by M. D. Massey
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“You’re welcome.” She hip bumps me and takes off with the cart.
“I’ve always needed a sister to mess around with.” I feel the smile settle on my face as I hurry to catch up with her, thankful for the new person in my life that cares about me as well.
Two hours later, we’ve loaded up the goods and had lunch before heading over to store where I can get shoes and extras for the kids.
“This feels so surreal,” I tell Jessica as we leave the restaurant. “Nobody here seems to be in a hurry or concerned that an entire city just a few hours away is being quarantined.”
“You know how we Americans are. Unless there’s danger right in front of us, we tend to ignore other’s problems. I think people are more scared than you realize, we just hide it really well.” Jessica holds the door open for me to enter.
“Two carts this time?” I ask.
“We always manage to fill two, even if the world isn’t ending, so I’m sure that’ll be a good start.” She joins me with a mischievous grin.
“No more cart races. Do you realize that the only reason they didn’t kick us out of the other place is because we had that credit card to pay for all that stuff?”
“Lighten up, sis. Money talks.” She rubs the tips of her fingers together.
“Whatever. Let’s get this over with.” I sound perturbed, but barely hold back a grin of my own.
A few minutes later, we’re standing at the rack of shoes, discussing the need for durable, verse shoes that sparkle for the girls when a shot rings out.
I duck and turn to find Jessica doing the same thing.
“Should we leave?”
She just shrugs. “Let’s see if we can find out what’s going on. It could have been a kid doing something he wasn’t supposed to.
We stay low as we creep close enough to see the front of the store, where a guy is waving a gun around.
“I just want to be safe and have food for my family. Is that too much to ask?” He throws the question out to the crowd. You’re going to let me have all the money in your registers or you’ll get what this guy did.” I can see the body on the floor, and the red puddle of blood growing around him.
I start to motion Jessica back when the body on the floor starts to twitch. I watch in morbid fascination as the body sits up and takes a bite out the shooter’s leg.
“What the…” He trails off as he screams in pain. He points the gun at the man on the floor and shoots three times, only to have the thing get up and jump on top of him.
He loses his hold on the gun. A bystander catches it and starts shooting it widely, hoping to hit the original shooter or the thing on top of him.
Suddenly, people were screaming because the person holding the gun has no idea what he’s doing, injuring more people.
I reach into the large purse and grip the gun, easing it slowly out. I glance beside me and see that Jessica has done the same.
Unlike the current person holding the gun, I hold mine facing the floor, unsure if I will have a clean line of sight to the thing causing the screams.
Everyone that can still move has fled either out the front doors or into the office area overlooking the cash registers.
The injured are moaning loudly when a new scream sounds from behind us.
I continue to face forward as Jessica covers me from behind. We crouch behind a wall of jeans and below the clothing racks, out of sight.
One of the injured people have been dragged out of sight on the other side, but they’re too badly injured to survive. The innocent people gathered around him have no idea what will happen when he dies, so they’re terrified when their friend starts clawing at them.
“I can’t get a clear shot. I’m moving closer,” Jessica informs me as she moves stealthily through the clothes racks, providing her little coverage.
When I look back to the front to assess the situation, I realize that several of the injured people are on their feet, dripping blood as they approach the lone gunman.
I want to cover my eyes, but can only watch as my ears ring with the sound of human teeth tearing into flesh across the short distance.
The gun in my hand shakes, but I’m afraid that if I take a shot, I’ll have the zombie things’ attention on me because of the noise.
Everyone’s heads shoot up when several shots sound from the direction that Jessica had run in.
I’m not about to let my sister be the only one to help out, so I stand up and brace the gun with both hands as I line up the sight with the closest one’s head.
As the vibration moves up my arm, I have no time to worry about aim as the next one turns in my direction. I only have a few seconds to get the next shot off.
Instinct takes over and I fire until there’s no one left standing in front of me. I start to approach the cash registers, prepared to place a bullet in anything that moves, but I hear Jessica call my name.
When something touches my arm, I pull the gun up to fire, but it’s a customer that had been behind me. He’s holding up my purse that I’d dropped behind me.
Jessica screams my name, but my ears can’t hear anything from the rapid firing of my handgun.
I loudly tell the man, “Thank you.” His gaze lands on something over my shoulder and I turn to see a zombie thing almost on me when a hole appears in its head.
Jessica, with her gun braced, stands still, holding her breath, hoping that she hasn’t hit me.
As I glance around, only live humans seem to be standing around while I make my way to her.
“We should go,” I shout out.
She shakes her head and carefully lowers the gun. Since her hearing doesn’t seem to be any better than mine, she points at our bags, reminding me that I need a new clip put in my gun, just in case the trip to the truck takes the same turn that our shopping trip has.
The other customers start to crowd around, so I start walking toward the front door, hoping they’ll get the hint and go home to their families as well.
Once I hit the sunshine and fresh air, I take off running for the car. At my advanced age of thirty-eight, with boobs and fat bouncing, it’s a sight you won’t see often.
Jessica makes it to the driver’s door seconds after I grab the handle of the passenger door.
“Crap, you’ve got the keys,” I say, hoping that her hearing has returned a little bit. Either she hears me or was already in the process, I have no idea, but when the screams erupt behind us again, I know that some of my hearing has returned.
She pops the lock on my side and I climb in, closing the door as she starts the truck. There’s no one in the next space so we pull through and head for the end of the parking lot.
“Do you know how to get to the gun shop from here?” I ask, still loud, but I’m drowned out as the sirens from the flood of police cars and ambulances arrive.
Once we pass them on the divided road, she turns and speeds away from the scene.
“Jessica?” I wave a hand to catch her attention. “Pull over. You don’t know where you’re going.”
She ignores me and five minutes later, we’re sitting in front of a little building in a rundown shopping center that has bars over the windows.
The truck is placed in park, and Jessica bursts into tears.
I gather her into my arms and pat her head comfortingly.
“I..I…ssshott…sssommonne,” she stutters.
“We both did, and we’d be dead right now if we hadn’t. I hope the person upstairs can forgive us, but I plan to make it home to our children. Don’t you?”
Jessica mumbles something into my shoulder, then sobs harder.
“There, there. It’ll be all right.” I don’t know what else to tell her, and we really need to get inside and purchase our guns so we can go home before the roads here become flooded.
Jessica sits up. “You don’t understand. I liked it,” she whispers, ashamed to voice the thought out loud.
“Oh, is that all? I thought i
t was something serious. This is something we can talk about as therapy later once we’re home.”
“Trish, I pictured Billie’s face, and it didn’t really matter anymore. I just shot until they quit coming toward me and the other people huddled together.” Jessica fumbles around, looking for something to dry her face with.
“Here, use this.” I hold up a clean looking grease rag from under the seat.
She brushes her long brown hair back behind her ears and swipes at the tears dripping down her face.
I take one look at her and burst out laughing.
“What? I don’t have blood on me, do I?” Jessica furiously wipes at her face again, spreading the grease from the rag.
“You have a streak of grease across your face.” I point to the offending mark.
She looks in the mirror. “Hmph.” Her finger takes the streak and spreads it under both of her eyes, making her look like a sexy version of Rambo.
“Let’s go get some guns.” Jessica is out of the truck and halfway inside before I recover my wits.
As I catch up, I comment on her fast turnaround. “So, did you just go bipolar on me?”
“Nope. I just learned to let it all out quickly because if Billie caught me, then I’d have hell to pay. He hated crying women.”
Jessica appears normal again as we approach the tough looking man behind the counter, who’s eyeing us warily.
“She just killed someone for the first time and it took her by surprise,” I inform the man, certain that he won’t sell anything to two women if he doesn’t think we’re either tough or crazy.
“So what kind of stuff can I get for you today, ladies?” he asks politely, as if he doesn’t believe me.
“Well, for starters…” Jessica pulls out the empty clip and lays it on the counter. “We’re going to need all the ammo you have that fits this clip. Then we need everything on this list and we’ll pay extra for it too, off the books.”
I have no idea what she’s doing as she pulls on my purse and removes the black credit card before placing it on the counter.
“So you think the zombie things are real?” he asks suspiciously, holding up my credit card to the light, scanning it from all sides.
“Sir, you may not believe us, but turn on the news. There was a shooting at the local store just up the street and we took down…” Jessica pauses, trying to count the total in her head.
“A lot,” I supply. “Enough that we had to put new clips in our guns. Can you help us or not?” I ask, trying not to hurry him too much.
“Let me ring up the ammo and if your card works, then I’ll let you pull around to the back and we can load up anything you want, as long as your card holds up.” He begins to drool when he sees the list of items that Linc and Cooper had written down.
“Do you have everything on the list?” I question, worried that he’ll now try to cheat us.
“I don’t, but I have most of it. I’ll even give you a ten percent discount.” He types in things quickly on his screen. “Here, you can come look and make sure that everything is on your list and I’m not cheating you.”
I give Jessica a look that I hope conveys “cover me” as I round the corner so that I can see the screen.
He stands by respectfully as I scan the two lists. “Is that the total?” I laugh at the ridiculous amount of money listed, but each item on the list seems legit.
“Yes, ma’am. If she wants to drive around back, I’ll go ahead and get this rung up and we can start loading all your stuff into the truck.” He motions at Jessica while directing his words to me.
I think Jessica scares him. “Hey, sis. Do you think you can find the back of this shop?”
Before Jessica can answer, he says, “It has a blue painted door. It’s hard to tell so I made it easy. Can’t miss it.”
He swipes the card and we all wait to see if it will go through. When the receipt starts printing, I breathe a sigh of relief.
I pick up the pen lying on the counter and sign the piece of paper he hands me.
Jessica begins to walk to the door and he hurries to follow her.
“Whoa. What are you doing?” I ask as I come around the counter after him.
“I have to close the shop if we’re going to the back. Anyone could walk in and rob me while we load your stuff up.” His head bobs up and down as he tries to keep me happy.
“Just remember, mister, my sister also shot at least ten of those things today, so one more dead thing won’t really matter to her. Got me?” Jessica points her index finger at his chest in warning.
“No worries. If it’s as bad as you say, my shop will be one of the first ones that people come to buy stuff from. After you leave, it will be a cash only basis because I don’t want to take a chance on bounced stuff.” He shuffles his feet nervously.
Jessica nods in acknowledgement and heads for the truck as I watch him lock the front and pull the bars across and padlocks them.
“Do you normally close the garage door thingy at night?” I’d noticed that it would be an extra layer of protection against looters or those zombie things.
“I do, but I’ll reopen once you ladies are on your way. I won’t open the door unless I know the person. I have a special buzzer so that I can let people in one at a time so they can’t jump me and take whatever they want,” he explains as he opens the door leading to the back room filled with crates of guns and ammo.
He doesn’t try to mess with anything, but goes straight to the back door and removes the three boards across the back to keep it from being kicked in.
I watch as he peeked through the peephole. When he sees Jessica, he throws the door open.
“There’s a dolly over there. We can stack some of the ammo cases on that.” He motions to the corner as Jessica enters.
“Just tell us what to load and we’ll be set.”
“Well, ma’am, for the amount of money you just spent, it could take a few minutes to gather it all, but I’ll make sure that you don’t leave without all your stuff.” He starts looking on the list he pulled from his pocket and points to crates and boxes that we lower to the floor.
I still don’t completely trust him, so we load the dolly thing and Jessica takes it out to unload, while I follow him around, moving the boxes to the floor.
“There. That should be it.” He crosses the last item off the list, just as Jessica comes back for the last set.
“We don’t have room for much more back there,” she announces when she sees the last four boxes stacked up.
“It’s a good thing bullets are small. How many rounds of ammo did we get?” I inquire of the still mumbling man.
“Oh, um…I’m sorry. You have all the ammo I carry here for each of the guns you bought.” He appears in a hurry now that he’s done with the list.
“We’ll just wheel this out and bring it right back.” I’m getting an uneasy feeling that we might not have long before someone tries to take our purchases from us.
He stays back as I stand in the doorway, guarding Jessica from anything he might try.
As she wheels the dolly back up, he pulls a gun on us, but she’d also sensed trouble and armed herself with a knife.
“Both of you get in here and toss me the keys,” he commands.
I back up just enough for Jessica to have a clear shot.
She throws the keys and the knife so fast, I don’t even attempt to catch either one.
He doesn’t realize he’s been hit until he starts to bend over to pick up the keys.
“What did you do, you crazy bitch?” he yells as he slinks to the floor.
Jessica crosses into the room and steps on his hand holding the gun. Kicking it across the room, she placed her hands on her knife stuck just below his ribcage.
“I’m protecting my family.” She jerks up on the knife, knowing it will tear the wound open further as she pulls it free.
I can’t believe she was willing to hurt someone that wasn’t a zombie thing.
I grab the keys
as she cleans her knife on his shirt and walks past me without a backward glance.
The door closes as I kick the wooden block holding it open and hurry after her, afraid to be left in the same room with a man like that.
Jessica steps on the gas and we don’t speak for the next few minutes.
“So no tears this time?” I ask tentatively.
“Nope. Nobody is going to steal the stuff we just paid for or keep me from my kids.” Jessica’s defensive tone begs me to argue with her.
“Technically, he wasn’t dead yet.”
“Can you imagine the surprise on the next person’s face when they go to get guns so they can fight the zombies and find one protecting the guns?” Her laughter dies out as it sinks in. “I left him to die, didn’t I?”
“Shh. You did the right thing. You protected our families and we’ll be able to see them in just a little while.” I pat her arm, hoping we won’t have to pull over again.
“Do I have blood anywhere?” Jessica sniffles, trying to hold it together.
“Nope. You left it all back at the gun shop. Just remember your kids whenever you have the question of if you did the right thing.”
“You wouldn’t have done that to him, would you?” She eyes me, weighing my reassurances against what she knows of my personality.
“Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done. I was contemplating trying to shoot him, but knew he would hit one of us first. So, it was either an us or him situation. You just got to play hero before I did, that’s all.”
Jessica waves off my praise and I let her by changing the subject.
“Can your children shoot a gun?”
“Drew and Roxanne have both been shooting BB guns since they were about eight, so not much training is needed for them.” Jessica smiles at the thought of her children.
“Carson and Joy can both shoot, but Nicole can’t yet. Trevor, well, that boy will have to wait a few years, even with all the zombies running around.” I try not to think about my children growing up on me.
“Hey, no sadness.” Jessica tried to cheer me up. “We’re both alive and our kids might grow up and leave one day, but that is a long time in the future.”
