As We Knew It

Chapter Two: Vita

        Driving past the grocery store was worse than I had thought it would be.

        I could see some cars parked around the back, and a dozen people by the door. They were talking to each other and looking around the door for signs of who it could have been. But when I drove by, they all turned and stared. One started to run to the car and wave their arms around calling me into the parking lot. I sped up.

        Once I passed them, I realized that they didn't look angry or threatened. Only... surprised. They probably didn't see many strangers. Especially live ones.

        At this point, I didn't know where I should try to go. Now that I had actually seen those people, they looked kind of nice. And I didn't really know what was in the woods. I was in foreign territory, and I had no clue what I was doing. The last time I was in a group, they had treated me like shit for something I had done long before. "Maybe I should go to the park and see what's there. And then decide." I said to the empty space. I pulled out the map and started to look for places that might have some things that I could use on my way to the park. The only thing that seemed useful was the hardware store and I had already been in there.

        I decided to be quick about this, I would drive to the park drive around a little bit and then decide.

        The park was not nearly as far as I thought it would be. It took barely five minutes to drive there. The suprise was how big it was. Driving up to it, I could see the over sized trees. They were huge, and would provide protection from any Dead on the ground if I got high enough. I had never actually seen one climb, just kind of run over things. 

        The distance between the trees seemed wide enough to drive through, so I carried on without getting out of my car. I got past the first few trees and realized that it would be quite dark in here. Although the trees were kind of far apart, they had a lot of foliage. This seemed way to dangerous. What if a Dead came out of no where behind me! I would never see it. It was way to dark in there to stay. I decided I would take my chances with the live ones.

        I was making my way back through town when I saw the hardware store again. I slowed to a stop, it wasn't like anyone was going to drive up behind me. I saw the girl slumped against the counter, her hand pulled up to her shoulder by the belt, a shovel sticking out of her brain. I kept driving.

        I came to the library once again. If that guy was still in there, maybe I could stay with him. If he could actually live out of a library, I would guess that he has a ton of resources and is quite well off. I pulled right up to the side of the road next to the library. The building was extremely close to the road, the stairs into the building were buuilt directly from the side walk. The Dead on this street seemed to be more focused on something farther down towards the hardware store and the park. I jumped out of the passenger side door and bound up the steps.

        When I walked into the library I realized immediately that I could no longer hear the music. The classical music that could have put me to sleep, was replaced by utter silence. I walked over to the librarians desk and didn't see anything different from when I was here earller, other than the fact that the guitar was missing.

        Maybe they went out to get something to eat. But why would they take a guitar to find something to eat? Maybe they tried to leave and someone or something got them. I don't know, it wasn't really good to dwell on someone I never even knew or let alone met.

        I kept moving, I drove to back to the grocery store. I was terrified.

        They weren't outside anymore. I looked like they hadn't fixed the cardboard, but I did realize something I hadn't before. One of the front windows was a warning against people that there were Dead inside and that no one should come in. How fucking smart.