Supply Run;; open

[Dr. Alexander Andreev]

The dreams were keeping him up again. The vacant and void eyes of Gracie as she snapped and grappled for him. His little girl was gone and that thing was trying to eat him. His Lexi was worse for wear. Her body nearly ripped in half from the walker feeding on her lower half. Legs that he used to love looking at in torn shambles, could not support her weight. Only her arms dragged her reanimated body across the floor of their bedroom. Moans and hisses slipped from her blood soaked mouth. Only one thing was on her mind, to kill him. Those were the last memories he had of his family and the memories haunted his fractured mind. Waking or in sleep, it didn't matter. The memories plagued him. Could he have stopped it? It was his job to protect them and he failed. Alexander couldn’t even have ended their misery, only cowardly locking the door before he fled the family home. They could still be up there. Still be trying to escape their imprisonment...or they could be free. The thoughts frightened him. What if he did see either of them? Would he be able to finally end it for them? No...there was no way. But if they hurt someone else? Seeing what they could do over the past few weeks did not help his state of mind.

Anger and despair fill him for the longest time. There was no way to know how many nights he had cried for his family that was completely lost to him. Hot tears poured from his eyes nightly for weeks. They were dead. His beautiful wife and perfect daughter were gone and he was left alone. But survival was all he had left. Alexia would not want him to just give up. She would want him to fight and to help other people. He’d been on his own for the last few days, having just separated from a small group. One of the women was pregnant. He might have been a doctor but delivering her baby was certainly a first for him. Thankfully both mother and child survived and he stayed long enough to make sure they would be all right. Why didn’t he stay with the group? One simple reason, he was not far enough from New York. The thought of returning sent chills up his spine. They were still there, or they should have been.

Supplies were getting low. Food was still good but the medical supplies that he had managed to pack with him from his house were nearly gone. The pregnant woman had a few minor complications that would have been easily corrected had they been in a modern hospital but tapped out most of his equipment. They needed to be restocked if he hoped to help anyone else. Mostly he was out of sterile dressings and completely out of antibiotics. The gas station wasn’t far. Hopefully the building had not been completely cleaned out. If he was lucky, a few first aid items still lingers on the surely bare shelves.

Low groans were in the distance. Dammit! He wasn’t alone. Of course he knew better than to think the walkers had just moved on from this area. The grip on the machete was tight. The pounding of his heart filled his ears. Moving around the building, he had found that the back door was unlocked. Easy access but could prove that it was either not safe to go in or that the place had already been cleared out. It was now or never. Bolstering his courage, he opened the door and slipped in. It was nearly dark, only faint light peaked through boarded windows. The lighter in his pocket was low on fuel but hell, they were in a gas station, surely there were some lighters he could grab. Reaching in Alex flicked it. Sparking twice and the flame rose. The light was limited but enough to aid him to see just what he didn’t want to see. A walker leaned against the shelf. Releasing the button he had to he quick and silent…what was that? Another light source? Someone else was here? No time. Kill this thing and say hello next. Jumping up the male slammed the beast into the shelf, hearing the vile walker groan and snap. Aiming the machete, he launched the blade into the back of the small male’s skull. A sick crunch, followed by a wet squish signified that he had hit the brain. In a pile the body fell in a soft thump.