by Daniel Smith
“Let's move,” Manny said urgently as he broke into a jog Dan didn't hesitate as he started jogging after Manny and found himself suddenly alongside him pulling slightly forward.
“Take it easy and slow down a little,” he heard Manny call out.
“You don't want to tire out if we need to run.”
He slowed down slightly as they jogged up the alleyway behind the strip mall. Dan stopped at the latter with the security gate as panic set in.
“How are we getting past it,” he asked panic in his voice. However, before he could say anything he heard Manny call out.
“Come over here and give me a hand.”
Turning to see Manny stopped at one of the large dumpsters sitting behind the building struggling to push it. Dan looked across the open field at the approaching undead zombies they were still some distance away. The agitated zombie was closing in fast. He hesitated only a second before he moved over to help Manny push the dumpster towards the ladder with the security door in front of it. Stopping when they position the dumpster in front of it. Manny push both of the metal lids down with a loud bang before he turned to Dan.
“Climb up on to the trashcan this should give you enough height to grab the ladder,” Manny said.
Before he followed Dan climbing atop the trashcan. Dan went for the ladder he found he could reach the rungs by grabbing slightly behind the security gate and started to pull himself up. He had just managed to get past the security gate and up a couple rungs of the ladder; before looking down to see Manny just about to start climbing the ladder.
“Lookout,” he said frantically Manny turned to see a man in a business suit stopping once he hit the trashcan. The man frantically reaching towards Manny making it almost pleading groaning sound as it grabbed at him. Dan thought Manny would shoot the man but instead he watched stunned as Manny grabbed the ladder with one hand twisting slightly kicking out with his foot catching the zombie full in the jaw. In a sickening crunch the zombies teeth mixed with yellow spittle flew from his mouth. Staggering backwards the zombie crashed to the pavement.
Manny wasted no time grabbing the ladder and started to pull himself up as he motioned for Dan to climb the ladder. Clearing the ladder Dan moved to look over the small lip ringing the roof. Watching the zombie come off the ground grabbing at thin air as he looked up at them. Manny came to stand next to him.
“You don't think it could come up after us,” Dan said slightly worried. Manny, looked at him then down at the zombie before he sighed.
“Let’s see,” he said calmly as he watched and waited.
Dan stood there watching anxiously looking down from the roof to see what it would do. The zombie moving about the trashcan franticly reaching into the air. Groaning softly as the other three zombies joined him to stand there moaning reaching up into thin air at nothing as they looked at them.
“No I don't think they can come up after us,” Manny said calmly as he turned towards the open skylight. Then as an afterthought or perhaps because Dan had not immediately followed him he said.
“If they do will have to shoot them.”
Dan looked pleasantly surprised to find his mother up and walking through the aisles of the grocery store with a handbasket holding several cans of food. She turned watching them climbing down from the scaffolding from the ceiling.
“You're just in time I will have lunch ready in a little bit,” Trudy said sounding almost normal he thought. They had lunch in relative silence Dan trying several times to get his mother talking which she would only say a few words before going quiet for some reason. Making him think this was not normal. After lunch Manny pulled him aside and started the days training.
“I know we went out this morning but we have plenty of time left for some training,” he said calmly as he started working him through the routine he been teaching him. This time during the training, Manny removed the CO2 pellet gun from the backpack loading it with pellets. After archery, practice Manny set up a new target onto the stand and handed the gun to Dan.
“You want to site down the barrel keeping the front sight in alignment with the rear. When you're ready slowly squeeze the trigger and fire,” he said calmly.
He watched as Dan took the gun, sited on the target, and fired. A soft whoosh sounded as the gun fired before a small snap as the pellet broke the paper. Manny looked at the hole in the paper and nodded his head.
“Not bad you're pulling to the left. Try not to jerk your finger when you squeeze the trigger. Try again,” he said encouragingly.
Dan continued slowly firing off several more shots managing to group the shots closer together. Before Manny ended practice for that day.
Three more days had passed with the same routine of guard duty physical exercise sword practice followed by archery practice then pistol practice with the CO2 gun. While during the day Dan’s mother would wake talk a little before moving to the grocery store trying to decide on what to cook for lunch or dinner. It was at dinner that Manny address Trudy.
“Tomorrow me and Dan are planning to go out again. Coming back after lunch tomorrow that shouldn't be a problem will it,” Manny asked casually. Trudy looked at him for a moment before replying.
“No I can make a late lunch tomorrow.”
Dan looked at his mother with a strange unreal feeling she was once again going to let him go outside. Where the dead walked hunting the living. Mixed feeling tore through him excited about it and uneasy that his mother let him face such danger. These thoughts play through his mind causing him a restless sleep and a preoccupation while he was on guard duty.
Dan awoke the next morning feeling tired. After a quick breakfast, they packed a few supplies and headed for the scaffolding to the roof. Seeing the alleyway clear they went down the ladder to the trashcan and into the alleyway. Manny motioned for them to cross the intersection passed the stores towards the minimart at the gas station. They spent the rest of the morning at the minimart. Manny had them pull what few gas cans that were there before moving to the gas pumps to fill them. Dan watched groups of the undead or infected he was beginning to wonder how to tell the difference arrive. As they showed up Manny and him would retreat to the minimart to wait for them to leave.
Dan looked at all the stuff in their he used to want. The doughnuts now stale and molding the soft drinks in the still running refrigerators how he used to beg his parents for them. Now he just looked at them wondering if they would help him regain what he had. These thoughts broken by Manny asking him.
“What do you want for lunch?”
They had lunch in the ransacked convenience store located next to the gas pumps making sure to stay clear of the broken windows. Sitting eating cold chili from the cans in front of them with plastic spoons. Occasionally looking out the shattered glass. Making sure the few zombies milling about the street were not approaching the gas pumps. They sat there listening to the small emergency radio that Manny had taken from the pawnshop to the latest news reports. Dan had just swallowed the last of his chili when he said.
“We know the infected or zombies as some are calling them now. Will attack us, we know they are violent they do not listen to reason and they do not follow instructions to stop. So why do they keep repeating the same information about them,” he said sarcastically.
Manny did not say anything as he finished chewing the last of his chili and took a moment to look out the window.
“The government is assuming we are heading to one of the safe areas they have set up,” he said calmly while wiping his mouth with a paper napkin.
“Why aren't we,” Dan said looking up at Manny.
“What I was going to say. I mean,” he said stuttering as if to clarify his thoughts. Manny looked thoughtfully at him for a moment before he spoke.
“I know a safe area is in Dallas. With the plague only two weeks old. I figure the people in this area alone is causing the safe areas to be busy processing people. The way I figure it is we have a safe place to stay we have plenty of f
ood and water and if we can last another week or two. Everything should calm down in the safe areas and we can go to one,” Manny said finishing his thought.
Dan thought silently as he mulled over what Manny had told him.
“By then the lines and wait time will be shorter,” Manny said. Answering what he thought Dan’s unspoken question would be. A loud whining noise interrupted their conversation as it grew in volume as it approached. They both scramble from where they were sitting on the floor Manny bringing up the short-barreled pistol grip shotgun Dan reached clumsily for the black hilt of the sword pulling it awkwardly from his sheath. They looked in astonishment as a sleek low to the ground yellow convertible Ferrari raced down the street to make a tire squealing turn as it entered the gas station in front of them.
They watched as a well-dressed young man stepped out of the car plainly ignoring the few zombies to open the gas cap of the Ferrari before reaching for the nozzle on the gas pump. He had just managed to put the nozzle of the pump into the car before the first zombie approached. It was a woman in a tattered sundress shambling unsteadily towards him. The young man looked up before reaching into the waistband of his pants pulling out a compact stainless steel autoloader. He unhurriedly pushed the button on the gas pump selecting the octane level and was about to start pumping gas when the second zombie appeared on the other side of the pumps. This was once large man rolls of flesh hanging off his emaciated frame as a young man turned his attention to the woman. He straighten firing two quick shots off with a loud crack. Both striking the woman in the chest knocking her back a few feet before she started forward once again towards the well-dressed man as he turned firing another two rounds into the large man.
All the bullets did was cause the hanging rolls of flesh to shake slightly on the man. Dan and Manny watched as the confidence on the young man's face turned to panic as he realized the bullets had not stopped the undead creatures. He was turning again towards the woman when Manny stood.
“Shoot them in the head,” he cried out. If the man heard what he yelled it did not show. The woman in the torn sundress was closing on him, as he pumped off two more rounds point-blank into her chest blowing out chunks of flesh out her back. She reached for him, the man staggering back almost into the arms of the large zombie.
The man screamed something unintelligible as he tried to climb over the car door. Trying to escape only managing to get one foot on the seat of the Ferrari before the woman leaned forward grabbing him with her teeth biting in to the flesh of his shoulder. The young man screamed as the larger zombie now seized him tearing at him with ruined fingers and teeth. Dan looked away from the sickening sight of the zombies tearing the man to pieces.
He was fighting waves of nausea as he fought to keep the chili in his stomach. Manny motioned for him to move further back into the store. He looked at Dan studying his paleface for a moment.
“It happens,” he said calmly.
“What are we going to do. There are several more zombies coming. We cannot leave,” Dan said worriedly.
“We wait and we make use of the time,” Manny said calmly. Dan looked at him confused.
“Doing what.” Manny smiled.
“Take the fighting stance I showed you.”
Over the next hour and a half Manny ran Dan through a series of step kicks turn kicks and alternating punches. Dan was panting when he asked.
“Will this work on a zombie,” he made a motion to the open window. Manny gave him a moment to catch his breath before he spoke.
“It will,” he said matter-of-factly. “You break a kneecap and they will fall you snap the bone of an arm and they will have trouble grabbing you. They should not worry you. The ones that are still alive is the reason I'm teaching you this.”
Dan looked at him slightly puzzled still trying to catch his breath to argue.
“Let us check to see what is going on outside. And have your sword ready,” Manny said calmly as he started towards the front of the store and the broken window.
They stood to one side of the window looking out the shattered glass at the gas pump area. The car still sitting at the gas pump with the closest zombie on the far side of the intersection.
“It looks good, let’s head back to the supermarket,” Manny said as he stepped through the open space the window used to occupy
. Dan just nodded as he followed Manny who was keeping the gas pumps between them and the one zombie they had seen in the intersection. Both of them were walking quietly turning their head from right to left and even checking behind them as they neared the gas pumps.
“Can we take the car,” Dan whispered quietly.
“No since noise and movement attracts them I don't think it would be a good idea,” Manny said after a moment's consideration.
He held up his hand in a fist as he prepared to stop as he peered around the gas pump before reaching down to pick up a shiny item. Dan fought back a surge of nausea. As he looked down to see the torn up body of the young man. The lower part of his abdomen ripped open with most of his internal organs pulled out and devoured. Blood lay drying in pools all around him.
“It's a knockoff of a colt Commander,” Manny said examining the autoloader before slowly releasing tension on the hammer so it would not fire engage the safeties before tucking it into his belt.
Looking around seeing the zombie in the intersection standing still while looking in their direction it did nothing.
“Curious,” Manny whispered. “It's looking at us but doesn't see us let's keep quiet and move slowly but keep an eye on it. While we see if there is any spare ammunition in the car,” Manny whispered as he slowly leaned into the convertible moving several items around before pulling up a blue cloth reusable grocery bag.
“Excellent,” he said,” not only did he have two boxes of forty-five ammunition but he also had a box of twelve gauge we can use and some can goods.”
Before Dan could say anything, a low moan reached their ears looking at the zombie at the intersection seeing it moving away from them. The moan sounded again drawing their eyes down to the torn apart man. His eyelids fluttered opening to reveal the solid milky white eyes of the undead. Dan started to back up before he felt Manny's hand on his shoulder.
“Easy,” he whispered.
“Use your sword,” he said motioning to the man on the ground. Dan shot his glances back and forth quickly between Manny and the man on the ground before he saw Manny's hand motion slightly.
“But, but,” he stuttered as he listened to Manny's calm voice.
“They're not going away you need to learn how to do this. Just put the point of your sword into one of his eyes and push.”
Dan hesitated as he pulled the black blade from the sheath on his back. The blade shook in his hand as he moved the point towards the man's eye. The man was trying to move but his torn up arm was not allowing him to move easily. The black blade stop shaking as Dan steeled his nerves, pushing forward, as opaque icor started oozing out of the ruptured eye as he felt the blade crush through the bone and into the brain. The zombie shudder slightly before it stopped moving. Dan struggled for a second as he tried to pull the blade from the zombie’s skull.
The head sticking on the black blade coming about a foot off the ground before pulling free of the blade leaving the zombies head to fall back on the ground with a dull thud. Dan straightened to look at the yellow sap like material dripping on the black blade before he turned to lean over and vomit into the interior of the car. He had just finished a second round of vomiting in the car when he heard.
“We got to go,” Manny was saying. Dan wiped his mouth with his arm as he looked to see several zombies in the intersection starting to move unsteadily towards them. He followed Manny as he led them back towards the market before heading away from the zombies going further down the street before crossing to make their way back to the store. Manny had Dan spend the next few days in training.
Manny would run him through the fighting workouts. Then a
rchery and pistol practice with the pellet gun. With Manny now throwing in classroom lessons on survival the first one on how to make clean drinking water by adding a little bleach to it. During one lesson they heard a popping sound as the lights went out in the store.
“What happened,” Dan said concerned looking around in the semi darkness until the backup lights came on.
“Been expecting that,” Manny said unconcerned and calm.
“The lights went out,” Trudy said concerned as she walked up an aisle pushing a basket with some food in it. Manny smiled at her before speaking,.
“I think the power will be out permanently. I say we have a good stake dinner tonight before the freezers defrost,” Manny replied calmly.
Trudy just nodded and moved on to the meat section. Dan looked at Manny puzzled. Manny looked at him with a patient look.
“I expected this, the Government cannot keep the power, water or sewage on everywhere. They will shut down all the disused areas of the city until they need them,” Manny finished.
Dan just nodded after everything that was going on the past few days it made sense.
A few days later Manny and Dan stopped the archery practice as they heard the odd metallic scraping sound coming from the front of the store. Manny grabbed the pistol grip shotgun he had been carrying with him while releasing the safeties and half-pumping the slide to check the chamber for a shell with a distinctive metallic clack. Moving forward towards the front of the store following the metallic scraping sounds. Points of light from the windows shining like spotlights on the floor in front of them. Stopping they watched as the metallic bookcase positioned in from of the broken glass front door moved again with a slight metallic screech. Manny raised the short-barrel shotgun up pointing at the now expanding opening to see the dirty curly black hair of a person appear. Manny held the shotgun steady, watching as a dirty, and frighten face followed it into the store to look up at him.
