by Travis Tufo
“No weapon in a time like this? Are you mad?” Niva countered.
“You almost got us killed, and I don’t trust any single part of you. So yes, I am mad, and yes, you don’t get to hold a weapon,” Aurora lashed back. Eli looked to Shaun.
“Look, I know it sucks, but until you prove that you’re on our side or that we can trust you, I think that’s the best idea, you know?” Shaun sided with Aurora once more.
“I don’t have any power over them, so it doesn’t matter what I think. You don’t get to carry.” Eli held out his hand. Niva rolled her eyes but eventually she pulled out two knives from her shoes and gave them to Eli.
“All better?” Eli asked around. Shaun and Aurora nodded their heads.
“Not really,” Niva replied.
“Tough shit. Now let’s go get some food and supplies.” Aurora headed off towards the food section of the very large Walmart.
“I second that!” Shaun wobbled after her. Eli looked to Niva, shrugged, and joined the others. Niva sighed heavily and tagged along. Aurora didn’t get too far before she stopped and drew her rifle.
“What is it?” Shaun lowered his voice. Aurora pointed ahead to a body. It was a big woman, an employee of Walmart. She was infected and most of one side of her head was missing. Eli crept up beside Aurora with his pistol drawn.
“Someone inside this store must have done this. That would explain why the doors out front are barricaded with bodies. Someone is in this store with us.” He started to survey their surroundings. Goosebumps covered Shaun’s arms.
“This is like a damn horror movie, I swear. Each scene it gets worse and worse,” Shaun added.
“I’m not saying that’s what the person, or persons, inside this store are doing, but if I were them, I would be or would have already gone to the gun section.” Niva threw out a good point. Eli and Aurora locked wide eyes. Together they muttered, “Shit.” Eli bolted towards where he thought the guns would be, staying very alert and keeping an eye out for anyone. Instead of the gun racks he found himself in the feminine hygiene section.
“What the hell is this?” Eli looked confused; the Walmart in Denver was much different from this one. His three friends rounded the corner to see Eli looking mortified standing in the aisle next to tampons and shelves full of other plastic-wrapped products. The three of them couldn’t help but burst into laughter. His face turned bright red, but it wasn’t long before the entire aisle erupted into flying bits of cotton as he was suddenly under fire. Two men from the department where the guns actually were, could see Eli and were lighting up the aisle he stood in. He dropped to the floor, bullets grazing and hitting all around him.
“How the hell did you get in here?” one man yelled, never skipping a beat shooting his rifle at Eli.
“We don’t mean any harm!” Eli yelled back from his fetal position.
“We do!” the two men replied. Niva then sprinted out into the open, revealing herself to the two men. They took their attention off Eli for a second, just long enough for him to sprint over to join Shaun and Aurora.
“How many of you got in here?” They started shooting at Niva who had already dove into the toy aisle.
“Oh man! What the hell do we do?” Shaun was panicked.
“This.” Aurora raised her rifle and turned the corner, immediately placing one of the assailants’ heads in her iron sights. She squeezed the trigger and the man’s head popped like a water balloon. She made it look too easy.
“What the shit! That was my brother!” the other screamed in dismay. Aurora dragged her rifle slightly to the right and put the other man in her sights as he was turning to shoot her way. She squeezed the trigger and “click,” she was empty. She stood there for a brief moment not believing what had happened. The remaining man opened fire at her, and if not for Eli grabbing her and throwing her down, he would have turned her into Swiss cheese. The brothers had taken all the magazines and loaded them into rifles prior to this moment, so the remaining man had plenty of bullets, which he happily fired at Eli’s group. Like a machine, he emptied magazine after magazine just throwing the empty rifle to the ground and grabbing a new one as he finished each ammo supply.
“I can’t believe this shit! That was the last bullet I had!” she yelled over the constant gunfire.
“At least you made it count,” Shaun joked. But the pale look on his face showed Aurora that his comments were meant more to keep his own sanity in this situation than to comfort her.
“Aurora!” Eli yelled to her, having come up with a plan. “I know what to do, but I need your help.”
“What do you need?” She quickly focused her attention on Eli.
“Shaun is hurt, and I can’t yell to Niva without that guy hearing.” Eli looked to Niva and motioned for her to stay down.
“I’ll do whatever,” Aurora responded, ready to go.
“All I need is a distraction! A safe distraction, so I can run up closer and get a clean shot off. He’s too far away from here to take a shot with my revolver.” Aurora nodded her head.
“On three, okay?” Eli said, but Aurora took off immediately, heading to the closest aisle to their right.
“Are you kidding me?” he said, but Eli saw that it worked; he skirted from the right side and darted towards the man. He didn’t get more than an aisle up though, before he was under fire again. This time a bullet grazed his shoulder, only taking a few layers of skin off, but he dropped to the floor. There was no way he was going to take a hit. Aurora was too close to the gunman to make another move without risking getting shot herself. Eli looked one aisle back to Niva who was bracing herself to sprint back towards Shaun. Eli saw this and shook his head. Niva ignored him and took off full force towards Shaun. Like clockwork, the gunman turned his cherry red barrel towards her. Eli wasn’t going to get another chance, so he stood up, raised his revolver, and fired the first shot he could take. It connected dead in the right side of the man’s chest. He wasn’t dead, but he went down hard. Death would slowly have taken over, but that wasn’t enough for Aurora. She got up and hurried over to the bleeding man.
“You piece of shit. I hope you burn in hell!” She jumped the counter he had used as a barrier, dropping bullets and guns to the floor as she did so. When she landed next to him, she pulled out her knife and in one quick motion, slit his throat. She watched him hemorrhage from both holes, but it still wasn’t enough for her. She grabbed her rifle and drove the butt of it into his face again and again in rage. She would have kept going if Eli hadn’t run up and pulled her away. The brothers lay next to each other, bludgeoned and surrounded by a pool of blood.
“Are you alright?” Eli was yelling to her, but her hearing was clouded by hate and anger. Finally she snapped out of it.
“Oh my god.”
“Oh my god is right! Are you crazy? You rushed a man with a gun; you didn’t even know if he was dead!” Eli shook her.
“I needed to see him die!” Water filled her eyes. Eli pulled her in tight and hugged her. At first she just let him hold her with her arms at her sides, the bloody rifle still in her hand. But eventually she dropped her rifle into the thickening pool of blood and embraced his hold. She squeezed back harder and wept in his arms.
“You could have died back there. You were hit!” she said between her sobs.
“I was the one who should have been worried! You ran directly into fire!” Eli’s tone had become much more comforting, almost teasing, as he was trying to cheer her up.
“I didn’t want him to hurt you.”
“Wait...you went after him like that because you saw him nick me with a bullet?” Eli felt just one butterfly in his stomach as he looked into her teary, green eyes.
“Yes,” she mumbled out. That one butterfly quickly multiplied into thousands and he hugged her even harder.
“So, they’re in love, huh?” Niva whispered to Shaun with a grin on her beaten face.
“One hundred percent yes, but if you say it to them, you might get a black eye
to match that broken nose,” he responded.
“You know, in a strange way, a very strange and disturbing way, that’s kind of cute.” She looked to Shaun, who shrugged.
“Yeah, I guess it kind of is. You know, minus the blood, the horrific murder, and just about everything else in general. Pretty cute...” he laughed. She quickly joined him with a giggle and they both sank to the floor.
“You know, this whole world ending is pretty exhausting,” Shaun whimpered. Niva glanced at him with a puzzled look. In the background the intense hugging and sobbing fest was still going on.
“Whatever do you mean?” she asked. The look on Shaun’s face was twice as puzzled as hers.
“You’re joking, right? I mean, the whole widespread contamination of the spores that are taking over human life. That world ending thing.”
Her face turned pale. “I thought it was just Maine,” she whispered. Shaun quickly realized that she was thinking of family in another state being affected.
“Oh, no, I don’t know where it has hit. I was just assuming, you know? It’s all I’ve seen for the last week...or however long it’s been.” He tried to keep her at peace, even though he knew for sure other states were indeed experiencing the same thing.
“Oh, I do hope you’re right. It’s bad enough that so many people have been killed by this epidemic, I wouldn’t wish it upon the whole world!” Shaun saw the displeasure in her face.
“You know what?” he asked, receiving a curious look from her.
“No, what?”
“How about we go find something to eat while these two reenact that scene from the Titanic?” She smiled, stood up and extended her arm to help him up. Once he was on his feet, he nearly collapsed back to the ground, just from putting a little pressure on his ankle.
“Actually, maybe we should take a trip to the first aid section before we go.” She laughed and gave him a shoulder to lean on. Together they set off in search for a brace for his ankle.
“Eli! We are going to go find something to keep the cripple on his feet,” Niva yelled. Eli took one hand from Aurora to throw out a quick thumbs up.
“So tell me Niva...” Shaun said as they slowly made their quest towards the first aid section, limping the whole way. “How did you learn about where a group of survivors were taken? I mean, you told me you didn’t even know if Maine was the only state that was affected.” She blushed, opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“Ohh, I get it.” He quickly caught on that she had only been saving her skin. She looked to the ground, ashamed.
“Don’t worry, anyone in your position would be insane not to do the same thing. And I won’t tell Eli, though he’s probably not the one you need to worry about.”
“What do you mean? He seems to be taking up the role of a leader.”
“Well, yeah, I guess, but it’s Aurora you should keep an eye out for.” Niva looked to Shaun with concern.
“No, no, not like that,” he continued. “She’s a good person, or whatever. She is just very dangerous and…uh, cautious, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Yeah, for a lack of a better word. Eli seems to be a cool guy, he wants to be the hero and give everyone a fair chance. Hence, you being here and not in a puddle of your own blood in the street.”
“Good point.”
“But Aurora sees everyone as a threat. Sometimes that’s a good thing, like in the case of probably most people running around on the streets right now, but not for people like me and you. It’s going to take a while to gain her trust.”
“Unless you’re handsome, like Eli,” she winked at Shaun. He shared in the joke.
“Naturally,” he smiled.
“You know what I don’t understand?” Niva quickly changed the mood.
“What’s that?”
“How easy it is for those two to kill.” Niva looked worried.
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“How many people have you seen them kill? They make it look so easy.”
“If you count the infected, then I can’t count that high, but I’ve only ever seen them kill really bad guys like those ones that had us pinned down. Wait a minute, you haven’t killed anyone? How have you made it this long?” Shaun was shocked, even though his kill count was as low as hers.
“No way. I’ll never kill anyone, not even those monsters. I can’t bring myself to do it. I was raised to cherish life. But those two just make it look so easy. Aurora was even going to do it to me out there—I just knew it, without a second thought.” She was getting worked up.
“Look, just be grateful you’re on their side. Yeah they are kind of savage, but that’s kept me alive and I’m sure it’s going to keep you alive. If you want to justify it at all, know that they are only killing people, or things, that would happily do the same to them.”
“I understand, and I’m glad that they decided to spare me, but what worries me is how emotionless they are about it, like they’ve had some practice.”
“Well, Eli is just doing what he has to, but Aurora…” He smiled and shrugged. Niva didn’t get the humor.
“Hey, it’s okay, alright? You still have me, someone else who also has never killed anyone.” She looked to Shaun with hope.
“You mean…you haven’t taken anyone’s life?”
“No, and each day I get a little closer to having to do it and I dread it so much. I have no idea what it’s going to be like or how much it will affect me, so I try not to think about it.” Niva smiled and Shaun followed in her footsteps.
“Would you look at that?” She pointed to an entire aisle dedicated to Ace bandage wraps, joint braces, and other similar products.
“Wow, it’s like a cripple’s wet dream.” He hobbled down the aisle grabbing all kinds of expensive braces.
“Oh no!” He turned back to Niva with a grim look on his face.
“What is it?” She was worried.
“I forgot my wallet in my other pants!” She held back a grin.
“Damn you, Shaun. I’ll just cover this one, too, but dinner’s on you!”
“You’re too good to me. It’s a date.” He quickly turned around to hide his blushing; Shaun wasn’t much of a ladies’ man. Of course, that was the pre-apocalypse Shaun.
“A date it is,” she said in a soft voice. He raised his fist into the air in triumph, almost falling to ground to commit the act.
“How about this one, you klutz.” She pulled a brace made for ankles off the wall. It might as well have been made of gold, as it was well over two-hundred dollars.
“Are you kidding me? This would cost me a whole week of work to pay!” Shaun said, grabbing the premium brace. She looked to him with a smirk and raised eyebrows.
“Oh yeah?” She was messing with him.
“Oh, I...uh...I mean, that was before I landed my big CEO position at a fancy-pants company.”
“Ahh, is that right? You must be taking me to a real expensive dinner then, huh?”
“Only the most exquisite food will be served, madam.” He bowed and proceeded to put on the brace.
“It’s like I didn’t even fall off a Walmart rooftop onto a pile of dead bodies and roll my ankle!” he said as he walked normally on both feet, nearly as good as new. She clapped him along as he strutted up and down the aisle.
“And for my next trick, I shall walk…on both feet!” She imitated a crowd gasping.
“No, don’t worry, this trick is almost completely harmless.” He held up a palm and walked away from Niva.
“Where are you going?” she said, standing alone in the aisle as he sauntered away.
“You better hurry up or dinner’s on you!” he said, never breaking stride. She smiled and chased after him. The four of them met up in the food section. Eli, by this point, was already four cups of rice pudding deep. Aurora, on the other hand, was double fisting two bags of chips.
“No, don’t wait for us...or save any for us, for that matter.” Shaun radiated sarcasm as he rounded the c
orner and saw the feast in progress.
“Aww, how cute, he’s on both of his own feet again,” Eli countered. Shaun had nothing but a dirty look to exchange.
“You guys want to see something hilarious?” Aurora said, sitting against the cold, frozen yogurt door.
“What is it?” Niva asked. Eli smiled as he already knew. Aurora pointed to the cracker aisle, which couldn’t be seen from where they were. Shaun and Niva looked at each other, shrugged and walked over to the aisle. At dead center of the aisle laid a very large, very deceased man on the ground next to one of the store’s scooters for people who couldn’t walk. Empty cracker boxes littered the floor all around him and his scooter.
“Oh my god!” Niva put a hand over her mouth.
“Everyone on the damn planet is probably getting eaten alive or shot in the head and that guy ate himself to death.” Aurora couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, it’s funny...in a dark way. A real dark way.” Shaun forced an uncertain smile.
“Oh, lighten up. Humor takes the edge off.” Aurora walked over to the body and gave him a little kick.
“Wait a second…he’s still breath...” A fountain of vomit erupted from the large man’s mouth, firing up into the air a good distance. Pounds and pounds of half-digested crackers splashed across his face and onto the floor. Aurora grabbed her gut and ran out of the aisle. She didn’t make it too far before she, too, joined in on the puking.
“Ugh. All these weak stomachs are starting to make me lose my appetite.” Shaun looked away as the man on the ground choked to death on his Cheez-Its soup.
“This pudding doesn’t seem so good after all.” Eli dropped his fifth half eaten cup on the ground. He choked back the urge and went to sit in front of the freezer with Aurora. Shaun and Niva finally got something to eat and sat together talking for at least an hour before Eli decided it was time to do something. Eli and Aurora rounded the corner to the aisle where Shaun and Niva were.
“You guys all done eating?” Eli asked. The two of them looked at each other and nodded.
“Good. I think it’s time to start looting whatever we need. The sooner we head out, the better, if you ask me.”
