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“Looks pretty bare in there, but we might be able to find a few things, maybe even some stock in the back.” He turned and looked at her. “You ever done a search before?
“Yeah, but mainly in houses. The only store I ever went into was with the first group, and it was a 7-Eleven.”
He nodded once and pointed to the pipe she had a death grip on. “Stay on the alert until we make a thorough sweep.” Asher said it gently.
“Keep your head up and stay out of the way.” Mason said his statement coldly and didn’t look at her when he spoke. Sparrow gritted her teeth but didn’t bother responding. She saw Asher clench his hand around his knife so hard his knuckles turned white. Mason opened one of the doors and stepped in. Asher was next, and she looked behind her at the empty parking lot before following them. The inside was dark aside from the light coming through the huge glass windows, but it didn’t penetrate the inside the building, and the grimy, grungy quality made the rear of the store look murky and frightening. They waited a few minutes and listened to see if they heard any grunting or moaning.
When silence greeted them, Mason faced them and said, “I’ll take the right. Ash, take her with you to the left. We can meet up in the center. Grab what you can find and fit in your pack.”
“I can take the center, and we can meet by the supply door.” She kept her voice low then pointed to the door that could just be made out in the back center.
“You sure?”
She looked at Asher and nodded. “Yeah, I’m not an invalid. I can bash a few skulls in if I need to.” That had Asher smirking and Mason scowling deeper. God, that man had a serious bug up his ass. “You need a good cleansing.” She hadn’t meant to say that aloud, and when the words spilled from her mouth, it had Mason narrowing his eyes.
“What?”
“Never mind, I won’t get in your way. Now, come on and let’s quit wasting time. This place creeps me out.” Before he could say another nasty remark, she was moving down the center aisles. Shelves were turned over, and empty boxes of food littered the ground, but there were some cans with missing labels amidst the rubble. She shoved them in her pack and kept searching. After finding three dusty water bottles, a few half-broken and crushed chocolate bars, and a box of pasta, she stopped in front of the beauty shelf. There were some pink razors, a dented bottle of shaving cream, some brushes and combs, and even a small bottle of off-brand perfume.
She picked up the perfume, opened the bottle, and brought it to her nose. The light, floral yet sweet scent had her closing her eyes and reminding her of a very different life. She tucked the perfume in her bag, grabbed some razors and the cream, and even a bottle of lotion that she found under a pile of papers. She kicked away a few empty boxes and saw the small first aid kit. It wasn’t anything big, but it did have things they might need at some point. Looking up, she saw Mason and Asher scanning the aisles and shoving things into their packs. But it was the sight of several circular racks in the corner by the storage door that had her growing excited. Clothes. Clean clothes. After finding a couple more cans and boxes of food, she moved over to the racks at the same time Mason and Asher did.
“God, I hope they have my size,” she mumbled to herself. Over the past few months, obviously food had been scarce, when she could find it. She had gone from a healthy size sixteen to a size twelve in just that short amount of time, and the clothing she had on hung from her body. She wasn’t as big as before, but she certainly wasn’t a twig. She quickly went through the rack of jeans, and even though they certainly weren’t anything designer label and were totally off brand, they were like freaking gold to Sparrow.
She found a few in her size, and more in a fourteen, but she took them all and shoved them in her already full bag. They had packs of plain T-shirts on the ground, and she grabbed a couple packs in a size large. She was a little thinner, but her breasts were still large, and a bigger sized T-shirt would be far more comfortable. Movement to her right had her lifting her head and her heart stalling as she watched Asher peel off his grungy shirt and tear into a pack of clean ones. His chest was hard and defined. Mason gripped the edge of his own shirt, but right before he took it off, he lifted his head and stared right at her. Sparrow quickly looked away and scanned a tipped-over shelf with underwear.
Apparently, McMillian’s was a one-stop place to get everything. She found a pack in her size, and when she stood and turned around, it was to see Mason and Asher right behind her and dressed in clean shirts. Their packs were all but bursting at the seams with the food and clothes they had gotten, and there was a nice feeling at having the little things once again, even if it was things like clean underwear and razors.
“All right, I’ll go first. It’s going to be pretty fucking dark back there, but we scored on batteries and flashlights in the hardware section.” Asher lifted up a yellow flashlight and clicked in on. He tilted his head toward the supply door, and they moved closer to it. Mason stayed close to her, and the feel of his body heat had everything inside her rising to a scorching level. There was something about him that turned her on. Maybe she was a masochist for wanting someone that clearly didn’t like her, but dammit he was so attractive, and the way he was so aloof shouldn’t have her wanting him as much as she did. Pushing all of that aside, she held her breath and wrapped both her hands tightly around the pipe.
Asher placed the flat of his hand on the door and pushed it open. It was dark, too dark to see, but the stench that came from the darkness had Sparrow gagging and quickly covering her mouth and nose. Obviously, something was rotting back there, hidden behind the shadows. Asher clicked on the flashlight and pointed it in front of him.
The body lying in the center of the floor was half eaten, but when Asher moved the light over its head, she could see the bullet wound that caused its brain to splatter all over the floor like a grisly work of art. The sound of another flashlight clicking on had her looking over and up at Mason. His face was a hard mask, but he sensed her stare and looked down at her. Their gazes held for a moment.
“You have to be ready for anything, Sparrow.” His voice was deep and low. He handed her a flashlight and then wrapped his hand around hers that held the pipe. “Just stay close, okay?”
She nodded, and he let go of her hand and took a step forward. They entered the small backroom, and she turned on her flashlight and lifted her arm to move the light around the space. There were shelves lined up on all sides, a small desk with papers scattered around it, and a metal door, which she assumed must have been a freezer of some sort. The body lying in the center of the floor was grossly decomposed.
“Come on,” Asher said at the same time he made his way to the desk and picked up a tote bag. He emptied the contents, and she watched as papers, pens, makeup, and even tampons fell onto the ground. “There is some water and canned goods over there.” He pointed his flashlight over to the ground where the things he mentioned were scattered around the floor.
They moved over to the items, but the room was so dark that even with their flashlights Sparrow could hardly see anything. She moved away from the body, but her foot caught the edge of a box overturned near the corpse and she tripped. Before she fell forward and landed right on the rotting flesh, a strong, big arm wrapped around her middle and hauled her up against an impossibly hard chest. She knew instantly that it was Mason who held her before she even lifted her eyes to see which man was in front of her and who was behind her. The scent of him, wild and untamed, was the smell that always seemed to surround him. Her thoughts were solidified when he whispered gruffly against her ear.
“You have to know where you are at all times. Next time, I might not be here to catch you before you fall.” He didn’t say it arrogantly or with that hint of irritation that always followed. “Watch your step.” He lifted her off her feet and moved her away from the body before she could even comprehend what was going on. Once her mind was clear, she moved over to where they were shoving the supplies in the tote bag.
“I think that’s about all we’re going to be able to carry.” Asher tilted his chin toward the door, and they made their way toward it, but the sound of something banging had all three of them stopping and turning toward the side. They all pointed their flashlights at the metal freezer door. There was silence, but then the sound of something banging even harder against the door had her pulse racing.
“Think it could be someone trapped in there? Or even an animal?” Once again, she had spoken her thoughts aloud.
“No. The oxygen would have been depleted in no time. Whatever is in there is sick, and there is no fucking way we are letting it out.”
“For all we know, the freezer could be filled with the infected. Someone put it in there, and someone blew this one’s brains out.” Asher pointed the flashlight at the body on the floor. “Let’s get the fuck out of here. I’m starting to think the quiet is a bit of a front.”
They quickly went back out onto the main floor, but before they made it halfway up the aisle, Asher and Mason stopped, causing her to slam into them. She braced a hand on the center of each of their backs to catch her balance, and instantly she felt how tense they both were. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Shh.” It wasn’t even a word, but Mason managed to make that sound all growly and demanding.
“Sparrow, I want you to go toward the back of the store and hide behind one of the shelves.” Asher sounded just as tense as Mason.
“What? You have to tell me what in the hell is going on.”
