Chapter Six

"But we had days still!" I exclaim, dumbfounded.

"The warning periods have been getting shorter and shorter," Cade replies, looking thoughtfully at the green glow outside.

Beside me, I hear Emma start sniffling. She's looking across the hall at one of the dispatched Rotters, when she starts crying.

I kneel down beside her, "It'll be okay, Emma. There's lots of supplies here."

She keeps her eyes trained on the dead corpse, a steady stream of tears falling down her cheeks, "I just want to go home."

Sometimes I forget just how young Emma is, and how strong she's forced to be. She's just a child, and she's just been through a very traumatic experience, not counting her entire existence. She just wants to be somewhere familiar, somewhere she feels safe.

I draw her into me, trying to comfort her, "So do I, sweetheart, but it looks like we'll be stuck here for a while."

I hear movement behind me, and turn to see Cade grabbing the Rotter that Emma was staring at and rolling it onto a tarp he laid out on the floor. He kicks the detached head onto the tarp as well.

"What are you doing?" I call out.

"We're going to be here for a while, I figure it's best if we don't have to stare at these things the entire time," he replies, giving Emma a quick glance.

My heart can't help but do a summersault at his actions, even though my face doesn't betray my feelings. I give him a nod, an unspoken understanding passing between the two of us.

We're going to be here for who knows how long, it'd be best to work together.

He drags the tarp to the next couple of bodies, rolling them onto the tarp and kicking their heads onto it as well.

I start making my way over to help him, but Cade stops me.

"I got it. Why don't you see if you can clean yourself up a bit," he says to me while unconsciously glancing at Emma, who's gotten some Rotter blood on her from hugging me.

"You're starting to make Tyler nauseous from your smell, and he's all the way over here!" he jokes, sending me another charming smile.

Tyler shakes his head violently, disagreeing with his older brother's statement. Then he moves a Rotter head onto the tarp and smiles a big grin at me, as if to say "we got this."

He can hear perfectly fine, but he can't talk. I wonder if that's a biological thing or a psychological thing, and if it has anything to do with that huge scar running across his face.

I nod at Cade, grateful that he'll take care of the bodies so Emma doesn't have to be reminded of how close we came to dying today. She's still sniffling a bit, but she's not crying anymore.

I grab her hand and leave the boys to body removal duty. I'm pretty confident that our commotion drew all of the Rotters that would've been in here out, so I don't think we'll be ambushed, but I keep my free hand near my thigh for easy access to a gun, just in case.

There's a massive stockpile of water, much more than the four of us will need for the remainder of our time here in Walmart, so I grab a couple gallons of water. I also head though the aisles to grab a change of clothes for me and Emma, some towels, shampoo and body wash, bandages, and some baby wipes. I threw all of these items into a little plastic bin piled over another one the same size, and drag them to the washroom.

The bins are big enough to be a small little bathtub for Emma, and I fill them with the water. I bathe her first in one bin, throwing out her ruined clothes. When she's dressed I place her on the sink and let her flip through a picture book I got for her, and strip off my ruined top and bra.

Those go straight in the garbage, and I wash off my upper body with the bath water. Then I dunk my head in the water, scrubbing off my face. I lather my hair with the shampoo, pulling out random chunks of Rotter flesh as I go. I shampoo multiple times in the dirty water before dunking my head in the second tub I got with the clean water, shampooing one more time with that clean water, trying to get the smell off of me. I do the rest of my body with baby wipes, and put the clean clothes on. It's not as good as a shower, but I still feel so refreshed and clean.

I wrap up some scrapes I got from all the falling in the last couple of hours, but other than that I'm not too scratched up. I French braid my honey blonde hair, doing the same for Emma's light brown hair.

I strap on all my guns and lift Emma off the counter, before going back out to figure out our new temporary living situation. It's probably around 8 pm, and Emma's already sleepy from all the day's events, so I just carry her.

With my adrenaline calmed down and my energy levels significantly decreased, I'm suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion. All my limbs feel heavy and I'm just so tired and done with this shitty day. I wish I could just crawl in bed—MY bed— but that won't be an option for quite some time.

I find Cade in one of the aisles, grabbing some food.

"Hey," he says when he sees me.

He's dirtier than when I first saw him, probably from moving all the corpses to some unknown location.

"I cleared the rest of the building, no Rotters to be found. Also, there's a small leak in the roof near the front door. I put a metal bin under it but I don't think it should give us any problems."

I nod at him, not wanting to wake up Emma and really too exhausted to care.

He hands me a granola bar, tearing it open for me so that I don't need to let go of Emma.

"Thanks," I say as I practically demolish it in two bites.

He tears open another one and hands it to me, amused, and we start walking in some direction that he's leading me to.

"We found some rooms in the back. One had a couch in it, but we found some air mattresses that we pumped up and put in there."

I look at him, astonished at how much he's been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time; how much he's THOUGHT of doing.

We get to a door with an "Employees Only" sign, and walk through it. The hallway is dark since there aren't any windows, illuminated by a battery operated lantern and a bunch of glow-in-the-dark star stickers covering the walls, which Cade tells me Tyler put up. The small hallway holds a couple of doors which I'm assuming were break rooms and offices. He leads me to one of the doors in the middle and pushes it open.

The room is a good size, not too small, and has a few windows at the top of the wall which lend the room that green haze, neutralized only by the light from a battery operated lantern sitting on a small table. There's a worn in couch under the windows, a Shrek blanket laying on it and a plush toy of the Gingerbread Man from the movie sitting on a pillow.

There was also a blow up mattress on the floor, a fluffy black blanket and pillow on it, practically yelling at me to lay on it and pass out for the next 4 weeks.

I place the sleeping Emma on the couch and draw the Shrek blanket over her, and she instantly cuddles with the stuffed toy and continues her soundless sleep.

I look at Cade questioningly.

"Tyler noticed Emma's backpack and figured she likes Shrek. Made it his mission to find her something Shrek themed; thought it'd make her feel better."

My heart instantly warms to the kid. Now I DEFINITELY feel bad about pointing my gun at him earlier.

"Great kid."

"Yeah. Way too smart for a 9 year old."

"Where are you sleeping?"

He points to the wall, "Room right there. I wanted to stay together in one room, you know, safety in numbers and all that, but I figured that wouldn't fly with you."

Being in the same room as a stranger when I take off my guns and am in my most vulnerable state sleeping? Yeah, not if I have anything to say about it.

"You figured correctly. Thanks for setting this up. Goodnight." I practically kick him out.

He gives me a genuine smile, one that makes my stupid girl hormones react in a way that contradicts what my brain is hardwired to believe about pretty faces.

"No problem. Goodnight, Cami."

I close the door the second he is out of the way, satisfied when the lock works.

I take off the guns strapped on my body and put them on the table. I kick off my boots and put the knife I keep in it under my pillow, as well as place a gun beside the mattress for easy access.

I lay down and barely have time to cover myself with the fluffy blanket, before I stop fighting the exhaustion overwhelming my body and finally give in to a deep, dreamless sleep.