Peter looked at me as I squeezed the trigger and shot the ghoulish fiend in the head. Peter covered his head and turned around as the two-sided mirror shattered all over the place. We looked at each other and then to the other undead who obviously heard us and were heading in our direction. Quickly, I swung the door open and Peter grabbed the carts.
He pulled them into the office and I quickly slammed the door. We then pulled them to the exit. As the undead stumbled to the broken window, we pressed our ears against the door and listened. We heard the sound of heavy rain and a steady rumble of thunder, but nothing else.
As the creature reached through the broken window, we realized he lacked the mental capacity to figure out how to climb through, but rather than waiting for him to figure it out, we slowly opened the door into the pouring rain and looked around. We saw no signs of anyone outside. So, we pushed our carts over to the car and started chaotically loading everything inside.
PETER
After a stressful mission, we finally got everything loaded up and hopped in the car, shielding us from the elements of Mother Nature and the undead. As we sat down in the calm atmosphere of the car’s interior, I sighed in relief as Mike did the same.
“Let’s not do that again,” Mike said.
I nodded and put the key in the ignition. As we began to pull away, Mike noticed at least half-a-dozen infected climbing over themselves and the shopping carts, trying to exit the store. As I kept driving with the wipers on full blast, I figured it was a good time to radio the crew.
“Guys? Come in,” I said.
“Pete? Or is that Mike?” Joey asked in return.
“Hey, Joey. It’s Peter.”
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“We’re all right,” I told him. “Heading back now. Let Jen know, okay?”
“Okay, man,” he said. “I will.”
“See you soon,” I said as I put the walkie down.
We drove slowly through the stormy weather. As we came to the exit of the big lot, several undead started appearing in the fog. There were dozens scattered all over the place—more than any of us had seen at one time. We probably drew them out of hiding when we drove through before.
“Keep going,” Mike said, sternly. “Just look for your openings and take them out. Don’t stop!”
I nodded and kept driving through the hordes of undead lurking about and reaching for the car as we snuck through. They seemed to be a never ending mob of infected as we finally started to leave many behind us.
We kept driving through the storm of rain, fog, thunder, and undead. This time, we avoided downtown by taking side roads. The rain was treacherous at this point and would certainly not allow us to cut across the grass again without getting ourselves stuck.
Eventually, the hordes lessened and we only passed a few infected as we got closer to the hardware store. I let out a very small beep from the car as we pulled into the parking lot, just so they would know to let us in. We ran to the doors, leaving the food in the car for the time being.
Jen greeted us with some Fix-It Hardware t-shirts for us to change into and get out of our wet clothes. I handed the keys to Joey and explained to everyone that we would bring in the new supplies when the rain lessened a bit.
They agreed and all told us to relax. However, we then realized that we left our weaponry in the car—something that we didn’t want to be without—especially with the amount of undead stumbling about the town.
Joey ran out to the car and retrieved the guns and shovels quickly as we explained to Tara and Jen what we had seen. They insisted we both take a break and try to get some rest. Jen then informed me that Sam had offered to sit by the window and keep a look out.
This would be her first time as she still had yet to get over Robbie’s death. We both agreed that Jen would sit and watch with her to make sure everything would be all right.
I wasn’t too thrilled about the timing of Sam finally showing some will power on the day that we discovered the mass amount of undead, but Jen would make sure everything was okay while Mike and I caught up on some rest after some of the closest calls yet.
LOSING IT
JEN
The rain finally started to let up as Mike and Peter were getting some rest. Joey and Tara brought in a couple boxes of canned goods from the car and began sorting through them by food and expiration date.
Sam and I sat by the front window and watched as they brought in the last boxes for the evening—waiting for daylight tomorrow to bring in the rest. They offered to switch with Sam and me after a while.
After they left, Sam looked at me for a moment with a blank look on her face. “Robbie’s dead, you know,” she bluntly said.
I looked away for a moment and slowly nodded. “I know, sweetie.”
She just shook her head. “Whatever…”
Peter then walked out with the dog leash and got Fido ready to go outside. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said as he approached the door. As he was about to unlock the door, he turned to us and asked, “Has it been pretty quiet out there?”
“Yeah, we haven’t heard anything but the wind,” I added.
He nodded and headed outside with an anxious Fido. They walked around until Fido found a spot to go to the bathroom, right near Joey’s back tire. As they were near the car, Peter was peaking inside, likely double checking all of the supplies from the store.
Then, Sam got up and started walking away from the window angrily and sat by the cash register. Suddenly, we heard a noise from outside. A voice. Two men were stumbling into the parking lot and one was badly wounded in the leg.
“Help!” the non-wounded one shouted. “Help us!”
Peter jumped back as Fido went crazy at the site of these strangers. “What the hell?” Peter screamed. Peter backed away quickly, tripped on the curb, and fell backwards.
They looked directly at us through the window as I leaped from my seat. “Guys!” I shouted. “Guys! Help! Come out here!”
As Peter fell on the ground, he dropped the leash and Fido’s little frame charged towards the men with a bark fit for a pit bull.
“Shit!” Peter screamed.
“Oh no,” I said as Joey and Tara ran out from the back room, followed by Mike.
“Fido!” Peter screamed frantically.
“Look!” I said, pointing out the window.
“Please!” the man shouted again.
Mike ran to the door and unlocked it, letting the two men in.
“Thank you. They were catching up to us!” he said
“What happened to your leg?” Mike asked anxiously.
Peter went to grab Fido, but he still seemed startled and ran into the dark road where we soon couldn’t see him.
I ran to the door and stuck my head out. “Pete, come back!”
“Fido!” he shouted nervously again.
“Ugh,” the wounded man said. “One of them, they… They bit me!”
Mike quickly grabbed the gun and pointed it at the wounded man. The other man then lunged at Mike and attempted to grab the gun.
“No!” the man shouted. “You’re not killing my brother!”
Peter continued running back and forth around the lot and the road, “Fido! Fido!” he kept shouting over and over again.
In the commotion, Mike pulled the trigger, sending a shotgun blast in the store, luckily not hitting anyone. However, the shells pierced and completely shattered a portion of the front window. I saw Peter nearly fall to the ground due to shock. Then he ran back inside.
“Shit!” I screamed.
“What the hell happened?” Peter asked anxiously.
Mike violently pushed the man away. “Son-of-a-bitch!” he yelled.
During all of this, the wounded man had stopped moving and laid there still on the ground. His brother reached down and yelled, “Bobby? No!” as tears streamed down his face. However, as quickly as Bobby had passed, his body awoke and saw his brother as nothing but a fresh meal.
The undea
d Bobby lunged up and tore through his brother’s neck. Joey ran towards them and pushed off the freshly bitten brother, then took some typical protocol to Bobby. Peter helped out and as the other brother quickly started to succumb to the infection, Peter did the same thing and took him out. As that threat quickly disappeared, the even bigger threat of a large open window started to sink into our situation.
PETER
All of this couldn’t have happened at a worse time. We finally had a supply of food, water, gas, shelter - everything. Then, these two guys come from nowhere and all of a sudden we’re out of a secure shelter with hordes of undead headed our way and a nice and messy cleanup needed in aisle one—not to mention, my mom’s dog is missing in action.
Mike and I quickly pushed the fresh bodies out the door and locked it again—not that it mattered because of the gaping hole which used to be the front window. I quickly ran to the back room, looking for anything we could use to seal the window. Jen brought Sam into the office. Jen was nervous about how Sam was feeling as well as her overall current state of mind.
Armed with their guns, Mike, Joey and Tara stood by the window, keeping a close watch on any potential threats. As I looked high and low for plywood or sheet metal or anything, I realized that all of the shelves holding back stock were made of metal beams and rods with long loose pieces of wood resting on them.
These were pretty strong and durable pieces as they were used to hold hundreds of pounds of tools and other merchandise. I grabbed some loose pieces and quickly brought them to the front window. But, we needed at least seven or eight more pieces and that would require emptying off the shelves—roughly an hour or two of work—an hour or two that we did not have at this point.
As I brought out what was readily available for the project, I told Mike where to find the nail guns, nails, and hammers. He quickly went to the aisle and ransacked everything that could be of use. Joey began to stage all of the wood as I brought it out and Mike gathered the needed tools. We had to be quick with this project as our vulnerability was through the roof—or broken window in this case.
Soon enough, Mike and Joey began to hammer in some wood on the bottom right corner. The window was tall, but as long as we covered the bottom, we would be all right for the time being as I’m fairly certain that these things could not figure out how to climb.
As they worked on preparing our shelter, I hastily emptied the shelves and retrieved more wood. I could feel each crash of the hammer in my heart as they were working and felt chills run down my spine as I thought about how many undead were loitering on the streets and hearing the clashing of the hammer as some kind of dinner bell.
I freed up two more shelves and quickly brought them out to Mike and Joey to cover as much space as possible. As I went through the swinging stock room doors, I noticed that the hammering had stopped. I figured it was good timing with me bringing the next pieces of board, but to my chagrin, I came through the swinging doors to see
Mike and Joey simply holding a board up and ducking beneath it with fear engraved on their faces as a handful of infected stumbled directly towards the store.
I dropped the extra shelves and dashed to the cashier’s counter where I hid, not knowing what to do. They wouldn’t have been able to get over the boards that we had already placed very easily, but our shelter was definitely not secure by any means.
I peeked around the counter and looked at Mike as beads of sweat streamed down his face. He looked at me for a moment, then at the gun lying on the floor next to him.
Quickly, I crawled across the floor, not knowing exactly where the undead were in relation to the window. Then, I grasped the gun and sat by Joey and Mike for a moment. As I stopped, Mike and Joey flinched as one of the infected seemed to be pushing against the wooden board.
We all looked up to see a pale bony hand reach over the wood and loosely clench the air repeatedly as if it were trying to grab onto something.
Suddenly, the pushing grew stronger and knocked the wood on top of us, allowing four infected ghouls to reach through the opening and nearly fall into the store.
I backed up and got to my feet and Mike and Joey sheltered themselves underneath the fallen board.
I stood up and aimed the gun at the ghouls. Their teeth gnashed together like rabid wolves and their lifeless eyes fixated on me in some kind of death trance. I cocked the gun and fired.
The shell tore through the two in the middle. Thick dark blood splashed on the boards and other undead individuals as the two permanently ended monsters fell to the ground. Mike and Joey quickly stood up and lifted the board above their heads.
“One, two,” Mike said. “Three!” And they tossed the board at the remaining undead. It was a rushed decision, but it bought us some time as it sent them flying backwards into the lot.
“I’ll get the other boards,” I said as I frantically turned around to see Jen, Sam and Tara staring at the horrific scene. “It’s all right,” I said as Jen pointed to the lot. I turned around and saw well over a dozen infected stumbling into the lot.
“We can’t hold it down,” Mike said angrily as he grabbed the other gun.
Jen approached me quickly and asked, “What should we do?” as Fido ran into the lot and started barking uncontrollably, somewhat arousing the undead as they began barking in their own way right back at us and him.
“Get that dog out of there!” Mike shouted.
“Fido?” I exclaimed. “Fido! I’ve got to get him!”
Mike grabbed me and held me back for a moment. “Don’t go out there,” he said. “Look, they don’t have any interest in him anyways.”
I then looked outside to see the infected ghoul stumbling around the stressed Fido and was excited by the sounds of his barking, but Mike seemed to be right—they had no interest in harming or eating him.
A little relieved at Fido’s situation, I then looked over to Joey and said, “Joey, go with Tara and clear a path to the back exit just in case.”
Joey nodded and the couple ran to the back room to clear a path through the messy stock room.
Mike stood ready with his gun. “What do you want to do here, Pete?” he asked, as the undead got closer and closer to the store.
Suddenly, Samantha stepped forward and began walking to the window.
“Sam?” I asked curiously, then looked to Jen. “What’s she doing?”
Jen stared outside. “Oh my…look!” she said.
I looked straight ahead and saw a familiar red Fix-It Hardware shirt walking towards us. As the figure got closer, it became clear that it was the corpse of Robbie. His long hair looked dry and crunchy and his face was covered in reddish brown dry blood and possibly dirt. He reached for us like any other infected soul would have.
I stood next to Sam and raised my gun. “Sam, get out of here, please.”
She looked at me angrily. “Why don’t you just shoot him, you asshole?” she said bluntly.
Not knowing what to say, I looked at her for a moment and lowered my gun.
“Do it!” she shouted at me.
Jen then approached us and put her hand on Sam’s back. “Sam, why don’t…”
“Shut the fuck up, Jen! It’s Pete’s fucking fault Robbie is like this in the first place!”
My breathing became heavy as I tried to hold back my frustration and anger. I tried to think of something—anything—to say in my defense, but all I got out was, “Jen, get her out of here, she’s losing it!”
“She’s already lost it,” Mike said.
“Fuck off!” Sam said angrily and pushed me aside.
“Sam!”
She then ran to the window. “Robbie!”
“Sam! Don’t!” Jen screamed.
Sam pulled off one of the boards and hopped over the bottom of the broken window.
“Sam!” Jen continued as tears streamed down her face.
Samantha then ran out into the small crowd of undead, exciting all of the infected to the point that they were almost roaring. She p
ushed several of them aside and ran to Robbie as if he were still alive and well.
“I’m sorry, Robbie,” she said.
Robbie greeted her by wrapping his thin bony fingers around her arms. He leaned his head in and tore into Sam’s neck with his gnashing teeth.
Jen lunged towards the window as Mike and I both grabbed her. “Samantha!” she screamed, violently crying at the brutal sight of our friend succumbing to this sickness.
As I wrapped my arms around Jen and pulled her to the back room, Mike fired his gun once more into the crowd of infected reaching through the window.
A few of them fell backward but were immediately replaced with others who stepped forward into the newly vacant spots lining the window.
“Fuck! We’ve got to move!” Mike yelled.
“Come on!” I said as I pulled Jen into the stock room.
Mike followed me as I glanced back at the window, only to see the dozens of undead piling on top of each other while trying to get to the window. The remaining pieces of glass along the trim broke off and stabbed the rabid infected as they reached through the window.
Soon, one began to hang through the window and it was only a matter of time before they started entering the store.
I turned away and ran into the back room. Jen viciously cried for the loss of Sam and ran into Tara’s arms.
Decay: A Zombie Story Page 10
