Godfrey gripped his shovel with both hands and squeezed until he thought a vein was going to pop. He heard a strange sound and wanted to scream until he realized it was his own knees knocking together. Titan leaned into him, his body warm and familiar, making Godfrey release a sigh of relief. He strode down the candy and snack isle, hardly finding anything that wasn’t expired but grabbed a few things of gum, stale nuts, and hard candy.<br/><br/>Titan found a big box of that Slim Jim stuff that never went bad and the African-American patted the dog’s head with a huge grin. “Good boy.” He tore one open and let the dog eat it while taking a nervous glance towards the next isle. TV and Advertising goods. “Oooh~ Think there’s a Snuggie Titan?” The dog tilted its head giving him an almost disapproving look when he froze with a paw in the air sniffing in the dark must. A black ear raising before he turned and pointed with a low, barely audible growl. Hair rising on his neck in a sign of aggression that was making Godfrey whimper. Someone was in here! He pulled his walkie-talkie, and Glock, with shaking hands to signal Trixie. His shovel set on the floor beside him.<br/><br/>Trixie paused a few seconds after the three of them split up. The drugstore was pretty dark and musty due to the film of dust over the front windows. Then the lack of people moving around inside to keep the feeling of life helped contribute to the feeling of death. Eyes of green hazel glanced around looking for signs of danger but she found none. At least until she swore for a moment it got brighter near the front entrance. Knees bent and she spun around staring at the entrance they just came through. It was dark again but she couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling. She folded up her compound bow and strapped the thing to her shoulders. The tall aisles and narrow spaces made this an inopportune place for a use bow. Instead she drew her Bayonet knife and stalked towards the back of the store where the pharmacy was. Boots stopped in the female goods isle and hands snagged a few necessities she had been getting short on when she heard her Talkie bleep on its lowest sound setting.<br/><br/>She and Godfrey kept their talkie’s on near silent when in towns. But there hadn’t been a sign of any dead inside yet so he could have just spoken up to talk to her. They had to be only fifty feet away from one another! If he was using the talkie something wasn’t right, just like she had felt. Trixie’s pulse rocketed and she took even and very slow breaths to heighten her senses as she answered the talkie in a whisper. “Status?”<br/><br/>Godfrey’s trembling voice came through. “Titan is doing the whole pointing thing and like patting his paw on the ground… Trixie. I’m scared.” Trixie swallowed. There was either a Stalker or a human in here if those were the signals Titan was giving. She took a big whiff in, trying to catch the smell of ammonia but instead she smelled…. Shampoo? Hair gel maybe? Her brows lowered and she ground her teeth. There was a human, not a Stalker, trying to sneak through here because she and Godfrey sure as hell didn’t smell like no fucking daisies. “Put the talkie to Titan’s ear but first have your Glock at ready like I showed you. Tell me when you have it out.” When he mumbled a reply of confirmation she pressed the button and spoke again. “Lay low while I handle this. And don’t get shot in the face, Reggie.” Godfrey’s answer was more a noncommittal whine than anything, and she thought she was going to have to tell him again when she heard Titan’s heavy pants and the sniffles of Godfrey in the background. “Seek.”<br/><br/>Trixie ordered and heard her dog’s claws scramble and echo on the floors as he ran to his target. Trixie drew one of her Berretta pistols and crossed her wrists in front of her. One hand holding her knife and the other aiming her pistol, ready to attack on all fronts. She rolled back upon the balls of her feet like in stealth training and moved towards the location her dog was seeking. The pharmaceuticals. When she found a good position of cover she saw Titan turn a corner of the over the counter drug’s aisle. The blonde rushed to his side and both watched the back of some Mohawk wearing kid head to the front of the store. Titan was about to snarl but she patted his nose twice for silence.<br/><br/>Both began quietly stalking him with teeth and bullets. Using cover and Trixie’s finger itching to pull the trigger they got within feet of him. However the kid wasn’t starting trouble, looked like a quick grab and go, and when one human was around. Usually another was too. Sadly most people were pack minded in situations of distress. And a zombie fucking apocalypse was pretty distressing. The kid sneaked out of the front door and she had to admire his guts and quiet skills until she cautiously wiped the film from one of the store front windows and watched the idiot down two runners with a bow. Nice form but careless.<br/><br/>“Fucking idiot.” She snarled. She checked her watch and cursed again. Titan’s head bowed like he was the one in trouble and she cooed at the dog scratching behind his ears while hawkish eyes searched the outside.<span style="font-style: italic">’That convoy will be moving through here in less than ten minutes. Four dead zombies, especially two Runners which look human, will draw their attention. Security is about to get tight. SHIT! I can’t risk trying to take Godfrey into the Haven with them on High Alert. Motherfuckers! Where are your comrades?’</span><br/><br/>She watched the kid head off towards the tree-line of the park and began to search at higher vantage points with her eyes. She wouldn’t have seen anything if not for a stroke of luck and a trained eye. There was something metallic and shiny in one of the upper floors of a wrecked building across the street. She kept staring, maybe it was nothing, until it shifted a bit in her direction. Trixie slid down wondering how close she just came to having her head blown off. That pissed her off. She began to unfold her bow and signaled Godfrey, “Go back to the pharmaceuticals and gather everything you can back there. Especially those one pills I told you about. We’re leaving out the back through the drive-through window. We need to be clear of here in seven minutes, Reggie. Move your ass!”<br/><br/>“R-roger.” She heard him clambering and lumbering noisily to the back and the sounds of pill bottles falling off shelves. She clucked her tongue and peeled off the label off an empty plastic water bottle lying beside her. Deft hands signed a message which she tied around her arrow shaft. Breathing in and out slowly Trixie rolled pushing open the front door and firing up at the Café window. Her arrow sticking out of Cain’s barricade, note reading ‘<span style="font-style: italic">Back the fuck off or I’ll make you and your Asian pretty boy shit blood out of your eyeballs. I’m not a fan of getting messed with and I’m no stranger to violence. But to be a friendly neighbor there’s a Haven Convoy heading to this location If you don’t wanna die better clear out in the next five minutes. Peace out.’</span>, and she was already back inside the CVS racing towards Godfrey. She could hear the distant sounds of the haven Convoy getting closer.<br/><br/>“Move, move, move!” She barked and the kid jumped before nodding avidly. He zipped up his pack, having gotten a good haul, and the two pulled themselves out the back window. Godfrey lifting Titan through and Trixie catching her large pup with a grunt. Trixie sat on her haunches and looked at the boy. “Take Titan and head back to the Humvee with our supplies. This place isn’t safe. Don’t get jumped. Don’t get followed. And lay low until I return. No fires. No noise. I’m going to break into Tacoma Haven.” Godfrey’s pupils dilated and he pulled on his backpack straps like a normal teenager would do in a tense situation at school. “But-“ “NO BUTS! This is safer than you coming with me. I’m trusting you here, Reggie. You’re faster than anyone I know. The convoy is gonna be here soon with a lot of unhappy solders and now we know other survivors are out here. No clue if they are friendly or not. SO GO! I should be back within two days at most. By the fourth day and I haven’t returned, take the Humvee and move towards our final destination. My dad will take care of you and if I survived somehow. I’ll meet you there.”<br/>She didn’t allow for anymore words. She slapped the kid upside the head and when he muttered ow with closed eyes she kissed his forehead and her dog’s before moving at a quick pace towards the Haven. Godfrey sniffed, tears threatening to overflow, and sprinted like a mad person with Titan on his heels through the park, through the residential area, and towards the Forest where their vehicle was buried under debris. He slowed down wheezing only when he hit a back-country road. Any Husks that had tried to chase him left in his dust and the sole Runner had been torn apart by Titan and received a shovel to the cranium as a double check. “Be safe Trix.” He said softly. “I can’t survive without you…” He wiped his nose and began sauntering down the road with a whining Rottweiler for company.<br/><br/>Meanwhile…..<br/>It had been at least twenty minutes since the CVS store and she had made good time. She sat with her back against a wall, and chest heaving from exertion while staring at a sewer grate. The shadow of the Haven walls loomed over her and men lazily patrolled the top. She guessed in another two minutes or so they’d be a hell of a lot more alert when the Convoy signaled in. “Let’s hope those people got my greeting letter.” She said with a chuckle gripping her knife and moving in to take out the three husks blocking her smelly entrance. The Ranger was skilled in hand to hand combat, it was drilled into their heads from day one, and Trixie found stupid opponents like Husks to be a waste of her talents. She offed them quickly with sharp strikes with knife and body before pulling open the grate and dropping down into grimey waters. “Wonderful.” She gagged at the smell while drawing her Beretta equipped with a flashlight before moving forward into the darkness…