To the grocery store

"We've got to get everything we can," you decide.

"I don't know," Ritter cranes his neck to see out the window. "That storm looks pretty bad."

You take a turn, slamming threw blue mailboxes someone has dragged into the street. Forgotten letters and packages fly into the air.

"We need the medicine," you reply.

You focus on driving. It's a longer haul than you expected to the grocery store and by the time you reach the lot you can see bands of rain moving over the suburbs of the city. There are also crazies out. Moving inside ruined buildings and behind wrecked cars. They're dressed in rags and have bloody faces and the yellow bruises associated with the plague.

"Crazies," Ritter notes.

"Load some rifles," you tell him. "I'm going to back us up right in front of the entrance. They may come for us."

Lone crazies lurking in the darkened grocery store can be as dangerous as the mobs that occasionally form when there are hundreds of them around. You and Ritter are obviously among the lucky ones immune to the plague, but their bites can still infect you with all sorts of horrible diseases and god forbid they subdue you. **** would be lucky.

You spin into the lot, brushing aside a trashed motorcycle with the van's bumper. A flock of pigeons flies up into the air and you see they were feasting on human corpses. There are a lot of junked cars here and a lot of crazies moving around in the lot. Not quite enough to form one of their rampaging mobs, but enough to make you worried.

"You ready?" You ask Ritter as you gun the van towards the glass entrance of the store.

"As I'll ever be," he replies and flicks the safety off an AK-47.

A crazy runs in front of you and you splatter her on the hood of the van. Her wild eyes draining of life as you slam on the brakes and spin the van around. The crazy's corpse flies clear and the back of the van crunches into the glass doors of the grocery store.

It's not a perfect seal, but it will have to do. Ritter climbs into the back and kicks open the door. It takes a few tries because it's wedged so tightly into the store's mangled door frame. You grab the M-16 Ritter loaded for you and follow him through into the darkness of the grocery store. Glass crunches under your boots.

You are in the checkout area. It seems miraculously intact, as if the doors had remained locked and untouched throughout the last days. There is a smell of decaying vegetables and rotting meat, but the stores seems to be strangely calm. Candy bars still in the racks by the checkouts, small fridges still filled with bottles of soda.

There is a pharmacy on the far right side of the store and the baby needs are nearby. Canned goods and dry goods are straight ahead. The booze and party supplies are to the left. The office and storage are in the back of the store. There might be something useful back there.

Outside you can hear a heavy rain beginning to fall. Drops drum the glass and the afternoon sky becomes dark and ominous.