“Come join the party guys,” he said with a friendly wave. They all clamored out of the Tahoe. Drew made sure to lock the doors and place the keys in her coat pocket. Once they were all inside, Jasper waved a hand at a thin blond girl. She saw the signal and closed the door. Jasper climbed out of the jeep and stood up, reaching his hand forward and taking Eli’s in it. They gave each other a kind of handshake as they pushed their shoulders together.
“What are you doing?” Eli was as confused as any of them by the sight of Jasper in a pink jeep made for little girls.
“It’s a great way to get around,” he said with a chuckle. “Haven’t you ever wanted to try it?”
Eli shook his head. He couldn’t remember a single time he wanted to ride around in a Barbie jeep, not even as a kid. Jasper climbed back in his sweet ride and sped off out of the auto repair center and into the main part of the super center store, the rest following behind him. Rion was further behind them and Eli stopped and waited for her. Her hand was rubbing the lower part of her stomach and she winced in pain.
“Are you okay?”
She smiled, nodding her head, trying to make it seem as if nothing was wrong. “I’m fine, just a bit wore out. I’ll be great once I get some rest.” He understood exactly what she meant. They had all been running on nothing but energy and the will to survive. None of them had eaten or had much water since the door was locked to the classroom they were supposed to be in for Saturday detention. Sitting in those desks, with Mr. Sales reading at the head of the classroom, seemed like a lifetime ago, but it had been only two days before. Eli took her hand. She held the blue baby blanket in the other. Eli smiled to himself, glad she remembered to grab it.
“What did you see in him? Mr. Sales, I mean?” Eli asked a question he had pondered a few times since meeting Rion and figuring out her secret. Rion looked at him, shocked that he had figured out the relationship she had with her teacher. She wondered if Eli also knew that Issac was the father of her child. If he had figured out that they had a relationship before, it wouldn’t be very hard for him to deduce that there was at least a chance that Issac was the father.
“I don’t want to talk about him right now. Knowing that he’s gone…” Her voice dropped with the last word. Eli could have punched himself in the gut for asking such a stupid question. It was rude and insensitive to as about someone she obviously cared about and had just lost.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s okay, I’m just not ready to talk about him with anyone.”
They directed their attention back to Jasper, who was driving the jeep ahead of them towards the front of the store. Eli was sure his friend had been talking the entire time, but he hadn’t been paying attention. As they reached the front of the store, the group noticed that the entryways were dark.
“We noticed they were attracted to the light so we shut the lights off to try and keep them away from the doors. We thought people might come here, but nobody has. One of us stands to watch at this entrance because there are fewer deadheads at this door. This is Eric,” he said, introducing the group to a bear of a man. Eric’s hair was blonde and cut short on top, but what hair lacked on top of his head he made up for on his face. A bushy red beard grew long and curly from his chin. With thick shoulders and arms to add to the mix, Eric looked like he could take on the entire horde outside by himself. He nodded at the group but didn’t say anything.
“Eric is the strong and silent type, but don’t let him scare you, he’s a giant teddy bear.” Jasper chuckled at his own joke. Eli wonder if he saw the irony of him sitting next to a large stuffed teddy bear wearing pink sunglasses. The joke might be lost on Jasper, but it wasn’t lost on him. A smile made its way across Eli’s lips, one of the few smiles he cracked in almost a solid forty-eight hours.
“Oh,” Jasper added, realizing that he was terrible at introductions and had forgotten his other friend, “This is Carin. She works here too. Well, that’s it. Feel free to help yourselves to anything in the store. We figure that if this thing blows over the store will just write off all the losses of merchandise.”
“Well, he’s hoping that’s what they will do,” Carin chimed in, a little too cheerfully.
“Have you guys been out there at all?” Drew asked, noticing that the three of them were a bit on the calm side.
“Nope, we’ve been in here since it started.” That explained the calmness. They hadn’t seen what the zombies were capable. These three had been spared from starring death directly in the eye. Safe within the confines of the store, they had no idea just how bad everything was outside the automatic doors. In a way, Drew was jealous of the three employees. She wished she had been guarded from the things she had seen, especially what happened at the cabin. Tripp was a good man and she felt responsible for what happened to him. If she hadn’t dropped the keys, if she had just found them faster, maybe Tripp would have made it.
“We can’t thank you enough, Jasper.” Eli meant what he said, Jasper was keeping them from harm's way and he didn’t owe any of them anything, except maybe him.
“No problem, dude. Why don’t you ladies go shopping.” With a smile, the jeep sped off, an ill-fitting rap song rumbling out of the portable speaker attached to the front.
CHAPTER TWENTY - FOUR
“Come with me.”
Eli had a plan hatching in his head. He knew the girls were eager to change and get comfortable, but there were a few things he wanted them to do first. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied an electric wheelchair. Thinking again of Rion, who kept wincing in pain, he grabbed one and drove it over to her.
“Your chariot awaits, miss.” He bent at the waist in a deep bow. Rion smiled and took a seat. Within minutes, after a quick lesson from Eli, she was whizzing around the store in nothing short of comfort and style. Eli led them towards the sporting good section of the store. Thankfully for them and the plan Eli was putting in place in his mind, Wal-Mart literally did sell everything they would need. They rounded the corner, Rion a bit ahead of them thanks to her speedy wheelchair, and were faced with the aisle Eli was looking for.
“Everyone needs to get a gun.”
The guns were behind a glass case. In the moment, thinking that this is exactly how Nolan would have solved the problem, Eli took off his jacket. He wrapped it around his fist and punched the glass. The clear case shattered and fell to the floor. Eli began taking out all the guns. There were handguns and rifles and he knew both would come in handy.
“Does everyone know how to shoot one? Because if you don’t we can take the time to teach you.”
“Eli, why do we need guns? We’re safe here.” Kimber seemed annoyed. She wanted to find some clothes to change into and find a place to sleep. Guns and ammunition were the last things she wanted to deal with right now.
“Listen, every place we thought we were safe ended up not being safe. You don’t know how long it could be before a zombie finds its way in here, and if one can get in, a lot of them can. We don’t know how smart these things are. It could be weeks before they infiltrate this place or it could be hours. We need to pack bags with everything we need in case we don’t have a lot of time to get out of here.” Turning back to the guns, he continued, “And every one of you needs multiple weapons. More than one gun, a few knives, anything you can think of to protect yourself.”
Kimber rolled her eyes. She wasn’t buying into Eli’s speech. “Jasper doesn’t think we have anything to worry about.”
“Jasper hasn’t been out there, Kimber. You heard him, they’ve been in here since it started. They haven’t dealt with the zombies. Jasper has no idea what he is facing. He’s riding around the store in a damn pink jeep made for a three-year-old. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing video games now.”
“He’s got a point.” Drew knew that her opinion probably didn’t matter to Kimber, but she knew that what Eli was saying was valid. As nice as Carin, Eric, and Jasper seemed, that hadn’t been in the thick
of things. “We need to be as prepared as we can and this place is a goldmine. We could get anything that we need, pack it into bags and keep it near one of the exits for when we needed it.”
Drew’s argument seemed to be getting through to his sister better than his did. Eli was thankful that Drew knew how to reason with his fiery little sister.
“Everyone get a weapon and the bullets you need. Grab a knife too. Then go through the store and pack bags full of supplies. Kimber, you and Drew should get clothes for yourself and food. Rion and I will get first aid supplies, blankets, and things for the baby.”
Rion’s heart softened a little bit. Eli had thought of the baby, something Rion hadn’t expected. “Thats really sweet Eli. Thank you.”
“Well, he could come any day now, right? We should be prepared just in case.”
A pain shot through Rion’s belly and she closed her eyes. “Yes-“ she started to say, but the pain taking her breath away. Her baby boy, Cash, really could come any day now. With all the stress she was having, causing the pain in her stomach, she wasn’t sure if he would make it to his due date. But this was just false labor. Contractions that didn’t actually mean her labor had begun. The doctor had warned her about this. Rion knew the baby wasn’t coming, her water hadn’t even broken yet. Cash was safe inside her, still growing, and she would be patiently waiting to meet him.
They separated off into pairs and went their separate ways. Rion felt another sharp pain in her stomach, the pains coming on more frequently. Eli notices that Rion wasn’t feeling the best. She stopped the wheelchair to deal with the pain. Her fingers spread open over her stomach, not pressing into her belly, but just holding it. It was as if she was trying to keep the baby from feeling the pain. Eli didn’t know much about childbirth, but he was sure that it was hurting Rion much more than it was hurting the baby, if it was hurting him at all.
“Hey,” Eli said, getting down on her level, “Are you okay? You seem like you are in pain.”
“It’s false labor. The doctor told me all about it. It's not the real thing, Cash isn’t ready to come out just yet.”
“Want to go look at some baby clothes? Or toys? Maybe that will help take your mind off of the pain.”
“That would be wonderful.” A weak smile shown on Rion’s face. Eli felt something twinge inside him. This girl was something special. He felt like he had been to war, dealing with everything they had been through. But Rion had done everything he had while carrying a baby. She hadn’t complained or whined. Eli couldn’t believe how strong she was and he admired her for it.
The two friends made their way over to the baby section. Eli had passed this section of the store hundreds of times but hadn’t ever stopped and looked at things. The clothes were so small, decorated with animals and flowers. Blues and greens for the boys, pinks and purples for the girls. The section of clothes and accessories for girls was much bigger than the section for boys.
“Doesn’t seem fair, does it, that the girls get all the good stuff.”
Rion giggled, agreeing.
“At first, when they told me I was having a boy, I was disappointed. I wanted to have a tiny little baby girl that I could dress up in cute dresses, with frills and lace and put bows in her hair. But then, I started to think about it, and decided that I would much rather have a boy.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
“Because boys get dirty. They play in the mud and run around like crazy. I think that will be fun. More fun than bows and tea parties. I never had a brother, so it will be a completely new adventure.”
Eli and Rion thumbed through baby clothes, each picking out little outfits for Cash. Eli found an abandoned shopping cart and put the outfits they had picked out in it. He grabbed some formula off of the shelves while Rion grabbed diapers and wipes. She picked out a diaper bag that she liked, and put it in the cart as well.
“This is nice,” Rion said quietly, “I always thought I would do this with Issac, but we couldn’t ever go anywhere together.” Rion looked down at her feet, not wanting to look at Eli while she talked about Issac. “You asked, what I saw in him…” She started, wanting to explain herself, but not really knowing how. “He was so nice to me and I was new. No one talked to me or wanted to get to know me. Being in a new school, it was hard… and he was-“
“Nice, yeah, I get it.” Eli did get it, having felt alone walking down hallways full of other people his age. “It must have been really hard to love someone you couldn’t really be with.”
“I don’t know if I loved him. I think, I thought I did when we were together, but he wasn’t really a good guy.”
“Yeah, I mean, cause a good guy doesn’t lock students up in a classroom and run.”
“No, they don’t. A good guy doesn’t tell a girl to get lost when she tells him she’s pregnant either.”
Silence settled between the two of them. Before, she had been blinded by Issac’s charm and wit, but now, it was like she was seeing who he really was for the first time. Looking back on their time together, it wasn’t as special as she had thought it was. They were just two people, they hadn’t been in love. Rion hadn’t felt the same kind of feeling she felt towards the baby growing inside her, and that she knew was love.
Pain seared through the lower part of Rion’s belly and then traveled to the top of it. Her knees buckled and she almost fell to the ground. Her hands reached out and grabbed onto the shelves, trying to keep her upright and on her feet. Then she felt a wetness gushing down her legs. Eli’s eyes widened in horror. He knew what that meant. Rion was in labor and neither of them had been prepared for childbirth. They hadn’t prepared themselves for the gunshots that rang from the entryway at the front of the store either.
CHAPTER TWENTY - FIVE
Drew heard the sound of gunshots from the front of the store. She was with Kimber gathering canned food into duffle bags to pack into the Tahoe. Drew dropped the supplies she had in her hands and grabbed for her gun. Even though Kimber had thought Eli’s idea to be armed within the walls of the store was a joke, Drew knew it was better to be safe than caught off guard. She was grateful for his forethought. With Kimber not far behind her, she sprinted towards the front of the store where she thought the noise came from. The front lobby that housed shopping carts and kids games, was dark and empty except for Eric. The tall, built guy, was on the ground, his hands grasping his neck.
“You got bit.” It wasn’t a question. Drew knew that was why his face was covered in a grimace of pain and defeat. Blood squirted from in between his fingers as he tried to put pressure on the wound. The zombie had hit an artery.
“What happened?” Kimber asked, frozen in place, while Drew pulled off her jacket and pressed it to Eric’s neck. He wasn’t going to last long and she hoped he could relay the story before it was too late.
“A family, they were outside, coming towards the store. I tried to let them in. I opened the door, but they couldn’t make it. The z’s swarmed around them, killed them. One got in. I shot it, but it got me first.”
His breathing was shallow, but he kept trying to take in more air with each inhale, like he couldn’t get enough. The zombie that had bit him was laying on the floor near the door, not moving. It’s yellow eyes were wide open, blankly staring across the entryway.
“You’re going to be okay, Eric, alright? Just stay with me.” Drew pressed down hard on the wound, but she knew her words were a lie. She had taken a human anatomy class, she knew there was no coming back from an injury like that. In a few minutes, Eric was gone. Drew let her hands fall from the wound. She reached up and closed his eyes out of respect, then she took her gun and put a bullet into his forehead. It was harsh, she knew, but it had to be done. She didn’t want to worry about him turning and coming for them like Nolan had.
Where only a short time ago an older, smiling greeter would have stood, now stood Drew, gun in hand, Eric’s body at her feet. The windows and glass doors at the entrance to the store appeared to be holding. A massive
amount of zombies were pressed against the glass. Rotten fists and blood-covered arms pounded, trying to claw their way through to the other side.
“Everything seems to be holding them back.” Jasper was babbling, having walked up to the scene when Drew was helping Eric, but she hadn’t noticed him or Carin.
Drew half listened to Jasper but raised her hand to signal him to stop talking.
There was a hole in the glass. She walked toward the window, second from the end, and saw a huge piece missing from the bottom of the window. Two zombies were fighting over who could get their head in, with one dead zombie already taking up most of the space. A dead one was slumped over the sill, a bullet hole in the back of his head.
The closer they were to the glass, the louder the zombies became. The sheer force of the hoard of undead was causing the glass to rattle. Each window was covered with smears of blood and dirt. Shards of broken glass fell to the floor, as each push the wave of zombies made the hole bigger.
“We have to secure this,” Jasper said. He was right, but Drew wasn’t sure how they could. She looked around and spotted a gate. It looked like a large curtain of chain link fence. It was probably used to lock up at night before the store went to a 24-hour facility.
“Help me with this.” She said, motioning Jasper to follow her to the fencing. They pulled the gate roughly to the middle, then went to the other side and pulled that one. They met in the middle and Drew locked them securely.
“Hopefully that will hold.”
Drew eyed the structure. If the glass gave way, she wasn’t sure the fence would protect them, but it might give them a few more valuable minutes to escape. It was clear that they now had to face the reality of leaving the safety of the store because it was no longer safe. Just like every other place they had gone to, this one was now a trap instead of a haven.
“We have to tell Eli. We have to get everything we can pack together fast and get out of here.”
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