Find creative ways to have fun together. Looting is really underrated.

Dawn sent rays of sunshine flooding into our car and I stretched my back as I looked down at Dave’s pale face.

“Well, we’re alive,” I said as I smiled at him in the hopes he would smile back. “That’s step one.”

He nodded, but I could see how much he was hurting. He hadn’t been able to elevate his leg much last night and I doubted he’d gotten more than an hour or two of sleep. I mentally added getting painkillers and sleep aids to the running ‘to do’ list in my head.

“Yeah, thanks to your good shooting in the middle of the night.”

I shrugged. Although the night had been surprisingly quiet, we had encountered a couple of zombie incidents. There were half a dozen or so bodies scattered outside the car as a testament to that fact. I was definitely becoming a better shot through all of this.

“Still, it was better than we thought,” I offered.

He leaned forward in his seat. I reached back and began to rub his back. He let out a sigh of contentment as he said, “Whoever would have believed that being attacked six times and having to kill things in the middle of the night would be better than we thought?”

“The world, she is a-changing,” I muttered.

He nodded, his gaze distant at that thought. “Yeah. You know, I think we’ve got to find a sporting goods store and a grocery today before we get back on the road.”

He shifted and I massaged harder even as I found the GPS on the seat next to us with my free hand.

“The grocery store has to have a pharmacy, too. We need supplies for your leg,” I added as I turned it on. We both stared at the loading screen. There was a bar across the bottom that said, “Searching for link-up…”

Slowly a red-colored bar inched across the bar, filling it up as the system searched for communication from the wider universe. We waited, neither of us breathing, to find out if we were all alone in the world, or if it was still possible that someone was out there.

When the screen turned blue and it said, “Link-up found. Where do you want to go today?” I could have cried. It was a slender reed of hope, but it still existed.

I used the “Search Points of Interest” function and quickly accessed all the local sporting goods stores. I figured we’d need weapons before food and other supplies.

“The first listing is Bingo’s Sporting Depot. It’s less than a mile from here,” I said.

“Sounds good,” Dave replied.

I started to climb over to the front seat, but Dave caught my belt loop and pulled me back. “I can’t do that again, it hurts too much. I’m taking my chances with the zombies and getting out.”

“Let me come around and cover you, at least,” I said.

I hurried to get out of the car and was greeted with a burst of cool morning air. There was a light, low fog all around that made the vacant parking lot and far-too-quiet park even more eerie. I made a quick scan for zombies, then rushed over to his side of the car and helped him step onto the asphalt. Gingerly he put his weight on his leg and we both breathed a sigh of relief when he was able to bear the strain.

“You may be right about the bone bruise,” he said as we limped to the front seat and got him settled in.

I hoped that was true as I took the handgun and went around the back of the car. Last night it had been too dark to check for supplies, but since I was already out, I was going to go all the way. I checked in every direction probably a hundred times before I used the key to open the trunk and looked inside.

There was both a baseball bat and a tire iron inside and I grabbed them both in one hand. In addition there were some blankets and a first aid kit. I swept them all up and slammed the trunk shut.

The sound brought a rustle in the woods to my right and I spun to face it, holding my shaking handgun as a defense against the potential onslaught. There was shuffling and movement through the brush and trees and then a cat rushed from the darkness with a hiss.

I tensed, thinking of my conversation with David the first day this started. Was it possible this was a zombie cat? Just because we hadn’t seen a lot of animals since this started didn’t mean they weren’t out there… waiting.

But the tabby simply sat down in the middle of the parking lot and began to clean her leg with long, luxurious licks. It was like nothing in her world had changed. From her bored demeanor, at least it seemed like she hadn’t been chased by zombies for two days. Which probably meant animals were uninteresting to them. Whatever the horde wanted, they only found it in humans.

“Lucky you, kitty,” I muttered as I let out a huge sigh of relief.

I climbed into the car and shut and locked the door. Dave took my additional supplies and the gun and we buckled in. He held the GPS as I pulled out of the lot and back onto surface streets.

The turn-by-turn directions kept us busy for a little bit. I had to navigate around cars and bodies strewn everywhere, so the “time to destination” increased rather than decreased as we puttered along, but finally we pulled into another huge parking lot in front of a sporting goods store. It wasn’t one of the big box ones, but it would do as long as there were weapons to be found within.

“Maybe you should stay in the car,” I suggested as I looked at the big building rising up ominously before me.

Dave turned toward me, the baseball bat gripped tight in his hands. “Are you nuts? There’s no way I’m letting you do this alone. At the very least, I’ll push the cart so you can have your hands free.”

I stared at him. He could stand and walk slowly, but in a zombie attack I was terrified he wouldn’t react in time. What if I couldn’t help him?

But I could see from the firm set of his jaw and the determination in his eyes that this subject wasn’t open for debate. And in all honesty, I would have acted the same way if the situation was reversed.

With a sigh, I motioned for him to open his door.

We crossed the parking lot slowly, taking our time both to accommodate Dave’s injury and to keep an eye out for any infected who were lurking around. I actually saw a few on the outskirts of the lot, but they didn’t seem to be aware of us as they lurched and moved around like confused dogs or lost children.

The doors to Bingo’s Sporting Depot were automatic, but someone had turned off that function at some point, so I had to push the heavy glass and metal weight apart, wedge myself in, and then shove with my back to get us inside the store and out of the dangerously open area of the parking lot.

Once we were inside, I was overwhelmed by sensory overload. It wasn’t that the place was a big store, but there was a lot of inventory. Enough that the areas with racks and fixtures were almost too tight to walk in.

“I don’t like this,” I whispered. “We won’t be able to see or move much if we get off the main walkways.”

Dave nodded and looked around above at the brightly colored signs hanging from the ceiling that labeled where all the different equipment was located. There were golf areas, team sports, stuff to boat and fish… but tucked in the back, in a special area was a sign that read, HUNTING AND GUN SUPPLIES.

We smiled at each other as we grabbed a cart from the front of the store and made our way to the back. As we passed by racks of clothing, I pulled off a few shirts for me and for David, as well as a new pair of hiking boots, the really expensive kind that I never would have paid for before the attack.

To be fair, my Keds were soaked with blood and I was going to need something heavier duty if we encountered more roadblocks on our way to Longview.

Finally we reached the back corner of the shop and entered an area that was partly enclosed, sort of like a shop within a shop. Also known as Mecca. Behind the counter were racks of shotguns and rifles and in the glass case there were handguns. It all seemed to glow beautifully in the fluorescent lights and we stared at it for a long time with matching dopey grins on our faces.

“I’ll get ammo,” Dave finally offered before he limped off toward the shelves, using the cart as a walker.

As he did so, I looked at our weaponry options. Shotguns had proven themselves more than useful already, but in closer quarters I thought a 9mm handgun would be helpful, too. I laid a few shotguns on the counter and then dropped down to open the lower cabinet with the handguns. Just as I feared, the rack was locked. I sighed as I grabbed for one of the shotguns and bashed open the glass with the butt of it.

Immediately an alarm began to squeal in the background. I winced as I sent a look toward David.

“Sorry,” I mouthed.

He shrugged as he wheeled the cart toward me and loaded up the weapons I’d already set out.

“You know, William may have been right about one thing,” he mused as gun after gun went into the cart.

I tilted my head with a frown as I handed him another shotgun. “Zombies: scourge of God to cleanse the world?” I asked.

He flashed me a quick grin. “Well, that remains to be seen. But I mean he might have been right about loud sounds like the blast of a gun bringing zombies to investigate. We might want to get some sharp and blunt weapons for close-quarter fights just in case. Save the guns for just clearing the highway.”

I shrugged. “That boat of a car certainly has enough space for it. Why not?”

He glanced around. “We haven’t seen any activity here, human or infected. Do you want to split up?”

I tensed. We hadn’t done that since the outbreak started. I guess my face must have showed my feelings because he reached out and grabbed my hands.

“Just to save time, Sarah. We still need to hit a grocery and then get on the road.”

Of course, his logic made perfect sense so I nodded. “You take the cart.”

He smiled as he moved off in one direction through the store. I headed in the other, checking through the aisles as I went.

In the golf section I got a big, heavy driver and tucked it under my arm. Then a second baseball bat from the sport section. The one David had at present was made from ultra-light aluminum, but this one was solid wood. When I tapped it against my palm it made a satisfying thud that I could almost imagine hearing when dealing with a zombie’s rotting head.

I moved back toward the front of the store. At the cash registers there was a soda cooler and some power bars and other snacks. I grabbed some bags and loaded up with a bunch of each. Just as I was finishing up, I heard a sound behind me. I turned, expecting to find Dave waiting for me with our cart.

There was a person behind me, but I’m afraid it wasn’t my husband. To my surprise, a pale-faced girl zombie stood in front of me. She was wearing a Bingo’s nametag that read CINDY. Or at least it would have if there wasn’t blood splattered across most of it.

Oh yeah, and she was missing an arm.

“Shit!” I yelped, dropping everything in my arms as she lunged toward me with a grunt and a whine.

She caught me before I could get any one of my many weapons in hand and we staggered toward the cash register together. I fell across the countertop, my hip hitting the edge with what I knew was bruising force.

Cindy the Zombie gnashed her teeth at me and I kicked upward, hitting her squarely between the legs. Unfortunately, her being a girl and all, the action didn’t faze her. She only tilted her head at me and growled louder.

“David!” I screamed as I shoved her back with all my might, which wasn’t much from the odd angle I was lying at.

Luckily for me though, because she didn’t have an arm, she was off-balance already and she fell off of me and slid across the linoleum floor with a groan of whatever was the emotionless version of disappointment. But she moved right back for me, crawling across the floor with her jaws snapping.

In the distance, I saw Dave maneuvering his cart toward me. He had to lean on it for support, but he was making pretty good time considering his bum leg. Still, he wasn’t going to make it before the girl hit me again, so I bolted, jumping behind the cashier desk like it was a bunker in a World War II simulation game.

The zombie lunged behind me and ended up lying across the counter making little biting faces at me as she pushed herself up on her tiptoes and slid as close as she could in my direction.

I don’t know what came over me, really. I guess it was instinct… or maybe the faint, but wholly unpleasant memory of my days working in retail when I wished I could kill snotty holiday shoppers like I now killed zombies. Either way, I hit the cash out button on the old cash register and the drawer flew open.

It smacked Zombie Cindy right in the temple, breaking her rotting flesh and sending a light spray of tissue and blood across the countertop. She roared her pain as she glanced up at me with annoyance on her face.

Yup, that was just as satisfying as I’d always thought it would be during all those years ringing up ill-tempered shoppers.

I didn’t wait for her to recover from the blow. There was a fixture rod sitting behind the counter and I grabbed the light metal with both hands.

“Sorry, Cindy,” I muttered as I raised it over my head. “This is the cash-only lane. We don’t accept gnashing teeth as credit.”

I slammed the fixture down, smacking the confused and angry zombie right at the base of her skull. She whimpered, though her movements slowed and I smashed it down a few more times until she twitched and then lay still.

Just as I finished, Dave got to the front of the store. He slowed his pace as I dropped the bloody rod and came out from behind the counter. I wiped my hands off on my shirt and then looked down at myself.

Once again, I was covered in blood and brains and all kinds of disgusting mung that I don’t even want to talk about. With a grunt, I peeled off my t-shirt and turned it inside out to wipe off my body as best I could.

Grabbing for the nearest rack, I replaced it with a new “Just Do It” t-shirt from the Nike rack and then gathered all the items I had been forced to drop in the struggle. Oddly, I was mostly irritated that the cold sodas were probably all shaken up now and we’d have to be careful opening them.

Dave remained silent the entire time, just watching me as I put myself back together.

“Sarah, are you okay?” he finally asked, his tone wary.

Of course it’s not every day you get to watch your spouse beat the shit out of a zombie. Well, except by then I guess it was.

I shrugged as I stepped over the dead zombie and headed for the door.

“I think Dr. Kelly was right after all,” I said as I dropped the items I’d grabbed into his cart and wedged the double doors open again. “You don’t have to spend money to have a good time together. Look how much fun we had today and we haven’t spent a dime.”

Dave shook his head. “Well, technically, I think that’s because we’re looting.”

“Potato/Potahto,” I laughed as we moved into the parking lot. “Whatever it is, it’s free.”