Survival Instinct Read Free Page A

She ate only two handfuls before her stomach bulged painfully and she set the bag to the side with a sigh of regret. Instead, she twisted the cap back on the spicy dip and set about looking for trash bags. The dip would need refrigeration now that it was open, so she needed to clear out the science experiment currently passing for leftovers before she’d risk combining good food with the spoiled.
    When the break room was organized to her satisfaction, Nadine grabbed a tool at random out of the store and prepared to break the plexi-glass windows of the two vending machines. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to stay, and she wanted to have a couple emergency bags prepared in case she needed to flee quickly. The work was taxing, but she was feeling stronger from her meal, small though it was, and knew that there might not be a better time to prepare a bug-out bag than now. When she had an assortment of foods she thought would keep her going for a while longer, she sought out a large, comfortable knapsack and stocked it with bottled water before topping it off with twice as many bags of chips, cookies and candy bars. Then she prepared five other bags in the same fashion until all the water was packed except for three bottles that she left out for her immediate use and stashed the bags in various locations that she could use as a means of escape if necessary.
    Finally satisfied with the day’s work, Nadine unrolled four sleeping bags and spread them one atop another until she had a nice thick pile by the door to the break room. She left a fifth one rolled up to use as a pillow and snacked on a candy bar before polishing off another bottle of water and curling up in her nest of bedding. She’d slept in some horrible places these last three weeks- abandoned cars and empty houses for the most part. She’d managed to find a barn to bed down in for two days when her journey first began, and one horrible, rainy night she’d slept in the branches of a tree. This was the closest she’d come to being comfortable since her world fell apart, and she was horrified by the thought that she might not be able to actually relax. Her concerns were unfounded- she was exhausted from all the energy she’d expended that day, and she found herself drifting into a light doze as soon as she shut her eyes.
    But the relief was short-lived. Just before Nadine went under into a restorative slumber she heard a noise unlike any she’d heard before. All had been eerily silent the last few weeks, aside from the occasional shuffle of undead feet and the strange chuffing noise those things made as they tried to scent out prey. It took her a bit to process the sound, but the moment she did she leapt to her feet, trying to figure out what to do. The sound was human- someone was calling for help.

FIVE
    There was a small window just before the break room that looked out across the alley separating the sporting goods store from the strip mall on its other side. Nadine went to it, grabbing a small stepstool that was most likely used by the staff to stock the higher shelves. She could see a woman actively involved in a fight for her life outside the drug store. She had a pistol of some sort and was firing it with startling accuracy, but it was a double-edged sword: as soon as one fell, two more took its place. She would be overrun if Nadine didn’t help her.
    She hopped off the stepstool and swung it once, twice and finally a third time until the glass was gone, and then climbed back up again to call the woman to her. She’d obviously heard the noise and was making her way over to the sporting goods store Nadine was calling home for the moment, but she was still more than twenty feet away and completely surrounded. Even worse, the creatures closest to Nadine had also heard the commotion and were stumbling around beneath the window, attempting to find a way inside. She fought back the panic- it was too late to change anything. It would all be for nothing