"Finally" Nick thought to himself as he climbed onto his steel-colored bicycle "I haven't ridden in days". He started off down his quiet neighborhood street slowly, stretching his stiff legs. He slowly built up speed, and by the time he turned onto the larger road at the end of his cul-de-sac he was absolutely flying. "It's strange" Nick thought, as he weaved between the eerily still cars littering the silent streets, "I always used to hate cars on the road, but now I would rather be in the middle of rush-hour traffic than in this roadway mausoleum". Feeling thoroughly creeped out he patted the large knife in his pocket, making sure it was safe. His father had given it to him the previous year when he took on a job as a bike messenger, who were often mugged in the city. Aside from being his only form of protection, it was the only tangible thing he had left from his parents, who hadn't yet returned any of his calls.

He shook his head, it probably was not the best idea to dwell on his parents, as it seemed that the entire city had been snuffed out in a fortnight. He looked up the road and set his mind on coming up with a goal. He only had food and water to last two more days, if that, and almost no supplies. "Alright" he thought "where can I find a place that has everything?"

A sign for a super Wal-Mart came into view ahead of him.

"That will do" he thought, then for the hell of it, said "God Bless the USA". He sped off towards the main entrance. He pulled up to the entrance and began to chain his bike up, then chuckled. "The entire fucking world is dead, and I'm still worried about this bike getting stolen". Still, he locked it up anyway, halfway out of habit, halfway because he was trying to recapture memories of a time gone by.

The store was pretty well stocked, all things considering. "I guess shopping at Wal-Mart is a low priority when one is falling into a coma" He chuckled at his own joke. Still the shelves were pretty bare, and he spent about 20 minutes finding enough food to fill his small backpack. Suddenly he heard something, something moving, something... alive. He crouched down and pulled out his knife. Hopefully it was a human, but he wasn't going to take a risk if it was a wolf. Nick peered tentatively around a shelf full of deodorant when someone spoke out.