Bradley Ayers drove his salvaged van around a pickup truck sitting in the middle of the exit ramp, noting a dead man behind the wheel of the vehicle. He didn't bother trying to see if the vehicle had anything useful in it. According to the sign on the side of the road, there was a Super Walmart two tenths of a mile from here, and he could probably get whatever he wanted from there.
Soon he pulled into the parking lot and, noticing the "Murphy Gas" station at the other end, he checked the gauge and saw that he was down to a quarter of a tank. I'll have to fill up before I leave. he thought, as he pulled up front of the store, not bothering to park it in an actual parking space. He cut it off the engine and, after getting out, grabbed two shopping carts. Thankfully the doors weren't locked, so he pushed them open and entered. Making sure to hold his breath, he ran by the rotting produce section and into the food section behind. Though the shelves were mostly empty, he did find some Gatorade powder, and threw it in his cart. Over the next few minutes, he gathered up more than a cart full of food, mostly canned food and boxed foods that could be made easily on a hotplate or campfire.
He wondered over to sporting goods, hoping to find some better camping supplies, when he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He drew his pistol. "Hello, is there someone there?" he called. He assumed it was a wild animal that had followed him in, but the possibility that it was a human meant that he had to find out for sure, even if talking attracted some creature to him.

"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.

(We have 2 Marks)
"God" Mark said to himself as he drove away from the police station, "I can't believe I stole this car". He rode towards where he thought he could get the most food, a Walmart. "Oh America, even in the apocalypse you feed us to much". He got up to about 50 miles per hour but then he saw someone riding a bike. "Wow, at least I know that not everyone alive is evil". His car charged right past the boy as he headed straight for the Walmart. "It's crazy, no family, no friends, just darkness" he thought as a tear formed in his eye."I miss Maria, why did this freaking disease have to happen, she was pregnant, we where gonna live happy ever after, but noooo, fate had to throw an effin curve ball at me and kill her" he said.

He shook his head, it was so idiotic to think about his family, they where gone now, the only people left are either people who lost there family, or idiots who go through life alone. He put his eye on the road and the thought of getting to Walmart took over. His food won't last but another 3 days and he has been getting water with his purifier. "Okay" he said "There is the Walmart".

He pulled into the parking lot and he saw another car, "Crap" he thought "Looks like I gotta fight for my food". He opened the car door, got out, and locked the door "You can never be to safe" he said. He ran towards the door and stopped when he got there. "Well if someone is in there, he is probably hostile" he said as he pulled out his pistol. He opened the door and he saw all the food and drink. "Coke and Hotdogs, this should be fun"

He ran over to a Coke Six Pack and he put it into his Backpack. "Looks like no one went after this place, stupid K-Mart fans, or maybe it was the mass amounts of comas going around town" he said. He heard the door open and he ran back into the aisles, he peeked out and saw that same person who was on the bike, "Crap, Crap, Crap, this sucks, I don't wanna have to fight, I just hope he stays away from me". Mark ran through and picked up whatever he could, Chips, Sodas, Water, Pop tarts, hell even oatmeal. Then he heard another noise, "Crap" he thought "Is that the person who parked his car, or is it a wolf". He looked around and he heard someone talk, "Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap" he thought. He peeked his head out and saw that kid again. He noticed he was looking the other way and he ducked back into the aisle.

Peggy covered her mouth as she yawned, gotta remember to do that, even after all that's happened. She was lying on the hard cold floor of a storage room, it was mostly empty apart from a few empty boxes. That was the best sleep she's had since this whole thing started.

"I should sleep on the floor more often." she said, not afraid to talk to herself. It was nice to know that'd she would always be listening to herself. In a strange way she didn't feel alone. She frowned a little "That wouldn't make sense to anyone else." she thought. She got up off the floor, stretching her arms and legs. Now she had enough energy to look through this place thoroughly. She grabbed her rucksack and took a look inside, digging through to check if all her stuff was still there. A big smile formed across her face as she took out a picture, still in its frame "I'm glad I still have you." she said to the inanimate object. She sighed and slipped it back into her rucksack, throwing it on her back.

"Crap, where am I again?" she said as she scratched her head. Then she remembered "Oh yes...yes! I'm at Wal-Mart, a super Wal-Mart." she giggled a little "Susie always wanted to go to super one, she'd say 'Grandma grandma, can we go to a super one? I've already been to a normal one, look how big the super one is! It's super big!', yeah that's what she'd say. Every time." she said with a smile. OK maybe now she felt a little crazy saying all this stuff to herself. She was making her way to the storage room's exit when she heard some shuffling outside.

Jack had woken up inside of his stolen truck, more tired than he had ever been. He had fallen asleep in the driver's seat while he was eating a jar of cookies. When he woke up he realized the cookies had fallen all over the ground of his truck. As he sat up, he looked around, hoping he'd find anybody, when he heard a noise. He pulled out his G18 and walked out of his truck. "Hello?" he asked as he looked for anybody around him. Suddenly, he saw something jump out of the bushes. "Stupid raccoon." he muttered, putting his gun away.

As Jack returned to the bus and turned on the engine, he saw that he was low on gasoline. He drove to the nearest gas station and began to fill his truck up. "Would you look at that?" he said, surprised at the fact that there was gasoline still in the gas station. As his truck was being filled up he saw a Super Walmart sign pointing North. "Well, I suppose I could find something useful there, maybe some more cookies." he said jokingly as he closed the gasoline hatch when his truck was full. Jack quickly hopped into the driver's seat of his truck and took off for the Super Walmart.

When he arrived he saw that the Super Walmart door was open. "Great, it's probably already looted." he said to himself and sighed, getting out of his truck and locking the door. When he came into the Super Walmart he saw almost all of the shelves empty, he sighed as he clumslily made his way through the store looking for anything that could be useful. After a minute or so, he finally found some cookies. "Finally, something worth while!" he said as he ran towards the shelf and grabbed the cookies, when he heard someone call out.

Phoebe froze, poised mid-reach for a bottle of hydrocodone. She just heard something move. Something big. Had to be a wild animal.

Phoebe was well-trained for this. Every territorial animal does not like surprises: such as a scared human sneaking around in the pharmacy of a Super Walmart, looting for some much-needed medications. An aggressive one, like the escaped hamadryas baboons, a matriarchal species whose alphas do not like other women, would attack if they deemed Phoebe too close. This wasn't them, however. Troops of baboons make too much racket. No, this was a solitary animal.

It was walking closer. Not too close, but not far enough for Phoebe's taste. Phoebe took the bottle, slid it into her backpack, then hid under the counter, her back to the wall. No animal could see her, and hopefully this one couldn't smell her. She pulled out her baseball bat just in case. It saved her life many times, and had dents to show it. The last attacker, a starved dog, left some teeth marks in the bat where she smashed it's jaw. That was a grisly sight. Phoebe was largely neutral on animal rights, but that made her feel so guilty. After all, it just wanted her sack of food, not her. It only wanted to eat, just like her.

Hunter slipped through the backdoor of a super walmart G18 held in front of him instinct was kicking in, he needed meds anti depressants, that would chase away the ghosts that were battering at the doors in his mind, he took one step and let the door close quietly behind him, before he heard something, someone calling out "Idiot" Hunter muttered listening for the voice again but it didn't sound again, cutting through the leathery door to the front of the wal-mart all Hunter could do was gape at how freaking big it was but that didn't deter him when he finally saw the pharmacy sign.

Making a beeline for the pills Hunter slid over the counter and began to search through the pills quite loudly not caring if anyone was nearby to hear them he was probably going to die in this shit hole anyways hopefully they had the decency to take him outside though so he didn't die in a wal-mart that would be a way to go but Hunter was painfully unaware of the person nearby as all he wanted was those pills to silence the dead that walk his mind hunting for him, wanting him to join them in their torment.

Bradley saw a teenage boy hiding behind a shelf full of deodorant, and put his gun away. "Sorry about that, kid." he said. "Thought you might be a coyote or stray dog or something." He took a few steps towards the kid. "To tell you the truth, I'm glad to see another living, awake human being. Everyone else in my home town died, and I even rounded up all of the sleepers and waited to see if they'd wake up to be sure, so I came here to try and find someone else." He pointed to his two shopping carts. "If you want anything out of there, take it. I can always find more. Foodwise, I'm kind of partial to the Banquet homestyle pasta myself. And if you need a gun, I've got plenty. I'll give you one."
He then realized something. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself." He held out his hand. "Bradley Ayers. I used to do maintenance in a factory before all this happened, so if you need me to fix a machine for you, or set up your generator, I'll be glad to help. And you are?"

Nick's relief was palpable. When he first saw the gun he had almost sprung away down the aisle, but this man clearly had no intent to hurt him. Nick reached out and tentatively shook the man's hand, his eyes, however, remained on the gun in the holster.

"Nick" He said "My name is Nick... uh... Baker" His eyes met Bradley's for an instant, then quickly moved to the floor. He had never been good at introductions, especially now when the man he was talking to had a gun on him mere moments before. Still the man, Bradley, seemed confident and friendly, and Mark couldn't help but feel at ease around him.

" I umm, I really don't need to grab much else, my backpack is almost full anyway" he told Bradley. " I uh, I'm on a bike so I can't really carry much else... I have a bike, I mean, I bike, I mean..." Shit, even in the apocalypse he couldn't help stuttering like an imbecile. "I biked as a messenger before this disease came along, as a job, not as cool as a mechanic, but you know..." He trailed off again, then remembered something very important. "Wait, you said you've seen others sleeping, are they ok? Is there a cure? What happened? are we the only ones left?" He could see that Bradley was a bit surprised by his flood of inquiries.

"Sorry, It's just that I've been holed up in my apartment for days, I have no clue whats going on..."

Bradley looked like he was about to answer when they heard a voice behind them.

Jack suddenly heard two people as if they were talking. "Great, now I got bandits here, I should really get out of here." he said to himself as he began to slowly walk away when all of a sudden, he saw the two people who he had heard talking. "Well, they don't necessarily look like bandits, maybe I can talk to them." he said as he cautiously pulled his gun out in case they would attack him and began walking towards them. "Hey," he started, tightening his grip on the G18 as he walked closer to them "are you two infected?" he finished, feeling sort of relieved that he had his biohazard suit on in case they were sick.

"Well, Nick," he said, mostly so that he could remember the guy's name, "From what I can gather, that sleeping sickness that had everyone spooked got into the U.S. and spread like wildfire. Everyone seemed to have a different reaction to it. Some people passed out and died in minutes, some stayed asleep for a long time before they died, and from what I saw just after waking up, some people managed to stay awake and died while awake. Poor guys. Myself, I was asleep for almost two days before I woke up. And as far as I can tell, if there is a cure, it's got to be rare. No way any politician would let all of his constituents die when he could cure them and secure his position for decades to come."
"And as for just having a bike, you know you could always just take one of the vehicles you see laying around. There's a truck, looked like an F150, on an exit ramp not far from here, and with the owner dead behind the wheel, I'm sure the keys are in the ignition. I'll drive you over there and help you salvage some Diesel to run it on if you want. Or help you with any other car you want. Then you could carry plenty of stuff, even enough to live on, like me. Or I could help you find a place to live if you don't have one. Honestly, with most of my stuff set up already, I just want something to do, and helping a fellow survivor set up a place would be great."
He then saw a man with a pistol coming towards him. "Hey, are you two infected? the man asked, still holding his gun in case they were.
"No, we appear to have an immunity to it, like you." He looked at the gun. "There's no need for a gun. We're not going to hurt you, and there's too much stuff around to fight you over it."