by Tim Moon
“Right. I’ll watch that.”
Keanu signaled a three-second countdown and then pushed through the doors. They only pushed through one of the doors but damn it was loud. Plastic along the bottom edge of the door made a whooshing sound as it slide across the concrete floor of the stockroom.
Ben cringed a little at the noise.
When they were both inside, Keanu paused. He shone the light around so they could see what was around. The light didn’t reach far, but Ben could make out big metal shelves with pallets on them filled with boxed merchandise.
After spending a moment checking the immediate area, Keanu motioned to the left and they walked deliberately until they reached the wall. At the end, set in the corner, was a small room. It turned out to be a broom closet. Cleaning supplies, bags, and other janitorial items cluttered the space. They turned around and checked between the stockroom shelves.
Ahead they noticed a faint glow set against the back wall. Neither of them could see the source, but it looked weak, like a flashlight or something equally small. Ben still hadn’t noticed the cat either.
“Don’t focus completely on the light. Keep checking around so we don’t get caught off guard,” Keanu whispered to Ben.
He nodded and raised his rifle. Ben felt the pressure mounting as Keanu’s point sank in. Even if people didn’t ambush them, the light would attract the attention of any infected inside the room and they’d gravitate toward it like moths. The two of them would have to inspect the area carefully to avoid a disaster. Creeping forward slowly, they started in the direction of the glow. Keanu motioned for Ben to move to his left, this way they’d be more spread out. Ben would also get a good angle on the light source.
Ben continued watching their left flank. Just a wall with table covered in papers and a few big rolls of tape and the tape guns they used to seal up boxes.
Something moved near the light casting an intimidating shadow across the wall.
Ben crouched, whipping his gun that direction in case someone was coming at them. But there was no more movement.
Keanu had kept moving, checking methodically to his right. He glanced back as Ben hustled over to resume his position.
Keanu smiled at him. For the life of him, Ben couldn’t imagine why he was smiling. Ben was nervous as fuck. Anything could be around the corner.
Instead of talking since they were so close to the light, Keanu pointed down the adjacent aisle. This way they could try to come up behind whoever or whatever was there. Ben nodded and followed along. He felt much more confident carrying his rifle. He just hoped if shots started flying that he’d do well. They might be about to find out.
Another shadow flashed against the wall. It was impossible to figure out what it was. As they moved down the aisle, Ben could catch glimpses of the next aisle. The walkway looked empty, unlike most of the other aisles, which had boxes in the way. They reached the end.
Keanu raised his hand again, counting down from three. They whipped around the corner and saw what it was.
A pair of bodies lay on the floor. It looked like a young man and woman. They lay on the floor next to each other; the man was flopped over the top of the woman as if he had tried to shield her from something. A flashlight lay beside them, angled up toward the ceiling. Its batteries were running low, giving the light a slightly yellow tint. The source of the shadow was the cat Ben had seen earlier in the aisle.
The two didn’t look like store employees. Neither one held a weapon that Ben could see but they were obviously dead. Blood splatter was all over.
“Jesus, what a fucking mess,” said Keanu.
“What should we do?” Ben said, looking away from the bodies.
“Leave them, I guess. We still need to clear the room before we rejoin the rest of the group.”
Ben felt bad leaving them lying there like that.
“How do you think they died?” he said.
“Doesn’t really matter as long as they’re not attacking us, right?”
“Well…if they didn’t kill themselves someone else did it. If we don’t find anyone else in the store that means they might come back. That could be a problem.”
Keanu made a good point face before kneeling down to look at the bodies.
“I don’t see any weapons,” Ben said, circling the bodies and picking up the flashlight. The cat meowed at him and he wondered why these people had a cat with them. Surely, a cat wouldn’t stick around them like this if it wasn’t their pet.
“They were shot. That part’s clear.” Keanu stood up and shook his head. “Let’s finish clearing this room and we’ll come back and take a closer look.”
“Okay.” Ben spun the flashlight in his hand, offering the handle to Keanu. “Here. Take this.”
“Thanks, man.”
Without another word, they moved on, sweeping the area in front of them looking for any threats - infected or otherwise. The idea that someone murdered these people sent a chill racing down Ben’s neck. He shivered.
They had seen people looting on TV. Although the store looked like it was good order when they arrived maybe the people responsible for killing the couple weren’t the messy type.
Several minutes later, they finished their inspection and concluded that the stockroom was clear. Only the cat and the two bodies were out of the ordinary. All of the doors remained locked and everything else seemed fine. Finding the bodies was disconcerting, but they’d only be there one night.
“I gotta admit that the bodies are freakin’ me out a little,” said Ben with a nervous laugh.
“Yeah, I can’t think why someone would shoot them when everything around here looks so normal.” Keanu turned back toward the bodies. “No sign of a fight, they don’t look like they were robbed, nothing. Maybe it was revenge?”
Ben shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter, I guess. I think we should at least cover them up.” Ben looked at Keanu, assessing his reaction.
Keanu thought for a moment before he nodded in agreement. “Okay, let’s cover ‘em up.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ben set down the last armful of flattened boxes. When he and Keanu hadn’t found a suitable unlocked room for them to sleep in, they collectively decided to co-opt the customer service center. For their beds, Ben figured they could lay out cardboard on the floor. It wasn’t much padding, but it was better than nothing. The idea to use the cardboard came to him after he and Keanu used a few flattened boxes to cover the dead couple.
It was warm inside so there was no need for blankets. Packs of toilet paper or black garbage bags filled with unrolled paper towels served as pillows. Ben was so happy with the garbage bag pillow he made that he planned to take it with them when they left.
Anuhea laid out several of the flat, rectangular packages of toilet paper on top of the card bard and laid on those.
“This isn’t so bad,” she said.
“It looks ridiculous, but if it’s comfortable then who cares?” Ben smiled. He leaned back against a package of paper towels, satisfied with his large dinner of canned vegetables, potato chips, and beef jerky. All washed down with a bottle of Gatorade.
Up front in the customer service center, they avoided most of the stink from the deli and butcher area. Compared to their night “in the wild,” this was easy living.
Ben lay on his cardboard and toilet paper bed, reading a book he picked up after they’d cleared the stockroom by the light of a flashlight from aisle six. If not for all the death and general mayhem, this might be a fun adventure. But real life adventures were rarely as exciting as in a book.
Oliver was already asleep, splayed out like a starfish on his bed. Charlotte had been lying next to him but she got up and came over near Ben.
“Good book?”
It always amazed Ben how people will come up and interrupt you while you’re reading to ask this sort of question. Usually, it annoyed the hell out of him, but in this case, he didn’t mind at all.
“So far, so good,” Ben sai
d, closing the book. “It’s just some fun, easy reading before bed.”
She looked amazing despite not having a proper shower since leaving the quarantine center for the airport. He was quite certain that he wasn’t looking or smelling so great himself despite taking a sink shower in the men’s room and scrubbing himself with wet wipes.
Ben glanced down at Charlotte’s lips. He’d brushed his teeth twice, just because he could. It had been the best part of his day so far. He loved the minty fresh feeling in his mouth.
Her smile washed away any hesitation he had. He wanted her close, showers be damned.
“Not tired?” Ben said, scooting over a little in case she wanted to sit down.
She noticed and smiled, sitting carefully on the makeshift bed. A pack of toilet paper slipped off the cardboard and fell to the floor.
“Oops, I’m making a mess of your bed,” she said, starting to get up.
“Stay.” He put his hand on hers.
Her gaze went to their hands. A smile played across her lips. Even in the dim light, her beauty amazed him.
The silence stretched on.
“What’s on your mind?” Ben said.
“A lot actually, so many different things,” she said. “It’s like a tornado in my head.” She spun her finger around as if she was going crazy.
“I know what you mean.” He squeezed her hand and then sat up next to her. “I’m trying to stay focused on what’s in front of us so we survive, but there are so many other things too. How’s my mom? What’s happening with this infection? Is the government making any progress in containing it? How’d this all go to shit? You know?”
Charlotte nodded.
“And I wonder how long life will be like this, you know, running for our lives, killing infected and all that,” Ben said.
Charlotte nodded again as she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.
“I miss my parents. I just hope they’re okay. They’re probably worried sick about me,” she said. Her voice sounded thick and he could see tears glistening in her eyes.
“We’ll find a way to contact them. We’ll get off this island,” Ben said. “We have to…”
“What if the same thing happened at the airport in Hilo?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure something out,” Ben said. “I think it’ll be okay. What are the odds that both airports were destroyed?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“We’ll know soon. Either way, we find out tomorrow.” Ben sighed.
She leaned against him, resting her head against his shoulder.
Ben smiled to himself and tilted his head a little to rest on hers.
Here they were hiding from flesh eating monsters yet still finding time to be close and get to know each other. He felt excited as if this was his first time putting his arm around a girl, which it totally wasn’t.
The soft skin of her arm brushed against his sending tingles racing up his arm to his spine. He felt alive and free. He reached for her hand and held it in his. She tilted her head up and gazed into his eyes. Another smile played across her lips.
He smiled back. She leaned and kissed him. He was a little surprised at first and pulled back a little. Then he closed his eyes, and leaned back into her kiss. Charlotte kissed him soft at first then she reached up and pulled him to her, eager for more. Ben sank into the moment, feeling the warmth of her mouth, the hot breath on his check as he moved down and kissed her neck. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him up. Their lips playing against each other like the ebb and flow of waves.
A loud crash in the grocery store interrupted them.
Charlotte made a strange squeaking sound. Ben cursed and grabbed his rifle. Anuhea woke up while Oliver kept on sleeping.
Ben moved out from the customer service center and slowly walked, with his rifle raised, toward the sound. Anuhea followed closely with her rifle up as well. He wondered if Keanu was in trouble, but he figured that the big Hawaiian would be fine.
Anuhea tugged on the sleeve of Ben’s ratty t-shirt. She held her finger to her lips.
They could hear some noises like someone rummaging through the shelves.
Another crash, Ben’s trigger finger twitched, but he held back from firing.
His eyes had already adjusted to the darkness so he could see fairly well. The outlines of the next few aisles were visible.
Ben and Anuhea started forward again. As they passed an aisle, Ben saw someone at the other end. It took a second to realize it was Keanu, who waved at him.
The three of them zeroed in on the noises. Ben swung around the corner bringing his rifle to bear on the target and was surprised to see that it was Ty. He lowered his aim and stared at his friend.
“What the fuck are you doing, Ty?” he asked.
Ty looked up at him, but kept mumbling to himself and rummaging through the shelf. He looked drunk. The whole aisle smelled like alcohol because the crashing sounds were broken bottles on the floor.
“C’mon man, let’s go sit down,” Keanu said. He put a hand on Ty’s shoulder and tried to direct him toward the front of the store.
Ty spun and slapped away Keanu’s hand.
“Whoa,” said Ben. “Calm down, man.”
Ty turned toward him, stumbling. “It’s all…it’s all your fault.” he slurred.
Ben just stared at him.
“All of this.” Ty waved his hand. “It’s your fault. You talked me into coming here, into doing this…adventure.”
Ben couldn’t believe what Ty was saying.
“Now…now we’re probably going to die,” Ty said. Tears streaked down his face.
“You need to drink some water and sober up,” Ben said. “No one’s going to die.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“You guys never listen to me. You always want to do dangerous stuff. I want to get away from these things, but you guys keep going toward them,” he said meekly. Ty’s words slurred. “That’s how you’re going to get killed. You’re so concerned about helping everyone else that you’re going to get the rest of us killed.”
Ben shook his head at Ty.
“Come on, Ty. Let’s take a walk,” Anuhea said. She leaned in close to Ben. “I’ll take care of him.”
“Thank you.” Ben motioned for Keanu and the two of them walked away, leaving the drunk with Anuhea.
Chapter Twenty-Four
On the highway again, Ben thought.
It seemed like they’d spent a lot of their hellish vacation on this highway. He was getting tired of driving all over the place. But this time was worse. This time Ben was furious.
At some point during the night, Ty’s dumb, drunk ass took off and left with the Humvee. He abandoned them at the grocery store.
Ben wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do when they caught up to Ty, but it wasn’t going to be nice. He’d been too easy on him so far and they still had not settled the problem between them. Fuck, if this wasn’t several massive steps across the line though. What the hell was he thinking?
Keanu found them a pair of vehicles so they could chase the Humvee down. He’d found it from among the ones abandoned near the grocery store in the shopping center parking lot. Ben led the way with Keanu beside him. Charlotte, Oliver, and Anuhea drove in a small hatchback behind them. Oliver had insisted on finding the Humvee. He complained about the small cars.
In any case, they hoped to catch up to Ty and figure out what the fuck he was doing. Last night he’d been drunk and had an emotional breakdown. Anuhea said she walked around with him and led him back to his bed. She thought he was asleep, but he must have taken off after she fell asleep.
“Over there bro,” said Keanu, tapping him on the shoulder and pointing out of the window.
Ben followed Keanu’s finger and saw the Humvee tilted at an odd angle in a ditch along a road that branched off the highway.
“That fucking guy,” said Ben.
He figured the vehicle would be
fine. They were built to take a beating and if Ty was a little banged up as well, Ben was fine with that. It was payback for abandoning them.
Karma’s a bitch. Ditch the group and you get ditched, Ben thought.
“Humvees are tough, I doubt he damaged it. It should have a tow strap so we can pull it out with no problem,” Keanu said. “Well, assuming these tiny cars can handle it.”
They pulled over about ten yards away. Ben got out and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He didn’t notice any infected nearby, but he didn’t want to take the chance of getting ambushed.
Ben was pissed. He stormed over to the Humvee. The driver’s side door was open. Ty was lying with his back on the ground and his feet were still inside the vehicle.
“Stupid ass is passed out,” Ben said to Keanu.
Keanu started laughing. “Sorry, man.”
Ben shrugged. “If I wasn’t so mad, I’d laugh too.”
Oliver ran up and stood behind them looking at Ty with wide eyes.
“Is he okay?” Oliver asked. “He looks funny.”
Ty blinked and covered his eyes. “I have to pee.” Ty’s voice was creaky and weak.
Keanu was trying to stifle his laugh.
“Just let it go, man,” Ben said to Ty, not even an ounce of sympathy in his heart.
Keanu busted out laughing at Ty.
The women joined them at the edge of the road and looked down into the ditch.
“Help him up,” said Anuhea. “Why are you just staring at him?”
“Because he’s an idiot and I want to enjoy this for a moment. He’s fine,” said Ben. He could see Ty’s chest rising and falling as he slept off the drunkenness.
She shot him a stern look.
“Fine,” said Ben, throwing up his hands. He turned and walked toward the Humvee and grabbed a bottle of water from the back. He twisted the lid off, walked over to Ty, and poured it on his head.
Ty shot up, sputtering.
“What the fuck,” he slurred.
“Good morning asshat,” said Ben, glaring at his friend.
Ty struggled for a moment to free his legs from the foot well and sit up on the uneven ground. The rocks couldn’t possibly be comfortable.