I entered the cavernous building and moved cautiously down a center aisle, being careful to avoid the trash and pieces of useless flotsam left behind by years of scavengers and weather--the many shelves in this place having long since been stripped of anything useful. The empty store now smelled as if it had been used as a den or hiding place for some of the Unlucky survivors and it didn't appear they were too particular about where they relieved themselves.

Hearing a sudden crash from the rear of the store, followed by a howl of anger or pain, I moved slowly in the direction of that sound. I was uncomfortably aware that I might soon have to take another human life--if it came to that--in order to perhaps save the woman my son saw chased in here. True, these creatures were no longer completely 'human', but they had been at one time and to kill one of them, I felt, would be the same as killing any other diseased man or woman. And, while I had never before taken a human life, I realized that in order to protect my children, I would do so without a second thought. I had long ago made up my mind that if we were to survive away from the protection of our home, all of us, especially myself, would have to reevaluate our attitude regarding the sanctity of life and what that might mean to us in the future--if we were to have a future.

As I moved toward the end of the aisle, I heard a slobbering, smacking type of sound that made my skin crawl. When I looked around the corner, I could see two of the Unluckys down at the far end of a wide aisle, crouched over a dark heap, which appeared to be a body. Furious at the thought these diseased creatures had killed an innocent woman, I stepped out into the corridor and shouted at them, without even thinking of my own safety.

They both looked up at me, their feral eyes seemingly aglow with hatred and the need to kill. They were filthy, emaciated looking creatures and after years of living like animals, they just barely resembled the human beings they once were. But what shocked me most was to see the mouths and beards of these 'animals' dripping with the blood of their victim. One of them even had a long, bloodied piece of flesh hanging from its mouth.

Sickened by what I was witness to, I shouted again, hoping to perhaps frighten them away from the body, but I had never before been exposed to any Unluckys and had no conception of the mindless hatred they held for anything that was not like themselves. At first apparently surprised by my presence, the two of them quickly must have decided that I was just another free meal, as they both launched themselves at me, howling their anger as they came.