Chapter 13, Sardines in a Can

"Attention Residence of the sixth floor we will now clear the building of the remaining zombies if we knock on your door, please respond verbally we do not want to break into home with people living in them." John yelled loudly in the hallway.

We began to clear the apartments floor by floor.

Sam's wife that we still didn't know her name due to the distractions was never introduced. Was, clumsy and terrified fighting zombies at one point she panicked and sent an earth spike to a zombie's head.

It was amusing but she was getting the hang of it when they got to the bottom of the Apartments.

A few people came out of the apartment and followed them down at a distance. Not helping to clear.

When they finished the apartments, the people came forward.

"The news said the government opened a base. Are you going there?" one guy asked.

Another pushed him aside. "I will give you five thousand dollars to get my family to the base."

Sam's wife looked at Kristy. "Sardines in a can." Kristy said to her.

The others in their company understood her comment but these people didn't. Sam's wife nodded understanding what she meant even if she was scared, she still fought, and these people didn't lift a finger to clear the apartment; they wanted someone to risk their life for them to go to the base.

"I can't give up on humanity as you can Kristy. I know where you're coming from but what those people did to you should have never happened." John told her.

"It's ok, everyone is different. I wish you a safe life and pray that you make it." Kristy told them back. "We're going to leave now."

"Where are you going you can't leave us here!" a girl from the crowd yelled at Kristy.

She turned to walk out of the Apartment and someone fired a gun at her head. The bullet blew up midair and Kristy turned to look at them and threw five fire balls floating over her head one shot at the man that tried to shoot her he screamed and turned to ash.

The crowd panicked to get away from the human torch. "I will say this once and only once. The world you knew has ended. no one here is your mother and father; they have no obligation to help you. and if they chose to, you better be very fucking grateful. but try to kill me and mine I will crush you. Understood!" Kristy yelled at them.

"Calm down." Matty said, rubbing Kristy's back.

"This is why I hate people; their stupidity makes them think they have the right to use moral grounds to kidnap the emotions of others. If you don't fight for yourself eventually you will die." Kristy told the now cowering people and walked away.

Matty, Richard and Brenda left with her.

The other people looked at Sam and John. when the four had left.

They didn't have much faith in the short blond girl's ability to fight since they had been watching.

"Are you not going with them?" the girl tentatively asked.

"We were officers before the end of the world. Self-defense is acceptable even in our old laws but the way she went about it." John shook his head.

"We can try to lead you but be warned where not superman and won't die for you." Sam took a breath "the distance to the base cannot be done with only three fighting and my wife is no more skilled than you are. Grab a hand weapon, guns will get us surrounded, only use them if other options have failed unless like them" he pointed to Kristy's group who had just left "you have 35 minutes' worth of ammo."

The whole apartment had watched them clearing zombies in the parking lot the night before. They saw how long the Zombies kept coming for.

"If someone is forced to fire a shot that is the end of the group we will need to scatter immediately and run for cover. All the zombies within half a block will be drawn to the noise. With their speed of moving, it could take three days for them to spread back out so we can fight them again without being overrun."

"If you're traveling with us, be back here in two hours. We're going to eat, shower and pack."

…

"Kristy, since when can you stop bullets?" Richard asked.

"I can't my anxiety hit my time manna when they upset me. I could see everything in slow motion. It usually takes me longer to control the manna amount of my fire but since time was slow for my body but not my mind it just looked like I had better control. I need to learn to do that on command. It saved my life," Kristy paused. "That's the second time my time manna has saved my life. I got really lucky."

"I don't want to be around those humans either." Brenda commented, smashing a zombie in the head with her machete."

"We're not too far from the Walmart." Matty said crushing the skull of another zombie they kept a steady pace walking.

"I hate walking." Kristy bitched "Why do we have to exercise to get superhuman strength and speed." she whined some more.

Richard and Brenda laughed at her since this was her plan they were following.

"Feel the burn!" Matty added throwing out punches at imaginary zombies. This made Kristy laugh.

She stopped laughing after a second. "The new alerts I set up in the space work. Serenity just woke up. Break time!" Kristy walked to the others and put them in her space. Before hopping in herself.

It was morning in the real world but it was night in the space. Serenity needed a change and a bottle and went back to sleep. So, the break was not too long.

"Time here and time in our world are so different. I see why you have problems with meal times as we go to both time zones multiple times a day." Brenda said.

"Is it lunchtime? We just had our second breakfast. It's been less than 40 minutes in the real world since we ate." Matty wondered.

Richard pulled out his phone and set a timer on it for five hours. "We can't use the time of day in either the space or the world to determine when we need to eat so let's set a timer for every five hours while we're awake we can turn it off when we're sleeping."

Kristy pulled out sodas and Sandwich fixings to make Lunch before they left. She also filled the tiny fridge in the jet with soda to chill.

At almost 8:20 am on day two of the apocalypse they entered the Walmart parking lot.

They were not the only humans there but many were still fighting zombies' others were running with their arms full of stuff. Hoping to be faster than the slow zombies.

Kristy had them go to the food area first before more humans came. They killed the zombies as they went.

They emphasized the candy aisle and soda aisle. Kristy took all the rest of the brand name soda and left the rest for others.

Richard looked at her.

"What I left some for others." Kristy complained pointing at the off-brand soda. As if she had done the world a favor.

She picked up the entire shelf with the candy though. She looked at Richard. "The other side had chips." As if that justified it then they went for toilet paper.

They took everything there was there: toilet paper, napkins, and tissues. All to wipe their but with later. These things run out when no one is making them and people fight near them with water fire and God knows what else. Kristy said you never know how good it is till it's all gone.

How bad does it need to get when toilet paper is a luxury item?

Then they moved to the baby section Kristy left half the items on the shelf for other babies and Brenda helped find one of every size of each outfit for Serenity as she will grow up without a chance to go get new clothes later. They raided the shoes and the clothes all the way to adulthood and moved to get more that fit them too.

The boys were guarding them from the other shoppers but since they did not appear to be getting anything but clothes the other humans either ignored them or gave them weird looks.

The men got to pick clothes next. They were not as into it as the girls but still got multiple of the same shirts and pants in the same size in case they are torn fighting zombies. They took all the sneakers in their size that were available for when they wore through them.

They also acquired a sewing machine and supplies to sew. Lots of light bulbs for the house they plan to find. An ice cream and bread maker. They took the cast iron pans as they last longer. Kristy made sure they got a two-burner hot plate for the jet to use as a stove.

"Should we get a better tv?" Matty asked

"I have a good TV at home." Richard replied he had a nice set up in his house and was hoping no one broke in.

Kristy thought as she looked at the list that was finished for Walmart. She had gotten distracted with Matty and didn't make comments on the list herself.

"We need more towels; they eventually go bad and shower curtains. We should also get toys for Serenity to play with. Bikes could be useful. They move faster than walking but can stop to fight, and you're still exercising while using them. Maybe get a few of them and spare tubes for the tires." Kristy added her thoughts out loud.

"Blackout curtains." Matty threw in remembering they might not be sleeping when the space is dark.

Other people avoided the things covered in zombie blood but she didn't because the space would clean it up for her.

"We also need soap of all kinds." Kristy said as they walked, they had set the bikes as the priority once they had thought of it. "Razor blades unless we want to let ourselves get harry, tampons we need lots of those, blood plus zombies is not a good combination." Kristy was back in rambling mode but her family was used to it and she had a reason for her suggestions: they were helpful.

They were not the only ones who thought of bikes. Three others, one with a gun, were putting a bike together in the middle of the aisle.

One man guarding them flashed his gun. "Move along.'' He told them Richard and Matty showed him they were packing weapons too, not just the machete.

"We're here for bikes too, it's not like you need them all." Richard said to the man. "There is no reason to fight over this."

The other men looked up from the Bikes they were putting together to see them. "Just try not to get in the way," the man putting the bike together told them.

Kristy stepped forward, picked out bikes for each of them and got two of each. when they disappeared from the rack the three men looked at her. "That's a handy skill." they commented.

"Yes, it is," Kristy commented and went to the spare tires. "What size spares do you need? I'll leave you some."

"24 inch" the man putting things together said. Kristy placed three spare sets aside for them and moved to bike lights and pumps. She stocked up well. She's even got different size training bikes for Serenity and a tiny electric car.

They checked out the toy section but in view of zombies and that these pretend things, would not be as good for her education, as the real house and learning to cook. other than an easy bake oven and knee and elbow pads they only grabbed sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

Brenda expressed her desire for squirt guns to play with serenity. However, they were out of season. They didn't have any in the store so they were added to the to be looked for list.

"Serenity has animals to play with. She does not need dolls for a tainted look on what people are like, not when cannibalism is high in the apocalypse, I don't want her thinking the world is peachy." Kristy complained seeing the dolls and their dress up clothes that Serenity would never wear. 'High heels, who are you trying to kill here?'

Then they moved to the shampoo aisle. When they finished gathering everything, they could think of to include the candy and gum at the register they left the store. They went into the space when they were in the parking lot to put together their own bikes.

They had to summon the truck and turn on the headlights to see the bikes they were putting together. As it was still night time in the space.

Matty was happy to have thought to grab black out curtains as the lighting would not necessarily dictate when they would be sleeping.

When they came out, their speed increased a lot with the bikes. Brenda was laughing and Matty was attempting to sing. Even Richard and Kristy had a smile on their faces. The last two took a second to ride the bike because it had been so long since they were on one last.

True to the plan they stopped in every restaurant and convenience store they passed. Kristy made Matty disassemble two soda fountain machines. in case one breaks they don't want a machine that has been sitting for years to replace it so she froze one in time.

When they got to the gas station Kristy pulled out a tote from her space, placed it on the floor and emptied her credit card filling the same tote with gas to put the gas into her space. A little more than 5,000 dollars of gas.

Brenda helped Kristy wash her hand afterwards though Kristy claimed to still smell the gas. She had to stick her hand in the tote to collect the gas without collecting the tote. They should have just gotten more plastic totes.

Kristy perked up when Matty informed her there was still junk food in the gas station.

They finished up and went for dinner in the space. They made tacos in the jet's kitchen, with the new hotplate. And played with Serenity that was now wearing new clothes that Brenda picked out.

Matty had opened the box for the bassinet and was putting it together for Serenity. They had gotten a crib too, but that was a little big for the jet and Serenity was still so small so a bassinet would work fine for now till they get the new house.

The sun started to rise in the space and Richard looked out the window of the jet to the growing mess of things.

Nothing could be seen of the perishable foods but everything else was lying on the floor outside the jet. The mess bothered him but there was nowhere to put it till they built the house. Without shelves and closets things just pile up randomly.

Richards' SUV and Matty's sports car had gotten covered in bullet holes and zombie guts the night before they chose to leave them there. They even threw the keys on the driver's seat in case someone needed a getaway vehicle desperately.

The only cars here were the Kia and the Toyoda that were still undamaged. Richard had asked Kristy why she kept the crumpled car in her space; she said it was a zombie fly swatter to drop on them.

Although it was morning in the space, they decided to call it a night and get some sleep but they went out to the river in the space to "charge the space" it was Matty's second time so he was expecting the pull on his manna the other two looked like their energy was sucked dry but they still had some because their level was so high.

"Well, we will sleep good tonight." Richard commented.

"Will we even make it to bed?" Brenda wined she did not like the feeling of losing so much manna at once it had been days since the space had pulled on any magic cores using up the energy it had first. So, they had filled a week's worth of power usage in a few minutes.

Kristy informed them that if it was done regularly, it would not be as bad. Matty commented that they were tired but not sucked dry, and were lucky to level up their powers before experiencing it.

Brenda clearly ignored him and asked Kristy to take them to bed because she didn't want to walk.

The next time they woke up, you could not say morning since it was afternoon in the space and still evening out of the space. They had sausage, eggs, and toast for breakfast and spent time with Serenity before she went down for her nap.

Babies wake up every few hours due to her tiny tummy and bladder for now, but they were worried about her schedule when she started sleeping less. as she spent more time in the space than out. That was something to worry about later.

When they came out of the space, they were still in the gas station. It is going on five thirty in the real world. They have an hour and a half approximately before the sun goes down and they are coming close to the first highway they need to cross. This was why they chose to stop here the night before.

They all sat down to meditate and refill their manna cores. Kristy still took a bit longer than the others as she might have lost less of each power. Then the others who had charged the space, but she still had three to fill. So, if you add the three together, she still used more manna in total.

Meditating at level one should only take ten minutes or so but everyone here was higher level the lowest leveled power was time still stuck at level four.

Brenda, Matty and Richard finished little before a half hour and Kristy was done after forty-three minutes.

Time to cross the highway before they lose the sunlight. They were decked out with their machete and a pistol in a holster for emergencies. And set out.