In the Lone and Level Sands

by David Lovato

  Francis took one last look at the outside world and wondered how many zombies had followed survivors here, and how many more would be drawn by the lights and sounds of the stadium. He sighed and shut the door.

  ****

  Martha sat in a cot near the middle of the field, eating a bologna sandwich. There were a few carrot sticks sitting alone on her paper plate. Billy and Emily had their cots pushed together not more than a few feet away from Martha’s. They had already fallen asleep, and so had Jesse and his parents. Despite all that had gone on that day, Martha still had some wind left.

  To her right, Francine was sitting and reading one of Martha’s Nora Roberts novels. Beverly lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling and silently crying. Martha was awake long enough to witness Beverly cry herself to sleep. It made Martha feel even worse, but she shed no tears.

  Martha looked at Alan. He was writing in a notebook. She wondered what he was writing, but didn’t ask; it wasn’t any of her business. She finished her sandwich, ate the carrot sticks, and then put the plate under her cot in a small white plastic bag she’d been handed when they got their food.

  Martha’s picture frame rested under her cot, wrapped in a cloth she had brought from home. She retrieved it and unsheathed the memories.

  Francine looked up from her book and saw Martha looking into the past. She put the book down, sat next to Martha on her cot, looked at the picture, and then hugged her grandmother.

  22

  Outside the Carnival

  The screams from the carnival faded from earshot as the Greenwald family rushed down the street. Surprisingly, Max didn’t see many people out. The few he did see were scrambling to find their cars. Max spotted the white minivan his own family had arrived in, but Andrew showed no sign of slowing down. He led the family right past their vehicle.

  “Where are we going?” Max asked.

  “It’s not safe to be driving around,” Andrew said.

  “How do you know?”

  “Just listen to me!”

  The family had nearly cleared the parking lot when a zombie lunged out from between two cars, pinning Andrew to the ground. Julie and Tim screamed.

  Andrew held the zombie by the shoulders as it snapped its teeth at his face. August took a step toward them.

  “Stay back!” Andrew said. He looked at Max. “Get the pipe wrench out of the back of the car!”

  Max turned and ran toward their vehicle, which wasn’t far. In the distance he could see the faint glow of the carnival lights. He turned from them as he reached the minivan. The trunk wouldn’t open.

  “It’s locked,” Max said.

  “I’ll keep him off!” August said. She charged the zombie on top of her father, and it fell to the ground. Andrew reached into his pocket for his keys and pressed the button to unlock the car.

  Max opened the trunk, moved some things out of the way, and found a pipe wrench. He closed the trunk and jumped at the sight of a man standing next to him. Max raised the wrench defensively, but the man didn’t seem to care. He was bleeding profusely from many wounds.

  “Hey man, you gotta help me, I’ve been bitten,” the man said. His eyes moved away from Max, and he stared into the distance.

  “I’m just… I have to go,” Max said. No longer a man, the zombie looked back at him, moaned, then lunged. Max swung the pipe wrench and hit the zombie in the temple. The zombie spun around, then fell to the ground. Max couldn’t believe what he had just done.

  “Max!” Andrew said. The zombie from earlier had gotten back up and was slowly moving toward August.

  “Andrew, do something!” Margaret said.

  “Hey! Hey, over here, hey!” Andrew said. The zombie slowly diverted from August back to Andrew. It lunged, Andrew stepped back, and the zombie fell on its face. Andrew took a step, but the zombie had grabbed his ankle, so he fell. The zombie went to bite his leg, but Andrew kicked it in the face with his free foot. This didn’t seem to deter the zombie, who went in for another try.

  Max ran up to the zombie and clubbed it in the head with the wrench. The weight threw Max off balance, and he fell to the pavement. The zombie’s neck had snapped, and it was no longer moving. Andrew got to his feet, then helped Max up.

  “I didn’t tell you to do that,” Andrew said.

  “You wanted the pipe wrench,” Max said. “I got you the pipe wrench.” He shoved the blood-spattered wrench at his father, who took it from him. The family pressed on.

  “There’s an apartment building at the end of the street,” Andrew said.

  “How will we be safe in there?” Max asked. “It’ll be full of people.”

  “They live right down the street from the carnival. Most, maybe all of them will be gone.”

  “So we just get in there and lock everybody else out of their own homes?”

  Andrew stopped, and the rest of the family followed suit. He grabbed Max firmly by both shoulders and looked into his eyes.

  “Better them than us.”

  The building loomed into view. The street they were on ran perpendicular to the one it was on, and the apartment was right where the two streets met. It was only three or four stories tall, but it was wide, extending lengthwise in both directions. A big glass double-door led to the front lobby.

  A tiny bell rang as the family entered the building. The lights were all off, and there was no one at the reception desk. Andrew stopped in the center of the lobby, and his family waited for his next instruction.

  “We’ll go right,” Andrew said. “We find an empty apartment, and we board it off. Then we wait.”

  They headed for the corridor to the right. Max instead turned toward a wall near the hallway, which consisted of the entire building’s mailboxes.

  “Look, we can find out which ones are empty,” Max said.

  Andrew went to his side. “This one.” He pointed to an empty box, which was adorned with a sticker revealing the apartment number. No name was written below it, while most of the boxes had one. The number was 131, and it was on the second floor.

  The family headed down the hall, not seeing anyone as they went. They reached the stairs and climbed them, then proceeded down the hallway. Max watched the numbers pass. 128. 129. 130.

  They reached 131. Andrew tried the knob, and it was locked.

  “Damn it. I forgot to get the key from the desk.”

  “Kick the door down,” August said.

  “That’ll leave us vulnerable.”

  “I’ll go get it,” Max said. He wasn’t sure why he was volunteering. He also didn’t wait for an answer; he was already heading back the way he had come.

  Max didn’t run or jog, but walked briskly. He was beginning to wonder if the power had gone out. He got back to the stairs and went down them.

  When he returned to the lobby, a man was sitting on the ground in the center of the room. He was breathing heavily. Max wasn’t sure if the man was one of them or not.

  “Excuse me?” Max said. He stood a good fifteen feet away from the man, still taking step after step toward the reception desk.

  The man looked up at him.

  “Holy shit,” he said. He got to his feet.

  “Keep your distance,” Max said.

  “Relax, I ain’t one of them. Whatever the hell they are.”

  “Do you live here?”

  “I do now,” the man said. “You?”

  “Lived here my whole life. Know where the keys to the unused apartments are?”

  “I was hoping they’d be behind the desk.”

  “Pick an apartment number, then watch the door. I’ll get us some keys.”

  “I barred the door off,” the man said. Max could hardly see it, but he had wedged what looked like a tall, thin, metal lamp across the door handles. This would stop the door from opening entirely, though someone skinny enough could get an arm or leg in. But not a mouth.

  “What if anyone needs to get in to get home?” Max asked. The man laughed.

  “Kid, it’s every m
an for himself, now. At least as long as this shit lasts.”

  Max didn’t like it. He hopped over the reception desk and saw a small board that held the keys to the apartments in numerical order. He grabbed the key to apartment 131.

  “Any preference?” Max said. The man looked at him. “For an apartment, I mean.”

  “Oh, yeah. Give me one that ain’t near any others.”

  Max looked at the keys, searching for one that was in the middle of a cluster to let him know the ones nearby were vacant. “There’s one on the top floor.”

  “Beautiful. I’ll take it.”

  Max tossed him the key, then hopped over the counter, and the man walked with him until they reached the stairs.

  “You all alone, kid?”

  Max shook his head. “My whole family’s here.”

  “Man, I don’t know what’s going on here, but the more people you’re with, the harder this’ll be. I mean, if it keeps up. Not trying to be a dick, but don’t be so naive that you think your whole family will last forever.”

  “I’ll see you around,” Max said.

  “No offense meant, kid. Just… Every man for himself.”

  “I’ll see you around.”

  Max left the stairs at the second floor, and the man continued up them and out of view.

  Max could see his family waiting outside the apartment. He tossed the keys to his dad, who caught them and opened the door. The family went inside together.

  The power was indeed out, and the empty apartment was dark and empty. It didn’t look like something that could ever be a home.

  Andrew closed and locked the door behind them.

  “So, what now?” Max said.

  “We wait for this to end,” Andrew replied.

  “What if it doesn’t end?”

  “Then over time, we collect some furniture, some food, necessities. And we wait until it does end.”

  “But what if it doesn’t end?”

  23

  At Customer Service

  “Here’s the deal,” Jordan said. “My friend Ashley needs help, and she’s in the meat department. Sir, will you help, since you have a gun? We can get out of here afterward.”

  “The name’s Christian. I don’t go by ‘sir’. And yeah, I’ll help you…” Christian squinted at Jordan’s nametag. “Jordan.”

  “Thanks,” Jordan said. The others emerged from behind the counter and joined Christian and Jordan as they started toward the meat department.

  “Hey,” Christian said, “anyone else notice everyone who got bit by a crazy person went crazy too?”

  “Come to think of it, yeah,” Jordan said.

  “So, let’s not get bitten.”

  “It’s not in the plans.”

  John glared at Christian for a few seconds. “I assume you have a reason to carry a gun.”

  “You’re a store director and a cop?” Christian said. “Wow, what a busy bee you are.”

  “I’m not a police officer, but I do know that you have to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.”

  “I don’t keep it on me, John.”

  “You don’t have it,” John said under his breath.

  “Kinda cute that you’re getting your panties in a bunch about me keeping a gun on me. Seems like it’s saving your ass right now.”

  John didn’t reply.

  “We have more important things to do than argue,” Jordan said.

  The group headed past the registers, the blood, and the bodies, into aisle seven. The floor was dotted with items customers had dropped in their haste, and near the end of the aisle was a cart. As Jordan pulled it out of his way, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to look at the text.

  Jordan where are you?

  Were coming Ash. Were trying. Please don’t make a sound. Be there in a sec.

  Jordan slipped the phone back into his pocket and headed toward the door to the meat department. The manager was reaching over the counter at them, even though they were several feet away. Christian raised his gun and fired.

  “Okay,” Jordan said. “I’ll head in there with Christian. Everyone, keep your eyes open. We don’t know how many are still in the store.”

  “I hope Hollis was the last damn one of them,” John said.

  “You and me both,” Evelyn said.

  Jordan and Christian entered the meat department, but saw little besides Hollis’s body. “Ash, where are you?” Jordan said. He didn’t want to be too loud, but he couldn’t whisper either.

  Ashley emerged from one of the coolers. Jordan ran across the brown tiles of the cutting area, stopped in front of Ashley, and smiled.

  “I’m so glad you’re all right!”

  “I’m glad you are too,” Ashley said.

  “All right,” John said, “we’ve rescued the girl, now to get to work fortifying.”

  “Aren’t we leaving?” Erin asked.

  “Who said that?”

  “Jordan did.” Erin blushed, somewhat intimidated by John’s voice.

  “Yeah, I did. I need to get home and see if my parents are all right. Speaking of which…” Jordan pulled out his phone and dialed his home number.

  “Based on what I saw out there, none of us wants to go out, not for a while anyway,” John said.

  “You know, I’m with John,” Evelyn said. “I live alone, and I really don’t want to be alone right now. This place should hold against those things outside.”

  Erin called her parents. Jordan reached the answering machine on his own phone. He sighed in frustration and left a quick message.

  Erin hung up shortly afterward. “My dad… bit my mom.” She covered her mouth, and Evelyn hugged her.

  Ashley tried calling her mother, but there was no answer.

  “I can’t get through to my parents at all,” Jordan said. “Just their fucking voicemails!”

  “Well, keep trying, but we should do a thorough search of the store,” John said. “There could be more of those things around.”

  “There could even be other survivors,” Evelyn said.

  “Good idea,” Jordan said. “And then we should hole up here for a little while. I’m not going to give up on calling, but it might be best to stay here for the time being.”

  “Where can we stay?” Evelyn asked. “Down here seems a little unsafe. It’s so open, and all the plate glass at the front…”

  “The conference room maybe?” Jordan said.

  John nodded. “We can block the stairs with a pallet or two and wait it out up there.”

  As a group, Jordan and the others moved around the store. There weren’t many zombies left. Most had followed the stampede of survivors out, but there were others lurking in a few of the aisles. Christian was able to easily dispatch every one of them.

  The group scoured every department and any area a survivor might take refuge, but none were found.

  “All right, there’s nothing here but us and the wares,” Christian said. “We should probably get to locking up the place.”

  “Yeah,” Jordan said. “First thing’s first. Evelyn, since you have the keys, you should lock the automatic doors. Christian should go with you.” Evelyn nodded and looked to Christian.

  “Right this way, madam.” Christian offered his hand.

  Evelyn laughed. “How polite.”

  “We’ll work on getting pallets of crap to block the doors,” Jordan said.

  Christian and Evelyn went off to the front of the store while Jordan and the others worked in the back.

  In the small lobby area where the carts were stored, Christian stared through the windows into the parking lot. He saw a man who had tried to get away with his groceries, as well as the stolen wares, scattered all over the pavement. There wasn’t much remaining of the customer. He looked away. “Tell me, Evvy, why do you work for such an ass?”

  Evelyn reached up to lock the automatic doors that led out of the building. “Well, he was never this hard to deal with before. I don’t really know. I just need
a job, and this is one I could do. It was either this, or work two fast food jobs. There isn’t much choice.”

  “There’s always a choice, you know.”

  “I like this job though,” Evelyn said. “It’s paying my bills, and it’s not a bad job, really. I deal with it, even though…”

  “Even though what?”

  “Well, it’s just that I like to write. I’ve written a lot of poetry, but I never published any of it.”

  “That’s great,” Christian said.

  “You’re just saying that.” Evelyn shook her head, looked away, and locked the set of doors leading into the main store.

  “Course not. Evvy, I think if we make it out of this, you should get your work out there.”

  “I don’t think I’m good enough,” Evelyn said.

  “There’s always a million little reasons for not going after what we want.”

  “That’s true.” Evelyn smiled. “I’ll do it. If we come out of this okay, then I’ll look into publishing something.”

  Christian smiled back. “Good. I’ll buy a copy, but you’ve gotta sign it for me.”

  Evelyn laughed as the two of them moved to the doors on the other side of the front end.

  With a pallet jack, Jordan pushed several hundred pounds of soda out through the doors to the back room. Ashley walked by his side. John pushed a pallet a few yards behind him, making sure to leave space so there would be no crashes.

  “I wish this hadn’t happened,” Ashley said.

  “Who would want something like this?” Jordan said.

  “A really horrible, twisted person,” Ashley replied. Jordan pushed the pallet in front of one of the entrances. It blocked the doors and nearly reached the automatic eye. He moved out of the way so John could put another pallet behind it. Even if the zombies broke the windows, they wouldn’t get into the store.

  “You got it?” Jordan said.

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”

  “Just asking.”

  Jordan, Ashley, and John met up with Christian and Evelyn.

  “Hey, Christian, do you think you can take another pallet with John?” Jordan asked. “I need to call someone to see where they are. They were supposed to come here tonight.”