by T. Gault
“This is ours for the time being, and I don’t think we should be so quick to give it up,” said Matt, as he seemed to be looking around for some particular item.
Matt found a tool set sitting on one of the shelves. It was missing a few of the tools but most of what we would need was still in the box. We carefully took apart a wooden bench, a couple of dressers, a table, and a bookshelf. We used the nails and screws left over from taking apart the furniture to make the reinforcements.
“Well, let’s get started,” said Matt as he placed a board across the front door. Before he could pound in the first nail, I said, “Wait a sec. How are we going to get out of here once we board it all up?”
“I’m sure there is some kind of roof access,” said Matt, pointing to the back of the store.
“Yeah, but let’s check it out first.” I walked to the rear doors.
The roof access was just as Matt had thought. It was in the back of the store, but getting to it seemed to be another story. It was about twelve feet off of the ground and the slide-down ladder was locked in place. We tried every key on the key ring but none of them fit the padlock. We pulled a shelf over to the hatch and climbed up to it that way. I held the shelf while Matt climbed up to the three-foot-by-three-foot hatch. Once at the top, Matt could see that there was another pad lock on the hatch itself.
“Great! I’m sure none of these keys fit this lock either,” said Matt as he hung his head.
“Try them anyway,” I whispered as I threw the keys up to Matt.
Matt tried three of the keys with no luck, but the fourth key actually fit.
“Shut up,” said Matt as he unlocked the hatch. Matt managed to pull himself through the opening and disappeared. I stood staring up at the dark, cloudy sky and suddenly I really wanted Matt to let me know how it was out on the roof. I know it was only a matter of one or two minutes, but standing in that cold, dark building by myself, with a bunch of dead people outside, was a little more than I wanted to deal with.
“Hey...Matt…what’d you see up there?” I whispered as loud as possible.
There was a very long, silent pause. Then I heard footsteps walking across the roof, but they sounded like they were going away from the roof access. I shook the shelf to see if it seemed sturdy enough for me to climb up without someone to hold the shelf. The shelf seemed as though it would hold. I climbed very carefully up the shelf until I reached the hatch. I slowly peaked up out of the hatch, not knowing what I was going to see. Matt was standing next to the edge of the roof near the front of the store. He was standing very still and looking over the edge, toward the ground. I steadied my footing on top of the shelf and shoved off to pull myself up. CRASH! The shelf fell over and smashed to the floor. I was left halfway out of the hatch, trying to get onto the roof.
“What did you do?” Matt loudly whispered as he jogged across the roof to pull me out of the hole.
“I’m sorry! I think I knocked over the shelf,” I said rather frantically.
“Why couldn’t you just wait? I would have pulled you up,” said Matt as he finished pulling me onto the roof. He was looking around and appeared to be pretty concerned.
“Shh! Listen,” Said Matt.
“What do you hear?” I said, as I began to look around myself.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! One of the wandering corpses began to slam its rotting arms against the front of the store. We both stayed low and began to make our way across the roof toward the front of the store. We peaked over the ledge at the front of the store and saw a female corpse pounding furiously against the front of the store. We didn’t realize it until we got out onto the roof, but the rain clouds had cleared just enough to let some moonlight through. At this point, all of the streetlights were off and only one or two businesses in the area had any lights on. We were mostly surrounded by darkness.
We decided that moving from our location in the dark would be a bad idea. If anything went wrong we could find ourselves cornered very fast. Besides that, we didn’t know if the corpses could see in the dark, smell us, or just somehow knew where we were. The noise the excited female was making at the front of the store was attracting more of them. For some reason they did not appear to be in any hurry to get to where she was though. Some of them even lost interest and walked away before reaching her.
We sat up on the roof for about an hour just watching the shadows move. The female and the group that joined her at the front of the store stopped pounding after about a half an hour when a single vehicle drove past the store. They all began to run after the vehicle and disappeared into the darkness.
As I watched the ragged female run into the dark, I thought to myself, I wonder how long that group would have pounded on the building?
“C’mon, let’s go finish sleeping. My watch says it’s about five in the morning. We’ve got about two hours of darkness left,” said Matt as he made his way back inside of the building.
I stood up and looked into the darkness in all directions.
One day. All of this happened in one day, I thought as I walked back to the roof hatch.
Matt was standing underneath the hatch inside the building. The climb up didn’t seem as high as the climb down was going to be.
“How did you get down there without killing yourself?”
“Just slide your legs into the opening slowly and hang by your hands. Then let go and roll when you hit the ground,” said Matt in a very duh tone.
I just knew I was going to break my leg or something. I slid on my stomach and put my feet through the hole in the roof. There wasn’t much to hold onto when I got to the point where I had to hang by my hands. I dangled for a couple of seconds as the thought of how bad of an idea it was to drop that far passed through my head. I let go and dropped to the floor. When I hit the floor I tried to roll but the store was dark and I ended up rolling into the fallen shelf.
“Nice moves,” said Matt as he walked back to where we had left all of our gear.
“I’m just glad that I can still walk,” I said as I attempted to get back up without showing that I had hit my back on the shelf.
We decided we were better off being able to see when we moved. We both sat on the floor again with our backs to the wall and our weapons close by. I fell asleep much faster this time but my sleep was not as hard as this first time.
I woke with a ray of sunlight filtering through my eyelids. The thought of everything having been a nightmare passed through my head, but only until I realized I had been sleeping on the floor of a thrift store. My back was stiff and all of my stuff was gone. I began to panic. Stiff back or not I started spinning in circles looking for Matt or my stuff. Just as I was about to give up and sit down on the floor in self-pity, Matt burst in through the front door of the store.
“I got our stuff in your truck, but we’ve got to go now!” said Matt as fast as he could get it out.
“My gun...my sword,” was about all I could get out.
“They’re up here by the door! Get your crap and move!” said Matt, looking over his shoulder toward the parking lot.
Just then Matt ran back out the door into the bright hazy morning. I ran for the door and grabbed my weapons. I shoved my right hand into my pants pocket and pulled out my keys. I lifted my eyes and saw why Matt was in a hurry.
I don’t know where they all came from but they seemed to be coming from everywhere. Hundreds of corpses were coming for us. Some were staggering, some stumbling forwards, and some were at almost a full sprint. I heard the blast of Matt’s twelve-gauge cut through the air. Then I realized that some of them had already made it into the parking lot.
“Open the doors! I’ve only got three shots left in this!” yelled Matt, standing with his back to the passenger’s door to my truck.
I ran to the driver’s door and stuck the key into the lock. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground. I rolled over and pulled out my sword. A rotting male stood at the front of the truck. He was probably about two hundred and fifty pounds and looked as though he had been k
illed a few days ago. He did not move very fast, but I knew that if he managed to get a good grip, that would be it for me. While lying on the ground, I whipped my sword back and swung with all of my weight. I heard the crunch when the edge made contact with his left knee. There was no grimace of pain on his face, only a brief glance at his knee. Then his eyes shifted back to me.
I began to shuffle backwards as the large corpse began moving toward me. He took a step with his right leg and then his left, but I noticed his leg wobbled when he put weight on it. I lunged forward and took another swing at his left knee. The leg bent to the side and he collapsed to the ground right at my feet. Again I pushed myself back to get away from him while he continued to lurch and reach for me. I rolled to the side and half stood and stumbled forward.
I turned back to see the bloody mess dragging itself across the asphalt. I ran toward him and kicked him right under the chin. He finally stopped after I smashed my dull blade into the back of his skull. But just as I finished it off, I heard Matt’s shotgun blasting again on the other side of the truck.
“I’m out! Open the door NOW!” screamed Matt.
I ran over to the truck and turned the key still in the door. I jumped across the seat and unlocked Matt’s door. Just as I did, I saw Matt swing his shotgun and strike the side of a deceased teenaged boy’s head.
I pulled my door shut and yelled, “It’s unlocked! Get in!”
Matt ripped the door open and jumped inside. They were everywhere when we started to pull out of the parking lot. I gunned the gas and flew down the Mercury Boulevard toward the sporting goods store.
“What set them all off?” I asked.
“When I came out, there weren’t too many of them close to the store. So I just loaded all the stuff into the truck bed and tried to slip by without them noticing. But there was one lying on the ground at the end of the truck and he noticed me.”
“But I didn’t hear your shotgun go off. I know that would have woke me up,” I asked.
“That’s because I didn’t shoot it. I was startled for a second and that gave it a chance to howl,” Matt replied.
“Howl? What like a dog?”
“No, haven’t you heard them howl?”
“I guess not. What does it sound like?”
“It’s starts out very deep and throaty, but if you let them keep going, it becomes higher pitched and louder.”
“What happens if they howl?” I asked.
“From what I can tell, they make that noise when they suddenly come in contact with an un-infected person. At least that seemed to be the situation every time I’ve heard them do it. I’m guessing it’s just a side effect that it alerts the others in the area. That’s the way I would think it happens. I mean, they’re dead. I’m sure they don’t really know what’s going on around them.”
“Yeah that’s true,” I said.
“But who knows. It’s not like there is going to be an editorial on the subject,” Said Matt.
We both chuckled halfheartedly. Matt looked out the window and stopped talking.
The truck’s radio said it was 8:24 in the morning. The sun had broken through the clouds but the clouds still lingered in the area, threatening to once again make things worse. It seemed that there was smoke on the horizon in every direction. We were now headed back the way I had come earlier, toward the campus. Somehow the roads managed to look worse than they had on the way home. Then I found myself wishing that I could go home but deep down I knew that the house I had left earlier today would never be my home again. Then I remembered Thomas. “I bet Thomas is still standing in the hallway in my parent’s house,” I thought out loud.
Matt looked over at me and said, “Yeah but he’s...”
“Yeah I know but I hate to think of him walking around like that…The camera! I never got to watch what he recorded on the camera. Maybe he knew where mom and dad are or maybe he noticed something important about them.”
“Or maybe he just touched the camera before he turned,” said Matt in a less than excited tone.
We both just stared ahead for couple of minutes.
“Where are we going to get more ammo? I’ve only got a few more shotgun shells,” said Matt.
“The Sports Authority is the biggest gun shop I’ve been to in the area and they’ll probably have other supplies we could use too. I know there is another bigger one somewhere in Hampton, but I’ve never been there,” I responded.
I had never seen so many car accidents. Everywhere I looked there was another wreck. I had to make myself concentrate on the road ahead of me. Matt had to get my attention a few times. A few of the wrecks were nothing more than too many cars trying to fit through a narrow space, but a lot of them looked like high-speed collisions. I expected to see bodies lying in the street but there wasn’t much else to see other than the vehicles themselves. The blood I expected to see wasn’t there either. The constant rain earlier must have washed most of it away.
I navigated the small truck through the debris carefully as I rounded the corner onto Coliseum Drive. The Sports Authority was about half a mile up ahead on the right. Right in the middle of the road we were on was a smoldering pile of metal and glass. It didn’t look like a car though. As we got closer to it, Matt said, “Holy crap I think that’s a news helicopter.” The tail rotor was sticking out of the pile and what was left of the small blades was still spinning.
“Well I guess we can’t go this way,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Hold up a second. I think you can get around it if you jump the median,” said Matt as he attempted to position himself to get a better look.
“This little truck isn’t a four wheel drive. And what if we get stuck on the median?” I replied.
“I think we can make it if you cut the median at an angle,” said Matt as he pointed to a lower spot on the concrete median.
I inched my way over to the edge of the median until I felt the front left tire make contact. The body of the truck shuddered as the wheel made contact. I pushed the gas pedal in a little farther and the truck began to move over the median. I moved slowly until I felt the left side drop and the tire again made contact with the road. We both breathed a sigh of relief as the last wheel touched the road.
“Waaaaaaaagghh!” “Screeeeeeech!” “BOOOM!”
Another vehicle had just come around the same corner we had, but he was going way too fast. In the rearview mirror we watched the Ford Mustang slam into the median just feet behind the truck. The black Ford didn’t make it over the concrete in one piece. Most of the exhaust system, the oil pan, and one of the front wheels were ripped off of the speeding car. A Dodge minivan was sitting just on the other side of the street and was broadsided by the flying car.
We both just stared at the wreck for a few moments, but neither of us moved. The driver of the vehicle appeared to be still inside but he wasn’t moving.
“We should check it out,” I said.
“He’s probably dead or, if not dead, infected,” said Matt.
“Then I’ll take care of it,” I said as I opened the door and pulled out the Glock.
I slowly walked toward the fresh accident, looking all around for more infected as I approached. I heard Matt get out of the truck and charge his shotgun. As I walked around to the passenger’s side of the vehicle, I could see the driver. He looked to be younger than me, but it was hard to tell at the time. He had dark brown, shaggy looking hair and a patchy goatee.
He appeared to be wearing his seat belt and the air bags had gone off when the Mustang hit the van. He looked like he was a little banged up but alive. I shoved my gun into my pants pocket and tried to pull open the passenger’s side door. I very slowly reached over to the driver and shoved his shoulder. He slumped over to the driver-side window and bumped his head on it. He didn’t appear to have been infected. His skin was still fleshy toned and he didn’t smell like the infected did either.
“Hey, buddy! Wake up!” I yelled at the unconscious driver.
&nbs
p; I heard Matt starting to walk back and forth outside the vehicle.
“So is he alive? Because we need to go now!” exclaimed Matt.
I looked up and saw why Matt was concerned. We couldn’t see them when we approached because the cars at the mall were so tightly packed in the parking lot. It seemed as though they were coming from everywhere. The vicious mob of approaching corpses was darting out from between cars, from inside of businesses, and they were more than anxious to get to us. I reached over, unsnapped the driver’s seat belt, and dragged him out of the passenger’s side door. He was heavier than I was counting on. I dropped him on the ground just as I pulled him free.
“Wha...wha...what’s happening?” said the driver as he began to fade back into consciousness.
“Grab his legs. Get him in the back of the truck,” I yelled to Matt.
Matt grabbed the guy’s legs and lifted while I lifted the guy from under his arms. The man began to weakly kick his legs, causing Matt to lose his grip and drop the man’s legs. I dragged the guy to the back of the truck and opened the tailgate.
