Hell Happened

by Stenzelbarton, Terry

  Stopping at the opened door of the big SUV, Jerry looked back at his dad. “You got it, dad. Small pharmacy first, no zombies, no vigilantes.”

  “One hour son. If you’re not back in one hour and 10 minutes, we’re coming to look for you. Go only as far as Gadsden Street,” he said after checking his GPS, “or within two blocks of it, no more than a mile either way on County Road 10 so we can find you quickly if you don’t show up.

  “Yes, dad, one mile east or west, two blocks north or south,” he said and started the SUV. Jerry watched them drive out of the parking lot. Mike knew what the father was thinking. “They’ll be okay, Jerry. They’re good, smart kids. Let’s get to work so we’re ready in an hour to go find them just in case. I take it you can drive a forklift?”

  Broken from his thoughts, Jerry looked around. The first forklift he found was out of propane and refused to start. He then climbed onto a larger Hyster 110. It was gas powered and after a few cranks, the machine came to life.

  Mike walked around with a gun in his hand while Jerry loaded a pallet of 12” 2-by-4s, some 5/8ths-inch underlayment and a stack of treated four-by-fours. When nothing and no one showed up to threaten the two men, Mike went to find nails and screws, drills and hammers. He grabbed up some extension cords and rolled a small Honda generator, a 20-gallon air compressor and a couple of cordless tools with extra batteries out to the truck. Jerry would decide what they really needed versus what they just wanted and what would fit in the truck and trailer.

  Jerry looked like he was enjoying himself on the forklift. He’d loaded up two more pallets of treated wood. Mike guessed 2-by-12s or 2-by-10s and some OSB. The trailer looked like it was getting loaded with as much as it was going to take. It looked to be enough wood to build an entire house. Mike did his part by loading five-pound boxes of deck screws, 16d nails and truss braces. He also grabbed up some pneumatic nailers and nails for them as well. If they were going to do a lot of building, these would make the work go faster. He also found a pallet of tar which Jerry loaded for him, then finished loading the trailer with two pallets of shingles and another of 15-pound felt for weather proofing.

  The two men strapped down the load securely and Jerry looked at his watch. There was 15 minutes left before the kids would come back, so he moved the truck over to the fuel tanks. Between the spare and reserve tank on the truck and gas cans they’d brought, all of them got topped off with diesel or gas. The company must have just filled up their tanks before the fall because they sounded full when Jerry tapped on them.

  Checking his watch again, it had been an hour and one minute since the kids had left. He hoped they hadn’t got into trouble. He walked around the trailer again to make sure everything was strapped securely when he heard a vehicle coming down the highway. It was in a hurry by the sound of it.

  Jerry and Mike grabbed for their weapons and took up positions beside their trailer. They would defend it because they surely wouldn’t out run anyone with the heavily laden truck and trailer and there was no time to unhitch the gooseneck.

  He heard the vehicle decelerate. It was the kids. They were in a hurry.

  ~ ~ ~

  Randy, Eddie and Monica had left the lumber yard in high spirits. Randy’s dad had given them explicit instructions, but enough freedom to make their own decisions. He felt like he’d been given some real authority as an adult and he was going to take it.

  They quickly found a pharmacy on the main street of town. Randy thought it was too easy. If they walked in to the pharmacy, got what was on the list, they could be back in the truck and back to the lumber yard 10 minutes after they’d left. Randy’s dad gave him an hour. He was going to use all of it and told the other two as much.

  He passed the pharmacy and the strip mall it was in. He wanted to see what else was in town before they had to go back. They drove on until they were nearly out of town and Randy was beginning to think this was a waste of time because there were cars and trucks and semis on the main street and they had to maneuver around them.

  He was about to turn back when they saw another strip mall and they pulled in. The windows in the front had been knocked of every building and the Winn-Dixie had partially burned.

  They were about to leave when Eddie pointed to an electronics store at the end of the mall. Monica guarded the SUV while the young men looked through the front. “Holy mother of God! Jackpot!” Eddie hollered back to Monica. They carefully climbed through the front window and Randy came out first with an arm load of video games. Eddie followed with two game systems and six laptops. They went back in and brought out four flat panel TVs and one more time for the movie display rack that had all the latest releases on it and as many as Randy could quickly grab from the value bin. In all they got about 200 movies and 50 games. They also grabbed several boxes of electronics that were sitting near the doors to the back room, but didn’t go near the back room.

  Monica asked why they grabbed so many video games. “In case we get bored,” Eddie said, like it was obvious. Randy looked at his watch. They had 40 minutes.

  There looked to be nothing more at this end of town so they headed back to the CVS pharmacy when Randy glanced down a side street and saw a small gun shop. It was barred up and looked like it hadn’t done much business even when it was open, but it was a gun shop and they needed more ammunition. He stopped in the middle of the street and backed up to get a better look. “This might be something,” he said, looking through Eddie’s binoculars, and hung a left off the main drag. He parked the SUV in the parking lot and the three got out.

  Randy and Eddie pulled out their guns and walked around the building while Monica, armed with a .22 caliber rifle guarded the vehicle. They came back and told her the place was locked up tight. They contemplated how to break in, Eddie suggesting shooting the front door locks, but Randy had an easier solution. He tied one of the 2-inch tie-down straps to the front window bars on the building and hooked the other end to the front of the SUV. When he backed the Escalade up most of the front wall came off.

  Eddie smiled at his friend. “Cool,” he said with a big smile.

  All three went inside, sure it was empty. The former owner was dead and rotting in the business’s office and Monica almost lost her breakfast when she saw the body. She closed the door quickly and told the boys to not go into that room.

  The boys agreed not to.

  They looked at the guns in the shop. Most were shot guns and Eddie grabbed a couple of the bigger ones while Monica was filling bags with shot gun shells. Randy was looking at handguns, including a Desert Eagle he pulled out of a display case he’d opened with a hatchet to the glass. “Damn, Randy! I almost shit myself,” Eddie hollered at him after the sound of shattering glass stopped. “Next time warn us before you do that kind of shit.”

  Randy just smiled at him. He now had a Desert Eagle, something he knew his dad had wanted for a long time. He put it in a holster and then the holster over his shoulder. After that he went for the rifles. He found a pair of what looked like good ones that had names like the guns in his video games. He also found an entire shelf of walkietalkies which boasted 30-mile range and encryption. He grabbed up a dozen packages of them and the display of Duracell rechargeable batteries.

  On the counter was a rack of survival magazines. He figured they would be welcome reading by a lot of people at the shelter.

  He was grabbing these and any survival gear he could find, while Eddie grabbed as many shot guns and rifles he could get at, ignoring the black powder guns of course, and loaded them onto the trailer. They were getting quite a haul from this little shop.

  Just as they were about to leave, Randy saw something behind the counter. It was a ham radio, one of the expensive kinds, with a lot of dials and switches and an amplifier of some sort. He had Eddie go out and look for the antenna while he grabbed the radio equipment and unplugged it from the wall. He had to unscrew the coaxial, but he figured they could find more and dad probably had some at the farm.

  He h
ad it packed in the SUV with the guns when Eddie finally got the antenna off the roof and handed down to Monica. Randy looked at his watch and they still had more than a 20 minutes but he decided not to risk looking for more stuff here.

  “Let’s get back to the pharmacy and then go show dad what we found,” he told them. “He’s going to love this gun. We’ll probably come back for more.”

  “I got me a Bushmaster 308,” Eddie said, “and a 4 by 20 power scope. I’ll be able to shoot flies off the nuts of a cow from 500 yards.”

  Monica rolled her eyes. Randy laughed with his friend. It was good to see his humor coming back. “Cows don’t have nuts you idiot. Cows have udders. Bulls have nuts.”

  “Okay, then I’ll shoot the nuts off a fly. Either way, something’s losing its nuts to this gun.”

  Randy shook his head and started the SUV. “Whatever, you dumbass. Just don’t shoot one of dad’s cows or he’ll shoot you.”

  ~ ~ ~

  They pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of the CVS pharmacy. The front glass had been shot out but didn’t look ransacked. Randy decided to drive around back of the building. The back door was ajar but there didn’t look to be anyone around.

  He pulled back around front and the three looked at the front of the building. “Well?” Randy asked them. “You think it’s safe to go in?”

  Monica answered first. “We do need stuff from in there and without the front windows it’ll be bright enough inside to see and keep the zombies away.”

  “You can probably already smell the candy, huh?” asked Eddie jokingly.

  “No, actually, I need tampons, douche bag. Now, do you feel good about your comment?” and she cuffed him in the back of the head gently. “Kellie does too and if we don’t get some other products we use real fast, you men are going to really regret having women around.”

  “Enough!” Randy said. “T-M-I.” He put the SUV in park, but didn’t shut it off. “Let’s get it and hit it.”

  All three armed themselves, Randy with the Desert Eagle and eight of the .50 caliber magnum rounds that came with it, Eddie with a Colt 9mm and Monica with a Smith and Wesson .38. They went through the front door and allowed Monica to lead the way because she knew what she was looking for. She started in the women’s aisle and loaded the guys up one at a time and sent them to the truck with instructions to hurry back for more.

  After the second arm load, Eddie gave her a cart and told her to fill it herself. Randy did the same thing. She was careful to only put what she thought the women would need and not fill the carts with frivolous crap.

  Randy and Eddie went around picking up soft drinks, boxes of cereal, laundry detergent, tooth paste, tooth brushes, mouthwash, razors, shaving cream, soap, shampoo, and as much coffee as they could put in carts. Each one of the three loaded two carts and pushed them to the trailer. Randy looked at his watch and noticed they had just five minutes left. He asked Monica as he was tying down the last cart if she’d gotten the drugs for Tony.

  “I think I got them all, but it wouldn’t hurt to check to see what the pharmacist had behind the counter if we have time.” Randy nodded. “But hurry.”

  She and Eddie went back inside to the pharmacist’s counter and started throwing pill bottles filled with drugs into a basket, as long as they had a label. Eddie had his back to her when she screamed, and screamed loud. An arm had reached through a slot in the wall and had grabbed her wrist. Then another snaked out lightning quick, then a third and a fourth.

  Eddie whipped around and reached first for Monica to pull her away. “Shit, shit, shit,” he hollered. “Pull dammit pull!” “I am! I am!” she retorted in a shriek, but was unable break free, instead, she was being pulled toward the slot. The strength of the hands through the slot in the wall was beyond all the strength the two young adults had. The hands through the wall were tearing her skin and she felt like her skin was ripping off the bone or her shoulder would come apart.

  Eddie pulled the Colt out of his belt with one hand, afraid to let go of Monica, and began shooting through the wall next to the slot. Three of the four hands grabbing his friend released her. He heard deep, throaty grunts from behind the wall and continued to shoot until his gun was empty.

  At the sound of the gunshots, Randy came running. He heard the screams and more gun shots as he ran through the store and he was going to help his two struggling friends. There was panic in his body language and in his face, but he wasn’t going to lose the two best friends he’d ever had.

  The two were still struggling with the last hand holding onto Monica’s wrist. Randy pulled the Desert Eagle and held it with both hands and shot the same place Eddie had. Six loud shots deafened the three, but finally, with the sixth shot through the wall, the hand let go and the young people fell backward.

  They started running when Randy turned back and grabbed the two baskets of drugs Monica had filled. He wasn’t going to leave without getting some of the priority products for which this trip was planned and that his dad had instructed him to get first. He grabbed the baskets and got a glimpse of the zombies through the holes and slot. They had misshapen heads with oversized black eyes. Their mouths were distended and the two he saw had what looked to be dried blood on their face. They were looking right at him and one had a new bullet wound in the face and the other had a new hole in its neck and one in the shoulder, but the holes didn’t slow them down or make them look any less dangerous.

  Holding the baskets in one hand and the Desert Eagle in the other, he shot at them again. The gun almost flew from his hand and he shot the floor eight feet in front of where he thought he was aiming. “Shit. I’ll leave this part out when I tell this story to dad,” he said to himself and ran from the store.

  Some of the drugs fell out, but he didn’t stop to pick them up. Whatever he had was going to have to be enough. When he got to the truck, Eddie and Monica had already gotten into the back seat and he threw the drugs into the passenger seat, barely taking time to close his door. He dropped the shifter in drive and stepped hard on the gas.

  They raced all the way back to the lumber yard, laughing and crying and repeating their fears and heroics to each other. They were loud because the gunshots in the close quarters had temporarily deafened them.

  Randy brought the SUV to a sliding halt and all three jumped out. Monica was holding her wrist that was badly injured, but not broken and yammering about almost dying. Eddie was going on about shooting two zombies and Randy was just pleased as hell to see his dad.

  It took 20 minutes for the three to explain the drama they’d gone through in the past five minutes. Jerry let them release and asked Randy if he’d like Mike to drive the SUV back to the farm and Randy declined. He’d finish the job he’d been asked to do.

  Jerry let the kids calm down for a few more minutes while he looked over the merchandise they’d picked up. It looked like they’d picked up a lot of stuff they would need. “Okay, let’s load up and head back home,” Jerry directed. “And let’s have a little less drama on the way?”

  Pulling out of the parking lot, Jerry and Mike discussed what the young people had done and Jerry didn’t let the shaking he was feeling inside show on the outside. He kept his speed down to 25 miles per hour. It was a pleasant drive and Jerry could see in his side mirrors that Randy was smiling and talking with his two friends, so while they might have had some reality scared into them, they were none the worse for wear.

  Mike was recalling some story from his youth in which he had to run from someone. Jerry was not paying real attention, just enjoying the pleasant drive home and thinking about his son. He was checking side mirrors again making sure the boy was still following and talking with Tony on the CB. “Yeah, we’re all okay,” he was saying while passing a drive that was hidden by decorative shrubbery. A small car pulled out of the drive and into his front bumper.

  Who was more surprised would be talked about for months. Jerry hit the binders several heartbeats later than he might regularly. Th
e driver of the little car was equally surprised and also hit the brakes. It was too late for both, but the car took the heaviest damage and the big Ford, easily pushed it out of the way as Jerry brought it to a stop.

  Randy, Eddie and Monica were out of their vehicle first. They each had their guns drawn. Jerry was next because the hit was on Mike’s side of the truck and the hood of the car was next to his door. The driver of the car was turned, looking at something in the back seat. Jerry heard crying, the kind kids make when they are scared but not hurt, and the bark of a very big and very mad dog.

  He let his gun drop, knowing his three young people in the Escalade would have their guns ready after the terror they’d been through in the last hour. The driver turned around. There was no fear on her face. In fact, to Jerry, it looked like she was ready to get out of the car to kick his ass until she saw the three young people with guns pointed at her in her rear-view mirror. She put her hands up.

  The very big dog barked at him from the passenger seat of her car. It looked to be a Bull Mastiff, like the dog he had when he was growing up. He pointed to the dog and made a hook with his finger indicating he wanted her to hook the dog up before he tried to help her out of the car.

  She fumbled around and found the dog’s leash and hooked his collar.

  Jerry went around to the passenger door, still afraid to open it because the dog was 2/3rds the size of its owner and with his strength could easily break free. He’d hate to have to kill the dog, especially in front of his kids and the kids who were in the car.

  He made the motion for her to slowly roll down the window, but just a little bit.

  She did and he heard the woman tell “Boomer” to shut the hell up.

  “You okay, ma’am?” he asked, slowly allowing the dog to sniff at the back of his hand.

  She held onto the big dog while he leaned over to Jerry’s hand. “I think so. I’ve got two kids in back, don’t kill us, please!”