Ray just grinned and shook her head as he handed her the bottle and she looked at it doing a quick count. "Hell yeah, the street value of these was insane before." She passed the bottle back to him. She nodded as he agreed to follow her, and she was about to remove the chains from the door when she heard Chief bark.

"Does he usually alert on nothing?" She asked and then corrected herself "I mean bark at nothing" She was far to used to working K9's and the terms they used for every day things. She moved next to Marko and drew her own knife. Her first instinct was to talk to the dog, but not her dog, not her command. She ran a dog for a short time, but god love Lucky, he was the smartest idiot ever. He failed out of bomb school. It turned out it was because his nose was TOO sensitive. The last time she saw Lucky he was being sent to cadaver search training.

"I'm telling you, Oxy is going to be universal currency by the end of the year." Marko jeered, taking the bottle back from her and securing it in his pocket once more. "It's nothing." He replied nonchalantly, "He gets a lot more exited when there's something around, I think he's just happy we're moving on."

Marko approached the door, veering around Ray to be at her side, "Let me help with that." He began to unravel the chain from the handles of the shop door, lending her a hand whether she needed it or not. He always found chain links managed to get stuck in the most mysterious of ways and this was no exception. "How do they even get all tangled up like that?" He asked rhetorically as the chain finally fell to the floor.

-

It was a warm day, Marko began to wonder if it was a heatwave as he could feel himself slowly melt into the road. He trekked along behind Ray, Chief close at side while doing everything he could in his power not to turn into a puddle in the street or at least, that's how it felt. Looking up from the pavements below him he had to use his hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun, he'd become more light sensitive since the end of the world and now was a bad time to need an optician. He could see just fine and was beginning to wonder if it was something to do with nutrition, not that there was much he could do about that either. In this world you ate what you could and just tried not to be eaten.

He hadn't come across too many people since all hell was set loose, but those he did meet had strange tales of what the apocalypse had done to people. There were stories of cannibalism but Marko didn't believe it, there was still food to be found he couldn't imagine cannibalism except for a last resort and even then the thought made him squirm. Eating another human being was just something he'd never be able to do he guessed.

They'd been walking for maybe twenty minutes but in the heat and with how dead the city was, it felt like hours. "How much further?" He asked, not trying to seem fussy, it was the first words either of them had spoken since shortly after leaving the shop. "Are you not roasting?" Marko slipped the jacket off and wrapped it around his waist, "Damn." He uttered.

Ray could sympathize with the dog. She was in a hurry to get out of here too. She helped Marko open the doors, and they slipped into the street. She moved through the street, keeping her back to the buildings. It wasn't too far to the surplus store, she looked back occasionally worried about Marko. He wasn't looking too great.

She just grinned and shrugged when he asked her if she was roasting. "I used to stand around in a kevlar vest and a black suit for a living. It's only a little warm" She said as she dropped back to stay even with him. "It's only another block or so." She said quietly. She hoped against all hope that the building would be fairly empty of biters.

She led the way up another block and a half and gestured to the door of the army surplus store. "Ok, so how do you want to handle this?" She asked. She tried to catch a glimpse in the windows to see if she could tell what they were up against.

The thought of a black suit let alone a Kevlar vest made Marko squirm. He'd seen a couple of 'doomsday preppers' early on and all kitted out, he couldn't begin to imagine carrying that much gear with him, especially in this heat. To Marko's mind in the long term it'd run you down. He fixed his rucksack from rubbing uncomfortably on his lower back and with a deep breath picked up the pace coming up alongside Ray.

"Think we're gonna run into any Z's in this place?" He asked, curious as to whether she had scouted out the place already - not that it really mattered all the same. As they turned the corner the shop came into sight, Marko pointed and asked, "That the place?"

When they reached the shopfront itself, Marko followed Ray's lead after a moment to catch his breath. A lot of the windows had been boarded up and the higher ones blacked out. From what he could tell it didn't seem like anyone had even tried this place yet. Then again, did that mean there was a reason? They met back on the street side of the shop, "I think we should be careful, who can say for sure but the place could be crawling." He advised although he knew she was probably on the same wave length.

"Ok, so how do you want to handle this?"

Marko took another glance at the building, eyeing it up and down - three floors and a flat roof. "You think there's a way in on the roof?" He hadn't seen any ladders or way of access but maybe Ray did. Rapping his knuckles off the planks that boarded up the doors like the windows, "We're going to make a hell of a lot of noise breaking our way in here." He took a quick scout of the surroundings for zombies, a couple of stragglers but for all they knew there could be a small herd just around the corner. "I don't see how we're getting Chief up there though." He caught Ray's look, "No." He proclaimed, "He's not staying out here."

Ray took a few steps back and tried to look and see if there was going to be an easier way inside than the front door. These windows would not be easy to break, and they would make a lot of noise. "What I wouldn't do for a chisel and a very large mallet." She said in frustration. Yeah she could pick the lock, if she had her tools, but she hadn't thought to bring them. When in doubt you punch out the lock. It was a quick way in. It's still loud, but the door is still usable, just not lockable when you are done.

Well there was another way. She looked at Marko. "I am betting there are at least a few in there. I think if there was anything left alive, we would have a gun in our face by now." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked over the building again. She needed to find a small window, something that could be covered to break. She looked at Marko. "We need a spark plug, and then to find a smaller window or door."

"Alright." Marko paused looking up and down the street. "I'll go check some of these cars. You want to find a way in?"

He told Chief to stay by the shopfront, Marko could see him from the street and he had a better view of what was going on. As he approached a beaten up white Ford he took a look through the shattered windshield. There was a biter, looked like a soccer mom type, safe driver had her seat belt on before they turned, she wasn't going to be causing any trouble. He approached the driver side door, the window there was intact of course. Marko sighed and tried the door, it opened with a click. Closer to the corpse now his nostrils were attacked by a stench worse than that he had gotten used to, her groaning was weak and her swiping out more uncoordinated than any zombie he'd seen so far. The state she was in, Marko almost felt sorry for her. For a moment dwelling on the lost humanity, who she was, her life before the outbreak. At heart he knew it was the reminder of his own mortality that the sadness stemmed from. It reminded him of a poem he had learned when he was younger in school called 'Ambulances' by an author he couldn't remember the name of.


Far from the exchange of love to lie,
Unreachable inside a room,
The traffic parts to let go by,
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.

Those last few lines hit home. He smiled, memories of better times but memories was all he had. "Sorry." He muttered, raising his axe and with two belts of the butt he ended the torment. Crouching down he popped the bonnet and made his way to the front. Securing the hood he took hold of the wires leading to the engine compartment and located the engine end. Eureka, spark plugs. He took them, leaving the car to head back for the shopfront stopping for a second look back at the Ford, nodding to himself he left and looked around for Ray.

"I got the plugs!" He called, minding the volume of his voice. "Any joy?" He asked.

Ray nodded as he agreed to get the spark plugs, and headed away down the side of the building. She would take anything, that wasn't full plate glass. She headed around the building and grinned. There was another door back here, with glass on either side. Perfect! She heard Marko's voice and called back quietly. "Around back. This is should work."

She waited until he made it back to her and took the spark plug smashed it on the ground to cause it to break. She picked it up and looked at Marko. "Keep an eye out.. this could cause some attention." She reared back and threw the broken spark plug at the window. She was relieved when the window glass shattered and fell to the ground.

She approached carefully and reached through the now missing glass to unlock the door. She pulled back quickly and didn't open the door yet.

"Ok, your weapon is better, I am going to open the door so you can head in. You go to the left, I will go to the right. Let's hope we got really lucky and the place is empty."

"Nice." Marko gasped as the shards of glass sprinkled from their frame to the ground below, "That's one hell of a magic trick." He teased approaching the door with her cautiously. "Okay - I'm left, you're right. Gotcha'." Somehow Marko doubted with his entirety that this place was going to be empty, he was sure it'd be crawling with biters. Fuck. He thought, axe at the ready. "Alright. Let's do this!"

He was in through the threshold as soon as the door had been opened, his weapon raised higher now ready for a strike. The place seemed quiet, dead quiet in fact. Dropping his guard a little, keeping on his toes he took a couple of steps further. "I guess we got-" He was cut off as two hands latched onto him from a dark spot, "Oh, shit!" He roared, forgetting about keeping quiet not to attract any more attention. This corpse was a strong one and had Marko pushed up against a wall in seconds, gnawing and gnashing teeth as it's teeth came menacingly closer to the flesh of his neck. He managed to push it away with the handle of his axe for a brief moment, but before he could catch his breath the Zombie was back on him again more ferocious than before. "No!" He yelled, trying to push the creature off again - he was pinned.

Chief began to bark wildly and ran in to try and help Marko, the dog locked onto the Biter's leg with it's own teeth but it was too focused on chowing down on the young man's brains to even notice Chief it seemed.

Ray followed Marko through the door right on his heels. She had gotten almost into the room to clear it when she heard him yell. She spun on her heel and rushed to try to get to him. She had to dodge Chief, but she slid her knife in to the back of the things head. She turned quickly not able to help him push it off because she heard shuffling coming towards them.

"Looks like Lady luck got up and left. We've got company!" Her voice got louder to be heard over the groaning noises coming from the dead as they shuffled toward them.

"I count... 3... no 4." Get ready she said as she continued to put herself between him and the group while he got back on his feet. "Get Chief to hide behind us, no sense in offering them an appetizer." She said.

"SHIT!" She yelled as one of them seemed to pick up speed and head right for her. It rushed at her fast enough, that when it hit her they both fell to the ground. She tucked her legs between them to help leave a gap. This did not fall on her list of top ways to die. She struggled to get her knife hand up catching a glimpse of the other three getting closer.

She cursed again as the creature smashed its elbow into her ribs as it tried to claw at her and bring her to its mouth. She gasped for a second her hand grasping for anything heavy. Her hand found a large can, and she smashed it against the skull of the dead until the body finally went limp.

Gathering his strength, Marko mustered enough to push the walking corpse off of him disturbing racks which fell, entangling the zombie. With a good grip on his axe he took a few steps forward before lunging over his head and chopping down, carving the creatures skull in two. His arms and muscles were sore, it took effort to pull the hatchet from the bone. Chief had ran to Ray's aid already, Marko dropped the hatchet following suite and grabbed the zombie by the shoulders of it's shirt. With another burst of strength Marko managed to rip him off of his companion. As she recollected herself with the zombie stumbling back to it's feet he fetched his weapon, closing in sticking close to Ray.

"Hell of a day." He uttered, a brief laugh escaping his lips. About to finish off the second walker a new pair came tumbling around the corner of one of the shelving units. "Fuck me..."

The pair ended up back to back, between the two of them these three wouldn't pose any problems, however it felt like an onslaught. "You good?" He asked Ray before checking down on Chief, "How about you buddy?" he asked, Chief barked in response, focused on the biters closing in.