Erica shook her head. "No, that's okay. Your feet smell worse than the dead things."
"Thanks," Theo replied tersely.
Erica got a glimpse of Michigan Avenue for the first time as she and Theo snuck across the side street to get into the next alley. "Silvia was right," She whispered to Theo.
"How so?"
"She said it was bad out here, worse than I imagined. She couldn't have been any more correct."
"Yeah well, we can discuss that later. Right now we've got a job to do. I need your head in the game, Erica."
"Whoa, I'm not used to you NOT being a smartass."
"I'm saving it for when we get back home."
"Oh joy."
"We're here, keep an eye out for the rotters while I try to get this door open."
"You got it."
Theo went to work with the crowbar, trying to pry open the back door. Erica kept a watchful eye on the alleyway as well as the houses at the far end of the parking lot that was behind the store. She kept her pistol drawn, but there were only five rounds left. She was starting to grow anxious with every second that passed and the door wasn't opened. Erica could hear some of the undead that were wandering around nearby on the avenue. All the rotters had to do was stumble down the side street and into the alley and her and Theo would be screwed.
"Theo, can you hurry it up?" She asked him.
"This isn't as easy as it looks ya know. Give me some time," Theo answered.
"We're sitting ducks out here."
"Almost there....that's it!" The backdoor knob clattered down to the ground and Theo swung the door open. He and Erica stepped into the store.
"Theo, where are we?" Erica whispered as quietly as she could. The room that the two of them were standing in was almost pitch black, save for the small strip of light underneath a door.
"We're in Mel's back office," Theo replied.
It was the first time Theo was back inside of Mel's dollar store. He immediately began to think about when everything started with the undead. The vision of Mel being attacked by sedan woman made Theo stop and catch his breath.
"Are you alright Theo?" Erica asked. "You look like you're having a panic attack or something."
Theo took a deep breath and then nodded to Erica. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little overwhelming is all. Being back here."
Erica understood what Theo meant. She let Theo be for a second and got down to the floor and tried to peek underneath the door, but it didn't do her any good, she couldn't see inside the store at all. "I can't tell if there are any rotters inside."
The two of them stood there and listened for the telltale sounds that the dead things made, but it was all quiet. Theo grabbed the doorknob and turned it, slowly opening the door that leads out into the main store area. Theo walked inside, with Erica right behind him.
The glass inside of the two entrance doors had been taped over with newspapers and garbage bags to keep the dead from seeing inside. The handles had been chained and padlocked shut, and the security gate had been pulled across the doors and locked as well. Someone had been holed up inside.
Theo stopped in his tracks. "Hello? Is anyone here?" The only answer that he got was from one of the corpses outside letting out a low dull groan. Almost like the rotter heard Theo.
"We're not looking for any trouble or anything. We're just passing through," Erica said. "Is there anyone in here?"
The two of them stood near the entrance of the store and listened for any response, but they didn't get any. Due to the covered front doors, there was hardly any light inside of the store, making it difficult for Theo and Erica to see.
"Where the hell was that damn candle aisle?" Theo muttered to himself.
"You think that's a good idea? Dead things might see the flame," Erica said.
"Good point."
Theo moved over towards the cash register. Not only had his pack of cigarettes and his five dollars had been taken from the counter, but all of the tobacco products on the wall behind the cash register were gone. Also, the cash register as well.
Theo just shook his head at the sight. "I don't care that they took my five bucks, but they took my damn cigarettes."
Erica smacked Theo's arm, "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Lots."
"I see the register's been taken too."
"Yeah. A lot of good money's gonna do nowadays."
"Well I'd give you a couple hundred bucks just to keep your mouth shut...just sayin."
"Oh Erica, you're such a sweetheart. Let's check upstairs."
Near the entrance of the store was a winding metal staircase that led to the upper floor. Theo and Erica could get to the roof access door from there. When they reached the top step, they saw what resembled a small campground in the middle of the large empty space.
"No way," Erica said.
There was a small blue tent with a sleeping bag and lantern resting beside it. Various clothing items were spread out on the ground and a large open backpack sat sticking out of the tent's opening.
"Hey!" Theo shouted. "Anyone home?"
Yet again, there was no answer at all.
"Maybe they took off?" Erica asked.
"How? Front and back doors were locked from the inside. They have to be out on the roof. There's the access door, let's check out up top."
Erica wasn't looking forward to going out onto another roof. "Wonderful, more heights."
The door leading up to the roof was unlocked. Theo opened it and he and Erica cautiously walked up the narrow stairway up to the roof. As soon as they were up there, the smell hit them right away. The pungent odor of death. Laying face up, staring at the sky, was a dead body.
A man with curly brown hair and black-rimmed eyeglasses was laid out back first on the rooftop. In his right hand was a pistol, and a small pool of dried blood had formed underneath his head.
"Poor guy couldn't take it anymore," Erica said to Theo.
"Or he was about to turn into one of the dead things," Theo replied.
"What do you mean?"
"Look," Theo answered, pointing to the man's left arm.
From the man's wrist to halfway up his forearm was a heavy layer of bloody bandages. Using his crowbar, Theo moved the bandages aside to reveal three large festering bite marks on the man's arm.
"I don't think he wanted to wind up like 'that.'" Theo told Erica.
"Looks like he used his last bullet too."
Erica turned and went back inside momentarily. She returned with the man's sleeping bag and draped it over his body. Theo used several stones to keep the sleeping bag in place. Theo and Erica returned back inside the store.
Theo noticed that Erica was looking up and down the aisles, looked like she was searching for something. "What is it?" He asked Erica.
"I think I might have an idea," Erica answered.
"Which is?"
"Are there any shopping carts around here?"
"For what?"
"So we can load up on supplies. We might as well, I mean we're here. That way, we can get all kinds of stuff, and Silvie and Macey won't even have to bother coming out with us tomorrow."
Theo scoffed, "What? Are we just gonna wheel right past the rotters out there?"
"Yeah? Why not?"
"Oh man, I don't know about that Erica. We were just gonna grab a few things. Wheeling carts past the dead pricks? That's risky as all hell. This was just supposed to be a dry run after all. I say we just fill up this duffel and a couple of shopping bags. Then we come back at a later time, you know when Macey's healed up."
Erica didn't respond to Theo, she just turned and continued walking down the aisles. Theo assumed that she was filling up a bag or two with goodies, but then Erica returned to the counter with a small green shopping cart loaded with numerous food items.
"Erica, I don't think this will work," Theo told her.
"Don't be so negative," Erica replied. "Just cover me as I wheel right on past. We'll be fine. Shit, why don't you grab a
cart? Let's have some fun for a change."
Theo sighed. "Only if you push me down the street in one after we unload."
"More like pushing you down a flight of stairs," Erica said under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Erica replied, smirking the whole time. "Come on Theo, what have we got to lose?"
"Oh, I dunno. A few limbs, throat meat, entrails. You know stuff like that. Possibly luring a few hundred undead cannibals right to us. That really ruins my day when that happens."
"Were you born a smart ass? Or did you work on it?"
"I was all pro my senior year."
Erica groaned. "Think about it for a second, please. We fill up these carts with as much stuff as we can. We wheel them back over to our place and unload. We'll have enough food and supplies for all four of us. Enough for a while. We will all get a chance to sit back and take a breather."
Erica did have a point. They were all fatigued. Not just physically, but mentally. Having enough supplies to last for weeks on end could help put their minds at ease.
"Screw it, let's go for it," Theo said after thinking about Erica's idea. He walked down the aisle and grabbed a cart and started to load up on food.
"We're gonna have to be very careful wheeling out of here," Erica said. "These things are kind of noisy."
"Hey, this is your idea, Erica."
Theo and Erica began to wheel their loaded shopping carts towards the back of the store. Then Theo stopped moving. He was just standing there near the front doors.
"What is it, Theo?" Erica asked him. "Are you alright?"
Theo had his head tilted to the left, with his right ear pointed skyward; he was listening for something.
"Theo?"
"Shh. Quiet," Theo whispered back.
"This crap again? You're always hearing things."
Erica couldn't hear anything. Just the odd corpse groan or snarl off in the distance, but that was about it.
"Come on Theo, what the hell are you listening for? Tell me."
"You don't hear that?"
"Hear what?" Erica was beginning to grow irritated with her friend. "What do you hear?"
"Come with me back to the roof really quick."
"You cannot be serious."
"C'mon."
Theo took Erica's hand and the two of them went back out onto the roof of the store.
"Theo, I think you're hearing things," Erica tried telling Theo, but he would have none of it. He heard something off in the distance, Theo was sure of it.
Theo walked over to the edge of the roof while holding onto Erica's right hand the entire time. Her grip on Theo's hand was so tight, that her fingernails left deep impressions on Theo's backhand.
Once the two of them made it to the edge of the roof, they both looked down the avenue to the left. There was nothing of note. Erica figured that Theo was in fact just hearing things. But Erica was beginning to hear something too.
It sounded like a dull, distant roar, but it was getting louder. When she and Theo looked to their right down the road, that's when the two of them saw it.
"Holy shit," Erica whispered.
It was a mass of rotters, numbering in the thousands. The undead were crammed in the street filling the entire road and both sets of the sidewalk. Neither Theo nor Erica had ever seen that many corpses and the dead were heading in the direction of the store.
"Let's get those carts and get the hell out of here," Erica said to Theo.
"We won't make it. Those dead things are gonna be on us in no time," Theo answered.
"Yeah you're right, screw the carts, let's just go. We'll come back for the stuff later."
Theo pointed at the undead swarm, "Look, they're almost here. Another two blocks and they'll be right on us. We're gonna have to wait it out."
"Are you fucking crazy?!?!"
"Relax. Go on, get back inside and lay low. If they get in the store, head on out through the back and take the alleys back home."
"And just where in the hell are you going to be?" Erica's tone reminded Theo of a mother that was scolding her child.
"I wanna see what these dead things are going to do."
"Oh great, now you wanna experiment."
"Just get downstairs and stay out of sight. Don't worry, I'll be okay."
Erica turned and ran back downstairs. She crouched down in the aisle near the back door, it gave her a good view of the entrance of the shop. Erica could hear the snarls of the dead things as they were getting closer. It wasn't long before she could hear the shuffling and scraping of the bottoms of their feet as the undead mass stumbled down the road.
Theo dropped down onto his stomach and watched as the swarm grew closer. Not only could Theo hear the undead, but he could smell them. The afternoon air was filled with the pungent aroma of rotten flesh.
"Maybe I should've gone inside."
The swarm was now a block away from the store. Theo was right, he and Erica wouldn't have made it very far with the carts. Yeah, they could have just left everything behind and returned later, but Theo figured that they'd be better off waiting for all of the dead things to pass.
The corpses sauntered down Michigan Avenue, meandering past the store. The noises they made drowned out any other sounds that could be heard. Soon it was just the horrid growls and grunts of the rotters. Theo slowly crawled away from the edge of the shop once he realized that it would take only one corpse to spot him up there and he and Erica would have big problems.
Back inside, Erica winced every time a dead thing would brush up against the front doors. The glass was in rough shape to begin with, and each time a rotter would bump up against the doors, the glass would creak and crack just a little bit more. If the glass broke, the undead would converge on that store in no time flat. Erica could see the silhouettes of the rotters as they were stumbling past. Feeling overwhelmed, she closed her eyes tightly, and lowered her head into the crook of her elbows, trying to drown everything out.
After what seemed like hours, but was probably just a few minutes, the lumbering mass of rotten skin and bone shambled on down the avenue. Neither Theo nor Erica could hear the corpse's snarls anymore. Theo stood up on the roof and snuck towards the edge once more to see where the swarm was headed.
The horde was continuing on down the street, however, there were more than enough corpses that broke away from the swarm and just lingered in the area. At least double than what were stumbling around the road when Theo and Erica first arrived at the store.
"Shit," Theo mumbled. He turned and ran down the stairs to go check on Erica.
She was still laying face down in the aisleway, covering her head in her arms. Theo tapped her on the back, startling her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's just me Erica," Theo said, trying to calm her down.
Erica got up and hugged Theo, wrapping her arms around his neck. Theo noticed she was wiping tears from her face.
"Oh boy, there I go making another chick cry again," Theo joked. He was trying to ease the tension. "And you don't even dig guys."
Erica managed to giggle. She didn't want to, but she did. "Shut up. I was just scared is all. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"What the hell was that about?"
Theo shook his head and shrugged both shoulders. "No clue. I thought we were done trying to figure these things out?"
"I've never seen that many rotters. How many do you think that was?"
"Over a thousand at least."
Erica grabbed a cart and began to move towards the back of the building, preparing to leave. Theo went over to the front of the store and reached through the security gate, moving a section of taped up newspaper aside. He needed a street-level view of things.
"Theo let's get out of here," Erica said. "Quick, before the rotters see you looking out the damn door."
"It looks like we're going to be here a while Erica," Theo said solemnly. "We've got problems."
Chapter 13
Back at the house, Silvia
and Macey were beginning to grow concerned about their two friends. Every few seconds, Macey would move the living room curtains aside and peek out of the window.
"Macey, that's not going to help," Silvia said.
"I know. A force of habit, Silvie. I used to do this all the time when I was waiting for my parents to come home," Macey answered. "I'm just getting anxious."
Silvia knew all too well the feeling of having to wait for her buddies to return with some supplies. "Let's just sit in the kitchen for the time being. There's nothing we can do anyhow besides wait."
"You're right."
"Don't worry, if Theo screws up, Erica's there to keep him in check."
Macey chuckled, "Yeah I guess." Macey sat down across from Silvia. "They'll be back."
The days of just taking a stroll down the road to the neighborhood store were long gone.
"Macey, do you hear that?" Silvia asked.
Macey shook her head. "No. Hear what?"
"It sounds like the rotters."
"They're all around us. What else is new?"
"No, like a lot of the rotters. More than usual," Silvia answered.
"Now that you mention it, yeah, that does sound like a lot of them."
They both wanted to run outside and take a look, but that was too risky.
"We need to see what's going on out there," Silvia told Macey.
Macey looked out into the backyard and saw that it was empty. And nothing was walking around in the alleyway behind the house either.
"What is going on?" Silvia said. "Something's not right out there."
"If I remember correctly, Theo liked to head out onto the roof to get a better look at things. Think we should try?"
"Might as well. You stay here though," Silvia told Macey.
"Why? I want to go and see."
"In your condition? No, just wait right here. I'll be right back, okay?"
Macey nodded to Silvia. She wasn't happy about having to stay downstairs, but Macey saw Silvia's point. Macey adjusted the bandage on her arm and sat there at the kitchen table and waited for Silvie to return.
In the upper flat, Silvia looked around, trying to find the right windows to try and head outside. Just like Erica, Silvia wasn't the biggest fan of heights either. Silvie walked to the room that Theo used to get outside.
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