Parish

by Nicole Murphy

  “I’m not going to dye my hair.” Wade shook his head.

  “Oh yeas you will. I’m going to cut yours shorter too. We need to change out of these clothes too. I’m not going out by the hands of an angry mob. You better start thinking of a name you want too. We need to practice with them before we get anywhere so none of us mess up and call each other by our real names.” Wren brushed some remaining hair off of her legs.

  “You got it all planned out, huh?” Wade shook his head.

  “We have no choice. This is the only way, and even then it could still fail. If we use our real names or if we run into anyone we’re related to, it could cost us our lives. We have no family now. Wade and Wren DeLasalle died with their mother, father and little brother.” Wren pushed herself up from the seat and made her way back into the cargo hold of the truck.

  “She reminds me of your mom.” Artemis smiled.

  “Yeah, she’s always been like this. She’s always been decisive. The one who had outlines and schedules. Not me, I’m a fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy.” Wade laughed.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Well, there’s your retail store.” Artemis parked the truck and leaned on the steering wheel as he scanned the area.

  “Alright. We need to make camp in there.” Wren nodded.

  “That is a huge store. There could be a ton of zombies in there or other survivors. At this point I don’t think I would trust living people any more than I would the dead.” Wade frowned.

  “We have to do this.” Wren’s attention snapped to her brother.

  “She’s right. I hate to say it, but she’s right. I don’t want to go in there, but I will if it means we can change your appearance enough that it saves your lives.” Artemis reached down and grabbed the butt of his weapon.

  “Too bad you couldn’t just say we’re your kids.” Wade looked to their last hope in this world. Artemis laughed.

  “You got two things wrong on that one. First, I ain’t old enough to be y’all’s Dad. Secondly, there is no way neither of you could pass for being half black. How old do you think I am?” He chuckled heartily.

  “I don’t know, like what forty?” Wade shrugged.

  “I’ll try not to be offended by that.” He was still laughing. “Guys, I’m only twenty-two. Damn, y’all. Way to make a guy feel ancient. You know it may be a compliment to y’all for someone to think you’re older but…damn…forty?” Artemis laughed. “Naw, if anyone asks you were some kids I saved and then we just stuck together after that. How does that sound?”

  “Like, it’s close enough to the truth that we could remember it.” Wren nodded her approval.

  “Good. You ready to go in there?” Artemis reached down and put his hand on the door handle, poised to open it.

  “Let’s just get this over with.” Wade sighed as he opened his door. At the sound of Wade’s door opening Artemis opened his. They all jumped down from the cab, and tried to quietly run towards the store. As the got closer to the main doors, they slowed down.

  Beside the retail store sat a daycare center, and from where they stood they could see the small playground that sat behind the building. The bright colors of the towers, slides and swings were hard to miss. But something more grabbed their attention. Milling about the playground appeared to be about forty child and toddler sized zombies. Wren frowned as she turned to the others.

  “We can’t do anything about them.” Artemis shook his head as she whispered. “Come on, once I open this door ain’t no telling what’s gonna be on the other side. All hands on deck, let’s roll.”

  “Fine.” Wren spat as she once again lifted the crowbar up. Wade crouched a bit as he lifted his knife up, preparing to start stabbing if they were rushed. The doors were automatic, but the power must have been cut because as they got closer the doors did not budge. Artemis places his hands on the glass panes and forced the doors open.

  A foul stench met them as the doors opened. Artemis bent down and picked up a few small rocks that were laying on the large doormat, and he threw them in. Their tiny thuds echoed through the large building. He held up his hand in a fist to indicate that no one moved until he gave the say so.

  Just as they thought the store was safe, ten zombies, dressed in their uniforms came out of the darkness, arms raised and eyes focused on them. They could hear a few of the gurgling groans coming from further into the store. They exchanged a look before walking a few steps into the store.

  Artemis took the lead, raising his gun up he began to shoot them in the head. The backs of their skulls exploded, dropping each one like a fly. Wade and Wren flanked him, taking down as many as they could. In no time the ten that had come forward lay upon the floor, their motor oil blood pooling around their truly dead corpses.

  “Come on.” Artemis turned and closed the doors behind them, reaching up he pulled out a flashlight from his belt, bringing light into the vast darkness.

  “This is creepy.” Wade whispered as they ventured deeper into the store.

  “Yeah it is.” Wren agreed.

  “There’s your hair dye.” Artemis sent the beam of light to illuminate the shelves with the boxes of smiling females. Wren grabbed a few and shoved them into bag. They didn’t stop, instead the moved forward, towards the gurgling noises.

  “It’s coming from over there.” Wade walked up beside Artemis and pointed. Slowly they walked forward, finding a shelf toppled over and a female zombie trapped underneath. She was on her belly. They watched as she reached out, pressing her fingers into the tile in an attempt to crawl out from underneath the shelves. There were smears of black blood where she had broken off her decaying fingernails in her attempt. Her white soulless eyes looked up at them, one hand reaching up towards them.

  “I got it.” Wade stepped into the beam of light and brought his knife down into her skull. Her head collapsed, jaw open, truly dead.

  “Alright, listen.” Artemis cast the flashlight to the floor, sending everything back into darkness. The sound of their breathing seemed loud in comparison to the silence that surrounded them. “Sounds like we may have got them all.”

  “Doesn’t mean we did.” Wren interjected.

  “True. Be on your guard in case. Let find some candles and get some light going. We’ll keep looking in case we missed some of them.” Artemis nodded, bringing the flashlight back up to look over the shelves.

  They walked along, allowing Artemis to scan the shelves with the only source of light they had. Watching as he illuminated packs of diapers, roach killer, and dishwasher detergent. Finally they came across shelves full of candles.

  “Grab as many as you can fit into your sacks, guys.” Artemis held the light steady. Wren and Wade stepped forward, dropping to their knees as they swung their packs down in front of them. Opening them, they began to shove candles in as fast as they could. “We need to find the manager’s office or the employee break room. It will be the safest place for us.”

  “I think they’re somewhere in the back.” Wren turned momentarily, shielding her eyes from the flashlight.

  “How do you know that? Did you work somewhere like this?” Artemis asked.

  “No. But I had a friend who did. He was the guy who would bring in the carts form the corals outside.” Wren turned her attention back to shoving candles in her backpack.

  “Chester?” Wade asked, glancing over at his sister as he continued to work.

  “Yeah, Chester.” Wren replied, her voice solemn.

  “Alright, after you get the candles, we’ll head towards the back of the store and see if we can’t find one of those.” Artemis shrugged his pack up higher onto his shoulders. Wren began closing her bag. Wade followed suit and closed his pack. They both stood up. “Let’s go.”

  “It should be through a set of double doors.” Wren put her arms through her back pack straps.

  “I see them. Come on.” Artemis quickened his steps, the twins following closely behind them. He slowed as he approached. He held out his gun and t
apped the door a few times, then paused. When no sound returned and nothing tried to push through the door, Artemis pushed the doors open and they stepped through. They walked into a large concrete space, with two hallways branching off, one left and one right. He walked over the right hallway and shone the light down. He saw several doors. “This way.”

  They followed behind him and slowed as he came to the first door. He knocked softly and no noise came from inside. He opened the door, looked in and closed it.

  “Copy room. Come on.” He stated. They continued on to the next door. He followed suit, knocking again and waiting for noise to come from within. None did. He opened the door and peered in. “Jackpot, managers’ office. Come on.”

  They walked in and Artemis closed the door behind them. Using his flashlight to guide himself he pushed the huge desk in front of the door. Wren and Wade opened their packs and emptied out the candles they had gathered. Wade reached into his pocket and pulled out his zippo lighter he had found stashed in the glove compartment of the box truck. He began lighting the candles he had gathered before handing it over to Wren for her to do the same. Artemis sat his weapon down on top of the desk and turned to the twins.

  “Good job out there you two.” Artemis smiled as he reached out and took a candle that Wade was offering.

  “I thought there would be more. When you see movies with end of the world type scenario’s the grocery stores and retail stores are usually the first place hit and emptied out.” Wren began digging food out of her bag. Wade quickly realized what she was doing and pulled water bottles from his.

  “Maybe everything just happened so fast no one had time to raid the place. Most of those zombies we took out, out there were wearing uniforms.” Artemis opened the cap to the water bottle and took a long drink.

  “The lady underneath the shelves wasn’t in a uniform.” Wade scooted back until his back was up against a wall. “Maybe when everything happened, there was some sort of panic and she was crushed when people tried to leave.”

  “Hey what’s that door to?” Wren pointed behind Wade. Wade looked behind him and sat his bottle down before standing up.

  “I don’t know, let’s find out.” Wade knocked on the door and waited, just as he had seen Artemis do. Again, no sound came from the other side so he opened the door slowly. He turned back to them with a wide smile across his face. “It’s a private bathroom.”

  “Well la dee da, the bosses bathroom!” Artemis chuckled, “Aren’t we just livin’ it up in the lap of luxury.” Wren giggled at his comment. Wade moved into the bathroom, and they heard running water.

  “It may not be safe to drink, but at least we can wash up.” Wade stated as he poked his head out of the bathroom.

  “Why wouldn’t it be safe to drink?” Wren scrunched her face.

  “We don’t know if the purification system is down at the water plant.” Artemis replied as he began unlacing his boots. “If the purification system is down, there could be all kinds of little nasties floating in that water. Don’t want to survive the zombie apocalypse just to keel over from the runs, do you?”

  “Not especially, no.” Wren laughed again.

  “Well, let’s clean up before we head back out there. We’ll all feel better once we’re washed up and can bed down tonight with some fresh supplies.” Artemis stood up. “I call first!”

  “I found it!” Wade replied stepping back into the office.

  “Yeah, but I’m the oldest.” Artemis put his hand on Wade’s shoulder before moving past him and into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

  “Well then.” Wade sighed as he dropped to the floor near Wren. “What color dye did you grab?” Wren reached beside her and tossed him a box.

  “Night Raven Black.” He looked up at her questioningly. “What color is night raven exactly? Is there even such a thing?”

  “Hell if I know.” Wren shrugged.

  “Maybe it’s a darker shade of black than Day Raven Black.” Wade chuckled as he moved to lay on the floor.

  “They didn’t have soul sucking void of emptiness black, so I had to go with the next best thing.” Wren sat the box atop the others she had grabbed.

  “That would have been one hell of a dark looking black.” Wade retorted. “Why did you grab black to begin with?”

  “It’s the furthest shade from blonde out there.” Wren replied.

  “Yeah, I guess you would have looked suspect if you had gone for a ginger tone.” He rolled onto his side and rested his head in the palm of his hand.

  “I’m trying to avoid attention.” Wren rolled her eyes. “Plus, don’t talk smack, you need to dye your hair too.”

  “What, black?” He scrambled to sit back up. “There is no way I’m dying my hair black.”

  “We’re twins, and we both need to make some changes. What good will it do if someone recognizes you? If they can tell who you are, they’ll know who I am. Dumbass.” Wren reached her boot out and playfully kicked him in the leg with her toe.

  “Fine. But I won’t like doing it.” Wade frowned as he reached past her and picked up the box of hair dye. The door leading to the bathroom opened up and Artemis stepped out.

  “That didn’t take very long.” Wren folded her legs beneath her as she watched Wade scramble to beat her in a race to the bathroom she wasn’t participating in.

  “Yeah, well there’s no hot water.” Artemis walked over to where he had sat his boots and began shoving his feet back into them. “Good thing is though, there are real towels in there. Perks of being the boss I guess, you don’t have to lower yourself to drying your hands on the brown recycled paper that the rest of the peasants have to use.”

  “Don’t put any water in your hair while you’re in there!” Wren called out after Wade, who stopped and looked back to her waiting for an explanation. “You have to put the dye on dry hair.”

  “Are we doing that now?” Wade asked, his eyebrow raised as his gaze drifted to the stack of hair dye boxes.

  “No, we’ll wait until we’re about to head out of here. It won’t smell good, and with the air not working it wouldn’t be a good idea.” Wren replied making a shooing motion with her hand. Wade went into the bathroom.

  “After you get cleaned up, we’ll go back out into the store. What’s the situation with the supplies?” Artemis asked as he laced up his boots,

  “We should just grab whatever we can out there, worry about sorting things out when we get back in here. Our food and water supply is running low, so we need to grab that if we can.” Wren replied.

  “Cool.” Artemis nodded. “So, did you think of a new name to go by?”

  “Not yet.” Wren shook her head as she leaned back against the wall watching the shadows cast by the candles dance.

  “We got a little time for that.” Artemis reached down and picked up a small white box that had been packed in one the bags. He opened it. Inside were a few band aids and antibiotic ointment. Closing it he sat it back down on the floor.

  “The water is frickin’ freezin’ you weren’t kidding.” Wade scampered out of the bathroom. “Your turn but fair warning.”

  “Got it.” Wren smirked as she stood up and went in to the small bathroom. It wasn’t a full bath, just a toilet and sink, but it was private and they did have real towels hanging from a real towel rack. She shook her head as she grabbed one that appeared to be clean. She doubted the company provided this. It was probably installed by the boss himself to provide him with a bit of comfort. Running her hand over the clean towel she realized they were embroidered with letters, no doubt the bosses’ initials. Wren laughed aloud at how absurd it was to be holding a towel that held the initials to a man who was probably somewhere out there aimlessly walking looking for someone to feed on.

  She turned the water on, allowing the cold water to pour over her hands before cupping them to splash water onto her face. Lifting her head she stared at herself in the mirror, her eyes focusing on her short hair and the dirt smudged across her face. The m
emory of seeing Jamie turn and attack their father rushed to her mind following with her mothers’ face right before she stepped off the roof into oblivion. Wren gripped both sides of the sink, watching the water swirl as it circled the drain. She wouldn’t meet the same fate, she made a conscious choice. If it was time for her to go, she would go down fighting for life. Steeling her nerves she splashed more water on her face, using her palm and fingertips to scrub away the grime. She grabbed the towel and dried her face before looking back at herself in the mirror. The girl she had been, the girl who loved to text and chat about movies and makeup, the one who had worn her mother’s heels as she pranced around the house, the girl who would eat her brothers peas while her parents weren’t looking was gone. Wren washed away with the dirty water, that persona danced around the drain and rushed away.

  She hung the towel back up before going back out into the office.

  “You ready to go back out there?” Artemis asked as he regarded her. Both he and Wade looked at her thoughtfully, something was different. They couldn’t put their finger on what exactly had changed, but something was different.

  “Yep, let’s do this.” Wren walked over and grabbed her crowbar. Artemis stood up and began pushing the desk out of their way. Wade quickly began to blow out the candles. It wouldn’t help them at all if the managed to burn down their camp while they scavenged for supplies.

  Artemis opened the door softly, listening for anything or anyone that may have followed them into the store. When he heard nothing he turned the flashlight on and they made their way back down the hallway they had come through, back through the swinging doors and out into the store itself.

  “Look up, there are aisle numbers with stuff under them. It should help to make this go faster.” Wren stepped up beside Artemis and pointed up to the giant signs hanging above them.

  “Good eye.” Artemis nodded as he began to move forward, his weapon aimed.

  “Down here is some food.” Wade whispered as the others turned.