by Evans, Mike
Tina beat Shaun to it. “Uh, I don’t know… pinch myself and wake up from this horrible nightmare, maybe?”
Ellie reached up further, pinching them both, making each yelp. “We’re not dreaming, Tina, so what’s our second plan of attack here?”
Shaun unbuckled his belt, grabbed his assault rifle, and tried to be the calm one. “We need to get out of here. They'll bash in the windows happily with their faces just to get the chance to get a piece of us.”
Tina gripped his arm. “Wait—maybe they will lose interest in us.”
The three stared out the damaged, blood-soaked window, focusing on a man dressed in what might have once been a white tracksuit who was missing his right arm. A stain of blood had painted the right side of him red. He looked around, walking slow at first, sniffing and tilting his head so as to get a better angle to listen and smell. Ellie whispered, “Oh shit, would you look at that guy.”
The man snapped his head back down, looking straight at Ellie with dead eyes and screamed a primal growl toward the van. Those Turned who hadn’t been aware of what treasure was in the van, were now staring at it screaming along with him. Shaun looked to Tina quickly; worry spread across his face. “You, uh, still want to stay in the van, Tina?”
Tina shook her head quickly. “No, no I don’t.”
Shaun pushed up from his seat, sliding past Ellie and walking to the rear door of the van.
Tina said frantically, “Wait! Where are we going to go? We can’t just be on the street out there with those things. They’ll hunt us down and you know that!”
Shaun gripped an abandoned shirt in the corner of the van and a tire iron as he pushed the doors open. He yelled over his shoulder, “Anywhere but here!”
Ellie said, “Well, that’s a great plan there, General Fox.”
“Funny, Ellie; get Patrick’s medicine or we made this trip for nothing.”
Ellie gripped the backpack that held Patrick’s medicine and slid it around her shoulders. Shaun jumped out, looking around. He pointed and said, “You two try Bynum’s Hardware Store and see if the door is open before I do this.”
Ellie questioned him, “What are you going to do, Shaun?”
“Ellie, just do it… please?”
She wanted to say something back but nodded, seeing the desperation to save them in his eyes. The girls ran to the hardware store’s door and it opened. Shaun, seeing this, gathered the rest of the gear in the van, not wanting to leave the rifle or any of the precious ammunition behind. He ran to the store, past both girls, and dropped all but his rifle, which he had slung across his shoulder. He sprinted back toward the side of van with the shirt in hand. He cursed himself when he got there; it was the wrong side. He jogged to the other side and was rewarded with a gas cap. He unscrewed it quickly, tossing it away and started stuffing the dry, old shirt down the hole for the gas pump.
Shaun peered around the side of the van as he was stuffing the dirty shirt down the hole. The Turned had their full attention on the van and had started running for the rusty vehicle with one thing on their mind—the only thing that would ever be on their mind. Food. He pulled a zippo that had belonged to his dad from his pocket and struck it, waiting impatiently for the shirt to catch on fire. As he ran past the van’s back doors for the last time, the one-armed man launched himself in the air and embedded his face into the windshield, becoming stuck. His face was torn to shreds and skin dangled in every which direction from his face. He growled and punched at the window, wanting nothing but to get what would momentarily quench his thirst. Shaun jumped back a foot, as he was caught off guard by how quickly the man had leapt through the air. He watched the man for a moment; there was nothing in his eyes and nothing about him that seemed human anymore. This was the closest he’d come to a full Turned, other than dealing with the Turned teen outside of Andy’s shop.
Ellie screamed from the doorway of Bynum’s Hardware, “Shaun, get your ass in here, for god’s sake! What are you doing out there?”
Shaun didn’t answer; he knew she was right. He ran into the door, slamming it shut and locked the deadbolt. Tina yelled, “What did you do, Shaun?”
Shaun pulled the two of them away from the window and down to the ground just as the van turned into a rusty fireball behind them. The man lodged in the window went up into the air with the blast. The van, also airborne, flipped over and landed on top of him, smashing his skull.
Shaun pushed up off the green and white tile floor. Tiny pieces of glass that blew in from the shop door window fell from his shirt. Filled with adrenaline, Shaun jumped in the air and punched his arms above him, proud of his victory. Ellie and Tina rolled onto their backs, breathing heavily and looking up at Shaun in confusion and shock. Ellie screamed up at him, “Jesus, Shaun, what were you thinking?”
Shaun looked at Ellie and tried to wipe the grin from his face. Then he opened his mouth, ready to respond with a retort and immediately shut it; the severity and weight of his decision hit him instantaneously, turning his stomach upside down.
Ellie could see he knew exactly what he had done. He now understood that he might as well have given the rest of the Turned in town an open invitation… that there was something going on in town. With their heightened sense of smell and hearing, they would know exactly where that party was happening.
Shaun shook his hands in frustration, strangling an imaginary foe. “Shit! I should have known! I thought that maybe all of them would rush the van and I could kill a ton of them.”
Ellie could see in his eyes that he didn’t do this on purpose. She sat up, shaking the glass from her hair. “Well, maybe at least you got the ones outside so we can get out of here.”
After Shaun helped Tina to her feet, they walked slowly and cautiously to the front of the store. The old building had a typical large glass window, but this one was thick and interlaced with wire mesh. They squinted to try to see through the black smoke, which was slowly dissipating. As the smoke continued to drift away, the scene in front of them did nothing to make them feel confident that they’d get out of this in once piece. As the smoke blew away, leaving only a burning van in front of them, they saw the Turned running in packs towards the store, mouths open, clothes bloodied, and their focus on the three of them.
Tina saw this and started to scream, jumping up and down hysterically. Instant memories of the school and the day before consumed her thoughts, making it difficult to process. Shaun reached a hand around her, cupping her mouth tightly. He put his lips close to her ear whispering, “You really need to be quiet right now, Tina. Those things don’t know why the van blew up. They just know that something happened; only a few of them probably know that we are in here. Let’s try to keep it that way for a little while longer. Okay?”
She nodded her head, trying to breathe easy—a task that was made harder with Shaun’s hand over her mouth. She slapped at his hand until he realized he was still covering half of her face and let go. They looked up and down the street; the Turned were absolutely everywhere, vicious and determined, uncaring about the van that was still burning brightly next to them.
The Turned lined up along the building, roaring with rage as they hammered on the van in their way with no care to the extreme heat that was burning their skin and face. The smell of burnt flesh was a force to be reckoned with.
Tina turned away, unable to watch the scene before her. “Ellie, Shaun, what do we do? Can we use one of these tools to make a hole into the building next to us?”
“I don’t think that’s the best idea—”
Ellie cut in before Shaun could finish his thoughts. “Oh yeah, super planner. Because blowing up the van and bringing a whole horde of charbroiled freaks our way was genius!”
Shaun rubbed his hands on his face, trying to remain calm. Between the Turned smacking their fists and faces on the hardware store’s windows and Ellie busting his balls, he was becoming irrational and finding it difficult to think. “If I’d realized the consequences of my actions before I di
d it, then obviously, I wouldn’t have blown the stupid van up. I say we get a crowbar and head up the stairs to the roof.”
They walked an aisle over, looking for the crowbars. Shaun found them and selected one that looked like it could take a lot of abuse. A sound much like a wind chime… or a hanging wrench display… came from somewhere in the back of the store. Tina was grabbing some rope and could already see horrific visions of being lowered off the side of a building to a group of blood-crazed Turned. “Wait a damn minute, why the...”
When the chime sounded, it broke her train of thought and she said, “What the eff was that?”
Shaun walked backward a few steps, looking in the next aisle over and saw nothing. He walked to the back slowly, rifle raised and ready. Ellie whispered, “Shaun… Shaun, don’t be stupid. This is when the dumbass always dies in the movie. Get back here. We can figure out something else.”
Shaun walked up another aisle, looking left and right, training the gun’s sights on it as he did so. Ellie called out one more time, “Shaun, this is a bad idea.”
Shaun looked back over his shoulder, still walking forward. “Ellie, it’s fine. I just want to make sure that everything is okay.”
Ellie didn’t stop for a second. “What about today is ‘okay,’ Shaun? We are in some sort of horrible zombie apocalypse right now and everything outside wants to eat us. We need to get out of here. We don’t have time for—”
Ellie’s face went white. All she could do was point. Tina was perfectly able to produce sound and screamed at a pitch that made everyone, including herself, jump a foot. Shaun whipped his head back around, trying to jump a step back toward Tina and Ellie but as he looked at what he knew they were pointing at, his backward momentum was halted. He was yanked forward as Shaun brought his eyes up to see the Turned shop owner, Bynum. Dried blood surrounded each of his dead eyes and his right arm sported a darkened, purple bite wound just above a tattoo of a scorpion and his hand was locked around his rifle barrel. Shaun tried to pull his rifle from his grip, but Bynum had him dead to rights. The Turned growled lowly, mouth open, reaching in for a taste.
Shaun wasted no more time. He pulled the trigger three times, sending three shots into the man’s chest—bam! bam! bam! The shots made the shop owner back up a few feet, dragging Shaun with him. Shaun and Bynum looked down at the smoke coming from the holes in the Turned man’s chest. He did not so much as flinch when he’d been shot.
Shaun tugged to get the rifle free. Bynum hurled Shaun into the air and let go of the rifle in the process. Tina and Ellie both screamed as they watched their friend soar through the air. Shaun collided into a rack of electric supplies and his rifle skidded in the opposite direction. He did not have the ability to shoot it anyway with the two girls in his line of sight.
He pushed up off of the ground, feeling the hit he had taken in his back. He needed to be able to think on his feet, so he did his best to shake the dazed feeling off. He heard the Turned shop owner growling and saw him twist his head sideways when the girls’ screams caught his attention. Licking his lips, Bynum changed direction and began his pursuit of Ellie and Tina. The girls wasted no time running around the corner, both screaming at the top of their lungs.
Shaun ran after them, looking at the walls lined with odd-and-end tools, not finding anything that could be used as a weapon. Then he noticed an axe lying on the middle shelf near the end of the aisle. He grabbed it by its long wood handle as he ran past. He gripped the edge of a shelf as he skidded around the corner and continued running with no worry or fear about his own well-being; he was only concerned about Tina and Ellie. A few feet away, the girls were cornered and both pressed up against the wall, holding each other. As the Turned reached for them, Shaun brought the axe high above his head as he had done a thousand times before when cutting wood with his dad. He gripped the handle tightly and brought it down with all the force that he had in his body. The blade whistled through the air, embedding itself so far into the skull that the blade was no longer visible, and then split the Turned man’s skull in half. Dark red blood poured from the front and rear of his head. His arms dropped immediately and he fell to his knees, collapsing to the side. The girls both squirmed, moving away from the infected blood coming their way, jumping up on the shelving to get out of its reach.
Shaun placed his boot on Bynum’s shoulder and pulled up and down on the handle until he got the axe head dislodged from the man’s skull. He wiped the blade left and right on the corpse’s black shirt until the silver gleamed under the store’s lights. “Are you two all right?”
Ellie shook her head no, pointing at the window where the Turned were doing everything they could to bust their way through the glass wire mesh. As if that wasn’t enough, the doorframe was beginning to give way. They ran back and grabbed the rope in case they needed it. Shaun jogged to where he had gotten his rifle taken away, retrieved it, and also picked up a cover for the axe. Tina yelled, “What are you doing? Don’t we have enough stuff?”
Shaun held it up. “It’s quiet. They won’t know if we are taking one of them out with this thing. The gun is too loud. They’ll know we’ve left if we need to use it again and that there is something new happening elsewhere. We want to keep them here as long as possible to buy us some time.”
Tina nodded, thinking of what she wanted to say, not really agreeing. “Don’t we have bullets… like to shoot those things with? Can’t we just shoot our way out of here?”
“If you and Ellie could shoot these rifles then we’d stand a chance... maybe. Anyway, it seems like any noise we make just brings these things in by the masses.”
Ellie was unsure as well, but the door and its wooden frame was at its limit and beginning to buckle as fists and skulls repeatedly struck it. If they all came in while they were still on the ground floor, no words needed to be said as to what would be the end result. If they waited around debating much longer, it would be the end for them. They ran for the stairs as the front door finally gave way and a mob pushed through. They flooded the small space, filling the aisles as they made their way to the back of the shop, not finding what they were hungry for. They jumped over Bynum’s body, not interested in the flesh of another of the Turned.
The teens rounded the corner just in time to stay off their radar, only their smell couldn’t be masked, and their scent lingered in the air. They took the narrow wood steps three at a time, pumping their legs to get out of there. When they made it to the second floor, they saw there was a ladder leading to the roof. Shaun mouthed a thank you to God; he didn’t know yet if those things could climb, but he figured there was a good chance that they couldn’t. Then again, after seeing them jump, he was unsure if it’d make any difference.
Shaun stood guard at the bottom of the ladder. “Get up that ladder! Do it now! Go!”
Ellie climbed quickly and lifted the rusty metal door upward, letting it fall open. She climbed the additional steps and disappeared for a moment. Tina called up to her, “Ellie, how’s it look up there?”
Ellie, who was feeling a little better, hollered back down, “It looks like a roof Tina. Wait—hold on.” She disappeared again and then came back to the opening. “Definitely a roof. Why don’t you two come up and join me? It’s zombie free.”
The fact that it was clear was all Tina needed to hear, and she quickly disappeared over the top to the roof herself. Just as Shaun placed his hand on the first rung of the ladder, a choir of growling echoed its way up the stairway, sending chills up his spine. Shaun looked around the corner and down the stairs to see five Turned running up the steps, taking impossible leaps and bounds. They were clawing at each other as they tried to be the first to make it to the second floor. They left bloody hand and footprints on the walls as they fought their way up the steps.
Shaun felt sick; he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it up the long ladder in time with the rate they were coming up the stairs. Shaun laid the axe on the ground and brought up the rifle. He did not want to draw the atte
ntion of the rest of the Turned, but at the same time knew if he did not take care of the ones closest to him, they in turn would take care of him. He shouldered the rifle, getting the first one of them in the gun’s iron sights, squeezing the trigger repeatedly.
He took out two with his first three shots, snapping their heads back and sending them backward tumbling down the stairs. After missing the third, he breathed a long breath, letting half of it out. He could hear his dad over his shoulder as he patted him on the back. “Remember, Shaun, if you aren’t in control of the gun, the gun is of no use to you. You need to breathe son, but you can’t rock the gun, or you just have one expensive paperweight in your hands.”
Shaun laughed to himself, thinking of his dad. He aimed true and fired a fourth and fifth time, taking out two more. They rolled head over shoulders down the stairway, colliding with each other. The fifth got toward the top of the steps and leapt at Shaun. He didn’t have time to squeeze the trigger; instead, he stepped to the side and kicked it in the face, sending teeth and blood spatter across the wall. As it growled from where it lay on the steps, Shaun put a foot on its shoulder and shot it through the back of the head.
Ellie poked her head down, looking as worried as a person could. “Shaun, stop shooting those things and get your ass up here now!”
Shaun was already skipping ladder rungs as he made his way to the roof. A brand new set of growling came from below him. He was pulling himself over the top, handing off the axe and gear, when a blackened hand gripped the calf of one of his dangling legs. He looked down at the Turned that had a firm grasp on his jeans. Shaun’s mind flashed back to his father and the Turned bastard who took a bite and infected him.
Shaun looked at the items in front of him; the axe was the only thing in reachable distance. He gripped it and remembered putting the cover on top of the blade, but he had no time to get it off. He saw the Turned, who once was a woman. Her hair was burned and melted to the side of her face, her lips gone from the fire, and her hands blackened and burned. She had a strong grip on him and started pulling herself up, mouth wide open and her neck bent back at an angle no human was capable of.
