Holocaust
Page 25
Baba Adora approached the supermarket cautiously. It was a wide rectangular shaped structure with a red gable like roof and wide sliding glass doors. The red and white paint covering the exterior glistened as if it had been applied recently. He sank down on one knee eyes drifting over it searching for any sort of movement. There was none.
His senses told him there were at least four infected in that building. It wasn’t a totally accurate thing. There could be much more or much less. He swallowed and rose lifting his staff off the floor. It glowed more than usual. His eyes hardened and he walked towards the door. It opened at his approach. That surprised him for a second until he looked up and saw the electricity was on. Wonders upon wonders __
The aisle beyond the door was empty. To the left was the checkout counter. He stood on tiptoe peering over it. The cashier’s seat was empty much to his relief.
A long line of high shelves stretched to the opposite end of the store. Each shelf had a sign tacked to the top of it. He could see that meat and food lay at the back, almost at the opposite wall.
A long narrow walkway stretched between the stack of shelves, so there were shelves on either side of it. He sighed and walked forward raising his staff to light up the gloom hanging over the back.
His eyes drifted to the right and he saw a stack of large paper bags folded in several neat piles. He picked half a dozen and started to fill them up. Bread, jam, butter, bottles of juice, all manner of cereal and a host of other items went into the bags.
As he started for the meat section he heard a low scuffling sound come from his far right. He froze turning slowly.
Three infected persons stood at the far corner watching him with glowing red eyes. One particularly large individual clad in what he assumed was the supermarket attendant garb walked out from behind the shelf joining the three presently eying him like a piece of prime roast beef.
They started towards him slowly. Red and green mucus dribbled down their chins and the red colour of their eyes alternated between blue and red. His eyes narrowed. This was new. He raised his staff. The end of it released a blinding glow which lit up the back like beams from a halogen lamp.
They screeched and backed up slowly. His eyes drifted to the four paper bags he’d managed to fill. Wrapping his hand around the ends tightly he hoisted them over his shoulder and slowly backed away from them. They followed but at a distance, hanging just beyond the wide beam of light.
The door swung open at his approach. A flood of relief filled him. He was seconds away from escape, any moment now. As if the infected could hear his thoughts the big one screeched and raced towards him at breakneck speeds. The others strangely did not follow.
He raised the staff higher and mumbled the strange words that came to his lips. A strong pulse burst from the end hurtling towards the attacking infected who’d now leaped into the air. The pulse struck him in the midsection flinging him back into the store.
Baba Adora didn’t wait to see anymore. He took to his heels racing towards the bushes and the narrow path leading back to the house. He heard a loud crash and pained screams before he broke into the bushes and disappeared from view.