by Radke, K. E.
No anguish or sign of suffering crossed his face as he shuffled in Lincoln’s direction, the bone sinking further into the skin. Snapping like a branch, the guy toppled over crashing against the concrete. No howls or gripes of pain as he raised himself waist high and started dragging himself over the pavement, his visible bone scraping along the way.
The second one passed the guy with the broken leg. Lincoln was mesmerized by the ugly beast. Torn across his face, a long stretch of skin hung by his chin flapping around as he moved to reach Lincoln, he originally thought it was some kind of beard. One of his eyes hung across his cheek, the eye socket visible for everyone to see the bloody muscle tissue and pus oozing out of the hole.
Wyatt honked causing Lincoln to spin backward searching for danger behind him. Wide with fear, Lincoln’s eyes darted around finding nothing so he glanced at Wyatt to direct him. Wyatt frantically pointed at the corpses Lincoln was already aware of. Clenching his teeth, Lincoln wanted to shoot Wyatt for distracting him when strong fingers dug into his shoulder making him cower in pain and loosen his grip on the gun.
The stench made Lincoln gag and he recoiled, leaning back to find he trapped himself against the car. Gritting his teeth at his stupidity with nowhere to go, Lincoln pushed against the decaying body’s shoulders to keep the snapping teeth away from him. Its weight shoved forward trapping him against the car. The gun barrel was facing away from the mobile corpse and he tried to maneuver it upward causing him to lose precious inches of space.
His heart pounded away as a reminder of what he was fighting for. Up against the car Lincoln felt his grip slip again, the cloludy eye swinging forward and grazing his cheek, the pus and blood leaving a wet streak across his face. If he didn’t move, this thing was going to tear his face off. Moving only his eyes he glanced from side to side searching for a way out. The grayish hand on his shoulder tightened its grip and he felt his knees buckle from the pain.
Using the drop to his advantage, in a fit of brute strength he pushed with everything he had and fell to the ground. The cannibal propelled forward and bounced its head off the car shoving its crotch into Lincoln’s face. By the time it gazed down to devour its prey Lincoln had his shot lined up and the bullet flew upward. He covered himself from the gory aftermath feeling the tissue and blood rain down upon him. The body fell backward, whacking the other one with a broken leg as it moved steadily toward him. Lincoln watched it squirm beneath the new weight on top of it and then shot it in the head.
Sitting against the car for a second to catch his breath he heard the car door open, “Lincoln? Are you ok?” Wyatt’s voice floated to him. Lincoln quickly uncovered his shoulder searching for scratches through the fabric. He only found the imprint of fingers. Exhaling he took a moment before he nodded his head, not realizing Wyatt couldn’t see him doing it.
More banging on the windows of the store caused Lincoln to stand up. Relief crossed over everyone’s face when they saw him. As long as no one new showed up, there was only one left to kill.
She was smashing her face into the glass window trying to attack Samuel and Renee. Renee shook her head at Samuel as he placed his hand flat against the window and moved it around watching the girl follow it like a cat with a laser pointer. Blood smeared against the window as her head bounced against it, her tongue shooting in and out of her mouth as she followed Samuel’s hand. Scraping her teeth across the glass, she gazed up when Lincoln was a few feet away from her, somehow aware a new food source was close by and within reach. He didn’t allow her to fully turn before he shot her in the head.
Brains, skin and skull shattered, plowing straight into the window causing Renee to scream inside. The girl had a drop of blood dripping down her face from the bullet hole and swayed to her right collapsing on the ground like a felled tree.
Eight
S amuel found a clear spot through the goo to give Lincoln two thumbs up and hustled to the front door unlocking it, gesturing for him to come inside. Lincoln had to move around Samuel’s protruding belly to get through. In the doorway, Samuel waved to Wyatt asking him if he wanted to join them. Wyatt had lost all his color and he wasn’t looking at Samuel. He was staring at the dead people littering the ground in front of the store.
“They were all kids. One of them was Tommy,” Lincoln felt his shoulders slump refusing to cast a glance back at the dead bodies.
“It was you or them,” Samuel put a reassuring hand on Lincoln’s hurt shoulder making him wince. “Are you hurt?” He removed his hand in a flash with a concerned expression. His green eyes squinted causing more wrinkles to show up while he searched for blood.
“Take a look for me,” Lincoln pulled on his shirt revealing his shoulder.
Samuel’s gray hair brushed against Lincoln’s face, needing to get closer in order to see, finding nothing but an imprint of fingers, “Nothing but a real nasty looking set of fingers that must have had a good grip.”
“You two need a room?” Renee teased lightheartedly trying to distract herself with humor. She pushed her russet hair behind her ear keeping the fake smile she uses on difficult customers plastered across her face.
“Stop trying to get a peek of the man naked and go turn off the alarm woman,” Samuel’s voice was stern but Lincoln knew he was only joking with Renee. Renee slapped Samuel on the ass giving him a mischievous wink as she passed him making Lincoln roll his eyes.
Fixing his shirt Lincoln yelled, “If you can turn it off why is it still on?”
“It brought us you didn’t it?” Samuel answered the question with a question. Lincoln really hated it when people did that.
“You got tired of the music?” Lincoln shouted too loud because the alarm went off mid-question.
“We’ve been stuck here for over an hour. The alarm went off and we hightailed it over here to stop the looters, but were too late. They’d taken whatever it was they were after. We cleaned up a bit and by the time we decided to leave we had visitors behind the store. One guy tried to eat me! Tackling me to the ground! Luckily Renee was carrying,” his voice got even lower so only Lincoln could hear him. “She almost shot my head off. I’m surprised she didn’t with her hands shaking as badly as they were.”
“You weren’t carrying?” Lincoln asked amused.
“I thought the police would be here ready for our statement, maybe with the perpetrator. Didn’t think jail would be a good place to sleep if I shot the guy. Renee made me leave it at home,” Samuel sulked continuing his story. “Anyway, she got off five shots killing the guy and taking out our tire on the car. She freaked out! More concerned about going to jail than the dead guy, which is why she wouldn’t let me take the other one out when it showed up. He was covered in blood too, but since she wouldn’t let me shoot it I hauled her back inside. We called the law and left four messages but haven’t heard a damn thing. So Renee thought if we turned on the alarm someone would come for us.”
“Well if she’s going to jail I guess we’ll be cell mates. You have a spare tire? How many are at the back of the store?” Lincoln asked.
“We don’t know, there’s no windows back there.”
Renee joined them again just as Lincoln devised a plan, “I’ll go around back and knock three times when it’s safe to open the door. You mind grabbing me a shirt? Mine has... ,” Lincoln paused gazing down at himself, “goo on it.”
“Yes, well, you also have goo all over your face honey. Size large coming right up,” Renee announced.
“That’s what she said,” Samuel muttered grinning ear to ear. “We’ll see you at the backdoor darling,” Samuel gave his wife a kiss.
“You’re not coming,” Lincoln shook his head.
“The hell I ain’t. Never go alone,” Samuel recited the rule. Renee nodded in agreement.
“Be careful, leave the front door open just in case you need to make your way back in. I’ll shut myself in the backroom and wait for your knock,” Renee set off winding through the store’s aisles, disappearing behind the clothes racks without glanci
ng back. She had confidence in Lincoln and Samuel. They will not let her die in the backroom of her store.
“Wait here, I’m not going in useless,” Samuel took off and Lincoln stood impatiently at the front waiting for his companion. Two minutes later a squealing horn was continuously beeping. Through the window Lincoln peeked between the grime and gore catching a glimpse of someone approaching Wyatt’s car. He watched Wyatt scramble from the driver’s seat into the passengers, pressing himself up against the car door. The other person clawed at the window trying to get inside of the car.
“A bit of a coward isn’t he?” Samuel asked the rhetorical question. “I thought for sure that thing had gotten you when you disappeared on the side of his car. With him right there to help.”
“He has no weapons and he’s terrified. These are not the first ones we’ve come across today…he was chased earlier by a running corpse.”
“Is that what you call them? I call them ghouls. I’m ready when you are. But if you want to wait for the man to pee his pants we can stand here for a couple more minutes.”
“If he hasn’t already I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Lincoln smiled at the jab and aimed his Glock. Finally glancing over at Samuel before they exited, he did a double take at the gun Samuel was carrying.
In his hands, Samuel held a black Kel-Tec KSG 12ga bullpup, pump action, shoulder fired shotgun with a red dot scope attached to the top rail. Lincoln’s eyes bounced enviously between his gun and the one Samuel had in his hands.
He remembered the day it was delivered. Samuel had called him to the back under false pretenses locking the door so his wife couldn’t walk in on them as they admired it. He’d bought it to bring in more customers, a piece to show off. The problem was his wife had told him to buy something else. He was hiding it as long as he could before he ended up on the couch.
They were missing for so long on the floor that Renee easily found them because she had a key to every door in the store. Neither one of them moved like two deer caught in headlights.
“I swear to the almighty if Lincoln puts in a sexual harassment charge against you Samuel I will not stand by your side,” she declared. Lincoln had the KSG 12ga behind his back. Her eyes darted from Lincoln to Samuel and back again. “What do you have behind your back Lincoln?”
“Just some new items to put out on the floor,” Lincoln tried to keep his voice casual.
“Let’s see it,” she replied crossing her arms over her chest taking a wide stance blocking the only exit.
“We don’t want to bore you—,” but she interrupted Samuel.
“Shut it! Or you can eat TV dinners the rest of the week,” she threatened never taking her gaze off Lincoln. “Come on, we’re all waiting.”
Lincoln slowly pulled the KSG from behind him. Keeping his eyes on the ground, he held it out in front of him peering at Samuel from the corner of his eye and felt like a little boy being scolded.
“Lincoln I need a word with my husband—alone,” Renee said in an icy calm for only Lincoln’s benefit. If he wasn’t in the room she’d be yelling at Samuel already. Her eyes were shooting fiery daggers at Samuel ready to destroy him. The tiny room filled with a suffocating tension that Lincoln hadn’t felt since he was a child living with his mother.
He glanced back and forth between his bosses and then stared at Renee, “I don’t like the face you’re making at him.”
“Out. Now.” she demanded.
Lincoln cut to the door faster than he thought possible making eye contact one last time with Samuel before the door shut—locking Samuel in a room with the only woman that makes him quake with fear.
Samuel survived the aftermath of defying his wife. Lincoln remembered a lot of new jewelry and flowers showing up that week.
“Show off,” Lincoln snorted and pretended not to care that Samuel’s gun was bigger than his.
“If you need a weapon to kill some shit, why not live a little,” Samuel rationalized wiggling his gray brows.
Samuel led the way, ready to shoot the ghoul attacking Wyatt’s car. Lincoln pushed the gun down and said, “If you shoot and miss you’re going to blow a huge hole in Wyatt’s piece of shit that he calls a car. So if you don’t mind, I think I should go first.”
“Fine,” Samuel grumbled. Lincoln aimed killing his target and bowed in triumph at Wyatt.
Jogging to the side of the building they carefully kept to the wall, one behind the other until they reached the back corner. Samuel peered around it for a few seconds and then placed his back against the wall whispering, “I’m not sure if there’s a bunch of them or just a giant one. I can’t see without my glasses.”
Lincoln gave him an exasperated expression. “How the hell are you going to lead knowing you’re blind? It’s probably several all bunched together. How far are they?”
“Loitering around the dead one. Like they’re saying goodbye. We can take them. There can’t be more than five.”
“Let’s reunite them with their friend.”
Samuel counted to three and turned the corner charging only to stop in his tracks. Lincoln slammed into Samuel’s back causing them both to stumble.
“Good God almighty!” Samuel whistled a low sound at the sight of her. She heard the noise turning her head to find it. Keeping her eerie gaze on them, she waddled her body around to face them.
“Is that Mrs. Fleming?” Lincoln asked.
“She looks like she ate the fucking things that tried to eat her. We both know she didn’t run away.”
Martha Fleming had an IV in her arm and she was dragging the bag behind her. Dried, tiny blood pinholes were scattered haphazardly on the inside of her arm from where the needle had rammed through her skin every time she bent it. The gigantic woman who only wore moo-moos was in a tattered hospital gown. It barely covered the four hundred pounds of flesh beneath it. Rolls of fat swayed and jiggled with each step she took, the cellulite visible in the sunlight.
Huge chunks of flesh were missing from her left arm but the bone wasn’t visible. Her face was remarkably untouched but the more Lincoln thought about it the more he realized they’d have to be able to reach her face—she was wide enough to keep them at bay. Blood dribbled out of her mouth and pieces of flesh were stuck in her teeth. Stretched skin hung in drapes from her massive weight gain all over her body. Lincoln thought he spied extra skin from her arm only to find a nipple at the end of it.
“If she turns around that moon better block out the sun for the sake of my eyes,” Samuel joked. “Do you think if you shoot her the bullet can get through to the other side? Or would it get stuck in the middle somewhere?”
“I hope you don’t kiss your wife with that mouth.”
“My wife’s mouth is dirtier than mine. Just don’t tell her I told you.”
“Should we find out?” Lincoln asked aiming at Mrs. Fleming’s chest.
“Hell yes!”
Lincoln aimed and fired hitting her in the chest where the hospital gown no longer covered her. The fat absorbed the bullet making the area ripple like a pebble being thrown into stagnant water.
“I just realized someone has to go on the other side to see if it went through... ,” Samuel’s voice trailed off as they made eye contact.
“It was your idea.”
“I didn’t almost get eaten to be killed by Renee when she finds out I was looking at another woman.”
“I doubt this counts.”
“You’d make an old man who survived a brutal attack and was almost eaten,” he emphasized the last word, “go check for a bullet hole?”
“Yes.”
Samuel grumbled giving Mrs. Fleming a wide berth as he circled her. Her head twisted around following his movement. Lincoln whistled a tune to catch her attention. She snapped her head back to him as he shuffled his feet impatiently.
A disgusted facial expression crossed Samuel’s face and he looked away quickly, “Fuck! She’s hiding two more back here.”
“Bullets?”
“No. Ghouls. We couldn’t see them because they were using her for cover. Or they might be orbiting around her.”
Samuel gave no warning, he pumped the KSG 12ga and fired, the noise echoing over the lot. One second Mrs. Fleming had a head the next it was gone. Pulverized bone, brain matter, blood and pieces of skin burst into the air coming down like hail. She stood headless for a few seconds before her knees buckled and she fell flat on her chest. The hospital gown was open and fluttering from the momentum. Everything was exposed. Everything jiggled, rippling across her body, her butt cheeks slapping against each other from impact as she laid there motionless. The wound from Lincoln’s shot in plain sight.
“If I’d known she was going to land like that I might have came back around to shoot her from the front.”
The other two ghouls were a few feet from Samuel. Lincoln aimed at the one closest to him and fired a bullet to the side of his head. Blood sprayed over Samuel’s face and he growled, “My mouth could have been open!”
“You need to stop talking and shoot more.”
He pumped the KSG 12ga, shot the second ghoul causing it to fall back on its ass. A giant hole took the place of its chest, severing the neck on up from the rest of his body. The head rolled several times before it came to a complete stop and they both moved forward and stared down at the snapping jaw. Its eyes peering at them from the side of its head.
“You missed. Let me try,” Lincoln wanted to shoot the KSG so bad his trigger finger was twitching just thinking about it.
“I didn’t miss. I just wanted to shoot it again. But the positioning doesn’t make for a good target.”
The back door squealed open and Renee popped her head out gazing around until she spotted them. She burst out the door with her hands on her hips.
“I’ve been waiting worried sick in there—,” her eyes fell to Mrs. Fleming, the giant woman distracting her from the scolding she was trying to give them. “Good God almighty! Look at the size of her! How’d she get away?! She couldn’t have run. Can you imagine her running? She’d knocked the people out beside her! All these extra flaps of fat flapping around with every bouncing step,” Renee said shocked circling the huge woman.
