You watch the corpses walk aimlessly below. "Doesn't look like there's many," you say. "We need those supplies. The most we can hope for in the body shop is a vending machine. If we're lucky. Down there, we'll find first aid kits and canned food. Lighters. Who knows what else we'll find in there?"

"Knives. Batteries. Flash lights. And in my case, smokes..." Chuck continues listing items.

"Damn," Sally says, bowing her head. For a moment she's silent, then she nods. "Okay. We have to act fast once we get in there. What's the plan?"

"We drop down and bash their zombie skulls in," Louis says in a harsh whisper, causing your skin to prickle.

The undead below are sniffing the air as if they can taste your scent. Their movements are becoming less random. Your carried whispers are building a desire in them. Living. Eat.

"I'll go down to the other vent," Chuck says, "so we can have two entry points. Sally, your hands are the smallest so you'll have to unscrew the vent, then come with me. You two stay and jump out here."

Sally nods and hands Rocky back to you. You accept the weight of his small, furry body. Feel the rumble in his chest from his low growls. I'm not thrilled to be this close either, fella, you think as you pass him back to Louis.

Silent as a mouse, Sally's lithe fingers slip through the holes in the vent and begin to twist the screws until all but one corner is free. She lets the vent cover down easy, so that it's suspended only by that corner. Chuck and Sally crawl down to the next vent cover, and she performs the same routine as you sit tight and await Chuck's word.

The frigid metal of the ventilation shaft has grown warm underneath you. Never having been particularly fond of small spaces before, you're discovering that a certain sense of security can be salvaged within them now. But it won't last, because you can't hide there forever. Below, the undead have already forgotten your whispers and gone back to scavenging the cold meats in the store. They fight amongst themselves like wild hyenas over a package of ground beef. It seems that anything will work if human isn't available. They'll destroy every creature on Earth, you think.

"Go," Chuck says, catching you off your A game.

Scrambling to get in position, you stick your feet through the vent first, and then leap. You're already in action as Louis' sneakers clap against the hard floor. Weapons are scarce in the little store, so you grab the first thing you see. It may only be a toilet plunger, but to the survival instinct driven mind, it's a weapon. Even the growls and groans of the undead aren't loud enough to drown out the loud crack when you break the wooden plunger handle in half. When the first undead comes at you, you're ready with a splintered stake in each hand.

Nearest to you is a grey skinned young man, with a large chunk of face ripped away. Bones are exposed at his right cheek. Some of his top lip is gone. His shirt is torn and bloody at his middle, but he's clearly wearing a logo of the store's name over his left breast. The shopkeeper is slinking toward you with predator-like movements.Almost to your surprise, one of the stakes go right through his eye socket. Before you realize you've done it, you've got zombie eye gook all over your fist.

Trying not to vomit takes some effort. It becomes a battle forgotten when you hear Louis scream. Behind you, Louis is down, emptying a can of bug spray in an undead's face. Rocky is at the opening in the vent, yelping madly as he watches his owner struggle. Neither the spray or the little wiener dog fazes the overweight dead man. Now, the only thing coming out of the bug spray can is air. You sprint toward them.

You stab the undead in the temple, a point on the skull where you know it's tender enough to thrust an object through. The undead stops struggling and slumps forward, stake still poking out of its head. It lands right on top of Louis, whose muffled protests are immediate. Ignoring the noise from Sally and Chuck dealing with their undead opponents, you use all your weight to shove the hefty dead undead off of Louis. It topples away, revealing the shaken teen. Louis throws the empty can and it clatters as it skids on the linoleum flooring. He takes your offered hand and stands.

"Bug spray?" you say with doubt.

"I panicked," Louis says, defensively.

"Okay, but next time, remember they're animated dead people, not giant cockroaches." You give it some thought. "I don't even think they breathe."

"Have to, to make noise, right?"

"Good point," you agree.

Sally slips up beside you. "Everyone's okay? Whoa, big guy." She spotted the giant undead on the floor.

"Yeah," Louis agrees.

"And just for the record, bug spray does not work," you add.

"Bug spray, really?" Chuck says, joining the group.

"Guys, pan-ic-king. Okay?" Louis says in his defense.

"What's that sticking out of its head?" Sally asks.

"Plunger handle." You hold up the other half.

"Nice," says Sally.

"Way to think on your toes," says Chuck.

"Thanks. How many did you guys get?" you ask, hoping to get the focus off of you.

"Three," Chuck answers. "I got one, Sally got two."

You raise your brows at Sally, who is easily the smallest of your group. A thin crack is in the corner of her glasses where it wasn't before, and her hair and shirt are a little sloppy with some drying fluid you'd rather not ponder, but overall, she looks dandy.

"One and a half," she corrects. "He was missing from the waist down, and the other one, the girl, practically did the job for me." She gestures over to a mess in the floor that looks as if it were once a person, but now a goopy pile. "She trampled him."

"Ugh," and "Eww," you and Louis say in unison.

"Yeah so, on to step two, then step three," Chuck says.

"What's step three?" You ask, assuming gathering the supplies are step two.

Chuck raises a brow. "We decide that after step two."

Steps two and three - SKIP TO CHAPTER 34