Man. Eating. Monsters.

Entering the store with the ever-present young girl following close behind, Cei immediately began observing the merchandise available in the store. He noticed that the store had everything he had hoped it would, there was an assortment of hunting axes and various knives on display on a rack and inside several display cases as if to demonstrate their majesty. Also dotted around the store he could see various hunting apparel such as boots, jackets and other garments. However, what he really wanted to see was inside a locked display case behind the attendant. The cabinet was fully stacked with all the various firearms anyone would need for any hunting escapades, and although he was not going to use them for hunting it was somewhat similar in a sense.

After he had fully taken in the sight of the goods in the store, he got to work. The first thing he grabbed was a 50L outdoor military tactical army hiking backpack, his reasoning being it is not too big and if it suited the armies purposes it would probably suit him. The next thing he grabbed was a large bowie hunting knife that was on display, as well as a 13" military survival fixed blade hunting knife bayonet tactical bowie and although it was quite a mouthful to say it suited his purposes as a smaller combat knife for any situations that required him to get up close and personal. He also grabbed some casual clothes that wore less tight than the business suit he currently had on, and although his suit was pretty damn sharp he regretfully had to get clothes that were slightly better than a tailored black suit.

So he grabbed a casual flannel shirt, a rather staple apocalypse clothing if he had to say, as well as a fairly loose-fitting pair of green cargo pants and although they looked pretty bad they had more combat flexibility than the trousers he had on at the moment. Before quickly thinking if he needed anything else and realising he still needed a pair of combat boots, a pair of hunting gloves as well as a tactical hunting belt to store his knives on his person. So he proceeded to go to grab a pair of combat boots as well as a tactical hunting belt, but he was still worried as he knew his forearms were the place most at risk of injury when in combat. But that's where the problem occurred they didn't sell any armguards, to be honest, he wasn't even sure where they were sold so he had to think a little bit outside the box but when he saw the hunting magazines at the front of the store he came up with a little idea. He grabbed a roll of utility tape and four magazines.

And so he only had three things left to buy which were arguably the most important items he needed to buy, the first was his main melee weapon being a 15" M48 Tactical Tomahawk hatchet it was lightweight weighing about 1-2kg and had better long term durability than both of his knives. Which needed a lot more skill to use without dulling or breaking the blade which suited his needs perfectly as an amateur weapon user. But as good this weapon was in short-range he still needed something with a little more range and immediately looked towards the firearms on display and smiled slightly.

And so he brought all his equipment and placed it on the store attendants desk. As soon as the items were placed on the desk the old man who was sitting behind the counter looked up from the book he was reading with a slight look of surprise before smiling slightly at the man who was standing at the counter.

"That's a lot of gear you got their boy." He said with a slightly amused smile on his face.

"Yeah, seems so old man." Cei responded with a warm smile before he continued.

"But I got a question for you old man do you happen to own this store by any chance."

"Yeah, owned this fine here institution for 45 years, selling hunting gear to the fine folk of this here city." The old man responded with a slightly reminiscing gaze. This caused the smile on Cei's face to grow as he responded.

"Well you see, old man I'm interested in buying two guns from you and a small amount of ammunition. But that's the problem you see, as I don't have any license to buy any firearms so I was looking to make a trade old man. How about it, you interested."

"No, I'm not interested one bit. I've been a law-abiding establishment for 43 years. And I'm not interested and whatever you have got to trade nothing can be traded for the hard built reputation I've built over the years." The old man spoke with a slightly harsh tone as a frown appeared on his face. But Cei continued to smile as he looked directly into the old man's eyes as he responded.

"Well, you see old man, I think I've got a deal you can't refuse. Because I may or may not have some information that might determine the fate of you and your families life as well as the fate of this fine institution of yours" with a smile that was increasingly looking like that of a devil.

"What do you mean." The old man said with a slight look of worry on his face.

"Hoho, so I guess you don't know about what's happening in this city then. You wouldn't believe the shit I've seen in the last two hours, it's the kind of shit you see in nightmares." Cei said with his face shifting from a teasing smile to a face that was deadly serious. The change caused the old man to seriously worry about what this young man was talking about.

"Young man you better not think you can trick me. If you've got something to say spit it out" The old man said while seemingly trying to look serious. But Cei could clearly see the worry on his face.

"Why don't you have a little search online about certain cannibalistic incidents on the news. You never know, you might get lucky and find a video online that might give you an idea. However, if you really want an idea about what is happening all you have to do is take a look and a listen outside. As if I explained it to you myself, you might not believe it." Cei spoke in a lightly teasing tone as he said this as if he was taunting the old man's lack of knowledge. However, it didn't enrage the man, it only served to make him even more worried as a small layer of perspiration could be seen forming on his face.

The man hurriedly got up from behind the counter and pushed past Cei who happily moved out his way. And when the man finally opened the door he couldn't help but pale at the scene outside.

Although the man didn't see any zombies for himself the scene outside was enough to tell him that indeed the young man was telling the truth. He could see plumes of smoke blossoming in the sky in multiple places, as well as the terrifying sound of screaming echoing in the air and all the while on the roads, not a single bit of moving traffic, could be seen as the roads were completely deadlocked.

The old man straight away closed the door to the hunting shop and closed the lock before looking in the direction of the slightly smiling young man. Although the old man hadn't seen the so-called 'stuff of nightmares' the boy was talking about, he knew the smell of something wrong when he saw it. He had served the army when he was in his 20's and had been in enough warzones to tell when things were going south and as he was watching the scene outside his store his sixth sense was sending him a blaring alarm that something wasn't right.

"Boy, you know something?" The old man said in a grave tone. At the sound of this question, Cei couldn't help but smile as he slowly mouthed.

"Man. Eating. Monsters." At this statement, the old man couldn't help but think he was mishearing things, but then he recalled the boy had mentioned for him to search online about some cannibalistic incidents and as his thoughts stirred he couldn't help but to shiver slightly.

The old man then looked at the young girl who seemed to be following the young boy and sent her a questioning gaze. And when she noticed his gaze she seemed to understand his intention as she nodded her head with fear written all over her face as she recalled those monsters that chased her with their faces that seemed like poorly made Halloween costumes but gave her a feeling of fear that they never could.

The old man knew a look of fear when he saw one, and the poor girl was practically a wreck. She was much easier to read than the enigmatic young man who seemed impossible to read. And although it wasn't much the man trusted his gut it had saved him several times and he was hoping it would save him again as he looked at the young man as he asked.

"What do you know?" Again smiling at the question Cei responded

"Zombies. And I've seen at least six."