stunned, probably from moving so fast. I grabbed the second knife I'd tucked away and aimed for the head. Always aim for the head. I stuck it in, deep. He was still grabbing an trying to gnaw at me, but I held my position. When he wouldn't shut up, I twisted the knife. It was brutal, but it was me or him. A life or death situation on both parts. Eventually, after a bit more knife-wriggling, the arms went limp and the eyes rolled back.

I pulled both knives out of the Infected and noticed a strange sound. Like a dull riot and it was getting closer and closer. I looked behind me and realised the crowd of Infected outside John Lewis had burst in and they were headed towards the first thing they could eat. Me.

The bedset was on the floor. I contemplated whether to take it or not, but decided against it. It was just going to hinder me. I ran in the other direction.

"William! We need to go... Now!" I screamed. He didn't argue at all. We both ran through the food aisles. The doors were right in front of us. We raced as fast as we could down to the end. The outer doors slid open and we ran right through.

"Where to now?" I asked, still running.

"We find the car, down there." He pointed ahead of him. There was a half wall in place. When I got to it, I peered over and searched for the car. No luck. I guess it was kind of pointless to search anyway. William seemed to know where to go so I followed him down.

We ran down through the car park, sliding and turning around all of the corners until we got outside. From then on I was completely lost. I carried on following. He took me all the around the back way and eventually I recognised the street. The alley wasn't far off so we sprinted in that direction. In less than no time, we reached the car.

"Throw the bags in the back." He said and got into the front. I stuck the bags in the back and clambered in the front. The engine ran almost silently and we pulled out of the alley, and drove off.