Luke Li took Glenn and set out before dawn.
Glenn sat in the passenger seat with a map of Atlanta spread across his hands.
Four spots had been circled in red.
“This one’s the closest,” Glenn said, pointing to the first circle.
“A Kroger supermarket on Wendell Road, about twelve miles from downtown.
It’s in a residential area, but the population density isn’t too high.”
“The second one?”
“A pharmacy chain warehouse, two miles farther south on Wendell Road.
It’s a big place.
If it hasn’t been emptied out, there should be plenty of medicine and medical supplies.”
“And the last two?”
“A hardware store and a gas station convenience store.
Both are on the way back, so we can hit them on the return trip.”
The route was clear, and the priorities were set.
The city navigation skills Glenn had built up delivering pizzas had become a rare tactical asset in the apocalypse.
The pickup headed south along the suburban road.
There were almost no walkers along the way, only the occasional one or two wandering aimlessly in the distant fields.
Twenty minutes later, a residential neighborhood came into view.
Single-family homes, trimmed lawns, mailboxes, basketball hoops.
A typical American middle-class neighborhood.
But every house had its doors and windows shut tight.
A few doors had been smashed in, and dark brown stains marked the lawns.
Glenn’s fingers trembled slightly against the map.
Luke Li glanced above his head.
[Tension]
[Fear – Controllable]
Not bad.
He wasn’t close to breaking down.
“Slow down, but don’t turn off the engine,” Luke Li said.
“I’ll go in first and check the place.
You wait in the car and keep the engine running.
If you see me run out, hit the gas and don’t worry about anything else.”
“What if you don’t run out?”
“Then you hit the gas yourself.”
Glenn swallowed hard and gave a firm nod.
The Kroger supermarket appeared at the intersection ahead.
The automatic doors were half-open, and the inside was pitch black.
There were three walkers in the parking lot, all wandering far from the entrance.
For now, they had not noticed the extra pickup.
“Start timing.” Luke Li glanced at Glenn.
“If I’m not out in fifteen minutes, leave.”
“Lu…”
“That’s an order.”
Glenn shut his mouth.
Luke Li got out, crouched low, and approached the supermarket entrance.
The three walkers were about forty meters away, their backs to him.
No reaction.
He slipped into the supermarket.
The light inside was poor.
The aisles between the shelves were as dark as tunnels.
A faint stench drifted over from the rotting fresh food section, along with a lighter, more dangerous smell of decayed flesh.
Luke Li held the crossbow ready and moved slowly along the wall.
Each time he reached the corner of a shelf, he stopped for a few seconds and listened carefully.
The first two aisles were empty.
No walkers.
In the third aisle, a walker was crouched on the floor, gnawing on something.
Its back was to Luke Li, about eight meters away.
He loaded the crossbow and fired in the same instant.
Thud!
The bolt pierced the back of its skull.
The walker fell face-first, and the thing in its hands rolled out.
It was a cat, already chewed down to half a body.
Luke Li pulled out the bolt and kept moving.
The food in the fresh section was definitely inedible.
But the dry goods, canned food, and drinks sections still had plenty of stock.
The shelves had been ransacked in a hurry, but they had not been cleared out.
In a panic, most people only grabbed the most obvious items.
Plenty of things in the corners and on the bottom shelves were still there.
Luke Li started looting.
At a time like this, the system backpack was practically a cheat.
All he had to do was pick something up and toss it into the backpack interface.
Canned tomatoes, beans, corn, luncheon meat.
Row after row went in.
Rice, flour, pasta.
Mine.
Bottled water.
Two-thirds of an entire shelf remained.
Also mine.
Batteries, candles, lighters, trash bags, plastic wrap.
All mine.
In the baby products section, he took formula, diapers, and wet wipes.
Those were for the babies back at camp.
The backpack’s 40 slots filled up fast.
The rest had to be carried out the old-fashioned way.
Luke Li found the storeroom at the back of the supermarket and pushed out two shopping carts, piling on everything that would not fit in the backpack.
Mostly bulky but necessary items: large packs of toilet paper, blankets, and several cases of bottled water.
After clearing the dry goods section, he headed toward the pharmacy counter beside the fresh food area.
The supermarket had its own small pharmacy.
The iron gate was shut, but the lock was easy to deal with.
A twist of the crowbar popped it open.
He did not even need to break the glass.
Ibuprofen, Tylenol, antihistamines, vitamins, Band-Aids, gauze…
The biggest finds were three boxes of amoxicillin and two boxes of strong painkillers.
In the apocalypse, antibiotics were worth more than gold.
Even if you wanted to buy them, there was nowhere to buy them from.
Eleven minutes had passed since he entered.
It was about time.
Luke Li pushed the two carts toward the exit.
Just as he rounded the corner of an aisle, a sharp horn blared from the entrance.
Glenn was honking.
Luke Li quickened his pace and rushed to the entrance.
Seven or eight walkers had appeared from somewhere in the parking lot and were closing in on the pickup from all directions.
Glenn sat in the driver’s seat, pale as paper, one hand pressed down on the horn to warn Luke Li inside.
“Stop fucking honking!” Luke Li roared.
The horn would only draw more walkers.
Glenn’s hand sprang away at once.
But the walkers had already been attracted over.
The closest one was less than ten meters from the pickup.
Luke Li abandoned the carts and raised the crossbow.
There was not even time to aim.
First bolt.
Hit.
Down.
Second bolt.
Hit.
Down.
Reloading the crossbow was too slow.
Against enemies closing in, melee was the only option.
He dropped the crossbow, drew the fire axe, and charged into the walkers like a tiger let loose.
The first went down with a clean overhead chop.
The second was swept aside in one brutal swing.
The third lunged right at him.
He blocked its arm with the axe handle, kicked it in the knee, and as the walker collapsed, brought the axe blade down.
The last one tried to sneak in from the side.
Luke Li was just about to turn.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
The walker’s head burst apart.
Luke Li looked back.
Glenn stood beside the pickup, gripping a gun with both hands.
His hands were shaking like an old man with Parkinson’s, but the muzzle was still pointed at the spot where the walker had fallen.
A Glock 19.
Luke Li saw the glove compartment on the passenger side hanging open.
The cloth-wrapped Glock 19 inside was gone.
The kid must have dug it out in a panic.
The remaining walkers were startled by the gunshot, but they soon began closing in again.
No time to get dragged into a fight.
“Get in!”
Luke Li grabbed one shopping cart and shoved it into the truck bed.
Half the contents of the other cart had spilled out, but he crammed it in too.
He climbed into the driver’s seat, floored the gas, and the pickup roared out of the parking lot, running over a walker that failed to get out of the way.
In the rearview mirror, a dozen crooked figures stood in the parking lot, growing smaller and smaller.
Glenn set the Glock on his lap.
Both his hands were still shaking.
“I’m sorry…
I honked the horn.
I shouldn’t have…”
“You saved my life!” Luke Li said.
Glenn froze.
“That shot was good!”
Glenn opened his mouth, then lowered his head and stared at the gun in his lap.
“That was the first time I’ve ever fired a gun…”
“Kid, a man’s first time is always like that.
You can be fast, but you’ve got to be accurate!”
Luke Li glanced above his head.
[Willingness to Follow: Budding] upgraded to [Willingness to Follow: Established].
Golden.
Stable.
Glenn was on the team.