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Rain pattered down the windows, quickly turning the cracked concrete a dark grey. Caspian sighed, glad he managed to get inside before the rain came down too hard. Sliding down the counter of the hardware store checkout. “Should probably check for infected, not in the mood to die,”
Pushing himself up from the dirty tile floor, Caspian groaned, the days on days of walking finally catching up to him. Damn.
Rummaging through his backpack, he found was he was looking for. As he turned the handle, the room started to light up. The rechargeable flashlight, gaining power.
As the survivor wandered around, looking at the shelves of tools and wood panels, most knocked over or empty.
It wasn't until he got to the lighting section that he heard a clinking of the unbroken light’s glass. Head whipping around as he flicked off his light, crouching down. As quietly as he could, he reached into the side pocket of his bag, grabbing his gun, while keeping his eyes glued on the shelves filled with hanging light fixtures. Creeping towards the noise, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Listening in as close as he could, he heard something he didn’t before. Breathing.
Before Caspian even realized, he felt a swift movement against his back, realizing a knife was pressed against his throat. His breath hitched.
“What are you doing here.” a voice rang out behind him, “And don’t move.”
Caspian sucked in a breath, “um- I- I was looking for a place to crash, I’m not here to hurt or steal from yo-”
“Shut it, drop the gun.” Caspian did as he was told, not wanting to be flayed. As the gun clattered to the ground, he could feel the knife loosen from his neck.
As soon as the cool metal left his throat, he took a deep breath, cradling his throat from the bruise that would likely form there.
“Sorry for that, um- what's your name?” The man said nervously. As Caspian could not get a good look at him, the light from his flashlight shining against the man, he could see him wringing his hands, fingers long and covered in what seems to be ink stains. As the brunette looked closer, he saw the man in front of him had long black hair pulled half up, front pieces covering his eye.
“Uh- Caspian, Caspian Soulcrest. You?”
Oh, I’m Rae Morningstar. I’m uh- sorry for almost killing you.”
Caspian smirked, “Don’t worry about it, scary times”
The man, Rae, started to ramble, talking about what he was doing here or how he got here? The survivor didn’t know, for he was focused on The blackettes face. Now that Rae looked up, Caspian could see his eyes clearly. One light blue, the colour of the sky on a bright sunny day. The other a dark green like the most precious of gems. As the night went on, the two of them found a place to sit, bags of potting dirt used as makeshift pillows under them as they talked. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that the two finally drifted off to sleep, Rae going first, Caspian following soon after.
When Caspian awoke later that morning, his bleary eyes blinked the sleep away to find Rae writing in a notebook, so it was ink on his hands then.
“M’rning” Caspian said groggily.
“Good Morning”
“I’ve got a question,”
“Mmh?” Rae looked up slightly, still focused on his book.
“Were you always alone?” Caspian mumbled out, before sitting up straight, “Oh shit wait that's nose-y, sorry”
It’s fine I um, kind-” As Rae started to answer, the glass at the front of the store shattered, the two of hem bolted up, grabbing their backpacks and their weapons, Caspian a gun, and Rae a combat knife.
As the two of them ran to the front of the store, Rae pulled Caspian down behind a counter. “Clicker” Rae whispered softly.
Caspian nodded as he peeked above the counter, eyeing the clickers movements. Its face gnarled and overtaken by the mushrooms that infected the world almost 2 decades ago. Its arm bent out of place with deep bloody gashes taken out of the mass of its body. As the brunette took a step, the creature lurched in his direction, shrieking.
Caspian slowly stepped out further, reaching into has bag, pulling out a shotgun. Rae peeked over the counter, watching as Caspian flicked the safety off and cocked the gun, quickly firing two shots, both point-blank into the clickers head, with a loud bang.
The clicker spasmed on the ground shrieking and clicking, coming to a slow end.
“Hate those things,” Rae nodded in agreement. Before getting up from behind the checkout counter, “Thought I cleared them all out, must’ve missed one.”
“Well, it’s gone now, so we don’t have to worry about it anymo-” Caspian was cut off abruptly by a loud groaning noise.
They both whipped around, scanning the store aisles, looking for the cause.
All Caspian could see was shelves knocked over, tools, and the scraps of home renovation supplies. Most of the stores have been raided in Loadstar Grove, despite having a small population, the town was hit hard by the outbreak, sending it into a state of panic almost immediately.
Caspian was cut out of his thoughts by a ball of spores hurdling towards him, just before it could land, Rae shoved him to the side, landing with an ‘oomph’.
Rae couldn’t breathe, he felt his chest tightening and contracting against his will.
“Rae?!”
Just as Rae felt his eyes flutter and balance shift beneath his feet, he took another breath in and could feel clean air rush through his lungs. Taking more deep breaths in, he could finally see what was happening, a bulky bloater barrelled towards the pair.
Just like the clicker, the bloaters skin was marred with scrapes and tears, pustules leaking pus, and blood.
“Rae, are you okay?” Caspian’s muffled voice knocked Rae from his thoughts, only giving the other a small jerky nod, as the blackette noticed the respirator now attached to his face securely, similarly to Caspian's. Without thinking, Rae grabbed a pistol from his back pocket, quickly lining up his shot, and shooting six rounds into the bloaters head.
Caspian followed Rae’s lead as they began to move around the front store, dodging the bloaters spore attacks, and shooting through the creature's thick layers of skin and calcified cordyceps.
With the last two bullets in Rae’s handgun, the bloater went down with a burst of spores and fungus sprouting from the carcass .
Both men took a long deep breath out, shoulders dropping.
“Damn” Caspian murmured under his breath, looking over to Rae, now sitting on the floor against a fallen shelf, a hand on his chest.”
“You okay?”
“Y-yeah. Thanks for saving me by the way” He said breathy, stifling a cough.
The brunette rubbed the man’s back in circles, as Rae coughed out, phlegm full of spores.
Caspian sat next to the man, squeezing his hand, as Rae leaned his head against the man's shoulder.
As Rae’s eyes fluttered closed, Caspian’s stayed open, vigilant to protect the man he somehow came to care for, in the 2 days he met him.
Maybe it was the loneliness getting to him.