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“Fine with me,” Dean interjected, as if eager to face any type of challenge. “We can check out some of the buildings for supplies.”
Carter hummed beside her. “Sure. But I don’t want to take any unnecessary risks while we have Maddie with us.”
Maddie frowned, adjusting the sunglasses on her face.
They seemed to adjust their course, but Maddie hardly noticed until a little while later, when they stepped onto a smoothly paved road once again. They continued on there for at least an hour before she heard Dean mutter something about how to approach.
“Last time I was here,” Saff said, “those buildings on the right were crawling with zombies.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Dean huffed. “We can take ‘em out.”
For the second time that day, Maddie felt like they were lucky to have Saff with them. At least then she could count on her to make the right decisions if Dean or Carter went off and did something stupid.
“Right,” Saff muttered.
“Yeah, no,” Carter said beside her. “We’re not going to do that. We’ll avoid those ones and stay to the left.”
She heard Dean grumble something again, but couldn’t make out the words.
They continued walking, but she noticed Carter taking a much slower pace, which meant they must’ve been getting close to the town or the buildings.
Eventually, her cane knocked against something hard, and it took her a second to realize that it was a curb. She lifted it, moving forward to step up while still holding on to Carter.
“These don’t look like they’d have much,” he said in a lower voice.
“Pretty sure there’s a grocery store farther down this way,” Saff said.
“Kay,” Carter replied, adjusting his arm. Maddie wondered if he had his gun out. She remembered what Saff had said about him holding it wrong and hoped no one would be able to come up behind them there.
“You really think we should trust her on all this?” Dean asked, irritation laid thickly in his voice.
“Yeah, you should,” Maddie said, spitting the irritation right back at him. “She probably has more experience with all of this than both of you combined.”
Dean said nothing back to that, which was a surprise. He seemed to always have something to say. And those things, more often than not, rubbed her the wrong way.
But that also seemed to silence everyone else, too. No one spoke again until they made it to the grocery store Saff had mentioned.
“Dean, you want to check it out first?” Carter asked.
He grunted from somewhere behind them, and Maddie listened to his heavy footsteps as he walked past them, boots crunching over broken glass. Then she heard the slight screech of metal.
They waited there for a minute before Dean returned, letting them know there wasn’t any obvious danger inside.
She followed closely behind Carter, holding onto his arm and doing her best to navigate through the broken entrance with her cane. When they made it through, she pushed her sunglasses up onto the top of her head. She squinted into the darkness, onlypicking up a few small spots of white light against the black. Then she turned and saw the one larger orb of light behind them, assuming it was the entrance they’d just passed through.
She scanned the rest of the darkness, but found nothing of note. There must’ve just been one small main entrance. Perhaps the others had been covered or destroyed somehow.
Unease crept into her chest at the feeling of being trapped inside.
“It’s in worse shape than I remember,” Saff muttered, and Maddie instantly felt a little better hearing her voice close by.
“Looks like it’s been searched over,” Carter said. “Dean,” he called a little louder. “I think this one is a dead end. Let’s keep moving.”
“Hold on!” Dean called back. “There might be some stuff here. Check it out!”
Carter surged ahead, and Maddie moved her cane quickly back and forth as he wove them down the aisle. She could see a faint light bobbing off in the distance, and as they approached, she realized it was Dean’s flashlight.
“Check it out,” he said. “Looks like there’s more stuff in the back stock. Help me move the—”
