by Zuko, Joseph
“You’re going to be okay,” the old man lied, “Try and keep pressure on it,” the old man faced Cliff and shrugged his shoulders.
Cliff kneeled next to Tom and hesitated to reach out and comfort the stranger.
“Hang in there, buddy.” Cliff glanced over at the woman behind the counter, “Darleen, right? You have a first aid kit?”
“In the manager’s office.”
“Go get it.”
“The door’s locked and he’s got the keys.”
Against his better judgment Cliff dug into the man’s pants. He found the keys and tossed them over to Darleen. She caught them and took off for the office.
A woman raced into the store from the parking lot. She was covered in blood and yelling at the top of her lungs, “Please help! My husband tried to kill me!” She finally noticed the nightmare taking place in here, “Oh my God, it’s spreading!”
“Calm down! You’re gonna be okay,” Cliff said as he stood back up.
“Cliff, what the hell is happening?!” Tina’s voice had become strained.
“I don’t know! Keep the kids back there!” Cliff’s eyes focused on the commotion outside the glass doors. More of the infected people were running around attacking people in the parking lot. “Goddamn it!”
A sports car peeled out and ran over two infected humans. They scraped across the ground and slammed into the sidewalk outside the store. They popped right back up onto their feet and chased down the sports car. Chunks of their bodies were left on the ground, but it did not slow them down. They ran with a determination Cliff had never seen before.
The woman’s teeth chattered from fear. She held out and examined her sticky, blood soaked hands. She talked quickly, “Someone bit my husband. Then he tried to bite me. I ran. I think I’m going to throw up.”
Darleen raced back from the manager’s office. She was out of breath from the short run. A first aid kit rattled in her shaking hands. She slid down next to Tom and popped open the small plastic box.
Both Tom and Jake’s bodies started to convulse on the floor. It looked like they were having seizures. Cliff stepped back and watched as the skin pulled tight around their mouths and their eyes filled with black blood. The reality of the situation sunk in. Whatever this infection was had spread. Cliff’s legs would not move even though his brain was screaming.
RUN!
“Tina…?” he called over his shoulder.
Jake grabbed the old man next to him as Tom latched onto Darleen. They bit into their victims at the same time.
A collective scream rocketed through the store.
The woman at the front door ran back out into the parking lot and was gobbled up by a pack of infected humans.
Jake tore the larynx out of the old man. Tom chowed down on Darleen’s eye. Cliff grabbed the cane next to the old man and swung it onto the back of Jake’s head. The old wood snapped and the handle flew across the floor.
Infected-Jake let go of the old man and eyed the tasty treat that was Cliff.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Tina screeched.
Infected-Jake sprang toward Cliff.
“Aaahhhh!” Cliff cried out as he backed away from the attack, he eyed the sharp point of the cane in his hand. Infected-Jake got within a few feet. Cliff’s grip tightened.
Tina pointed in her children’s faces, “Stay here with your sisters!”
She rounded the corner of the aisle and saw her husband square off with the teen. The palm of Cliff’s hand wrapped tight around the rubber tip at the end of the walking stick. He plunged the newly formed weapon at the kid’s face. The sharp point slid easily into the eye socket of infected-Jake. It came to an abrupt stop when the cane hit the back of its skull. The body dropped to the floor. Taking the cane with it to the floor.
Tina watched in shock. “What did you do?!” she yelled at him.
Just beyond her husband she saw Tom ripping Darleen to shreds. In a flash it occurred to her just how serious all of this was. Over the last ten years she had developed a morbid obsession with disasters. Natural or man-made. She was smart enough to know that the groceries on the shelves were all the store had and if the supply lines were cut, there would be no more food. Between the twenty some people watching the drama take place a unified idea began to form. It went something like this.
This shit is insane! It’s time to loot!
The group scattered in all directions. They left poor Darleen to her demise.
Cliff dashed back down the aisle and joined his wife, “It’s an infection! If they bite you, you get it! The kid had whatever it is! I had to kill him!” They ran together and reunited with the children. Cliff’s face had gone pale and his knees felt weak.
“Daddy you have blood on you,” Eve pointed to the red dots that speckled his old gray t-shirt. Cliff looked down at the red. All he could see was red. His eyes fluttered and he gasped for air. In high school Cliff had been in a few fistfights. Even though he won most of them, he always hated how he felt after. The adrenaline charged through his body. The realization of how badly he could have been hurt. The fear of death. These feelings pounded in his head and the truth of what just took place had crippled him for the moment.
Tina pulled Cliff by the wrist, “We have to grab supplies and get home!” She turned to the children, “Climb in with your sister!”
“We won’t fit!” Eve talked back.
“Do it now!” Tina slapped her hands together hard enough to make her palms sting and the kids jumped. It only took a few seconds for them to squeeze into the toy car at the front of the cart. There was only space for two kids, but they made it work. “Think baby, what do we need!”
All around them people screamed and emptied shelves. Cliff’s computer needed to reboot. It was slowly coming back online, but like most old processors it took time.
“Food and water.” The words stumbled out of his mouth.
“We need things that won’t go bad.” She rubbed at his shoulder to get him back on track.
“Dry foods. Like rice and beans!”
“Let’s grab what we need and get the fuck out of here!” Tina gave him a hard punch on the shoulder and he was back. Out of his panicked state and ready to function.
A set of shoes raced down the aisle toward them. It was infected-Tom. His mouth soaked in blood. Eyes black. Hands reached out in front of him. A few digits swung back and forth.
Cliff grabbed the handle on the cart and started moving. It was even harder to push with ninety more pounds in the toy car. Tina gripped the metal edge of the cart and helped him steer the damn thing.
Infected-Tom gained on them.
The children in the toy car screamed at the top of their lungs. Cliff hoped he could outrun the infected body chasing his family. The last thing he wanted to do was stand and face it unarmed.
They rounded a corner that led them to the bulk food aisle. He checked over his shoulder at the monster hot on their trail. Cliff searched the store for something to use as a weapon and defend his family. It was all bags of chips, soda cans, beef jerky and batteries. There was nothing here that could help him take the beast down.
Tina reached out and pulled bag after bag off the shelf and dumped them into the cart. Rice, flour, sugar and salt. She grabbed boxes of pasta, bags of beans, tubs of peanut butter and honey. All the staples she could get her hands on. It reminded her of a game show she used to watch on TV in Mexico, an old school, grocery store giveaway. Where couples raced down the aisle filling up their carts as fast as they could to see who could get the most food the fastest. The thrill of grabbing all this food and knowing she was not going to pay for it was almost worth the threat of death.
In the rows across the store they could hear the sounds of people screaming as the infection spread one bite at a time. The cart moved slower and slower with every item she dropped into the wire-framed basket.
They rounded another corner close to the meat section of the store. Cliff could not ignore infected-Tom any longer
. The snapping sound of the monsters teeth told him just how close the danger was.
He turned to face the infected.
Tina felt the cart come to a stop the second Cliff let go.
“What are…?” she was cut off by Cliff’s strenuous scream.
Cliff stood feet shoulder width apart, his back to the butcher shop and ready for the impact. The moment infected-Tom was about to strike, Cliff side stepped and used the monster’s own momentum to shove the infected into the glass case of seafood.
Infected-Tom, face-planted hard into the solid glass surface. Cliff wasted no time and put his size twelve boot right into the back of its skull and smashed it into the glass. The window shattered and a large sliver found its way into infected-Tom’s face. The body went limp under his foot as shellfish and ice spilled out onto the floor. Cliff was not a violent man. Now that he was an adult he hated most forms of conflict. But no one fucked with his family.
Tina pointed behind him, “Grab some knives!”
Cliff pulled his boot out of the display and checked out the butcher shop behind the meat section. In two steps he was up and over the counter. On the far wall a magnet strip held a full set of butcher knives and one monster sized meat cleaver.
In a snap Cliff was back over the counter with a large shiny butcher’s knife and a well-used meat cleaver. He liberated twenty pounds of prime steak from the cold shelves outside the meat department.
Maybe I’ll get one last great meal.
He rejoined his family, dropped the meat off and handed the knife over to Tina. The cart was getting pretty full. Tina did some fast math in her head and calculated that if they stretched out the portions it might be enough to feed them for a month. They would not be stuffed every day, but they would not starve either. It was enough for now.
She pulled at the cart, “We should get medical supplies!”
Cliff took his position back behind the rig and gave it all he had to get it rolling again. They headed down the aisle with toiletries and snatched up some extra toothbrushes, shampoo and lady products. Tina made sure she grabbed a couple medical kits, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and some Ace bandages.
They had enough food to take care of their mouth holes but what about the other end of their bodies. Cliff grabbed two of the largest toilet paper cases and Tina tossed a big box of baby wipes onto the pile. The last row they headed down was produce. Tina tossed bags of fruit in. They sprinted to the front of the store. An end-cap filled with batteries and flashlights caught Cliff’s eye. He seized a couple flashlights and a dozen batteries to power them.
Infected-Darleen got up off the floor and chugged like a locomotive for Tina. She could feel her heart climb up into her throat, “Ay guey! Un zombie!” Tina reverted to her native tongue.
Cliff was busy tossing the last few batteries into the basket and did not see that his wife was in danger. Infected-Darleen’s eye had been scooped out and the left side of her face had been torn open. Her jagged smile was open so wide that Tina could see her back molars. Tina was raised in a pretty tough part of Mexico, but it had been a long time since she had been in a fight. Infected-Darleen spotted the three children at the front of the cart and made a move for them.
Don’t touch my kids!
Tina was not afraid to cut a bitch. She backhanded infected-Darleen with the knife. The culinary tool designed for slicing meat did an amazing job of rearranging what was left of infected-Darleen’s features. A chunk of flesh was stripped off the right side of her face. She was practically all skull and unrecognizable now, but the strike was not enough to finish the job. Her snapping teeth were relentless as she pulled Tina to the floor.
“CLIFF!”
The children cried and helplessly watched from inside their plastic toy car.
Chapter 4
Tina was able to get the edge of the knife up against infected-Darleen’s neck. It was the only thing stopping it from taking a bite. The blade sawed deep into the soft flesh as the creature fought to get closer to its prey.
Cliff landed a kick into the side of the monster’s head. A second later he brought all eight inches of the cleaver’s blade down onto the back of its skull.
The body went limp.
He had to put his foot on Darleen’s neck to pull the blade back out. He lifted Tina to her feet.
“You okay?!”
“Yeah! I’m fine! I almost had her!”
“I know.” Cliff looked over the gash that resided in the back of Darleen’s skull. A hunk of her gray matter was exposed, “You have to get the brain to take these people down.”
The other humans in this store had finished filling their baskets and were making their way to the exits.
“Is there anything else we need?” Cliff wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“To get the fuck out of here!” Tina hovered over the scared children.
A few infected stormed toward the family. Cliff stepped in front of his wife and plotted his next move. He couldn’t aim for the skull because it would get stuck again and the second monster would get him. He tightened his grip on the cleaver’s worn handle. The weight was close to the hammer he used at work. Every tool had its intended job. This one’s job was to chop through bone. His plan was complete. Go for the neck. Separate the head.
He swung his powerful arm horizontally at the first infected and his plan worked perfectly. The cranium left the neck in one move. He twisted his wrist and the blade faced the other direction. He swung his arm backwards and the cleaver hit its target.
The noggin rolled across the floor. Cliff double-checked the area and it looked clear for now. Most of the people had run outside. He took a step forward and stepped on something metallic. It was soaked in blood but he could easily spot the pearl handle of the switchblade under his foot. He picked it up and closed the blade. As he pushed the cart to the front of the store he slid it into his jeans pocket.
He kept the cart far enough back from the door so it would not set off the sensor and open it. He snuck up to the edge of the glass and looked out into the parking lot.
It was absolute chaos.
Half of the people that had escaped had been bitten. The vehicles at the front of the lot were all covered in blood. Unmanned carts rolled without purpose across the asphalt. Their van sat ten spaces deep into the lot. It was extremely clear that it was safer in the store now than out there.
“What are you doing? Let’s go!” Tina was ready to charge.
“You need to stay here with the kids! I’ll go get the van!”
“Are you insane?! You can’t leave us here!”
“Look!” He pointed out the window.
She joined him and took a peek. Cliff was right. There was no way they could get through the lot with this cart, unload the kids and the supplies without one of those bastards taking a chunk off them.
“I’ll hide behind the counter with the girls.” They pushed the cart behind the counter that sold lotto tickets and cigarettes. The cart was completely hidden behind the display.
“Hold tight!” He begun to push her down behind the counter as well, but she grabbed him by his shirt collar and planted a deep kiss on him.
“Be safe!”
“Always am.” He had to rip himself away from her. He pulled the keys from his jeans and had his thumb ready to hit the door lock. Cliff had to psych himself up for this. It felt like a suicide mission, but what other option did he have? They couldn’t live in the Safeway. He got his game face on and rushed out the door with the cleaver ready for action. It took every fiber of his body to keep going and not freeze up from fear.
The parking lot looked like a warzone, like a warlord’s rampage on the people after a coup. Bodies lay across the ground and shook as they made the change from human to infected. The people that made it to their cars were smashing their way through the parking lot. They hit every parked car as they made their escape.
It had been a long time since Cliff played high school football and when he did it w
as on defense, so making his way through a net of dangerous monsters was quite foreign territory. He wasted no time and charged hard out from under the store’s covered sidewalk.
Cliff veered to the right and zigged past a pack of infected. He laid down a few strategic strikes with the cleaver. Blood splattered with every chop. Gallons of bodily fluids doused him.
The infected heads rolled.
He approached a shaking body on the ground. Bite marks crisscrossed the woman’s face. Her mouth pulled tight. Eyes were already black.
Why wait for her to get up?
Stomp! Cliff’s boot crashed down onto her head. The skull cracked and her brains shot out of a ragged split in her scalp. He tapped the button and the brake lights flashed on the van. He hit the button again and the side door began to slide open on its own. Cliff had never been so happy that the salesman up sold him on that feature. Cliff darted into the side of the van and slammed the door shut behind him. A set of teeth crashed into the tinted window. The infected clawed at the glass.
Cliff stepped and fought his way over the captain’s chair. After a push of the start button the V6 engine came alive and the seat belt sensor beeped over and over. Should he have taken the two seconds to click the belt into position and silenced the stupid thing?
Nah.
Cliff watched as a truck sped through the parking lot. It was on a collision course with a gas station at the edge of the shopping center. It rammed the pump on the front row. The metal box folded in half and gas sprayed into the air. Cliff ducked down below the dash in anticipation of the explosion. Nothing. From across the parking lot he could hear the trucks engine revving. Its horn blasted.