Before the Storm

It didn't take long after I started driving down the road for Zack to finally awaken from his slumber. He seemed confused at first, as if he didn't know where he was at all. He sat up in the backseat and rubbed at his eyes before looking around and seeing that he was in the back seat of the SUV where he had originally fallen asleep. Then he saw that we were moving.

"What the hell are you doin'?!" He asked, clearly upset with me like I had assumed he would be.

"There's a town down the street a ways. I was gonna go there to get some more stuff that we'd need from a gas station or something." I explained as calmly as I could.

Zack squeezed his way in between the two front seats and sat down in the passenger seat next to me. "And you couldn't of woken me up? For Christ's sake, you don't think about things, do ya?" He asked, staring hard in my direction.

"Zack, it's just up the street! Why do you always have to be this way?" I asked, beginning to get upset, myself. I shook my head a couple times before looking back out at the road. "Besides, it's not like I would have been alone."

"Who in the hell was gonna help ya if I was asleep?" He asked gruffly, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

I nodded my head in the direction of the back seat and grinned slightly. "You need to be more observant."

He turned his head and looked back into the very back seat, seeing Madisen and her father looking back at him. I looked over and saw that Zack's cheeks were beginning to turn a slight pinkish color. I knew it was because he was embarrassed from realizing that his outburst had been in front of others instead of just between the two of us.

"Where did they come from?" He asked me, a bit quieter now.

"Madisen saw us parked on the side of the road. They were tryin' to get away just like us. Mr. Barnes was the one that told me about the town up ahead." I said, giving him his explanation.

Zack sighed, looking forward again and rested his elbow on the arm rest on the door, propping his head up on his fist. "Jaycee, ya can't just do stuff without tellin' me first."

"What do you mean I can't? I'm not a child and you're not Dad." I shot back, almost choking up at the mention of my dad.

"I don't care if I'm not Dad! I need to know what's going on. What if something happened?" He asked, beginning to get a bit worked up again. He quickly realized what he was doing, though, and quieted his voice down.

"Nothing happened."

"But what if it did?"

"Then I would have woken you up! Jesus, Zack, would ya take a freakin' chill pill?" The two of us were clearly annoyed at each other, and I could only imagine how awkward it must have been for Madisen and her Dad to see the two of us bickering the way we were.

We were quickly approaching the town, and Zack needed to be able to focus and not let his temper fog up his thought process. We didn't know what was held in this new town, I don't even think I had been here before all of this started. It was completely foreign territory to me.

I hadn't seen a single car the entire time I had been driving, and I had no idea if there were even people here. Zack leaned forward and clicked on the radio, twisting and turning the dial to try and find a news broadcast station to try and find out if there was any new information on what was going on. But the only thing that was really playing was the same automated emergency broadcast system that was playing on the television earlier in the day yesterday.

Sighing in frustration, he turned the radio back off and leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest and looking out the passenger side window at the passing scenery. Finally, we had gotten into the town and it was very unsettling that there wasn't a single person that I could see right off hand. There were no people driving, nobody walking along the side of the road; There weren't even stores open. It was as if the entire town had been abandoned over night.

"The gas station should be up ahead on the left." Mr. Barnes stated from the back. The first time he had spoken since he told me about the town earlier.

I felt so bad for both him and Madisen, having lost a mother and wife couldn't have been easy on either of them. However, I still couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of jealousy towards Madisen. At least she still had one of her parents with her ...

I pulled over into the gas station parking lot, putting the car in park and handing the keys over to Zack, who had his hand held out to me waiting for them. I was reaching for the door handle and right as I was about to get out, I felt Zack wrap his hand around my bicep and hold me back.

"What?" I asked, aggravation clear in my voice.

"You need to look around first. Make sure there's nothing around that could compromise us." Zack said, beginning to speak to me like I was one of his cadets in military training.

"There is nothing around!" I said, gesturing my hand around at the clearly open space that had not a single soul.

I shrugged off his hand and proceeded to open the door and slide out of the vehicle. Madisen and her Dad followed suit, followed by Zack coming out of the car last. He walked around the front of the car and came up next to me, handing me a rather large pocket knife.

"Where did you get this?" I asked, knowing full well that it wasn't his.

"Another thing that I saw just lying around at the refugee center 'nd though it'd come in handy." He looked over to Madisen. "Can either of you shoot?"

"Dad can." Madisen said, shrugging towards him.

Zack nodded and handed him the gun from inside the SUV. "Do you have any weapons that you guys brought with you?" Madisen shook her head no. "Alright, then you're gonna have to either stay close to one of us, or stay out here. It's your call."

"I'll come with you ... I don't want to be left alone." She admitted a bit sheepishly.

"Alright. If anything happens, you do not hesitate. You either kill, or you run." He stated, looking to all of us. "Aim for the head. It's the only thing that works."

"And don't let them bite or scratch you." Mr. Barnes spoke up. "If they bite you or scratch you, you turn."

Zack looked at him as if he was crazy, still not knowing about what Madisen had told me earlier. To be honest, I still wasn't fully on board with the whole idea of the sick people actually being dead.

"What the hell does he mean?" Zack asked quietly, leaning over closer to me.

"I'll tell you later."

He gave me a look that indicated he knew that I knew something that I wasn't telling him, but for the most part he shrugged it off and took the lead in leading us all into the abandoned gas station.

The lights were still on inside, making it a lot easier to see without any difficulties. The door creeked open rather loudly and one by one, we each stepped inside the store. Products had been strewn across the floor, shelves had been knocked over, and there was hardly anything in here that would be worth taking. But still, we had to try.

"Madisen, you and your dad go check towards the back, see if you can find anything useful." Zack spoke lowly, turning his head to look over his shoulder at the two. "Jay and I will look up front."

The two nodded their heads and Madisen followed closely behind her father, who had the gun Zack had given him drawn and at the ready. Zack then looked back at me and nodded his head for me to follow him down one of the isles.

I started picking up anything and everything that I possibly could as far as food went. With this being a convenience store, there was hardly anything aside from snack foods. I didn't even have to look to know that all of the decent foods like sandwiches and salads had been taken. Either way, even if they weren't, they were perishable and wouldn't of lasted us very long on the road.

With a few food supplies in my arms, we walked over to the drink coolers and I looked inside, seeing that there were only a couple bottles of water left, just like at the last gas station we had gone to. Once again, we were stuck settling for the teas and juices that were left behind. Once my arms were completely full of things and I couldn't possibly carry anything else, I turned on my heel and began walking up towards the front counter to grab a bag to put everything in.

Zack followed closely behind, supplies threatening to overflow from his arms as well. "I think this is about as good as it's gonna get." He mumbled, coming up next to me.

"I think so too." I stuffed some of the food into the bag before stopping and looking up at the camera that was above the window behind the counter. "I feel so weird doing this."

"Doin' what?" He asked. He looked over at me and followed my gaze up to the security camera.

"I know it shouldn't matter but I feel like I'm committing a crime by stealing this stuff." I looked down to all the stuff on the counter. Forty-eight hours ago, there would have been a cashier standing on the other side of this counter, ringing up my purchases and telling me my total. Now, that was just a memory.

Zack shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I guess it is kind of weird .. Different." He continued putting things into plastic bags that were from behind the counter, although his pace was a lot slower than before. "But it doesn't matter much anymore."

I looked over to him, knowing full well that he was right. We weren't the only ones that had done this within the past few hours, and we most likely wouldn't be the last, either. People were stealing things without paying left and right. Weather they were random strangers or employees of the store they were stealing from, it didn't matter. With the current situation, I doubt law enforcement gave much of a hoot anyway.

We continued putting the supplies into the bags, and we were about ready to head back and figure out where Madisen and her dad had gone to. This wasn't that big of a store. I picked up the bags off the table, only to have my blood run cold and my feet suddenly get cemented to the floor at the spine tingling scream that sounded from the very back of the store.

I looked to Zack momentarily, who had the same shock stricken face that I had. Not even caring anymore, I dropped the bags onto the floor and ran back to where I heard the scream coming from, knowing full well that it was Madisen.

I heard my heart pounding in my ears, and as I reached the back room of the store, my heart stopped at the sight in front of me.