Shane stared at Connor. The young man himself was looking at the handgun he held in his hands, soon ejecting the clip and examining that as well. Whatever emotion was or was not on his face was unreadable, at least to Shane it was. Physically the lad was bigger than him despite being ten years younger, standing at about 6' and being broad shouldered and stocky. Shane himself was about 5'9 and had a much leaner build. He was a good kid, Connor was, even if he didn't believe it himself. Shane's eyes drifted to the room around them. It was the back room of a small convenience store that had seemingly been deserted. They had decided to stop and check their supplies and maybe, just maybe get some new ones.
The store had a little food they could take and a good few bottles of water left. Not to mention another couple of cans of dog food for Boone. The place was dim and quite dirty, but it was quiet enough that they could safely do what they needed to do. The stop hadn't been a complete waste and that was enough to keep Shane satisfied for now. He was worried about Connor though, the lad had barely reacted to what they had experianced thus far. It seemed to be his way of dealing with things, but there was the nagging worry that he wasn't dealing with them. That would be unhealthy. Very unhealthy considering the circumstances. Finally Shane's eyes drifted back to the gun Connor held.
“You know how to use that thing?” Shane spoke blankly, nodding at the weapon in the lad's hands.
“More or less. I know how to load and shoot it, though I'm not a great shot and I have no idea how to go about maintaining it. We should probably keep using the blunt weapons as long as we can anyway... What calibre is that Glock? 9mm?”
“I'm about the same unfortunately, and yeah, I remember that much at least... Man at the shop said it was a good calibre for a beginner.”
“Cool. That means we can share ammo... Not that we'll need to.”
“Yeah, let's hope we don't... People get desperate when terrible things such as this happen. If the pure mental anguish isn't enough to push them over the edge, going into survival mode usually is. I really hope we don't come across any desperate people... Or rather, bandits.” Shane said grimly, lowering his head into his hands and massaging his temples. “Shit, I miss my girlfriend.”
“Where is she?” Connor inquired, his usually hard, cold looking stone eyes turning soft.
“England. We had one of those long distance relationship things going on. I was planning on going over to see her during the holiday... Something tells me U.S Airways wont be sorting my flight out now.”
“Sorry man.”
“Thanks Connor. Come on, let's get going. We should reach the university in about half an hour. Come on Boone, back to the car you big softie.”
“How long you had Boone anyway? He seems to love you.”
“He's a loving dog.” Smiled Shane, scratching the large dog behind the ear. “I've had him for about six years now, since he was nine weeks old. He was one of the pups my brothers dog had... I was a very inexperienced owner at first. Didn't really understand the way dogs work. Took Boone here destroying a sofa it took me four months to save for for me to do a bit of research and find out how to be a better owner. Turns out I had to become, in his eyes, the pack leader, not an easy thing for me to do honestly, I'm not really the type. It was worth it though.” Shane grinned, thinking about happy times as he opened the back door of his car to let Boone in before climbing into the drivers seat next to Connor.
“Try and get some sleep kid, I know you've barely shut your eyes the last three days... You too Boone. B.E.D.”
Connor slept for maybe fifteen minutes. It wasn't long, but he was surprised he had actually fallen asleep at all. His handgun, like Shane's, was sat heavily in his lap. One thing they never mentioned in all the gangster films he had seen was just how uncomfortable it was to sit down with a handgun tucked in your pants. It's near impossible comfort wise to be honest. If this damned virus was going to keep spreading, which it seemingly was, they would need to find some holsters sometime. So far though neither of them had fired a single shot. They had a little method for taking out the strollers. Shane went in first since he was the smaller one and took out one of their legs with the hook on his crowbar. Then Connor himself mercy killed them with his baton whilst they were down. So far it had been pretty effective, but he imagined they would have to fight as singular units if they found themselves with more than a few to take down.
"Hey, you got any CD's up in here? Quiet is getting... Too quiet." Connor asked, announcing that he was in fact now awake.
"Just like a teenager to want to listen to music waking up." Shane chuckled, reaching over and turning on his CD player. Johnny Cash's
'Ain't no Grave' started playing.
"Oh, damn. Couldn't have predicted that." Shane laughed, in unison with Connor. It was rare the lad laughed. Seemed he had himself a dark humour. "Alright, come on now, clap your hands and sing with me."
"There ain't no grave, can hold my body down. There ain't no grave, can hold my body down! When I hear that trumpet sound, I'mma rise right outta the ground! Ain't no grave, can hold my body down!"
Both men laughed hysterically, but Shane had to turn it down when he realized they were approaching their destination.
"University's just around this corner here. We'll deal with the strollers only if we have to, and if we do have to we'll deal with them the same way as always. Boone'll follow next to me, he can give us a warning before we run into any threats. Keep it tight Connor. Maybe, just maybe this will mean safety for a while... Come on."
Both men got out of the car, both tucking their handguns into the front of their pants. Connor picked up Shane's backpack. He had insisted that he be the one to carry it two days before. His argument being that due to their method of dealing with the strollers, Shane had to be the more agile one. Shane couldn't help but agree, but also due to the fact that Connor was obviously stronger than him. Finally Shane let Boone out of the car.
"Stay close now Boone."
With that they were off. They managed to run past the few strollers they did see outside, quickly reaching the first doors they saw into the university. Finding their way in quickly, probably due to sheer luck Boone immediately started growling. It was only when Shane's eyes adjusted to the low lighting of the place that he saw the stroller advancing towards them. He did his thing, approaching the soulless man and ducking under it's outstretched arms, quickly hooking the beasts leg with his weapon and pulling it out from under him. He danced away and watched as Connor moved in, quickly bringing his heavy police baton down onto the things skull. Once didn't do it, twice typically did though. They moved on once again, doing their best to follow the signs to the cafeteria and remain relatively quiet.
"Boone, find the people boy!"
Boone ran forward, taking over Shane and making him give chase. It wasn't too long before they skidded to a halt though, finding Boone barking at a man.
"Quiet Boone!" Ordered Shane, raising his arms and the crowbar he held above his head. "We're friendly." Shane spoke, stopping next to his dog with Connor right behind him.
"The fuck? Only four people!" Connor spoke in a hushed but obviously surprised voice.
"Six now Connor... Right?" Shane said, looking at the most immediate stranger.