by Talia Mason
Drawing in a deep breath through her mouth and trying not to think about what germs she must be taking into her body with every breath of tainted air that she took Gracie again opened the door and stepped inside.
Rushing towards the body she gingerly reached out and unclipped the keys, trying her hardest not to touch the body or his fluid stained clothes or to throw up again at being so close.
Once she had the keys in her hand Gracie ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her, and did not stop until she was once again at the bottom of the stairs in the storeroom.
Gracie’s legs had turned to jelly.
She sank down onto the bottom step unable to control the way her whole body was violently shaking and her heart beat in her throat.
Gracie sat with her head between her knees as she tried to get a hold of herself before the hysteria that she felt Forcing itself against the edges of her mind took over.
She knew that to lose control away from the safety of the house would most likely prove fatal and whilst the slow deep breaths helped, what Gracie really wanted right at that moment was to be absolutely steaming drunk and to keep drinking until she fell into the deep black oblivion of unconsciousness so that it all just went away.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pulling herself together Gracie got up from the step and headed towards the shops rear loading bay.
The rear loading bay and its yard were fenced off by fifteen foot high security fencing, and after checking that the gate to the delivery yard was locked Gracie returned to the store room and examined the roll down shutter door, trying to work out if it could be closed manually.
On the wall besides the door's casing there was a grey box with the words loading door manual operation.
Opening the box revealed a crank handle and gave directional instructions, clockwise to open and anti clock wise to close.
As Gracie turned the handle the door slowly descended, inch by inch blocking her view of the yard beyond.
Warily Gracie returned to the front doors of the store fully aware that the battle to survive she had won here could well be repeated if another of the undead had wondered in whilst she was upstairs or in the storeroom.
Without power the front doors of the store took some effort to push closed but once they were it was a simple enough task to lock herself in, and hopefully lock all of the undead out.
This time Gracie took her time in carefully searching the building to ensure that she was truly alone and that there was no chance of her being caught off guard by an undead again.
Once certain that she was the only being in the building still capable of movement Gracie grabbed a flatbed trolley, similar to the one she had used in the hardware store, from by the stairs of the store room and began to fill it with crates of tinned food from the storerooms shelves.
Gracie figured that the trolleys bed looked about the same size as the boot of the range rover and that once it was full to the point where it could not be moved without things falling off she would have a boot load to load up for transport.
Gracie wandered up and down the aisles of the storeroom, reading labels on the crates and boxes, selecting those she wanted and adding them to the trolley.
Tinned goods, packet foods that that only needed hot water to prepare, hot chocolate, powdered milk and extra crates of coffee with bags of flour, sugar and salt all went onto the trolley with a crate of tins of yeast.
The trolley was rapidly filling up and Gracie had a feeling that she would have to make a few of these resource-gathering expeditions in order to survive for any length of time without having to face the possibility of returning.
“Perhaps I should trade the range rover for something a little bigger.” Gracie said to herself, thinking of how much more she would be able to fit into a transit van.
Gracie added firelighters and Zippo lighters, lighter fluid and wicks, bulk bags of rice and pasta and struggled to pull the trolley through the shop to the range rover without anything falling off.
She unloaded the trolley into the range rover, fitting items wherever she could like some kind of giant puzzle and once the trolley was emptied Gracie went to the end aisles where bottles of wines and spirits filled the shelves.
She returned to the car with her arms filled with bottles of vodka and whiskey to slot into the few gaps between the goods in the range rover before she slammed the boot shut.
Gracie climbed into the driver’s seat of the range rover and drove the vehicle until it stood two feet away from the doors before climbing out to peer through the glass of the door at the forecourt and the car park beyond.
Again she saw no movement, saw none of the undead moving aimlessly in their lurching gait looking for fresh meat, their only interest.
Gracie dragged open the shops doors and jumped into the range rover to drive it onto the fore court.
Gracie Climbed back out and ran back into the supermarket to crank the handle that would wind the shutter down far enough that she would be able to duck beneath it and push it down to the ground before locking it into position with the keys that she had taken from the manager’s dead body.
On the journey home Gracie stopped a few times, in the open and deserted streets, to use the pump to siphon fuel from the cars at the side of the road.
Whenever she saw one of the undead’s slow drag legged stumble in her direction she gathered up the pump and petrol can and jumped back into the range rover and was on her way to another spot to start again.
By the time she turned off of the smooth tarmac of the roads and onto the bumpy hard packed tracks through the fields Gracie was more than a little concerned about the amount of flammable liquids that surrounded her in the range rover.
Gracie was beginning to feel the strain of exhaustion as she unloaded the range rover.
Storing the petrol In the wood shed and lamp oil in the cellar, the back and forth along the garden path and climbing up and down the cellar stairs made All of her muscles ache.
Everything else she stacked in the front hallway to be dealt with later, no longer having the energy to put it away at that moment.
All she wanted to do was lock the doors, feed herself and cat and then give herself up to the sweet merciful nothingness of sleep.
Gracie was awoken early the next morning by cat again poking her in the face.
Reluctantly she got up and went down stairs to give him his breakfast, realizing that she had forgotten to add wood to the ranges firebox the night before as she walked into the cold kitchen.
Cat complained loudly when his breakfast was postponed while she cleaned and restocked the firebox of the range before lighting it and lifting the hob cover and placing the kettle of water in its place to boil.
Ten minutes later Gracie was sipping her coffee as she watched Cat eat his breakfast and slowly then swagger towards the door where he sat staring expectantly at Gracie who tried her best not to meet his eye.
“You’re not going out there, they’ll eat you.” Gracie said to the cat. “Then I won’t even have a cat for company, for what your dubious company’s worth.”
Cat mewled and screeched until Gracie could no longer bear the sound and gave in.
“Ok. Ok but don’t let them catch you.” Gracie said as she opened the door and let the cat out into the mud room where he rushed across the tiled floor and awaited for her to unlock the back door and let him out.
As soon as Gracie had the door open Cat shot across the lawn to the furthest corner of the garden and disappeared into the foliage.
“At least he can move fast enough to evade them if they try to grab him.” Gracie said to herself as she closed the door and went to start moving the stacks of supplies from the hallway to the pantry and the cellar.
Gracie went around the side of the house to a fenced off area of the garden and found a big black wheelie bin which she dragged to the back door, over the step and through the mud room and kitchen to the pantry.
She had dreaded the moment that sh
e would have to open the refrigerators or freezers yet she knew that the longer she put off the job the fouler the task would become.
Gracie pulled on a pair of pink marigolds that she had found in the sculleries cleaning supply cupboard and opened the door of the first fridge.
Holding her breath Gracie pulled the shelf out of the grooves that supported it and tipped its contents into the bin before shoving the shelf back into place and moving onto the next.
By the time Gracie had emptied all of the fridges and freezers in this manner she was feeling queasy from the smell of rotten food and dragged the bin out of the house and along the garden path, as far away from the house as she could, before returning for the wheel barrow and its contents of rotting shopping.
With a bucket of hot water and bleach, she scrubbed the inside of the fridges and freezers to remove both smells and germs.
Gracie climbed into the Range Rover, with the plan of driving into the village, changing the range rover for a transit van if possible or just something that would hold more resources if not, and returning to the supermarket to add to her existing stores in the pantry.
As she sat looking at the range rovers petrol gauge she was struck by a very worrying thought, what if she found the van but it ran out of petrol half way back to the house or even worse in one of the areas that drew the undead.
Gracie ran to the wood shed and returned with one of the petrol canisters, which she put into the passenger seat of the range rover, strapping it in place with the seat belt.
It did not take long to find a van.
On the main road through the centre of the village a short way before the main commercial area, a builder had clearly been working on building a porch over the houses front door in front of which stood a large white van.
The builder, it seemed, had just finished unloading timber for the porches roof when his fate had caught up with him and he had died leaving the rear doors of the van open.
After checking that none of the undead roamed the street, Gracie climbed out of the range rover and into the van.
The keys were in the ignition and when she started the engine she almost didn’t believe her eyes when the Fuel gauge showed that it had a full tank of fuel.
After grabbing the petrol canister from the range rover and transferring it to the rear of the van and closing the doors Gracie jumped into the driver’s seat of the van and pulled out onto the empty street.
It took Gracie some time to get used to driving the van after the range rover but by the time she arrived at the supermarket she was fairly sure that she could make it home without crashing.
Suddenly a problem that she hadn’t foreseen as she had been planning the exchange of vehicles struck her, being a lot taller than the range rover the van would not fit through the doors of the supermarket making her mission a whole lot riskier.
Instead of reversing down the pedestrian walk way Gracie drove the van through the car park half filled with abandoned cars and parked by the delivery gates.
Sword at the ready and flashlight shoved into the pocket of her jacket Gracie used the vans mirrors and windows to scan the car park for any signs of the undead before jumping out of the van and running to the shuttered doors of the supermarkets entrance.
Just as she was pulling up the unlocked shutter and was about to duck under it and through the open doors into the shop she felt a cold undead hand on the back of her neck.
Instinctively Gracie jerked away from the touch, feeling her hair being torn from her scalp and her shoulder scrape against the bottom of the shutter, as she dived through the doors into the shop.
The undead moved much slower as it attempted to crawl in after her, strands of her hair still tangled up in its rotting, peeling fingers.
Gracie brought the sword down on its neck as the head appeared beneath the shutter, severing it from the undead’s shoulders, before she kicked the head out of the shop to roll wobbly across the forecourt.
The body of the undead twitched for a few moments before it stilled where it had collapsed within the path of the shutters closing.
“Oh for fucks sake.” Gracie groaned realizing that she would have to move the rotting corpse in order to secure the shutters.
Grabbing a discarded shopping trolley from besides the fruit and vegetable stand Gracie pushed it against the previously undead body, nudging the corpse out from beneath the shutter, before pushing aside the trolley to roll off into the fruit stand So that she could close and lock the shutter.
Gracie hurried through the supermarket to the rear doors before she allowed herself to sit and recover from the panic that was causing her heart to pound in her throat and making her head spin.
She sat on an overturned plastic crate with her head in her hands regretting that her suicide attempts had failed so miserably, that she was trapped in a life that became more and more unbearable each day.
Gracie grieved for her old life, for what should have been, for the friends she could have had if not for the near extinction of humanity.
Even in her years of self sought seclusion she had never felt lonely because there had always been the slightly unpleasant shop keeper around the corner or the friendly faces of the supermarket staff a ten minute walk away.
There had been the option of visiting friends or family or even just making a brief telephone call to hear another human voice, yet now all of that had been taken away and the only company she had was that of a reluctant and selfish tom cat.
“But what can I do about it?” Gracie thought aloud.
She pictured herself driving until she found a gathering of the undead and stepping out of the van, unarmed and vulnerable, and allowing them to feast upon her flesh.
Yet this thought sickened and terrified Gracie more than the idea of surviving and fighting, of struggling to maintain her existence until she died old and lonely after a long life living out in the middle of nowhere and living on whatever she could grow in the safety within the walls of the garden.
Another thought taunted Gracie, what if she were attacked by a horde of the undead and could not die.... after all death had refused to come for her when she had tried to end her own life.
What if they tore her limb from limb as they fed upon her but she stayed conscious, feeling every bite and every tear of her flesh being wrenched away from her body?
With a shudder of horror Gracie stood, drawing a deep breath, no longer able or willing to be dragged down into a spiral of despair by her own troubled thoughts.
“I am alive and there seems that there isn’t much I can do about it so I best accept it and get on with living.” Gracie grumbled, hoping that saying it aloud would help her to find the will to go on.
Gracie opened the shutter to the loading bay and walked across the delivery yard to the security gate.
Cautious after the attack at the shops doors Gracie unlocked the gate to step out and take a better look around the car park.
Thankfully few of the cars in the car park were large enough to conceal any undead and as of yet Gracie had not known the mindless remnants of what were once human beings to have the cognitive ability to be able to deliberately creep up on her.
Gracie opened the gates fully before running to the van, climbing in and driving into the yard before jumping out and running to lock the gates once more.
Once she had maneuvered the van’s rear as close to the loading bay door as possible Gracie went back through the shop to find the flat bed trolley that she had used the day before.
After a few hours the van was finally full, each crate stacked carefully to maximize the space available and Gracie was beginning to consider the possibility of having to clear out the cellar to create more storage space at the house.
Today she had gathered medications and cleaning supplies as well as toiletries, foods and even some crates of boxes of chocolates in the hope that being able to indulge herself whenever she pleased would help lift her mood.
Gracie unlocked the gates and dr
ove the van out before returning to lock the gates from the inside and going through the shop locking doors and shutters as she went.
Gracie left via shops customer entrance, closing and locking the shutters before dashing back to the safety of the van before an approaching undead could get close enough to make a grab at her.
After starting the van Gracie waited until the undead that was lurching it's way towards her was in front of the van before she put her foot down.
The van hit the undead with a sickening thud before the thing that had once been human disappeared beneath the it.