Chapter Two

Nathan spent the first week of it all still trying to wrap his head around the situation he was. He came up with multiple explanations to what it could be, a hallucination, an elaborate prank?! He tried to convince himself of every possibility except for the most logical that was gnawing away at his subconscious. Maybe it would've been easier to delude himself if it was for the constant rattling and scratching of the shutters that came by ever night.

By the time the end of the 4th week he had already completely resigned himself to his fate.

'It could be worse' he thought, 'I have electricity and enough food to sustain me for a year and an abundance of magazines and tools to keep me entertained' he said to himself optimistically.

Electricity was gone by the 8th week and by then Nathan had already every book or magazine in the store 2x over. Despite the abundance of food he had began to lose weight and deep set eyebags had set in underneath his eyes.

When the 12th week came around a problem arose that Nathan hadn't accounted for, the smell. The smell of rotting food permeated the entire store leaving him in state of semi-permanent nause . The blunt of it began when the electricity went out, as you'd expect all the items in the freezers quickly began to melt and eventually rot leaving behind a putrid smell which eventually attracted them. The flies, Oh so many fucking flies, it amazed Nathan just how quickly they multipled. From just a few from the first day to now hundreds, no thousands of those disgusting pests. Just the sight of them had cause Nathan to barf which the flies gobbled up gladly.

Instead of having to face the blunt of those pests Nathan decided to avoide them as much as possible by gathering as much of the untouched food off the shelves as he could and barricading himself inside the employee breakroom where he planned to stay for as long as possible.

It was early morning the next day when it happened. Nathan was finally falling asleep after after having yet another restless night antagonizing over the constant rattling noises the zombies made in the night when he heard it. thump...thUMP...THUMP, each hit followed by the violent rattling of the shutters. Someone, no SOMETHING was trying to get in. Each hit caused Nathan's heartbeat to quicken just a little more. He began panicking, what was he to do! Maybe he could fight, he thought looking around the room for a weapon. Maybe he could just hide here and hope they don't notice him. Before he could decide his course of action he heard the tell tale sign of glass shattering. Whatever it was it was now in here with Nathan.

He had almost began saying his prayers when he heard something familiar, something he thought he might never hear again, voices!@! It was hard to make out what they were saying but it most certainly seemed like there where other humans! Nathan's hand was already on the door handle ready to turn it when he began second guessing himself, his hesitant cowardice nature still ever present even in this situation.He began to wonder if this was maybe a trick, a mirage set up by the zombies to give him false hope when the door opened, smaking Nathan right in the centre of his face causing him to yelp a little bit, wince and fall back in pain.

When finally he looked back up he saw two beady dark brown eyes staring back at him looking curious and cautious but excited at the same time almost reminiscent of a child who is only just discovering fire for the first time. His eyes brimming with curiosity staring down a dismantled Nathan for what seemed like an endless amount of time before finally stuttering a out a "S..sorry". Before Nathan could even react with his own words the strange character of a man leaned forward towards Nathan and peered deeply into Nathan's own eyes almost faintly meeting noses as his faint breaths tickled Nathan's cheeks almost causing him to blush. Nathan again tried to speak before being cut short by the stranger leaning forward and gripping Nathan by the hand making sure to interlock fingers with him before yanking him off the ground and out of the breakrooms door.

"Look what I found!!" the stranger said beaming while guiding Nathan in hand while leading him towards the rest of his companions. The biggest and most scruffiest guy whom seemed to be in charge looked Nathan up and down slowly before resuming back to whatever it was he was doing. "Put him back wherever you found him" he said as if Nathan was a toy or piece of candy a kid had picked up in a store. "B..but" the stranger said gripping Nathan's hand tighter with him playing the role of a kid splendidly well. "No buts" he said "We already have enough mouths to feed as it is, you know this Shawn, he seems to be doing well enough on his own, leave him be" *ah so his name is Shawn* thought Nathan. Shawn despite his childish demeanor seemed to take those words to heart and looked down at his shows contemplating those words before his eyes lit up and he began grinning from ear to ear before turning to face me and placing my hand on top of his before getting down on one knee as if to propose, which he most certainly wouldn't do right?? What he said next seemed to shock everyone in the room except the big guy who seemed to be permanently wearing a face of fatigued indifference.

"Will you be mine" echoed around what would've been and otherwisly quite store if it wasnt for those fucking flies buzzing ruining the moment. Shawn look utterly pleased with himself with a smug grin resting on his lips as he turned to face the big guy. "It's okay now isnt it" he smirked, the guy sighed before replying with "Yeah I guess so Romeo, but you have to wait for his answer first" which lead to his beady brown eyes to begin gazing upon me again looking expectant as he patiently waited for a reply.