Moms Against Zombies

by Alathia Paris Morgan

  When I look back to the front to assess the situation, I realize that several of the injured people are on their feet,

  dripping blood as they approach the lone gunman.

  I want to cover my eyes, but can only watch as my ears

  ring with the sound of human teeth tearing into flesh across

  the short distance.

  The gun in my hand shakes, but I’m afraid that if I take

  a shot, I’ll have the zombie things’ attention on me because

  of the noise.

  Everyone’s heads shoot up when several shots sound

  from the direction that Jessica had run in.

  I’m not about to let my sister be the only one to help

  out, so I stand up and brace the gun with both hands as I

  line up the sight with the closest one’s head.

  As the vibration moves up my arm, I have no time to

  worry about aim as the next one turns in my direction. I

  only have a few seconds to get the next shot off.

  Instinct takes over and I fire until there’s no one left

  standing in front of me. I start to approach the cash

  registers, prepared to place a bullet in anything that moves,

  but I hear Jessica call my name.

  When something touches my arm, I pull the gun up to

  fire, but it’s a customer that had been behind me. He’s

  holding up my purse that I’d dropped behind me.

  Jessica screams my name, but my ears can’t hear

  anything from the rapid firing of my handgun.

  I loudly tell the man, “Thank you.” His gaze lands on

  something over my shoulder and I turn to see a zombie

  thing almost on me when a hole appears in its head.

  Jessica, with her gun braced, stands still, holding her breath, hoping that she hasn’t hit me.

  As I glance around, only live humans seem to be

  standing around while I make my way to her.

  “We should go,” I shout out.

  She shakes her head and carefully lowers the gun. Since

  her hearing doesn’t seem to be any better than mine, she

  points at our bags, reminding me that I need a new clip put

  in my gun, just in case the trip to the truck takes the same

  turn that our shopping trip has.

  The other customers start to crowd around, so I start

  walking toward the front door, hoping they’ll get the hint

  and go home to their families as well.

  Once I hit the sunshine and fresh air, I take off running

  for the car. At my advanced age of thirty-eight, with boobs

  and fat bouncing, it’s a sight you won’t see often.

  Jessica makes it to the driver’s door seconds after I grab

  the handle of the passenger door.

  “Crap, you’ve got the keys,” I say, hoping that her

  hearing has returned a little bit. Either she hears me or was

  already in the process, I have no idea, but when the screams

  erupt behind us again, I know that some of my hearing has

  returned.

  She pops the lock on my side and I climb in, closing the

  door as she starts the truck. There’s no one in the next

  space so we pull through and head for the end of the

  parking lot.

  “Do you know how to get to the gun shop from here?” I ask, still loud, but I’m drowned out as the sirens from the

  flood of police cars and ambulances arrive.

  Once we pass them on the divided road, she turns and

  speeds away from the scene.

  “Jessica?” I wave a hand to catch her attention. “Pull

  over. You don’t know where you’re going.”

  She ignores me and five minutes later, we’re sitting in

  front of a little building in a rundown shopping center that

  has bars over the windows.

  The truck is placed in park, and Jessica bursts into tears.

  I gather her into my arms and pat her head

  comfortingly.

  “I..I…ssshott…sssommonne,” she stutters.

  “We both did, and we’d be dead right now if we hadn’t.

  I hope the person upstairs can forgive us, but I plan to make

  it home to our children. Don’t you?”

  Jessica mumbles something into my shoulder, then sobs

  harder.

  “There, there. It’ll be all right.” I don’t know what else

  to tell her, and we really need to get inside and purchase

  our guns so we can go home before the roads here become

  flooded.

  Jessica sits up. “You don’t understand. I liked it,” she

  whispers, ashamed to voice the thought out loud.

  “Oh, is that all? I thought it was something serious.

  This is something we can talk about as therapy later once

  we’re home.”

  “Trish, I pictured Billie’s face, and it didn’t really matter anymore. I just shot until they quit coming toward

  me and the other people huddled together.” Jessica fumbles

  around, looking for something to dry her face with.

  “Here, use this.” I hold up a clean looking grease rag

  from under the seat.

  She brushes her long brown hair back behind her ears

  and swipes at the tears dripping down her face.

  I take one look at her and burst out laughing.

  “What? I don’t have blood on me, do I?” Jessica

  furiously wipes at her face again, spreading the grease from

  the rag.

  “You have a streak of grease across your face.” I point

  to the offending mark.

  She looks in the mirror. “Hmph.” Her finger takes the

  streak and spreads it under both of her eyes, making her

  look like a sexy version of Rambo.

  “Let’s go get some guns.” Jessica is out of the truck and

  halfway inside before I recover my wits.

  As I catch up, I comment on her fast turnaround. “So,

  did you just go bipolar on me?”

  “Nope. I just learned to let it all out quickly because if

  Billie caught me, then I’d have hell to pay. He hated crying

  women.”

  Jessica appears normal again as we approach the tough

  looking man behind the counter, who’s eyeing us warily.

  “She just killed someone for the first time and it took

  her by surprise,” I inform the man, certain that he won’t

  sell anything to two women if he doesn’t think we’re either tough or crazy.

  “So what kind of stuff can I get for you today, ladies?”

  he asks politely, as if he doesn’t believe me.

  “Well, for starters…” Jessica pulls out the empty clip

  and lays it on the counter. “We’re going to need all the

  ammo you have that fits this clip. Then we need everything

  on this list and we’ll pay extra for it too, off the books.”

  I have no idea what she’s doing as she pulls on my

  purse and removes the black credit card before placing it on

  the counter.

  “So you think the zombie things are real?” he asks

  suspiciously, holding up my credit card to the light,

  scanning it from all sides.

  “Sir, you may not believe us, but turn on the news.

  There was a shooting at the local store just up the street and we took down…” Jessica pauses, trying to count the total in

  her head.

  “A lot,” I supply. “Enough that we had to put new clips

  in our guns. Can you help us or not?” I ask, trying not to

  hurry him too much.


  “Let me ring up the ammo and if your card works, then

  I’ll let you pull around to the back and we can load up

  anything you want, as long as your card holds up.” He

  begins to drool when he sees the list of items that Linc and

  Cooper had written down.

  “Do you have everything on the list?” I question,

  worried that he’ll now try to cheat us.

  “I don’t, but I have most of it. I’ll even give you a ten percent discount.” He types in things quickly on his screen.

  “Here, you can come look and make sure that everything is

  on your list and I’m not cheating you.”

  I give Jessica a look that I hope conveys “cover me” as

  I round the corner so that I can see the screen.

  He stands by respectfully as I scan the two lists. “Is that

  the total?” I laugh at the ridiculous amount of money listed,

  but each item on the list seems legit.

  “Yes, ma’am. If she wants to drive around back, I’ll go

  ahead and get this rung up and we can start loading all your

  stuff into the truck.” He motions at Jessica while directing

  his words to me.

  I think Jessica scares him. “Hey, sis. Do you think you

  can find the back of this shop?”

  Before Jessica can answer, he says, “It has a blue

  painted door. It’s hard to tell so I made it easy. Can’t miss

  it.”

  He swipes the card and we all wait to see if it will go

  through. When the receipt starts printing, I breathe a sigh of relief.

  I pick up the pen lying on the counter and sign the piece

  of paper he hands me.

  Jessica begins to walk to the door and he hurries to

  follow her.

  “Whoa. What are you doing?” I ask as I come around

  the counter after him.

  “I have to close the shop if we’re going to the back.

  Anyone could walk in and rob me while we load your stuff

  up.” His head bobs up and down as he tries to keep me

  happy.

  “Just remember, mister, my sister also shot at least ten

  of those things today, so one more dead thing won’t really

  matter to her. Got me?” Jessica points her index finger at

  his chest in warning.

  “No worries. If it’s as bad as you say, my shop will be

  one of the first ones that people come to buy stuff from.

  After you leave, it will be a cash only basis because I don’t

  want to take a chance on bounced stuff.” He shuffles his

  feet nervously.

  Jessica nods in acknowledgement and heads for the

  truck as I watch him lock the front and pull the bars across

  and padlocks them.

  “Do you normally close the garage door thingy at

  night?” I’d noticed that it would be an extra layer of

  protection against looters or those zombie things.

  “I do, but I’ll reopen once you ladies are on your way. I

  won’t open the door unless I know the person. I have a

  special buzzer so that I can let people in one at a time so

  they can’t jump me and take whatever they want,” he

  explains as he opens the door leading to the back room

  filled with crates of guns and ammo.

  He doesn’t try to mess with anything, but goes straight

  to the back door and removes the three boards across the

  back to keep it from being kicked in.

  I watch as he peeked through the peephole. When he

  sees Jessica, he throws the door open.

  “There’s a dolly over there. We can stack some of the ammo cases on that.” He motions to the corner as Jessica

  enters.

  “Just tell us what to load and we’ll be set.”

  “Well, ma’am, for the amount of money you just spent,

  it could take a few minutes to gather it all, but I’ll make

  sure that you don’t leave without all your stuff.” He starts

  looking on the list he pulled from his pocket and points to

  crates and boxes that we lower to the floor.

  I still don’t completely trust him, so we load the dolly

  thing and Jessica takes it out to unload, while I follow him

  around, moving the boxes to the floor.

  “There. That should be it.” He crosses the last item off

  the list, just as Jessica comes back for the last set.

  “We don’t have room for much more back there,” she

  announces when she sees the last four boxes stacked up.

  “It’s a good thing bullets are small. How many rounds

  of ammo did we get?” I inquire of the still mumbling man.

  “Oh, um…I’m sorry. You have all the ammo I carry

  here for each of the guns you bought.” He appears in a

  hurry now that he’s done with the list.

  “We’ll just wheel this out and bring it right back.” I’m

  getting an uneasy feeling that we might not have long

  before someone tries to take our purchases from us.

  He stays back as I stand in the doorway, guarding

  Jessica from anything he might try.

  As she wheels the dolly back up, he pulls a gun on us, but she’d also sensed trouble and armed herself with a

  knife.

  “Both of you get in here and toss me the keys,” he

  commands.

  I back up just enough for Jessica to have a clear shot.

  She throws the keys and the knife so fast, I don’t even

  attempt to catch either one.

  He doesn’t realize he’s been hit until he starts to bend

  over to pick up the keys.

  “What did you do, you crazy bitch?” he yells as he

  slinks to the floor.

  Jessica crosses into the room and steps on his hand

  holding the gun. Kicking it across the room, she placed her

  hands on her knife stuck just below his ribcage.

  “I’m protecting my family.” She jerks up on the knife,

  knowing it will tear the wound open further as she pulls it

  free.

  I can’t believe she was willing to hurt someone that

  wasn’t a zombie thing.

  I grab the keys as she cleans her knife on his shirt and

  walks past me without a backward glance.

  The door closes as I kick the wooden block holding it

  open and hurry after her, afraid to be left in the same room

  with a man like that.

  Jessica steps on the gas and we don’t speak for the next

  few minutes.

  “So no tears this time?” I ask tentatively.

  “Nope. Nobody is going to steal the stuff we just paid

  for or keep me from my kids.” Jessica’s defensive tone

  begs me to argue with her.

  “Technically, he wasn’t dead yet.”

  “Can you imagine the surprise on the next person’s face

  when they go to get guns so they can fight the zombies and

  find one protecting the guns?” Her laughter dies out as it

  sinks in. “I left him to die, didn’t I?”

  “Shh. You did the right thing. You protected our

  families and we’ll be able to see them in just a little while.”

  I pat her arm, hoping we won’t have to pull over again.

  “Do I have blood anywhere?” Jessica sniffles, trying to

  hold it together.

  “Nope. You left it all back at the gun shop. Just

  remember your kids whenever you have the question of if

  you did the right thing.”

&n
bsp; “You wouldn’t have done that to him, would you?” She

  eyes me, weighing my reassurances against what she

  knows of my personality.

  “Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done. I was

  contemplating trying to shoot him, but knew he would hit

  one of us first. So, it was either an us or him situation. You just got to play hero before I did, that’s all.”

  Jessica waves off my praise and I let her by changing

  the subject.

  “Can your children shoot a gun?”

  “Drew and Roxanne have both been shooting BB guns since they were about eight, so not much training is needed

  for them.” Jessica smiles at the thought of her children.

  “Carson and Joy can both shoot, but Nicole can’t yet.

  Trevor, well, that boy will have to wait a few years, even

  with all the zombies running around.” I try not to think

  about my children growing up on me.

  “Hey, no sadness.” Jessica tried to cheer me up. “We’re

  both alive and our kids might grow up and leave one day,

  but that is a long time in the future.”

  “I’m going to take your word for it.”

  Home is sounding more and more like a good idea as I

  glance at my watch. We’ve only been gone for six hours,

  but it felt like we’ve lived years in just that short amount of time.

  I had a feeling that the zombie scare was going to age

  all of us much faster than I had planned on when I’d heard

  that time flies when you get older. I don’t think this is

  exactly what they were warning me of, but I’d have to see

  what the next day held because this one was over in my

  book.

  Chapter 10

  Cooper

  When the taxi pulls up in the parking lot beside me, I

  wait just a second, watching my wife and her sister walk

  away.

  I haven’t even left her and already I’m wishing that

  duty didn’t call so strongly these days.

  I can’t believe that I’d actually told my wife about the

  unlimited credit card. It was always supposed to be a last

  resort.

  The private airstrip is nearby and it only takes a few

  minutes outside the city by taxi with someone who knows

  all the back roads.

  As I pay the man, the pilot waves at me in greeting, but

  he doesn’t look familiar.

  To take attention away from the gun I need to draw out

  of the bag, I put it down, acting like I can’t get it adjusted properly.

  Upon closer inspection, none of the men around me are