Caz

Another half an hour went by. They could see the town in the horizon, and it looked dead. It was a strange sight, almost like you could see that no one was living there, like a veil of emptiness was covering the whole town. It didn’t bode well in Caz’s mind, but he didn’t say anything, yet he could sense the others also seemed uneasy. That was when they could hear a car nearby, coming from the direction of where they came from. 

They hurried into the forest and quickly went behind some thick bushes. They had been walking on the edge of the road, to be as close to the forest as possible in case someone would come along and they were grateful they had, because those who drove by didn’t look like people you would want to meet. The car slowed down a little as they drove by and Caz knew they had either spotted them, or noticed something in the distance but wasn’t sure what it was, so they were scanning the area. Caz’s heart was beating fast, but he kept still and so did the others.

Then they speeded up again and drove off towards the town, and it was like all of them exhaled at the same time. Caz looked after the car, it was a dark green jeep, beaten up by probably driving through zombies or maybe even humans, and had a huge sticker of an American flag on the back bumper. They had three people sitting in the car, one driving and two with rifles from what Caz managed to see. All of them were men in the age of probably 35-40. Heather looked almost shaken when he glanced at her, like she was experiencing something traumatic, and he decided to distract her.

“We should wait here, or maybe go deeper into the forest where we can still keep an eye on the road but be out of sight. I don’t want to meet with those guys for now, so we should take a break, get something to eat and then get going,” Caz said, and they all agreed. 

They went further into the forest and found a fallen tree and sat down on it. They placed their bags onto the ground and the kid had woken up from her nap, though Caz found it impressive she had been sleeping so deeply, that she hadn’t woken up by the sound of the car or when they hid behind the bushes. She was groggy, probably because she was hungry or thirsty.

“Let’s get something to eat,” Caz said and looked at the others for confirmation. Heather nodded a little tightlipped and found a granola up from her bag, but looked at the kid and wasn’t sure what to do with her. Caz glanced at Keith, who shrugged a little uncertain, then let out a silent sigh.

“You can have some of our food, do you think the kid can eat SpaghettiOs?” Caz asked Heather who nodded slightly uncertain.

“Yeah I think so,” she replied, then quickly added, “thanks.” Caz dug out his camping stove and opened a can of SpaghettiOs in tomato sauce, then started to heat it up. They sat in silence, waiting for the food to heat. Luckily Keith had taken both a fork and a spork, so he gave the spork to Heather so she could feed the kid and used his own fork to empty his own can of chili beans he heated up afterwards. Caz had taken a can of cut green beans, which he didn’t enjoy one second off. It was bland and could use some sauce or meat and would probably have been better in a pot mixed with something, or fried, but he decided to eat it in silence. Heather had her own water bottle she shared with the kid, but there wasn’t much in it, so Keith gave her one of his bottles. Caz frowned a little because he wasn’t even sure if they were going to travel together for long, and now they were going to be one bottle short, but then again, they did have those water filters so they could take water from running creeks or rivers.

After they had all ate, and the kid seemed pleased with the food and water she had gotten, they all went out to the road again, but kept close to the trees this time as they headed towards the town. They hadn’t seen the green jeep return and thought that maybe they either just moved on to the next town or area, which could mean that there was nothing to get from the town, or it could also mean there was so much, that it was taking them time to fill up the car with all the stuff, which were unlikely.

As they walked they didn’t say anything, except the kid was babbling along. Heather looked uncomfortable having her sitting on her bag but didn’t complain otherwise. Caz looked at the kid and wondered how old it was. It hadn’t been talking with words, so it couldn’t be much older then two, but then again, it could have learning issues which means it could be older but not really able to speak. He wondered what they were going to do with it, if they ended up traveling together. Were they going to get diapers? And how many? And would they be able to carry it at all? Thinking about the responsibility of the kid made Caz’s mood sour.

While walking Keith suddenly stopped, then back tracked a little before he stopped again, looking into the forest. Caz looked confused at him and decided to go to him to see what he was looking at.

“What is it?” he asked Keith who was squinting, as if it was going to help him see better.

“Is that a train car?” Keith asked and pointed in the direction of the forest. Caz looked into the forest and decided to take a few steps forward. He wasn’t sure what Keith had seen until he could see something that did indeed look like a passenger car of a train, or more three of them. They all had open doors and looked like they had been there since the beginning of it all, with plants growing on the side of the train, slowly swallowing it, and some of the windows were broken, probably because of the weather.

“I think it is,” Caz said. The train had seen its better days, but if they couldn’t find anything in the town, they could rest here, since it was very hard to spot from the road, and Caz was impressed with how Keith even noticed it.

“If the town is a bust, we could return here and rest up before we go off. Which means we should see if the mall has road maps, it could help us in the long run,” Caz suggested. Keith nodded with a smile.

“We could also see if they have hiking maps, they can be quite useful as they show trails, those big maps can’t show, plus some of them even tells where the best place to sleep is or where there is water you know,” Keith said. Caz nodded with a smile and looked back at Heather who had joined Keith.

“Ok, so maps of different kinds, depending on what they have, diapers for the kid,” he said which made the others look at the kid in realization, then back at Caz. “Then more food, maybe something that could help you carry the kid easier, maybe a backpack for you Heather instead of that shoulder bag, whatever necessary thing the kid might need, and water,” Caz finished. It was a lot of things, but most of the things were honestly just something for Heather, since he guessed she didn’t have much, especially nothing for the kid, and he rather not having to deal with a bored fuzzy dirty diaper kid.

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When they reached the outskirts of the town, they moved slowly and quietly around the buildings, avoiding the main road. What they thought was a mall with all kinds of things, was just a couple of clothes stores, a jewelry store, a semi big Walmart and a baby store. When they had reached the mall, Caz noticed the green jeep abandoned. He decided to go over to it and look inside and he saw nothing. No humans, no zombies and no items. It was like they had left the car and either moved on in a different car, or something had happened with them, and they had returned.

“Maybe they are still inside the mall, gathering things?” Keith asked in a whisper. Caz shook his head, frowning. Something was off but he wasn’t sure what it was. The other cars that were in the parking lot had smashed windows or the doors were open, which was expected since it was the apocalypse, but it was just so quiet. Caz could never get used to see towns empty like this and he did his best to keep his focus on the mall. 

They went through the front door which was made of mostly glass and was smashed open. They stepped inside, the glass crunching under their feet as they looked around. It was dark, and Caz wondered if he should take out his flashlight until he could see light further down. He frowned and held a hand up, telling the others to stop and then he pointed at the light.

Keith instantly looked uneasy and held tightly onto his bat. Caz pulled out his handgun and held it ready. Heather pulled out the crowbar but looked hesitant as she still had the kid with her.

They moved slowly through the dark mall, keeping an eye on their surroundings and listening for sounds, but it was quiet, which mean no groaning zombies or screams of someone dying. When they reached the light, they saw it was a flashlight on the ground, lighting up the surrounding area, but the owner of the flashlight wasn’t there.

Caz glanced at Keith and nodded in the direction of the flashlight. He went over to it and he held his bat in one hand and picked it up slowly, as if it could be a trap. But even though he had picked it up, there was no sound, no groaning, no sudden rumble of feet rushing toward them, so they decided that maybe they had run off in a hurry, leaving the flashlight behind. Why though Caz wasn’t sure but he rather hurry get what they need and then leave, then figure out why no one else was here. 

First stop was the baby store, where Heather found a three diaper packages, in different sizes, one in perfect size and the two others were larger. She held them in the handle as they moved around in the store, Keith kept an eye on their rear in case someone would ambush them from behind. They found a carrier Heather could have the kid, so she could carry her on her back, then they found a few soundless toys, to not attract others, and a couple of pacifiers. 

Then they went to the Walmart which was bare of items. They would have to be lucky to find anything, but they searched high and low and found two cans of beans, one chicken soup and one can of apples. They did also find beaten up cans of food but decided not to take a chance on them. Then Heather found some clothes, and a backpack, which wasn’t the greatest but better then what she already had and stuffed the clothes into it, along with her shoulder bag, which as Caz thought, was empty enough that it wasn’t a problem. They decided she could always empty her shoulder bag at some other time, since they rather want to get out of there, then stay a second longer.

As they exited the store and headed towards the entrance, a strange sound could be heard from the distance. In the darkest part of the mall, furthers away, a sound of something being dragged could be heard and the group froze in their spot. To Caz it sounded like a zombie, dragging it’s body along the floor but what appeared was a man, in his mid-thirties, with blood dripping out from his legs as he dragged himself along the floor. His face was pale and scared, and Caz could understand why. He was missing half his legs, he had bite marks all over him and when he opened hiss mouth, blood gushed out of the missing tongue. Heather gasped loudly and Keith cursed under his breath and turned as he fought against throwing up. Caz’s blood froze to ice and his fight and flight response was screaming at him to run, run as fast and far away as he could. What ever had made the man like that, was not something Caz wanted to meet.

But it was to late. Behind him was a bony, leathery zombie, which looked like a dried-up mummy, except, this one had a mouth so huge, it could swallow a kids head whole, and long unnatural boney fingers with nails as sharp as a tiger claws. Was this another abominable zombie? Or did the person already looked like that before it turned into a zombie? The zombie opened it’s white pale eyes and stared at the group before it suddenly screamed.