Chapter five - The plan

 “All clear”.

 The scout drone flies out of the supermarket window, as soon as it lands, Larry shove it into his bag.

 The supermarket door is an automated glass door, strong and large.

“Are you sure there's no one inside?” Eddy asks.

Larry shook his head. “I scouted every corner.”

“How do we get in?” Xiao asks.

“Through the window like the drone” I say.

Larry chuckled

“The window is too small for people to fit in, this door It's an automated door, and now that there's no power supply, it'll be difficult to get in.”

Mel corks her rifle.” Then we'll just shoot our way in”

Larry move away from the door and gunshots echo severally but nothing change, the door is still erect, despite several shots.

“This is such a thick one,” I say as I placed my hand on the glass. Mel's bullet did not even leave a dent on it.

 “Step back!”

We all move away from the door as Eddy placed a grenade close to the glass, he rush and dived away from it. 

The intensity of the blast made me wonder how many daywalkers will be heading to our direction. I turn to Mel who's covered in glass particles.

“Your neck,” Xiao whispers. 

"Shit." Mel grunts and pull the sharp glass puncture on her skin, blood spurt out of her wound, but it heals almost immediately. I wonder how many wound we'll sustain if not for our mutation.

As soon as the noise subdue, we got up and faced the shattered door. Without wasting time, we all march in. 

My heart filled with joy as I sight what I needed at the moment — food.

 I bolted down the aisle and grabbed some cookie pack. I tore the pack with my teeth, shoving a handful of cookies into my dry mouth, after four gulps. I stand up and grabbed a canned soda at the opposite side, the refreshing feeling is inexpressible as it flows down my throat.

“This is a lot of item, if I'm not mistaken, this can last us for a year or two”. Larry says, as he grab a bottle of coke and emptied it down his throat. He threw the bottles and sigh in relief.

“Grab what you need, remember that your backpack isn't unlimited” Eddy warned, “Make sure you take only what's going to be useful. We have a long way to go and besides you know how hard is it to find a loaded store”.

 I stood up and pick some canned cookies, canned corn beef, and some bottle of water. Mel shoved a white soft item into her bag, as soon as our eyes meet, she smiles and walks to me.

“My bag is filled up, can you keep this for me?” She says, with a sad look on her face. I collected the soft wooly item then I look closely at what's written on it 'Lady's care'. I don't know what it means, but I squeeze it into my bag anyway.

“Thanks.” We stare at each other for a moment, she's about to say something when a footstep thud interrupt us. Mel move away with her bag to find more items.

 Larry pat my right shoulder as he walks past me then he stops to look at Mel, he turns to me with a childish smile before moving to the accessory section and shoved some item into his pocket. Larry see exactly what he was hoping to find. Hunting knives, GPS systems, and one-eyed night-vision devices. He smiles and packs the items into his bag.

“Sweet,” Xiao said as she grabs one of the night vision monocles. 

“The GPS, how do we charge them?” Xiao ask Larry as she grabs two GPS.

“We'll use your tablet as a power bank,” he responded with a smile.

 “My tablet battery is twenty-five thousand milliamperes, can last for a month without charging.”

 “Finally,” Larry says as he grabs two portable solar panels from a nearby trolley. He turns to Xiao, “These portable solar panels are used for charging phones when camping in Australia back in those days."

 “Those days are gone,” Xiao says before hurrying to another section of the supermarket.

Larry turns to me and Mel as she hands some items to me. Mel backpack is the smallest, and she had to stuff her bag until it's filled. 

Larry made this suspicious smile anytime he looks at us.

He must have noticed the closeness between Mel and me, after the kiss happened that night, there's been this innate likeness I've for Mel, always feeling secured when I'm with her, guess she's right; kisses causes some kind of bond between two people.

“I think we've had enough and-” Eddy voice trailed off as he turned towards the entrance, I guess he must have seen something, something worth muting for.

 “Predator” he whispers.

The word sent daggers into my heart as I felt it slicing. It's been days since we encounter it, but the last event played in my head at that moment. We all bent down, hoping it doesn't see us.

 Footsteps echoed as the predator step in, crushing the shattered glass with its feet, then he growls again. My heart beat faster with every footstep it takes. I try not to flinch as I saw it shadow approaching from my side. Eddy pulled out his handgun, slowly he mounts the small magazine then he corked his gun steadily. Trying not to look at the shadow, I turned to Xiao, her hand grip tightly on the handle of her sword sheath. Larry points his shotgun towards my direction, aiming at the predator's shadow. Everyone had their gun ready, but mine is empty, I'm terrified at the moment and I may ruin this if I try to reload, my M16 will surely make a sound if I mount it, all we can do now is to wait for what's going to happen next.

 The fierce zombie wanders around the store, and we still see its shadow from below. Finally, its footsteps come to a halt, and its shadow is right under me. I tried to remain calm as I can.

 “Key” Larry whispers, almost inaudible. He pointed to the floor close to me.

I can't, I'm scared to breathe at that moment, knowing that the predator is just an arm stretch away from me. The key is not going to do us any good, why risk our lives because of it? Larry suddenly slide, instantly, he punches a red button on the car key. A loud blaring siren noise from outside caught the predator's attention, as soon as it bolted out of the store, we all hurried out through the exit door.

  *****************************

 “You should have done something?”

 Larry says to me angrily as we walk down a forest. He's been furious because I hesitated at the store.

“If I hadn't pressed the panic button we'll be all dead” He says.

I stop and face him while the others pass by us pretending not to hear us. “Look” I said pointing at him, “We're all equally sacred, Xiao was sweating, Mel hands were shaking, Eddy was-”

“Hey!” Eddy shouts.

 We both turn to him, there's this angry look on his face. 

“To be honest, Adam is not to be blamed. We were all petrified”.

“But we can't keep on running from this thing” Xiao says.

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Mel asks with a serious look on her face.

“Fight it, of course, we may not be lucky next time. And besides we can't always count on luck to do all the jobs for us”.

Larry scoff as he faced Xiao, “Speaking of fighting, what else do you suggest we do? We've tried all methods, Headshot? Stabbing?explosion?

“Explosion!” Xiao snap.

"And you think it's going to work?” Mel said.

“Of course, if this doesn't kill it, nothing will?”

“Like how many amount of explosion will be enough?” Larry asked.

“Huge amount” Xiao replies.

Eddy sighed. “Ok then, Larry how many grenade launchers do we have left?”

“Seven”

“We'll need more than that, we need to find a weapon store”

“Got it.” Xiao says.

She showed us the map on her tablet screen, we all gathered behind her.

 “There's a barracks kilometers away, hopefully there are still some weapons left.”

 “How long does it take to get there?” Eddy asks.

“Five or six at most” Xiao replied.

“We have to get there before nightfall, let's go”.

 ************************************

 Eddy slides the giant door slowly, luckily the door isn't lock from the inside, something is not right. The bloodstains and the corpse around confirmed what I was thinking. I look at the white eyeballs of one of the bloated corpse as I walk past it.

 “Daywalker,” Xiao says.

 “Keep your eyes open” Eddy warns.

 There is a large building in front and four towers mounted at the corners. A machine gun at the center of the roof, half of the wall is collapsed.

 “Guys” Xiao says, as she points at some corpse laying in a corner, unlike the soldiers' corpse we saw the other day, their hearts are ripped off, there's only one prime suspect.

"The predator was here" Eddy says.

 A soft moan call our attention, instantly, Eddy take it down swiftly then more shuffled towards us, the zombies are in military uniforms, tattered, and blood stained.

 I aimed for the head of one of the zombies nearby, it dropped as I pulled the trigger. Half a dozen head towards me.

I was about to shoot but three zombies facing me fall instantly from a headshot.

“Slow poke” Mel says. She draws out her knife and threw it at the last one, it dropped as the knife dig deep into its forehead. I looked around, with the corner of my eyes I sight a hoard of zombies heading towards the entrance gate. Quickly, I bolted to the gate, struggling to slide it close, which seem harder than it looks. The hungry, deep moans grew louder as they move closer. A female zombie held my hand, with her pointy nails sinking deep into my flesh,, but I keep sliding despite my bleeding arm. With the last ounce of strength in me, I shut the metal door. The zombie arm rips off, but the other half is still clenching on my hand, I pull it away and toss it aside.

“Nice one” Eddy says, he taps my shoulder as I walk past.

 We moved in and cleared out some few zombies inside, finally we enter the arsenal. The weapons aren't as much as we expected, but we find what we are looking for; explosives.

 “RPG, grenade, dynamite, and some gallons containing fuel.”

*************

 Larry smiles as he shoves two shotgun into the pouch at both side of his bag. I walk to him and grab a shotgun. The weapon turned out to be more effective than other rifles, just a shot can half slice a zombie's body.

“Be careful with one of those” He says.

I tuck the gun in my bag and keep some bullet inside my pocket. I turn to Mel, who smile at me as our eyes meet.

“Hmm…something is fishy” Lary says.

“What are you talking about?”

He had this childish smile on his face showing his upper teeth, “I saw it”, He says.

I drop my bag on the table then I look straight at him. “What did you see?”

“The other night, the both of you were making out.”

I shook my head and grab more bullets. “It's nothing,” I say.

Larry laugh, then he moved closer to me. “Do you love her?” He asked.

The question seem absurd, but I manage to answer. “That shouldn't be our priority now, we're in the Middle of an apocalypse, running from a predator, stuck in a zombie world, and trying to get a cure. Love is the last thing in my mind”.

Larry placed both hands on my shoulders, he turned my face to his, then he gave me a serious look.

 “Look at that sweet, hot blonde lady,” he says. I turned to look at Mel as she pulls off her camouflage and place it on the table, her short green vest covered in sweat, with a rose tattoo on her back as she stretch her arms.

“Isn't she beautiful?”

“Of course she is but-”

“No buts, you don't need to think about it, she likes you”.

“If she does, then why haven't she told me?”

“It's a girl's thing," He says.

 He taps my right shoulder then he pulls two stools closer. We sit and discuss.

“When a girl gives you a green light, you have to be quick about it. You flop, you miss”. He points to my chest. “If you don't tell her about it — she's going to die when the time comes. If you tell her — she's still going to die when the time comes.”

“Ok, but what am I supposed to say?” I ask curiously.

“I… Love… You. As simple as A B C”

I looked at Mel again, this time she's having a conversation with Xiao, as soon as our eyes meet, she smiles and wave at me, I smile back and quickly look away.

“The only one thing we regret the most; are the chances we don't take. So, find sometime alone with her, preferably at night like the other day, tell her how you feel and see the magic.”

 He stands up and reach for his tool box. “I'll be at the garage if you need me”

 *******************************

 Gored blood and mud dropped from my hair as I wash it with the slim bar of soap left. My first shower since we landed at the greenspot. I pick an old brush from a small container, having wash it, I decided to brush my teeth with the small toothpaste left. Though, the toothbrush looks wrinkled, but I still manage to brush.

 After cleaning up, I turn to face the mirror in front of me, staring at it for a while, wondering how much I've changed since the last time.

 “Aren't you done yet!”

A voice from outside yelled. I opened the door slowly, before getting out of the bathroom. Xiao gave me a long look.

Xiao giggle and points at my head, “There's foam on your head.” She laughs and walks into the bathroom.

 I dress up in my extra camouflage, feeling fresh and clean, almost forgetting that it'll be over the next day. Eddy had devised a plan which seem to be our best in defeating the most formidable opponent standing in our way. 

As brilliant as the plan may seem, I doubt if it's going to kill the predator, the voice behind me snap me out of my deep thought.

“Adam” Mel called.

Quickly, I turned to look at her, I felt amazed by her new look. Her hair is nicely trimmed, and she applied some mild makeup on her face making her look more attractive, it's funny how she still care of her looks despite the situation at hand.

“Can I get some stuff I kept with you? I need it” She says.

“You mean the tampons?” I asked as I reach for my bag.

“How did you-”

I hand over the small wooly pack to her. “There's nothing to hide. Larry told me about it, Wow! I never knew women bleed so much, how come you're still alive?”

“It's not so much blood,” she replies, “Larry is full of shit, stay away from him.”

As soon as she walks away, Larry hurries to me. He's change a bit now that he freshen up. His face is more light and his hair is darker, I guess he had to dye his blond hair, which mostly appears dirty.

“You've fixed the vehicles?” I ask.

He shook his head. “Yes.” He pauses to look around, “Eddy's plan, I hope it works, and we'll be able to go on with our mission without looking over our shoulders”

“I hope so, that thing is really a pain in the neck” 

“Speaking of tomorrow, have you told her?”

I scoff. “Come on, now we're having this conversation.”

“Yes, there's no reason to hold back.”

“Ok then, maybe after we kill that thing then I may go ahead.”

 Larry taps my shoulder, then he leans close to me. “Tomorrow may be too late,” he whispers before walking away.