Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel) (18 page)

He opened the door and a little bell attached to the inside rang. His insides and muscles tightened up when he heard it; he reached around and grabbed the bell. He took his knife and carefully cut the string, then set the bell on a shelf. Lisa followed him in, trying to take in every detail in just a few seconds. They silently made their way around the shelves and racks, as they looked everything over. Mark saw a display with heavy-duty backpacks and picked a stack of them up.

Lisa heard the floor creak and thought it came from the back. She signaled Mark, but he was already looking that way. She saw him set the backpacks down and come toward her. Together, they crept toward the back, Mark leading the way. She watched him go through a doorway leading to a back room. She turned to wave for everyone else to stay back before proceeding through herself.

When she turned to go through, she saw Mark with his hands raised in the air. There was a shotgun pointed at the back of his head and she heard a voice say, “Sonny, don’t you be a movin’ now or I’ll blow that head of yours off.”

With her pistol in her left hand, she reached around and put it to the temple of the person holding the shotgun on Mark. Lisa said, “Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you.” The person stood perfectly still. “Okay, Mark, I have your cover.”

Mark turned around and took the shotgun. Lisa switched hands as she walked in, but kept it pointed at the person. Standing there was an old woman with short gray hair. She figured the lady must have been in her seventies. Lisa holstered her pistol and asked, “How did you manage to stay alive by yourself this long?”

“Well, as my husband used to tell me before he died, I’m an ornery old bitch. I don’t take shit from no one.”

Lisa couldn’t help but smile. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The old lady gave her a hard stare for a minute, then broke out in laughter. “I could swear I only heard that bell ring once.”

Mark removed the shell and gave the shotgun back to her. “Sorry about that. I cut the string. I didn’t know if there were any zombies in here and didn’t want to tip them off. But don’t worry, I’ll fix it before I leave.”

“I hope you kids were planning on payin’ for that stuff. But I only take cash; I don’t mess with that credit bullshit.”

Mark said, “We have money and we’ll pay for it.” He waved and everyone came in. “Okay, everybody get one of those canvas back-packs over there, some boots that fit, four pair of heavy socks, two thin blankets, a mess kit, and a couple rolls of toilet paper. Oh, and get some energy bars too.” He whispered to Lisa, “Might want to get some more hygiene products while you can.”

The old lady grabbed a pencil and paper. “Okay, let me total that for ya.”

“No need.” Mark took a gold coin from his pocket and set it on the counter. “Will that cover it?”

She picked it up. Looking it over, she said, “Yep, and then some.”

Marked leaned over the counter and said, “If anyone else happens to pass through, cash is pretty much worthless right now. I’d only take barter like this.”

She looked at him in surprise and then smiled. “Thank ya, I’ll remember that.”

Outside, Mark watched Lisa as she talked with Jet and Sheryl. It seemed Lisa was doing more listening and nodding than talking. Jeff was busy trying to help Tami get her boots on and laced up. Dedee and Amy had theirs on and were putting a few supplies from the large duffle bags into their packs. When they were emptied, Mark threw them in a trashcan.

When everyone was ready, they started out on their walk. They walked until the sun was high; then Dedee and Amy requested a break. Amy complained about having to wear the boots, but Mark told her they all needed the ankle support the boots provided. Dedee said she understood, but the boots still felt heavy on their feet and slowed them down.

Mark noticed that Sheryl, Jet, and Lisa were talking again. He watched as Sheryl took something from her pack and gave it to Jet. He waited until they were finished talking, then approached Lisa. When he asked, she told him Jet had been having some stress headaches lately, but she would be fine and no special accommodations were needed.

After a twenty-minute break, they started walking again. They walked well into the evening, and just before dark, they stopped. Mark told them to catch as much sleep as they could because they would start again in about six hours. No one bothered to unpack; they just used the packs as pillows as they lay on the ground under the trees.

Although the ground was far from comfortable, Tami and Amy were asleep almost instantly. Dedee sat with Jeff and Jet as she took off her boots. Her legs were tired and her feet hurt. As she changed her socks, she noticed a couple of blisters had formed and popped on her left foot. The loose skin was wrinkled and when the air hit it, it started to sting.

Sheryl set her bag next to Lisa and Mark as they talked. She asked, “Am I interrupting anything?”

He said, “No, what’s on your mind?”

“I could use a few more supplies. So if the next town we come to has a pharmacy or drug store, I need to go in and pick up a few things.”

“Okay, I guess we can do that. We’re probably going to need a lot of pain medications for headaches and sore muscles anyway.” He lay back.

Sheryl looked at him without saying anything, then over to Lisa as she spoke. “Yeah, I told him about Jet’s headaches.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, poor kid, she been having a tough time with it.”

Mark lay on his back looking up at the stars. “There’s a town up ahead. We’ll be going into it tomorrow, there should be one there.”

Sheryl stood up and said, “Thanks, I’ll get Jeff up in three hours to take his watch. You two get some sleep.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When it was time, Jeff woke them all up to start toward the town. Jet reached under her back and pulled out a small stick she hadn’t realized she had been sleeping on, until now. Mark noticed Lisa was lying on her side and watching him with a smile. He asked, “What?”

She just continued to smile and shook her head. “You.”

“What me? Do I have something on my face?” He ran his hand over his face and looked at it.

She laughed. “No.” She leaned over and gave him a peck as she started to get up.

He reached up and grabbed her, then pulled her back down. Putting his arms around her, he gave her a long kiss. “Mmmmmm,” she said softly as she kissed him back and then giggled. She saw something from the corner of her eye and looked over to see Amy sitting next to her pack, watching them with a smile. Lisa said, “C’mon, were being watched.” And she got up.

Mark led the way with Lisa at his side, and it took a little longer than Mark had estimated to reach the town. By the time they had arrived, it was almost noon. It looked like most, if not all the businesses sat on the main road of town. He noticed the street ran straight for about ten long blocks through the town. Behind the business sat mostly smaller single-story houses.

They entered the town and stayed on the sidewalk. Lisa didn’t think about it at first, but there were no cars on the street or parked along the sidewalk. She got a bad feeling in her gut as they walked. All she could hear was their footstep on the concrete. She looked at Mark, his jaw was tight, his eyes were constantly shifting from one side of the street to the other, and she knew he sensed it too.

Four blocks in, she saw an eight-foot-tall round metal post standing in the middle of the street. It looked like it had been driven into the ground and concreted in place. Attached about three quarters of the way up the pole, were two short chains with something that looked like shackles on the ends.

On the ground at the base of the pole, were large pools of something that looked like dried blood. There were layers of it, one on top of another, building up. She also noticed there were footprints coming out of it pointing in different directions.

They walked past the pole, and if she hadn’t known any better, she would have sworn it was used for some kind of sacrifice. She was tempted to look back at it, but at the same time, she didn’t want to think about why it was there. They walked another block before she saw a sign that said ‘Pharmacy RX’ on it. Going inside, she noticed it had already been gone through and most of what had once sat on the shelves, was now gone or scattered on the floor.

Dedee and Amy picked up boxes of bandages and antibiotic cream for their blistered feet. Tami and Sheryl went behind the pharmacy counter and started looking over the shelves. Those shelves seemed to have been hit the hardest and there wasn’t much left on them. She saw Sheryl open her pack and stick various bottles inside. Tami held some bottles up, Sheryl pointed to one bottle and nodded and the other she shook her head and waved her hand. Tami put the first one in her pack and set the other to the side.

Jet and Jeff grabbed a couple of small plastic flashlights from the toy section and a package of batteries they found sitting on a shelf. Mark stood by the big front window, looking out as if he were waiting for something. Lisa stood behind him and could feel his anxiety. She asked him, “You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Yeah, its way too quiet, this is a bigger town, yet there are no cars or rot-bags walking around.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but this whole scenario stinks.”

Dedee shrieked and ran from the area she was in. Mark, Lisa, and Jeff ran over to her to see what was wrong. Dedee was shaking her hands around and doing a little dance. “Eww, eww, eww. “ Is all she would say.

Mark asked her, “Dedee, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer; she just kept doing the dance and shaking her hands. Lisa grabbed her arms and asked, “Damn it, Dedee! What’s wrong?”

She had a petrified look on her face as she pointed to where she had been standing. “It’s over there somewhere.” She held up her hand and said, “It touched my hand. Eww, eww, it was so gross. I was moving stuff around and it ran over the top of my hand.”

Lisa looked over at the shelf, then back at Dedee. “I don’t see anything, what was it?”

“It was a rat! It was so hairy and gross! Ewww!”

Mark sighed and went back to the window. Lisa said, “Okay. Dedee, please, don’t ever scare us like that again, alright?”

Mark stepped back from the window. “Everybody, get down. I knew it was too good to be true.”

Lisa bent down and went over to him. “What’s wrong?”

He pointed out the window and down the street. “We have company coming this way.”

XIII

Lisa watched as a large group of about twenty zombies came up the street. “Oh shit!”

Mark said, “You think that’s bad? Look the other way.” And he pointed.

She did and saw another group of about thirty coming from the other direction. She turned to Mark with a hopeless look on her face and sighed, “Double Shit.” She yelled out, “We have company; you guys need to hurry because we have to go.”

Everyone grabbed their packs and headed for the door, but there were already too many of them out front. Mark and Jeff grabbed a display shelf and slid it up against the glass door. The zombies pushed on it and the shelf moved a little, but the door didn’t open.

Lisa said, as she looked for another way out, “This really sucks. I hope there’s a back door to this place.”

“I’ll check,” Jet said as she ran to the back. A few seconds later, she yelled out, “There is, hurry!”

They ran to the back and out through the door, right into an alley where four zombies were there waiting for them. Jet used her sword to slice deep into the chest cavity of the first one. Mark said, “Special delivery.” As he aimed and fired a shot into the face of one wearing a postal uniform.”

Lisa shot at the third one and took the top part of the skull off. Tami hit the fourth one directly in the forehead with the pipe. It staggered as it took a few steps, but seemed to shake it off. Dedee came in from behind it and swung, she hit the back of its head so hard it caved in and both its eyeballs popped out of the sockets. Black goo dripped from the openings as it fell to the ground.

Tami screamed as one of the blue-white eyes hit her neck and fell down the front of her shirt. Carefully, she reached down her shirt to try to scoop it out. Just as she touched it, the outer membrane burst. A yellow puss that smelled like rotten eggs and old gym socks ran down her chest and stomach.

Seeing and smelling it, Tami began to retch profusely. After she had emptied her stomach, she wiped her lip. Amy looked around, found a dirty rag from a nearby dumpster, and handed it to her. Tami reached up under her shirt with it and wiped off as much as she could. Mark wrinkled his nose and suggested she stay downwind from everyone if she could, and everyone confirmed with a nod.

Jet saw a group of about fifteen come around the corner from the far end of the alley. She yelled and pointed at them as they came closer. Everyone turned and started running the other way. As they ran out onto the street, three more zombies were there waiting and grabbed for them.

Jet took her sword and swung it as she passed one of them. This one had on a yellow button-down shirt with a DMV nametag pinned to his chest. The hand on its left arm looked like it had already been eaten off just above the wrist and several inches of bone was exposed. She cut through its right arm just above the elbow, when it hit the ground it began flip-flopping around. Dedee finished it off with a solid blow to the jaw from her bat.

Jet managed to slice through one leg on the second one and it went down as it hissed. She gave it a quick chop to the head and split it open like a ripe melon sitting in a tub of ice water. She swung at the head of the third one, but missed when it ducked her blade.

Lisa quickly ran up to it and kicked it in the face with all her might. The head snapped clean off, and it flew high into the air, flipping end over end. They all stood and watched as it came down and landed on the roof of a building across the street with a thud. Mark yelled and pointed to the housing area down the street as dozens more came pouring from around the corner of the main street.

They ran two blocks before coming to the fenced back yard of a corner house. Jeff helped boost Amy and Dedee up and over the six-foot fence. Both he and Mark boosted Sheryl and Tami over the top. When everyone was over and in the back yard, they knelt and tried to catch their breath.