Rescue (6)

Before the four split up they each got ten plastic bags except Mark, who got twenty and Danny who was tasked to get the water. Once they had their bags to pack their food in, they split up and made their way to different aisles. As Johnathan was walking through the snack aisle, he thought of how quickly the world changed in a couple of hours. Yesterday, Jonathans only worries were school. Yet in the span of a couple hours, a young teen was forced to mature and do his best to survive not only for his sake, but his families.

While walking he took out the crystal from his pockets and stared at it. 'No, I wont eat it yet. The first one was painful and I don't know what'll happen if I take the second one. I cant really afford to be knocked out right now'. Thinking that, Johnathan put the crystal away and focused on picking snack. Not even two minutes later, seven of the ten bags he had were filled. 'That's enough ships for now' he thought as he filled the remaining three bags with different kinds of nuts and trail mix.

After he was done filling his bags with chips and nuts, he started to make his way back to the entrance. But before he could, he heard a loud noise coming from the storage door that was to the far left his aisle. The loud noise came from the door that was in front of Ivan's aisle and it was safe to say that all four of them had heard it.

"Meet at Ivan's aisle"

Johnathan had heard Marks instructions. Quickly making his way towards his friends aisle, he saw that Danny was already there with Ivan looking at the storage door. Walking towards them with ten full plastic bags, he lifted his hands and waved, though with some difficulty.

"What do you think could've happened to make the sound. Could it be a trapped zombie"

Johnathan put his bags down next to Danny's water bottles and Ivan's bags. Thinking about Ivan's question, he was sure that a zombie was trapped there, but he didn't know if it was just one or multiple. Storage rooms are quite big so there was always a chance there was more that how many they faced.

"Its definitely a zombie, but we don't know how many"

"But do we kill them or do we let them be"

After sharing his thoughts, Johnathan heard Marks voice from behind him. Turning around, Johnathan answered his question. "Of course we leave them in there. First off, we don't know how many zombies there are in there. Secondly, we need to bring the foods back to the apartments. Our goal here is not to kill zombies but get food so we don't die".

"Good point but if there are more of them, we can get more crystals and the more crystals we have, the more likely we will survive"

Marks had a point. If there were multiple zombies, they would likely get more crystals and the more they had, the stronger they were. Meaning they would have a way higher chance of surviving. And Johnathan needed strength to save his brother. But again, is it worth sacrificing their safety for some strength.

"We can bring the food back to the apartment and come back after. The zombies cant go anywhere"

Hearing Danny's suggestion, Johnathan, Mark and Ivan quickly agreed. It was a good plan. They would make sure they had the food at the apartments and would be able to search for the crystals. Deciding to follow the plan, everyone finished up getting their supplies before leaving the store and carefully walking back to the bike shop.

After ten minutes of walking as quietly as they could, they finally reached the store. They walked in and went upstairs to where the apartments were. Johnathan and his two friends watched as Mark walked through his apartment door. Not waiting any longer, Johnathan knocked on their apartments door.

"Open up Ash, its us"

They had keys but the three were carrying way too many things. Luckily for them, Ash quickly opened the door.

When the three saw the young boy they couldn't help but smile. Ash had a big smile on his face but his eyes were red. They knew he cried but they couldn't bring it up with the smile on his face. "Welcome back guys"

The three's smiles widened and as they walked through the door Ash was holding with their supplies. Once they got to the living room area, the three put their things down. They felt bad but they had to leave once again.

"Ash, we'll be back. If we're lucky, you can end up getting a crystal"

Hearing the first part of Danny's sentence, Ash felt like he was going to cry but the the half of Danny's words made Ash push back the tears. If he got a crystal, he wouldn't be useless anymore and could help his 'big brothers'.

"Ok, be safe guys"

Johnathan smiled as he put his hands on Ash's head and ruffled his hair. After a couple seconds of doing that he turned around and walked out of the apartment with the other two. Once they got outside their apartment, the sight of Mark leaning on his door greeted them.

"You guys are finally done. Now then, lets go"

Once again, the group quietly made their way back to the store, avoiding every zombie they saw on the streets. Carefully opening the door, the group walked back into the convenience store. Walking towards the door that led to the storage, the group sighed as the door was still closed. Luckily the zombies that were in there couldn't open the doors.

"Now then, ready boys"

""Yes""

Johnathan put his hands on the door knob and tried opening it. Unfortunately, the door was locked. This confused the group. Did the zombie accidently lock the door. Quickly pushing the idea to the back of their heads, Johnathan once again tried but with all his power.

Because of the increase in strength, the lock broke, and the door opened. As the door opened further, and further, the groups expressions changed.

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AN: Cliff-kun