“Alright, we are in and out. Only get what could be helpful to the group and don’t try to waste time looking for knick-knacks, I’m looking at you, Margaret,” I saw her face blush and Joey patted her patronistically on the shoulder. “We need feminine hygiene products, all the canned food you can carry and still run with, more wrappings and bandages, and winter clothes if you can put any on. It will suck to fight in, but hopefully, we won’t have to do that this time.” I glared at Joey, and this time Margaret patted him on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes and Emery snorted off to my right. A smaller group should be more helpful at keeping us out of trouble this time, but we had to sacrifice the amount of stuff that we could take back with us. Emery and I were going to do a quick run through the stores on the right side of the complex, Joey and Margaret were to take the left, and everyone was to meet up in the Harris Teeter grocery store in the middle when it was time to leave. Joey and Emery had mostly figured out how to hot wire one of the cars in the parking lot, so if we did have to make a fast exit, it should be easier to get down to the beach. After going over what was needed to bring back to the group, we split up with our respective partners and started our journey.

I kicked the door in and had my machete raised, ready to strike at the first thing that moved in my general direction. Emery tapped my shoulder and pointed for us to head towards the left of the store. We crept over to the clothing section, I could hear her hair swish side to side in her ponytail as she checked to make sure that our backs were fine. I stuck my hand out behind me when I heard something rustle in the back. We both held our breaths. A repetitive series of thumps was coming from one of the doors leading to the backroom. Something had to have been stuck, something that I probably didn’t want to get unstuck. I felt Emery’s lips close to my ears.

“I’m going to go to the other side of the door and open it, you go for the head. Don’t miss.” I nodded slightly and Emery started going towards the doors. The light in the room was extremely dim, I could just barely make out the outline of her purple shirt as she crept closer and closer to the back. My feet started tiptoeing behind her, heading towards the opposite side so I could come out swinging once she was out of the way. Emery placed her left hand on the doorknob and we could see the door start to bend from the weight of the freak slamming into it. I braced myself on my right leg and raised my machete up, being careful to not press my wounded hand against the hilt. Emery counted down from one on her right hand and whipped the door open as fast as she could, matching up to the zombie’s thumping. The zombie tumbled out in a flurry of rotting flesh and crumbling limbs. I swiped down at the head and the skull broke clean in half. Blood and brain matter splattered across the floor as the zombie fell. Emery had shimmied around the door and checked the back to see if any others were waiting for us in the shadows. “Ollie, we’re all clear. I think I see some winter stuff in the back, you wanna help me gather or do you wanna stay on lookout?”

“I’ll help, but I think that you should just put stuff on me and I’ll still look.” I turned around to face her, a playful simper spread across her face as she brushed a stray curl out of her face. Now that we were closer I could see those freckles again, even in this dark room.

“Sure, just don’t be so judgy about what I pick out. There isn’t anyone to impress with your outfit choice anymore.” A short laugh came from my chest, but a stinging hole seemed to start in it. I almost felt lonely at that moment, but Emery had started throwing coats at my head and there is no time for self-pity when five electric blue overcoats are being thrown at you.

We gathered as many clothes as we could. Emery was covered head to toe in women’s clothes of various sizes and I had all the men’s clothes I could fit on my persons. We walked back to back, coats rubbing against each other all the way to the door. Outside the sun shined on us and the wind nipped at our faces. Being in the chill air felt like drinking a fizzy soda and letting the sting simmer in your throat.

“Shit, Ollie, look!” I moved my head back to see what Emery was pointing to, Joey and Margaret were on the roof of Harris Teeter and swarmed by a small horde. Joey was swinging his bat around wildly, Margaret seemed to be hiding back and clutching her arm close to her chest. I scanned the building only to see a rusty ladder laying on the ground next to the half-painted sign and the dried up paint can. I booked it towards the ladder and Emery followed in suit. Emery steadied the ladder and I climbed up it as fast as I could, my hand felt numb while I was on this adrenaline high. Margaret was screaming for help and Joey let out a grunt like he was completely feral. My machete dug into the eye of a zombie once I got to the top and I swung my feet onto the roof. The ladder almost got knocked out of Emery’s hands, so I could hear her curse at me from down below. Joey swung at heads and I slashed through them, only four were left by the time Emery got up. She rushed over to Margaret. The scream that came from behind Joey and me made me stop to try and cover my ears. Joey stopped to cover his as well, and the zombie he had been fighting lunged at him. Joey jumped back and waved his arms around as he fell backward. His right arm collided with my machete and a spray of blood sprayed across us. Joey used his bat and smashed the brain of the zombie that started to fall on top of him using his right arm, and Emery threw her knife at the eye of another one. Two were left. Emery ran over to Joey, and I cut through the neck of one charging towards us. One. The creature shuffled toward me at an irregular pace. I drew my left arm back and swung it at the head as hard as I could, my right foot stepping forward and my hand curving in towards myself as I completed the arch. The head rolled to my feet and the dots started dancing across my vision. My forehead was drenched in sweat and my glasses were starting to slip off of my nose. Margaret was crying, she had been for a while but it seems like it was only audible after the living corpses had stopped making noise. Emery was on the ground next to Joey, she tried wrapping up the arm in one of the coats, the rest of hers had been discarded and pushed to the side. Emery looked up at me and there was fear in her eyes. This was bad. This was really fucking bad. I threw my machete to the ground and started to scoop up Joey. My knees cracked a little under the pressure, but with blood and adrenaline rushing in my ears I could only feel the sensation.

“Margaret, grab my machete and hold the ladder. Emery, get the coats and the bags Joey and Margaret collected if you can. I’m gonna go down the stairs to get him down. I’m gonna run and hightail it until I get to the other side. You guys have to be ready for me to be followed by a bunch of those nasty fuckers. I think we have some supplies at camp. It’ll be ok. This is not where we are gonna lose someone.” Joey groaned in agreement. His torso started wiggling out of my grasp, and I had to let him get back down.

“No, Oliver, fuck the ladder. I think that I can make it to the end of the store, I just gotta run with my arm close to my chest. Emery and Margaret need to go in front of me and you should stay behind. Margaret popped her arm out of place, and I don’t think that she should be trusted to swing a bat around or some shit. I need my bat, and we can go down the stairs. I think we killed all of the zombies on the main floor, so we just gotta make it to Southern Trapper Beach.” Emery and I looked at each other. Both of our looks were grim. Margaret was on the brink of hyperventilating. I imagine that she felt guilty, but if we didn’t start moving soon I was going to have to drag Joey the rest of the way to the beach.

“Let's go.” Emery gestured for Margaret to follow her and they started down the stairs, a light jog was going to be our pace through the store. Joey nodded towards me and I reciprocated the action. We started going down the stairs, each step seemed painful for him. God, I really fucking hated raids.