Alpha of the Omega

by Corona, A. M.

  Hobbs threw the grenade outside as Cowan quickly shut the door. Then after they heard the blast, their ears rang at the sound and shockwave. Cowan quickly opened the door and Hobbs went out first. His rifle up and ready to fire. The small blast radius affected the surrounding zombies as they fell to the ground. Some managed to find their legs but the others just laid there dead for a second time. Hobbs tried to save ammo by knocking the first few zombies in the head cracking their skulls. “Go straight ahead,” said Donna trying to direct him as they went. Cowan followed taking up the rear.

  The zombies turned and faced their direction. They started moving slowly towards the commotion and the fresh meat that presented itself. Hobbs raced through swinging his rifle left and right as he went not looking back and just hoped Donna was able to keep up. Arms reached out for them, the scattered crowd started to group together closing their escape route. They moved with one agenda on their mind to feed. What a great plan you have here buddy boy. Yeah go outside and get both of us killed. “Shut up!” “Who are you speaking to?” Donna’s voice reflecting her fear of the dire situation. Hobbs ignored her and continued on. He continued pushing through the crowd. In hopes of making it to their destination.

  Hobbs had nothing left to do but to shoot into the crowd. He did not want to draw any more attention to them but there was just no other way. Hobbs chose his targets wisely. Looking straight ahead he tried to shoot the closest ones. Hobbs changed direction finding the path of least resistance. “Where are you going? The hospital is that way.” Donna pointed north extending her arm out. Just then a zombie grabbed her. It bit down hard and pulled back. Donna shrieked loudly. Hobbs with one fluid motion turned and squeezed the trigger. Bobbie’s face dropped in horror. Bobbie froze where he stood trying to comprehend that he just lost his friend. Cowan pushed in order to keep him moving. Bobbie stumbled at first but regained his footing. “Keep going or you are going to get us both killed!” Cowan shouted trying to be heard over the loud moans and gun fire.

  Hobbs dropped the magazine from the rifle and tried to grab another to replace it but there wasn’t another one. “Damn it I am out!” Cowan instinctively pushed forward to take the lead. He slowly aimed his fire towards the closest building that he could find. “Follow me!” Hobbs dropped his rifle as the sling caught it hitting him in the leg. He drew his knife hoping it would suit him well. “Bobbie grab the grenade out of my cargo pocket!” Cowan stopped for a moment allowing Bobbie to catch up to pull out the grenade. Cowan turned left and right shooting the closest zombies. Hobbs felt a tug at the back of his vest. He quickly slung around knocking the zombie over as it tried to hold onto its meal. Hobbs dragged the zombie a few feet until he was able to turn around and plunge the knife through the temple. The hand let go and the body fell to the ground.

  “Bobbie throw that bastard as far as you can towards the building.” Bobbie fumbled with the grenade trying to take off the safety clip. He dropped the grenade from his sweaty palms. Hobbs pulled on Bobbie’s shirt trying to upright him. Bobbie managed to grab the lever on the grenade and pulled the safety clip. He threw the grenade as far as he could in front of him. The grenade exploded sending shockwaves into the crowd of zombies. It was not far enough. The effects of the grenade hit the three men as they staggered forward as their equilibrium was impaired for a few seconds. Cowan reached the front sliding doors. The automatic door would not open for him. He pried the door open slightly and slipped in. The two others followed suit. The zombies pushed against the door and banged on it slowly in a rhythmic fashion. The glass door was smeared with fluids and blood as the decaying flesh outside pressed against it. Their mouths opened and closed as the maggots fell to the ground.

  “Damn that was close!” Bobby said as he tried to catch his breath. They finally noticed the smell of decaying flesh outside. Death was literally knocking at their door. “Yeah sorry…” Hobbs put his hand up to signal for Cowan to stop in mid-sentence. “Yeah I am too. I mean she was a good friend and all but times have changed. As hard as it is for me to say this but I can’t just stop and mourn every time I lose someone that is close to me. I have to be stronger than that. I have to be strong in order to survive. The world is cruel but this new world is just ruthless. You guys have kept me alive and probably a lot longer than I would have without you two.” “There is no reason to be strong for our sake. We are all in this together. We can’t change what happened. All we can do is move forward from here. When you need your time then take it when the opportunity presents itself. Just don’t break down in the middle of the shit,” said Hobbs.

  Bobby was a little bit taken back by that. It seemed like Hobbs was being cold after he was trying to express his gratitude. He felt a sudden urge of hatred boiling up inside of him. “Bobbie stay here and watch the door. You know the drill if anything happens give us a shout. Cowan, you and I will secure this place.” Cowan and Hobbs followed the normal drill checking each closed door for any unsuspected surprises. Bobbie looked at the glass door and watched as the zombies pressed themselves against it. How do they still live after all they have been through Bobbie thought to himself? The zombies had obvious decay and some were even missing limbs altogether. He wondered if the unsatisfied hunger is what drove them on. Would that hunger ever be satisfied? He noticed one of the zombie’s belly was full about to burst but it was still chewing flesh. Some pieces fell to the ground as its mouth worked. He looked through the crowd to see if he could recognize anyone that he knew. Was this God’s doing or was this man-made he thought. It could be like when God was upset with the Israelites teaching them a lesson so they would turn back to him. That would be a hell of a lesson though. Maybe it was a mixture of both. Man trying to play God and God coming down and showing man who God really was. He shook his head. It doesn’t matter who it was it did not change the fact there were walking dead corpses. Then his thoughts ran to Donna. Did she suffer? He wished she had died quickly and as painless as possible. It was too much to bare at the moment and pushed the thought out of his mind.

  Hobbs took the left section of the store. He shuffled across the aisles looking up and down for any surprises. There was no surprise this time. This was a big store and surely there would be zombies somewhere. When he reached the last aisle he walked down slowly and steadily keeping his head on a swivel. He reached the back of the store where the dairy section was. He walked down until he noticed the door on his left. He pushed gently against the door and it gave way with ease. He turned left and then right there was nothing. Then he checked the bathrooms and they were empty. Then he looked at the bulletin board. It was littered with pamphlets and it had a picture of the employee of the month. He was a shady looking fella with a full beard and had a crooked smile. He opened the door that read employees only.

  There was a zombie that was trying to reach for the television which was mounted to the wall. It desperately pounded on the TV as if the pictures of the humans were real and if it could just manage to reach them it would become a snack for it. Hobbs stood there pondering the weird scenario. Hey there buddy boy. Do you think they only respond to stimuli? I would bet my bottom dollar that was the case. “Yes I agree,” said Hobbs not realizing he was answering out loud. Just then the zombie turned at the sound of his voice and came towards him. Hobbs raised the rifle and knocked the zombie in the head. Causing it to tumble to the ground. Hobbs stepped on its throat. Slowly applying pressure until he heard the snap as the spine gave way and cracked. Taking your frustrations out on it I see. I know the world has ended but shit. Wait did you still want that meager lifestyle you were living? Living off what you could and struggling to pay the bills? “At least I would not have to worry about this shit.” He took a moment and looked at the television. It was still broadcasting the news but he was not able to tell where from. The TV had a receiver and was obviously hooked up to some satellite dish. It brought back some normalcy as he looked at it. He did not know there were places still broadcasting. What would be the point? Would
there be anyone to really watch? Maybe it gave comfort to those that were lucky enough to have the luxury of being able to watch what was going on.

  The television screen turned to a news anchor. “For those that are out there watching, stay indoors and ration your food. There will be helping coming at some point.” Hobbs thought about this. Someone coming? Who would that be? It sure as hell wouldn’t be him or hell the army for that matter. The screen showed a picture of the United States that was filled with red dots and blue dots. The red over took most of the country with few blue spots scattered across. “The red dots are the infected areas. The blue areas are infected free zones. If you are close and are able to make it safely to the infected free zones please do so. Again if you are not able to make it safely stay indoors.” What a fucking load of shit. If people go out there they will be eaten alive. “Stay away from hospitals they will be filled with infected. Only go to those areas that have been deemed free of infection. Here we go now to the discussion about our current situation.”

  “What we are dealing with here is not cannibalism. These zombies if you will are not eating each other they are eating the humans that are still alive. They also have been found eating any wild and domestic animals.” “Bob they are not zombies they are humans that have been infected with a terrible virus! They are poor innocent souls that do not know what they are doing.” “Do you hear yourself Sharon? So if you came across an innocent soul as you put it what would you do? Would you bring it home and sit it down on a couch and prepare a meal for it? I would think not!” “You are missing the point here BOB. They can’t help what they are doing. We need to contain them in a safe area until we are able to find a cure.” “So how do you plan on doing something like that? Just somehow put leashes on them? That is ludicrous and total suicide. If you ask me we need to drop atomic bombs around the country and kill them all.” “Really atomic bombs. That would destroy the planet and we will be worse off.”

  Hobbs reached up and turned off the televisions. So what do you think baby boy? “I told you to pick a name already.” At that moment Hobbs felt a hand on his shoulder. He quickly turned bringing the butt of the rifle up swinging it around. Cowan immediately crouched down dodging the blow. “Hey man calm down it is just me.” “Why the hell would you do something like that!” “Just wasn’t thinking I guess. Are you alright I heard you talking to yourself or was that the TV going?” “It was the TV stupid people babbling about the zombies.” Good cover baby boy don’t tell them about the voices in your head. I applaud you. Hobbs ignored the voice. “However they did show a map of the United States and it looks like we are fucked. They are everywhere. There are a few spots they claim are infected free zones. I am surprised they are still reporting.” “Hell I am surprised we have a working television with news!”

  “I came across something rather odd. That zombie there.” Hobbs pointed down at his kill. “It was reaching up for the TV. They must respond to stimuli. The only real question is how to do they tell each other apart? If we could figure that out we might be able to survive. The TV was saying they eat wild animals and not just humans. So there must be some sort of instinct or something. We know they do hunt on sight for sure. I wonder if they hunt off of smell?” “Well that is a good question so how do you propose we test that theory?” Ooh, ooh pick me said the voice in his head like a little child knowing the answer hoping to be called on. What? Hobbs said in his mind. This is a grocery store right? Well take a piece of meat and cover it with that disgusting thing on the floor over there and throw it outside to see if the damned out there will eat it. “You okay Hobbs? Man you are spacing out.” Hobbs shook his head. “No I am alright just a lot going on.” Here we go again ignoring my existence. “Well we can take a piece of meat big enough and cover it with that thing there and somehow throw it out there to see if they eat it or not.” “Well Hobbs we will need to wait until things calm down out there first.”

  The two walked briskly up to the front where Bobbie was standing eyeing the zombies as they continued to pound against the door. Bobbie turned around and looked at the two. “I don’t know man things do not look good for us right now.” “Well we have a plan Hobbs came up with. Tell him Hobbs.” “Well there was one of those zombies in the back and it was reacting to the TV. The thing was reaching up towards it. Then it got me thinking. We know they work off of stimuli but what we don’t know is how they are able to tell themselves apart from each other. So the only thing that I can think of is smell. Maybe somehow they can smell each other and know they are infected. So we are going to give it a try later on when there are not as many of them out there.” “So we are back to waiting then huh?” “Yeah I am afraid so.”

  “Well look at this way we at least have some television to watch,” said Hobbs. “Yeah that is true I mean at least it is something instead of waiting around here with practically nothing to do,” retorted Cowan with a smirk. “You two go and I will stay here for now. We will take shifts watching the door,” said Hobbs. Bobbie and Cowan went to the back room to see what they could learn from the television. The days went on and eventually the TV went dark because the electricity cut off. It didn’t matter much as the news that was on were just people debating about the world and zombies. The lights were working off emergency power. The boredom started to descend upon the men and cabin fever was taking hold. The men were becoming very irritated with each other as depression started to sink in.

  The zombies slowly lost interest in the store since the men kept away from the main door. Bobbie’s depression was worse than the other two due to the loss of his wife and good friend. He found himself crying uncontrollably at times. He tried to keep it to himself. When the crying spells hit he would head to the bathroom. Hobbs found himself time and time again in the corner and fighting with the voice in his head over trivial things. Cowan tried to entertain himself with rubber bands that he had found down the school supply aisle flicking them against the shelves trying to hit potato chip bags and rewarded himself with a pretzel for each time he managed to hit his target.

  Bobbie got up once again and started to head to the bathroom. “Hey Bobbie man how many times are you going to piss today?” asked Cowan. “As many times as I damn well please. What the hell is your problem and why are you concerned at how many times I have to go.” Cowan stood up irritated and offended by the response he received. “Fuck you! I was just asking is all.” “Again why is it any damn concern of yours?” Bobbie balled his hands in a fist causing his knuckles to crack from the pressure. “Go ahead take a swing! I dare you! I will take you any day old man.” Bobbie raised his fists like a boxer waiting to throw a punch. Cowan shifted to his right pulling the right arm of Bobbie downward as Cowan slung himself around grabbing Bobbie by the throat. The motion was swift and fluid and took Bobbie by surprise. Cowan took his knee and pushed it against the back of Bobbie’s as the men fell to the ground. Cowan locked his legs around the waist of Bobbie getting the dominate position. Cowan’s arm was locked underneath Bobbies chin cutting off his air. Bobbie tried to pry his hands underneath Cowan’s arm to free himself but he was not strong enough. Desperately trying to get air into his lungs Bobbie flailed his arms around trying to get a hold of anything he could. Cowan bobbed and weaved his head around to stay clear of Bobbie’s hands. With desperation Bobbie pinched and scratched at Cowan’s arm hoping it would be enough to give him a chance to break free. However, Cowan remained calm and ignored the pain as he continued to squeeze. Hobbs looked up and saw the two fighting. He paused trying to make the connection between what his eyes and brain, telling him he needed to stop them. Then he finally got up and started walking in no hurry to break up the fight. He just didn’t really care at that particular moment. Cowan heard the footsteps behind him and let go of Bobbie. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” asked Bobbie, as he tried to take in deep breathes. “Look old man I am in no mood for your shit.”

  Hobbs just stared at Cowan not saying anything at first until he found his
voice. “What the hell is wrong with you?” “That bastard started everything. I just asked a simple question and he lost it on me.” Hobbs was a statue barely blinking. The sound hit his ears but there was no connection. It was as if he was turned off somehow like someone found the off switch. “Hobbs are you even listening to me? Great we are in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and I am stuck with an old useless man and you. Just my luck. You know what fuck you and fuck him.” Cowan turned around and sat down on the floor. Hobbs stood there for a few more moments. We need to get out of here for you sanity and mine came the voice once again. Then it clicked. Fresh air that is what we need fresh air. He went to where he was sitting and picked up his rifle out of habit. He remembered basic training. Any soldier found leaving their weapon behind would get punished and not only that soldier but the others as well. He went to the back looking for any access to the roof. He rushed around the boxes which were piled high. He was desperately looking for access to the roof. He found what he was looking for. However, the access to the roof was blocked by a metal grate that was closed with a small lock. He raised his rifle and was going to strike down on the lock to break it but thought better of it and laid down the rifle. He looked around for something that would work better. He went up and down looking at the boxes reading the labels looking for something that would work. “Damn it!” He had looked through half the boxes and did not find anything. Giving up he walked back to the ladder and picked up his rifle. He swung heavy and hard against the lock but it didn’t break. After a few attempts the lock finally broke. He looked at the butt of his rifle. It didn’t appear damaged except for some small scratches and normal wear. He pulled the gate away from the ladder and started to climb up. He reached towards the top and there was another lock. “Fuck me.” He slowly climbed back down the ladder in defeat. At the bottom he just stood there pondering if there was something he could use to break the lock. He immediately went to the breakroom. He looked at the wall lockers. He opened the first few. Most of them were bare but some had blue aprons that reminded him of his old job. That time seemed so long ago. He continued searching the rest one by one for something he could use. He came up empty. He slammed the last locker and the noise echoing through the empty room. He looked around once more to see if there was anything he could use. Nothing presented itself. Frustrated he left the breakroom.