I carefully walked towards the back of the barbershop. I would have to risk making a little noise to see if she was inside.
“Are you in there Jennifer?” I spoke quietly as I stood at the backdoor. “It’s me, Hank. Are you in there?”
I had stepped back to consider my opinions when suddenly the curtain in a nearby window shifted to the side. A moment later the door cracked open.
“Get inside, now!” she whispered sharply, with a fearful voice.
I stepped inside into the darkness of the barbershop. The scent of cigarette smoke filled the room. She gave me a quick embrace and led me to an isolated corner of the small building.
“Do you mind?” she asked, as she held up a cigarette.
“No, I don’t mind, but we don’t need to make any light.” I responded.
She put down the cigarette. Her dark brown eyes looked deeply into mine.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Have you been bitten?”
“No, I’m okay.” she responded. “Well, as okay as anyone can be since the gates of hell have opened.”
I explained the situation to her as quickly as possible, and explained how we needed to hurry and make it to the grocery store. Unfortunately, she didn’t want to take the risk of going outside. We argued for a moment, and I became frustrated with her.
“Look,” I said. “Most of the freaks are distracted by my vehicle. We can make it safely across the road if we’re careful.”
While trying to convince her that we wouldn’t end up dead or infected by attempting to reach grocery store, I realized that if I didn’t show back up soon that Ms. Suzy and Katie may flee with everyone else. If that happened, there may be no one to hold open the emergency exit door. Or worse, if they had left it propped open, freaks may have been able to get inside.
“Well, I’m going now. Right now!” I said. “Are you coming or not?”
“Please just stay here, it’s safer!” she pleaded.
I pulled out my revolver and told her, “I have this, and I’m going to the store, now.”
I was walking to the door when she stated, “Alright, I’ll go with you.”
She grabbed her pocketbook and pulled out the largest pair of metal scissors I had ever seen.
“I’m ready if you are,” she said.
Chapter 5
Peering from behind Jennifer’s station wagon, we could see that a few freaks remained in the grocery store parking lot. The radio in my truck was still blaring, which had lured most of them away.
“Why don’t we just get in my wagon and drive to the store?” she asked.
It was a good question. By driving the wagon we would have some protection. However, it would also make noise that could attract more freaks. The majority of them were infatuated with my truck that sat only a few hundred yards away, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.
“No, we better go on foot. We don’t want to attract them,” I answered.
The coast seemed clear so we darted across the deserted road. As we made it to the parking lot, a couple of the remaining freaks started to walk toward us. Jennifer gasped at the sight of them, and clung tightly to my side as we both broke into a run.
“Head to the side of the store,” I urged.
We had reached the side of the store when a pair of freaks emerged out of the woods I had been in with Mr. Humphries only a half hour ago, or less. They were between us and the emergency exit.
We stopped at the side of the dumpster and I saw a length of metal shelving sticking out. I tried to get a good grip. The two freaks came closer and lunged at us. With one massive blow, I rammed one end of the heavy, rectangular length of metal into the first freak’s head. Before I could turn around to look at Jennifer, she ran past me towards the second freak. With the scissors in her hand, she plowed into the infected woman. Jennifer fell down on top of her and then quickly stood up. One blade of the scissors had been driven deep through the freak’s left eye.
“Good work,” I said, while motioning her to continue following me. Before we could reach the back of the store I heard an engine start in the distance.
“Hurry!” I exclaimed to Jennifer.
By the time we reached the back of the store and turned the corner, I could see the coach was driving away from us. It was out of sight in only a moment.
Thankfully, the emergency exit door was propped open, but no one was in the doorway waiting for me.
Jennifer and I entered the store. After only a few steps we looked at the floor in horror. The gunman’s wife was chewing on her dead child’s body.
I closed the emergency exit door behind us, and then reached for a length of pipe that was set next to the door.
“Turn away,” I told Jennifer.
I swung the heavy pipe and cracked the woman’s head open with it.
Staggering backwards towards Jennifer, I felt a sense of guilt for my action. Even though I knew I had done the right thing, my heart sank in my chest as I looked at the corpses on the floor.
A number of battery powered lanterns were lying on the tables that had been set up. I took one of them and looked at Jennifer. “Let’s head up to the roof,” I told her.
Before we were halfway down the back hall the outline of a figure appeared in the distance. Not knowing who, or what it was, I drew my revolver.
“Is that you, Hank?” I heard a familiar woman’s voice ask.
I lowered my gun and put it in my pocket.
“Yes, it’s me,” I responded. “I also have my friend Jennifer from the barbershop.”
“Thank God,” said Ms. Suzy.
We quickly walked up to her and she gave me a tight hug.
Suddenly, she let go.
“Did you see... did you see the woman in the stockroom? She has turned...”
“It’s okay, I took care of it,” I told Ms. Suzy.
As we stood there, Ms. Suzy explained how the woman had died minutes before everyone had loaded onto the coach. The child had been in her arms, and by the time anyone knew she was dead reanimated. All anyone heard was a single scream from the little girl as the mother bit into her neck. No one knew what to do, so everyone except she and Katie rushed to load into the coach.
“Where is Katie?” I asked.
“On the roof. We already have some supplies up there.” she said.
“We need to get more supplies up there. We don’t know how long we might be forced to stay up there if the freaks break through and get into the store,” I said.
For the next several hours we built a virtual outpost on the roof of the store. We set up a number of tents and stocked them with food, water, flashlights, radios, medicine, and batteries. Every so often we would quietly walk to the edge of the roof to check our surroundings. Because of the noise made by my truck, over the course of that night all of the freaks had left the front of the store. I took advantage of the opportunity and went down into the store, and nailed back some of the boards the freaks had pried loose earlier in the night.
As long as we didn’t make any loud noises, we hoped the store would remain secure. If it didn’t, we would race to the rooftop and lock the door to the stairwell behind us.
By the morning, the battery in my truck had died. When the radio stopped playing, the freaks that had surrounded the vehicle wandered away in all directions. A few ended up in the parking lot of the store, but most were apparently elsewhere.
On the roof of the store, far from the edges, the four of us discussed the situation. Ms. Suzy was still eager to get home and find out if her daughter and grandchildren were alive. On the other hand, Katie didn’t seem to want to go anywhere.
“I don’t have any family in town,” Katie told us during one of our conversations. “Right now, the only people I care about are all of you. We have to stick together.”
Jennifer seemed to want to stay close to me. For the most part, she was quiet. She’d been extremely brave the night before, and now she needed rest. Being alone in the barbers shop the day before hadn’t
been good for her.
The consensus was that we needed to stay put, at least until help arrived. However, the lack of any traffic on the road didn’t encourage us. Occasionally, we would hear a gunshot or two in the distance, towards the busy areas of town. This did little to cheer us up, because it would take hundreds or thousands of gunshots to make a dent in the “freak” population.
The scent of smoke was still in the air, and it was clear help might not be coming anytime soon. Back inside of the grocery store the air was turning putrid, as the two bodies in the stockroom began to decay. Apparently, until a freak is shot in the head, the “infection” holds off the decay process. But once the brain is no longer intact, the body starts to decay at an alarming rate.
The bodies of Fred and the customer the gunman had shot had already been put into the ice cream freezer. We needed to put the bodies of the woman and her child in there as well. The door was pretty much airtight and would conceal the smell.
With Jennifer and Katie on the roof, Ms. Suzy and I put on latex sanitary gloves from the meat department, and then put on bright yellow kitchen gloves over them. We then proceeded to pull their bodies into the ice cream cooler. It was a nasty job, but it needed to be done.
After rigging up a long series of batteries and running them through an inverter, we were able to power the television. We found that a single station in the area was still broadcasting. Located in a nearby town, the employees of the station were relatively safe. The news anchor described how the entire nation was in chaos due to the infection, and how military units were now trying to clear the streets of the walking undead in some cities.
Then she said something that made me listen extra carefully. She went through a list of locations that were being used as relief stations. One of these relief stations was the library my mother worked at. The library, like the other relief stations, were being safeguarded by the remaining members of the police department, members of the local national guard, and volunteers.
“That library is where my mother works at,” I told the group as we watched the television in the break room. “She could be there now.”
Jennifer took my hand in hers as she leaned her head on my shoulder.
“Just have faith that she’s there and safe,” she said.
My mind started to race as I tried to imagine some way of getting to the library. It was less than five miles away, and I thought about using one of the cars in the parking lot to drive there.
Katie must have been reading my mind due to the next words she spoke.
“Try not to think about going there,” she said. “You could end up getting yourself killed.”
She was right. It would be dangerous to travel through the most built up part of town to reach the library. There enough freaks walking around here on the outskirts. There could be ten times as many of them lurking the streets a few miles away.
“I know,” I told her, as I turned off the television to conserve battery power. I knew if my mother was in a safe place she’d want me to stay in a safe place. Right now, this store was the safest place I could be. Even though the front of the store may only be marginally secure, I had water, food, supplies, and weapons. It would be stupid for me to leave.
But I couldn’t help but continue to think about my options.
For the rest of the day Ms. Suzy, Jennifer, Katie, and I continued to improve our fort on the store’s roof. After we had every conceivable item we may need stashed away in our tents, we began work to secure the stockroom. We improvised locks for every door that led to the stockroom: including the meat market and produce department’s doors. We also placed full pallets near all of the doors just in case we needed to quickly barricade them.
By the end of the day, we had two fall back positions. If the freaks were attracted to the store and broke through the front entrance, they would have a hard time getting into the stockroom. If by some chance they made it into the stockroom, we could quickly go up on the roof.
Just in case we needed a way down from the top of the roof, we had carried up a very tall ladder that had been in the stockroom. It was normally used to change out the long florescent light bulbs used in the store. We hoped if for some reason our second fallback position was compromised it could help us get off the roof.
It was almost dark when we heard the first car in almost a day drive down the road. Ms. Suzy, who had been serving as a lookout on the roof, saw the vehicle. She described it as being an SUV of some kind that was driving at a high speed. We hoped it would be the first of many more.
That night we decided that we all needed some sleep. None of us had slept much since the outbreak started. The three women would take a low dose of sleeping pills -- not so high of a dose they couldn’t be awakened if need be -- and go to sleep in the largest of the three tents we had set up.
I would take the first shift as look out. After they had slept for six hours, I would wake up Jennifer and she’d take a shift, making sure the store remained secure, as I tried to sleep.
Sitting in an office chair I dragged up the stairs to the roof, I leaned back and took a look at the stars. Only a couple were visible; the sky was still cloudy. Thankfully, the moon was visible, and provided a little illumination -- it wasn’t pitch black like the night before.
I considered myself lucky in a way. I was sure there were many others in far worse situations. The contents of the grocery store could sustain all of us for months, and I had three beautiful women to keep me company.
Quietly, I inched my chair closer to the edge of the roof. I peered at the freaks roaming around the parking lot with a pair of flimsy toy binoculars. Over the next couple hours I watched their movements. More than anything else, they seemed to be attracted to sound. Any tree limb breaking, owl hooting, or other freak howling instantly got their attention.
Their vision also seemed, without a doubt, to be better than in the daytime. While during the day their arms wailed about wildly as the light of the sun blinded them, at night they could see their surroundings. They seemed surer of their footsteps, and were able to better navigate around obstacles.
Interestingly, they seemed to walk around just a touch slower than the night before. I was not certain, but it seemed to be the case.
Facts from the biology classes I took in college -- before I dropped out due to family issues -- came to mind. If these creatures were actually dead, they had to be decaying. Even if the infection was somehow keeping them mobile by allowing their brain to send nerve impulses to their body, sooner or later they would fall apart. Cells cannot survive forever without oxygen, and eventually the freaks’ muscles would begin to fail, and they should become incapacitated.
However, since their hearts were not beating, the cells of their body had already been depleted of oxygen for an extended period of time. All of their cells should already be dead. I remembered the comment that Mr. Allen made about the “light show” that had taken place. If the meteors had carried this infection, the viruses, bacteria, or parasites infecting the freaks could be providing some sort of alternative energy source for their cells. Perhaps this alternative energy source was why the freaks were walking around in the first place.
I thought to myself if extraterrestrials have brought this plague upon us, they need to come down and fix the situation!
I took another sip of the root beer in my hand when I suddenly felt something on my shoulder. It made me want to jump, but I didn’t want to do anything the freaks could notice. I looked around, and Jennifer was standing behind me.
“Don’t scare me like that,” I said quietly. “Let me move this chair back.”
I carried the chair back towards our outpost on the middle of the roof. A breeze started to blow as I sat back down, and I noticed it was getting colder. Jennifer rolled another chair close to me and we began to talk.
“If you decide to go after your mother I’ll back up your decision,” she said. “I might even be able to convince Suzy to come with us.”
�
��I want to go to the library and see if my mother is there. However, I wouldn’t only be risking my life, but all of yours as well. I don’t think I’m willing to take that risk, yet.” I told her.
For the next hour we discussed many topics; it including talk about how we could safely get to one of the vehicles in the parking lot. To get to a vehicle safely, the first task would be clearing the parking lot of any and all freaks. We came up with a few ideas of how we might do that.
As dawn neared my eyes began to grow tired. My sentences started to become less and less coherent.
“It’s time for you to go to sleep,” said Jennifer who stood up and took me by the arm, and led me to one of the tents that had been set up. I tried to argue with her, but she wouldn’t let me. She then ordered me to swallow a single, small sleeping pill.
“Do you trust me?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Then why won’t you take this pill and get some sleep?” she asked.
I gave up and swallowed the pill, washing it down with the last of my root beer. On the floor of the tent were a number of blankets and cushions. I laid my body on the makeshift bed and I felt my mind drift away as everything went dark.
Chapter 6
“It’s time to get up,” I heard a voice say from above me.
I opened my eyes slowly, and rubbed them to try and get my vision to focus. I looked up, and Jennifer was standing there, hunched over in my tent.
It took a moment for me remember why I was in a tent and why she was there. Then the memories of the past couple days hit me. I sighed as I realized I was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
I started to stand up and exit the tent when I realized it was almost dark outside.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked Jennifer.
“You slept all day. We didn’t want to wake you.” she said.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes, everything is about the same as when you went to sleep. Oh, we did kill about thirty freaks today.”
“What? Thirty? Did they get in . . .” I was in shock, and almost shouting.
Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 Page 5
