Ethan moved the truck closer to the manhole so that we could fill up the tank. John had found a couple of empty jerry cans when they were inside and we had brought a few as well. I didn't want to be the one who had to suction the gas out but Taylor said he'd do it; you wouldn't find me objecting. He sucked profusely and sputtered when the gas started to flow and quickly shoved it into the empty jerry can. He spat a few times on the ground and swished his water around in his mouth.

"Wow you're an expert at that," I taunted and the look he gave me made me grin even wider.

Ethan burst out laughing and even John coughed to cover up his snort of laughter. I felt like I had gotten my revenge, albeit petty revenge, but whatever.

After a few seconds, the gas stopped flowing and we all peered down at it, as if by miracle our staring would make it run again.

"I didn't think this would work." John took off his hat and ran his hand over his head. For someone his age, he had a pretty good set of hair.

"The tank needs to be higher for this to work properly," Taylor pointed out.

"I'll do another look around for somethin' with a hand pump." At that, John jogged back to the garage for something more useful.

The three of us just stood around, not saying a word. Taylor and I traded some more squinty eyed looks, while Ethan tried not to notice the tense atmosphere. I was about to say something about his rusty sucking skills when John emerged from the garage, this time with a device that looked like the bicycle tire pump we had back home; just with two hoses instead of one.

"This should work much better," John announced as he placed one of the hose ends in the jerry can and the other hose running from the pump, into the underground tank.

The handle of the red pump was on the top and reminded me of the detonators in the Looney Tunes cartoons. After using the pump for just over thirty seconds, the gas started to flow again much to our relief.

In the end we had half a dozen canisters full of gas which would hopefully last us a while. Taylor reclosed the tank just in case we needed to come back for more gas in the future. There was still a good amount left; we could come back here when we got low again. We made sure the pump was placed securely inside the truck so we didn't lose it.

After placing the cans into the back, we reconvened in the truck. Taylor and I refused to acknowledge one another as we shared the back seat. We weren't too far from the Wal-Mart and the main street only had a few infected roaming. The rest seemed to have disappeared for the moment which was a relief and worrying at the same time.

The massive parking lot was abandoned except for a few cars neatly parked in a spot and a few tipped over carts. I'd say the place looked to be in pretty good shape but I suppose looks can be deceiving. Ethan pulled up to the front door and killed the engine. We scoped out the place before we got out of the truck. There were three infected that were using the parking lot like their own personal walking track but as soon as we had pulled up they started towards the noise.

I unloaded my clip to see how many bullets I had left; I counted seven. We clambered out of the truck to confront the three but John shot them in a quick succession before we had the chance to lift our weapons up. Luckily he was still using his silencer; he wouldn't risk shooting out here without one.

"How long were you in the military?" Ethan asked, as he put his pistol away.

"Fifteen years," John answered, "Been stationed all over the world with my platoon."

"Got any 'Nam stories?" Ethan asked.

John chuckled, "I ain't that old son. That war ended the same year I turned old enough to enlist. But I got many other stories."

Oh joy, back in my day stories.

I walked up to the front doors and peeked inside. Since the power had been out for quite some time, it was no surprise that the doors didn't part for me as I approached. The light from outside barely shone into the cart lobby and I had to wipe away some of the dirt caked onto the glass doors just to see inside better. From what I could see, there was no one nearby and the second set of automatic doors were wide open, unlike the set I was currently peaking in.

"Come on and help me pry these apart," I said, hoping they weren't dead-bolted.

I stuck my fingers into the little slot where the doors met and with Ethan grabbing the other side, we heaved. Slowly the doors parted for us as, squealing at the sudden use after being neglected for so long. If the doors weren't locked that meant anything could be in here. We gave the parking lot one last look to make sure it was void of infected and with our bags in hand, we reclosed the glass sliding doors behind us.

Once inside, we flipped the dead bolts which only required a key to get in, not to lock up from the inside. Then we did the same for the second set of doors.

"Should we be locking ourselves in without checking the place out first?" I asked.

"Well if anything is in here, it would be even worse if anything outside got in to," John pointed out, "At the least the front is secured."

"Well for all we know, the back door could be wide open," Ethan mentioned.

"Good point," John said as he took his gun from its holster, "Let's check the perimeter first."

I slid my backpack on and pulled out my Beretta.

"You and Ethan check the emergency exits and doors around the floor. Taylor and I will check the back," John dictated.

"Splitting us up? That's horror movie talk," I said nervously.

"We need to get this place locked down as soon as possible," John insisted, "Which means we need to cover as much ground as possible, fast."

We all rummaged around in our bags for our flashlights and clicked them on. The sunlight that was coming through the front doors only shone so far. I pointed my beam all around to see if I could spot anything but the immediate area seemed to be clear of infected. The smell of rotting food hung in the stale air but if you breathed through your mouth it wasn't so bad. The grocery section took up the left side of the store while the non-food items took up the rest of the supermarket.

The store didn't seem to be in as bad of shape as I thought it would. There were carts here and there and some of the shelves were picked over but that wasn't out of the ordinary for this store. John and Taylor took off down the middle aisle towards the back while Ethan and I decided to start along the left wall and make our way around.

I made sure I was breathing through my mouth as the stench of rotten food got stronger. The produce section had created its own compost heap so we pretty much ran past that part. The first door we spotted was the one that lead to the back room but John and Taylor had that section, which apparently ran around the whole building in a u-shape. I pointed my flash light along the wall while Ethan pointed his ahead.

"Ethan," I whispered as I spotted the first emergency exit door.

It was closed; I could only see the light from outside trying to peak through the bottom. Ethan wiggled the bar shaped handle to make sure it wouldn't swing open easily. Once we were satisfied that it wouldn't open from the outside, we continued on. At the thorough pace we were going, it took us close to an hour just to check the perimeter. We had made it all the way back to the entrance part which only left the washrooms and the janitor's closet; at least that's what I assumed it was.

We rounded the corner of the women's washroom. Ethan stepped in first to make sure nothing was hiding in the darken space. The sound of the creaking hinges rang out in the small space as Ethan pushed open all the doors one by one. I heard footsteps behind me and whirled around to see the half eaten face of a former employee. His blue vest was ripped and stained dark red. His decayed skin had taken on the same colors as his dirty vest. With a growl he launched himself at me, knocking both of us to the floor.

I focused all my energy on keeping his snapping teeth away from me. The thing was relentless with his snarling and snapping. I turned my head to avoid the dribbling blood and saliva that the thing was spraying with every attempt to bite into me. I was about to yell for help when the body was ripped from me and flung across the floor, its arms flailing. Before the zombie could get back up, Ethan stomped down hard on its head. The decayed skull gave way fairly easily to the pressure of his foot and soon a pulpy mess covered the white floor and walls.

"You ok?" Ethan ran back over to me and heaved me up.

I gave myself a once over and nodded, "Yeah, I managed to keep him from biting me."

I was shaking slightly from the adrenaline and fear. For a second I thought I might throw up. The nasty, rotting smell didn't help with that either.

"You gunna be ok to keep goin'?" Ethan asked, seeing that I was slightly shaken.

"I'll be fine," I said curtly and he let it go.

We stepped over the mess and checked the rest of the front area. So far the peeping tom infected was the only thing we had run into.

"Should we go look for them?" I asked, "They're taking a long time."

"Let's head down the middle aisles on the way then," Ethan said.

We passed by more empty lanes on our way to the back of the store. The growling was the first sign that we were not alone in the center. I shone my flashlight in the direction of the sound which in hindsight was not a good idea. The infected's attention was now honed in on us and we took a few steps back. Ethan whipped out his machete as the thing started towards us.

"Down here," I said, pointing my light to one of the home accent aisles.

Ethan nodded and we bolted towards the land of bathroom mats. The infected chased us but I suppose it couldn't see too well; it ran straight into the massive display of frying pans that was plunked down in the main throughway. The display was knocked over and the crashing noise was so loud I cringed. That would surely attract anything that was lurking in here.

"Shit," I heard Ethan hiss behind me.

The flashlight bounced all around in front of me as we ran, making it hard to keep a steady eye on anything.

"Turn back," I yelled at Ethan as I stopped dead in my tracks.

A handful of infected had managed to cut us off. Their mangled bodies created a blockade at the end of the aisle. Ethan yanked me back towards the way we had come with the six on our trail forcing us to keep moving. The first zombie that had caused the noise was still trying to get itself untangled from the display, making more noise in the process. As we ran past its reaching hands, Ethan brought down his machete on the things head. One swing was all it took and it stopped moving. Ripping the weapon from the things skull, we ran even faster away from the approaching crowd.

It seemed like we had garnered the attention of everything infected that was in here; somehow we had not run into them during our perimeter check. They must have been hiding in the aisles.

"Maybe we can try to lose 'em," Ethan grabbed my hand and pulled me towards another aisle.

We weaved through all the aisles, trying to lose the ones following us. I hoped this worked as well as it did in the truck. Finally, we had made it to the back of the store but I could still hear the mass of infected approaching somewhere in the aisles near us. They hadn't wandered off like I hoped they had. Having been trapped in here, they probably haven't come across fresh meat in a while and the thought made me grimace. The shuffling and groaning was getting louder by the second.

I looked over at Ethan, who had the exact same look of desperation plastered on his face as I did. Our eyes darted back and forth until we simultaneously spotted the set of scuffed plastic swinging doors that lead to the back room. Neither of us had to say anything as we bolted straight for them.