J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

"Still worth a try, I think," Tex informed. "Zoe, you know how to get us there?"

"I think so," she replied. "It's a mile and a quarter down the highway that runs past the grocery store. They built it in a big field about three years ago and Daddy and me would go there to get stuff for camping and fishing. He never let me go hunting with him."

"I'd have taken you," the soldier in the passenger's seat said with a smile.

Tex growled, "Down, boy."

They sped up on their way to the sporting goods store, leaving the zombies as far behind as they could, and they arrived to find the parking lot almost empty. The front doors stood open and this was not a good sign as Morris parked the Stryker right in front of them.

Staring at the open doors, Sergeant Morris mumbled, "Not good."

Another soldier appeared behind Zoe and observed, "We're going to have to recon that place."

Tex looked over his shoulder to the soldier behind him, to the man in the other seat, then they all looked down to Zoe.

She looked up to them in turn, then fixed her attention on Sergeant Morris and asked, "Do you want me to go again?"

In a few moments, Zoe had reached the hunting section where firearms and ammunition were sold. With a radio in her hand, she looked carefully around her, watching closely for any movement, sniffing for any foul odor that would tell her Zombies were in the area and listening through the silence of the store for the shuffling of unsteady footsteps. Though she was sure they would not attack her, she was still very nervous about what she might find, frightened at the prospect of them finding her in there.

As she approached the display case that once held many handguns, she looked behind it to the rifles and shotguns that remained behind it, and she stopped at the glass case and looked down inside. A few guns were still in there, knocked out of place and the inside of it was in disarray from the hasty extraction of the weapons by desperate, terrified people. Few remained and all were revolvers, but this was lost on the girl who looked down at them. Moving along the long case, she made her way slowly to the end of it where she could get to the back. As she thought, she looked to the back of the display case, at the bottom, and there she found the ammunition she had been sent to find.

Raising the radio to her mouth, she pushed the button and called, "William?"

"Go ahead, Princess," he replied.

"Hey, I found the bullets, but there are a lot of them and I'm not sure which ones you want."

"Any zombies in there?" he asked.

She shrugged and answered, "Just me."

He laughed and assured, "Okay, Princess. We're coming in."

With her hands folded behind her, Zoe waited patiently, looking around her at a place she had been many times, but this time from a different vantage point. The soldiers did not take long to find her and they all held their weapons at the ready.

Sergeant Morris was the first to reach her and he made his way to the back of the glass counter as fast as he could, slinging his weapon as he got back there. He was quick to find the remaining stores of ammunition back there and he strode slowly along the back of the counter.

"Do you want me to go get a shopping cart?" Zoe asked as the Sergeant reached her.

With a nod, Tex confirmed, "Yeah, if you wouldn't mind, Kiddo."

With Zoe's help, they got all of the ammunition their weapons would use loaded into shopping carts as well as a few shotguns and ammunition for them. Some pistol rounds were found and a few of the men took a few of the remaining revolvers and ammunition for them.

The Stryker driver approached Sergeant Morris as he stuffed one of the big caliber revolvers in his belt. "You know, Sarge. While we're here…"

"Agreed," Tex said with a nod. "Before the moaners overrun this place let's grab anything and everything we can use, and call in if you find any survivors. Teams of three. Move out."

Zoe was as helpful as she could be, and found herself pushing shopping cart after shopping cart to the Stryker. She showed a team of soldiers where they could find what little food remained as well as clothing, utility vests and anything else she thought they could use.

In an hour or so they had loaded much of the assault vehicle with supplies and were starting to board it as five of the soldiers stood watch. While they did this, Zoe and Sergeant Morris' team made one more sweep of the big store just to make certain nothing they could use escaped notice.

Near a fire exit at the back, the girl stopped, looking to the door with wide eyes. Morris and his team stopped and looked that way as well.

"What is it, Princess?" he asked in a low voice.

"I thought I heard something," she replied nervously.

Something bumped the door, putting the entire team more on edge.

The Sergeant slowly approached the door, and he flinched back as something banged into it.

"I think we need to go," one of his men advised.

The radio blared to life with a frantic, "Sergeant! We have all kinds of company out here!"

Even before he could get his radio to his mouth they could hear automatic weapons fire from the front door and everyone knew what that meant. Something banged on the emergency exit again, and it was clear that they were surrounded.

Tex looked to his men in turn, then to Zoe before raising the radio to his mouth again. "Seal the Stryker and fall back. See how many you can get to follow you. We'll hold out here until you rendezvous with Captain Langley and the main strike force."

A long silence followed, then the man on the other end of the radio informed, "I don't like the idea of leaving you guys there, Sir. Be advised that I'm following this order under protest."

"Noted," Sergeant Morris replied. "Get the hell out of here and complete the mission. Those people back at the school are counting on you."

"Roger that," the driver confirmed.

Tex looked to his men again, raising his brow as he said, "Okay, Smith, Washington. Let's see about finding us a defensive position in here. How's our ammo?"

"Just what we have on us," Washington, the larger of the two soldiers replied. "That and we had that last cart over in the hunting gear section. Got three shotguns and about twenty boxes of ammo for them."

"Sounds good," Sergeant Morris said with a nod. "They have an employee break room in the back. That looks like the most defensible place here. We'll set up two defensive lines, one at the door to the stockroom and a fallback line at the door to the break room." He looked to Zoe. "Can you get that cart of supplies back there for us?"

She nodded and assured, "Yes, Sir. I'll get it."

The break room was not very large, about twenty by forty feet. The back wall was lined with lockers; there were two vending machines on the wall to the left and a sink, counter and small refrigerator to the right. Four round top tables were staggered about in the middle, each with four plastic chairs surrounding it. It was a simple place where lunch breaks were spent and did not seem to have been disturbed for a while.

Sergeant Morris looked around him, and nodded. "Okay, I think we can hold out here for a while. Emergency exit is a full steel door and should hold them out and I think we can lay down a pretty impressive field of fire from here and the stockroom door. Zoe, set out what weapons, food and ammo we have in that cart out on the tables and let's see what we have to work with. Smith, Washington, check out the stock room and see what we can use for barricades. Even if we can string rope or cord across the doorway it would definitely give us some time and a clear shot at them if they find us."

They nodded to him and left the break room.

Tex turned and watched as the girl neatly stacked up boxes of shotgun ammunition on the table where she had the three pump shotguns in a perfect line. She also removed two rather large survival knives and set them down beside each other on that table. When she was satisfied that she had cleared all of the weapons from the cart, she pushed it to the next table and began removing bags of jerky, some eating ware, and she paused as she removed a bag of candy with many different colors showing through the plastic. As she held it, she slowly looked over her shoulder at him, anxiety on her features as if she expected a good scolding from him.