A cranking sound resounded throughout the supermarket. When turning around, Mark and Kelly noticed someone pulling up the shutter. Seeing this as a worry, they had rushed over to the front entrance to see if something had gone wrong,
After all, there were two ways the shutters worked. One by manually moving them up and down after hitting the lock switch or using the computer system. When the two arrived, they saw Clark standing there with his hands by his side, looking at the door.
"What's going on?" Kelly asked. "Why is the door opening?"
"There were a couple of people outside; they looked like students. I even know one of them because he's on the wrestling team." Clark said with a proud smile. "He should make a good addition to this group."
Both Mark and Kelly looked at each other for a brief moment. They had discussed how slowly Mark was changing. The face Mark had on currently was a 'I told you so.' expression. With how things were going, it was only a matter of time before Clark just decided that he was the leader and would do things without talking to the others about it.
Clark should have discussed this with everyone before letting someone in, just like when Zain arrived.
'Well, Clark isn't a complete idiot. He wouldn't have opened the shutter unless he knew it was safe. Still, with what happened last time with a student...I'm a little worried.' Kelly thought.
A skinny, bespectacled student stepped into the store as the shutter fully opened. On him, there was a backpack and tool bag strapped around his waist. It was hard to imagine a small student like him had survived for so long.
But upon noticing the size of the young man behind him, it was understandable. He had a shovel on his back and a baseball bat in his hand. After the two were inside the store, the shutter immediately started to fall back down, and soon, the entrance to the supermarket was once again closed.
"Buke! My star wrestler!" Clark said, stepping forward with open arms. "If anyone would have survived, I knew it would have been you."
When he came close to Buke, the latter lifted his bat and pointed at the former's chest, making sure Clark couldn't get near.
This made the look in Clark's eyes change.
"What do you think you're doing? Pointing a weapon at your teacher."
"Sorry, but we have had a few run-ins with bad people and a few zombies, so we are not exactly the trusting type right off the bat." Buke chuckled at his joke a little.
After what Jade did, Skittle and Buke felt they could only trust each other and Zain. They had a plan when entering this place. They would just come in, and if there were people here, they would ask about Zain.
"We don't want to fight or cause any trouble. The zombies are our enemy, not each other." Skittle said, trying to defuse the tense situation. He saw Clark had also lifted his hand and gripped the edge of the baseball bat in Buke's hand.
"We were just wondering if you saw another student? He's our age, has red hair, and is lean and quite tall." Skittle described while doing a few actions.
No one said a word, but the change in all of the three faces there had told both Buke and Skittle that they had seen him.
'They're looking for Zain.' Kelly thought. 'Are these his friends? But then why didn't he tell us about them? Why was he travelling on his own?'
"We haven't seen him," Clark answered before anyone else could. "Sorry, but maybe we can look for him when the sun is out. Why don't you guys stay inside here for a while? Buke, we could use some muscle like yourself."
Scanning the room, Skittle noticed the unsettled faces of the others. He knew something wasn't right, and just then, his eyes fell on something past them, and he spotted two blades from the pair of shears on the floor, near the wall.
"That's Zain's weapon!" Skittle shouted out. "He's here! You're lying!"
Immediately, Skittle pulled out his hammer. Although Skittle wanted to know what these people were hiding, he trusted Zain more than them and felt like he was in extreme danger.
At that moment, Clark gripped the baseball bat in Buke's hand and threw it off into the wall. Buke instantly went to grab the shovel from behind, but he was tackled and sent to the floor before he could take it out.
"Why is a sportsman like you hanging out with a monster? I thought you were like me! I thought you were better than this!" Clark shouted.
Buke had a large figure, and this was the first time someone tackled him so effortlessly and swept him off of his feet.
Seeing this, Skittle threw the hammer towards Calrk, it was perfectly going for his body, but with a swing of his hand, Clark slapped the solid hammer away, sending it flying faster in another direction.
Doing such a thing would have broken a human's hand, but it had done no such thing.
'There it is! That superhuman strength!!' Mark thought, wondering what was about to happen. He was semi-okay with what they had done to Zain. After all, the latter was a monster, but as for these two, they looked just like regular students.
In that brief moment, when Clark had used his hand to whack the hammer away, Buke had a hand free, and he punched Clark directly in the face, sending him tumbling off to the side.
"I see, you're quite strong. Well, how about this?" Buke frowned as he pulled the shovel from his back and swung it at the gym teacher.
Clark had raised his hand to block, and as the shovel hit him, he could feel the bone in his shoulder shatter, but the shovel was also now bent.
As the others stood by, it was as if they were watching a fight between two super-brutes with superhuman strength.
"You're strong, Buke. I knew you were like me!" Clark said, getting ready to fight back as he slowly moved into position to tackle Buke, but the latter was ready this time.
"Everyone!"
A sudden shout attracted their attention. Everyone turned their heads to find the hooded teenager running out from one of the aisles.
"It's Barbara! She's dead, and Ben is missing…I think...we are in some serious trouble." Cody said, revealing to others what he had seen in that room.
*****
*****
1000 Stone goal for 2 chapters
Thank you for reading the story so far, remember to use your stones to vote for WSA