After a few minutes of driving the boys park at a gas pump at Niles gas station and Riley fuels the van while grabbing another pack of cigarettes. "I always wondered why our vehicles had gas in them." Rat says. "Did you think they magically kept running?" Riley asks laughing. "No, I assumed it was you because we never filled them." Rat admits. "Yeah well, fix that. If the tank is at half, fill it. Never know when you might need to drive away or how far." Riley says lighting a cigarette. Rat watches the red haired boy smoke for a moment. "Why do you smoke?" Rat asks after a few moments of silence. "Cause I'm addicted to nicotine." Riley says chuckling. "I mean with the whole zombie apocalypse thing can you really afford to smoke?" Rat asks. Riley sighs a cloud of toxic goodness. "I don't run I kill them and of fucked up ways to die now lung cancer doesn't seem that bad now does it?" Riley asks. Hanging up the hose Riley turns to Rat and opens his mouth. "Dollar store?" Rat asks before Riley can speak. Riley gives Rat a thumbs up. parking by a 99 cents store with cars all over the parking lot. "You nervous?" Rat asks nervously. "Are you?" Riley asks in return. "Of course not." Rat says faking bravery. "Teach me that trick, cause I'm scared shitless." Riley says, patting Rats shoulder before getting out of the van and grabbing his backpack. "If your scared why do you do this?" Rat asks. "I told you I'd let you in on my secret, didn't I Rat jack? The secret is I'm always scared. I just fight and push forward instead of running away, maybe someday I'll no longer be afraid." Riley admits. "Think there are a lot of zombies here?" Rat asks, eyeing the bloody parking lot of abandoned cars. "Real question is will that stop me?" Riley says, cocking his gun. "Maybe we should check a different store." Rat says nervously. "Feel free we can meet up here in an hour." Riley says starting off towards the entrance. "I'm not going anywhere." Rat says catching up to the other boy. About four rows of cars in a hand snakes out and grabs Riley's ankle. Wrenching the zombie out from under the car Riley drives a knife in its head. Getting down on his belly Riley looks under the cars. "Hey Rat, have you ever heard of trapdoor spiders?" Riley asks. Rat groans loudly. "Why do you ask, anxiously. Standing up brushing himself off Riley smiles. "The cars are the trapdoor and beneath them the zombies play spider." Riley says playfully. Taking his notebook out Riley records this finding. "Why?" Rat asks Riley who shrugs. "Maybe they are evolving or coming up with animalistic tactics I don't know." Riley muses. "Anything else I should know about?" Rat asks. "Sure animals are always fast. Fresh zombies can run and jump for about 2 weeks after turning before becoming shamblers like we are used to." Riley's says kicking a tire and dragging the zombie that reacts to the noise out killing it with his knife. "How do you know that?" Rat asks. "I watched 1 for 2 weeks before killing it." Riley says matter of factly while grabbing a zombie's wrist and dragging it out to kill it. "So what do we do now?" Rat asks. "We drag them out and kill them all." Riley says. "And then what?" Rat asks. We push the cars to the farthest side to avoid getting grabbed in the future." Riley says moving to the next car.
Riley grits his teeth as he pulls the last shard of glass from his bloody hand. "Are you going to be ok?" Rat asks, watching the other boy wrap his hand with a bandage that bleeds through quickly. "Yeah why do you ask?" Riley asks. "You are bleeding like a fucking stuck pig man." Rat says, staring at Riley. "Oh well, so let's get to it now." Riley says standing up inspecting the 62 cars they had pushed. Nodding Riley draws his gun and flashlight crossing them as he walks like a policeman. When they are half way through the parking lot the automatic doors open and close. "Something is in there." Riley says quietly. "Of course there is." Rat grumbles. Once inside the store Riley is tackled by a Zombie dog making him drop his gun. As he is struggling with the zombie 5 shamblers round an aisle and come for the 2 boys. "Kill them Rat!" Riley yells as he slams his fist into the dog's head repeatedly. Rat fires arrows in rapid succession ending with the dog. Riley snatches his gun and shoots at Rat shocking him. Turning at the sound of something heavy collapsing Rat sees an obese zombie with a large hole torn into its guts. "Thanks." Rat pants. Riley jumps up and draws his knife. "More are coming." Riley says raising the gun. "How do you know?" Rat asks as several zombies start flooding to the entrance from throughout the store. The pair shoot quickly dropping many zombies quickly but soon enough Fat runs out of bullets and Riley tosses him his beretta freshly loaded before pulling his revolver out and re-entering the fray. "Only shoot the zombies to the sides so you don't wind up being swarmed from the sides it will funnel them." Riley says calmly between gunshots. When Riley uses all 6 rounds he slides up to the closest zombie drawing his new machete he had gotten on his trailer park adventures and cuts the zombies head off in 1 clean cut. Rat watches in amazement, stunned for a moment and frozen in shock as Riley spins like a ballet dancer keeping the zombies from gripping him and killing them in the process. Riley stands and throws his machete into the back of the last zombie that had nearly grabbed Rat. "focus!" Riley snaps. "I wont watch you die, do you understand me! If you come with me anywhere you stay focused or go home. Do you understand me!" Riley says retrieving his machete and gun. "I'm sorry Ri it's just you seem so comfortable-" Rat's sentence drowns in horror as he looks at Riley's injured hand and the clear bite on it. "No Riley." Rat sobs falling to his knees. The younger boy shakes uncontrollably as devastation warps his mind. "What has gotten into you?" Riley asks, raising his eyebrow. "Your hand got bit." Rat says crying heavily. "Oh that's all." Riley says grunting as he re-wraps his hand and drops his jacket, taking his shirt off and pointing at a little scar on his shoulder. "At the pharmacy a dog bit me, and it turns out I am immune." Riley says. "Warn a guy before dropping a bombshell like that man!" Rat yells. Riley stares at Rat while reloading his guns and raises it pointing it out the door and firing killing a zombie. Rat stares at the zombie. "I will keep that in mind." Riley says walking into the store deeper. Pulling his list out of his jacket pocket Riley stares at it. "Gather all the canned food you can into those trash cans." Riley says pointing at 50 gallon trash containers. "Got it what are you getting?" Rat asks. "Feminine hygiene products and comfort items for the girls." Riley says scanning the aisle signs. "Need help?" Rat asks. "Nope divide and conquer little brother but from now on whenever you go scavenging get these things so the girls don't go without." Riley says, showing Rat the list. "Condoms?" Rat asks. "No rule against sex, and not my problem what people do in their free time." Riley says handing the list to Rat since he had memorized it. Grabbing a shopping cart Riley goes to the appropriate aisle and starts carefully stacking all the tampons and pads into the cart. Once he has a mountain of products he pushes the cart out to the van and shoves them into a large garbage bag and puts it in the back. Once back inside he starts filling a bag with shampoos and conditioners and any other soaps he sees. "Hey Riley, do you think any of these meds are already in Alex's lab?" Rat yells across the store. "No these are over the counter and those are prescription." Riley responds. 45 minutes later the boys finish tying the last of 5 containers full of canned food to the roof. "Now we pilfer from some of these cars and go to the bike shop to look for keys and we are done." Riley says dropping from the roof. "Gotcha." Rat says chewing on a taffy candy.
Carefully driving so they don't lose any of their loot, the boys finally reach the bike shop. "Okay buddy if you see a non explosive bike you like let me know and we will grab it for you." Riley says smiling. "Nope handmade Riley death machine all the way." Rat says smiling like a fool. Riley chuckles and climbs out tossing Rat the van keys. "What's this for?" Rat asks surprised. "Tank deserves a present too. I'm going to grab the grouchy bastard a bike." Riley says grinning. "You just want to ride don't you?" Rat asks seeing through his brother completely. Riley smiles like a fool. "And there is that I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't excited." Riley chuckles. Inside the shop a zombie Rat had killed last time he was here rots. The boys find the keys easily in a back office each labeled with the brand and model and since only 1 yamaha was listed Riley ventures it is safe to guess it was for his bike. Grabbing a key to a Harley Davidson fat boy Riley sits atop the large Red motorcycle and turns the key bringing the motorcycle roaring to life with the touch of the ignition button. Rat smiles at Riley. "Ready?" Riley yells over the engine. "After you." Rat says stepping aside. Riley shifts into first and flies out of the shop like a mad man. "Wanna race?" Riley giggles. "Not even a little." Rat laughs at the other boys overflowing joy. Rat drives behind Riley who rides ahead of him swaying all over the road happily dodging debris and occasional corpses. Rat is almost disappointed when Crystal Lake comes into view. On the wall many of 13 clans members had gathered to see what was making so much noise and laugh when they see Riley. "What 1 bike wasn't enough for him?" Tank says laughing at the other boy. Alex drops down and yanks the gate open for the returning boys. Riley is still laughing happily when he turns the engine off. "Somebody is happy." Tank chuckles. "You like this one?" Riley asks. "Does it matter?" Tank asks. "Of course it does."Riley says watching the large boy. "Yeah I like it, so what?" Tank says. Riley throws the keys to Tank who catches them on reflex. "Then hurry and help me unload so we can ride man." Riley says excitedly. Tanks brow furrows confusedly. "Happy birth-mas-oween." Riley says climbing on the roof and untying the cans before carefully sliding them down the side of the van to those below. Tank stares at the keys in his hand. Riley whistles and points at Marie and Mrs. King waving them over. "What do you need Riley?" the girls ask a still grinning Riley shocked by the uncharacteristic happiness. "These 3 bags are yours." Riley says pointing in the van. "Thank you Riley." Mrs. King says. "In the future if you can't get them yourself don't hesitate to ask anyone to get this stuff for you guys and let me or Rat know if any of the boys give you trouble, it's a natural function and has to be taken care of we will beat their heads in if they don't give you girls all due respect." Riley says seriously like the Riley they know. Then the grin returns. "Hey Tank you ready to ride?" Riley asks pushing his bike out next to the Fat boy. "I've never been on a bike." Tank admits. "I figured Big guy that's why i'm going to teach you." Riley says starting his bike and laughing like a boy on Christmas. It is a sight 13 clan has never seen and are happy to see. "I might crash." Tank says nervously. "I crashed my first bike 20 times just learning to go." Riley says. Tank sits on the bike like it is a live grenade. "Relax bro it's gonna be fun." Riley says