Chapter 6 - Marcus

 2 days have passed since they arrived at the mall. Mavis, and James have been with each other every waking moment. Everyone kind of sees that they're going to become an item.

"Hey Kane, it's almost time for the next scavenging party to go out. James said we have enough people to send out 2 different parties. Want to hop on one of them with me?" Asked Marcus.

"Is it just us? I wouldn't mind going I guess, I've been bored. All there's here to do is play video games I've played before." Said Kane.

"Yeah I'll get the keys for a truck at like 9 tomorrow. We should go somewhere pretty far out in order to hit somewhere they haven't yet." Explained Marcus

An hour passes before Marcus comes back to Kane. Marcus shows up with Sierra in tow.

"What she doing here? She the one who they pushed onto us?" Asked Kane

"Yeah, James said she knows the layout of the surrounding areas pretty well, so she's driving.

"Sorry to intrude on your guys' fun. It really was James idea, I'd rather be sleeping right now. Anyways, I know a couple stores that we need to hit still. Its 2 clothing stores and 2 gas stations. This isn't an on the record scavenge since we're hitting real small stores. Alright, let's go." Said Sierra in a very tired mood.

"She seems lively" Kane whispered to Marcus.

"I usually kind of am when I'm not tired" Says Sierra through a smile. Both Marcus and Sierra laugh. The three of them head out towards a much more disastrous looking side of town

"So what happened over here? It hasn't been long enough for everything to fall apart yet?" Asked Marcus.

"It got bombed, what was left of the air force tried to bomb the heavily infected part of the city, but it didn't work very well. That's also why we haven't scavenged in this area very much. Buildings like to fall apart, and there's a lot more spots for you to get jumped by savages." Explained Sierra.

"This might actually be kind of fun then. It's so boring in the mall, no one to fight." Said Kane.

They finally arrive at their first destination after clearing 2 of the cars out of their way.

"Alright, this store from what I remember has one big open room and then 2 back rooms, so we're going to clear them all first and then take what we need afterwards." Explained Sierra.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Said Marcus

Marcus kicks down the door and sees 3 savages in the main room "Dibs" Says Kane. Kane charges in and expertly drives his machete through the first one's head. He then ducks under the arm of the second savage and throws a knife into the thirds head. Marcus then cuts in by swinging his bat across the head of the second savages head, killing it on impact.

"Well you two sure do know how to handle yourselves pretty well. I wouldn't feel that confident against two savages, let alone three." Said an impressed Sierra.

"It gets easier over time, we've been in more fights than I can count." Explained Kane.

"Well I don't get out much besides the occasional scavenge party, which will probably be even less now that you guys are here." Explained Sierra.

 "Personally, I think everyone should be training every day in how to kill these things. We wouldn't have to worry so much about others then." Said Marcus as he grabs a bunch of shirts from a clothing rack.

"Fighting isn't for everyone though, a lot of kids don't want any part of it. I understand why completely, fighting sucks." Said Sierra. The three of them finish looting the store, and move on the next two. They don't meet any resistance in the second one, but they do meet two more savages in the food store. Both Kane and Marcus take them out without any issues.

"Dang this place has pretty much been picked clean except for the vending machines." Said a bummed out Sierra.

"Well we can just take the vending machines and take them apart later." Says Marcus as he lifts an entire vending machine off the ground and proceeds to load it onto the back of the truck.

"Hm, looks like your size really isn't for show there huh big guy." Said Sierra laughing.

"Well, I've got it. So I figure I should use it whenever I can. It really does come in handy though. The only part that really sucked about it was that I could never fit very well into cars." Says Marcus with a smile.

Kane Laughs "Oh you poor thing, that would be funny to see you try to fit into a Kia Sol or something like that." Laughed Kane.

"Alright guys, I think we should head back now. It's going to be getting late pretty soon. It's scary out here after dark." Said Sierra.

Marcus, Sierra, and Kane finally decide to head back after an easy time of scavenging. After about an hour and a half of driving through the cluttered streets, they finally arrive back at the shipping area of the mall.

"Well, you three sure took your time getting back here. Did you find anything good out there? Wait is that a vending machine?" Asked Penelope.

"Yeah that would be courtesy of Marcus, he kind of just picked it up and put it there." Explained Sierra

"Well thank you Marcus, everyone will definitely appreciate the snacks in here. It looks like you guys got a lot of clothes too. This will help a lot, thank you guys for volunteering to go out there." Thanked Penelope.

"It's nothing, you guys have been carrying our weight for us since we arrived here so it's only natural I'd have to help out." Said Marcus.

"Hey you two! Can you come over here and help carry this stuff in, you can have first dibs on the vending machine." Asked Penelope. The group proceeds to carry in the goods that they got into the shipping area.

          "Well aren't you guys just super helpful. Thank you for going out, James will start thinking pretty highly of you guys after this. I'm pretty sure he already does though." Said Mavis.