by Schafer, Jon
"What about the bank?" Marcia asked.
"No way in," Steve replied. "It's locked up tight, and I couldn't find any keys in the maintenance office. The Garnett Bank people obviously didn't trust the building management company with having access."
Excitement flashed in Marcia's eyes as she said, "Too bad. Think of the good we could do with all of that money."
"Hate to bust your bubble," Steve replied," but money as we know it is probably next to worthless. In a few days it'll be used as toilet paper in some places. The things that matter now are food, weapons, gasoline and ammunition."
He thought about it for a minute then added, "Gold might have some trading power left, but it'll depend on where you are."
"Too bad," Marcia said a little sadly. "For a second I thought I'd never have to work again. I could just go around helping people."
Steve gave her a smile and said, "I need someone to help me pull the blinds in the deli, any volunteers?"
Steve half expected Mary to raise her hand, since she was the one who was so hot to go in there and eat, but she turned her head and looked the other way. She wanted to enjoy the benefits but didn't want to do anything to get them, he decided.
Meat's girlfriend said, "I'll go," then poked Meat in the ribs. When he squawked, she added with a smile, "He says he’ll go too."
"I only need one volunteer to go with me," Steve said.
"Take it easy, Steve," Meat said. "Donna and I'll do it. Go make yourself some Cinnabuns or something."
The employees of KLAM smiled, they all knew of his addiction to the sweet rolls.
"If I can figure out how," Steve said hopefully. "One last thing, stay away from the door to the deli until the blinds are shut. You can see straight through into the Galleria."
With a half bow, Steve waved his arm towards the entrance to the stores beyond and said, "Shop 'til you drop."
Tick-Tock led the way, holding up a set of keys as they all crowded forward, everyone trying to tell him which stores to open first. Overwhelmed by their demands, he started at the video rental store and worked his way around clockwise, skipping the deli and leaving it for last.
Steve went straight for the Cinnabun kiosk in the middle, lifted up a hinged section of the counter and started looking through the cupboards. Noticing that many of the cupboards and coolers had padlocks on them, he was stymied momentarily until he remembered seeing a set of bolt cutters in the maintenance work area. Quickly, he headed back out through the foyer.
Mary led Susan into the shoe store saying, "It's going to take them awhile to get the deli ready, so why don’t I show you these boots I saw in here last week."
Susan really wanted to go in the movie rental store to browse but dutifully followed her girlfriend.
Marcia trailed Tick-Tock until he unlocked the door to the clothing store. She thanked him and said, "When Jonny called the other night and asked me to go with him, I only brought an overnight bag." Before going into the store, she said with a big smile, "Now I can start a new wardrobe."
Tick-Tock turned to go but was halted when Marcia asked, "Where are the light switches?"
"Probably in back in the storeroom," he replied.
Looking apprehensively in the store lit only by night-lights, she said, "Can you -."
"Not a problem." Tick-Tock replied, "Let me get Meat and Donna going and I'll be right back."
From across the Galleria, Mary called out, "Get the ones in the shoe store too while you're at it."
Grimacing slightly at the implied order, Tick-Tock ignored her as he led Meat and Donna to the glass door leading into the deli. Glancing in, he could see the shadowy shapes of the tables with chairs stacked upside down on them to his right and the counter, lit only by the illumination coming from two soda coolers, on his left. He couldn't spot any of the dead outside through the two rows of glass windows and the door set in the outer corner wall, but that didn't mean they weren't there. It looked spooky but deserted inside, and he thought momentarily of giving his pistol to Meat but discarded the idea. For one thing, they hadn't had time to train the aging hippie in its use, and for another, if he panicked and shot at his reflection in one of the windows they would all be screwed.
Looking around one more time inside the deli, Tick-Tock was sure it was deserted. Reaching over, he unlocked the doors as he said, "Check that back entry before you both go in. Stay low and move fast. If it's open, get your ass back here. If it's locked, wave and let me know so I can go turn on the lights for her highness, Mary, in the shoe store." Pulling his pistol from its holster, Tick-Tock waited for Meat to go inside before crouching in the doorway to cover him. Meat scrambled forward on all fours to the door and gently pushed against it. Turning he waved that it was okay.
In a hushed voice Tick-Tock said, "Pull on it to make sure."
Meat did as ordered and then waved again.
Tick-Tock looked over to Donna and said, "All right kid, you're on." Before holstering his weapon and heading back into the common area.
With a feeling of relief that the building was truly secured, Tick-Tock ignored Mary's dirty look as he went to turn on the lights for Marcia.
***
Her name was Teri but she wasn't aware of that. Neither did she realize where she was or how she got there.
Three days earlier she had been the manager and owner of the Teri's Deli in the Galleria of the Garnett Bank Building. Not being pretentious, she left her name off the sign, so all its customers knew it as simply The Deli. She was proud of her successful business and content with her life.
That was before she had been bitten.
Teri knew what was coming. She had seen the stories on the news and the articles posted on the Internet. She would experience a slight seizure before death, then an awakening to an existence of searching for and dining on human flesh. After all she had accomplished, she now felt powerless over her life and found this fate to be unacceptable.
With no family and few friends, Teri went to the one place she loved more than anywhere else. The place where she was in control. The place that she had started from nothing and turned into something.
It was late Sunday evening when she entered the deli from the outside entrance and locked it behind her. Before coming over, she had phoned her staff and told them the store would be closed indefinitely. With all that was going on in the world, they understood.
Teri took a long look at the business she had built before going into her office. Moving to her desk, she opened the center drawer and reached in the back, extracting the .357 Magnum she kept there before setting it on the blotter in front of her.
She had bought the pistol after being robbed by one of the local junkies but had never fired it. She always kept it loaded and knew it would do her little good stored in the office desk drawer, but she liked the peace of mind it gave her. After being bitten by a child in her neighborhood, and after weighing her options, she decided to finally take it out and put it to use. She would sit in the place she loved best and reflect on her life, concentrating on the good times she had experienced in her forty-five years. When she felt the first tremors start to take her, she would place the barrel of the pistol under her chin and squeeze the trigger.
Teri thought she had planned for everything in this last act of her life, but what she didn't count on was the swiftness in which the disease took her. She never felt the first seizure that racked her body and dropped her to the floor; one moment she was thinking about a boy she had dated in high school, and the next, nothing.
The thing that arose moments later from the floor had no concept of Teri. It only knew it must eat. Moving to the door, it managed after some time to unlock and open it and exit into the kitchen area. In search of food, it ignored the smell of dead, spiced meats that wafted around it and wandered throughout the restaurant looking for fresh, human flesh.
Restricted by the locked doors leading out of the deli, it found it couldn't free itself to roam in search of food. Although the office
had a bolt that could be turned by hand, the exits to the outside and to the Galleria could only be opened with a key, and this action was beyond it.
Frustrated and hungry, it retreated back into the office, only occasionally venturing out again when its febrile mind forgot that it was trapped.
It had no idea how much time passed before it heard noises and whispered voices out in the deli. It sensed food nearby as the salty smell of human sweat and flesh came to its nose.
Struggling to its feet from where it sat on the floor, it left the office and staggered into the kitchen. Ten feet away through a swinging door was the service area and beyond that the dining area. With a gait that steadied as it moved, the thing that had been Teri drooled as it made for the swinging door.
"Stay low," Meat said in a whisper. "We'll start by the back wall and work our way around. We'll have to come back with the tape and something to cover the glass in the door later." Donna nodded and crawled on all fours after her boyfriend as he led the way across the dining area. They stopped at the first window and sat for a few seconds, catching their breath, before Meat slowly rose up like a meercat looking out of its burrow for predators.
Meat's eyes took in the parking garage across a grass strip, but he could see none of the dead. Sinking back down, he turned to tell Donna to move to the next window in line. This was when he saw a shadowy figure move around the service counter and head toward them. In the dim light, he thought it was one of their people and said, "Get down damn it, get down! They'll notice you."
Donna turned to see who Meat was talking to and went rigid as her blood ran cold from fear. Halloween Eve, when the dead rose up from the sewers, she had made a frantic drive to Meat's house after he called and told her that he had seen all hell breaking loose on the TV and was going to the station. Although her drive wasn't as long and complex as Steve’s that night, she had witnessed many more of the dead lurching around the streets of Clearwater and would never forget the way they moved.
In exactly the same way as the thing now coming toward her did.
With Meat blocking the front and hemmed in at both sides by tables, Donna did the only thing she could do to protect herself. Spinning on to her back, she kicked out at the aberration coming toward her as she tilted her head back and let out a bloodcurdling shriek of terror.
Steve had cut one of the locks loose and was working on a second when he heard Donna’s cry. Dropping the bolt cutters, he picked up his pistol and rushed for the deli.
Running out of the clothing store, Tick-Tock grabbed the edge of its entryway to help him make the corner at full speed and let the centrifugal force propel him even faster toward the deli door. Steve, being closer, entered the deli first. Scanning the shadows for a target, his eyes locked on an unfamiliar form directly in front of him bent over something in the aisle. He drew a bead on it, but before he could pull the trigger, the thing lunged downward. A second later, Donna let out another scream.
Suddenly Meat popped up from beyond the struggling pair and grabbed a plastic chair off the nearest table. Lifting it up over his head, he brought it down on the zombie attacking his girlfriend. This produced no result so he lifted the chair to try again.
Not having a clear shot with Meat swinging the chair, Steve hesitated. In the darkness, lit only by a few scattered night-lights, it would be too east to hit Meat or Donna. Moving forward a few steps, he called to Meat, "Get out of the way." Steve moved sideways, so that the spray wouldn’t hit Donna when he shot the zombie in the head, and took aim.
Meat sidestepped as Donna kicked out, straightening the zombie up with the force of her blow. Steve didn't hesitate. Pulling the trigger twice in rapid succession, the pistol lit up the room with its muzzle flashes as he sent two rounds into the side of the thing’s head. Completely dead now, it fell toward Donna. In revulsion, she kicked out again, pushing it sideways where it landed a few feet away in a limp bundle of deceased deli owner.
Meat bent over Donna and tried to help her up, but she flung his hand away and screamed frantically, "Don't touch me."
Approaching the thing lying on the floor, Steve kept his pistol pointed at Donna’s attacker. Ever since he had to shoot the zombie on Gulf Boulevard a second time to put it down, he was taking no chances.
Kicking the thing on the floor twice, he was satisfied that it was out of the picture for good. Turning his attention to Donna, he saw her sitting up with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. At first he thought she was hugging them to herself in reaction to the attack, until he saw that she was pulling her pants leg up.
Slowly, she lifted the denim of her jeans and revealed an almost perfectly formed bite mark on her shin, oozing blood even as she wiped her hand over it.
Steve felt his stomach drop as Donna lifted her eyes to his. With a shocked expression on her face, she silently mouthed one word.
“No.”
Meat saw the mark too and slowly backed away, a look of horror etching his features. He pointed to Donna’s leg and started to say something, but couldn't get the words to come out.
With her eyes still locked with Steve's, Donna pleaded, "I'm only thirty-two."
Not knowing how to reply, Steve stood silent. Even if he could think of something to say, he couldn't trust himself to speak. Although he had only met her a few days earlier, he’d grown to like Donna. She was plain speaking and down to earth. She had told him how she had recently left her controlling husband when she found out he was cheating on her. They had married when she was seventeen and she confided to Steve that, after she left him, she set out to do all the things she had missed out on by being a seventeen-year-old, virgin bride. She had gone back to college, gotten a job and casually dated a variety of men. She had met Meat at a live remote he was doing on St. Pete beach and hooked up with him because he seemed fun. It was just a coincidence that they were seeing each other when the dead rose up, but they were together, so Meat invited her to come to the radio station.
Out of the corner of his eye, Steve could see that Meat had recovered from his initial revulsion and was moving back toward Donna. He crouched next to her and said, "I'm sorry, babe. I don't know what to do."
Without breaking eye contact with Steve, Donna replied in a voice cracking with emotion, "It’s okay Meat, Steve's going to take care of it."
"But you've been bitten. He can’t –." Meat stopped suddenly. He looked from Donna to Steve and then to the pistol in Steve's hand, as he suddenly understood.
"Go out in the Galleria, Meat," Donna said. "It'll be better that way."
Almost as an afterthought, she said sadly, "Take care of yourself."
Without a word, but grateful to escape, Meat rose and brushed past the rest of the group who were now clustered at the door.
"Can we have a minute?" Donna addressed them.
Slowly, they turned away and moved back into the common area, leaving Donna and Steve alone. Tick-Tock was the last to leave, saying as he exited, "They're coming," then pointed out the rear window of the deli.
Attracted by the noise of the pistol and the flashes of light as it was fired, a scattering of shuffling, ambling figures approached the glass. The first one, dressed in a tattered, bloody business suit, noticed Steve standing inside and started pawing at the glass.
"How long do you think I have left?" Donna asked.
Steve shrugged hopelessly and shook his head as he turned his attention back to her. "Few hours, maybe more," He mumbled.
Pointing toward the window where three of the dead had gathered, she asked, "And then I'll be like that?"
"It's an option."
Shaking her head, she finally broke eye contact and replied, "Not for me." Donna was quiet a moment before asking, "Does it have to be in the head?"
At first, not knowing what she was talking about, his eyes went to the bloody bite on her leg. A moment later, Steve understood what Donna meant and he replied quietly, "I don’t think so. Not until you turn."
She nodded at t
his and then, straightening her legs out in front of her, she leaned back on her hands to expose her unguarded chest. Steve knew what she was asking of him and felt trapped by it.
His mind whirled as he saw how calmly Donna was dealing with this. They only had one way of handling the situation, and she had resigned herself to it without protest. Steve tried to put himself in her place and didn't know how he'd react.
Kicking, screaming, begging, pleading?
With a flip of her head, Donna threw her hair back over her shoulder and tilted her head to look up at the ceiling.
"I can't end up like that," she stated vehemently. "I won't end up like that. You need to save me from that."
Closing her eyes tightly, she said, "Whenever you’re ready, but make it quick."
Steve raised the Glock, aiming at her heart. He could see tears running down her face as she mouthed a silent prayer.
When she finished, two more muzzle flashes lit the interior of the deli.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Clearwater, Florida:
As he and Tick-Tock lifted Donna’s body into a planter filled with dirt, Steve was amazed at how heavy it was. Trying to keep his mind off what he was doing, he focused on running random song lyrics through his head. He knew his emotions had shut down, so he found it easier to let his mind latch onto the most inconsequential thoughts as he went through the motions of living.
After shooting Donna, Steve had gone out and found a plastic tarp in the maintenance area, his mind noting that there were only three left in the stack. Got to find more of these, he thought blandly, we might need them. Letting his mind turn over the problem of where to get them as he retrieved the duct tape from where it had had been left in the foyer, he went about the process of readying Donna’s body for burial.