Surviving the Plague 6

As the girl approached the barricades slowly and held her gun out in front of her. She had approached from the side instead of coming straight through the front door. Jay remembered Her and Demi's imaginary stories of coming here. You can never be too sure about people anymore. She was sure that Andy was gone and it was for nothing. Obviously, he didn't like her. Jay silently crawled over the barricades without a noise, she was able to do so because of all the times she had snuck out of the house.

Holding the gun up and her head high, she walked in the shadows. The Rite-Aid sign had letters lit but missed most of them. Her green eyes skimmed around and she heard a noise of heavy breathing. Instantly, she swallowed her feelings. Jay didn't make a single noise. If it was a walker she would surely try to get by without them noticing. Hearing a beep tone form inside the Rite-Aid meant there were people inside. But who? Suddenly, Jay saw a shadow and a figure. She took a sharp breath.

Andy jumped out of his skin when he heard a high pitched beep behind him. In fact he had been standing so still and so quiet that he literally almost shrieked as he whipped around to face the shadows behind him. It was Ollie. Andy's heart was pounding in his chest. "Ollie?" He hissed between his teeth. Every one of his muscles was coiled as tight as a spring.

"Sorry," Ollie whispered back, "I didn't mean to press it..."

Andy's eyes jumped over to Blaise's form a few feet away but he whipped back around towards the window. "Shhh-" He whispered shortly at the young boy. "There's something outside." He rushed over his words, not thinking that this actually was probably going to terrify the young boy. Andy wasn’t very good around children, especially when it came to things like not terrifying them.

Jay heard mumbling near the entrance and she stood so still. Holding her breath she peeked around the corner with the slightest bit to see the figures. She faced the shadow's backside, pulled back Jay did not breathe at all. Jay held her pistol in her hand and she pressed up against the wall. Closing her eyes she whispered. "Hello?" When she spoke it was barely audible for even her to hear. She peeked back out and the light casted down on the guy and she noticed his brown hair. "Andy?"

A sharp gasp came out of the little boy and he was soon holding on to Andy's sleeve. "Did you hear that?" He was shaking, but spoke softly. "Jay?" Ollie paused and took out a shark flashlight from his pocket and fumbled it to the ground. Ollie’s heart was going crazy as he picked it up and tried to hold it still. He shined the light in the direction of the voice.

Jay was soon blinded by the small boy's flashlight and she groaned. "Ollie?" She spoke louder in sort of laughter. Silly kid. Without her gun raised she walked into the light and rubbed her blurred eyes. As soon as he recognized the familiar features of the now-lit-up girl, Ollie ran to her and hugged her legs tightly, almost crying. She kneeled down and put her gun down, hugging the kid tightly. "I can't see." She chuckled.

Andy felt all of his tension melt away almost instantaneously. It was Jay. He did everything he could to not practically leap over and grab her and hug her. He watched the boy hug her legs, not sure what else to do. His chest felt tight. “J-Jay, how did you-” He couldn’t even finish his sentence. The guilt was back and it was weighing down on his shoulders. He had left her… She probably hated him now. Andy suddenly felt sick to his stomach. His breathing was shallow.

At the sound of her name being called out ever so quietly she knew right away who’s voice it was. Rubbing her eyes as she stood up, her vision cleared up and her heart practically stopped at the sight of her friend. She held Ollie’s little hand ever so tightly and he whined. “Let go!” He pushed her away.

“Andy?” Jay couldn’t help but to smile, she thought that she wouldn’t ever see him again. Her cheeks flourished with a pink color. She took a big breath and tried to calm down. “I thought I wouldn’t ever see you again for sure.” She chuckled

Trying to ignore his pounding heart, Andy nodded slightly. “Um, yeah, I was uh… I planned on going back… I wasn’t, I didn’t mean to just leave you…” Feeling all of the awkwardness made Andy feel uneasy. It wasn’t even that she was awkward, it was just him. He was being awkward for no reason. A big lump was in his throat. Suddenly he was aware that people were down here with him, not just Ollie and Jay. Blaise was awake now, and so was Demi, apparently.

Jay bit her lip and wanted to talk to him. She wanted to talk about how scared she was, how bad of a panic attack she had. She decided to push it aside and talk to him later about it. It’d be awkward talking about feelings with him. Instead, Jay ran to Demi and hugged her ever so tightly. Jay spoke through Demi’s hair, “Oh thank god, you’re alright!” She was relieved that Demi and Ollie were okay.

Andy watched the reunion of the small family, and he felt his heart drop slightly into his stomach. He cleared his throat slightly and stepped back, glancing at Blaise, who was pretty much staring Andy down like a lion stares at a hyena who got too close to its pride. Demi told Andy several times just to ignore that, but it still gave him the creeps. But this time, Blaise’s glare was distracted. His eyes flickered back to Jay, and it was sort of weird to Andy, but obviously it wasn’t just Ollie and Demi who knew Jay previously. He looked so surprised, so happy to see her. Andy could even see that through the pitch black darkness that surrounded them.

Holding on to Demi tightly, Jay almost forgot to breathe. Pulling away from the hug, her eyes averted towards Blaise. She smiled a little bit and asked. “Who’s this, your tag-along?” Jay joked as she elbowed Demi.

Demi smiled and kindly introduced the two. “This is Blaise, and yes. He is our tag-along.”

“Well, he’s cute.” She chuckled jokingly to Demi. Although, in maybe Andy’s eyes, it probably would seem like a joke. “Should we go inside, now?” Jay looked back at Andy and her eyes seemed pained, she wanted to just grab a hold of his hand and pull him along with her.

Andy cleared his throat and he briskly stepped out of the way of the group, back into the safety of the depths of the rite-aid. Blaise was moving basically right behind him and he could’ve sworn the vibe from him was a bit different, a bit more happy. Well, Jay did just compliment him. Andy tried not to frown. “So this is Jay?” He heard Blaise ask, in a pretty loud voice. Apparently there wasn’t a need to be very quiet anymore. Andy turned and he looked towards the blocked windows of the building, noticing that he could see some light peeking through. It must’ve been somewhere around 6 or 7am already. He was sort of surprised that they made it through the night without any problems.

“Yeah, and I’m starving.” Jay smiled rubbing her belly. She felt as if she were at home with Demi and Ollie around. They walked inside and Demi lead her to where the food was.

Ollie was skipping around and climbing on the shelving. He was running on the very top and Demi didn’t care. If he fell, Demi had already taught him how to treat a wound. Jay looked back at Andy and in her head she often thought about him and always looked back. She tried to make sure that he wouldn't run off again on her. “Andy is my little tag-along. We met a few months ago.” She trailed off a bit.

Andy hadn’t realized it until now, but he was hungry too. In fact, the mention of food was enough to get his stomach growling. They did not eat last night, not that he knew of, and so he’d gone who knew how long without food. He wondered though if Blaise would even let him have anyway. Well, Andy did have his bag, which still had a few good pieces of jerky left. He stepped out of the main room and towards the counter, picking his back up from behind it.

Grabbing heaps of bags of food, Jay stashed them inside of her backpack and also in her jacket. Walking back out to where everyone had slept for the night. She saw Andy there, just munching on his jerky. Chuckling as she walked passed him. Demi also brought out cans of fruits for breakfast for Ollie and Blaise to eat. “Ollie go tell, Roger to come down and eat, I want to call a house meeting.”

“Why?” Ollie whined at Demi. “Roger hates me.” He frowned climbing down from the top of the shelving just to look at her with his big, sparkly eyes.

“He hates everybody, Ollie just go.” Demi ordered him. “You know what, I’ll come with you. Blaise, stay here and be nice.” Jay smiled and as soon as Demi and Ollie left, she soon went to Andy. Jay tried hold back her blushing face as she walked to him.

“Andy?” She smirked slightly, “Hey.”

The boy looked up at the familiar voice and he blinked. He was chewing on his jerky, and he couldn’t exactly speak. He held out a piece to her questioningly, trying to swallow. “Want some?” He croaked out, coughing slightly.

Jay stood there for a moment and shrugged, “Sure,” She couldn’t bring herself to ask him why he had left in the first place. She didn’t really care because she wasn’t going to let him get away. As she chewed, she looked around behind the counter and found some medicine she remembered that he dad took once before. Climbing over the counter, she grabbed some anti-anxiety medication. Just as that moment when she grabbed them a scratching noise came from the wall nearest to Jay.

It was like Andy was instantly on his feet. His eyes went wide and he looked at Jay, looking positively freaked out. They weren’t the only ones to notice, either. Blaise, who was previously doing his own thing in the other side of the room, came over. “What was that?” He asked very slowly and quietly. Andy was about to respond, when suddenly there was a loud crack. Something was ramming into the wall. Without even thinking, Andy basically threw himself over the counter, grabbed Jay’s arm and pulled her back.

Jay was pulled back and she let out a small squeal. She turned into Andy and grabbed a handful of his sweatshirt in terror. Zombies couldn’t get through the barricades that easily without making a stir. Jai fumbled for her pistol and held it up towards where the noise was coming from. The brunette stood very still and didn’t even breathe, she backed up away from the noise and still grasped Andy in her left hand which was around his backside.

Andy was already panicking, but the fact that Jay was pulling him backwards made him panic more. The noise scared the shit out of him, and he’d jumped to go get her, but now his backpack was left a few feet away now beside the counter. Dammit, he needed that thing. But the wall made more noise and frankly he wasn’t sure if his body would let him go get it, let alone Jay.
Blaise had his gun held up, pointing towards the wall as well, and he was squeezing on his walkie talkie, hitting the button over and over, to annoyingly beep at anyone else who had a walkie talkie on them. That was there code, at least, that was one anybody could assume.

Hearing the urgent squealing beep from her talkie, Demi radioed back. “What’s going on?” That moment sent the noises through the wall and three zombies were digging out the drywall. Jay squeezed her trigger finger and shot one zombie knocking it back slightly. She decided to turn away and usher Andy out to his back pack. “Grab your pack. We have to get outta here.” With her back turned, another zombie broke the drive through window. Even though shut out by boards the glass shattered against the ground. Jay hurried away and waited for Andy.

Andy stumbled out into the open, grabbing for his backpack sloppily with shaking hands. He shoved his bag of jerky in it and zipped it closed, throwing it over his back. Jesus, he wished he could actually find a relatively good weapon and keep it handy. He staggered back to Jay’s side and he glanced at Blaise, who also began to shoot at any zombie that got through. Soon there were at least 3 or 4 corpses piling up, groaning and looking horrid. Blaise didn’t bother to answer the walkie talkie, he figured the sound of the guns alone would let Demi know what was going on. They had to get out of here.

Jay turned to the entrance of the store and started to run for it. “Andy?!” She shouted as she looked back. Hopefully the entrance was clear of any undead, it would be terrible to have to be completely trapped inside of here.

Demi came down from the roof and watched the two run by her. “Ollie, stay up here.” She grabbed her something and raised it in defense. She looked around for Blaise and if he would be okay. “Blaise!” She shouted out of him.