It was the fifth day since all hell broke loose, at least it was where I lived. CDC-WHO Task force was thrown together in an hour as a joint task force with the military to back them. That didn't stop this disease from completely fucking us though, within these five days society had broken. The disease had moved rapidly, and tore apart everything. From its starting point in New York to Los Angeles, everything was destroyed. We always thought 'not us' or 'never us' until the infection was at our door. The barely standing military here was ripped to shreds, and the rest of society followed.
The theory of society breaks was something I was familiar with. The theory wasn't theoretical on what would happen if the court of public opinion wasn't there, the real question was how long it would take. Some argued it would be one day, a few others a week, but most knew it would only take five days. That was without military support, gods rest their souls, and without society in a general sense.
While several military bases fell, the unrelenting hordes rose. Some survivors sought to destroy these hordes, very few were successful. That all didn't matter, with every day that passed survivor numbers decreased and the hordes numbers increased trifold. The last city to fall was a few miles out, last I heard there were people there. I could make the trip, but not alone.
I sighed and checked my pistol and checked the clip, a full mag plus one in the chamber. I holstered the pistol at my side, and checked the bullets I carried in my side pocket for my Remington model 700. The gun was carefully modded for precision and range, a beautiful piece of work that could end lives from five to about five-hundred meters if the shot was placed correctly. Of course, my shots were always placed correctly.
It didn't take long for a dreaded noise to fill the store and echo through the empty shelves. Fucking Shambler, that's what I called them, at least it only sounded like one. A loud groan shook me to my core, I got up slowly and a bullet flew through the window. I ducked and a heard a loud thud and a crash.
"Fucking great Austin! If there's more we're screwed!" A voice yelled out.
"Oh calm down, if more show up they'll just be stragglers," Another voice, I assumed belonged to Austin, answered.
"That's what you said last time," The first voice said. "You think this place is alarmed?"
"Even if it was, the power is out," Austin answered.
I set up on the counter, rifle trained on the door. I saw two blurred figures at the door, one braced himself and hit the door falling through. A tripwire I set up snapped and dropped a makeshift ram missing both of them.
"Woah! What the hell was that?" A man with brown hair and dirtied clothes asked running in, he quickly brought out a gun and aimed in.
I steadied my breathing and kept my gun trained on them. The cross on my scope was trained on Austin and barely moved a centimeter. One shot would go straight through the T-zone, ending his life in a blink. Just leave already, I thought to myself.
Austin stood up, my scope following him, and said "Someone's here."
"Stay still and don't move!" I yelled.
The man on Austin's right aimed his gun in my direction, "what the hell?!"
"You fire and miss and your friend dies, my scope is dead center to his T-zone. He won't have time to exhale before he hits the floor dead! Names now!" I commanded.
"Austin," Austin said pointing to himself.
The man on the left looked at the direction my voice came from, "Tray."
"Weapons! Slide them towards me, you move an inch otherwise I'll end you," I threatened, knowing full well I could do as promised.
Austin went first, he slid his pistol across the floor near the checkout counter I had set up my rifle on. Tray hesitated, but slid his weapon next to Austin's after a brief pause. I put my rifle on my back, quickly taking my pistol out. I hopped over the counter, and got a better look at Austin and Tray.
Austin had blonde hair and blue eyes, he wore pieces of metal over his clothing. Tray had hazel eyes to go with his hair and he had no type of armor. They both looked at me, almost like they were making a plan.
"This thing is loaded," I stated.
I heard more groans fill the air as it got darker and darker outside. Fuck, I thought to myself. I could leave now and risk these two hunting me. Or make a deal to save my skin. That's how shit worked in Dead Saint City. Especially when the world has ended.
"Ok, let's make a deal," i said. "All of us get out of here, and we forget this happened."
Austin paused for a moment, "Deal!"
I put my gun in it's holster and took my rifle off my back. Austin and Tray grabbed their weapons and I let them take point, zombies stumbled in and we took each one out with one bullet a piece. We ran, still firing bullets keeping the pace. One got to close to me and Tray cleared its skull, ear to ear with a single 9mm bullet. Eventually we cleared enough zombies to bolt for it, so we did.
Tray and Austin kept point and I regularly turned around to fire bullets back into the crowd that had distance growing between us. For a moment Austin and Tray seemingly forgot I was about to murder them, boy was I wrong.