Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  A quick search of the house revealed a massive supply of canned cat food. There was a more limited supply of instant noodles and an unusually large amount of canned beans. They were all hungry but for now no one was cat food or canned bean hungry. They really needed to find some water. There were some two liters of diet soda under the counter that may nor may not be flat and disgusting. They’d find out soon enough. The medicine cabinets had diet pills, some anti-depressants and other random stuff you’d expect to see in a medicine cabinet. Kelly had been hoping for an unused prescription of pain pills or antibiotics.

  Unable to find any useful medicine in the house Kelly focused on making her two patients as comfortable as possible. She changed their bandages using tape and towels she found around the house. She had Randy in one room and Kyler in another. Each had an entire bed to themselves. Randy would more than likely wake up squished by multiple small children trying to snuggle in with him. Kelly smiled inwardly thinking the only person she had to worry about snuggling with Kyler was Caitlyn. She’d caught her oldest daughter giving the boy ‘googly eyes’ a few times over the last couple of weeks.

  Considering Kyler was a tall, silent young man in excellent shape covered with scars who wore his vulnerability like a cloak Kelly totally saw the attraction. She’d have been one hundred percent on board if she hadn’t sensed something a little off with Kyler. He had an unhealthy fascination with putting himself at risk trying to do the right thing. He had a hero complex. Kelly thought it probably stemmed from watching so many of his close friends die while he stood by unable to help them.

  Kyler was completely oblivious to any of the signals Caitlyn was hurling at him. If he’d noticed he would’ve more than likely waved her off immediately. He liked and respected her greatly. The way she’d kept her sisters safe in extreme circumstances clearly showed the kind of person she was. Kyler would’ve waved her off because he considered himself damaged goods. He knew that he was on a path where the only possible ending was a painful and violent death. He had no desire to drag anyone else along with him. Especially not someone he truly respected. Besides, covered in scars he felt like he was pretty hideous so it didn’t occur to him that a girl might actually be interested in him.

  Home searched and both the men put out to pasture in separate bedrooms the women of the house held a pow wow in the living room. They’d used a shovel out of the garage to get rid of all the feline mummies. They shoved the corpse covered couch right out the sliding glass doors onto the back porch. They’d covered the remains with a bright yellow shower curtain out of the master bathroom. Otherwise looking out the back window would’ve been way too creepy.

  “We need food, medicine, and water.” Kelly said without any preamble.

  “We also need to get away from the Brotherhood. I bet it was them who bombed the town that had all the robes.” Myriah said.

  “True, but I don’t think we’re getting away from anybody with Kyler and your dad in the shape they’re in. We need to give them a few days to recuperate. They need lots of rest and antibiotics. Kyler’s missing a chunk of his leg and you dad’s shoulder looks pretty nasty. I think we got all the shot pellet things out of him but it’s not like we have an X-ray machine to verify.” Kelly said. She was weighing the risks of going to find more medicine with the risks of just letting Kyler and Randy rest and try to beat their infections with the medicine they already had.

  “We can check and see if the car in the garage runs. If not, we can check the other cars parked around here. We have at least one more house we can loot too. You don’t think we need to worry about the people from the place on the river, do you? We shot one of their guards. I saw them coming into the clearing right as we left that little place where the trail ran up to the house from the creek. There were a bunch of them with guns.” Caitlyn added nervously.

  Kelly had forgotten about the car in the garage. She’d been busy trying to treat a couple of serious injuries with her very limited amount of medical knowledge. Other than watching some hospital dramas and that show on the Discovery channel where people bring in their messed-up pets to get treated she had zero medical knowledge. She got up and went with Caitlyn to check out the car while Myriah stayed behind and watched the little kids play on the floor. They’d found a bunch of Sharpies and were busy sketching out a complex and probably impossible game of hopscotch on the tile floor.

  The shiny Corolla parked in the garage looked like it’d been run through the car wash within the last week. Judging that to be a good sign Kelly and Caitlyn spent the next twenty minutes trying to find the keys. They’d almost given up on finding them when Caitlyn shined her light on something she noticed moving out of the corner of her eye. A big ass spider was running up the wall right in front of her. A startled scream erupted from Caitlyn at the sight of the puppy sized spider. She took a couple of steps back tripping over an empty coffee can. Arms wind milling she fell backwards into Kelly.

  Kelly spun around expecting to see a couple of Zombies jumping out of a closet based on the terror evident in Caitlyn’s scream. She had her pistol out and was searching the room for the source of Caitlyn’s freak out when Caitlyn fell backwards right into her. They both tumbled to the concrete floor by the door leading into the house from the garage. Caitlyn got up off the floor as fast as she could and ran inside the house. From a safe distance down the hall she told her mom she’d seen a giant spider. Kelly watched with amusement from the floor as her oldest daughter stood holding her M-16 in front of her in case the spider decided to charge. Seeing the girl was actually serious she told her to put away the gun and be prepared to squish instead.

  Wondering exactly how big the spider was Kelly shined her light into some of the dark nooks and crannies around her. Lying on the floor put her at a completely different angle from before which is how she noticed the key chain lying on the ground underneath one of the shelves. The owner must’ve dropped the key’s there at some point then never got around to searching for them. Most likely the owner was too dead to care.

  Kelly shoved her hand under the shelf to grab the keys and the biggest, hairiest looking spider she’d ever seen shot out from under the shelf straight at her. The thing ran right over her hand and disappeared into the shadows on the other side of the garage. Wondering if she had extra underwear in her backpack Kelly stuck her hand back under the shelf again to get the keys. This time she was able to feel around for and grab the keys without issue. All she wanted to do in life was get the hell up off the floor before that horror show of a spider showed back up again. If anything had touched her at that point, she’d have been more than happy to shoot at it with her rifle as well. She now completely understood why Caitlyn was standing down the hall ready to blast away in full auto at the sight of the oversized arachnid.

  Kelly jogged over to Caitlyn and gave her a big hug. They were laughing together with terror and nervousness. The supersized spider having freaked both of them out.

  “Ok. I’m going to go check to see if the car will start. If it does, I need you to open the garage door for me so I can go see if I can find the supplies we need. I want you and Myriah to stay here with the littles and our two patients.”

  “Ok mom. But if I see another spider that big then we’re switching houses. I’m not really excited about having to go back in there to open the garage door for you ether.” Caitlyn said. Her eyes kept darting around searching for any sign of the massive arachnid. Kelly laughed at her and told her not to freak out about it.

  The car started on the first try. Which surprised them so much they forgot about the eight-legged puppy running around the garage with them. Caitlyn walked out to the garage and yanked on the emergency pull string to open the garage door for her mom. It wasn’t until her mom waved at her and drove off down the road that she remembered the spider she’d been so freaked out by. She raced across the garage floor back into the house. Inside the house she knew she wasn’t going to be able to sleep since she’d left the door to the garage wide
open. The spider could’ve easily walked right into the house.

  Chapter 11: Running to the Store

  Caitlyn headed down the hall to check on her dad. He was sitting up in bed poking at the wad of bandages on his shoulder. ‘Bandages’ being a euphemism for the t-shirt that’d been scotch taped around his shoulder. He looked up at Caitlyn when she walked in.

  “Hey. I see we’re running a little low on medical supplies.” He joked. He noticed something off in the way she looked at him and asked her what was wrong. Caitlyn had just realized that she’d let her mom drive off alone into the darkness in a place they knew nothing about. She’d also just realized they hadn’t bothered to run the plan past her dad or Kyler. There’d been no real planning. Her mom had just decided she should run out to the store to pick up some groceries. Like it was normal times and there weren’t blood thirsty monsters roaming the countryside.

  “She took the car in the garage. She wanted to see if she could go find some medicine or anything else that we could use.” Caitlyn spat out quickly before she lost her nerve. She watched her dads eyes widen in a bewildering mix of emotions. He was angry, frustrated, scared and pissed all at the same time.

  “Why would she do that? Why’d you let her go?” Randy’s voice grew louder with every word. He noticed he was losing his cool and visibly checked himself by stopping and taking a few deep breaths.

  “I can’t believe I let her go. It didn’t even occur to me. I’m so sorry dad.” Caitlyn said with tears welling up in her eyes. She angrily wiped them away ashamed of herself for letting this happen. If she hadn’t been so worried about the stupid spider it may have occurred to her to not let her mom go wandering off into a Zombie apocalypse with no one to watch her back. Especially not less than ten miles from where they’d shot someone the day before.

  “Nothing we can do about it now. She’ll be fine. Your mom can handle herself.” Randy held out his arm to give her a much-needed hug. He had to do it with one arm only since otherwise the scotch tape holding the t-shirt over his wounds would break and he’d lose his ‘bandage’.

  Kelly drove out the main entrance of the subdivision built for active seniors. She wondered if her and Randy would get the opportunity to grow old together in this brave new world. Right now, she was thankful for every single day they woke up free and together. She was determined to keep them that way. No matter how many Zombies, Brotherhood soldiers, creepy rednecks or spiders from outer space she had to face she’d get her family through this.

  At the intersection she turned left. They’d come from the other direction and hadn’t seen anything but trees and swamp, so she was hoping she’d have better luck the other way. It felt weird to be out on her own. She couldn’t remember a time she’d been out on her own since this all started. They always buddied up when they were doing something like this. All her buddies were currently sidelined though. If she’d told Randy that she was going to roll out and look for supplies he’d have insisted on coming with her, but he was in no condition to travel. The whole point of them being in that house right now was to let him and Kyler have some time to rest and heal.

  The little Toyota had almost a full tank of gas. That was a good thing since she had no idea of where she was going. She just knew she had to get the stuff they needed to ensure that Kyler and Randy both had the best chance of surviving their injuries. She’d love it if they also didn’t have any negative long-lasting issues. Randy had been shot at close range in the shoulder and Kyler was missing a big chunk of his leg thanks to the wild pig that’d attacked him. They were living in pretty disgusting, germ filled environments which meant death from some sort of infection was a very real possibility. You could die now from an untreated splinter. A real injury was exponentially more deadly.

  “This was a stupid idea.” Kelly said out loud. She felt like she needed to verbalize it. With night falling she was getting creeped out. She was in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn’t like she was going to run into a giant shopping center. She’d been hoping for a drug store or a nice service station. She told herself she’d go another two miles and if she didn’t see anything by then she’d turn around and head back. If nothing else at least she’d found them a working car.

  She went around a curve in the road and out of nowhere the crumbling remains of civilization appeared. Civilization in rural small-town South Carolina anyway. A run down Bojangles in a garbage and weed infested parking lot standing next to a carpet store. The carpet store was advertising free installation with carpet purchase. Kelly doubted that she’d be able to go inside to get more details like the sign directed. She drove underneath a set of streetlights that looked like they were barely hanging on and kept up her search for a place that may have bandages and other supplies.

  The sun was long gone at this point. It was dark outside but the light from the moon was enough for her to see by. She was getting very uncomfortable with the whole situation she’d put herself in. She shifted around in her seat making sure she could get to her weapons. She thought again about what a piss poor job of planning this excursion she’d done. She’d have ripped Randy a new one if he’d done something this stupid. Yet here she was. She made up her mind to turn around and get the hell back home before something bad happened.

  She slowed the car down to turn around. A sign a little further down the street caught her eye. Instead of turning around she drove a little more and confirmed that there was a Wal-Mart in the next plaza up from her. Knowing it’d be well stocked with everything they needed she decided it was worthwhile to go check it out. If it looked too sketchy, she could always just drive away. If it looked like it’d already been looted a million times she’d also just leave.

  She pulled into the gigantic parking lot with her headlights off and her expectations low. There was the standard garbage she expected to see including rusted out shopping carts and plastic bottles scattered around. She couldn’t tell for sure without turning on her headlights, but it looked like there were a few corpses strewn around the parking lot as well. That was a pretty common sight around any large complex like this. It wasn’t something you ever really got used to though.

  Idling in the fire lane in front of the main entrance she cased out the store. From her vantage point she could make out one of the doors looked like it was stuck open. She couldn’t really make out anything useful beyond that. The place looked deserted. The store could be full of nesting Zombies though for all she knew. It may also be completely devoid of any threats to her and have everything she needed stacked conveniently near the exit. She sat in the car a little longer trying to talk herself out of doing what she’d known she was going to do since she first pulled into the parking lot. It just wasn’t in her to drive all the way out here with people depending on her and not at least try to find the supplies they needed.

  Telling herself again that this was a stupid idea she turned the car off and got out. Walking slowly across the asphalt she kept her rifle aimed at the door with her finger on the trigger. Ready to start blasting away immediately if a bunch of Zombies started streaming out the door towards her, she kept creeping towards that half open door. She was surprised at how quickly she found herself standing in front of it. A grocery cart had been turned sideways and shoved into the entrance keeping it from shutting all the way.

  “In for a penny…” Kelly muttered under her breath trying to work up the courage to clamber over the sideways grocery cart and enter the tomb like darkness of the store.

  The light reflected by the moon wasn’t bright enough for her to see more than a couple of feet into the gargantuan retail space. She belatedly realized that she was standing in front of a bunch of glass doors illuminated by the moon. Anyone inside the store would’ve been able to see her standing there by now. Chiding herself for being an idiot she swung one of her legs over the grocery cart and entered the store.

  She couldn’t see a damned thing. The inside of the store might as well be a bunker buried under a mountain for all the good the mo
onlight outside was doing. There was zero visibility within the building. That put her in a dilemma. She could whip out a little flashlight and start poking around or give up and go back beaten. She knew she was going to catch a rash of crap from Randy when she returned. She wasn’t going to be able to sneak away as easily a second time to try this again. She really wanted something in the back of the car that she could point at to make the trip seem like a valuable use of time instead of an apocalyptic joy ride. It’d take the sting out of what Randy was going to say to her if she could whip out a big box of ace bandages and a jug of Percocet.

  If Randy were there with her, he’d be cracking jokes about how she didn’t need a light because she had the floor plan of every Walmart supercenter in the USA memorized. Finding herself getting pissed off at Randy for the jokes she imagined him telling her if he were here, she told herself to stop wasting time and get in the game. She was walking into a massive abandoned building in the middle of an apocalypse without any backup. She couldn’t see crap and had no clue if the building was infested with the infected or just a big looted out shell.

  She wasn’t going to find anything if she couldn’t see. Wrapping her fingers around the end of her flashlight she clicked it on and let a tiny beam of light escape. Playing the beam of light around her she made out the McDonalds she was standing beside at the entrance to the cavernous store. Moving slowly, she walked through piles of abandoned merchandise towards the middle of the store. Despite what Randy may think about her knowledge of where everything was at in a Walmart, she had only a vague idea of which way the pharmacy would be.