Chapter 2
About three hours after finishing her conversation with Ofelia, Alicia stood leaning against the door frame that separated the boat's living space from the deck as she watched her mother finish saying goodbye to Nick.
“Be safe.” Madison said, hugging her son tightly before letting go and allowing him to climb down the ladder after Travis and Daniel who were already waiting on the dock for the boy to join them.
They had docked about ten minutes ago, after having cruised by the bay slowly to ensure there weren’t any people, living or dead, hanging around the marina. Alicia continued standing silently behind her mother as she watched her brother join the other two men. She was trying desperately to keep her excitement hidden from her mother. She would be getting off this stupid fucking boat in a matter of minutes if everything went to plan, but things certainly wouldn’t go to plan if her mother caught on to her excited energy. She would know something was up right away if she did. So Alicia stood like a statue with her arms crossed over her chest and her best ‘moody teenager’ glare in place as her mother began to walk towards her.
“Alicia, honey, I know you’re still mad at me for refusing to let you join them but you know it’s only because I lo-“ Madison’s next words were cut off by the sound of Ofelia cursing from the floor below.
“Shit!” They heard her yell. “Guys get down here! Something’s wrong with the water filter!”
Madison looked at Alicia and then Chris, who had been standing by the railing and watching the three men disappear in the distance, with a look of panic in her eyes.
Alicia did her best to match her mother’s panicked look, even though she knew exactly what was going on. After their conversation on the deck earlier that day, the two girls had found some tools in the utility room and removed one of the parts of the water filtration system. They hadn’t done any serious damage, the part was safe and sound in a corner of the utility room, but they had done enough to cause a distraction that would allow Alicia to sneak off the ship unnoticed by her mother.
“You two go down to Ofelia and see what’s wrong. I’ll run upstairs and grab Strand, he’ll know what to do!” Alicia said to her mother and Chris who both nodded and ran towards the stairs that would lead them down to Ophelia. Alicia smirked to herself once they left before quickly running inside to grab her bat which she had hidden earlier from under the couch. She had absolutely no intentions of getting Strand.
Without even bothering to glance behind her she hauled herself over the side of the boat and clambered down the ladder before sprinting down the dock and up to the streets in the direction she had seen her brother, Travis and Daniel head. God it felt good to run. Alicia had never been very interested in athletics in high school, but she found herself loving the feeling of the wind in her hair and the burn in her lungs and legs and she continued sprinting towards the three men she could now see walking towards a grocery store in the distance. She supposed she should feel bad for tricking her mother and the worry that her disappearance would surely bring her, but right now all she could think about was how fucking good it felt to finally be free of that horrifically stifling boat.
Shortly after first spotting them, Alicia saw her brother turn his head at the sound of her feet slapping hard against the pavement beneath her. She could see the confusion on his face has he stopped and turned his body all the way around to face her.
“Alicia?” She heard him ask as she approached the three and slowed to a walk.
At her brother’s words Travis spun around and his confused brown eyes immediately locked onto her determined green ones. His confusion turned into anger rather quickly, but Alicia couldn’t find it in herself to care.
“Alicia, what the hell are you doing here?!” He yelled, storming up to her as she straightened up having been bent over slightly in an attempt to catch her breath.
Without missing a beat or breaking his eye contact she said, “Careful Travis, you may not want to yell like that, the dead are always listening. And to answer your question I’m here to help, I figured you could use it and judging by your inability to keep your voice down it would appear I was right.” She was being a little shit and she knew it, but still she just didn’t care. The feeling of finally being back in civilization and off the boat had given her a newfound sense of confidence that she wasn’t about to stifle, no matter how harshly Travis was glaring at her.
“Alicia, turn around and get back on that boat now!” Travis said, pointing a finger back towards the marina and doing his best to sound authoritative without raising his voice too much.
“No.” Alicia replied simply. “I’m here now, so you can either let me help or I can go off on my own and find some supplies myself because there’s no way I’m going back to that boat. And I think you know which of those two options my mother would prefer.” She finished as a smug grin spread across her beautiful features. She had him by the balls, she knew it and so did he.
Before Travis could respond Daniel spoke up. “Enough of this, we are wasting time. The girl is right, she’s with us now and we would be foolish to refuse her help. The more people we have, the more supplies we can gather and the better protected we will all be.”
Alicia saw Travis’ eyes flare in anger (she had still refused to break eye contact with the man) before he closed them and took a deep breath. “Fine.” He said, the single word dripped with annoyance. “But you are not to leave my side and there will be consequences when we return to the ship.”
Alicia rolled her eyes before strolling past Travis towards the grocery store the men had been heading for before she arrived. She pulled her cell phone and headphones out of her back pocket and placed one of the buds securely in her left ear so she could listen to her music but would still be able to hear what was going on around her. Moments later her brother strolled up beside her with a rather large grin on his face.
“I gotta hand it to you little sister, I didn’t think you had it in you.” He said glancing down at her.
Alicia returned his slightly bemused look with a glare of her own. “That was your first mistake. I wasn’t about to let mom tell me where I could and couldn’t go. I’m not a child, not anymore.”
He raised his hands slightly in mock surrender. “Hey no argument here. I’m glad you finally started taking matters into your own hands. The goody-two shoes honor roll student thing was getting a little boring. You may actually be my sister after all.” He finished by bumping his shoulder lightly into hers. She felt a small smile spread across her face in spite of herself.
She’d always liked Nick. Sure, she hated his addiction and what it did to both her and their family, but after their dad died and her mother checked out he had been there for her. They had found comfort in knowing the other shared their pain in a way no one else could. That tragedy had forged a bond between the two siblings that was hard to understand at times, but was stronger than anything Alicia had ever known.
As the group approached the grocery store, Alicia’s hand unconsciously tightened around her bat as her eyes scanned her surroundings looking for trouble. It had been a quiet trip thus far, but they hadn’t been out for long and they all knew things could easily turn deadly in the blink of an eye.
The four stopped just outside of the smashed door of the grocery store as Daniel reached down and picked up a piece of rubble from the ground. He walked the last two steps up to the entrance of the store and tossed the brick into its depths. It smashed loudly against something inside the store and they waited for a solid minute afterwards, their ears straining to hear if the noise had roused any walkers within the store. When no other sounds reached them they stepped cautiously into the store with their weapons raised slightly.
Alicia’s sense were all heightened as they made their way slowly down the aisles of the store. She could hear the glass crunching beneath her sneakers, could smell the sweat dripping down her brother’s back beside her, felt the smooth wood of her bat as her sweaty hand gripped it ever tighter.
After another minute or so of slowly walking through the aisles, the group began to relax as it became easier to believe that, if only for the moment, they were alone in the store.
Travis knelt down and slipped the black backpack off his back before opening it to reveal several more rather scrunched up backpacks which he distributed evenly between the remaining three members of their party.
“Grab whatever you can fit into these bags that you think we will need.” Travis began quietly. “Our main concern is food, but if you find some other useful items you can fit in your bag grab them. We move together as a group, one aisle at a time.” He finished looking pointedly between Alicia and Nick.
Alicia sighed inwardly as the group began to pick any remaining cans off the shelf in the aisle they had been standing in. As much as she wanted to explore on her own, she knew it wouldn’t be safe despite the apparent lack of walkers. Silence meant nothing in a zombie apocalypse, she knew that. In fact, silence was often a precursor to very dangerous and very deadly scenarios. Not only that but Travis’ eyes hadn’t left her for longer than fifteen seconds since they began making their way through the store and they had already picked through three aisles so she knew there was no way she’d be able to sneak off anyways. She’d pushed her luck already sneaking off the boat and knew that to try again would not be the wisest idea. Besides, she was off the ship and, even under Travis’ watchful gaze, felt better than she had since the day she had first stepped foot onto that floating hell.
Alicia had been lost in her thoughts for the past few aisles they had been through, mindlessly grabbing cans of food that didn’t make her want to vomit (much). However she couldn’t stop the excited squeal that left her lips when they turned down the next row and she saw boxes of pads and tampons lining the shelves. She could feel the guys' eyes on her, silently judging her for her excitement over ‘sanitary products’ but she didn’t care. For the past week she had been silently dreading what would happen the next time Mother Nature decided to make her monthly stop as she noticed they were dangerously low on supplies during her last ‘visit’. She quickly grabbed as many boxes as she could fit in her bag, not knowing when she may get another chance to stock up on such necessities.
“Really Lysh? Do you think you have enough there?” Nick smirked at her as she shoved the last box into her now very full bag before zipping it up and throwing it over her shoulder.
“What? They’re going to be way more useful than the condoms I saw you grab two rows over.” She said with a straight face as she walked by her now very red-faced brother.
It was then that they heard it. It was low, but unmistakable. The groans of the dead trickled through the smashed front windows of the store and into their ears.
“Oh shit.” Nick whispered as he slowly and silently walked towards the windows to get a look at the street outside, the other three close on his heels.
Alicia gripped her bat tightly as her eyes scanned the scene before her. Five walkers were about 20 yards down the road and were making their way slowly but steadily towards the store. She quickly stopped her music and removed the lone earbud from her ear before returning her headphones and phone back to her pocket, not wanting to be distracted with the arrival of this new threat.
“Four against five? I like those odds.” Nick breathed beside her, looking to the rest of the group for confirmation. Alicia had to agree with her brother, they could handle these five no problem. She was afraid, but determined as well and perhaps even a little bit excited. After being cooped up for weeks she was ready to stretch her muscles and kill some walkers.
Before she could voice her agreement however, new moans joined that of the five heading towards them as another ten walkers came from a side street fifteen yards to their left, and seven more from an alley just five yards down the road on the right.
“Fuck.” She whispered. They were moving fast, the seven that had just appeared were already almost right on top of the store.
“Move!” Travis yelled, not even bothering to keep his voice down. There wasn’t much point now; they were surrounded.
Without pausing to think Alicia spun on her heel and sprinted down the aisle they had just finished clearing towards the back of the store, praying that there was a backdoor somewhere that they could use to escape. Breaking glass and an increase in the volume of the groans of the dead told her the first wave of walkers had already made it to the store’s entrance.
Her heart pounded ferociously in her chest as her eyes ran along the back of the store in search of an exit.
“There!” Daniel shouted, pointing to a red door off to the right between two shelves holding a few moldy loaves of bread.
Alicia was second farthest from the door, followed only by her brother who she could hear breathing heavily behind her as they sprinted towards the door Daniel was now opening and running through. Alicia could see sunlight streaming through the door, blocked briefly by Travis as he too sprinted through the opening. When she just a few steps from freedom however, she heard a loud smack and a grunt behind her. She turned to see Nick splayed out on the ground and rubbing his head having tripped on some of the rubble littering the floor. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked behind him to see the first of the walkers making their way out of one of the rows towards them. They weren’t more than five feet away now.
Without pausing to think Alicia sprinted back to her brother and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him up and shoving him ahead of her towards the door before turning quickly to face the closest walker which was now only a foot away from her. Gripping her bat tightly in her hands and setting her feet she wound back and swung forwards with as much strength as she could muster and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch as her bat met the skull of the walker, killing it instantly. Before she could spend too much time admiring her handy work though, the next walker was making his way towards her quickly. His hands raised towards her as he groaned loudly and shuffled menacingly towards her.
“Alicia!” She heard Nick cry behind her. She didn’t dare turn around, the monster was too close now for her to run and she couldn’t risk taking her eyes off of him.
“Go Nick! Now! I’ll be right behind you!” There were five more walkers behind the one that now held Alicia’s attention. There was no way the two of them could take them all on so she urged her brother to continue through the door. Once she took care of the walker now just two feet in front of her she would be able to follow. There was no sense in both of them staying to fight.
The door creaking behind her told Alicia her brother has listened (for once) and was safe outside. Not taking a moment longer than necessary to appreciate this fact, Alicia quickly got in her stance again and swung her bat once more. She hit the walker in the head much like she had with the last one, but this ‘man’ was larger than the last and he remained upright after her initial swing. After two more powerful blows to the head he finally fell and Alicia spun back towards the door without a moment’s hesitation. She knew the rest were hot on her heels, so before exiting through the door she pulled down one of the shelves that flanked the exit with a grunt. It wasn’t large or particularly heavy, but it would at least slow down the hoard and deter the remaining walkers from following her out into the street.
Turning away from the store she had just left, Alicia was momentarily blinded by the sun streaming over the tall buildings lining the alley she now found herself standing in. Blinking rapidly to clear her vision she began to try and take in her new surroundings. The alley she was in now seemed to only go in two directions, either directly ahead of her where it opened into another street, or to her right where she suddenly heard shouts and multiple sets of feet slamming against the pavement that she knew belonged to her brother, Travis and Daniel. She was momentarily annoyed at the fact that they hadn’t waited for her until her eyes fully adjusted and she could see clearly just why that was.
A group of about 10-12 walkers were shuffling after the three men as they continued sprinting down the alley away from the new threat. Alicia now had a choice on her hands. She could go after them and try to help them fight this new group of walkers, or she could turn and run straight ahead through the alley’s second exit and hope she would be able to reconnect with the other three later or find her way back to Strand’s boat. Neither option was ideal, but as hard as it would be she knew which one she needed to take. There was no way she would be able to reach the group through the pack of walkers now hunting them, and while she could try and follow there was no guarantee more walkers wouldn’t join them and she knew they would never be able to fight off the group just the four of them.
So, with one final glance down the alley to her right, she breathed deep and began jogging straight ahead and away from the three men whose shouts began to fade in the distance.