Now It Begins

by Gary M. Chesla

  Carl hoped to find a dolly so he could cart the four cases of beer back to the motel in one trip. From his extensive personal experience, he knew all bars had a dolly in the storeroom to cart cases of beer into the storage room when the beer truck arrived for its weekly delivery.

  With any luck, he might also find a few more cases of Bud Light in the back.

  The store room was almost totally dark. Carl flipped the light switch twice then started to laugh.

  “These jerks probably weren’t able to pay their electric bill,” he laughed at himself. “I can identify with that.”

  When he let his hand slide down from the light switch, his hand bumped into some sort of handle.

  Carl felt around until he found the handle again and pulled.

  A dolly rolled back towards him.

  “OK,” Carl said to himself and pulled the dolly out into the dim light, turned it around and set it by the bar.

  He stood for a few seconds and looked back at the storeroom. He hated to leave without checking out what was in the storeroom, but he had four cases of beer that would be all his if he could get them back to the motel before anyone else showed up.

  Those army guys seemed to have a way of showing up when he least expected them, so he decided to take what he had and get back to the motel.

  He had a flashlight in his truck. He would come back later and go through the store room.

  He smiled, “A beer in the hand was worth more than a dozen beers surrounded by those beer guzzling soldiers. Those damn guys drank more than he did.”

  Carl shut the door to the store room and then pulled the dolly around to the front of the bar.

  He started to stack the cases on the dolly.

  As he set the third case on the stack, he heard a noise come from across the room.

  A movement in the dark shadows in the far corner of the room drew his attention to the corner.

  Carl stood nervously staring into the shadows.

  The worst thing he could imagine would be the guy who had tried to rob the bar would be standing over there with a gun, ready to shoot him and take his beer.

  Carl stared into the shadows.

  “Hello,” Carl said. “I’m just going to take my beer and leave. I don’t want any trouble. You can have everything back in the storeroom. Believe me it is loaded. You can have all the whiskey behind the bar too. You can keep all the good stuff.”

  Carl waited but there was no response.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Carl grinned nervously, “so if it is OK with you, I’ll just be on my way.”

  Keeping one eye on the corner, Carl lifted the final case of beer and put it on top of the other cases. He slowly wrapped the leather strap around the cases to keep them from falling off the dolly on the way over to the motel.

  Just as he was about to grab the dolly, he heard a scraping noise coming from the corner. Then he began to see something moving out of the darkness.

  He could barely make out what the shape was.

  “I could leave you a few beers if you would like,” Carl said nervously, “I don’t want any trouble, honest.”

  Carl moved behind the dolly for protection. He was ready to drop down behind the dolly and crawl behind the bar if he heard the hammer being pulled back on a gun.

  “If you have a problem with my offer, please say something,” Carl said, “but I think my offer is very generous.”

  The shape moved closer and into the dim light.

  Carl was surprised when a long slender leg moved out of the shadows, followed by a second long attractive leg.

  Carl looked up as the rest of the girl moved out into the light where he could see her.

  A girl about eighteen years old with long brown hair stepped out of the shadows. She had her arms wrapped around herself. Carl could see the blood running down her arms and around the edges of the top of her shredded yellow bathing suit top.

  Carl couldn’t see her face clearly but her head seemed to be leaning to the right. Her head jerked upright but again began to lean to the right, like someone that was trying to stay awake, but kept drifting back off to sleep.

  Carl stood upright behind the dolly, “Are you alright?”

  “I don’t feel too good,” the girl replied weakly.

  “What happened to you?” Carl asked again.

  “They chased me,” the girl started to reply but her voice drifted off to a whisper. “I came in here to hide.”

  Carl moved out from behind the dolly and walked towards the girl, “Don’t worry I won’t hurt you.”

  Carl moved to within a few feet of the girl. She swayed back and forth, unsteady on her feet. She looked like she could fall over at any minute.

  He reached out and took hold of her shoulders and guided her further out into the light.

  He ran his eyes over her. It was difficult to see very clearly in the dimly lit room, but from what he could see, she was quite a knockout.

  “I think I need to take you somewhere where you can lie down,” Carl said then asked, “Do you want me to take you back to my room before those people show up again?”

  “OK,” the girl replied in a whisper right before she collapsed.

  Carl scooped her up in his arms.

  He looked down at her but still couldn’t see much.

  He carried her over closer to the door where the light was brighter and he could get a better look.

  “Not bad,” Carl thought as he looked her over. “The yellow bits of cloth on the jagged glass in the door must be from her bathing suit, snagged there as she ran in through the door. The broken glass must have cut her arms and cut through the right strap of her swim suit.”

  The strap hung down over the top of her swim suit.

  Carl turned as he held the girl in his arms and looked back at the dolly loaded with his beer.

  He thought for a second then tossed the girl up over his shoulder. He walked back to the dolly.

  He reached up and took a firm grip on the girls butt so she wouldn’t slide off his shoulder and grabbed the dolly with his other hand.

  After taking a quick look outside to be sure the street was clear, he pushed the dolly out onto the street, turned left and started back towards the motel.

  The girl’s legs hung down over the dolly. Carl was fascinated by the way the girl had painted her toenails.

  She had the cutest little toes. The toenails were painted yellow to match her swimsuit with little black specs of glitter that sparkled in the sunlight.

  She had a yellow butterfly tattooed on her right darkly tanned ankle. Carl liked tattoos. He could see that she didn’t have any other tattoos, but he liked girls with tattoos. He couldn’t wait to show her some of his tattoos. He just knew she would appreciate the squirrel tattoo he had on his right upper thigh. All the girls at the Starke Bar and Grill liked his squirrel. It had always been a good conversation starter for him at the bar.

  Carl was so focused on the butterfly tattoo, that he didn’t realized that he was back at the motel already.

  “I’ll take her to my room,” he thought, “If I take her to the cottage those two mother hens will want to take care of her and I will never get her to myself.”

  He decided his room would be the best place. He pushed the dolly up to his door and opened the door. He left the dolly outside while he carried the girl inside.

  He took her over to his bed and laid her down on top of the blankets. He brushed her hair away from her face so he could get a better look at her face.

  “You’re a pretty little thing,” Carl smiled.

  He ran his hand over her cheeks.

  “You feel a little cold sweetheart,” Carl said and slowly and pulled the covers over her, “it’s almost a shame to cover you up, but I guess maybe it will help you get better faster while I’m out.”

  Carl admired her for a minute longer then rushed out and pushed the dolly into his room.

  He loosened the strap and unloaded the cases of beer, stacking them on the
stove and kitchen counter.

  He parked the dolly next to his refrigerator. He would take the dolly with him when he went back to the Bridge Tender with his flashlight later to search the storeroom.

  Carl stepped back over to the bed and looked down at the girl as he wiped her blood off of his arms.

  “I wonder what her name is?” he thought, “She looks like a Barbie Doll. I bet her name is Barb.”

  Carl smiled but his smile faded when he remembered that he was supposed to go with Dave and Adam to find food and supplies up at the Circle K.

  “I don’t feel like going out to drag supplies back right now,” Carl thought, “I’m going to go tell them that my head is killing me again. They should believe that, they always fell for that line before. Then I’m going to come back here and take care of Barb. I definitely want to be here when she wakes up. I bet she will be grateful that I got her away from that bar and to someplace safe.”

  Carl smiled as he left his room. It was going to be great to have someone to spend his time with. The fact that she was gorgeous didn’t hurt either.

  He walked up the steps to the cottage.

  He practiced looking like he was in pain so they would believe him when he said his head was killing him.

  It really didn’t take much practice, the painful look had almost become his natural look over the last year.

  Carl walked into the cottage and saw Maggie and Nicole sitting on the couch, watching the kids playing on the floor as they talked.

  They looked up as he walked in.

  “Where have you been?” Maggie asked, “The guys decided they couldn’t wait any longer. They left about twenty minutes ago.”

  “Sorry,” Carl lied, “I got myself locked in the Bridge Tender’s store room. It took me twenty minutes to find a way out. I finally had to crawl out a window. But I was going to ask if they wouldn’t mind if I just stayed here. My head is killing me again.”

  “I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded,” Nicole replied.

  “Thanks,” Carl said, feeling relieved, “I think I am going to go back to my room and get some sleep.”

  “I thought we all agreed that we would stay together here in the cottage?” Maggie asked, “It’s not safe to stay down in the ground level rooms.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Carl smiled, “it’s not bad out there now that the soldiers have cleared the area. Maybe I’ll come back up here to spend the night, but for now I’m sure I’ll be fine down in my room. Besides I feel like I would like to have some privacy for a few hours.”

  “Just lock your door,” Maggie said, “and if you hear anything you better get back up here.”

  Carl smiled, turned and left to go back to his room.

  “I’ll tell Dave as soon as the boys get back,” Maggie said to Nicole. “I’ll let Dave go talk some sense into him. In case you haven’t noticed, Carl isn’t the smartest guy around.”

  “Really,” Nicole smiled. “If it was up to me, I’d feel better if he just stayed down in unit six.”

  Maggie laughed, “Normally I’d agree with you, but I’d feel guilty if something happened to him.”

  “I don’t think any self-respecting zombie would eat him,” Nicole replied. “Are there any alcoholic zombies?”

  “And Dave says I’m nasty,” Maggie laughed.

  Dave and Adam cautiously walked to the end of First Street. They each carried a long handled shovel from the motel shed to use as a weapon to defend themselves.

  The Circle K was at the end of First Street, where the street intersected with Gulf Drive.

  “The Circle K is just a small convenience store,” Adam explained as they walked. “They probably won’t have much, a few cans of soup and a ton of Twinkies and Ho Hos.”

  Dave laughed, “Anything we can eat that can help us hang on for a few days will help. Besides, I like Twinkies.”

  “Yea, me too,” Adam laughed, “When the army clears the way so we can go up the island a mile or so, the Publix is where we want to go. It is a large grocery store. They hopefully will have enough food to hold us for a few months.”

  “I was going to say I hope we don’t have to hang around here that long,” Dave said, “But after what the Petty Officer told us, if we are lucky, we will need to find enough food to last us a hell of a lot longer than a few months.”

  “Yea, food will start to get real scarce around here after a few months. We might have to start fishing if we want to eat,” Adam added. “You ever do any fishing?”

  “Some trout fishing back in Ohio,” Dave replied.

  “Were you any good?” Adam asked.

  “Not really,” Dave grinned.

  “We’ll have to work on that,” Adam laughed.

  They reached the end of First Street and hid behind the palms trees and the air pump in the corner of the Circle K parking lot.

  The big red building sat in the middle of the parking lot. The long staircase descended from the large front deck on the store and ended near the sidewalk on Gulf Drive.

  After looking at the store, they looked down Gulf Drive.

  To the north, they could see soldiers near the intersection with Cortez Road and the bridge.

  Sporadic gunfire could be heard coming from in that direction.

  Looking down Gulf Drive towards the south, staggering shapes could be seen wandering across the road.

  “I thought the Petty Officer said they cleared the southern end of the island?” Adam asked. “There are only a few blocks down that way before you get to the blockade. They obviously missed a few.”

  “Either that or those things are still getting across the channel,” Dave replied. “Maybe the army could use a few more soldiers.”

  “We better hope they can get the job done with what they have,” Adam replied. “From the way the Petty Office talked, there won’t be any reinforcements coming anytime soon.”

  “Let’s move over behind the store and come around the other side,” Dave suggested, “We don’t want those things down that way to see us and we don’t want the army to see us on this end and think we are zombies. I’d hate to be mistaken for a zombie and get shot trying to get a Twinkie.”

  “Good idea,” Adam replied. “I’ll go first, you watch so nothing sneaks up on us from behind.”

  “OK, let go,” Dave whispered.

  Adam followed the fence that separated the parking lot from the small cottage behind the Circle K.

  Dave followed and kept his eyes on Gulf Drive.

  The sound of the waves breaking on the beach across the road was almost enough to make them forget about what was happening on the island. Only the eerie feeling they felt from seeing the streets deserted kept them anchored in the reality of their situation. That, and the staggering bodies walking across Gulf Drive two blocks down.

  They passed by the back of the Circle K and moved between the Beach Bistro and the Circle K, using the Beach Bistro to hide their movements.

  After looking to make sure the street in front of the Circle K was clear, they quickly climbed the steps to the large deck.

  They each took a position on opposite sides of the door.

  Dave took a quick look inside the store then ducked back down.

  “What did you see?” Adam asked seeing that Dave had a strange look on his face.

  “It looks like The Attack of the Zombie Cheerleaders,” Dave replied.

  Adam took a quick look.

  “No, it’s more like a scene from Bikini Zombie Beach,” Adam smiled, “What did you expect, this is a beach town.”

  “I noticed that before,” Dave smiled then got serious, “but I never thought I would have to smash their pretty little heads in with a shovel.”

  “I know what you mean,” Adam replied, “but I think you will forget about that when we go inside and they start growling at you. Besides they’re not so pretty anymore.”

  “I’m sure,” Dave said, “But all the same, when we get back let’s not tell the girls the zombies were wearing bikinis
.”

  Adam grinned, “Good idea. Nicole would probably make me stay at the cottage and babysit Everly while she and Maggie went out next time to get supplies.”

  “This is sick,” Dave said. “The only thing that would have made this worse would have been if Carl was here. He would probably try to pick one of them up.”

  Adam wrinkled his face as if to say that would be sick.

  “I’ve seen him come home from the bar with a lot worse,” Dave laughed but his smile soon turned to a look of disgust. “I can’t believe we are joking about this shit.”

  “If we think about what this all means, we’ll go insane,” Adam replied, “Laugh while we can. I have a feeling it won’t be too long before we won’t find anything humorous anymore.”

  “I know,” Dave replied as he took another quick look inside. “Let’s do what we have to do and get out of here. There are four of them inside. You go in and circle to the left. I’ll go to the right. You take out the two near the front and I’ll take the ones near the coolers in the back.”

  Adam nodded, “On three.”

  Dave silently mouthed the words, One, Two then Three.

  They opened the door and ran inside.

  Dave ran down the first aisle next to the wall.

  The zombies turned as Dave and Adam went inside.

  The first zombie Dave came to was a zombie with long red hair in a white bikini.

  Dave ran towards her, raising his shovel over his head as he approached her.

  She glared at Dave, her nose was missing. A large ragged bloody hole was in the middle of her face where her nose had been. Her milky white eyes focused on Dave as she opened her mouth, revealing a mouthful of black teeth. Dried blood covered her chin and the front of her body. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she growled and moaned. She started towards Dave.