When They Come

by Jason Sanchez

  Matt closed the drapes and closed the door.

  He wiped the last of his tears from his eyes.

  “I gotta get out of here before it gets dark.” Matt paused

  He heard a cough.

  “What was that?” He brought the hockey stick up to his chest.

  “These things don’t cough…”

  The noise came from directly below him. It went from the single cough to full on crying.

  Matt didn’t know what to do.

  “Am I going crazy? Aren’t I the only person left?”

  It had been a long, long time since Matt heard another voice that wasn’t calling for help.

  “Hello, HELLO? Is there anyone up there?!” It was a muffled female voice. Matt knew the sound of desperation when he heard it.

  Matt stood there in awe. What should he do? Should he go to her? The sound of her voice would surely attract unwanted attention. He couldn’t hold himself back. He needed human contact. It had been too long.

  He left the apartment through the fire escape.

  Road Trip

  Jason and Dave were still a bit shaken up about what happened in the house. Dave, clutching the bat, looked at what was left of their hometown. The sky seemed to be permanently gray. The sun was out, but it wasn’t there. Maybe it, too, gave up on humanity.

  Dave looked at the plumes of smoke rising to the sky and watched the limping forms moving about the roads.

  Jason smiled a little bit, “I spy with my little eye…something beginning with the letter Z!”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Zombie?”

  “Sounds about right.”

  Both friends noticed that there were no cars on the road at all. Not even parked.

  “This is kind of freaky, Jay. Where are all the cars?”

  Jason stood quiet for a second.

  “Well, maybe they all went to the mall, OR, while trying to skip town, they ran into THAT traffic jam…”

  Jason motioned to the distant highway that led out of town, it was a bit far off, but they were able to see all the outlines of several cars, all stopped in their place.

  Dave was able to make out a corpse that was on it’s knees and half eaten beginning to stir.

  “Geez, Jay. Ever think, why is this happening here? Why couldn’t it be somewhere else? Why us?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is that we have to get to the evacuation site and get the hell out of here.”

  “You’re right. Do you think things will ever go back to the way they were before all of this?”

  “America usually sorts all shit like this out, dude. I wish it were somewhere else, but before we think about that, we need to survive.”

  “I’d like to think everything will go back to the way they used to be”, Dave replied. He looked out the window and saw a group of the creatures biting into a corpse. He was a bit concerned at how jaded he had become to the sight already. He thought of how it could have been him. He was lucky that he wasn’t alone in the house when the monster got inside, or else…

  “Dave! We’re almost here! Look alive, man.”

  “Alright.”

  A few minutes later, the friends pulled into the mall parking lot. The huge lot was littered with zombies milling around. Some were missing arms, others were staring at the sky, and more were banging on a few of the cars that were in the parking lot.

  Dave noticed movement inside of one of the cars.

  Jason turned off the car and the sound of the engine going quiet had Dave look at the ignition key out of reflex. They both nodded at each other and stood in the car observing their surroundings.

  Looking at the rear window, Dave noticed a silhouette of what appeared to be a young girl locked in a silent scream and moving around the car in a pattern of desperation.

  “Oh shit” were the only words Dave could mutter. Jason held him back as Dave tried to leave the car and help the shadow.

  “Dude, come on, we can’t take all of those. You know we’re gonna get all their attention if we leave”, Jason painfully said.

  Dave nodded. His friend of over ten years always knew what to say.

  Dave sat down with a sullen look on his face, thinking of what to do. Just then, the friends both jumped at the noise of glass shattering.

  One of the ghouls had broken through the window and reached inside, it was promptly joined by other hungry monsters.

  The screaming made both friends wince and close their eyes hard. They heard the woman’s feet kick the metal frame of the car. They couldn’t make out what she was screaming. Her noises only acted to call more of the ghouls over to her.

  Dave looked up in time to watch two of the zombies pulling at the woman’s leg. Her screams only grew louder and louder, pulling more of them to her. They began to grab at their next meal. Dave watched as two of the zombies pulled off her lightly tanned leg. He watched her silhouette recoil back in a terrible scream. He watched her try to pull back the severed leg.

  Dave heard the door of the car pop open and he felt a hand grab him. He jumped and looked over.

  “Come on, now’s our chance!”, Jason said with urgency.

  Both friends grabbed their weapons and got ready to make a dash for the mall.

  Dave couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene of the now weakening girl still trying to grab at her leg. She was watching it be eaten by the zombies that grabbed it while others tried to get at the rest of her.

  They both left the car. Most of the zombies in the area were distracted by their noisy meal. The friends ran by many of them

  Keeping their bats ready, they ran through the lot, passing the woman in the car. Jason caught her reaching towards the both of them as they ran by. In that split second, Jason’s heart sank at the futility of her situation, but deep down, he was grateful. Her sacrifice caused them to live for a while longer.

  He was glad Dave didn’t see that.

  The woman’s screams were getting weaker and her movements were slowing down. They needed to get to the mall. Fast.

  “We need to hurry, before we lose our distraction!”, Jason said with urgency.

  Dave nodded. They both ran as fast and quietly as they could. Their running would have looked funnier to an outside party, but to them, it was all about staying alive.

  The glass doors of their new temporary home grew closer and closer as a few of the walking dead seemed almost oblivious to them. Others hungrily limped towards the screaming car.

  Jason stopped to look back and saw the woman weakly reaching the stumps that used to be her legs. She was painfully looking at the ghouls eat them right in front of her. Jason caught sight of a zombie pulling at her outstretched hand. He felt a sharp pull and quickly drew the bat.

  It was Dave.

  “Come on, it’s open! And put that thing down!”

  Jason ran in, unable to shake the sight of the woman.

  The mall was dark. Barely any light was getting through it’s huge windows. The friends stood quiet, but it was hard since they could still hear the zombies beating on the car where the woman was. It was only a matter of time before the zombies discover anyone else who may be hiding in the other cars in the lot. Jason grabbed his pocket and felt Dave’s car keys inside of them. They were still there. He smiled a little bit at this.

  “So, now what, Jay?”, Dave asked

  “I’m really not sure, but while we’re here, maybe we can find something useful”, Jason said. He began looking around the mall, holding on tightly to the bat.

  Dave pointed to a flickering sign.

  “And this?”

  “And this, could be very, very handy.” Jason ran his finger up and down looking at the directory.

  “Well now, I think we should get some new clothes, don’t you think?”, Jason said.

  They both looked down at their disheveled and old clothes.

  “Yeah, that could work”, Dave replied, holding in a little bit of laughter.

  It was good
for the both of them to laugh a bit. It took some of the tension of the situation away slightly.

  “Alright then, that’ll be our first stop, and whoa, hey now. Check this out.”

  “What?”

  “Tanzili’s Gun Emporium, top floor.”

  “I love it, it’s a toy store for grown-ups!”

  “Alright, let’s get some new threads and get us both some new toys.”

  “This pleases me, dude”, Dave happily said. “Come on, my clothes smell like ass.”

  “Well, we have the Bulls-Eye men’s clothing emporium on the bottom floor. Clothes first, guns later?”

  “That sounds about right to me”, Dave instantly replied.

  They heard faint noises; several fast steps in the distance.

  “Shit man, you think we’re alone in here?”, Dave asked quietly.

  “No, let’s keep quiet and make this quick, and just in case, be ready for anything.”

  The steps were still far away. They sounded too coordinated to be from anyone who had already died and returned hungry.

  They walked down the escalator, slowly as not to make any noise. Their first stop was to get themselves out of their smelly and sweat covered clothes.

  “Well, here it is. Bulls-Eye” , Jason said pointing his bat at the sign.

  Dave tugged at the door.

  “It’s locked.”

  “Hey, I saw this in a movie once. Stand back”, Jason said excitedly.

  A bench suddenly flew through the large paned window of the shop and slid a few feet.

  “There dude, instant entrance”, Jason said, while cleaning out the glass around the bottom with the bat.

  “Whoa, how did you do that, Jay?” Dave was in awe.

  “Well, remember all that protein I’ve been taking and all that time at the gym?” Jason replied.

  “Yeah?”

  “Nothing to do with it, that bench is light and isn’t bolted down.”

  “Ass.”

  They both climbed in through the glass keeping an eye out for any movement.

  “Think that exploding window brought any zombies over?” There was some fear in Dave’s voice.

  “No. We didn’t see any on the way here. We should be okay. Whoa! Check this out!”, Jason replied while pointing at the hat rack. “We could always use some hats, and well, we have the end of the world discount!”

  Dave put on a golfer’s hat.

  “Hey look! I look like a jack-ass!”, Dave said to Jason.

  “Yeah I know! And that hat doesn’t help.” Jason said mockingly.

  “Ass.”

  “Oh man, check this out!” Jason put on a suede black cowboy hat with a chin strap. “Now THIS is fucking awesome! Here, there’s one for you, too!” Jason handed Dave a similar hat, only in brown.”

  “I love this thing!” Dave said while stroking the brim of the hat.

  “We need more than hats, Dave”, Jason said. “Let’s see what we can find.”

  The friends spent a long time going through the aisles, throwing shirts on the floor, unfolding pants, and generally being any retail employee’s nightmare, if there were any left to be annoyed with them, that is.

  Jason put on a tight, solid black t-shirt with a pair of good-fitting, dark washed boot cut jeans. He topped it off with a brown, hard cloth jacket with many pockets. He found a pair of brown sneakers to top it off with.

  Admiring himself in the mirror, he called to his friend. “Dave! Find anything, yet? We need to keep moving!”

  Dave crept out from within the aisles wearing light washed jeans, white sneakers, and a brown torn jacket which barely covered the form fitting “#1 Grandpa” shirt.

  “Oh my God, Dave, seriously?”

  “What!? It fits and I crack up whenever I see this shirt!”, Dave quickly replied.

  “Well, if you insist. We probably won’t be coming back here anytime soon, you know.”

  “I’m good, Jay”, Dave replied with seriousness in his voice.

  They both took a look at their clothes, that looked much older than they really were, while they stood looking lifeless on the store’s floor. It was a poignant moment for them. There would be no coming back to the store. They both walked out quietly

  “Jay! Let’s head to Tanzili’s Gun Shop!”, Dave broke the silence.

  “Come on. Let’s go. I need something loud that goes great with this outfit”, Jason said.

  Walking up the escalator slowly, the footsteps they heard earlier were much more hurried and accompanied by some noise. All they could make out were muffled voices and the sounds of something soft getting pounded.

  “Jay?”, Dave quietly said.

  “Just keep quiet for now. We don’t need any needless confrontation. Let’s just stay quiet, get what we need, and head out”, Jason replied back while looking in the direction of the noise.

  “Right”, Dave whispered.

  Climbing up the escalator grew more and more tense between the two friends. The noises weren’t stopping and the voices were barely audible. All they could make out were hostile noises. It was at this point where they didn’t know if they should be more afraid of the living, rather than the dead.

  “Do you think it’s pirates?”, Jason asked.

  “Pirates? Like, with swords and parrots?”, Dave replied with a hint of sarcasm.

  “Yeah, kind of, you know, without the boat?”

  “Yes, Jay, pirates are in the mall. That’s exactly where they’d go. Not to peoples’ houses, not prying open the cars, but yeah, they’d come to the mall to steal your amazing hat. Yes, Jay, those are pirates”, Dave ranted.

  “…Ass”, Jason replied back quietly.

  “Hey, hey whoa! Check this out!” Jason whispered excitedly. “There are some copies of that book I wanted to check out on display; ‘Deviant’, a story of sex and sexual addiction.” Sounds interesting enough.

  “Sounds kind of hot”, Dave replied, uninterested.

  Flipping through it, Jason replied, “Sounds kind of boring.” And he soon tossed it aside. “Come on, one more floor to go before we hit the gun shop.”

  The friends arrived at the gun shop. The store’s sign was a simple “Tanzili’s” on a dark wood background with a picture of a pistol after the S. Jason tugged at a door, only to find that it was open. The lock was broken. Ironically enough, it was shot off.

  “Well, shit”, Jason said as he slowly and effortlessly opened the door.

  Dave ventured inside, bat at the ready, but it didn’t matter. The store was all but empty, save for a few old and worn looking weapons. There were bullets scattered all over the floor and glass reflected softly in the light.

  “Let’s take what we can and get out of here. We need to get to the army site before they leave without us”, Dave said.

  Jason grabbed a 9mm pistol from the floor. “You’re right”, he said as he released the clip and checked for bullets.

  “Do you know how to use these things?”, Dave said in a surprised voice. To his knowledge, neither of them had ever played with guns before.

  “Well, no, but I’ve played a lot of video games”, Jason replied.

  “Oh”, Dave said.

  Dave looked at the walls and noticed that almost all of the gun accessories still remained. There were many holsters of different colors and textures. There were even slings left on the walls.

  “Jay, look. I think we can totally make use of these”, Dave said excitedly.

  “Something is kind of off, man” Jason said. “Why is there such a mess around the guns, but all the tools and accessories are fine? If the people here had ample time to get ready, you know, in a zombie-free place, wouldn’t they have taken a few things and left the store the way it was?”

  It was then that both friends looked outside of the store and noticed cracks in the windows that they thought were in great shape. There were traces of blood on the floor, but not enough to be a dead body. There were also torn pieces of clothing scattered around the mall.


  “Shit. Sometimes you need to be more afraid of the living than the dead in these kinds of situations”, Dave said.