A Will To Survive

Chapter 2

The glass door swung open and two figures ran in, weapons raised. The sight was disturbing. Boxes were strewn over the floor, spilled food everywhere. The girl’s foot stepped on some stale cereal, causing it to crunch. Michael started over to the registers, trying to see if there was anything still edible. Sonja walked down the canned food aisle, realizing how stupid people are. There were so many cans on the shelves, but all of the perishable items had been taken. Sonja started to load the food into her backpack when she heard a noise. She raised her crossbow, and spun around. A zombie reached through the cans on the opposite side. It had been trapped behind the shelves. She decided to leave it, and collected more cans. Once her bag was full, she found a few baskets. Sonja loaded the majority of cans into the baskets, and hid them in the back room, behind rows and rows of boxes.

“We should camp here for a bit,” Michael said. “You found a lot of food, I got some water, there"s probably more in the back, the place seems mostly zombie free. We could survive for a while.” The girl agreed, and the pair headed into the storage area, where they had the food. The teens set up a camp, on top of the stacks of drinks, and started eating. It was around lunchtime so they were hungry. They chowed down on beans and corn. “We should stop, if we keep eating, then we’ll have no food by the time we leave this place,” Sonja said, putting her hand over her friend’s can, shielding him from eating more of the food.

As Sonja slept, Michael kept watch. He had his gun aimed at the door, incase anyone tried to come in. He looked over at his companion. It was her turn to take watch, but she looked tired. He watched her breath, her chest rising up and down. She looked as if nothing was wrong, besides all of the dirt. He decided not to wake her, and continued on, staring at the door. In the middle of the night, just as Michael was about to wake Sonja, there was a loud bang. The noise made Sonja stir, awaking. “What was that!?” she asked, hair in a rats’ nest. “I don"t know,” Michael replied, as he started to climb down from their sleeping post.

Sonja and Michael looked around, trying to figure out what the noise was. Then the noise rang out again. “That sounds like a gunshot!” Michael cried, running towards the doors. He peered out, from the glass, into the rest of the super market. There was another group, only three. One adult, a teenager, and a younger child. The child was crying, it looked like he was bleeding. The adult, a woman started shooting at the zombies pouring in. Michael opened up the doors. “IN HERE!” he shouted. The family noticed, and ran towards him, Sonja saw what he was doing, and thought he was crazy. Once the family ran in, Michael bolted the doors behind him, preventing from any zombies getting in.

“Thank you so much,” the mom said, grabbing Michael’s hand. Michael was conversing with the family, Sonja stood on their bed area, crossbow ready. The younger child was still crying. Sonja noticed his arm was covered in red. Michael didn’t seem to notice, but the teenager, a boy kept telling his brother to be quiet, but the child responds, “It hurts.” Sonja thought she knew what was going on, and jumped down from her perch, startling the mother. As Sonja walked over, she grabbed the kid by the shirt. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” The mother shouted at her. Sonja lifted the arm of the shirt up, revealing a bite wound. “He’s been bitten. We can either cut off his arm, or kill him.” She looked at the boy. “How long has it been since you were bitten?” The boy responded with a quick “I don"t know” before falling on the floor.

Michael dove down, checking for a pulse but got nothing. The mom started to cry, and the teen stared blankly. The boy started seizing, and then stopped. His fingers twitched, and then his eyes opened. “You’re alive!” the mom shouted, hugging her child. At that moment, the young boy bit his mother on the shoulder. He had become a zombie. Blood poured out of the mom’s shoulder, covering her clothes in a bright red. Sonja shot the boy with an arrow. Then stared at the mom. “Sorry,” she said, before stabbing her.

The last remaining member of the family stared blankly. Then he started to cry. Michael comforted him, drying his tears. After he was done crying, he stared out the door. All that he could see was zombies, trying to break through the glass. “You can stay with us if you want.” Sonja said, feeling bad for the kid. The teen nodded, then replying with, “My name is Tom.” “I’m Michael.” The green eyed boy replied. “And that’s Sonja.” Tom went over to talk to Sonja. “So, how long have you guys been here?” he asked. “About a day or two,” she replied, pushing her hair out from her eyes, as she climbed up the boxes. “So, how do you guys run this thing?” he asked, curious. “One of us sleeps while the other keeps watch.”

As the now trio ate, the banging of zombies on the glass was growing louder. “We need to do something about them,” Michael stated, a bit of juice on his face, trickling down his chin. “We will, but do you know how to use a knife?” Sonja asked, turning to Tom “Yeah..I’m pretty good with one.” He replied. “Well, that’s what we’re doing now.” Sonja said, leaping off, Michael climbed down, followed by Tom. “Ok, when I say now, we open it, but close it quickly, so we can control it.” Sonja stated, knife at the ready. Tom walked over to the door, and undid the lock. He opened it, and immediately five zombies poured through. “SHUT IT!” Michael shouted. Tom immediately slammed the door shut, as Sonja and Michael killed the five zombies. “Again,” Sonja said, wiping the blood on her jeans.

It was early morning by the time the trio had cleared out the store. They were all covered in blood. Sonja had fallen asleep on top of the boxes, shortly after they had finished. Tom repeatedly told himself to not fall asleep. “Maybe, we should go look for clothes?” He asked, looking at Michael, then eyeing Sonja. The girl was very tired, as she should be, killing most of the zombies last night. She was covered in blood and dirt. It was mid-day when Sonja finally woke. As she sat up, she noticed Michael and Tucker had been talking the whole time. “Morning sleeping beauty,” Michael said. Sonja’s hair was, once again, extremely messy. She started tending to it, staring at her reflection through the plastic wrapping on the packages.

Once everyone was set, Tom posed his idea. “Now that we have food, water, and shelter, why don’t we look for some clothes?” Michael had already heard this, but he liked the idea. Sonja immediately took to it. “That’s a great idea,” she replied. Tom knew a few stores that sold something clothes related. The nearest place was a thrift shop, so they decided to go there first. Upon entering, you couldn’t tell anything had gone wrong. Everything was neat, a little dusty, but nothing was broken. There was only one zombie in the entire store! Michael made quick work of it with his knife. The three started roaming around, finding different items. Michael made it out with a black Gibson guitar sweatshirt, dark jeans, and a “The Who” t shirt. Tom kept his main style, but got a new grey t shirt, and some new jeans. The logo on the shirt was for an electric company. Sonja went all out, since she hadn’t changed since the apocalypse started. She changed into a dark pair of jeans and a dark blue sleeveless shirt. She didn’t change out from her combat boots, as no one else changed their shoes. Sonja did one thing different though. She found hair ties, and put her hair into a ponytail.

Sonja slung her crossbow around her shoulder, and Michael holstered his pistol. The three now had new clothes, and were quite happy. As they were walking out, they noticed a car. It had been parked near a dumpster. The car did look as if it had been there for a while. Tom ran to it, and noticed it still had gas. They got in, and Michael started it up. The car whirred to life. “Yeah!” The three teens said, high fiving. Michael drove off, leaves flying behind. Once they arrived at the supermarket, they parked the car, hidden from view. Then the three set back into their little area, Sonja taking first watch.

When it was finally Tom’s watch, he looked at Michael as the teen fell asleep. Once he was finally asleep. Tom left from the sleeping area and decided to walk around. He noticed a series of boxes, some of them covered in a red liquid. He lifted one up, and saw two dead bodies. One of the bodies was his mother, and the other was his little brother. He threw the box back down, and ran back to where his two new friends were sleeping. He grabbed Sonja’s backpack and looked through it, trying to find a lighter. He found a box of matches and lit one, throwing it at the boxes. The match struck the cardboard, setting it ablaze immediately. The smell of smoke immediately woke Michael, who saw the blaze, running towards Tom. Michael saw what Tom was doing, and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Sonja had now awoken from the commotion, and ran towards the two boys.