(A/N:) The bulk of this chapter is Tyler being a reckless lil shit and trying to open a door...

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Jon stood up and spun around, brick still in hand, "It means that someone's been here recently," he tossed the chipped stone to Evan who caught it with ease, gripping it in his fist, "and whoever it was has one hell of an artillery."

"You're saying a person did this? On purpose?" Tyler questioned as he approached the conversation.

"Well yeah," Craig answered for Jon, "Just look, no charring, so it clearly didn't start on fire, no vehicle so it wasn't a car accident -besides- that wouldn't take down a building of this size."

"Alright, whatever you say, Sherlock." Tyler sighed.

Evan nodded slowly, "What exactly does that mean for us?" He asked to no one in particular.

"It means we should leave-"

Tyler quickly cut in, "It means nothing." A tension filled silence surrounded them before Tyler began again. "If we leave, we will starve before we see tomorrow." As much as Jon and Craig didn't want to admit it, he was right. The last of their rations had been used up and they were running on borrowed time against their inevitable starvation."Alright," Tyler said in a more boisterous and energetic voice, "If you pussies aren't going to put your big boy pants on and start looking for some god damn food, then I will." With a huff, he began to walk off down the street, further into the heart of Ridgefield. Reluctantly and without a word, they remaining three followed in tow. Within five minutes of walking -in complete silence mind you- Tyler stopped in front of a gas station. He cupped his hands against the station's glass door and peered in, letting out a single, high pitched laugh of disbelief at what he saw. "The shelves are pretty much stocked full!" He exclaimed excitedly, like a child on christmas morning seeing a heaping pile of presents under the tree.

"Seriously?!" Evan picked up his slow walk to a jog, seeming just as enthusiastic about this new development.

Tyler pushed on the door and it wiggled, but didn't give. 'Must be jammed,' he thought and tried again, practically throwing all his weight into the door, but instead popping it open, he bounced back, stumbling slightly. It was way sturdier of a door than it appeared. He paused and pushed on it a few more times, he even tried to pull it. By this point, the other three men had began to take enjoyment in his struggles, snickering slightly as he failed at the most simple task of opening a door.

Tyler, winded and frustrated, took a step back and examined the door, looking it up and down as he assessed the situation further. Midst a chuckle, Craig spoke up, "Did you even check to see if it was locked?"

The tall man looked over at Craig blankly before sending his stare back at the door. He brought his palm to his face and slapped himself hard with a groan of agony. "Ugggggghhhhh, I blame my stupidity on the fact that I haven't had water in two days." He said, making an excuse for his lack of basic deduction skills.

He briskly sidled up to the door and pulled his gun from its holster. He took the butt of his weapon and gripped it tightly, drawing back his arm as he got ready to break the glass.

"Wait Tyler you shouldn't-" Jon said, worry evident in his tone.

"Seriously, what could go wrong?" Tyler said and hit the pistol against the door. It shattered effortlessly, fragmented glass clattered down to the ground, breaking and sliding across the linoleum floor of the station. Tyler turned to Jon and shrugged his shoulders, "See? Nothing happened." With that, he gingerly reached his arm through the hole he had created, careful not to get snagged or cut by the jagged glass coated maw of the door. Taking the lock between his fingers, he turned it and it clicked into place with ease.

"Success!" Evan exclaimed, high fiving Tyler as he retracted his arm from inside the door.

Jon and Craig, who still seemed hesitant both nodded with slight smiles, but didn't celebrate, "We should get in, grab as much as we can and leave." Jon stated.

"Right," Evan agreed and pushed the door fully open.

As soon as the door was opened about a foot, an ear piercing shriek split the air. An alarm.

All four men froze dead in their tracks, eyes wide and shoulders raised in surprise and fear. A low, guttural grunting drew them from their petrified state and they all turned to look behind them. The loud sound of the alarm had attracted some attention. As if on cue, several of the roamers with in earshot began to approach. They seemed to be coming out of the cracks in the sidewalk with how fast they cropped up. Tyler, thinking fast on his feet, pushed the other three, who still stood still in horror, and yelled for them to run. He didn't have to tell them twice as they gladly turned tail and began sprinting in the opposite direction of the horde.

They came to the end of the gas station and made a sharp turn around the side of the building, not slowing down one bit. That is until several roamers filed out into the street before them. "Here! This way!" Jon exclaimed, directing them to turn onto a small side road between two buildings. They did as he said and followed without hesitation. "There should be a building up ahead that's some what fortified, if we can-!" Jon was mid sentence when he felt the tip of his shoe catch on a ledge in the sidewalk and he fell forward onto the solid pavement. He let out a yelp of pain as his bare knees and palms scraped across the concrete. "F-fuck..." he stammered as he slowly pushed himself up.

"Can you walk?" Evan panted as he skidded to a halt beside him.

"I think so," Jon said as he got to his feet. He was limping slightly as he began to run again- he had definitely damaged his left knee in the fall, but it was nothing that he couldn't just grit his teeth through.

Evan eyed him over, just to make sure he could keep up as they picked up pace once more. He peeled his eyes away from Jon as Tyler let out a string of profanities. When he looked up, he could see that both Tyler and Craig had stopped running and were faced with a wall of the undead roamers. Evan glanced over his shoulder to see the the shambling horde from the gas station had caught up to them and was blocking their only other escape route. It was clear now that they were completely trapped and their only option was to fight.

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(A/N:) I know what this looks like- filler.

I swear this chapter was important to the plot lmao 

Anyways, thanks for reading and have a great day <3 :)