Snippet #1753506

Robin
Day Six
Uptown - Walmart

"This is a bad idea, Robin."

Glancing up from where she was crouching behind a truck, Robin turned to face the young man who crouched a few feet behind her. The girl frowned, shaking her head, "It's either this or we traipse all the way across town to find somewhere else. The coast is clear, nobody's been here for days. The initial rush of people trying to hoard food all got their faces torn off, and have dispersed by now to feast on hapless idiots downtown." With a quick look over the hood of the truck, she nodded, "Come on."

"Robi-"

"Cameron," Robin interjected, giving the blonde boy a glare, "You can stay here if you want, but we need food. I had enough to last me for another few days before you turned up. Either you help me here, or you can fuck off and find your own source of food."

Robin had encountered Cameron this morning. She'd spotted him from the window of her warehouse, while she sat reading one of the books she'd salvaged from her old flat the day after she set up shop there. Since there had been no infected around, she'd gone out to meet him. Taking him with her on this trip gave any infection present in him time to develop, rather than letting him into her stronghold and having him catch her unawares. Cameron was a medical student who had been travelling through town earlier in the week, and got caught in the mess. He seemed to be capable enough, in that he hadn't fallen to pieces, and he'd survived this long.

Sighing, he finally nodded. "Alright, let's do this if we're going to, fine. Lead on."

It was a quick and simple matter to cross the street to the door of the Walmart. Her ears trained for any sign of the infected - a falling can, a moan, anything that could spell an unexpected 'ambush' - Robin stepped through the frame of what had once been a glass door and cast her eyes around. "You go try and find anything packeted that'll last a good while. Biscuits, crackers, crisps, dried fruit. I'll go to the cans. Meet back here in ten minutes or at the first sign of trouble."

Cameron nodded to her, and they split up. It was gruesome, the scene that the superstore had turned into in the last six days. Dismembered bodies lay near the entrance and blood splatters were almost all over the place. You could tell where an infected had been by a large amount of blood, spread around the vague outline of a corpse that was suspiciously absent. Those that the infected didn't eat were usually a mess before they got back up again.

Some of the cans Robin left where they were, not wanting to risk getting her hands anywhere near the blood, let alone eat anything that had been near it. But there were still supplies there. It looked like at least one survivor had had the same idea as Robin, and the cans were decidedly low in number. But one person couldn't carry everything, and so before long she had gathered a good stock of edible produce. It was a good thing she'd had the sense of mind to acquire a can opener by day two.

Just as she zipped her backpack up, however, a sound that sent a chill down her spine echoed through the store. A scream - a male voice. Cameron.

"Shit," Robin swore, slinging her pack on and grabbing the long weapons she carried from the floor. Two poles with a blade on the end, the result of breaking apart the two handles of a pair of shears. They were weighty and sharp, and most importantly had a long reach. The further you could stay from the walking dead the better.

Robin made her way warily towards the source of the noise - there were more, moans (thankfully not too many, it sounded like there wasn't a lot of them yet, but with Cameron's scream, there would likely be more soon) and crashes. Rounding an aisle corner, Robin's eyes widened as she saw Cameron kicking violently at what had once been an old woman. She was dragging herself along the floor, her legs limp and bloody - a disabled zombie. It would have been almost amusing if it hadn't been attacking her companion.

Clenching her teeth, Robin strode up behind the oblivious creature and thrust a shear down into the back of her skull. The blade went in with a cracking of bone and sank deep into the grey matter within. When she pulled it free, the woman's head dropped.

"Fuck," Robin cursed, shuddering, "Get up. We need to get out of here, you'll have attracted everything on the block with that scream."

She turned, ready to leave, but when Cameron didn't get up to follow her she stopped, looking back angrily. "Cameron, come the fuck o-"

"Robin ..." The blonde boy's eyes were full of tears, and Robin paused mid-sentence as he spoke. His hands were on his leg, and as he pulled them back, her heart sank. His ankle was bloody. He'd been bitten. Cameron met her eyes as if pleading with her to say something that meant it would be alright.

Robin bit her lip, shaking her head, "I'm sorry, Cameron." she whispered, before turning away again and hurrying away.

"Wait!" came the cries from behind her, "At least .. at least kill me, I don't want to be like that... Robin! Don't leave me here!"

She didn't turn back though. She couldn't. She couldn't kill him. It was one thing to crack the skull of a woman that was already dead, or to break an asshole's arm .. but she wouldn't deal the killing blow to another human being. Especially when she had no way to make it quick. Death by shears was hardly a painless experience, she was sure.

Stocked up on supplies but not, unlike this morning, stocked up on company, Robin headed back out onto the streets and towards her warehouse. Alone she shook away the urge to grieve for the boy she could still hear crying until she left the store. She'd only known him for hours.

She resolved not to make any more friends until this was all over.