"Hey, I don't think we should stay here another night." I told Mandy with a straight face.
Mandy slightly looked down, her face expression changing, took a moment to respond.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Mandy responded, looking back up at me. "I probably should have left a lot sooner anyways," she continued.
"Honestly, with what happened just now, I have to agree with that" I nodded to what Mandy said.
A moment of silence later, Mandy asked "So, do you have an idea where we should go?"
I stood in place and tried to come up with an answer.
A while later, I looked at Mandy "I saw a gun store on the way here, we could go there," I continued "It wasn't especially far, we could probably get there in an hour if we walked."
Mandy agreed and I began picking up all of my stuff and placing it into my bag, only to hear Mandy yawning.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Mandy was tired, she noticed and asked "hm? What's up?"
"Are you tired?"
"Uh, yeah? We just stayed up all of last night, constantly on guard, in case that zombie broke in here," Mandy looked at me with a confused expression, "it has ruined my sleep schedule because it comes here every night, and I have to stay up."
I quickly realised I, was too, tired. I stood for a moment, trying to decide what to do next, only for a mental fog to start appearing.
"... What do you think? Should we maybe rest for a few hours before going away?" Mandy, seeing my confusion spoke up.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Let's rest up and then let's go there."
"Alright."
After that, we quickly went to sleep, hoping to get a few hours' rest.
It was hard to fall asleep, despite feeling tired, during the day due to the bright environment, though it seemed Many had already gotten used to it, as she seemingly fell asleep very quickly.
A while later, I felt my mind slowly drifting off and falling asleep.
...
Mandy woke me up "Hey, it's probably time to start heading to that store, right?"
I slowly sat up, holding my head "Yeah... how long has it been anyways?"
She went to the window and looked outside "I don't know, but almost definitely a few hours."
I sighed and stood up, picking up my backpack that I had finished packing before sleeping.
Mandy looked at me and went to take her shotgun. She picked it up and loaded the shotgun full, picking up the remaining bullets, she asked me "can these fit in your bag? They're a bit too big to carry around in-hand or in a pocket."
"Yeah, open the second pocket, just below the largest one, you can probably fit it in there," I told Mandy, turning around, my bag facing her.
"Alright, thanks."
Finally, she put the spare bullets in the bag and closed the pocket "Alright, let's go."
We went to the front door and quickly dismantled what had remained of the barrier and carefully stepped outside, watching for any zombies.
A few moments later we fully stepped outside, both seeing and hearing nothing that would indicate zombies.
"You DO know how to get there, right?" Mandy asked, hoping for reassurance.
"Yeah, I saw it when I was coming here yesterday."
She nodded and clutched the shotgun in her arms, it looked like she felt safer with that, so I kept the question to myself.
As we walked, we began to chat, time flew, and for just a few moments, both of us forgot what the world had evolved into.
"We've been walking for quite a bit, how much longer until we get there?" Mandy suddenly asked.
"Oh! We should be there pretty soon, I think just a few blocks..." I said, slowly noticing a figure in the distance. "Hey, do you see that?" I continued, pointing my finger forward.
Mandy took a moment to concentrate her sight to the distance, before telling me "Yeah... it looks like a zombie!"
Clearly shook, Mandy slowly pointed her gun to the zombie in the distance.
I signalled to Mandy to be quiet and ushered her to go to a side-alley; she followed.
As we entered the alleyway, we breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was close, thankfully it didn't notice us!" Mandy exclaimed, with a smile on her face.
"Yeah, that was close." I responded, trying to think of a new route to get to the store.
Mandy walked forward, accidentally loudly knocking over a tin can with her foot, she looked down, watching the can roll.
She slowly looked up at me, and we heard the zombie from before running to where we were.
I felt a surge of adrenaline racing through my body, as we ran further down the alley.
A while later, I looked back and saw the silhouette of a zombie entering the alley, quickly catching up with us.
"Is this the fastest you can run?" I look at Mandy, clutching her gun facing up to her chest.
"Yeah, sorry! Running with this big of a gun is uncomfortable!"
A moment hesitation passed before I told Mandy to quickly turn around and shoot the zombie.
At first Mandy looked concerned, after looking back, she understood what I meant and stopped running. She quickly stopped, turned around and crouched on one leg in one swift motion, putting her gun against her leg for stability.
BANG
She hit the zombie in the upper chest. Before I could say anything, without flinching, she shot again.
BANG
This time, she mainly hit the zombie's left leg, with some of the scattered pellets hitting the other leg and lower stomach.
For a moment, Mandy froze, breathing shakily. It took me a split second to come back to reality, and I quickly ran over to Mandy, lightly hitting her back.
"Quickly! We have to go, now!" I shouted at the clearly distraught Mandy.
A moment later Mandy came back to reality and quickly stood up "Yeah! Let's go!"
We began running, I glanced over my shoulder and saw the zombie on the ground struggling to stand up... I almost felt bad.
As we approached the end of the alley, it became apparent that Mandy's knee was hurting "Hey, are you okay?" I asked her
"Hm? Oh, yeah, it looks like I placed the gun in a bad spot, and now my knee hurts a bit, nothing much though." Mandy tried to smile through the pain.
"Okay... we'll get it checked out at the store... hopefully they have a first-aid kit, I mean, they must have had at least one, right?"
"Yeah, you're probably right!"
We finally left the alley, only to see it almost entirely empty.
"You know, after 2 shotgun shots, I would have expected there to be at least SOMETHING." I exclaimed out loud, with almost a hint of shock in my voice.
"Actually, now that you mention it, it is a bit odd. Let's not get overconfident, they might not still be here, but there almost definitely are zombies on their way here right now."
"Yeah, you're right... let's pick up the pace a bit"
A few minutes passed and as we entered a large space, with stores around all around us, with many alleyways leading to a different part of the city. The store finally came into sight.
"There it is! Look to the left!" I told Mandy, pointing my finger in the direction of the store.
It took Mandy a second to find the store among the others right beside it, "Oh! I see it now!"
Almost at the exact same time, many growls from behind and a nearby alley to our right side could be heard.