by Kris Weeks
Nate backed up against a wooden pole to use as a semi hiding spot for any others to not see him and rest. He peeked around the pole but could not see the others through the darkness. Assuming they were long gone or as far as they could stagger, he slid down the pole and sat down. He still kept an eye and ear open but let his thoughts run through his head.
He thought about how he could save the crew from Eric’s wrath that they dealt with on a daily basis, he thought about his familyhe had lost, he thought about Rue.
Nate shook his head. “What the hell did she pop into my mind for?” Nate smiled as he thought about their kiss and how it was almost like she was playing hard to get just because they were in the apocalypse. In the real world, she would not have resisted Nate’s charm; but this wasn’t the real world, was it? Nate thought about it a bit more and came to the conclusion that she was just scared, mainlyof Eric since she had been with him from day one. She had seen what he could do and how he did it. Nate wished that he could save her and the kids to.
He let his conclusion meander through his head for a bit longer when a noise brought him back. He jumped up ready to fight for his life and ran his eyes over the area all around him. He could not see anything and once again turned full circle then leaned back against the pole, but still ready. The sun would be showing soon and he knew that he would be able to see a bit better. He turned his head one way then the other to keep a good search on the area and let his mind go back to a bit of wandering.
His thoughts were quickly interrupted when he felt his neck being squeezed back against the pole. He dropped the pitch fork and grabbed at what felt like a rope that was holding him against the wood. He could feel the grip tightening and could not get his fingers in to pull it off. He followed the rope with his trembling fingers behind his head with hope to find the end and release himself, but felt nothing but more rope when a whisper stopped all of his movement.
“You listen to me you stupid son of a bitch! I have tried my damndest to keep all of you idiots safe, I took you in and gave you somewhere to be safe and all you all have done is looked at me as an asshole.”
Nate knew immediately who it was and knew that this would turn out like the others and he was going to get rid of him. “You are an ass…” Nate was interrupted by tightening of the rope.
“Why Nate? Why am I an asshole? Because I told you how shit was going to be, or because I killed off peoplethat were going to get us killed? Is it because I teach children how to survive in this world? Or is it just because you have a problem with authority?”
“Fuck off!” Nate huffed out with a rasp. The rope loosened a bit and allowed Nate to take in a breath. “How about this, I will try to not be such an asshole as much, and you stay away from my wife! You got that shit?”
Nate stopped struggling and stood very still taking in what Eric had just said. “Your wife?”
“Yea, my wife! I have seen the way you look at her and the way she has looked at you back. Stay away or next time, I won’t loosen this rope at all.”
He let theropefall totheground and Nate bent forward and caught his hands on his knees. He took in deep breaths and turned his head to see Eric walking back down the steps without even a worry that Nate would come after him.
“What a cocky son of a bitch.” Nate wrapped his hand aroundhis throat and rubbed.
CHAPTER 7
NATE STRAIGHTENEDup
and leaned back up against the pole before pulling himself forward with the decision it was not a good idea since thatis howhe got trapped byEric before. “His fucking wife, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Nate said to himself.
The dim light was starting to brighten the skyfrom the morning sun. The dew showed itself on each blade of grass and the stars all disappeared one by one as Nate processed the information.
He watched for any drunks roaming around, but mainly how he was going to act toward Rue. The sun was peeking out showing plentyof light for him to go back in to maybe eat something and join the others; but he questionedhimself onif that iswhat he wanted to do. He had never seen them kiss, or even share anykind of intimate time. Theywere behind closed doors at times, but there was no indication of them being married.
Nate’s stomach grumbled as he made his way down the stairs and unchained the gate. He stepped in and chained it back well enough that no one could get in without them hearing the chain. He ran his hand through his hair, pushed it back out of his face and walked into the shop.
Everyone was up moving things around and Andrew handed him a small bag of chips. “Saved one for you bro.”
Nate nodded with a thank you and tore the bag open. “What’s going on?” Willy tried to move one of the shelves with his shoulder twice before answering and giving up. “Eric says there is no point in leaving right now since we have some water and a bit of foodthat we foundin the back. He may send some of us out later to gather up some more food though.”
Nate nodded and leaned against the door frame and watched Willy try to move the shelf again when Andrew made his way to the shelf picked the side up with one hand and moved it up against the wall. “There ya go!”
Nate laughed at the situation as Willy watched Andrew walk across the room as if he had done something wrong. “You okay man?” Willy asked quietly.
Nate nodded and caught sight of Rue gathering up things moving them to the back room. She looked at him and then away quickly as Eric walked in to the main portion of the store. “We are going to go out and gather a few things we may need. There is some food here, but mainly just snacks. So Willy, Nate, and Andrew, I know there are a few stores north of here, you may want to hit those.” He tossed the keys to Nate as he passed by him and went outside.
Nate bit his tongue as Eric shut the door next to him. He meandered across the shop running his hands over some of the shelves when he came to the back room. He stood in the door way and stared at Rue. “Married, really?”
Rue jumped when she heard his voice and turned to him. “Nate, I told you I was married.”
N ate scoffed at her answer. “You did not tell me that you were married to him!” He half whispered. “Why would you not divulge that information?”
Rue turned from settling her remaining children and took a step at Nate. “I am not proud of that at this point in time, don’t you get that?”
Nate dropped his head as she scolded him about her unhappy marriage. “I sat and thought a lot about getting away from him, but every time we have the chance, we are always split up and we can’t just leave others stuck with Eric.”
“He does that on purpose, he is either going to use children or people that you care about to keep you from leaving. He acts like a bad ass, but he used to be absolutelycaring and loving until all of this started. Now it is like he needs to keep people around to save him from this fucked up world!” Rue covered her mouth after the curse word slipped out in front of her children.
Barker turned with a surprised look on his face thathis mother had just said that and laughed. “I have never heard you cuss before mom.” He smiled.
Rue became aggravated and huffed as she flailed her arms in the air and back to her sides. “Now look what you have done!”
Nate snickered at her blaming him for her cuss word. “Rue, he does not deserve you, he is not good. But, I have been warned to stay away from you and he would quit being such an asshole, so I guess it is what it is. I am always here if you need me.”
Rue took a deep breath. “He will never quit being an asshole as long as he has people to protect him from the world of zombies. Real people he can handle, they are predictable. It’s the zombies, he is scared of.”
Nate shook his head and turned to walk away. “Nate!” Nate stopped at the sound of his name coming from her sweet lips and turned back to her. “Thank you.” She stated.
Nate nodded, turned back around and left her be. He motioned for Willy and Andrew to come as he opened the door. “Stay safe ladies.” He told the room full of women as they gathered a wea
pon for each of them. “We will be back soon.”
They headed to the gate, unchained it and up the mass amount of steps to the parked van. Nate jumped in the driver’s seat and Andrew got shot gun, with Willy in the back.
“Okayguys, let’sget as far off as we can and then work our way back; gather what we can and stock pile this van full of some good shit!” Nate suggested as he revved the engine.
Both of the guys agreed and Nate turned out of the parking lot. He drove a few miles north and passed quite a few convenient stores as well as small mom and pop shops before coming to a place called Super Foods. “Looks like as good of a place as any.” Nate popped the van in park in front of the door.
They all scanned the area for any drunks, hopped out of the van, grabbed their weapons and headed to the front door. Willy’s trusty rebar came in handyas he pried open the sliding door and entered without a problem. Nate pushed the door back closed with his foot and Andrew pushed him a blue buggy to roll around the store with. Andrew pointed at Willy to the way he needed to go, then to Nate and the way he needed to go. “Hey bro, military days are gone, this the apocalypse!! I’m going this way.” Nate joked.
Andrew just shook his head at his jokester friend and went on about down the aisle in front of him. There was much more than they expected on the shelves. The rotten meat was still lying in its place in what used to be a cooler while the rotten smell assaulted their noses as they made it about halfway to the back of the store. They all pulled the collars of their shirts up over their noses and continued loading their baskets with cans of tuna and Vienna sausages along with vegetables and bags of noodles.
“Hey guys, come take a look at this!” Willy hollered over the aisles. Andrew and Nate made their way to him where there were shelves lined with sweets galore. Boxes of donuts and candy. Nate then moved to the next aisle that was loaded with bags of nuts and different snacks. Andrew moved past Nate to an aisle with lighter fluid and charcoal. “We are set, load it up!” Nate hollered.
The three carried armfuls out to the van one by one as the others stood watch. “Still going to hit the other stores on the way back.” Nate let them know as they closed the back doors to the van.
“I grabbed a can opener and a few knives I found. I also got some of that charcoal and lighter fluid and some lighters.” Andrew made known.
“I got some of those noodles and a couple of the pots, we can make some spaghetti over the fire.”
Both Nate and Andrew gazed at Willy for a moment in thought over spaghetti. “It could work!” Nate laughed.
Nate pulled out of the lot, pointed the van back toward the zoo before Andrew hollered. “WATCH OUT!”
Nate slammed on the brakes and came to stop as a man and woman stood in his way. They all sat there for a moment and watched the dirty clothed couple, they watched their eyes blink, their chests rise in normal fashion and realized that they were people, not zombies. Nate jumped out. “Y’all okay?”
The woman nodded with tears streaming down her face and the man stared at Nate. “You’re real?” He half questioned.
“Well, yeah, if you have seen zombies driving a car, we are all up shit creek.” Nate joked. “Get in the damn van before we get ate out here.”
The couple went to the side and were let in through the sliding door by Willy. They both sat still in their seats and wiped one layer of dirt from their face. The other layers still remained and they both had tired eyes. The woman was no bigger than maybe a hundred pounds, while the man was a good two hundred and twenty pounds. Their clothes were torn and ratty and if they would have been growling, they could have been taken as zombies. They both looked to be scraped up pretty bad from the brush of woods with many cuts on their arms and face.
“You two okay?” Willy asked. The two shot their eyes behind them at Willy and stared before turning around when Andrew began to speak. “I am Andrew, this here is Nate and back there is Willy. Are y’all okay?”
The couple slowly nodded their heads. “Do you have something to drink?” The timid woman asked.
They both jumped when Willy rustled around behind him, pulled out a two liter bottle of some kind of sparkling water they had collected and handed it to them. The man twisted off the top then handed it to the woman. She chugged as much as she could and handed it back to the man. He chugged the rest and dropped the bottle to his lap. “My name is Edward, this here is Kindra. We have been in the area since it began. We were pretty secure in a little shack, but were scared to come out. We had been rationing our food, but ran out a couple of weeks ago. When it rained the other day, we were able to collect some water, but have only had a few breakfast bars that we were eating a bite at a time every day. We heard your vehicle so we made our way to the road.”
Nate nodded and handed them the bag of nuts he had pocketed before jumping in to drive. Edward thanked him with his mouth full. “Are you all staying somewhere?” Kindra asked.
Nate, Willy, and Andrew looked at each other silently questioning if they should chance taking them back. “We do have a place to stay, although the leader is not very fond of new people, we can ask if you are able to stay.” Nate warned.
Kindra and Edward looked at each other and nodded. “We have a few more stops to make to collect some things to take back and then we can head back to the zoo.” Willy planned out.
Nate droveon and watched the sides of the road for any unsuspecting drunks falling into his path. Andrew pointed to the right side of the road to direct Nate to pull into a Shell station came into view and Nate pulled close to the door. Andrew scanned the area then pushed open his door. Nate did the same, walked cautiously around the van and pulled the sliding door open for Kindra, Edward, and Willy. They all piled out, making their way to the front door. Andrew cupped his hands around his face and inspected the inside through the dirty glass door.
“Looks clear.” Andrew stated. Willy stepped forward and pulled the door open, surprised it was not locked. The rest filed in to a trashed store. Willy pulled the door closed and saw the mess. “Looks like this place has been hit already.”
Nate nodded to agree and took a few steps forward looking at the chaos on the floor. “But why would they leave all of this stuff scattered on the floor? There are drinks, food and things they could use.”
“Good point!” Andrew agreed. Edward and Kindra quickly began picking things up from the floor filling their arms with food and drinks.
“Wait, you may want to wait until we search the store, something isn’t quite right.” Nate suggested.
Kindra and Edward quickly made their way back toward the front door with what they had collected. Edward shifted his haul to one side and wrapped his arm around Kindra. It almost swallowed her small frame. Nate and Willy cautiously moved forward through the store, sidestepping over the multiple items scattered on the floor, weapons held up. They passed the counter and rounded the last aisle, checking the hallway where the half hanging sign to the restrooms was swinging from. They slowly, side by side took short strides between the cooler doors where drinks used to be and empty shelves where only a few bags of chips still remained. Willy popped his head around the end of the aisle before he stepped out. Nate fell in behind him and took a long circle around the next aisle. Willy and Nate stopped mid step and quickly backed up. A man laid in the middle of the aisle. Blood surrounded his head and puddled out underneath the shelves. Willy slowly stepped forward and ran the end of his broken piece of rebar through the edge of the puddle and pulled it toward him. The dark red blood streamed towards him. “It’s fairly fresh.”
Nate stood tall and looked around the store, over to the door and waved his hand for Andrew, Kindra, and Edward to go back outside. Nate and Willy backed away from the dead man’s body into the main back aisle and began edging tothe next aisle, they turned so that they were back to back to be able to have an all-around view. They inched slowly through the aisle, made it to the main front aisle, and took slow steps towards the door. Nate stuck his hand in front
of him to push the door open when out from the bathroom hallway flew a woman with an axe. Willy held his rebar out at the axe wielding woman and blocked the swinging weapon that she swung toward him. Nate jumped, turned quickly and football tackled the woman; keeping his pitchfork gripped tight as he fell to the ground with her. He grabbed the axe with his free hand and slid it behind him at Willy. He jumped up off of the woman and held the pitchfork to her chest. She put her hands up above her head and stared at Nate.
CHAPTER 8
WILLY WATCHED Nate,
wondering if he was going to kill her. “Please sir, don’t kill me!” Nate pulled the pitchfork back and stepped away from her. She shot up, grabbed the pitchfork above the prongs of the fork and pulled it toward her taking it from his grip. Nate shuffled backwards into Willy, the short haired woman sprang up from the floor and pointed the fork at them. Both of the men jumped backwards and through the glass door as fast as theycould. The woman followed them out holding them at bay with the pitchfork. She continued to walk towards them as they both hit the front of the van then rounded the side of it. Willy placed his hand on Nate’s shoulder and pulled him around the back losing sight of the woman. As she rounded the backof the van, the back swinging door flung open and knocked the crazy woman down. Andrew jumped from the back of the van and swung the shovel at her hitting her in the head. The pitchfork flew across the parking lot as the woman’s body turned over three times before she landed face down. Andrew walkedtoward her with hisshovel held high. The woman was motionless. He lowered the shovel and poked the bottom of her worn and dirty sneaker. Her leg flopped and made a thud back down on the ground. Nate and Willy walkedto the backof the van and stood next to Andrew.
