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[Alexius Engle]

A woman slumped over a rack of clothes, her eyes fixed open. They were clouded and glazed over like a dead fish. And in a way, this woman was like a dead fish; floating on top of the thing she needed to live. For fish, this was water. For this woman, it was clothes. She seemed like she had a pretty good fashion sense. So, why had she been shopping at Wal Mart when she died? The world may never know.

Alexius walked past this same woman, his nose wrinkling at the smell. He'd passed several other bodies on his way in here. So, why was he in here exactly? To ease his boredom. The world gets pretty damn boring without hardly anyone else to share it with. Everyone (almost) loves Wal Mart, so why not come here? Maybe he'd get some food from the food isle, or find a board game to entertain himself with.

He found his way to the Electronics section. Why he chose here to drift to, he wasn't sure. Electronics were pointless without electricity. Still, it was somewhat of a habit. Every time he went into a department store, he'd go and see what CDs they had. Maybe compare prices, even.

Choosing an isle with the sign 'Rock/Pop' above it, he started at the 'A's. A familiar band name caught his eye almost right away. He picked up the CD. The cover held a skeleton wielding a sword while also riding on a horse. Above the skeleton, in metallic silver letters 'AVENGED SEVENFOLD' was written in all caps. The Parental Advisory sticker remained in the corner. Before he'd abandoned his home in Waldorf, he'd had this CD. Avenged Sevenfold was one of his favorites, even if they were a bit screamo.

A tune from one of the songs came to his mind. He hummed along to the chorus; "She's a dwelling place for demons. She's a cage for every unclean spirit, every filthy bird and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings. Fallen now is Babylon the Great" Sure, the chorus was all that he remembered, but hey. At least he knew it.

[Willow Adams]

*from the Elementary School*

Willow was an adult now. It was obvious to anyone who passed, she knew. After all, she now wore a big straw hat with a wide brim and lace trim, delicate light blue gloves to her elbows and a white patent leather purse. Yes, those were all trademarks of an adult. Of course she had jeans on and her favorite sundress. She supposed that the sweater she was wearing made her look older, but not adult.

And what did adults to? That's right, they went shopping for food and clothing. Willow walked into the store and grabbed a cart, pushing it in front of her with great effort. It seemed that whenever she went shopping with her mom, she always ended up getting the cart with the one clogged wheel which wouldn't let her steer straight. In fact, it happened so often that she was almost convinced that they purposely made carts with a crooked wheel; maybe it was for people who couldn't walk straight. She giggled at that idea.

Even though her mom wasn't here today, she still ended up with a crooked cart. Some things just don't change.

She wandered around the store, and spied someone in the music section. She gasped. That was the second person she saw today! After a week of being alone, there were now so many people. She pushed the cart carefully forward and saw that he was surrounded by CDs. Her keen eyes spied the CD in his hand and she made a face. Her brothers had CDs like that, and of course she promptly told on them because that music was bad. Bad music had that sticker on it, that's what her mom said.

Now Willow wasn't one to talk to strangers, but she just had to let this man know that he was holding a bad CD and he should put it down before his mommy found out. Still standing near her cart she looked at him and said, "You should put that CD down before your mom sees you. That's bad music."

[Alexius Engle]

Alexius had looked up and was watching the little girl as she came strolling up to him. He could hear her because of the squeaky shopping cart that she had been pushing. It seemed as though she was having trouble steering it; it was probably one that never went strait. He always hated those, and sometimes he thought that's all that Wal Mart ever used. All Wal Marts were a bit crooked like that. Ever notice how none of them are the same? The electronics department is sometimes way in the back, or to one of the sides. Even in the middle. He hated that. Why couldn't they pick just one direction and keep it there for all of their stores?

He was a bit surprised by the girl's appearance. What was she talking about? Bad music? On instinct, Alex flipped the CD case back over almost like he'd forgotten which one he was looking at. Her term of 'Bad music' made him smile slightly.

"It's okay for me to have it. Grown ups can listen to this stuff. I'm a dad, so it's okay." Was a dad, Alex said to himself. No, no, he couldn't think like that. He would be a dad until he found out the fate of his daughter. Think positive thoughts. Positive thoughts got you through situations like this.

Just to make the little girl happy, though, Alex put the CD down in its spot. "Do you like music?" He asked, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at the rest of the CD collection.

[Willow Adams]

Willow immediately froze up now that she saw that there was nothing more that needed to be corrected. She shouldn't correct a dad she realized with horror. She clammed up, her mouth a straight line on her pale face. She gripped the shopping cart handle with both hands and stood there for a long moment before saying, "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers" and then hurrying off to the grocery section as fast as the shopping cart would allow her.

[Alexius Engle]

Alex raised his eyebrows as she just stood there. She seemed quite nervous. Come on, did he really seem that creepy to people?

"Hey, wait! It's okay!" he called, chasing after her. He'd personally never had to deal with shy little girls before. Grace had been anything but shy. She was always going up to random little kids and giving them hugs. And making them cry. This would result in Alex scooping her up and having to apologize ten times to the child's parents. Some of them merely laughed it off, but others walked away to avoid any further children-scares.

Hm. Maybe chasing her wouldn't be such a good idea. "I can help you look for stuff, if you want. Do you know where your mom is?" Alex said, his run turning into a walk. He really didn't care if her mom was alive or dead, truth be told. He just wanted her to calm down.

[Willow Adams]

In her wild sprint, Willow tripped and fell, banging a knee against the tile floor. Her eyes welled up with tears and her bottom lip quivered, but she reminded herself that she was an adult now and that meant no crying. She pushed herself to her feet and started into the forest of wilted and moldy produce, her shopping cart abandoned. She ducked down behind one of the displays so that the man couldn't see her, and she hugged her knees to her chest.

Being an adult was hard. She wished that she didn't have to be an adult anymore. But the only adults left were scary adults, and she couldn't trust them.

[Iseabail Mackenna]

*also from the Elementary School*

Iseabail had been caught unawares when Willow had come out, having been lost in a daydream to distract her from the constant threat of horror and despair washing over her, so the girl was quite a long way down the street before Issy looked up and saw her just turning around a corner. "Crap!" She jumped up from where she had been sitting and sprinted after her awkwardly, still trying not to make any noise. Her left foot had gone to sleep in the wait, making her a little lopsided.

She skidded around the corner and saw Willow turning another. Swearing under her breath (she didn't have any anyway) she picked up speed again and followed her. The next corner she turned she was much closer to the smaller girl, so she dropped back. She followed her quite a way before the girl arrived at Walmart and walked in. Issy waited a bit and then followed her in.

Once in she realised this had been a mistake. She couldn't see the small girl anywhere, despite going on tiptoes and peering everywhere. She was still breathing heavily from running to catch up with the child, so it took her a while to hear the squeaking that indicated a trolley was being used. Once she had heard it, however, she made tracks in the direction she thought she'd heard it. She got to one corner of the store and stopped to listen. Now the sound seemed to be coming from the other end of the store. She huffed and went that way.

This time she seemed to be right, because she heard Willow's voice sounding firm and scolding. She hurried up and turned around an aisle to catch the girl then telling a man she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers in that nervous, frightened way of hers and she rushed off, pushing the cumbersome trolley in front of her. The man followed before Issy had a chance to do anything.

She saw Willow trip and the man ask where her mom was. She jogged up the aisle after them and saw Willow get up and scramble away from him, into the produce area. Iseabail came up to the man and past him, glaring at him as she did so. She knew no more about her than he did, but she felt he had thoroughly screwed up.

"Willow," she called softly looking around the displays for the girl. "It's Issy. I saw you hurt your knee. Do you wanna show me? And I can give you that chocolate bar I offered before, if you want." She made sure to keep her voice soft and gentle as she kept hunting for the girl.

[Alexius Engle]

Alex stopped moving all together when the woman passed him and glared. What had he done? Okay, so he'd probably scared the little girl. Alex sighed and started walking again, seeing if he could maybe apologize to the little girl. Apologize for what, exactly? Whatever. He had to anyways.

He came into the produce section, but stayed at a distance from the two. Alex bit his lower lip and scratched the back of his head. "Hey, um...is she okay?" He asked towards Iseabail. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare her. Really."

And...why was he apologizing to the older woman?

[Willow Adams]

Willow saw the lady appear and screamed at the top of her lungs. She was following her! She must be a bad lady! Willow scrambled to her feet and started running, dashing in and out between carts with dead bodies sprawled across them, people in the middle of picking out fruits when they died. The little girl was so terrified of the people pursing her that she didn't even make the connection that there were more of the bodies from the street inside here. She tripped and fell again, this time over a body.

She pushed herself to her feet, but she suddenly realized that her ankle hurt tremendously. She paused and tried to use it again, but it hurt too much. She sniffled, the tears flowing freely down her face (she couldn't be a grown-up anymore!), and fell to the ground. She crawled over and hid behind a display of Coca Cola.

[Iseabail Mackenna]

Issy barely heard the man's words before Willow screamed and jumped up. She started and Willow began running. Iseabail didn't follow her, merely looked after her and felt surprised and more than a little hurt. The girl had screamed and run away from her. Why she cared about it she didn't know, but it hurt her to feel that Willow thought she was a bad person.

Her rebelliousness stopped her from going after Willow, even though it was possible the girl would get hurt by her own. Instead she turned and faced the man who had been chasing Willow before and shrugged, trying not to show her shame and embarrassment on her face. "Well, she obviously doesn't trust me either," she said as neutrally as was possible, but was unable to keep some of the indignant pain out of her voice. "I had thought she would. Oh well. It's her problem now." She felt callous as she said it, but Willow was not her problem and she had looked after herself before Issy had met her.

"I'm Issy, then," she told the man. She didn't have anything else to do then and she hadn't seen anybody for a few days. "Who're you?"