Athens

Owen sucks hard on the hose to get the gas flowing! Too quick and too forcefully, and the young man suddenly had a nasty taste in his mouth. He coughs and hacks, letting gasoline spill over his shoes and splatter along the ground. Shayna just barely manages to step out of the way before it hits her!

Rubbing his tongue clean, Owen gets the stuff flowing into the tank. You wait several moments to ensure you’ve gotten every last drop. A man more clued into cars would know to take this piece and that; stuff that might be useful on the road or a tight spot.

That wasn’t Owen. Still, a half can of gas isn’t bad work for a few moments.

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You bid the pizza car goodbye, though you’d see it soon enough on your way back into Athens. Caroline had watched with some amusement as the theatrics had played out. Richard’s warning of Walkers had her deciding to take the rest of the trip in the back of the police cruiser, if Billie Faye didn’t seem to take offense.

Finally, you meet the sign that reads:

Welcome To
Bethlehem
It had probably once been a very nice sign, but as with all things, the apocalypse hadn’t been kind to it. Painted faded or peeled away. A quick glance at the thing would have you thinking it read ‘Welcome To Bed..le…m’.

Bedlam… Hopefully not.

Beyond the sign, the first thing you see belonging to Bethlehem is a huge industrial park. Rows and rows of empty car spaces stretch out in the space just off to your right. Beyond that, you see what had once been busy and bustling stores.

The once-inviting sign at the turn into the industrial park lists the businesses that had once drawn thousands of people here each week:

• Pet Smart
• Michaels
• fiVE Below
• HomeGoods
• belk
• TJ Maxx

There was every chance in the world that something would lunge at Owen from the other side of the grimy, now-brown glass of TJ Maxx. After all, there had surely been scores of shoppers caught up in the chaos when the end came.

Owen peers through one pane, and sees nothing. Wiping away the brown dust and grime, he peers through another sheet of glass and sees nothing moving within. Another and another, and the young man can finally claim with some confidence that the store is abandoned; of the living and the dead.

There was nothing to do now but shop, and maybe check that this wasn’t the very place that Loucilla had sent you to find. The location hadn’t been specific, and the information was weeks old by the time you’d left!!

The air is stale, but the door opens without too much fuss. Inside, the stock is largely as it was on the day the world ended.