They pulled up to the same grocery store that Aaron saw the rednecks at yesterday. Unlike what he witnessed on the drive here, the parking lot wasn’t empty. Two cars were parked in the middle of the parking lot. “Mr. Blue, are you sure this is a good idea? Some guys robbed this store with guns yesterday.”

“It’ll be fine, not everyone is a psychopath. Most people want to go about their lives without conflict.” Mr. Blue tossed a switchblade to Aaron. “Just in case. Don’t go waving it around.”

Aaron followed Mr. Blue and John through a large hole in the wall, entering the grocery store. He wondered how the hole got there in the first place, maybe someone crashed their car into the wall or maybe a giant monster had made the grocery store it's home. Aaron braced himself for the worst.

Ray’s of sunlight streamed through the cracked windows, dimly illuminating the store. In the corner of a store, a Mexican family was quickly loading food into a cart. They stopped what they were doing and stared at Aaron’s group. Aaron’s heart began to beat faster as the tension built. Mr. Blue nodded at the group then walked past them. With only a simple nod the tension was dispersed, and the Mexican family went back to work. “Grab a cart, I don’t feel like carrying things today.”

Aaron dragged a shopping cart around the grocery store, loading it with non-perishable food. Even though around half of the items in the store had already been taken, there was still a lot of food left. On their journey around the shopping center, they ran into another group of people. Surprisingly, the confrontation also ended non-violently, and both groups went their separate ways. Maybe, he was overestimating the innate evilness of most human beings? Maybe, most people were good. Just as Aaron was about to finish filling the cart, glass went flying everywhere as the front window shattered.

Three men stepped into the grocery store through the broken window. They were a rugged group, that looked like they hadn’t showered for a week, and all of them had dark circles under their eyes. Additionally, all of them carried improvised weapons in their skeletal arms. One of the men smashed his steel pipe into the wall, creating a large hole in the drywall. There’s no way a skinny frame should have been able to generate that much power, he must have put stat points into strength.

“Everyone get out of here. This is our store now.” Aaron reached into his pocket and gripped his switchblade. That’s more like it, he was beginning to question his view on humans until these guys showed up.

Mr. Blue walked out from behind the cheese aisle with his hands in his pockets. “Hey guys, there’s more than enough for all of us. No need to cause a scene.”

“No, we need all of this food. Do you think this is going to be over in a couple of weeks? No, this our world now, and we’re in it for the long haul. Besides, what are you gonna do about it?” The other groups in the store stood behind Mr. Blue, prepared to back him up in a fight.

“Nothing, look behind you.” He pointed to the giant hole in the wall leading to the outside world. A hand made purely of bone gripped the wall, as the monster pulled itself through the hole in the wall. Multiple skeletons covered in moss and dirt filled in behind it. They looked like they had been buried underground for a long time.

“You think we’re dumb enough to fall for that. We may be crack heads, but we’re not stupid.” Just as he said those words a moss covered hand gripped his shoulder. He screamed and the room exploded into chaos. The three ragged men desperately struck the skeletons with their weapons, but they were getting overwhelmed by their numbers. Due to the sheer combined weight of the skeletons' bodies, one of them was forced to the ground.

“Quickly, let’s escape out the back,” John said as he tugged at his shoulder. Aaron tore his gaze away from the skeletons and pushed the cart out the backdoor as fast as he could. On his way out Aaron picked up a coloring book. Vanessa loved them.

“Come on,” Mr. Blue said as he opened the backdoor. Aaron’s hands shook as he pushed the cart across the cracked asphalt. A few Decayed Skeleton’s wandered into the parking lot and spotted them, further emphasizing the urgency of the situation.

Mr. Blue ripped open the trunk of the car. ”Just pick up the cart and dump the stuff in, we don’t have much time,” John’s dad said. Combining their strength, they lifted the shopping cart and dumped its contents into the trunk. They quickly discarded the shopping cart then hopped into the car.

The world blurred slightly as Mr. Blue aggressively accelerated away from the store. A couple of skeletons attempted to follow them, but they were unable to keep up. Despite leaving the original skeletons in the dust, more of them kept appearing in their path. If anything, the further away from the store they drove the more skeletons that appeared. Finally, they discovered the source of the skeletons. Just like his mom had thought, the graveyard had been turned into a mob nest.

The transformation to a mob nest didn’t only allow the grave to spawn monsters it also changed its appearance slightly. An ornate stone gate now blocked the entrance to the graveyard. In addition, a slight haze covered the area that blocked out the light, making the graveyard unnaturally dark. What looked to be hundreds of skeletons roamed the graveyard, spelling certain death for whoever was foolish enough to enter.

Thankfully, they were able to drive past the mob nest without trouble. It seemed that most of the skeletons preferred to stay in the graveyard itself, only growing agitated when someone got to close.

Once they were clear of the graveyard Aaron asked a question. “How were you so calm when you stood up to those guys at the store?"

“Anyone can be brave if they have all the power in a situation,” he said as he pulled a gun out of his pocket. Aaron’s heart skipped a beat. Who knew that his best friend’s dad was so cold hearted, would he have shot those men in the store? “That’s enough excitement for one day, let’s go home.“ The boys hummed in agreement and spent the rest of the ride in silence.

Aaron and John numbly walked upstairs not sure what to think of what just happened. On one hand, they now had enough food that they should be able to hunker down and not leave their house for a month. On the other hand, the situation left a bitter taste in Aaron’s mouth, he went on the scavenging trip because he wanted to get stronger, strong enough to protect his sister, but he ended up running away once again.

“Wanna play cards?” his sister said as she knocked on his door.

“Sure.” Aaron and John sat down on the floor with Vanessa. Aaron tried his best to enjoy his time playing with his sister, but worry nagged at the back of his mind constantly. The mob nest was less than 3 miles from their house. If he was swarmed by those Decayed Skeletons would he be able to beat them? No, he would probably be forced to run away. But what if he wasn’t able to run away? He needed to get stronger.

He looked at his sister, she was smiling, happy to have something to take her mind off of the situation. John's eyes were glazed over, his mind somewhere else. Aaron purposefully lost a round of Go Fish. His sister cheered in joy. “What do you think of the skeletons we saw out there?” Aaron asked as he dealt a new set of cards.

“They looked weak. We could probably take 'em if we were careful,” he said with a glint in his eyes.

Aaron noticed the look and smiled. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

John made air quotes with his hand. “Ya, let’s go on an adventure.”

Vanessa looked at the two of them in confusion, not following the conversation. “I don’t know what that means, but I’ll tell mom,” she threatened, her arms crossed.

“Would this change your mind?” Aaron pulled out the color book he picked up at the grocery store.

“Maybe,” she carefully considered her answer. Indecision coloring her face as she hesitated. “Fine, yes it would change my mind. It was probably some stupid boy thing anyways, I don’t want to know.”