by Derek Slaton
CHAPTER THREE
“All right, what’s the plan?” Darrell asked as he peeked over one of the abandoned cars across the street from the store’s parking lot. “You wanna just go up and hit ‘em? They’re spread out pretty good.”
A dozen or so zombies shuffled aimlessly around the lot, as if waiting for a fresh meal to wander into their domain.
“It’s still early,” Vernon replied with a shake of his head. “Let’s give Tony a little more time to catch up with us.”
“Y’all talking about me?” Tony asked, and the group whipped their heads around wildly, looking for the source of the voice. “Look up,” he instructed, and they did, seeing a waving Tony standing on the roof of the one-story building behind them.
Marc raised an eyebrow. “What in the hell are you doing up there?”
“Led a group of those things down towards the rest of ‘em on the highway, and rather than risk leading any of them back, I decided to go by rooftop,” he replied with a shrug. “Hang on, I’ll be right down.” He hopped up onto the ledge of the roof and sprinted across it with perfect balance. He leapt gracefully out, landing on a streetlight as if he were a spider monkey in a tree. He adjusted his stance and slid easily down to the ground, landing on his feet effortlessly.
“Tony,” Phil breathed, blinking at the young man, “that was impressive.”
“Thanks man.” Tony grinned and winked at the newcomer. “But that ain’t nothin’.”
“You think you can help us clear a path?” Vernon asked, motioning across the street.
Mandy held out a bottle of water from her pack, and Tony took it with a grateful nod, unscrewing the cap as he surveyed the parking lot.
“Y’all ain’t planning on going around back at all, are ya?” he asked before taking a long swig.
Vernon shook his head. “Nope, just straight in and out the front door.”
“Okay,” the young man replied. “I think the safest course of action is gonna be for me to get on the other side of em, get their attention and lure them to the loading docks. Should be a fire escape or something on the back there that’ll let me get on the roof. I’ll keep ‘em occupied until you give me the all clear and then we’ll be off and home by lunch.”
“We’ll wait for you,” Vernon replied firmly. “Anything special you want us to pick up?”
“Energy drinks,” Tony replied with longing in his gaze. “Any flavor is fine. Oh, and some of them girly magazines.”
“Tony!” Darrell hissed. “There’s a lady present!”
“Oh please,” the young man scoffed. “She’s dirtier than all of us combined.”
Mandy shrugged as Phil glanced at her. “Well, he’s not wrong,” she admitted.
“All right, see y’all on the other side,” Tony cut in with a wink, and replaced the cap on his water bottle. He tossed it back to the lady in question and then hopped the car in a single bound before walking casually into the parking lot.
Phil watched with bated breath as the young man produced a knife and a extendable baton. He smacked the baton down on the parking dividers as he walked, letting out a loud metallic noise that attracted the attention of all of the corpses. They shambled towards him, save for one that darted faster than the rest.
“Oh, looks like we got a jogger,” Tony praised it with a smirk. “You must be a new addition to the undead.” He fell into a loose bouncing stance, and as the zombie reached him he ducked and tripped it with the baton, falling down on the back of its head with his knife. He wiped the blade on a miraculously clean section of the corpse’s clothes and then sheathed it.
He stretched his arms above his head as he waited for the rest of the mini-horde to get closer to him. “Give me five minutes, y’all,” he called over his shoulder, and then began a casual jog around the cluster of zombies. He led them back towards the building, keeping a twenty-yard head start at all times.
As he reached the corner of the store, one of the zombies began to straggle off to the side, and he knelt down to pick up a rock from the asphalt. He threw it with perfect accuracy at the back of the deserter’s head, and this enraged it just enough to rejoin its hunting brethren.
Behind the store, Tony found a transport truck that looked like it had been abandoned while unloading a delivery. He peeked inside, finding the back empty. He bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for his pursuers to get a little closer before clambering easily up onto the hood of the truck. He vaulted up onto the back, fell into a somersault and rolled into a sitting position.
“If y’all don’t mind, I’m gonna take a bit of a breather,” he said, stretching his legs out in front of him. “It’s been a hell of a cardio day so far.” He leaned back on his hands and closed his eyes against the warm sun. “I swear if it wasn’t for the stench, this would be a perfect picnic spot.”
Vernon threw open the front door of the store, and Darrell and Marc were first to burst in, shotguns at the ready. Mandy followed, crowbar raised, and Phil began to line up shopping carts as he’d been instructed to beforehand.
“Okay,” Vernon said as he closed the door behind him. “Y’all know what to find. Bottled water, drinks, and canned food are the priority. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We need ten carts, let’s do it, people.”
Mandy, Marc, and Darrell headed off for the non-perishable food, each towing two carts.
“Guess I’m sticking with you,” Phil said as he pushed two carts towards Vernon.
The older man nodded. “Okay, grab a couple carts and come on, then. We’re gonna hit the pharmacy.”
When they reached the first medicine aisle, the two men started tossing boxes and bottles into the carts, every over-the-counter medication that could prove useful.
A crash from the pharmacist’s desk made them both freeze. Vernon turned to his new charge and brought a finger to his lips. He leaned around the edge of the aisle and spotted a man in a bloodied lab coat thrashing around behind the window of the enclosed prescription medication area.
“Dammit,” he muttered, and pulled back behind the shelving. “There’s some stuff in there we really could have used.”
Phil shrugged and pulled the crowbar from his belt loop. “Let’s go get ‘em, then.”
“Too big of a risk,” Vernon replied, waving a hand in front of him. “Look how fast he’s moving. Dealing with shamblers are one thing, but we ain’t gonna be messing with no runner today.” He turned back to his cart but Phil touched his arm.
“Vernon, how strong are you?” he asked.
The older man furrowed his brow. “Strong enough, I suppose. Why do you ask?”
“Come with me,” Phil instructed, and waved for him to follow. He led them to the window. It was a solid sheet of plexiglas with a hole and a divot at the bottom to exchange medication. The zombie threw itself against the invisible barrier, tie fluttering as it screamed and gnawed.
Phil slid his hand through the medication divot, and clicked his fingernails against the metal bottom. The ghoul dove for it, and he drew his hand back quickly.
“Boy, what are you doin’?” Vernon snapped.
Phil put up a flippant hand. “Just trust me, I got this,” he said.
He reached down again and clicked his fingernails, and this time when the zombie dove for his hand, its tie pooled in the medication divot. Phil scrabbled for the fabric and pulled tightly, narrowly missing having his fingers chomped off, put effectively pinning the zombie’s head against the window.
“Grab it, grab it!” Phil cried, and Vernon sprung to action, gripping the fabric tightly and bracing his leg against the lower wall to hold the thrashing corpse tightly.
“I got it, what are you gonna do?” he grunted, and his eyes widened as Phil ran over and threw open the prescription area door. “Oh shit!” He pulled as hard as he could on the tie as the zombie struggled to turn around and get to the young man invading its office.
Phil stabbed his crowbar into the side of the zombie pharmacist’s head, letting it fall li
mp from the tie. “I think you’re good, Vernon,” he said, and the older man let go of the tie in shock, the fabric fluttering back through the window as the corpse fell to the floor.
He shook his head and walked slowly around and through the door, where Phil was already holding up a few bottles of pills.
“The good news is, if I gave you a panic attack with that stunt, I’m pretty sure we have the meds here to make it all better,” the younger man joked.
Vernon laughed and scrubbed his hands down his face. “You are one crazy little motherfucker.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“Coast is clear,” Marc said as he came back inside from lining up the last shopping cart in the parking lot. “I think we’re good.”
“How are we supposed to signal Tony?” Phil asked.
Darrell grinned and produced a baseball from seemingly nowhere, under handing it to the newcomer. “How good is your arm?”
Tony squatted on the lip of the roof above the truck he’d been lounging on, doing some balancing stretches as he kept an eye on the cluster of hungry corpses below. “They better have found those magazines,” he muttered to himself. “This whole being single in a small town during the apocalypse isn’t exactly conducive to a healthy dating life.”
There was a dull smack behind him and he turned to see a baseball rolling across the roof from the front of the building.
“Well, it’s been real, y’all!” he declared, giving his zombie friends a wave. “But it’s time for me to go.” He jogged to the opposite end of the building, narrowly avoiding another whistling baseball before he reached the edge.
Phil froze in his windup as Tony waved down at him, and they watched the athletic young man swing over the edge and use a drainage pipe to slide easily down to the ground.
“Tony, you want to scout ahead and make sure we’re still in the clear?” Vernon asked as everyone got their carts rolling.
Tony gave him a little salute. “I’m on it.”
“Just stay within eyesight,” the old man instructed. “We may need you to help out if wheeling these things attracts attention.”
Tony grabbed a lime-flavored energy drink from one of Darrell’s carts and unscrewed the cap, moaning as he chugged half of it. “Hey Mandy,” he asked when he’d caught his breath. “Did you find any magazines for me?”
“I did, you pervy Energizer Bunny motherfucker,” she replied.
Tony grinned. “I appreciate ya! Of course, you can come by any time and read ‘em.” He winked at her as he tossed the bottle back into the cart and she shot him a middle finger with a smile.
“Okay, let’s get moving,” Vernon said. “We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”
About an hour later, the group emerged from the abandoned neighborhood. Tony pushed one of Mandy’s carts, as one of the wheels was a bit wonky and she’d had trouble keeping it straight with one hand.
“Holy shit man,” Darrell complained, sick of the squeakiness of his own carts. “Next time we go by a hardware store, I’m stealing every single can of WD-40 they’ve got.”
Marc laughed. “It ain’t that bad, Darrell, just think of it as white noise.”
“Man, I went to so many concerts back in the day, my hearing is like eighty percent white noise as it is.” Darrell rolled his eyes. “This shit is just annoying.”
They rounded the last corner, and the bridge came into view a few hundred yards away.
“Oh, thank the sweet baby Jesus,” Mandy groaned. “It’s about damn time.”
“Hell yeah, there it is!” Darrell agreed. “Get this shit loaded up and get home. I’m starvin’.”
Vernon clucked his tongue. “Settle down people, we still have a bit of work ahead of us.”
Phil stopped short, almost causing a cart pileup.
“Come on, newbie, don’t tire out on us, now,” Marc joked.
Phil furrowed his brow, straining his ears. “Did y’all not hear that?”
“Dude is getting paranoid,” Darrell scoffed.
The newcomer scowled. “Everybody just stop for a second, and listen.”
Vernon held up his hand to facilitate everyone stopping, and a moment later there was an echo of a low rumbling. A high-pitched whine followed, growing louder and louder.
“What the hell is that?” Marc breathed.
Everyone instinctively flinched as three cruise missiles buzzed over their heads.
“Everybody take cover!” Vernon bellowed, and the group hurried into action. They sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them to the tree line as a series of explosions sounded in the distance. They dove into a ditch behind the thick tree trunks, scrambling to stay laying down while peeking up over the edge of the divot to see what was going on.
They watched in horror as three more missiles hit the bridge, debris flying everywhere as the structure crumbled into the rushing river.
The group stayed stock still, staring wide-eyed and in shock, and the world seemed to go silent. After a few moments with no more explosions, Mandy suddenly shot to her feet, startling everyone.
“What the fuck?!” she screamed. “How are we supposed to get back now?!”
Darrell threaded his hands through his hair and pulled. “Who would blow up the bridge?”
Vernon swallowed hard and rolled onto his back, pulling out his walkie talkie. “Nadia? Nadia are you there?”
“Daddy?” her scared voice came crackling back. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay, baby, we’re all okay,” he replied.
“What was that noise?” she demanded.
Vernon took a deep breath before pushing the button again. “It was the bridge. Somebody blew up the bridge.”
“Who would do that?” her voice was thick.
“It doesn’t matter right now, baby,” he replied gently. “All that matters is that the bridge is gone and we’re still on the Arkansas side.”
“What?” she exclaimed. “How are you getting back?”
“You let me worry about that,” he instructed. “I need you to do something for me. It’s incredibly important or else I wouldn’t ask you to do this.”
There was a pause and then Nadia came back, sounding firmer and calmer. “Okay. What do you need me to do?”
“I…” Vernon took a deep breath. “I need you to get people to the casino.”
“Are you crazy?!” Mandy shrieked. “You want to send your daughter to that death trap?”
Tony grabbed her arm as Vernon held up a hand to silence her. She seethed, jerking away from them all and turning to face the decimated bridge with a huff.
“The… the casino?” Nadia asked. “But it’s overrun with zombies.”
“I know, baby, I know,” Vernon replied, wincing at his own words. “But you’re gonna have to figure out a way to make that place as safe as you can. And you’re not going to have much time to do it in.”
She clicked the button, but hesitated before speaking. “Because of the explosion.”
“That’s right,” her father said. “Because of the explosion. Every zombie within a hundred miles is going to be headed our way, and our little town is not going to withstand it.”
“I’ll take care of it, daddy.” Her voice was so stern and so like her mother’s that it made his heart feel like it was about to burst from his chest.
“Baby, I want you to listen to me, and listen to me good,” Vernon said. “You don’t take shit from nobody, you understand me? Nobody else in that town has been out there fighting those things. Only you have. You make damn sure that people know they need to take orders from you. I know some of them older white boys ain’t gonna wanna take orders from a sixteen-year-old black girl, but you do whatever you need to do make them understand. Are we clear?”
“I won’t let you down,” Nadia promised.
“I know you won’t,” he replied. “Now you hurry, run and find Mister Kenneth. I’ll tell him what’s going on while you round up who you need to round up.”
She paused, and
he imagined her giving a firm nod. “I love you, daddy,” she said quietly.
He pressed the walkie talkie to his forehead, closing his eyes for a moment. “I love you too, baby,” he finally said. “Now you get going.”
There was a moment of hesitant silence before everyone clustered around the man they trusted to lead them.
“So, what’s our plan?” Tony asked helplessly.
Vernon squared his shoulders as he clipped the radio back to his belt. “We gotta go north.”
Mandy immediately doubled over as if she were about to retch, and Darrell moved away from the group to drive his fist into a tree trunk. Tony and Marc went pale.
Phil’s brow furrowed. “What’s north?”
“The Helena River Park,” Vernon replied.
The newcomer shrugged. “And that’s… bad?”
“A shitload of people had that same idea early on,” Marc explained, voice hoarse with worry. “Back when all these things were runners. Somehow they got the bright idea that they could get down to the Gulf and be safe. One traffic jam later, and the population of the town tripled, only with zombies.”
“So why don’t we just go south and cross the river down there?” Phil asked.
Tony shook his head. “The current will carry us miles downriver before we can get across.”
“If we could even get across without drowning,” Darrell snapped, turning back to the group. “Not sure how strong of swimmers y’all are, but my dumb ass would be fish food for sure.”
“Fact is, we need a boat,” Vernon cut in. “Our only hope is to head towards the River Park and see if there is one left that we can get into the water. And time is not our friend.”
The group seemed to calm down, accepting the fact that this was their only option. They rummaged around in the carts, filling their bags with food and water.
“Tony, I’ll need you to get a hundred or so yards ahead,” Vernon continued. “We’re going to be moving at a brisk pace, so you direct traffic for us. You tell us where to go and we follow.”
