by RWK Clark
But we had the answer; we knew how to survive as best we could until answers could be found.
“We have to get out of here. What set these three off?” Jace’s breathing was improving, but he was covered in sweat, and his pupils were dilated like crazy.
I had no response to his question. “It was quiet. She was busy, they were busy. It was sudden. I have no idea…”
“Let’s get the bags and books, head to the store, and then make our way to my place. We can plan our next move from there.” I was in agreement. I didn’t want to stay in this place a moment longer. The smell which had taken over hear was repulsive. Rotting flesh…
Once we had ourselves organized Jace took me by the hand and led me out the front door. The daylight was near blinding, causing my eyes to squint in defense. I stumbled alongside him, and once they were adjusted I could see that the campus was literally teeming with zombies. There had to be hundreds of them! This was not the bad news, however. The bad news was the fact that every other one seemed to be fighting with, or eating, another.
My stomach continued to do its sick dance. “Act normal. Walk with your head up, Alicia. Just try to block it out; don’t look.” He steered me around, acting as though nothing around us was really happening. It seemed they took no notice of us, believe it or not. I just wanted to be off campus.
But the scene on the city streets was no better. Everywhere they fought and feasted. Even the aisles of the grocery we entered were overwhelmed with the hungry beasts. Maggots and flesh were scattered to and fro. We managed to grab four gallons of distilled water and made our way to a checkout aisle manned by a boy of about eighteen. Half of his face was gone, and I couldn’t help but think I would have called into work if I were him.
He grunted a sick ‘welcome’ to us and rang up the water, all the while staring right past us into nothingness. I was waiting for Jace to pay, toting my backpack on my back and a gallon of water in each hand. Jace was counting out the change that was needed, and he miscounted. The boy, whose name tag read ‘Roy’, was becoming irritated fast. I began to sweat. After what seemed like hours of nerve racking counting and recounting, Jace threw the handful of change at the growling gray-face, grabbed the other two gallons, and we ran out the automatic doors without looking back. Ducking into an alley, we leaned against the building to catch our breath, both looking back in the direction we came from. Once we felt safe, we mutually decided to take the alleys to his place to avoid any further confrontations.
CHAPTER 8
The alley was long, stretching for blocks ahead. I was not originally from Los Angeles, and while I had familiarized myself with the area pretty well, I did not know the shortcuts and alleyways at all. This was new, and I had no idea where we were going. We walked in silence for about four blocks before turning onto a regular street. It stopped in a dead end, and we went to the last house on the right. There was a wooden staircase leading up the side of it. As it turned out, this was Jace’s apartment.
He let me in without saying a word. I entered, and was surprised at how neat and tidy he kept his surroundings. “Do you have a housekeeper?” I was joking, but somewhere inside I knew I was serious. I had never met a male of the species who was so meticulous when it came to keeping house. There wasn’t even a dirty dish in the sink!
The entry was in the kitchen. I walked about six steps and walked through a doorway which led to the living room. It was decorated in a masculine fashion: The entertainment center was created neatly out of bricks and boards; very creative and attractive! A footstool sitting before an overstuffed brown rocker was made of painted sewer pipe and lined with a faux brown fur stuffed pillow. A sofa was along the wall on the right. Wall hangings were strategically placed beneath a shelf which ran the perimeter of the room and into the next, which was a den with a computer and more seating. The shelf was lined with a beer can collection which would boggle the mind of any serious enthusiast.
“Wow, Jace. This is really nice!” I was impressed, and I wasn’t about to hide it.
“Have a seat. I’m going to put the water in a safe place, unless you want a drink first, and to get cleaned up a bit, of course.” He looked at me, trying to read my mind.
“That would be great.” He handed a gallon to me and pointed to a door off the living room. It was a quaint little bathroom that was modestly decorated. I thanked him and entered, shutting the door behind me.
I found a washcloth and towel in the bathroom cabinet, and using a bar of soap and as little of the distilled water as possible I freshened up. I found myself wishing I had brought deodorant and fresh clothes, but no sooner did the thought enter my mind than Jace knocked lightly on the door and told me there were sweats, a t-shirt, and a deodorant outside the door. I thanked him and wrapped a towel around myself so I could appropriately fetch the items. Within ten minutes I felt a thousand times better. I emerged from the bathroom, announcing “All clear.”
“I’m good for now. It’s your turn, I stated as Jace headed for the bathroom. I figured we could research the water treatment facility and how to get the water cleaned up.” The look on his face was grim, and I knew it was time to get serious.
∞
I sat down and booted my laptop up; soon he returned and we talked all the while. There was no way to filter the tap water on such a large scale with no resources; the plan was to dump it and start from scratch, but we would need to do this with some type of filtration system for the new water. The first thing we did was research water filtration systems. If we could locate a system which had the capacity to filter enough water just for the two of us to get by for a couple of days at a time we would be set. We had to keep in mind that, while the zombies were managing to continue their day to day patterns like going to work, it would not be wise to make an in-store visit to get a water filter system. They had become far too violent and unpredictable to take any risk like that.
With a bit of research we found a unit we considered ideal for our needs. The ‘Indestructastill 1000’ had the ability to hold twelve gallons of water while producing ten distilled gallons per day for use. It was compact and lightweight, making it the perfect option considering that we had no idea what we were facing from one day to the next. For all we knew we would have to leave L.A. at any time for our own safety. The only issue with the distillery unit was that it was $1600. We were college students; need I say more?
I put my laptop on the coffee table and turned to Jace. “So, we better formulate a plan to get our hands on one of these babies.”
Jace nodded. He was thinking hard and trying to acknowledge me at the same time. I remained still, trying to come up with my own brilliant idea. Neither of us was a shoplifter; heck, I was scared to borrow my mom’s earrings without asking!, and Jace just didn’t exude a hardened criminal persona. The fact was, stealing it was the only way we were going to get it, and we were both acutely aware of this fact.
“We’re gonna have to steal one.” He had read my mind. I nodded solemnly at him.
“That’s what I figured…” My stomach felt sick.
“We can look at it a couple of different ways,” he continued. “Did you ever steal candy or a toy from the store when you were a kid?”
“Me?” I felt my eyes go huge and Jace chuckled at me. “Well, you’re one of the few who haven’t. There’s a comparison that won’t work. Okay, here is the fact: They’re zombies. How aware of what we are doing are they really going to be?”
I took a breath to regain my patience. “Jace, they are aware enough to get pissed and start eating each other when they are irritated. I think that’s enough for me.”
He sat back on the sofa with what appeared to be exhaustion. “We have to think about this for a while.”
∞
We were silent for the next few minutes. I was supposed to be thinking about our strategy for obtaining our distillery, but the way he smelled was a major distraction. Not like cologne or deodorant, but heavenly none the less, like pheromones and sp
ice. I closed my eyes and inhaled his scent more deeply. When I realized that I was subconsciously leaning toward him my eyes snapped open and I jumped up from a sitting position to my feet. How embarrassing!
“Well, we might as well get over it, because we have no choice but to steal it!” Did those words come out of my mouth? I was sure they had, they did. They were the truth, though, whether either of us liked it or not.
Jace nodded yet again. “I know.” His voice was low and sober. “We need weapons. We know we have to basically knock their fucking heads off, so as long as we have something to club them with and a lot of guts we should be fine. Listen, you are going to have to do the actual stealing; I don’t want to be the only one doing the defending, but there are only two of us. I’ll wield a bat, you make like a bandit.”
I didn’t respond because I knew this made sense, and the very thought of fighting the gray-faces alone was almost too much to handle right then. A thief I would be. I just hoped I could find it in me to be as slick and fast as I needed to be.
Now that we seemed to have a solid plan I sat back down next to him and grabbed my laptop. “What’s next on the research agenda?”
Next, we researched the treatment facility and learned about the holding tanks, the layout of the facility, and how to dump the water. We printed all the information off via Bluetooth on his printer. We then investigated filtration. With a city the size of L.A. we would need extensive equipment, and it just didn’t seem immediately feasible. He would continue to research a viable solution, but in the meantime we would continue to use distilled water, walk around with baseball bats for protection (which he thankfully had), and focus on dumping the existing water supply from the cities towers so it could not be accessed. This would hopefully not only stop the spread of the bacteria. If my theory was correct, lack of water would have the zombies dropping off like so many flies.
Super ZeroMart was a big box store that had everything money could buy, and while it did not specialize in water distillers, they had them in stock, according to their site. I was really relieved that we did not have to visit a small shop; it would have been a nightmare trying to get the distillery. For one thing it would have been kept in the back, behind the counter this meant killing zombies right away. Second, we would have no idea how many more zombies would be in the back of a place like that. Super Zero was a gift given directly from God. If you had to shoplift from zombies you need at least thirty aisles to run around in if you want to confuse them and throw them off.
So, we bucked up and decided to head out while there was still a bit of sun in the sky. Once it was dark getting away would be easy; then we could come back, eat, rest, and eventually head for the water treatment facility with our new water distiller to execute the next step of “Mission: Eradication”.
We made a plan to leave at three in the morning for the water treatment plant. We had a map and a strategy; I personally thought it was well planned. We would enter through an employee entrance which was kept open. We would take a specific route of corridors to the main control room, at which point we would kill any present gray-faces, barricade ourselves in, and proceed to figure out how to dump the volatile water. It was now noon, and we decided when we return to eat and watch a movie to pass the time until we slept. Until then, we armed up with our bats and, emptied our backpacks we headed out the door and to the Super ZeroMart located eight blocks from Jace’s apartment.
CHAPTER 9
The parking lot at the Super Zero was virtually empty of cars, only one or two parked on the very outskirts of the lot being the exception. There was one zombie with scraggly red hair lurching around; it looked like he was attempting to gather shopping carts, of which there were six. He simply couldn’t wrap what little there was of his brain around the task, and they remained a mess. When he tried to push one into another he succeeded in doing nothing more than pushing the one in front ten more feet away. It was laughable, but hearing the gurgling growls which emitted from his stinking cavity of a mouth was enough to make me hold my laughter in.
We made it in, and there was only one check-out lane out of twenty open. A zombie stood at the register following a buzzing fly with their eyes, more entertained that anything. Another was trying to fold messy t-shirts in the women’s clothing section. She picked up already folded shirts one at a time, twisted them awkwardly around her hands, and put them in a pile of wadded up shirts beside her. Wow.
We made our way to hardware and plumbing supplies, and found exactly what we were looking for within minutes. The Indestructastill 1000. I may be a woman, but I must admit that the picture of the distillery on the box, all gleaming stainless steel, was enough to turn me on right then. I could almost smell the water!
There was absolutely no gray-faces to be seen. Jace had his bat on his shoulder, ready, but I didn’t think he was even going to need it. I was scoping out our surroundings: We were in the back of the store, but I saw no emergency exits of any kind, not even the ones with alarms. I walked about ten feet away to fetch a random shopping cart from the intersection in the aisles and saw the store’s third zombie, shuffling through a box of pipe fittings.
“Help?” He croaked out the question.
I shook my head, smiled politely, and answered, “No thank you.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jace’s head snap to attention. I took the cart and, as calmly as I could, headed back to Jace. I could feel the monster’s dead eyes on me until I disappeared from sight.
Jace picked up the box and put it in the cart. We began to walk to the front of the store. “You are going to keep it in the cart. Run with the cart. It will make it so much easier for you, okay?”
I nodded at him, and right then I heard a shuffle behind us. I turned to see the zombie from the pipe aisle loping behind us, headed right in our direction. I lowered my voice, “He’s on us. Let’s pretend we need some other items.” I no more said it than I turned down the baby section. I was surrounded by diapers, wipes, and Desitin. Jace wisely followed.
We kept our eyes peeled toward the aisle’s end without looking directly at it, and when Gray-face appeared I grabbed a four-pack of baby bottles off the shelf, “Honey, this should be perfect for the little one while we travel. It has plastic bags which go inside so it’s sterile. Don’t have to worry about washing them so much!”
“Just what we need! You have such a good eye for these things, dear.” The zombie paused just long enough to observe our little exchange before shuffling off. We remained where we were until the sound of his grotesque, uneven footsteps faded into the distance, then we headed out of the side aisle, taking a sharp right and heading back to the exits at the front of the store. Picking up what other necessities we could use, slipping them in to each other’s backpacks. When I saw the check-out aisles come into view my heart began to pound pretty good. I could almost swear it was audible, and I looked over at Jace to see if he could hear it, but he gave no sign he could. I tried to breathe.
We made our way to the main doors, Jace holding the bat in a ‘ready-to-strike’ manner. He had his back to me, looking the store over carefully. I just got to the doors when I heard the unmistakable shriek of a gray-face, and they sounded pissed.
“St-ohhhh-p!” I took off running full-force, not even turning around to see what kind of trouble Jace had come to meet. Even though I knew no one was behind me I could swear I felt them, that the cart zombie from the parking lot was onto me. I turned my head to glance to my rear: no one. Jace was about twenty feet behind me and gaining fast. Fifty feet or so behind him was the zombie who had followed us to the baby goods aisle; he was losing more ground than anything. I focused on getting to the alley where we had determined we would meet up if we were separated, even though he was right behind me. Might as well stick with the plan, since we had come up with no alternative.
I ran about halfway down the alley and, leaving the cart with the water distiller right in Jace’s way, I ducked down behind a big red commercial dumpster. Jace snagged the cart on
his way by and pushed it out of site, behind the dumpster with me. He plopped to the ground beside me and for the next few minutes we focused on getting our breath and listening for zombies. Other than the sound of frighteningly light traffic and a few birds all was still. Why aren’t the animals turning dead too? This thought fluttered carefree-like through my head, as though it were taking a simple stroll. I felt detached from reality more than I ever had in my life.
After about ten minutes, when we felt secure enough to move without confronting a gray-face, Jace stood and snatched the distillery from the cart, darted back, and sat again. “I can’t believe it went so smoothly. I couldn’t have hoped for better.”
I don’t know why, but this statement infuriated me. Smoothly? Really? “What the hell are you talking about, Jace? My heart is still pounding. I’m scared to death! Don’t you understand that he was following…” Jace’s mouth suddenly covered mine with such passion and aggression that I immediately turned to butter. Wow, he tasted good. He smelled even better, and could he kiss! I was no longer in an alleyway in Los Angeles. I was floating on a chocolate raft atop marshmallows on a sea of hot cocoa. I was sliding down a rainbow made of Jolly Rancher candy. I was…
He slowly pulled away. I could tell he didn’t want to, and I certainly didn’t want to either. What, and face all this horrifying reality? I could honestly live without it, but I knew it was time. It took us a couple more minutes to pull our eyes apart. He was smiling slightly; I was grinning like a fool. It was magnificent!
“Hi,” was all he managed, and I couldn’t manage a response at all. “We have a new water filter system built for two. Whew! I guess if ever there was a way to bond with someone we’ve found it. Not bad, Alicia.”
