by Ryan Casey
There were seven creatures. All of them were standing over the half-eaten body of a nurse. She had an injection in her hands. Her legs were stripped of flesh, white bones on show. Three of her ribs were also visible, the muscles in her chest and her breasts torn away from her body.
She was gasping. Gargling blood. Dead eyes. Snapping teeth.
Riley stepped to the side. Covered his mouth. Shit. He had to get out of here. Stay silent and get out of here.
Another thud at the door. One of them must have been pushing against it. But the others — they hadn’t heard him, or smelt him, or whatever else it was they did. None of them were groaning in the way he’d heard them do so many times yesterday. He still had a chance to get out of here.
As he rushed back to his trolley, the door at the opposite end of the pharmacy crashed open. A man stormed in. He was wearing a sweaty vest, revealing the tattoos that covered both of his arms. He was muscular and well-built, with hair shaved right down. He had two bottles of water under each arm. “Hear you’ve got a bit more water than you’re letting onto.”
Riley’s legs went weak. Behind him, peeking around the door, the woman he’d given the four bottles to.
The man dropped the bottles of water to the floor, eyeing up Riley’s trolley. As he did, the creatures in the surgery turned their heads, like they were searching for the source of the noise. The greying eyes of the mutilated nurse on the floor stared at Riley. She raised her skeletal arm in his direction.
“Fucking selfish bastard,” the man said, pumping out his chest as he got closer to Riley. He cracked his knuckles and kicked one of the bottles along the floor.
“Petey, don’t—”
“You, shut up,” he said, turning and pointing at his wife.
She cowered and took a step back into the expanse of the supermarket. Tears ran down her bruised face.
Riley looked to his side. The creatures were all groaning now. All walking in the direction of the glass. The one by the door had diverted its attentions to Riley — an old man in a suit, blood dribbling down his bearded chin. The others stepped on and over the nurse on the floor, who kept on falling back down every time she tried to stand on her flimsy, fleshless legs.
Pete started to approach Riley again. “I think it’s fucking rude. Taking all that water for yourself and only giving my wife four bottles. Fucking rude.”
“We can work something out here,” Riley said. The creatures lined up against the glass. Eventually, it would crack. They’d spill out of the surgery and take the supermarket, one by one.
“Too right we can,” Pete said. He grinned and nodded at the trolley full of water. “How about you let me take a look in that trolley of yours?”
Riley’s heart raced. He gulped down a lump in his throat and made his wrench visible. He felt ridiculous in the process. A scrawny bastard like him standing up to this muscular, gym-crazy beast. Who was he fooling?
Pete raised his eyebrows and whistled when he saw the wrench. “Boy’s brought a toy along, has he? Does the boy want to play? Huh?” He pulled a knife out of his pocket. It glistened in the flickering of the surgery light.
Riley stepped forward and grabbed his trolley. The creatures continued to push their bodies up to the glass, desperate for a fresh meal. He could try and push his way through Pete and his wife. Charge towards him with his wrench raised and hope he jumped out of the way. Hope Pete’s knife didn’t stab into his leg.
Instead, he took a step back.
Pete frowned as he raised his knife. “Backing off, huh? Not want to play anymore, boy? Well, tough. Nowhere to hide down there. What you gonna do? Go running out the back door into those zombies? I’m gonna fucking cut you to pieces. Rude bastard.”
Riley saw the movement in the corner of his eye as he stepped further and further backwards with the trolley. The creatures. So close. Only glass between them. Groaning. Thumping their hands against the window. Pete moved towards him. Tension welled up inside. He had to do something. He had to try something.
He knew what it was. He just wasn’t sure whether he had it in him.
“Or maybe I’ll take you back with us. Feed you to those hungry fuckers and keep you as a pet.” He started to laugh, manically. “A fucking scrawny zombie pet!” He turned to his wife for approval. “That’s funny. Hey — I said that’s funny.”
His wife forced a smile as her husband’s tone turned angrier. Riley stopped moving backwards. Looked to his left. The creatures were still there. They weren’t going anywhere soon. If Pete saw them, he’d throw Riley in there. Leave him to die. Or worse. Cut him up. Throw him in bit by bit. Force him to watch himself be dissected. A slow, excruciatingly painful death.
“Bitch needs a sense of humour.” He spat on the floor and approached Riley again. “Used to be funny when we first met. Then went the way of all the whores in this place. Miserable fucking bitch. But I love her. I love her, you know?”
Riley nodded. He took a deep breath in. Cleared his throat. “Then take it.”
Pete stopped. His face turned. “You what?”
“Take it,” Riley said. He let go of the trolley. Adrenaline pumped through his body. He had a sense of what he was doing. A sense of a plan. But it had taken a life of its own. “Just… Just take it. I don’t want any more trouble here.”
Pete sniggered. “You’re just gonna give that trolley up? Stand there like a little weak boy and hand it over? That’s how it’s gonna be?”
Riley nodded. “Yes.”
Pete was silent. He observed Riley closely. Squinted and scanned his face and his body. He still hadn’t seen the creatures behind the glass. The flickering light was deceptive. It made their movement look like nothing more than shadows. “Then bring it the fuck here.”
Riley held his ground. Twirled the wrench around in his hand. “If you want it, you can come get it.”
Pete’s eyes narrowed. “Suit yourself.” He walked quickly towards the trolley. He was just feet away now. The creatures at the window—he’d notice them soon.
Riley had to act fast.
Pete grabbed the front of the trolley. Pointed his knife at Riley. “You stay there. Don’t move a muscle until we’re out of here. Okay?”
Something thumped against the window. The light flickered to life.
Pete must have seen it because he turned his head slowly in the direction of the glass. His knife lowered, as did his jaw.
Riley yanked the trolley back. “You can have all the water you want.”
Then, he lifted his wrench and threw it at the glass.
Pete barely had a chance to react before one of the creatures was on top of him. It wrestled him to the ground as he stabbed at its neck. It continued to snap its teeth above him, pushing him down as more creatures swarmed out of the broken glass and piled onto him.
Riley ran towards the door he’d come through. His heart raced. He heard Pete scream out and the sound of flesh tearing as the creatures groaned and grunted.
Pete’s wife was completely frozen. She stared at her husband as teeth sunk into his jugular, spraying blood across the walls. He was still stabbing into the thin air with his knife as the creatures chewed on his arms and legs and chest.
Riley stopped at the door. Pete’s wife was still not moving. She gasped. Her face was even paler than it had been before. Snot and tears covered her mouth.
“Have you got it?”
Riley recognised the voice. When he looked up, he saw it was Trevor. He had a trolley full of tins and cans. Baked Beans. Spaghetti. Spam. Even dog food. Enough to last them a long, long time.
Riley stared back into the room. Pete’s wife dropped to her knees, whimpering. The trolley was still in the room. Some of the water bottles had tumbled to the floor as the creatures had poured out of the glass.
“Ah,” Trevor said, peering into the pharmacy.
Pete’s knife dropped to the floor and he disappeared completely under the mob of creatures.
CHAPTER SIX
Riley reached for the pharmacy door. Pete’s wife sobbed into her hands, crouched on the floor. He pulled the door shut as the creatures in the room continued to feast on Pete’s body. There was no point going in there to try and retrieve the water bottles. That would just attract unnecessary attention. Better just to leave them to it. Leave the problem for somebody else to deal with.
Trevor stared at Riley. He had his hood up and his trolley beside him. “Better go,” he said. There was an apprehension in his eyes. A wariness. Riley had screwed up and he knew it. He didn’t have to go into that pharmacy. He didn’t have to walk down the corridor and alert the attention of the creatures. He didn’t even have to give the woman those bottles of water. He should’ve just walked. Taken the bottles and walked. Survival had no time for the sentimental.
Riley and Trevor started to walk away. It was thirteen minutes past eight. They didn’t have much time to get to the car. They’d have to hurry, or Anna would leave. Either that, or she was bluffing. He wasn’t particularly keen on finding out.
“You have to take me with you. Please.”
Riley’s stomach sank. He turned around as they reached the Crisps aisle and saw Pete’s wife on her knees. Mascara trailed down her cheeks. She sniffed and sobbed.
“Please.” She held her hands together. “I’ve… I’ve got nothing left. Just… Just let me come with you. You were so kind to me. Let me come with you.”
Riley looked at Trevor. Trevor shook his head. “There’s too many as it is. We’ve really gotta go.”
“Please.” The woman stumbled to her feet and edged towards them. “My husband — he was a bad man. But I’m not like that. I’m—I’m not—”
“We can’t. I’m… I’m really sorry.” Riley’s head sank. “I’m sorry.”
Pete’s wife frowned. Stumbled around on the spot. Her face had changed. She didn’t look sympathetic anymore. The pitiful expression had vanished.
Instead, she was scowling. Her bottom lip was shaking. “I was wrong about you. Thought you were a kind man. Thought you were going to help me. But no. No.”
Trevor started to move away with the trolley. “Got to go. Seriously.”
Riley stepped towards the woman. “We’ve got too many people as it—”
“Bastard. You bastard. I could’ve locked you in there with him. Could’ve locked you in there with him to die. Bastard.” Her face turned again, and she started to whimper.
“I’m sorry,” Riley said. “You… You have to go back home. Go somewhere safe. There are others out there. Others who can help you.”
Pete’s wife looked at the door. Sniffed back her tears. “There’s nobody else for me.”
In what seemed like slow-motion, she reached for the door handle and opened it. Then, she banged it against the wall.
“No!” Riley shouted. He tried to run towards her but he felt arms wrap around his chest. The creatures would hear the banging. They’d hear the banging and they’d come to get her. They’d get her, then they’d take the supermarket. Men, women, children—all of them.
“Time to go,” Trevor said. He pulled Riley back and grabbed the trolley.
Pete’s wife stared back at them with red raw eyes as they disappeared in the direction of the exit. She banged the door. Banged it again. The groans grew closer. The footsteps grew closer.
“I’m sorry,” Riley mouthed. He turned away and jogged alongside Trevor.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Don’t look back. Keep on moving forward.
The banging stopped. Riley tensed his jaw. Any moment, they’d be out of the pharmacy. Hunting down their new prey with insatiable hunger.
Struggling. A thud against the hard floor.
“Best not look back now,” Trevor said, as they approached the exit doors.
But he didn’t have to look back. He could tell from the fear in the eyes of the shoppers and looters in front of him that it was likely happening.
And when Pete’s wife started screaming, he knew it was definitely happening.
Were it just Riley and Trevor, or Riley and another member of the group, they’d have kept as quiet as possible as soon as they sighted a creature. Their experiences with the beasts over the last eighteen hours had taught them that much. Don’t make a sound. Don’t let them hear you.
Unfortunately, the rest of the shopping centre hadn’t caught on to this idea quite as rapidly.
People screamed and barged past Riley and Trevor. They crowded around the door, clambering over fallen bodies. The creatures diverted their attention from Pete’s wife and raised to their feet as soon as they heard the commotion. One groaned, and another followed. That one groaned, another followed.
“No chance we’re getting out that way,” Trevor said.
The main door was lined with people. They were throwing trollies at one another, punching and scratching and fighting their way out as the creatures staggered forward.
Leading the pack was Pete. Wedged between his teeth was his wife’s locket, coated with blood and flesh.
“Don’t see why they can’t just be patient. There’s only eight or nine of those things.”
“Are you patient?” Trevor shouted.
He had a point. It was all fair and good intending to take things easy and move single file. But at the end of the day, everybody wanted the same thing — to get out of here. Fast.
“We’re three minutes late. We’re screwed anyway. No chance Anna’s waiting around in this. But we need to find another way out of this place.”
“The pharmacy,” Riley said. “The way those things came from. There was a double door. A doctor’s exit, or something.”
“And it was unlocked?”
“We’re going to have to find out.”
Riley and Trevor turned around. The creatures were stumbling towards them, grabbing unsuspecting looters and biting them. Pete’s wife was on her feet now, eyes glazed and arm partly dangling off.
“They’re multiplying. We’re going to have to get around them quickly.”
Riley pointed at the Rice & Pasta aisle to their left. “Up there, flank them, then get back into the pharmacy.”
“And if the door’s locked?”
A bitten man raised to his feet and sunk his teeth into his sobbing wife’s neck.
“Then it’s been totally fucking bizarre knowing you these last few hours, Trevor.”
Trevor pushed the trolley up the aisle and Riley followed closely.
Riley looked around as he opened the door to the pharmacy. Everybody had flocked in the other direction. The creatures followed the screaming, stopping now and then to gorge on a fallen body. Funny how life threatening the most minor of mistakes could be in this new world. Tripping over a shoelace. Twisting your ankle. Things taken for granted in the old days. Not anymore.
Trevor pushed the trolley slowly across the blood and gut stained floor and into the pharmacy. Riley cringed, trying not to look too closely at the mess below. Pete. Pete’s wife. A sick, twisted way for their story to come to a close.
“Looks clear enough,” Trevor whispered. “Let’s make this as quick as we can.”
Riley took a final look around the supermarket. The creatures continued their pursuit in the opposite direction. Blood dripped from their open wounds. It still didn’t look real. They were like waxwork models. Actors. Scary, but seemingly false.
Until they had their teeth sunk into a person’s neck.
Riley closed the pharmacy door as quietly as he could and turned around. The pharmacy was silent. Blood covered the floor right up to the smashed glass. A mash of innards were gathered in a pile beside the trolley of water bottles.
“Looks like some shit went down in here,” Trevor said. He stopped at the trolley of water bottles, reaching down and picking one up from the floor. Blood ran down the side of the bottle like condensation.
“You could say that,” Riley said. He checked the aisles. Checked to see that none of them had stayed behind. How many of them were there before? Sev
en? Eight?
Riley crept over the broken glass. The light in the surgery room flickered, illuminating the blood. The sign on the door — Flu Jab Season: Get Yours Here & Stay Safe for Winter! — had been partly torn away. He looked at the trolley that he’d left behind. Still stuffed with water bottles. Some of them had fallen to the floor, but there were enough. He grabbed the handle and pushed the trolley towards the rear door.
“Funny, isn’t it?” Riley said.
Trevor frowned. “What?”
“All this panic about flu season and flu’s the least of our…” Riley froze. Stopped in his tracks and stared in through the broken surgery window.
The mutilated nurse lying on the floor was gone.
“We have to leave,” Riley said, pushing the trolley towards the door. “Quick. One of them can’t have got out. Her legs — they were bitten down to the bone. We have to—”
Trevor lurched backwards. It seemed to happen in a blur. The creature nurse was on top of him. He pushed back her head as she snatched her teeth. He couldn’t reach for his weapon. His hands were occupied holding her back. He couldn’t do anything about her.
“Help!” he shouted. “Please—please help.”
Riley was still, like an animal caught in the headlights. He’d lost his weapon. Thrown it through the glass. He turned around. Ran in through the broken window of the surgery and scanned the floor. It had to be here. It had to be.
Trevor shouted out as the nurse’s teeth got closer to his neck. His arm shook. He was struggling to hold her back. “Please!”
A piece of sharp glass caught Riley’s eye. He had to act fast.
He reached down for it and snapped it from the floor, nicking his hand in the process.
Then, he ran over to Trevor and the nurse and plunged the sharp glass through her temple.
Deep red blood spilled out of her skull, covering Trevor. He gasped, like he’d been held under water for too long, then pushed the nurse from on top of him. The glass wedged further into her head as she hit the floor.
The pair of them were still for a few moments. Riley felt a burning sensation in his palm — he’d cut it with the glass. He wiped the blood away onto his trousers and stood up. Trevor stared at the corpse of the nurse, wide-eyed.