PetrA

Chapter seventeen: Ellie

Their stay at the house didn't last long. They had all agreed on that, since it would only be a matter of time before those things made their way into the woods. And started to prey on the poor people who sought cover there. Woods, open roads, towns, houses, everywhere had become unsafe. Perhaps unless islands that have earlier never been populated by humans. That would be their safest option, get to the coast, get a boat and leave. However, the trip there would be long and not exactly what they're used to and getting a boat big enough that they can operate, would also be a challenge and then there was food and clean water...

"You ready to go?" Ellie looked up at Kim who stood at her side by the bike. "Yeah." He looked at her and asked, "Are you alright?" she mustered a smile. "I'm fine, just lost in my own thoughts." It did seem odd that their lives would never be the same again. The roads were quiet, as she knew they would, however, she had and did hope that they'd meet somebody else on the road. Around midday, they reached the first city. They stood a good five Km's outside of the town looking at it from the hill. "Dam they look like ants." Cody said looking down at the town. "Ant's that are hungry for your stomach." Gemma said poking his stomach. He slapped her hand away, and continued to stare at the city "How are we supposed to get through that?" Henrik asked. "We're not." Ellie and Daniel said at the same time. She had her hand on Aiden's shoulder. Kind of like an over protective mother or sister.

"We're going to go around, see if we can find some stores that got what we need." He looked at the group, "Ellie and I made a list over what we'll need in order to survive close range with those things best." Daniel fished out the list he and Ellie had made over a very long discussion last night. "Okay, we're going to need duct tape, masks to cover the lower half of our faces, sharper knives, axes, wetsuits, and we all need haircuts." Ellie said pulling nervously at her hair. She hadn't had short hair for so long, and she defiantly didn't want short hair again, but both she and Daniel had agreed that it would be the wisest. You couldn't have that your hair got in your face in the middle of a fight, or one of those things manage to get a hold it. In that case, though luck mate, besides it is by far harder to get a hold of short hair. Gemma started to protest, but a look from Daniel shut her up. "And lastly we'll need tight and flexible clothes so we're able to move around." Tight clothes weren't a problem for Ellie, she owned almost nothing but tight fitting clothes. Who would have thought that an insecurity would come in handy?

"How are we going to get a hold of these things?" Joachim asked. "As I said shops, stores, whatever we come across." Daniel said. Ellie still tugged at her hair, Kim took her hand to stop her, but she only started to tug at the hem of her jacket with the other. She didn't want to cut her hair, but she knew that there wouldn't be any other options. "There should be an outdoors store not too far from here. They sell most of what we need." They all turned to stare at Cody. "How'd you know?" Daniel asked. "My dad used to take my brother and me there." He said almost sheepishly. "You'll show the way then, but we gotta make it fast. It's not wise to stay out after dark." Turned out that Cody's memory was a little fuzzier than he'd let them know, so they had quite a few close calls with those things. Once Lesley brained one with a butter knife he apparently had taken with him. "The rust should take him out, if the blow didn't." He said grinning like a fool.

Finally, around sundown he found the store, it didn't have large windows that took up a whole wall like other shops and buildings in the surrounding area. Otherwise, it might have been a problem for them. Daniel wanted to break the door with force, but both Gemma and Ellie agreed that it would only make too much noise and attract unwanted attention. Besides, there might be several dead inside the store. As it turned out inside the store were more than two of those creeps. Stupid as boys are, Lesley and Daniel charged the nearest. The noise attracted more, Ellie backed up against a shelf with sharp objects she hadn't got a clue to what was. She grabbed the nearest and stabbed the one that had been advancing on her in the eye. Its whole body fell limp and crashed over her. Letting out a yelp, she threw one of her arms over her mouth to block any possible fluids coming from it, to enter her mouth or nose.

The body of the person she'd stabbed in the eye must've eaten too much in his human life, or he'd simply had too many human happy meals in his afterlife. Because he was big and extremely heavy. Ellie couldn't move, and the smell coming from it stung in her nose and eyes. Her arm locked in an awkward position over her mouth and nose, all she could make was sounds that reminded her of a guineapig under a rack. She could hear everything that went on around her, but she wasn't able to help or do anything until somebody removed that big rotten piece of cow from her. "Where's Ellie?" A voice suddenly asked. "HERE!" She tried to scream, but it came out as a string of muffled guineapig sounds. She managed to get her other arm free, just looking at it made her feel extremely ill. "Ellie?" she fumbled to make the things on the shelfs fall. After several failed attempts, she finally managed to tip the one of the shelves onto the floor making an awful noise that hurt her ears.

She could see feet come running and she recognised the person instantly. Joachim started to push the fat person off her. Soon more feet joined the push, suddenly a thought popped into Ellie's head that almost made her laugh aloud. It seemed so absurd that something from a book would pop up now. You call that pushing? My grandma can do better than that! All of a sudden, the heavy weight was gone from her chest and she stared up at 9 faces. Four of them dying with laughter, two concerned, one shocked and a poker face. Henrik and Kim helped her onto her feet. When Ellie looked down at herself, she almost spewed her stomach content all over the others. She was covered in body fluids. It drenched her all the way into her skin. Gemma sobered quickly, her eyes widened "Get a bucket now." She said, but before she or anybody else could react, Ellie grabbed a hold of some bag on display and emptied her stomach into it.