Chapter 7

~Calvin~

       "Isn't this illegal?" I asked. "Taking food and drinks from a grocery store without paying? We should probably go to one of our houses and see if there's food there."

       Grant snorted as he continued shoving snacks into the backpack we found not too long ago. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Spruceworth is pretty much abandoned. I don't think anyone is going to care if we take food from the grocery store when nobody else is here."

       I hesitated for a bit before realizing Grant was right. We hadn't seen anybody else in this abandoned village. The only thing we had seen were these zombie-like creatures and after fighting off a few, it left us very hungry.

       And I highly doubt there would actually be food at our own homes, especially if those buildings looked as abandoned as every other place we came across.

       So I helped Grant pack up some food and drinks.

       "You know, I'm kind of thinking we should just camp out here," Grant said. "Unlimited supply of food and drinks. Best place to stay during a seemingly apocalypse."

       "And I think we should not," I said. "Trust me, I want to, but I really think we should either look for some people or find a better place to hide. If those creatures get hungry, where are they going to go to eat?"

       Grant furrowed his eyebrows. "Uh, not here? You saw what they look like, right? They don't have faces. Meaning no mouth. They're not going to eat our human food."

       "Okay, fair point," I said. "But I still think we should find a bigger place to stay. If they somehow do some in here, there isn't anywhere we could run. I'd feel better in a bigger place."

       "And I'd feel better staying with all this food," Grant said.

       "That's fine," I said. "I'll just go on my own. You can stay here all you want."

       "You wouldn't dare leave me on my own," Grant said. "I'm just an innocent sixteen year old. Are you really going to leave a teenager on his own? Defenseless against those hideous creatures?"

       "Dude, you've killed three of them already," I said. "I only killed one. I think you'll be good on your own."

       "Ouch, so you're really willing to leave me?" Grant asked. "That's rude. And after all we've been through."

       "I'm sorry, but how should I know you?" I asked.

       "Uh, your son's mom is my cousin," Grant said. "I have blood relations to Ace. He loves me so you should really care about me a lot more. And your husband is my cousin so that makes you my cousin-in-law. Not only that, but your cousin's husband was my sponsor and Shaw still cares about me so if you were to abandon me and something happened, he'd probably kill you."

       Well, that just made me not want to leave at all. Even though I knew Shaw was really a nice guy, I was terrified of getting on his bad side. Nobody ever wanted to get on his bad side.

       If you did, it was basically game over unless you left Spruceworth.

       "Okay, let's make a deal," I said. "How about we go searching for some more people or a better place to stay? If we can't find anyone and we can't agree on somewhere to stay, then we'll come back here. Deal?"

       "Alright, deal," Grant said. 

       The backpack was now full with snacks and drinks so Grant zipped it up and placed it on his back before walking to behind the counter where the cash register was. He then smiled and bent down to pick up something.

       "Ooh, the perfect weapon," he said.

       "What's a crowbar doing behind the counter?" I asked.

       "Who cares?" Grant asked. "We're basically living in an apocalypse. If we find random weapons all over the place, it's best not to question it. Now let's start exploring the village."

       I had to admit, I was feeling a lot more safe with Grant using a crowbar. He already easily killed three of those creatures with a stick. Imagine the damage he could do with a crowbar.

       We walked around the village, keeping an ear and eye out for the creatures. We noticed that they tended to either be alone or be in groups of three at max. They were never in huge groups and if it stayed that way, we had a good chance of surviving.

       I soon stopped in my tracks, looking at a building that would be perfect for hiding. It was still close to the grocery store so if we ran out of food, we could go there and get back easily if we were careful.

       "Right here," I said. "Here is the perfect place."

       Grant stared at the building and I was assuming he was going to reject the idea just so we could stay at the grocery store, but he didn't. "Actually, yeah," he said. "It is perfect. It's big and there are a lot of rooms. We might be able to find more resources as well."

       Unfortunately, those creatures could also be in the building so we had to get in as quietly as we could. We walked carefully through the hallway until Grant accidentally kicked a wood plank, causing a loud thud when it hit the wall nearby. We stopped in our tracks, not saying a single word as we waited to see if we weren't alone and something heard that.

       We didn't hear anything afterwards. This place was dead silent so we kept walking.

       Until I heard the floor creaking as if someone was walking nearby. I stopped and grabbed Grant's arm to stop him. "Something's here," I whispered.

       "Where?" he asked.

       I gestured in front of us where I heard the noise. The hallway turned left into another hallway and there was a doorway leading to a set of stairs if we chose to go straight. The creaking came from the turn of the hallway.

       "I got this," Grant said, holding the crowbar over his shoulder like a baseball bat as we slowly walked to the the corner. 

       We stopped right as we got to the corner, looking at each other. I nodded and we both turned the corner, immediately bumping into someone and when I saw who it was, I was immediately relieved.

       "Oh, thank goodness it's you," I said. "Have you seen the zombie-like creatures? Are there any in here?"

       "Yes and yes," Shaw said. "Come on, we need to get into a room before any of them come here."

       Shaw led us to the room he had been hiding out in and when he did, we found out he wasn't alone.

       "Ollie!" Grant said before rushing over to his boyfriend's side, who was sitting down on the floor, looking extremely weak. His face was drained of all colour, looking extremely pale and it almost seemed as if he could barely stay awake.

       "What happened to him?" I asked as Shaw blocked off the door with a desk.

       "He was attacked by one of those creatures," Shaw said. "It scratched his leg so he has a very deep cut. The only thing I was able to do was cover it with some fabric but it's not helping. I wanted to go out looking for something that might help tend to the wound but I couldn't leave his side and he could barely walk on his own. I wouldn't have been able to defend us in an attack."

       "Well, now that there's four of us here, we could go looking for something," I said.

       "Honestly, I don't think there will be anything," Shaw said. "And this isn't even the safest place to hide. I've been hearing the creatures walk by all day and some even tried getting in here. I don't know where else we could go though."

       I thought for a bit before coming up with the perfect solution. "The hospital. There will definitely be stuff there to tend to Ollie's wound; bandages, antiseptics, painkillers. And even hospital beds."

       "Here," Grant said, holding out the crowbar towards Shaw. "You took this. I'll help Ollie walk."

       After Shaw had the crowbar in his hand, I told Grant that I'll take the backpack so he only had to focus on helping Ollie. 

       Shaw led the way out of the city hall and to the hospital. We only had a run-in with a group of three creatures but Shaw was quick to get rid of them. "Has anyone ever told you that you're the best person to be with during an apocalypse?" I asked.

       "No, but thank you for the compliment," Shaw said.

       As soon as we got to the hospital, Ollie almost collapsed onto the ground but Grant caught him since he already had his arm around him. "He can't walk anymore," Grant said.

       "I'll carry him the rest of the way," Shaw said, giving Grant the crowbar again before I helped get Ollie onto Shaw's back for a piggyback; the best form of human transportation.

       Once we got into the hospital, we started heading down one of the hallways where the hospital rooms were. "Which room should we go into?" I asked.

       "I don't think it matters," Shaw said. "Just pick one."

       We didn't have to pick one. Someone picked one for us.

       One of the doors opened before yet another person I was relieved to see walked out. "Oh my gosh, it's my husband," I said. "Well, my second husband."

       Dan sighed. "Even during times like these, you just won't stop." He then noticed Ollie on Shaw's back, looking even more weak than when Grant and I first found him. "Is he okay?"

       "No, he's badly injured," Shaw said. "We came here because we thought it would have at least some things to tend to his wound."

       "Then you came to the perfect place," Dan said. "Courtney, my ex, is here too and she used to intern here. Quick, bring him inside and she'll see what she can do."

       Courtney wasn't the only person in the. Cleo and Noah were there too.

       "Get off the bed, Noah," Dan said. "Ollie needs it."

       "Who?" Noah asked.

       "Obviously the person looking weak right now," I said as Noah hopped off the hospital bed that Dan wasn't using to block the door. 

       As Shaw placed Ollie on the hospital bed, Courtney asked, "How did he get injured?"

       "Have you seen the creatures around here?" Shaw asked and she nodded. "One of them scratched his leg. Can you patch it up?"

       "Yeah, I patched Noah's injury up not too long ago," Courtney said, taking the fabric off around Ollie's wound. "Oh, wow. That's a lot deeper, though."

       "He'll be okay, right?" Grant asked.

       "I'll try my hardest but I'm not an actual doctor," Courtney said.

       "How did Noah get injured?" I asked.

       "When the four of us first ran into those creatures, Courtney, Cleo, and I ran away," Dan said. "Noah did not. He ran towards them."

       "Like I said before, I'm no wimp," Noah said. "Someone has to take those losers out."

       "You didn't even have a weapon," Dan said and Noah shrugged in reply. Dan looked at me. "So did you happen to see Destiny?"

       "Or Josh?" Cleo asked.

       "Or Declan?" Courtney asked.

       "Or... Nope, I'm still single," Noah said. 

       "Sorry, we didn't see anyone," I said. "Grant and I woke up in Fusion, which didn't even have any food or drinks so that was kind of insulting. Anyway, we then went to the grocery store then the city hall where we found Shaw and Ollie."

       "That's where Ollie and I woke up," Shaw said. "In separate places, though. I found him right as one of the creatures was about to kill him."

       "Wait, what?" Grant asked. "That creature is dead, right? Because I swear, I will kick the living sh--"

       "Of course it's dead, Grant," Shaw said. 

       "Good," Grant said. 

       "So you four woke up here?" I asked Dan. "You know what this means, right? There are more people in this abandoned village place. They probably just woke up in other random places. So somewhere, our loved ones are still out there."

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at least grant and ollie got reuinited <3 they might have replaced sholden as my favourite spruceworth couple oof.

also noah is a big mood in this story. i too would run towards those creatures. jk jk but his "nope, i'm still single," is me in a sentence.

but it won't be long for noah ;)

i mean what?

we'll get more happy reunions soon though! wait, nvm, just 2 out of the remaining 7 will get reunions soon lol. of course all couples will eventually but not soon.