“Relax,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Not a single freak is inside of the building, or in the parking lot. Follow me,” she said.
We walked to the edge of the roof and I looked down. They had been able to use the ladder to get down to the ledge below. It gave them a way to stand over the front entrance of the store. From that small platform, sticking out only a few feet from the side of the store, they had been able kill the thirty freaks.
Their bodies were lying on the pavement below motionless. Looking out into the parking lot and into the street, I couldn’t see a single freak.
“Wow.” I was astonished.
She went on to explain to me how they had used pieces of pipe, knives tied onto poles, and even weighted objects to destroy the brains of the freaks. Often, it might have taken them five minutes to kill a single freak. Because of their awkward position it usually took multiple blows. However, they had come up with a way to attack the freaks, without the freaks being able to attack them.
“This is very impressive,” I told her.
“Now just wait until you see what we have in the break room,” she said.
As I walked in the break room I smelled something totally unexpected.
It smelled delicious.
It was dinner.
Ms. Suzy and Katie had cooked a huge meal for us. Steaks, baked potatoes, bowls of steamed vegetables, and fresh baked bread were on the table.
“This looks awesome,” I blurted out as Katie looked at me smiling.
“How did you cook this? The electricity is out.” I asked.
Ms. Suzy looked at me and provided the answer, “the electricity may be off but the gas is still working.”
We sat down together and began to eat. The meal didn’t simply smell delicious, but it tasted wonderful as well.
After thanking the ladies for all the effort in cooking and serving the meal, I thought about asking them if they had heard anything more on the television or radio. However, I hesitated. I could see smiles on their faces as they enjoyed eating a meal in relative safety.
When we were all finished eating the dessert, a pound cake and a half gallon of ice cream, Ms. Suzy looked at me and answered the question that was on my mind.
“We watched the television for a little while today. The situation in town does not seem to be improving. According to the news lady speaking, the police departments in our region have suffered more casualties,” Ms. Suzy said.
“Did they say anything about the relief centers? What about the library?” I asked.
Ms. Suzy looked down at the table as Katie looked at me seriously.
“If what they have said is true, some of the relief centers have been evacuated and relocated,” Katie said.
“Where did they say they were taking everyone?” I asked.
“They said to some emergency relocation center outside of Dublin. They claim it is secure and can hold thirty thousand people,” she said.
“The national guard is supposed to be organizing there as well,” Jennifer added.
“I’m hoping my daughter and grandchildren might be there,” Ms. Suzy added. “Maybe they’re alive after all.”
“Did they specify if the library had been evacuated?” I asked.
“No, they didn’t,” Suzy replied.
I stood up and looked around the room.
“Let’s go to the roof,” I said. “We need to talk.”
We quickly tossed our food stained paper plates into the break room trash can. A few moments later we had climbed up the stairwell, and we were on the roof. We walked into the central tent of the rooftop compound and sat down.
“I know what we’re coming up here to talk about, and I don’t like it,” said Katie. “We’re safe here. To leave would be too risky.”
She went on to mention how we now had a method of killing the freaks. As she continued to speak about how foolish it would be to go off looking for our family members, I could see the concern in her eyes as her blond hair, barely combed in days, hung over her eyes. Katie was determined to stay at the store, not matter what.
I tried to respond to Katie’s objections, but Jennifer interjected before I could say anything.
“Katie, some of us have family members that could be at the library, or if not there, at the relocation center. We have to try and find them,” she insisted.
“I don’t have anyone to find,” Katie responded. “I don’t want to risk my life to find someone else’s family members.”
I continued to sit back while the women around me took complete control of the conversation.
“You don’t have to come with us then,” Jennifer told her. “No one is going to drag you along with us. If you like, you can stay here.”
“I can’t believe you would want to leave me here all by myself,” Katie said.
“I don’t want to,” Jennifer said. “But my sister could be at the library or the relocation center.
Ms. Suzy leaned over towards Katie, “None of us want to leave you here.”
“But you’re about to run off without me!” Katie said a little too loudly.
I sat and thought about the situation as the women around me continued their conversation, which started to become a bit more heated. As their voices became louder, I started to get a little worried that the freaks might hear us.
“We need a plan,” I stated, interrupting Ms. Suzy mid-sentence.
“Once we come up with a plan, then we can talk about whether or not we should leave anyone behind,” I said. “Without a solid plan we’re as good as dead.”
“Okay, let’s talk,” Ms. Suzy said.
For the next couple of hours we talked about how we could get to the library safely. If we could get there, and our relatives were not there, we would attempt to make it back to the store where we would prepare for a trip to try and find the relocation center.
Every issue in regards to our ride to the library was discussed. We considered the best route to take, the areas of town that might have fewer freaks roaming around, how we would protect ourselves, and of course the vehicle we would use.
After a few hours of listening to our discussions, Katie had agreed to come with us.
“Maybe this plan will actually work,” she said.
“It will,” I replied.
My friends were exhausted from their day of freak killing and cooking, and they needed to get some sleep. Tomorrow we would all be would be extremely busy. As they prepared to sleep in the tent I left them and sat down near the edge of the roof, looking down at the parking lot. Several more freaks had wandered into the parking lot, but none of them seemed to be trying to break inside of the store. They didn’t even seem to know we were there.
Interestingly, I noticed that without any doubt, the movements of the freaks had slowed down -- at least a little. Even when attracted to a sound, such as the falling of a pine cone, they were slower responding.
I wondered if their decay could be speeding up.
It was almost five o’clock in the morning when I heard soft footsteps behind me.
I then heard Jennifer’s voice.
“I have an idea,” she said.
Chapter 7
Jennifer and I opened the hatch to the dark stairwell, climbed down, and proceeded towards the stockroom. From a table we grabbed an LED lantern, and then headed to aisle three on the sales floor.
Jennifer directed me to a wall of children’s toys. I stood there unsure about what she was trying to show me.
“Look down,” she said. “Do you see them?”
I saw a half a dozen remote control cars. We hadn’t sold a single unit of the high priced, flimsy vehicles in the last month.
“We can use these,” she said. “All we have to do is put a small radio or CD player on top of it, and we can use them to distract the freaks.”
“Good idea,” I responded.
In the now fading light of the lantern, she smiled.
I suddenly had a flood of memories of wh
en I had tried to date her. She was simply not interested in me. However, my interest in her had never faded, at least not completely.
But now was not the time for such thoughts. I had to focus on the tasks at hand.
We were headed back up to the roof when we heard a sound in the distance like a vehicle that had run into something. Quickly, we rushed to the roof. Ms. Suzy and Katie were already out of their tent when we arrived.
Peering over the edge of the roof, we could see a large white utility van had hit another vehicle parked across the street. The impact had pushed away a small convertible sports car that had been blocking the pump at the gas station. A woman had exited the van and was attempting to get gasoline.
Freaks were approaching her from all directions. We watched as the short haired woman in blue pants avoided them by running inside of the station. Apparently, she hadn’t been able to pump any gas. I looked at her through my cheap toy binoculars and saw how she was now behind the cash register. I guessed she was trying to find a way to activate the gas pump.
“Can we do anything to help her?” Ms. Suzy asked.
“We don’t need to go out there,” I said. “But we could try to attract some of the freaks over here.”
Only a couple minutes later we had climbed down to the ledge over the front entrance of the store. The makeshift weapons the women had used the day before were still there. As I grabbed onto a length of pipe, I could hear Jennifer call out to the freaks.
“We’re over here you undead bastards,” she shouted loudly. “Are you going to eat us or what?”
A few of the freaks heard us and started approaching. In the first rays of the morning light, I began to prepare myself to extend the pipe downward, and start cracking skulls.
“Come get us!” Katie called out as more freaks approached.
The copper pipe was somewhat heavy. I made sure to keep a good grip as I powered it downward. Aiming to hit the heads of the freaks below was not easy. It took multiple attempts to strike the head of a freak with a hideously burned face. The first knock on the poor man’s head only knocked him down. A moment later, he stood back up.
With my next lunge of the pipe I managed to kill the burnt freak. Obviously, I needed more practice, because the women beside me were making more progress than myself. Ms. Suzy’s improvised spear seemed to be especially effective. The ice pick at its end seemed to be very good at penetrating skulls.
Katie had tied a length of cord to a cinder block. She was dropping it on the heads of the freaks below. Her aimed seem to be consistently good. After she dropped the block it would typically impact one of the freaks -- knocking it to the ground. She’d then proceed to pull the bloody block most of the way back up, take aim, and drop it again. Just in case the block hit the ground and cracked, she had some spares beside her.
Jennifer was doing her best to attract more freaks. Although she had a weapon in her hand, her task was to keep yelling and shouting at the undead corpses that had surrounded the gas station.
Within thirty minutes we had killed twenty two freaks. Their dead bodies were piling up in front of the store.
In a flash I had a thought. My firearm was still in my pocket. I pulled out the revolver and looked at the women beside me.
“Should I fire it?” I asked. “It will hopefully attract the rest of them.”
“Go for it,” Jennifer said.
“Cover your ears everyone,” I said.
I put a pair of foam ear plugs into my ears that I had obtained from the health and beauty aids department. I looked at the women beside me, saw Jennifer give me a thumbs up, and I fired the revolver.
The sound of the blast echoed across the landscape.
Only a split second later, every freak that hadn’t already been heading towards the grocery store was turning in our direction.
We began to work tirelessly to kill every freak that we had attracted. The only problem was that the gunshot had obtained the attention of more freaks than we had expected. An hour later we had killed forty more freaks.
“Where are they all coming from?” Ms. Suzy asked with her sweaty, red hair in her face.
“Everywhere.” I responded. “They’re even coming from down the road.”
“I wonder how far away the sound of the shot traveled,” Jennifer asked.
“I would guess a mile at least,” I responded, while trying to catch my breath.
It took another hour to kill the last of the freaks. After climbing back on the roof of the store we looked across the road. No zombies were currently surrounding the gas station, but there was also no sign of the woman. I looked with my binoculars through the windows of the store, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.
“Do you think she’s still in there?” Jennifer asked.
“I don’t know,” I responded. “But I think we can use her van.”
The first step of our plan to get out of the parking lot had been to clear it of the freaks. That part was now complete. The second step had been to obtain a vehicle and drive it through the docking bay into the stockroom.
“I’m going to get that car,” I said. “Who wants to join me?”
“I will,” said Jennifer. “I’m not letting you go out there alone.”
Ms. Suzy stayed on the roof as Jennifer and Katie followed me to the meat department. I had remembered Mr. Allen’s secret stash of knives. About six months ago the company had sent out an updated budget to each meat department in the district. According to the new budget, only a hundred dollars a year could be spent on cutlery -- a ridiculously low amount of money. To get around it, Mr. Allen had placed an order with a distributor for a large number of knives. We were going to use them.
I went to the corner of the room and pulled a large cardboard box out from under a table. I reached down and pulled up two large knives. Each of the two knives had a huge blade, and they were razor sharp.
“Be careful with this,” I warned Jennifer. “It’s insanely sharp. You especially do not want to cut yourself with it if you get any of their blood on the blade.”
“I’ll be careful,” she said.
In a small backpack that I would wear, we placed a few additional items.
We approached the emergency exit door.
“Keep this door open as long as you can,” I instructed Ms. Suzy. “But don’t take any chances. If a freak gets too close make sure you don’t get bitten.”
Jennifer and I walked through the emergency exit. No freaks were in sight, so we headed towards the parking lot. The stench from the pile of rapidly decaying freaks near the store’s entrance was horrible. I tried not to breathe through my nose as we carefully navigated the parking lot.
One freak approached us, but it had a broken leg that slowed it down. We ran right past the freak and headed to the road. We quickly crossed and came up to the white utility van. It was very large and mostly empty; only a few tools were scattered about inside of it. Luckily, the keys were still in the ignition.
“Do you think this van will run?” Jennifer asked. “Yes, I think so. It doesn’t look too damaged.”
The front bumper of the van was dented, but other than that the van looked to be in good shape.
“Let’s try and start it up,” Jennifer said.
“No, we have to go inside and look for the woman first,” I said.
“Stay out here and keep a lookout. I’m going inside to see if I can find the woman,” I said. “If you see any freaks coming call out to me.”
I started looking into the windows of the gas station. I saw a man’s body on the floor, but it was not moving. There had obviously been some kind of struggle inside the gas station, because candy bars and packages of chewing gum were scattered everywhere. Also, a large bottle of pickled pigs’ feet had fallen and shattered on the floor.
I decided to go inside.
“Is anyone in here?” I called out in a hushed voice, as I tried to open the door.
It was locked, so I decided to walk around to the back of the s
tore. The rear entrance was open, so I walked in.
I began to search the station for the woman. I couldn’t find her anywhere. However, the gas station sold ammunition, so I grabbed a box of twenty rounds of .357 cartridges for my revolver. I opened it up, quickly loaded my revolver, and stuffed another box of ammo into my backpack. While inside, I also grabbed a couple road maps and put them in my backpack as well.
Suddenly, I heard Jennifer call out.
“Hank, get out here quick!” she shouted.
I ran to the front of the gas station, unlocked the door, and stepped outside.
Officer Harvey was standing next to Jennifer, with a black pistol pointed at her.
“Have you been bitten?” he shouted at her. “Answer me now!”
Jennifer was waving the large knife from the meat department at him.
“Get away from me!” Jennifer yelled back at him. “I’m not infected!”
I pulled out my revolver and quickly pointed it at the officer.
“Put your gun down now!” I screamed. “None of us are infected.”
He then pointed his gun at me. Pure adrenaline filled my blood stream as I fought back the urge to pull the trigger.
“None of us have been bitten,” I repeated.
“Put that gun down or I’m going to blow your head off,” the officer ordered.
“How do I know you won’t blow my head off anyway? You think we’re infected.” I said.
“You’re right. I might just shoot you anyway. I’ve shot enough people already today. Two more won’t make much of a difference,” he said.
I glanced at Jennifer as she stood with her eyes wide open.
“Look, I promise that I’m not infected and she isn’t either.” I said. “I’m putting the gun down.”
I slowly lowered the revolver and put it on the ground. He lowered his pistol.
“I’m on orders to kill anyone who shows any sign of infection,” he said. “Anyone who is infected is already as good as dead.”
“Four of us are holed up in the grocery store over there. We’re planning to try and make it to the rescue station at the library. Do you know if it is still in operation?” I asked.
“You really don’t want to go into town,” he said. “There are still monsters everywhere.”
Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 Page 6