Day 2, Part 1
As the sun rose, it shone into Shanna’s room, causing her to squeeze her eyes tightly shut. She brought her hand up to cover her face, not wanting to get up yet. After a few minutes of laying there in silence, she finally started to wake up and realized she wasn’t the only one in her bed. She opened one eye and peeked over, seeing her sister lying next to her, still sound asleep. She smiled to herself and shook her head; it had been a long time since Jessica had snuck into her room to sleep. She sat up and nudged her shoulder gently, “Jess, wake up…” Jessica shook her shoulder, and nuzzled at her pillow, mumbling something Shanna couldn’t understand. Laughing she shook her again, not as gentle as before, “Come on we have to get up and get ready. You can’t lie around in /my/ bed all day,” she said. After making several whiney sounds Jessica finally opened her eyes and looked at her, “Do we really have to get up /right now/? The suns barely up.” She rolled her eyes and stood up, walking to her closet to pick out some clothes, “Yes right now. Get up lazy bones,” she said looking over her shoulder smiling at her. As she threw the blankets off of herself, Jessica grumbled something else unintelligible and Shanna laughed to herself. “Go get dressed,” she said, “I’ll meet you downstairs.” Yawning loudly, Jessica walked to the door, letting herself out and going to her own room.
Once she had gotten dressed, she opened her door; she could hear her father and David downstairs getting everything ready for them to go. Jessica met her in the hallway and they walked down the stairs together. Joe smiled at them as they came downstairs, “Go in the kitchen and get something to eat real quick, we’re almost ready to go.” They both nodded and walked into the kitchen, their mother had already dished them out some peaches into two small bowls. “Peaches Mom…” Shanna said, scrunching up her nose. “I know you don’t like them, but it’s what we got. I promise lunch will be better,” she said smiling. She sighed, and took a seat next to Jessica and they both ate quickly.
By the time they had finished David and Joe already had bags in the car to pick up supplies and Joe was making sure the guns all had bullets. Once he was satisfied he came into the kitchen, looking at the girls, “We ready then?” he asked. They all looked at each other and nodded, getting up and walking to the door. Just as she was about to walk out of the house a thought hit her, “I’ll be right back,” she said running up the stairs to her room. She opened up her closet door and pulled out a wooden baseball bat. She hadn’t played in years, but she figured it could come of some use now. She came back down the stairs and her father slightly laughed, “Just what are you gonna do with that?” he asked. “Well use it if I need to of course,” she said matter of factly and walked out the door.
Her father had already sent everyone else out to get into the car. Lynn of course was sitting up front, so Shanna would have to share the backseat with David and Jessica. Luckily Jessica had been nice enough to take the middle seat so she wouldn’t have to sit by David. She’d have to remember to thank her for that later. She climbed into the back seat and laid the bat across her lap. David leaned up and looked over at her, “What the hell’s that for?” he asked. Not looking at him she answered, “To knock you out with if you get too annoying.” Jessica shook with laughter between them, and he growled under his breath looking out the window. As her father got into the car Shanna looked up to see her mother was hiding a smile as well. Her father, oblivious to what had just happened, started the car and head toward the highway.
The drive started off easy enough. There were only a few stranded cars on the road, but the closer they got to the highway, the more condensed it seemed to become. Several times her father had to drive over the medium to the other side of the road to continue on. Shanna and Jessica stared out the windows, pointing out random things to each other. They saw several lone walkers along the way, but it was nothing for them to be concerned about. The ride was mostly silent; Jessica and Shanna talked to each other in hushed whispers. Shanna looked up to the front of the car and saw her parents holding hands. She smiled to herself and thought that apart from David being there, this could’ve been like any other day before this whole mess had happened.
She looked back out the window as her father slowed the car to a stop outside of a grocery store. She looked around, not recognizing the town, but glad that it looked to be deserted. Her father glanced at her mother, then back to them, “David and I are gonna run inside real quick and make sure its safe. Stay here til one of us comes out ok?” The girls nodded simultaneously, and he and David got out the car, weapons drawn, and went inside the store. The women sat in the car silently; Shanna fidgeted with the bat on her lap as she waited. They were only inside for several minutes, but it felt like hours. Finally, her father stepped outside the doors, waving at them to come inside.
They all looked at each other before throwing their doors open and walking to the store. As they reached the doors Joe stepped aside letting them in, “I’ll be right back,” he said, “have to get the bags.” They nodded as they walked inside, it was dark, but there was enough light from outside that they could see well enough. David was inside, sitting on one of the check-out lines. They stood just inside the door waiting for Joe to return with the bags so they could begin grabbing supplies. He returned seconds later, giving a bag to each of them. “Find as much as you can, stick together, don’t go outside alone,” he said making eye contact with each of them. David took his bag and disappeared down to the far side of the store. Joe and Lynn looked at one another, before taking each other’s hands and headed down to the other end of the store. Jessica and Shanna looked at each other, “Guess we have the middle,” Jessica said. Shanna nodded and they walked down the center aisle.
They had picked a good aisle to start with; it was full of canned goods. Jessica filled her bag first, just throwing everything in, while Shanna was pickier about what she grabbed. “Would you hurry /up/!” Jessica whined. Shanna shook her head, silently grabbing things and putting them in her bag. Jessica sighed dramatically, “I’m gonna go wait for you by the door, this is fucking heavy.” She nodded, “Alight, I’ll be up there in a few…”
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The alley next to the grocery store was blocked in by a chain length fence; behind that fence was a group of walkers. Before the town had been deserted, someone had opened the metal door and managed to herd the walkers inside, before latching the door behind them. Though the countless times the walkers had crashed into the fence had weakened the hinges. It hadn’t been built to withstand such constant pressure.
They couldn’t make up what the sounds were when the car had pulled up, didn’t recognize the sound of car doors slamming, or people talking. But the sounds drove them crazy, and they wanted out of the alley. Even after the sounds disappeared they continued pressing themselves against the fence. Not knowing what was holding them back; they would back up and walk into again. Finally the pressure was too much, and the small hinges of the door gave way. The first few walkers fell out of the alley onto the ground, after that they all filed out into the street.
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