I let the tears slide down my cheeks as we all mourned in our own way. Seeing Rita, one of the kindest people in our group hit the ground as a bitter, made my heart ache. She started to crawl towards Bev, who started to freak out when I grabbed her, pulling her back and away from the bitter. Paul ended her, standing over her with tears in his eyes. Lisa swung on the door, using her weight to close the door back up with a slam. Karen raised her head, looking at Lisa, who climbed down the ladder.

"We should get going. That sound might have attracted everything in hearing range." Karen said, glaring at Lisa. Lisa shook her head. I mean, that was the only way she was going to get down without getting hurt, even though she may have put the rest of the group back in danger.

Bev grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze. I looked at her and smiled. She was a great person, Beverly I mean. She was kind, and she cared so much about everyone, even if she barely knew them. We walked on, even though half of our group was slower than normal. Paul took up the rear as Karen and Lisa led us towards the city where the bitters had just come from.

"Do you think there's anywhere out here that's safe?" Bev asked me and I shook my head.

"To be honest, for right now and at this time, no." I said, and she frowned.

"Shouldn't we have a little hope?" She questioned and I smiled.

"Hope died when the bitters were created, and so did the whole city." I said and she looked away. We neared a few vehicles when Lisa hopped into a small car. Bev pulled me towards it, practically dragging me behind her. She had a lot of spunk; I liked that about her. Bev opened the back door and got inside, pulling me inside with her. Blake got into the front seat and closed the door the same time I closed the back door. Blake stared at me through the rear view mirror and I looked at Bev, trying to start a conversation.

"I'm hungry." I said and she laughed a little. Blake pulled his bag into his lap and sifted through the items inside. He pulled out a bag of something and threw it back at us. Bev squealed when she saw what was in the bag.

"Here, now stop complaining." He said, and I smiled at him with a devious smile. I looked for the hole in the bag and shoved my hand in, grabbing a marshmallow. I handed the bag to Bev who took out four puffy little mellows, trying to shove them all in her mouth at the same time.

"That's attractive, now don't be greedy and save some for the driver!" Lisa said, who turned around and snatched the bag from Bev. She took one and popped it in her mouth, and put another one on her lap, handing the bag to Blake and smiling.

"Thank you." Lisa said, smiling.

"Yha, Hannkk Huu!" Bev said, her mouth still full. Lisa laughed and I smiled. Bev actually looked ridiculous. She smiled back at me, her cheeks full. We sat there for another moment and looked at the truck next to us.

"What are they waiting for?" Blake questioned, not to anyone particular, but I think he wanted Lisa to answer. There was definitely something going on between those two. I think it was the way Blake looked at Lisa, with lust or love I wasn't sure. Before Lisa could answer, Bev did.

"Maybe they're looking for a route. Jack has tons of maps in his pack, and I know because he made me read them when I rode with them last." She said, finally having finished all the marshmallows in her mouth so she could speak like a human being again.

"I never knew how to read a map, Jack taught me because he wanted me to know in case anything happened to him." She continued. Before anyone else could speak, I thought of something interesting.

"Maybe she wants you to lead?" I said, and Lisa looked back at me. She shrugged then got out of the car, and walked over to the truck. Karen rolled down her window and chatted with Lisa quickly, then Lisa came back and got back in. She did up her seat belt and Bev did the same.

"Kye you were right, she asked me where we should go to today, so I told her to follow me." She said and I nodded. Blake looked at her with concern.

"Where are we going then?" He questioned when Bev tensed up. Lisa looked back at Bev, who made a face. Something didn't feel right. There was definitely something going on that I didn't know about. Lisa gave her a look of concern then nodded. Blake looked back at me, with one of his eye brows raised in confusion. I shrugged, neither of us having a clue to what was going on.

"We're going to a store." Lisa said finally, then put the car in reverse, backing up. I looked at Bev, who kept tensing up all of a sudden, then stopped. I continued to worry.

"Bev, are you okay?" I whispered and she nodded.

"Yea, everything's fine." She whispered, nodding her head in response as well.

Lisa sped the rest of the way into town, zig zagging around motionless cars and flying through intersections. Karen drove Jack's truck carefully behind us, keeping up with Lisa. We went across town, until we came upon a large grocery store.

We pulled into the parking lot, where there were only about fifteen cars parked. Lisa put the car into park and unbuckled herself, getting out of the car. Bev did the same, hopping out. Blake and I got out as well, both of us still morbidly confused. Karen pulled up next to us and got out.

"What the hell are we doing here? This is a waste of time! There's going to be tons of bitters in there!" Karen said, getting out of the car.

"We needed to get a few things, so I took us to the grocery store with the least amount of cars in the parking lot." Lisa said and Karen shook her head.

"We should go somewhere smaller, this is a really big risk." Karen said, when Lisa walked up to her, whispering something into her ear. Karen's face changed, and flushed red. Lisa took a few steps back and Karen nodded.

"Okay, only a few of us are going to make the run. Lisa, Bev and myself will do it. We don't want to put too many of the group in danger." Karen said, and I shook my head.

"I should come, I'm small and fast, I could help!" I said, Paul coming forwards as well.

"No. We'll do this alone. If we're not back out in twenty minutes, Kye can come get us. If he doesn't come out, Paul, Cindy, Jack, Maggy... Leave and don't look back." Karen said and Paul nodded, agreeing with her every word. I could tell Paul was unhappy about the fact that we all weren't going in, but he didn't voice it.

~~~

Paul and I sat on the hood of Lisa's car, chatting about different things from before.

"Which High School did you attend?" Paul questioned and I smiled, rolling my eyes.

"Tom Collegiate." I said and he winced, shaking his head.

"That school was rough back in my day," Paul said and I shrugged.

"Still was when I was going. A few days before the shit hit the fan, a kid was stabbed and sent to the hospital." I said and he laughed.

"Classic Tom. Another place that used to be bad was this club off of Dewdney called Gabbos. A lot of us nicknamed it Stabbos." Paul chuckled and scratched his arm, still in the sling.

"When did you hurt your arm?" I questioned as I looked over the ragged sling.

"A few weeks ago. I'm planning on taking damn thing off tomorrow." Paul said when his watch beeped; the timer he had set was already done. We looked at each other, unaware of how the time had passed.

I looked over at Maggy who nodded at me, signaling me to go in.

It had been twenty minutes already and they weren't back. I started to worry about Bev and the others. I hoped to heaven and back that they were okay. I was scared for their lives and mine. If I go in and walk into a hoard or a trap, there's no going back. Jack, Maggy, Cindy and Paul will leave. I looked back at Paul who nodded, starting another timer.

I walked in through the front door, which was propped open by a shoe. These had once been electric powered automatic doors, but now they were just as useless as a sweater with holes in the middle of winter in Canada.

It was dark, but the multiple windows around the store kept it light enough to see. There wasn't much left on the shelves throughout the store. There were smashed glass containers covering the floor in one isle, in another, old blood stains splattered the floor and shelves. I didn't dare breath through my nose, knowing that all I would smell would be mold and iron. I was walking down isle 7 when a noise at the end made me hide. I was in the toilet paper isle, and hid behind a stack of toilet paper that went just above my head.

I guess during the crazy first few days, no one thought of grabbing toilet paper. I pulled a knife from my belt and cut a hole into the plastic bag, pulling out two rolls and shoved them into my bag. You never know when you might need something.

A bitter passed me by, when I came up behind it and stabbed a hole into its head. I would have left it be, but if I did, it would have been much worse later. I heard a signature squeal, and something hit the ground. The others might be in trouble.

I ran down an isle, not sure in what direction to go in. I stopped dead when I saw a body a few yards away. From the lighting, it looked like a young girl with blonde hair.

Oh no, please no, I thought, walking slowly up to the body. I held my breath, and turned her over, letting the breath out after, sighing in relief. Just a random bitter.

I walked down another isle, when I finally saw Bev sitting on the floor staring at some boxes. There was definitely something wrong though. Where were the others? Lisa came around the other corner with a bag of chips in her hand, smiling. Karen was walking behind her, something in her hands.

I walked up to the girls and Bev looked at me with wide eyes. She stood up, then I noticed that she had put on different pants. Her other pants were thrown to the side, something stained down the legs. I was going to walk over, when Karen shook her head, and I stopped, walking over to Bev. Bev was now wearing black kakis instead of blue jeans. Karen shoved a few boxes of chocolates into Bev's bag and patted her on the back. Karen looked at me and held up a finger to her mouth, then pointed to her ear. I listened for a few seconds and could hear the moans coming from somewhere in the store.

I looked at Bev with a confused look and then at Lisa who pointed to the back of her wrist. I turned my head to the side, giving her a confused look, when she pointed to her stomach, then back at her wrist. I still didn't get it.

We grabbed as many cans as our bags could carry, and I even grabbed two bags from the tills and filled them up with cream of mushroom and broccoli soup. That stuff was my favorite, and would be one of those things that you could put on a list that if I ever could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, that's what I would pick.

Bev and Karen walked out of the store, when Bev grabbed me by the arm. She pulled out a watch from her pocket, then pointed back down to her stomach. I shrugged when she got behind me and turned me around, to look at the floor. There was a pool of old crusty drying blood on the ground. I looked at her, and she pointed back to her stomach.

Oh... I got it now...

We walked out of the store, catching up with the rest. Paul ran up to Karen and gave her a hug.

"The old man wanted to leave you guys in there, but I wanted to come get you." He said, then his face dropped when he looked back at the store.

"We need to go, now!" He said, running back to the car. Why was he running?

I looked back behind us and saw the hoard of undead coming from the store.

Holy cow. Thank God we didn't run into them back inside the store!

Lisa and I ran back to the car, getting in and slamming the doors, Bev hopped in, practically jumping into my lap, and I made a face. Blake looked back at me and smiled.

Lisa threw the car into reverse and slammed the gas peddle, doing a 180 turn, when she flipped it back into drive and sped off, the truck following us closely behind as we sped off.

"Where are we going now?" Bev questioned and I looked up at Lisa. Bev crawled back into the seat next to me, and laid her head on my shoulder.

"We're going back to my old house. It's only fair since we went to Maggy and Jack's that I host the next group sleepover." She said, trying to make the situation seem better than it really was.

Bev frowned and I smiled. I would finally be able to sleep in a bed or on a couch again. I can say that it was way better than sleeping on the ground outside, always having to get up in the middle of the night to move to somewhere more safe. Now that we were one group instead of two, it would be easier to go to someones house and sleep safely for the night.

We pulled up to a quaint little brick house and drove into what I assumed was Lisa's driveway, and got out. Lisa sat in the car for a moment, staring up at the house. The others parked on the street next to her on the driveway, getting out as well. Lisa continued to stare at the house, obviously deep in thought or caught up in all the memories. She then found her composure and stepped out of the car, walking up to the house. She pulled out a brick from the wall and turned it around, pulling a key out of the back of it. She walked up to the door, opened it, and entered as the rest of us followed behind her.