The Infected Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Zuko, Joseph

  “When I finish nursing school we’ll be really rolling in the cheddar. No more store brand shit.” She moved in fast for another smooch and Cliff met her halfway. There was something in his eyes every time she asked about his work or if she mentioned becoming a nurse.

  “Mama, you said a bad word,” Eve shook a disappointed finger at her mother.

  “Which one? Store brand? That’s not a bad word.”

  “Not that word.” The kid played right into Mama’s game.

  “Your Mama never says any bad words. You only think she said it.” Cliff winked at his wife.

  “That’s right. Your ears must not be working. Call the doctor we got a girl that can’t hear,” Tina said as a devious smile stretched across her face.

  “You guys are so weird,” Eve, pointed at a store brand box of mac and cheese.

  “Yep, grab four.” Tina nodded at her daughter.

  The girl’s little hands snatched the boxes down off the shelf.

  “Mama, can we have tuna fish for sandwiches?” Alex squatted down in front of the cans of fish.

  “Yes, get five of the ones on sale.” Tina playfully bumped hips with Cliff and knocked him off course.

  “Hey, this thing is hard enough without you pushing me around,” he said as he bumped her right back.

  “You guys stop it. You’re embarrassing me.” Eve dropped the boxes of macaroni into the cart.

  “Dat way,” a tiny hand popped out of the fake car and Brea pointed for them to go right. She was a real big help. Alex dropped her cans of discount tuna into the back of the cart. Something caught her eye at the front of the store.

  “Mama, Daddy, look,” Alex, pointed her little hand back down the aisle. The two parents took their time to turn and see what she was talking about. It’s not very often that a five-year-old finds something interesting that is actually interesting to the parents. It was a man. He stood hunched over and pressed up against the window just to the left of the electric sliding doors. The doors remained shut. He hadn’t set off the sensor.

  Cliff and Tina had to do a double take and if a record were playing music in the store it would have scratched to a halt. The man was dressed in his Sunday finest. A black suit and tie, but the thing that caught their eye was the fact that he was missing a good portion of his face. His body swayed back and forth. He looked confused and lost, like this was the first grocery store he had ever seen. Blood smeared across the glass as his forehead rubbed slowly from one side to the other.

  A gangly teenaged stock-boy stopped filling a display of apples and moved closer to the front door. “Tom get over here. This guy is really hurt!”

  The man in the suit’s forehead sounded like a windshield wiper dragging across dry glass. A chunk of metal protruded from his chest. It was blood soaked and sticking through both sides of his torso. The sharp metal tip ground loudly across the window every time he swayed back and forth. The manager jogged over next to the stock boy.

  “Wow! What the… Darleen, call an ambulance.” Tom told the woman behind the cashier’s counter. The two co-workers moved slowly for the front door. They had a difficult time telling if the man was looking at them, his eyes were solid black. The two of them moved in a little closer. Seeing someone this injured had put the two men into a state of shock.

  “I should go see if I can help,” Tina moved away from Cliff’s side.

  He quickly grabbed her arm and stopped her, “I don’t know. We don’t want to get sued. Let the store take care of it.” He gave her arm a squeeze. She knew he was right, but it was in her nature to want to help people. “Let’s go, kids.” The two of them maneuvered the oldest children so their curious eyes couldn’t see the injured man.

  The sensor to the front door was set off when Tom stepped into its range and the door slid open. The man at the window jumped with animal purpose. He darted in through the doors and a second later he pulled Tom to the floor and had chomped off most of his fingers with a few bites. Tom’s screams filled the store. Cliff let go of the cart and took a few steps back into the aisle to get a better look.

  “What’s happening?” Tina called after him.

  “Someone is getting attacked!”

  The stock-boy reached out and pulled the man off of Tom. He was swiftly pulled to the ground and the man with half a face tore into the teen. His teeth smashed down onto the young man’s thigh.

  Blood sprayed onto the cheap linoleum floor.

  Cliff bolted down the aisle and grabbed a twelve pack of beer that sat on top of a display. He got close to the attacker and tossed the box at the man with everything he had. The domestic bottles clanked around in the box as it flew through the air. It hit the man with the missing skin and knocked him off the teen. The box exploded and bottles crashed to the floor. The air filled with the metallic smell of blood and the sweet smell of hops. The shattered bottles fizzed on the floor and the blood mixed with the amber colored suds.

  Cliff looked over at Tom. The manager was laid out on his back, his mangled hands in front of his face. His screams were only broken up by the few seconds it took to fill his lungs with more air. A few of his fingers dangled by threads of flesh. Blood pumped out of his wounds and back down onto his face and chest.

  The teen clutched his leg. His black slacks had gone shiny with the blood that pooled underneath the fabric. He whimpered fearfully. Cliff had worked construction for ten years. He had seen his fair share of on the job accidents. Smashed thumbs and deep saw cuts, but nothing at all like this.

  Eve and Alex had broken out in tears. Tina put her arms around them and pulled the two in close. She tried her best to cover their young ears from the cries of pain.

  “Cliff, what the hell are you doing?!” Tina called after him from the back of the store.

  “I don’t know. It’s a mess. Keep the kids back,” he said as he looked over to the woman with a phone pressed to her ear. “Did you get ahold of an ambulance?”

  She shook her head no, “Nine-one-one is busy. No one’s picking up.”

  “All right don’t panic!” Cliff looked around and realized all eyes were on him. There were a good twenty people, staff and customers watching the action unfold. Cliff had never liked being the center of attention. He wished he had not gotten involved, but it was too late now. He looked over the scene before him.

  “Shit,” he whispered. It was the same as when you decide to clean out the junk in your garage but have no idea where to start. The man in the suit with the missing face slowly got back to his feet.

  “Hey asshole, what are you doing?” shouted Cliff. It dawned on him that this guy might try and attack him. One of the bottles survived the crash and rolled over next to Cliff’s foot. He bent down and plucked it from the floor. Cliff held it up in the air by the neck. Deep down he had always wanted to smash someone with a beer bottle like in a movie bar fight.

  The man lunged at Cliff. The bottle shattered across the man’s forehead and chunks of glass were buried deep into the exposed muscle. There was a distinct sound of the skull cracking from the blow. It was like a baseball hitting a wooden bat at ninety-miles an hour and Cliff had hit a home run. The sound echoed through the entire store.

  The body of the man in the suit stiffened, fell straight back and his skull cracked again on the hard floor. Cliff’s heart pounded in his chest. What was left of the bottle shook in his hand. He kept it perched high in the air. Ready to strike if this crazy son-of-a-bitch got up again. Black blood oozed out of the cracked skull and mixed with the other two growing pools on the floor.

  “Cliff?! You tell me right now, what’s going on?” Tina demanded after him. She stayed behind the shelving with her arms wrapped tight around the children so they didn’t escape and run to their father.

  “He tried to attack me and I hit him with a bottle. They pick up that call?” Cliff looked over to Darleen.

  “I keep calling but no one’s there.” She dropped the phone on the hanger.

  Cliff looked back over the audien
ce. A guy in his early twenties held up his phone and recorded everything.

  “Hey, dipshit. Stop recording and call the cops!”

  “No way, bro. I’m selling this to the news.” The guy with the phone angled around to get a better look at Cliff’s face.

  “Turn that shit off!” Cliff realized he was holding the jagged broken bottle while threatening the guy and doing it all on video. Cliff tossed the broken bottle to the ground and it shattered. A girl standing next to the cameraman thumbed through her phone.

  “The internet is going nuts. Something about an infection that spreads through bites,” she said as her face held a look of disgust.

  “Infection?” Cliff rubbed the hairs on the back of his head, “What kind of infection is that?”

  An old man with a cane waddled next to the bleeding teen. He struggled to get down on one knee. He read the kid’s nametag. Jake.

  “All right Jake. Let’s take a look.” The old man set his cane down and produced a pearl-handled switchblade from his pants pocket. He flicked it open and cut the cuff at the bottom of Jake’s pants. The fabric tore easily once he got it going. He ripped it past Jake’s knee and revealed the mouth-sized gash in his thigh. The tear in his skin already looked festered. The veins around the wound had turned black. Cliff looked over at Tom on the ground and the same black lines streaked down his wrists.

  “You’re going to be okay,” the old man lied, “Try and keep pressure on it,” the old man faced Cliff and shrugged his shoulders.

  Cliff kneeled next to Tom and hesitated to reach out and comfort the stranger.

  “Hang in there, buddy.” Cliff glanced over at the woman behind the counter, “Darleen, right? You have a first aid kit?”

  “In the manager’s office.”

  “Go get it.”

  “The door’s locked and he’s got the keys.”

  Against his better judgment Cliff dug into the man’s pants. He found the keys and tossed them over to Darleen. She caught them and took off for the office.

  A woman raced into the store from the parking lot. She was covered in blood and yelling at the top of her lungs, “Please help! My husband tried to kill me!” She finally noticed the nightmare taking place in here, “Oh my God, it’s spreading!”

  “Calm down! You’re gonna be okay,” Cliff said as he stood back up.

  “Cliff, what the hell is happening?!” Tina’s voice had become strained.

  “I don’t know! Keep the kids back there!” Cliff’s eyes focused on the commotion outside the glass doors. More of the infected people were running around attacking people in the parking lot. “Goddamn it!”

  A sports car peeled out and ran over two infected humans. They scraped across the ground and slammed into the sidewalk outside the store. They popped right back up onto their feet and chased down the sports car. Chunks of their bodies were left on the ground, but it did not slow them down. They ran with a determination Cliff had never seen before.

  The woman’s teeth chattered from fear. She held out and examined her sticky, blood soaked hands. She talked quickly, “Someone bit my husband. Then he tried to bite me. I ran. I think I’m going to throw up.”

  Darleen raced back from the manager’s office. She was out of breath from the short run. A first aid kit rattled in her shaking hands. She slid down next to Tom and popped open the small plastic box.

  Both Tom and Jake’s bodies started to convulse on the floor. It looked like they were having seizures. Cliff stepped back and watched as the skin pulled tight around their mouths and their eyes filled with black blood. The reality of the situation sunk in. Whatever this infection was had spread. Cliff’s legs would not move even though his brain was screaming.

  RUN!

  “Tina…?” he called over his shoulder.

  Jake grabbed the old man next to him as Tom latched onto Darleen. They bit into their victims at the same time.

  A collective scream rocketed through the store.

  The woman at the front door ran back out into the parking lot and was gobbled up by a pack of infected humans.

  Jake tore the larynx out of the old man. Tom chowed down on Darleen’s eye. Cliff grabbed the cane next to the old man and swung it onto the back of Jake’s head. The old wood snapped and the handle flew across the floor.

  Infected-Jake let go of the old man and eyed the tasty treat that was Cliff.

  “What the fuck is going on?!” Tina screeched.

  Infected-Jake sprang toward Cliff.

  “Aaahhhh!” Cliff cried out as he backed away from the attack, he eyed the sharp point of the cane in his hand. Infected-Jake got within a few feet. Cliff’s grip tightened.

  Tina pointed in her children’s faces, “Stay here with your sisters!”

  She rounded the corner of the aisle and saw her husband square off with the teen. The palm of Cliff’s hand wrapped tight around the rubber tip at the end of the walking stick. He plunged the newly formed weapon at the kid’s face. The sharp point slid easily into the eye socket of infected-Jake. It came to an abrupt stop when the cane hit the back of its skull. The body dropped to the floor. Taking the cane with it to the floor.

  Tina watched in shock. “What did you do?!” she yelled at him.

  Just beyond her husband she saw Tom ripping Darleen to shreds. In a flash it occurred to her just how serious all of this was. Over the last ten years she had developed a morbid obsession with disasters. Natural or man-made. She was smart enough to know that the groceries on the shelves were all the store had and if the supply lines were cut, there would be no more food. Between the twenty some people watching the drama take place a unified idea began to form. It went something like this.

  This shit is insane! It’s time to loot!

  The group scattered in all directions. They left poor Darleen to her demise.

  Cliff dashed back down the aisle and joined his wife, “It’s an infection! If they bite you, you get it! The kid had whatever it is! I had to kill him!” They ran together and reunited with the children. Cliff’s face had gone pale and his knees felt weak.

  “Daddy you have blood on you,” Eve pointed to the red dots that speckled his old gray t-shirt. Cliff looked down at the red. All he could see was red. His eyes fluttered and he gasped for air. In high school Cliff had been in a few fistfights. Even though he won most of them, he always hated how he felt after. The adrenaline charged through his body. The realization of how badly he could have been hurt. The fear of death. These feelings pounded in his head and the truth of what just took place had crippled him for the moment.

  Tina pulled Cliff by the wrist, “We have to grab supplies and get home!” She turned to the children, “Climb in with your sister!”

  “We won’t fit!” Eve talked back.

  “Do it now!” Tina slapped her hands together hard enough to make her palms sting and the kids jumped. It only took a few seconds for them to squeeze into the toy car at the front of the cart. There was only space for two kids, but they made it work. “Think baby, what do we need!”

  All around them people screamed and emptied shelves. Cliff’s computer needed to reboot. It was slowly coming back online, but like most old processors it took time.

  “Food and water.” The words stumbled out of his mouth.

  “We need things that won’t go bad.” She rubbed at his shoulder to get him back on track.

  “Dry foods. Like rice and beans!”

  “Let’s grab what we need and get the fuck out of here!” Tina gave him a hard punch on the shoulder and he was back. Out of his panicked state and ready to function.

  A set of shoes raced down the aisle toward them. It was infected-Tom. His mouth soaked in blood. Eyes black. Hands reached out in front of him. A few digits swung back and forth.

  Cliff grabbed the handle on the cart and started moving. It was even harder to push with ninety more pounds in the toy car. Tina gripped the metal edge of the cart and helped him steer the damn thing.

  Infected-Tom gained on them
.

  The children in the toy car screamed at the top of their lungs. Cliff hoped he could outrun the infected body chasing his family. The last thing he wanted to do was stand and face it unarmed.

  They rounded a corner that led them to the bulk food aisle. He checked over his shoulder at the monster hot on their trail. Cliff searched the store for something to use as a weapon and defend his family. It was all bags of chips, soda cans, beef jerky and batteries. There was nothing here that could help him take the beast down.

  Tina reached out and pulled bag after bag off the shelf and dumped them into the cart. Rice, flour, sugar and salt. She grabbed boxes of pasta, bags of beans, tubs of peanut butter and honey. All the staples she could get her hands on. It reminded her of a game show she used to watch on TV in Mexico, an old school, grocery store giveaway. Where couples raced down the aisle filling up their carts as fast as they could to see who could get the most food the fastest. The thrill of grabbing all this food and knowing she was not going to pay for it was almost worth the threat of death.

  In the rows across the store they could hear the sounds of people screaming as the infection spread one bite at a time. The cart moved slower and slower with every item she dropped into the wire-framed basket.

  They rounded another corner close to the meat section of the store. Cliff could not ignore infected-Tom any longer. The snapping sound of the monsters teeth told him just how close the danger was.

  He turned to face the infected.

  Tina felt the cart come to a stop the second Cliff let go.

  “What are…?” she was cut off by Cliff’s strenuous scream.

  Cliff stood feet shoulder width apart, his back to the butcher shop and ready for the impact. The moment infected-Tom was about to strike, Cliff side stepped and used the monster’s own momentum to shove the infected into the glass case of seafood.

  Infected-Tom, face-planted hard into the solid glass surface. Cliff wasted no time and put his size twelve boot right into the back of its skull and smashed it into the glass. The window shattered and a large sliver found its way into infected-Tom’s face. The body went limp under his foot as shellfish and ice spilled out onto the floor. Cliff was not a violent man. Now that he was an adult he hated most forms of conflict. But no one fucked with his family.