The Walking Dead

Chapter 15

Diamond quickly walked away from the bodies, shivering in horror. The flashlight she held gave only a sliver of light through the piercing darkness. She walked with cautious, just in case there were other walkers sitting around. She shone her light on the signs that still hung from the ceiling -- following them to the home and garden section. They were trying to make the house look more like...a home.

She found a stray cart lying on its side and picked it up. It was a little rusty, but still moved well. She looked around, and found the flower section. She grabbed packs of seeds, grabbing the prettiest plants. She grabbed enough to fill the garden and a few of the not broken pots she found scattered around. Diamond smiled when she saw some dirt for potted plants and added it to her cart.

She roamed around, picking up stray items to decorate the house. With some effort, she managed to heave a couple bags of mulch into the cart without breaking anything. "Di?"

She almost jumped out of her skin before she realized that it was Sloane. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Sloane laughed. "Sorry. Did you find anything?" Diamond gestured to her cart, and her friend's eyes widened. "Nice! New mulch and flowers will make the garden look so pretty!" She put a large red tool box in the cart and set a few pairs of working gloves on top of it. "We can use the gloves for the mulch and flowers now!"

Diamond clapped. "Perfect! What else should we look for?"

"What about paint? It would be cool to fix the house up."

"Okay!" The paint section was close, and Diamond looked around the cans. "What color should we get?"

Sloane laughed. "It has to be white."

Di pouted. "Why?"

"The color is put in by a machine. So all we can get is white." She smiled at Diamond in amusement. "Just look for one that looks in good condition."

They decided on one that only had one dent in it, and added it to their findings. "Where's Dalton?" Di asked.

Sloane shrugged. "I don't know. He went off by himself."

They found him at the other side of the store, lugging something with him. When he saw his sister, he grinned. "I found the generator."

Diamond squealed. "Yay! We'll have power!"

"Are you guys done?" Dalton sighed.

Diamond rolled her eyes and grabbed her brother's hand. "Cheer up, Dalt! We're going to be set for life here!" She forced him to skip with her, leaving Sloane with the cart. "We're going to have power in a house where no walkers can get to us!"

"We need to find a place to get food," Dalton pointed out.

"We can do that later," Diamond insisted, staying cheerful. She jumped out into the daylight, smiling in the sunshine. "I think I'm finally starting to be happy."

"I wonder why that is," Dalton muttered sarcastically. Sloane even cracked a smile.

"Oh, shut up," Di snapped, but she smiled to herself, thinking of Ellis.

Dalton took the cart and Sloane and Diamond intertwined their hands. Di infected her friend with her cheerfulness, and they began running across the parking lot, singing and chanting. They got to the truck and waited for Dalton, singing to him annoyingly.

They carefully loaded their 'groceries' into the truck. Diamond was putting in a bag of mulch, when suddenly she heard Sloane gasp and Dalton scream, "Di, look out!"

She whipped around to see a walker practically on top of her. Dalton was pushing the cart, and Sloane just looked frozen. She whipped out her gun and shot quickly. She exhaled in relief when it fell over.