Chapter 44 - On The Road

Staring at the Map in front of him, he slowly took out a pen and circled a few places. He named two of them as Mona's house and destination. His plan was to go through Mona's place before making it to his last destination in the city. He continued to make smaller circles around his house and the two places for the stores he needed to go to restock his supplies.

After circling all the places he needed, he slowly drew lines starting from his house to Mona's house, then to the last place. He did not forget to make the path go through the stores needed. After writing up the first path. He started making more paths; he wanted to point out as many possible routes as he can take in case of road blocks along the way.

After constantly thinking about alternative routes for an entire hour and tracing them, Mark finally kept the pen down again. He looked at it once again and found all kinds of lines and circles throughout the entire map. After checking it out once again, he slowly closed it and placed it inside a bag by his side.

He picked up the bag as he went to his shelf and opened it. He slowly shuffled through his clothes while taking some out and placing them in his bags. Even if he can just take some clothes from a random store. He did not want to stop his jeep for that single reason.

After storing some of his clothes, he kept the bag aside as he fell on his bed. He looked at the same fan, which he almost gave up his life to a week ago. Now, seeing the fan and the changes which came this past week, he can't help but clutch his fists. Just like how he was willing to give up his life a week back, even now that second he is still on a tightrope.

Any second from now might be his end, and he liked the excitement which he got with it. Him fighting with his life on the line not knowing when he might die was more interesting than losing it within a minute in the most normal way possible. He did not remove the hanging rope and blew off the candle before sleeping.

*NEXT DAY*

Mark woke up as the sunlight fell on his face. Slowly opening his eyes, he turned towards the window and noticed a ray of sunlight passing through the curtains falling on him. Checking the watch on the table, he noticed it was still half-past six in the morning and woke up. He slid the curtains open and noticed the sun rising up and decided to move out quickly.

Taking a quick bath and getting refreshed, he grabbed his bag and went into the kitchen once again. Bending down, he opened a small shelf and saw energy bars which he would hide from Kevin still there and quickly took them. Keeping one of them in his mouth, he grabbed his sword and kept the gun on his back.

Slowly opening the door, he peeked out to find one zombie near the elevator and came out. He closed the door and kept the key back in his pockets and gripped the sword tighter. Slowly taking out of its scabbard, he made his way towards the zombie. Reaching it, he sliced its head in one quick motion as the knife went through the body with almost no resistance.

Holding the sword with one hand and keeping the scabbard in one of the bag zips, he continued on out. Slowly going down the stairs, he came across another zombie but quickly killed it before it screamed. He reached the ground floor and went out of the building.

Slowly opening the door, he noticed only one zombie on the street and quickly took out his gun and shot it. He kept the gun back and jogged across the street while looking out for any more zombies. Reaching the small alleyway, he finally relaxed a bit, but as he got closer to the jeep, he noticed a zombie and shot it.

The zombie, which was leaning on the door, got its head drilled with the bullet as black blood fell on the windshield making Mark groan in disgust. Slowly removing the things he kept covering the car, he got in. Turning it on, he quickly turned on the wipers and made it do its work.

Meanwhile, he turned back to the 2 boxes behind and leaned in closer to check if everything was all right. After noticing the contents were safe and the windshield was clean, he slowly drove the car out of the alleyway. Taking out the map once more, he went on the road which had the biggest wholesale store in its route and made his way towards it.