by Tony Urban
Prince, his name’s Prince. He had to keep reminding himself.
He wasn’t certain but he believed Spam was already precooked so once it had sufficient grill marks to give it character he slid if off the grates and onto a serving tray which he then carried into the church.
Grady was in his usual spot at the pulpit. Juli sat in the front row. Mitch and Prince were nowhere to be seen.
Aben wished he had a bell to ring signifying dinner was ready but he didn’t so he had to settle for clearing his throat. That didn’t make it over Grady’s blathering. He was ready to speak up, but something Grady said caught his attention.
“Last night, as I prayed, God told me how the plague started. How all of this misery began.”
He’s got a direct line to God now? This is new. Aben leaned against the back wall and listened.
“It was not He who punished mankind. He played no part in the death and destruction we all have witnessed.”
‘We all?’ Aben glanced around the room to verify that it was only the three of them. It was.
“One of the Devil’s disciples started the plague. Together, Satan and this man did their best to destroy God’s greatest creations - Earth and its inhabitants, both man and animal. God played no hand in their evil plot, but he did ensure that some of us were spared. That some of us remained behind to restore humanity and spread God’s love.”
“And lest we begin to fear that the dead who now walk the Earth are our enemies, God has assured me that is not the case. Those men and women are but victims - pawns in the plot to undermine our Lord and Savior. The dead are not to be feared, they are to be loved. They are not to be slaughtered, they are to be saved.”
Aben had heard enough. He liked Grady much better when he was catatonic. “I hate to interrupt, but I made dinner.”
Juli looked back at him and gave a slight wave. She stood up and moved to the rear of the church, but then returned her focus to Grady who had not moved. “Come now, Grady. You have to eat.”
Grady held on to his bible like a man cast adrift in the ocean clinging to a life preserver. “I shall not. I need to keep my mind clear so that I can hear God’s voice.”
She gave Aben a pained, confused - I don’t know what to do - look.
“Let him go. He’ll eat when he gets hungry enough.”
Juli took another look at Grady who’d turned his attention to his bible. His lips moved soundlessly as he read. Julie followed Aben out of the sanctuary.
The smell of the Spam brought Prince running and Mitch wasn’t far behind. Aben had spread out a few plastic plates on a picnic table and Juli opened an extra-large can of mixed fruit and the three humans and one dog ate together. The food was nearly all when they heard a vehicle in the distance.
Mitch jumped to his feet and started toward the road.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Aben said. “You don’t know who’s coming.”
“Someone alive, that’s who. And we haven’t seen anyone since leaving the Greenbrier so I’d say that makes whoever it is pretty fucking interesting.”
Mitch was off. Prince looked at Aben as if asking permission to join him.
“Stay,” Aben said denying him. The dog hung its head and pouted.
Juli watched the teen dash toward the road. “It sounds big,” she said.
Aben nodded. The engine rumbled along indiscreetly. It was diesel, that was certain. Probably a tractor trailer. It made him remember Jay or Ray, the trucker who’d been his final ride before the apocalypse. Wouldn’t it be a crazy coincidence if Jay or Ray was behind the wheel of whatever was rolling toward them? Now that would be a miracle Aben could get behind.
But it wasn’t Jay or Ray. It wasn’t even a tractor trailer. The vehicle that approached the church was a blaze orange dump truck that looked like something out of a Mad Max movie. Only this was real life and Aben had to admit that he was damned impressed. Steel spikes jutted from the front end and the exposed sides were cloaked with razor wire. This was a vehicle made to kill zombies. Or anything that got in its path.
Mitch stood at the edge of the road jumping up and down and waving like a—
“Goddamn fool,” Aben muttered. “You stay back,” he said to Juli. “You too,” he added to Prince who gave a little whine as Aben stomped away.
The brakes of the dump truck screamed as it rolled to a stop five yards past the church. Mitch ran up to it, well ahead of Aben who found himself more worried about the teen than he’d expected himself to be.
“Mitch, hold back.”
But the driver’s side door of the dump truck was opening.
“Wotcha!” A voice called out. It was gravely and hoarse. The man to whom it belonged followed a moment later. He dropped down from the cab and Aben was surprised he wasn’t as large as his voice. He was five and a half feet tall at the most but wide. Aben could tell he had the type of muscles that weren’t built in the gym but the kind earned in real life. He was an ugly son of a bitch too and a quarter-sized black spot in the center of his forehead didn’t help matters. When he smiled at them, his mouth was filled with brown and black teeth that looked broken, or perhaps rotted.
Mitch ran up to him like a kid meeting Santa Claus. “I haven’t seen anyone else in weeks. Thought maybe the whole rest of the fucking country was dead.” He thrust his hand out. “I’m Mitch.”
The man took Mitch’s hand in his own. Aben thought it looked exceptionally large for his height.
“Solomon Baldwin. And I’m very much alive. So’s me friend here.” He banged on the side of the truck. “Come on out. They don’t seem like the types to rape and kill us to me.”
The passenger door opened and an even shorter Asian woman emerged. The drop down from the cab was a big one and she hit the ground with an ‘oof.’
“You okay?” Aben asked her.
She nodded. “First step’s a doozie. I’m Yukie.”
“Aben.”
Mitch headed her way. “And I’m— “
“Mitch. I heard.”
Saw looked from the men to the church. He spotted Juli in the distance. And the dog. “Looks like we interrupted a family gatherin’. Sorry if we’re intruding.”
Aben wasn’t sure what to think of these new arrivals but, considering how other people were in such short supply, it seemed pointless to be rude without cause. “Not at all. We just sat down for a bite to eat. Want to join in?”
Saw smiled again. Aben wished he’d stop that as the sight of his mouth sapped much of his appetite.
“I reckon we would. Eh, Yukie?
Yukie nodded. “I can always eat.”
“So, what’s on the menu?” Solomon asked.
“Spam and fruit,” Mitch said.
“Sounds delicious!”
“I made it though, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high, Solomon,” Aben said.
“Don’t imagine a man can fowl up Spam. If he did, it would be a first. And please, call me Saw. All me friend do.”
The food was gone in short order but the conversation carried on into dusk when everyone was little more than a dark outline in the diminishing light. Aben surprised himself by how much he enjoyed the company of the new arrivals. It was a delight to hear fresh voices, different stories. It felt almost normal, or as normal as life could be in this new world.
The only light was the orange flicker at the end of Juli’s cigarette. Even she seemed happier than she had in days, maybe weeks. Aben supposed it was good for her to have another woman around, some estrogen to balance out the testosterone.
Juli finished off her cigarette, blew out a mouthful of smoke then stifled a yawn. “I hope you two will stay the night.”
“We got no place to go,” Saw said.
She led them to the church and pulled open the metal door. Grady had lit dozens of white candles and, as their eyes adjusted, the details of the simple sanctuary came into focus. As did Grady who sat in the front pew, his back turned to them.
“Grady,” Juli said. “We hav
e guests.”
There was a muffled thump as Grady closed his bible and set it down beside him. He stood and turned to the men and women at the back of the church, a small smile on his thin lips.
“Welcome. Welcome friends.”
He moved down the narrow aisle, seeing Yukie first. She put out her hand but he ignored it and gave her a gentle embrace.
“Hello, Miss. And welcome.
Yukie gave him an awkward hug in return. Aben thought, if he didn’t know how pious Grady was, he might have been flirting with her.
When they separated, Grady looked past Aben and Mitch and Juli until he found Saw. His smile vanished. Saw appeared not to notice the change in demeanor and strode forward.
“‘Ello, mate. They tell me your name’s Grady. I’m Sol— “
Grady took a step backward. He turned his face like he couldn’t bear the sight of the man before him. Like Saw’s very presence caused him pain. “Get out of here!” His voice rose above its usual whisper, but was still breathy and quiet.
“Pardon?” Saw asked.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Saw looked toward Aben with a bemused smile, one that thankfully didn’t show his teeth. Aben shrugged his shoulders.
“And why’s that? Do I got B.O. or something?”
His attempt to defuse the situation failed. Grady managed to look at him again and Aben thought the diminutive, fragile man looked almost fierce.
“You’re of the Devil!”
Juli gasped. Aben had almost forgotten she was there. “Grady! How could you say that?”
Saw put his hand on Juli’s shoulder. “It’s aw right miss. I been called worse.”
Juli ignored him. Her focus was on Grady. “You apologize.”
“I will not. Get that man out of here. This is a holy place and his very presence is a desecration.”
Juli reached for him but Grady pulled away.
“Noffin’ to worry about,” Saw said. “I can sleep in me truck. Or in the grass for that matter. It stays nice and warm at night in these parts.”
Saw exited the church. Aben decided to follow, leaving Juli alone to deal with Grady and Yukie.
The Brit had made it a few steps away when Aben caught up to him. For a moment, he thought he saw something like anger on the man’s face but Saw’s quick grin made him think he imagined it.
“I’m sorry about that. About Grady. He’s a little…” Aben twirled his finger around his ear, hoping that sign for ‘crazy’ translated to the UK too.
“Chap’s fucked in the head. Anyone can see that. I’ll stay out of his little chapel if it keeps the peace. I’m not one to go looking for trouble.”
Aben appreciated that. He liked Saw and Yukie and found them far more pleasant company than Grady.
“Tell you what, I’ll crash out here with you. That’ll give us two sets of ears in case anything should wander in.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind. I’ve slept in far worse places than the grass on a summer night.”
“You and me both mate. You and me both.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The town had two prizes - a supermarket and an army navy surplus store.
“Want to flip for it?” Saw asked Aben and Mitch.
Aben shook his head. “We’ll hustle for supplies. I never did much enjoy grocery shopping.”
Saw agreed to take the supermarket. He had a feeling that bringing back a truckload of food might win them over. It wasn’t that he felt the need to prove himself - they’d be lucky to team up with him, not the other way around - but he knew that, should he ever return to the island he’d uncovered earlier in the summer, he’d need an army of sorts. And men like Aben and even Mitch seemed to hold potential and could be valuable assets down the road.
They thought the market was empty. From the outside, all they could see through the plate glass windows were row after row of shelves full of food waiting to be scavenged. Not a person, or zombie could be seen.
The doors to the supermarket were locked but a good hit to each of them with Saw’s sledgehammer fixed that. He and Yukie climbed through the now empty metal frames, grabbed shopping carts, and began loading them up.
As Saw examined a shelf of boxed cupcakes, donuts, and other treats, it amused him how, before the plague, so many people had lamented artificial preservatives. They worried that they’d cause cancer or make your ticker explode or cause your balls to shrivel up to the size of peas. But now artificial preservatives were pretty much the greatest things ever created. All those little old ladies with root cellars full of that shit could be laughing their way through the apocalypse, if they weren’t dead.
Saw swept an armload of desserts into the cart, then he moved on to the canned good aisle where the bounty was equally plentiful. He’d filled his first cart and was on his way to retrieve a second when he heard Yukie scream.
“Yukie!”
She sounded far away, near the back of the store. He abandoned the shopping carts and ran toward her voice.
As he zigzagged through the aisles and end caps, her screams drew nearer. Then he heard a gunshot. And another. He was close now, an aisle away, maybe two.
He smelled the dead before he saw them. Their roadkill on a humid day aroma was impossible to mistake.
Saw rounded the corner and ran smack into a zombie wearing an olive-green janitor’s uniform, knocking the dead man backward where he toppled into a display rack of cheese puffs. The air-filled bags exploded underneath him in a series of forty or more pops. All combined they sounded almost like an explosion. Saw looked up and found ten more zombies surrounding Yukie, all sporting varieties of grocery store uniforms. He spotted two dead zombies on the floor, black blood dribbling from bullet holes in their heads. But it was the ones up and walking that he was worried about. Most of them were within arm’s reach of Yukie who was pinned against a shelf filled with kitchen rolls and toilet paper.
Yukie aimed the pistol at a pimple-faced, scrawny teen who looked like just about every bagboy Saw had ever seen. She pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. She looked to Saw, her eyes pleading.
“I forgot to reload,” she said.
Saw had left his pistol in the truck and the sledge setting beside the entrance. He scanned the area around him, looking for something to use but there was nothing close by except laundry detergent and cleaning supplies.
A short, fireplug of a zombie in a butcher’s coat grabbed on to Yukie’s arm. She tried to pull herself free but a woman in a blue vest sporting a name tag reading “MaryJo” joined the fray.
Saw knew it was now or never and he’d grown rather fond of Yukie. He grabbed a gallon jug of Tide off the shelf, popped the top and tossed the blue detergent over the floor. Then he grabbed another.
“Hey, you ugly bastards!”
Their heads swiveled toward him, almost in unison.
“Least you know you’re ugly. Now how about we play a little game of cat and mouse?”
Saw stepped toward a zombie whose gray hair was concealed under a black hairnet. He grabbed hold of it and plucked it from her head. Then he ran.
The zombies stumbled toward him. As soon as they hit the detergent their feet slipped and skidded out from underneath them. Some managed to stay upright for a moment, their arms flailing, their hands grasping at the air, but soon enough they hit the floor too.
Zombie MaryJo had released Yukie and joined the others on the slip and slide, but the butcher zombie still struggled with her. Yukie held it off with a stiff arm as Saw circled back, avoided the flopping, struggling mass of the monsters, and went to her. He grabbed the zombie by its apron, pulling the white straps tight around its throat. The monster was half a foot taller than Saw and considerably heavier. The Brit had to jump onto the butcher’s back before it released her.
The butcher fell sideways, crashing into the shelves of toilet paper which rained down on them like oversized marshmallows.
“What the hell
’s this mess?”
Saw, still clinging to the butcher’s back, looked up and saw Aben standing at the edge of the skirmish. Mitch was close behind.
“‘Ello there, lads.” He looked around, at the flopping mass of zombies. “Got ourselves in a bit of a sticky wicket we did.”
Aben looked around, nodded. “Appears so.”
“Think you could lend a hand?”
“Well, I’ve only got one.”
Aben took his maul and moved to the first zombie, a chubby man with a bad comb over. He used the maul to smash in the top of his mostly bald pate. The maul pierced the skin, then the bone, sinking deep into his brain tissue.
Mitch tiptoed through the spilled detergent, a pistol in hand. When he reached Saw, he pressed the barrel against the side of the butcher zombie’s head and fired. The zombie, and Saw, went down in a heap.
When Mitch went to shoot another, Aben shook his head and issued a curt, “Nope!”
Aben finished them off with the maul, leaving behind a scattering of corpses with black brains and gore seeping from their caved in skulls.
“Toss me some paper towels.”
Saw did and Aben caught it between his stump and body. The big man set the maul on a shelf then ripped off some kitchen rolls and used them to wipe it somewhat clean before returning it to his belt.
“Told you I didn’t like grocery shopping.,” Aben said, then turned and marched away from them.
“Thanks anyway,” Saw called out.
“Any time.”
Back at the church the quartet unloaded their haul. Saw carried two cases of canned meat toward the entrance and was half way through the door when Grady appeared.
“Afternoon,” Saw said as he tried to push past him but Grady refused to step out of his path.
“You’re not welcome in the house of God.”
“Heard that before. How about this food? Is it welcome?
Grady eyed the cans. “Hand them to me.”
“Alright, but they’re pretty heavy.”
He passed them to the little man who struggled to keep from dropping them. It was clear it was almost more than he could handle and Saw tried to assist but Grady turned away.
