by Tim Moon
“It’s an obvious place for other people to hit,” Ty said simply.
“True but we can block the front door and put the Humvee out back so they’re out of sight, but also ready to go if someone rolls up,” Ben said. “We probably have more firepower than anyone that might try to mess with us. Hell, we haven’t even seen anyone and obviously no one has been in the store for a while, probably not since the infection spread.”
Ben turned away; he couldn’t deal with this right now. He started to walk away. They were all okay with staying there except for Ty. Ben stopped when he realized what he was doing.
Can’t run from your problems, he thought.
“Let’s do this democratically with a simple vote, just like last time. Majority rules. Raise your hand if you want to clear the rooms and stay here tonight?” Ben looked around. Everyone’s hand went up, even Oliver’s. Ty was handily defeated, again.
“Can we get to work now?” Keanu asked.
“Sure.” Ben turned to Anuhea. “Where do you guys want to wait while we clear the stockroom?”
“We can sit by the cash registers. That should be fine,” she said. Charlotte nodded.
“Would you mind staying with them?” Ben asked, nodding toward Charlotte and Oliver.
“Not at all,” Anuhea said.
Everyone moved over to the front of the store. Charlotte, Oliver, and Anuhea chose a spot near the self-checkout lanes.
“That’s smart. Good cover all around,” Ben said.
Ty sat near them, but kept some distance.
Keanu led Ben past the registers toward the rooms at the front of the store. He tried a door that was behind the customer service counter, but it turned out to be locked.
“That was easy,” Keanu said with a smile.
“Yeah,” Ben said slightly disappointed.
“Easier than dealing with your buddy.”
Ben grunted and said, “I don’t know what his problem is. He’s been kind of a dick since shit started going down.”
“I’ve seen his type before. He’s just not cut out for this kind of situation,” Keanu said. He stopped short of saying Ty was a liability, but the look on his face expressed it clear enough. “Just keep an eye on him.”
“I’ll try to talk to him,” Ben said. “We need to clear the air anyway.”
“Speaking of, do you know how to clear a room?” Keanu said, refocusing them on the problem at hand.
“Not really. I’ve seen it in movies and games but I’ve never actually done it.”
“When we enter a room, I’ll go first. I’ll enter and go left to the corner of the room. You’ll come in and go right about halfway in. Sweep your gun from right to left and stop at the opposite corner - not at me. Okay?” Keanu showed how it was done with his hands. “Our lines of fire should eventually cross, but not directly at each other.”
“Um…sure.” Ben adjusted his grip the rifle, flexing his fingers.
“As long as it’s only infected we should be fine. They won’t be shooting back,” Keanu said with a reassuring smile. “The key is to move fast and shoot the enemy, or infected, quickly.”
“Maybe we should just club them? The noise might attract more,” Ben said. At least that way he couldn’t accidentally shoot Keanu.
“You want to get that close? I don’t, not in such a tight space. One bite and you’re done, man. Game over.”
He had a point. There wasn’t any room for a mistake like that. They’d just have to take the risk with gunshots.
“Besides most of the noise will be muffled. This is a pretty big place with plenty of walls and stuff to absorb the sound,” Keanu continued.
“Fair enough. Let’s do this.”
They left the locked door and moved along the wall. A short hallway led to the restrooms.
“Ah, these are important,” said Keanu. He motioned for them to move forward.
Ben followed closely, holding his rifle the same way he’d seen Keanu carry his.
Keanu moved to the other side of the door and raised his hand with three fingers raised.
He looked at Ben in the light of the flashlight and mouthed the words: three, two, one.
He pushed open the door to the women’s restroom. It smelled funny inside, a mix of perfume and body functions. The open areas were clear. They pushed open each of the stall doors but there was nothing, except for an unflushed toilet.
“Some people are so fucking gross,” said Keanu, scrunching up his nose.
They left the women’s room, laughing. Then it was all business again as they cleared the men’s room. Only one stall to clear and it was empty. No other doors lined the hallway so they went back out into the store.
“Should we hit the deli and baking area? I don’t think there are any doors over there,” said Ben, gesturing to the wall closest to them.
“I don’t think so either, but let’s not leave it to chance. Like you said, one bite and it’s game over. We can go along this wall and then cross through the stock area and emerge next to the deli and bakery.”
“Sounds good. Ready when you are.”
They worked well together. Along the wall closest to them were the magazine stands and a small area for bestselling books. Ben was tempted to grab a book, but he could do that later. Before bed or tomorrow morning before they left, he promised himself. Near the books were greeting cards, balloons and other celebratory stuff. No one would be using that stuff anytime soon. There wasn’t much to celebrate when thousands have died.
Before long, they had cleared the main part of the store for a second time and strode to the back doors leading to the stock room. Keanu stopped before the two black plastic doors leading into the stock area. A sign above the door said “Employees Only.”
“You still have the flashlight thing?”
“I sure do,” Ben said. It took him a moment to fish the phone out of his pocket and turn on the flashlight again.
“Okay, here we go. Stay close this time though. I think the stock room will be too full for us to clear like a normal room. We’ll have to go through slower too to make sure we cover everything,” Keanu said.
“I’ll follow you,” Ben said, stepping up behind the big man.
“I don’t feel like getting shot, okay? So, watch where you swing the barrel of your gun,” Keanu said with a smile.
“Right. I’ll watch that.”
Keanu signaled a three-second countdown and then pushed through the doors. They only pushed through one of the doors but damn it was loud. Plastic along the bottom edge of the door made a whooshing sound as it slide across the concrete floor of the stockroom.
Ben cringed a little at the noise.
When they were both inside, Keanu paused. He shone the light around so they could see what was around. The light didn’t reach far, but Ben could make out big metal shelves with pallets on them filled with boxed merchandise.
After spending a moment checking the immediate area, Keanu motioned to the left and they walked deliberately until they reached the wall. At the end, set in the corner, was a small room. It turned out to be a broom closet. Cleaning supplies, bags, and other janitorial items cluttered the space. They turned around and checked between the stockroom shelves.
Ahead they noticed a faint glow set against the back wall. Neither of them could see the source, but it looked weak, like a flashlight or something equally small. Ben still hadn’t noticed the cat either.
“Don’t focus completely on the light. Keep checking around so we don’t get caught off guard,” Keanu whispered to Ben.
He nodded and raised his rifle. Ben felt the pressure mounting as Keanu’s point sank in. Even if people didn’t ambush them, the light would attract the attention of any infected inside the room and they’d gravitate toward it like moths. The two of them would have to inspect the area carefully to avoid a disaster. Creeping forward slowly, they started in the direction of the glow. Keanu motioned for Ben to move to his left, this way they’d be more spread out. Ben would also
get a good angle on the light source.
Ben continued watching their left flank. Just a wall with table covered in papers and a few big rolls of tape and the tape guns they used to seal up boxes.
Something moved near the light casting an intimidating shadow across the wall.
Ben crouched, whipping his gun that direction in case someone was coming at them. But there was no more movement.
Keanu had kept moving, checking methodically to his right. He glanced back as Ben hustled over to resume his position.
Keanu smiled at him. For the life of him, Ben couldn’t imagine why he was smiling. Ben was nervous as fuck. Anything could be around the corner.
Instead of talking since they were so close to the light, Keanu pointed down the adjacent aisle. This way they could try to come up behind whoever or whatever was there. Ben nodded and followed along. He felt much more confident carrying his rifle. He just hoped if shots started flying that he’d do well. They might be about to find out.
Another shadow flashed against the wall. It was impossible to figure out what it was. As they moved down the aisle, Ben could catch glimpses of the next aisle. The walkway looked empty, unlike most of the other aisles, which had boxes in the way. They reached the end.
Keanu raised his hand again, counting down from three. They whipped around the corner and saw what it was.
A pair of bodies lay on the floor. It looked like a young man and woman. They lay on the floor next to each other; the man was flopped over the top of the woman as if he had tried to shield her from something. A flashlight lay beside them, angled up toward the ceiling. Its batteries were running low, giving the light a slightly yellow tint. The source of the shadow was the cat Ben had seen earlier in the aisle.
The two didn’t look like store employees. Neither one held a weapon that Ben could see but they were obviously dead. Blood splatter was all over.
“Jesus, what a fucking mess,” said Keanu.
“What should we do?” Ben said, looking away from the bodies.
“Leave them, I guess. We still need to clear the room before we rejoin the rest of the group.”
Ben felt bad leaving them lying there like that.
“How do you think they died?” he said.
“Doesn’t really matter as long as they’re not attacking us, right?”
“Well…if they didn’t kill themselves someone else did it. If we don’t find anyone else in the store that means they might come back. That could be a problem.”
Keanu made a good point face before kneeling down to look at the bodies.
“I don’t see any weapons,” Ben said, circling the bodies and picking up the flashlight. The cat meowed at him and he wondered why these people had a cat with them. Surely, a cat wouldn’t stick around them like this if it wasn’t their pet.
“They were shot. That part’s clear.” Keanu stood up and shook his head. “Let’s finish clearing this room and we’ll come back and take a closer look.”
“Okay.” Ben spun the flashlight in his hand, offering the handle to Keanu. “Here. Take this.”
“Thanks, man.”
Without another word, they moved on, sweeping the area in front of them looking for any threats - infected or otherwise. The idea that someone murdered these people sent a chill racing down Ben’s neck. He shivered.
They had seen people looting on TV. Although the store looked like it was good order when they arrived maybe the people responsible for killing the couple weren’t the messy type.
Several minutes later, they finished their inspection and concluded that the stockroom was clear. Only the cat and the two bodies were out of the ordinary. All of the doors remained locked and everything else seemed fine. Finding the bodies was disconcerting, but they’d only be there one night.
“I gotta admit that the bodies are freakin’ me out a little,” said Ben with a nervous laugh.
“Yeah, I can’t think why someone would shoot them when everything around here looks so normal.” Keanu turned back toward the bodies. “No sign of a fight, they don’t look like they were robbed, nothing. Maybe it was revenge?”
Ben shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter, I guess. I think we should at least cover them up.” Ben looked at Keanu, assessing his reaction.
Keanu thought for a moment before he nodded in agreement. “Okay, let’s cover ‘em up.”
40
Ben set down the last armful of flattened boxes. When he and Keanu hadn’t found a suitable unlocked room for them to sleep in, they collectively decided to co-opt the customer service center. For their beds, Ben figured they could lay out cardboard on the floor. It wasn’t much padding, but it was better than nothing. The idea to use the cardboard came to him after he and Keanu used a few flattened boxes to cover the dead couple.
It was warm inside so there was no need for blankets. Packs of toilet paper or black garbage bags filled with unrolled paper towels served as pillows. Ben was so happy with the garbage bag pillow he made that he planned to take it with them when they left.
Anuhea laid out several of the flat, rectangular packages of toilet paper on top of the card bard and laid on those.
“This isn’t so bad,” she said.
“It looks ridiculous, but if it’s comfortable then who cares?” Ben smiled. He leaned back against a package of paper towels, satisfied with his large dinner of canned vegetables, potato chips, and beef jerky. All washed down with a bottle of Gatorade.
Up front in the customer service center, they avoided most of the stink from the deli and butcher area. Compared to their night “in the wild,” this was easy living.
Ben lay on his cardboard and toilet paper bed, reading a book he picked up after they’d cleared the stockroom by the light of a flashlight from aisle six. If not for all the death and general mayhem, this might be a fun adventure. But real life adventures were rarely as exciting as in a book.
Oliver was already asleep, splayed out like a starfish on his bed. Charlotte had been lying next to him but she got up and came over near Ben.
“Good book?”
It always amazed Ben how people will come up and interrupt you while you’re reading to ask this sort of question. Usually, it annoyed the hell out of him, but in this case, he didn’t mind at all.
“So far, so good,” Ben said, closing the book. “It’s just some fun, easy reading before bed.”
She looked amazing despite not having a proper shower since leaving the quarantine center for the airport. He was quite certain that he wasn’t looking or smelling so great himself despite taking a sink shower in the men’s room and scrubbing himself with wet wipes.
Ben glanced down at Charlotte’s lips. He’d brushed his teeth twice, just because he could. It had been the best part of his day so far. He loved the minty fresh feeling in his mouth.
Her smile washed away any hesitation he had. He wanted her close, showers be damned.
“Not tired?” Ben said, scooting over a little in case she wanted to sit down.
She noticed and smiled, sitting carefully on the makeshift bed. A pack of toilet paper slipped off the cardboard and fell to the floor.
“Oops, I’m making a mess of your bed,” she said, starting to get up.
“Stay.” He put his hand on hers.
Her gaze went to their hands. A smile played across her lips. Even in the dim light, her beauty amazed him.
The silence stretched on.
“What’s on your mind?” Ben said.
“A lot actually, so many different things,” she said. “It’s like a tornado in my head.” She spun her finger around as if she was going crazy.
“I know what you mean.” He squeezed her hand and then sat up next to her. “I’m trying to stay focused on what’s in front of us so we survive, but there are so many other things too. How’s my mom? What’s happening with this infection? Is the government making any progress in containing it? How’d this all go to shit? You know?”
Charlotte nodded.
“And I wonder how long life will be like this, you know, running for our lives, killing infected and all that,” Ben said.
Charlotte nodded again as she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.
“I miss my parents. I just hope they’re okay. They’re probably worried sick about me,” she said. Her voice sounded thick and he could see tears glistening in her eyes.
“We’ll find a way to contact them. We’ll get off this island,” Ben said. “We have to…”
“What if the same thing happened at the airport in Hilo?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure something out,” Ben said. “I think it’ll be okay. What are the odds that both airports were destroyed?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“We’ll know soon. Either way, we find out tomorrow.” Ben sighed.
She leaned against him, resting her head against his shoulder.
Ben smiled to himself and tilted his head a little to rest on hers.
Here they were hiding from flesh eating monsters yet still finding time to be close and get to know each other. He felt excited as if this was his first time putting his arm around a girl, which it totally wasn’t.
The soft skin of her arm brushed against his sending tingles racing up his arm to his spine. He felt alive and free. He reached for her hand and held it in his. She tilted her head up and gazed into his eyes. Another smile played across her lips.
He smiled back. She leaned and kissed him. He was a little surprised at first and pulled back a little. Then he closed his eyes, and leaned back into her kiss. Charlotte kissed him soft at first then she reached up and pulled him to her, eager for more. Ben sank into the moment, feeling the warmth of her mouth, the hot breath on his check as he moved down and kissed her neck. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him up. Their lips playing against each other like the ebb and flow of waves.
A loud crash in the grocery store interrupted them.
Charlotte made a strange squeaking sound. Ben cursed and grabbed his rifle. Anuhea woke up while Oliver kept on sleeping.