March 15, 2018 - Framingham, Massachusetts - Walmart
With a grin and a nod Grant watched Bri walk into the darkness, he didn't like splitting up but this place was huge and it would take forever for them to search it. It wasn't the first time they had split up like this but it was definitely the first time in a place this large. Once she was beyond his sight he made his way deeper into the store. It was clear that parts of the store had gone untouched, who really needs toys in the apocalypse right? Shelf after shelf with lined with merchandise no one would ever buy, no one would ever use, left here to rot away into nothing but dust, stocked up for the Black Friday sales that would never come.
His first stop was in the garden center which was completely decked out with Christmas decorations. The Christmas village display made him smile for a moment as he remembered the collection his mother had been building for years. The silly things made a small city rather than a village. He picked up one of the villagers and blew the dust from it. It was one that his mom already had, he remembered when she bought it, she said to him 'This one kind of looks like you with your books, carrying them from class to class. My little boy is all grown up and going to college so far from home. I'm so proud of you...I'm gonna get this for my village so no matter how far you are a little part of you is always with me.' He thoughtfully placed it back on the shelf with a knot in his throat and moved on to where the garden supplies were. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for, he grabbed a couple of packets of each kind of seed he saw so they could hopefully build a home when they got where they were going. Somewhere they could grow food and be safe after all of this. Luckily seeds didn't weigh much or take up too much room.
As he left the garden center he gave one last long look to the figurine in the Christmas village, he had to have some hope that he would see his parents again and his brother and sister. But for now he needed to stay focused on Bri, she needed him and he needed her. He grabbed a basket as he re-entered the main store to continue his search for supplies, Bri had food covered so they were good there, she knew what she was doing on that part far better than he did.
When he reached sporting goods the first thing he did was look to see if this Walmart sold ammo but unfortunately they didn't, or it was all gone. But they did have knives and that was something they could never really run short of, so he started filling his basket. He also found some nice gloves for them that could be mittens or gloves, a box of Hothands which was surprisingly untouched, waterproof matches, and a can opener before he moved on to the next department.
On his way to get socks for Bri Grant made a quick pit stop by electronics, knew that he shouldn't, he knew that he was probably wasting his time but he had been looking for something very particular for a while now. He eyed copy of his latest video game on a feature endcap as he walked by, so much work put into something that would never be played. He would never know if his game would have been one of the greats that people remember and stand in line for. If it would be a game that people demand a sequel or downloadable content so they can make their experience that much longer, but he knew that wondering what might have been served no real purpose so he moved on to the reason he was really here. It took him a bit of searching but to his amazement he found exactly what he had been looking for and hit brought a huge smile to his face,
"Perfect." He shoved the item in his bag and then looked grabbed a few other things on his way out of the department and did the same. He knew that it wasn't something essential, but not everything had to be life and death, not everything had to be so grim, there had to be some joy left in the world otherwise what's the point in surviving?
Moving through the clothing racks made him more nervous than anything, his brother and sister used to hide in the clothes and jump out at him when he was little, it scared him every time. He was just waiting on one of the stinkers to do the same, except this time he'd be in real danger. Cautiously he navigated through the racks with his hatchet in hand and wide eyes scanning each of the fixtures as he approached them with his basket gripped tightly in his left hand. Finally he relaxed once he made it to the socks, he grabbed a couple of packages of the insulated ones and a package of boxer briefs, then moved on to find some for Bri. Finding this stuff for Bri was slightly harder because he didn't really know what to look for so he just grabbed her some insulated socks as well and two packages of panties because he had no idea if she needed them or not.
He picked up the pace on his way to the front of the store, he knew that he had taken longer than he should have with is pit stop in electronics, there was just one more thing he needed to grab in they were always at the front of the store by the registers, batteries. Most of them were gone but he knew some retail stocking tricks, and since this place closed down just before Black Friday he knew there had to be an abundance of batteries around here somewhere. The first thing he did was moved the battery fixture which luckily was on wheels and there were the double A's he needed. Then he searched under the surrounding shelves and sure enough there were the C's and D's. No one ever thinks to look under the shelves unless they've worked retail before.
That was all he needed, at least he was pretty sure that was everything, so he headed toward the pharmacy. It wasn't far away but he knew that Bri had to be done before him, she always was.
