Marco heard the sound and immediately went into hiding. The first thing that entered his mind was that zombies have entered the store. They might have seen them from the glass panes or wandered here accidentally.
He stretched his neck and searched for Jessica in the food section but couldn't find her anywhere. "Where did she go?"
Marco remained quiet and stored the jerrycan and power generator inside his inventory. He then prepared his iron spear and grasped it tightly.
Slowly, he moved to the end of the aisle and took a peek, wanting to check how many zombies have entered.
To his surprise, he didn't see zombies but a young couple armed with light tools. The woman had long black hair, wearing a beanie, a cotton jacket, and gray pants. On her hand was a mop commonly used to clean the floor.
The man next to her held a baseball bat accompanied by his sports jacket, loose shorts, and rubber shoes. He appeared physically fit but still isn't strong enough to face multiple zombies together.
The two anxiously scanned the surrounding for any threats before going deeper into the supermarket.
"Are you sure of what you saw? This place seems to be already looted." said the man.
"Y-yeah, I'm sure of it. That old man came back with loads of food coming from this direction. Maybe, if we look around, we can find some leftovers..." the woman said.
Marco followed them sneakily but all the crouching and moving around was costing him precious stamina.
'They seem like good people. Their food probably ran out recently and they're trying to scavenge for supplies. Still, I can't just go up to them and greet them. What if they get frightened and attacked me? Should we leave? Where did Jessica go?'
Marco could hear plastic wrappers rustling together with metallic ringing. The couple was walking down the aisle and looted items along the way. When they arrived at the food section, they saw the empty shelves and immediately started to quarrel.
"Look at this!" the woman stated angrily. "I told you the convenience store would be a better idea!"
Her partner tried searching the hidden spots on the shelves but still found nothing. "We already talked about this. I can't fight a lot of them at the same time. We're already lucky that we only encounter one or two zombies every time we go out, so let's not push our luck with a store that had dozens of them."
Once the man finished his statement, the woman shut her mouth and started sulking. Since she can't do much, she had to follow her boyfriend's decisions, which helped them survive this far.
Marco continued trailing the couple when he heard a door open nearby.
Jessica came out of the Staff Only door with a smile on her face, holding onto a boxed carton filled with food. Bread, packs of noodles, and nets of fruits were about to drop from the box. She noticed the two people staring at her like wolves and remained calm.
The couple saw her and Marco watched as the situation unfold.
"Oh, hello guys, are you also searching for food?" Jessica greeted energetically. "There are still dozens of boxes in the storage area. You need to hurry though, something is pounding the backdoor and I don't think it's human."
"I... Thank you." the woman bowed then rushed towards the door, brushing shoulders with her. Seeing her girlfriend being rude, the man apologized and chased after her.
Once they were out of sight, Jessica placed a few packs of noodles on the counter then ran to the aisle and looked around.
Marco noticed her troubled look and came out of hiding. "Where did you go?"
"I'll explain later, let's get out of here first," Jessica stated, then dashed towards the front door.
Marco didn't know what was happening but still ran after her.
They exited the supermarket and noticed a few zombies at the end of the street where they came from. It was the house with a garage that the earlier car originated from. The zombies from the nearby streets traced the sounds earlier and stayed there when they couldn't find the sound source.
Jessica surveyed the surrounding and rushed back to the direction of the basketball court,
Marco followed after her and finally managed to ask a question. "Why are we running? I found a jerrycan in the supermarket. I need to go to the gas station to refill it."
"We can't stay for long. They'll be searching for us anytime soon and we need to hide somewhere else." Jessica replied while running. She only stopped after hiding behind a building two blocks away. This way even if the couple wanted to search for them, they would have to consider the risks of getting discovered by zombies.
Marco arrived a few seconds later flailing his arms in the air while breathing roughly, a frown formed on his face and he asked. "Jessica, what did you do?"
"I did nothing. It's just that I think that staying there wasn't a good idea."
Marco didn't believe what she said but decided not to pursue the matter. "We can't go back home with just those. Even if we ration this, it would only last two to three days and we only want to ration supplies as our last effort."
"I'm sorry," Jessica slightly lowered her head.
"It's fine. Let's just search for a sari-sari store. We might be luckier to smaller places like that." Marco replied.
A sari-sari store was a small convenience store made as an extension of one's house. This way, housewives could still do something while staying at home and earn pocket change at the same time.
Back at the supermarket, several water pipes on the ceilings were continuously leaking droplets of strange water. The water droplet would sizzle if it touched anything except for the cold, hard ground.
The storage area had boxes filled with food but there were others that got ahead of everyone else. Huge rats and cockroaches ten times their average size littered the place freely. The acid rainwater flowing through the pipes caused an already weak portion to collapse further destroying the place.
The acid rain caused puddles to fill the floor while goods directly located under the breaking point turned soggy, whether they can be consumed was still debatable.