I took care of my hygiene as best as I could. I got dressed in the fresh clean gray t-shirt Nick provided and khaki shorts that Kait gave me. It was time to head out on my first suicide mission. I hoped first was more accurate than last.
CHAPTER 4
We hit the road on our way to the shopping spree of doom. I used to love going from shop to shop. I never thought I would be afraid to enter a store. Things change and all change isn’t good.
Naveen drove the Escalade. Nick drove the mail truck while I rode beside him. Naveen followed closely behind us as we took the back roads. I watched out the window as we passed endless acres of farmland. It was quiet and peaceful until I summoned the courage to speak. “So what makes you so brave?”
“Ha, I could ask you the same question, Sarah Connor?” He looked over and grinned.
I didn’t know who Sarah Connor was, but I didn’t let on. “I’m just following your lead.”
“I’m no leader.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Whatever that means… You know my mama told me to never trust a green-eyed girl with full lips.”
“Whaaaaaaaaaat?” I smiled as I said it. “Who said my eyes were green?”
“You’re funny.”
“This is true.” I agreed.
“Everyone else is so serious all the time. I’m glad you ran into my car.”
“I’m glad I ran into your car. I have never been in a Camaro.” For some strange reason I was flirting. This may be the last time I flirt, so what the hell.
“I stole, or borrowed, that car. I used to drive a pick up.”
“So we were in a hot Camaro? Sexy.”
“Yes mam. Now we’re in a hot mail truck.”
“Who stole the Escalade?”
“That belongs to the doctor…Jesse, what happened to your family?”
“I really don’t know. I can only assume they’re dead. I mean there couldn’t be that many people still out there. What about you? What happened to your family? Did you have a wife and kids?”
“No wife and kids. My mother died of ovarian cancer when I was in high school. That was ten years ago. My dad, I hadn’t seen in over a year. I had a brother that lived in Michigan.” We pulled in front of a gun shop. “We are here.”
It was a little store front on the corner of a strip mall. Nick put the car in park. He reached behind his seat and grabbed a backpack and two huge duffel bags.
Nick looked over at me. “Turn on your walkie.”
I looked down. I had forgotten that I had a walkie-talkie wedged in between my legs. I picked it up and turned it on. “I’m going in alone.”
“Is that a good idea?”
Nick ignored me and grabbed his walkie off the dashboard. He put it to his mouth. “Naveen, I’m going in. Be on alert. Radio silence unless it’s an emergency.”
“Ten, four,” Naveen’s voice rang clear through Nick’s and my walkie’s.
“Back in a flash, hop into the driver’s seat. I might have to run out in a hurry.” Nick winked at me. I was not comforted by his words or his wink. Nick got out the truck with his gear. I did my own silent prayer. I hoped he would return.
There were no deadies in sight. I guess that’s a good thing. I watched as Nick walked to the side of the gun shop. I have no idea how he would break in but Nick seemed like the type of guy that would have knowledge of such things. My stomach churned into knots as the minutes passed by. I watched the digital clock on the dashboard and that made the wait even more excruciating.
It was less then fifteen minutes when Nick emerged and I heard him open the back of the truck. There was light clinging that came from the rear until Nick shut the trucks backdoor and returned to the cab. I scooted over and he drove. The drive from the gun shop to the store was a short one, six minutes tops.
We pulled up on the side of the Target Superstore. It was strange but the parking lot had a lot of abandoned cars left in it. Since Naveen had previously worked at a Target, he told Nick the side door where employees venture out for smoke breaks was the best option. Nick drove around the building looking for deadies before we parked at the side door.
I learned Nick had an arsenal of tools he used when he went out looking for supplies. He grabbed his preloaded backpack and tossed it on his shoulders. He took the bolt cutters, blowtorch and protective goggles. He placed the goggles on top of his head. “I will be right back for you.” Nick walked around to the passenger side of the mail truck, that’s where the employee door was.
I could see Nick clearly in the side rearview mirror. Naveen had a much better view of Nick then I did. His truck was closer to the door.
Nick didn’t take long to open the single red door. He signaled for Naveen and me to come join him. “Naveen you turn the truck around so the trunk is facing the door.”
“Okay.” Naveen nodded as he dashed to the Escalade.
“Come.” Nick handed over a flashlight from his pack and one of the guns from his waistband. It was the Colt .45. “Point and shot, shot the freaks, not me.”
I took the gun and placed it in my khaki shorts pocket. I turned on my flashlight.
Nick had somehow taped a small flashlight to his gun. “We grab bags and bring them to Naveen.”
I followed Nick inside the store. He went straight to the front of the store, to the checkout counters. Nick pocketed his gun and hoisted a full rack of plastic shopping bags on his shoulders. Nick jogged to the door where Naveen was waiting. I was on his heels.
“You’re the bag boy.” Nick said to Naveen.
“What else is new?” Naveen retorted, as he placed the bag rack on the rear of the Escalade.
“We’re going to try to fill the trucks up.” Nick darted back into the store. I chased Nick back to the front of the store. He stopped at the shopping carts. “We both take two. Push one, pull one.”
I did as I was told but it made it hard to hold my flashlight so I put it in my front shopping cart’s basket and it worked out well enough.
“We stay together.”
“If we split up, we can get more stuff.” I stated the obvious. The store looked safe and quiet. Plus I wanted to leave as soon as possible.
“We stay together.” He gruffed and that was that.
We quickly filled our carts up with basic necessities first, toilet paper, alcohol, vitamin supplements, dried and canned foods, toothbrushes, toothpaste, flashlights and bottled water. We took the entire display of batteries every time we came across one. We parked our full carts with Naveen and went back in for more carts to fill up with more goods. I followed Nick and he pointed me to the feminine hygiene aisle. He stood awkwardly a few feet away as I piled deodorant, razors, tampons and sanitary napkins into one of my carts.
“Hurry up.” He snapped. I was tempted to bark at him but I changed my mind. I rolled my carts out the lady aisle and followed Nick to electronics. We really didn’t need much in this area. I put a few video cameras in my cart after Nick jimmied the display locks with a crowbar. Nick grabbed some handheld video games. He also thought to grab all the binoculars.
We headed to the apparel section of the store. We walked through and I grabbed panties and bras and haphazardly threw them in my cart. Nick stopped abruptly. He turned around to see what I was up to. The light from his gun was swarming around in my cart.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
“Keep the panties, lose the bras.” Nick said with an even timbre.
Was he joking? “What?”
“Kait needs a bra. She’s a kid. If I let you return to the house with bras for you and Michelle I will get my ass kicked.”
“What?” The only word I could think of. “You guys wear underwear.”
“No we don’t. We all go commando. Lose the bras, house rule.” He half smiled. “Jesse do you want me to get beat up?” Nick pleaded as he lied.
It was cute. I fell for it. “No I don’t. I’ll give all the bras to Kait.” What just happened here?
“Than
k you baby girl.” He swiftly pointed his flashlight over my breast. “Get some clothes. The men’s section is right here.” He pointed down the aisle. “Yell if you need me. I’ll be done before you. I’ll come back for you.”
“Okay.” I hurried my shopping as Nick disappeared into the men’s department. I grabbed a half of a dozen V-neck t-shirts in various sizes and tossed them in my cart.
I thought I saw some movement near the unisex fitting room. I paused and stared. Looking for more movement but yearning not to see anything. I picked my flashlight up from the toddler seat in the cart. I flashed it directly at the fitting rooms.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed like the girl that I am. There behind the fitting room desk was a deadie, an old woman without teeth. She was dressed in the Superstore uniform, polo shirt and khaki pants. Her silver-gray hair was matted with dried blood that had once dripped to her chin. “Nick!” The old lady came charging at me and I saw there were three more deadies behind her.
“Run, Jesse.” Nick’s voice bellowed from the right of the fitting rooms.”
“BLAM! BLAM!” Nick’s gun went off. I could see he was being ambushed by a horde of deadies. He could not help me. He needed help. I turned to run and I remembered the gun in my pocket. I pulled the gun out and run for my life. I turned down the infant toddler aisle. I swatted my arms on the shelves knocking boxes of baby diapers behind me. I glanced back and I saw the deadies stumble over the diaper boxes as they tried to close the small gap in between me and them.
The closest and quickest deadie was a young man with one eye. One of these monsters had bit his eye out while he was still a human, a horrible way to die, and a creepy grotesque way to be reborn. This deadie’s polo shirt was full of bullet holes. Someone tried to kill him but didn’t realize they had to shoot him in the head. A mistake I would never make. I reached for a baby stroller that was a few feet above me on a shelf. I tried to toss it in the path of the crazed deadies. Fuck me! The stroller was chained to the fuckin’ shelf. What the fuck? When did I start thinking like a potty mouth? This end of the world, zombie freak shit changes people.
“BLAM!” Another gunshot, I need to get to Nick. I pushed harder, faster but the one eyed deadie was on my heels with two dead women and a zombie grandma right on his heels. I could smell them as the air rushed by my face. Fuck it! I will not die like this.
I made it to the end of the aisle. I turned in the middle of running and pointed my .45. I lifted it and deadie one-eye run right for me. “BLAM!” I pulled the trigger. I hit him in the head and he fell backwards knocking the remaining deadie trio on the carpet. Lucky shot, I’m sure I couldn’t duplicate it.
My fear was stifled with aggression. The toxic trio of deadies quickly began their second pursuit, their second attempt on my life. I circled around and ended up running toward where I last saw Nick.
“Nick!” I called out. Was he still alive?
“BLAM! BLAM!” Two more gunshots, the proof, he was still alive. The sparks from the gunshots lead me to him. I shouldn’t bring more deadies in his path but I couldn’t think of a better plan. Nick was standing below a nightlight in the middle of dead corpses. He had slain them all. I ran toward him with my personal deadie trio hot on my trail. He lifted his gun. “BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!” One by one plus one more, he took out the three deadies with shots to the head. Was his eye sight that good or was the taped flashlight on top of his Glock an act of genius? A question for a later time.
“Are you okay?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, I shot one of them.” I wanted to tell him I wasn’t useless.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
Tears welled in the corner of my eyes. I tried to hide my sudden panic. “Can we get our supplies and get out of here.”
“Yeah,” Nick said as I followed him back to our carts.
The silence was interrupted by a single growl. We turned around and the swinging double doors that read employees only, burst open. There were three more deadies full of vigor trudging toward us.
“BLAM!” Nick shot one in the head. The deadie fell. Another deadie detoured around a rack of clothing and was headed in a straight line right at me. I tripped over a metal bar sticking out the bottom of a display. Now I will die like all those other women in horror films that trip and fall. I was on the floor and I could not see Nick anymore. I could plainly see the deadie salivating at the sight of me as I crawled backwards. I could see deadie’s milky cataract eyes beaming down on me.
“BLAM!” The left side of the deadies head was blown to bits. His boney body tumbled down, right on top of me. In a frenzy, I pushed the gross corpse off of me. A hand reached down to help me up. It was Naveen holding a smoking gun.
I stood and looked for Nick. He was a few feet away standing over a deadie with a hunting knife lodged in the center of its forehead.
Nick bent down on one knee and removed his knife for the dead skull. “Pop goes the weasel.” He wiped the blood on a pair of shorts hanging on the rack beside us.
“Time to go home,” Naveen said.
“Let’s grab our shit and get the hell out of here.” Nick grabbed both his carts.
Naveen took one of my carts and we ran through the aisle. We pushed and ran like playful kids but fun didn’t move our feet, fear did. We made it to the employee side door faster than humanly possible. Fear makes you superhuman. A life lesson I learned the day my neighbor Laura viciously attacked me. We quickly loaded our goods into the trucks. We had collected quite a bit of goods. Nick reached up and pulled the strap to close the truck door. He slammed it down and hooked the latch. That was enough excitement for one day. Enough life or death for one lifetime.
“Nick!” Terror rang in Naveen’s voice.
Nearly ten deadies were shuffling toward us from the rear of the superstore. Nick turned to me. “Get in and start the truck!” I ran to the driver’s side.
Naveen had his gun pointed. The deadies were getting closer and closer to the Escalade. “We have to leave the Caddy!”
Nick slammed the trunk of the Escalade. “No, you get in the mail truck with Jesse! Get out of here!” Nick yelled just as I started the truck. I looked at my right rearview mirror and I could see the deadies running at us. I looked over at the left side rearview mirror and there were more deadies.
Naveen opened the passenger door and he was in the seat next to me. “Jesse, go!”
“We can’t leave Nick!”
“Go! Go! Go!” I heard Nick yell over the roar of the engine and the groans of the deadies vastly approaching.
I put the mail truck in drive and sped off. “BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!” There were too many shots to count. Naveen’s head was backwards out the window. He was watching Nick fight for his life. I was too afraid to look back. I didn’t want to see it. Instead I glanced down at the speedometer. I was up to forty-five miles per hour.
“He’s in the truck.” Naveen said through the window. “BLAM!” There was a single shot that echoed behind us.
“What?” I looked down at the driver’s side mirror and I could see the Escalade moving behind us. It was driving backwards. There were deadies running behind it or more accurately in front of it.
“I think he’s okay.” Naveen said while keeping watch out his window.
I took another look in the mirror and Nick was gaining ground on us. I watched as he spun the huge luxury truck around. Now he was headed in the same direction, forward instead of backwards.
“That was close.” Nick’s voice rejoiced over the walkie-talkie’s. I exhaled. My walkie was hooked to the side of my shorts. I had forgotten about it. I grabbed it and handed it over to Naveen.
“You scared the crap out of us. Jesse has both hands on the wheel.” Naveen looked over at me and smiled with relief.
“I scared the crap out of myself. Did you see the freak hanging on my door?”
“Yeah I saw you take him out.” Naveen said into the walkie.
“Pop goes the weasel.” Nick pu
lled up on the side of us and looked over at me. I was so happy he was alive. Nick placed the walkie to his lips. “Straight to the house, follow me.” Nick sped up in front of us and took the lead.
CHAPTER 5
The group appeared to be happy with the things we gathered and we lived peacefully for the next week without incident. The deadies were increasing in numbers at night outside the windows. With teamwork, we had our fortress locked up nice and tight.
Since the women didn’t have to take shifts being look-outs. I stayed with Nick when it was his turn. No one trusted Malik with lookout duty so he was regulated some other menial duties. One of which was inventory. Malik gave me the creeps. He was a brown colored black man with messy hair and a mustache. He looked like he was up to something. I didn’t feel like I could trust him. Marine Joe kind of scared me. I would catch him talking to himself and he was always playing with his guns. Worse, he would walk around would a bullet in his mouth. He chewed it like it was gum. That was far beyond weird as far as I was concerned and we all lived in a world of the weird.
Naveen had saved my life in Target so I treated him like a little brother. He was two years younger than me. He had a wealth of knowledge that was not superior or obnoxious. Nick was right; Naveen was the resident nerd, our very own Goggle search engine. Naveen prayed many times throughout the day. He was the most peaceful and tranquil person in the group.
I spent lots of time with Kait. She was a sweet kid tossed into a horrible situation and she handled it better than I would have at that age. I admired her strength. She took care of her dad. Kait’s dad, the good doctor was hard for me to read. He was a nice guy. Is there a such thing as too nice? Michelle had a crush on the doctor and I think they were sleeping together. One night I saw the doctor sneak into Michelle and Kait’s bedroom. I knew Kait was asleep on the couch downstairs so I figured it out. Ray confirmed my suspicions. Michelle didn’t say a word to me and I was fine with that. You can’t make anyone like you when they don’t really have a good reason for disliking you in the first place. I spent most of my time with Nick and Ray. Ray helped with the boredom. Ray was pretty, like a gay guy but he was straight. He was like my best girlfriend in the house but a guy.
Deadies: Run for Your Life Page 4