Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (26 page)

“What are you…?” he started.  “Oh never mind.  Get over here and help me!”

Walter took a step toward the man, but at that moment, the force against the door was too great.  It burst inwards and a pair of teenagers rushed through.  The salesman fell over from the force, and the teenagers landed on top of him.  They began beating on him and tearing at his flesh.

* * *

Walter took back his previous step, surprised by the sudden introduction of violence.  He was going to step forward once more, but Kara raised her cane in the way.  Walter looked over at her, and she just shook her head.  There was nothing they could do for the man.

“Did you happen to see if there was a back door out of here?” Kara whispered.

Walter nodded.

“Then take us to it.  Hurry.”  Kara didn’t quite know what was going on, but she knew it was best not to stick around.  Murder witnesses made good secondary targets.

Walter took a few steps backward, not able to take his eyes off the carnage before them.  He finally turned away.  Kara was about to turn and follow him when one of the teenagers looked up.  Her face was bloody, and her eyes pale.  Her jaw snapped open, and a low groan escaped through her parted lips.  She turned her attention back to the salesman, but the teenage boy snapped his head around to look at Kara.  He shrieked and got to his feet.

“Run!”  Kara could easily figure out what would happen next.  She had seen enough predators in the wild to know.  She turned on her heel and swatted Walter in the butt with her cane to make sure he’d move.

They began
running; Walter leading them to what Kara hoped was an exit.  The teenage boy gave chase, his sneakers slapping on the cement floor behind them.  They turned down a final aisle and Kara saw the door past Walter.  It was one of the big roll up kind for loading things.  There was no way they could get that open before the boy caught up to them.  Kara only hoped that Walter would be enough of a distraction for the teenager so that she could get away.  She would be saddened, but she could always get a new servant.

When the teenager rounded the corner, he was off-balance and slammed into some shelving.  A few boxes fell around him, tripping him up further.  Kara thanked her stars for it.  She had felt his hand brush the ends of her hair, but now had a bit more distance between them.  The roll up door still presented a problem though.  Walter turned the corner ahead and ran to the side of the roll up.  Kara didn’t know where he was going until she heard the click of a security bar being pressed.  There was a person-sized door next to the roll up: an emergency exit.  And if this wasn’t an emergency, then Kara didn’t know what was.  She pushed herself harder to get to it.  Behind her, the teenager slammed into the roll up as he turned to take the corner.  The sound he made echoed loudly through the large room.  Kara burst through the door and into the sunlight, nearly launching herself right off the edge of the platform that the door led onto.  Walter was there, and as soon as she was through, he shoved the door closed.  The teenager slammed into it, trying to force it back open.  He stuck his arm out through the gap, reaching for Walter.  Kara started slamming her cane into the boy’s arm, but the pain that must have caused did nothing to help.  She changed tactics and started poking and prodding, trying to shove the arm back through the gap.  Eventually it worked and Walter got the door to slam all the way closed, but the teenager persisted in trying to get out.

“Find something we can use to jam the door closed,” Walter gasped.

Kara nodded and began looking around.  They were in a nook off the parking garage where trucks would off-load their wares into the sporting goods store.  Thankfully,
a bunch of dumpsters was also nearby, and a lot of junk was laying around.  Kara ran down the few steps and started looking through the junk.  Most of it appeared to be broken or unsellable items from the sports store.  She found a badly scratched snowboard and pulled it out of the pile.  After carrying it over to Walter at the door, she placed one end against the metal railing and tried to jam the other end under the handle.  She couldn’t do it alone, but Walter lent a helping hand, and eventually they got it under the handle.

“That’s not going to hold for long.”  Walter continued to keep his shoulder against the door.

“It doesn’t need to,” Kara told him,  “it just needs to hold long enough for us to get away.”

“Away to where?”

Kara pointed into the parking garage.  “There are a lot of cars over there.  We’ll just hide amongst them.”

“You think that’ll work?” Walter sounded hesitant.

“Why not?”  Kara left Walter’s side and headed for the cars.  If he wanted to stay behind and continue holding the door closed, that was his problem.  Kara wasn’t going to wait around.

Just as she reached the first few cars, Walter caught up to her. 
Apparently, he had decided that Kara might have had an all right idea.  The two of them chose a car, a generic 1997 Cavalier, and crouched down behind it.

“How long do you think the snowboard will hold?” Walter wondered aloud.

Before Kara could even think about answering, there was a large crash.  They both crouched lower behind the vehicle.  Kara slowly lifted her head up until she was peering through the car’s windows.  They weren’t tinted which made viewing easier, but not hiding.  She could just make out the platform from where they were.  The teenager stood on it, looking around with his teeth bared.  The snowboard lay at his feet, sporting more scratches than before.  He disappeared as he headed down the steps, but soon was in sight again.  His head scanned from side to side, like an animal on the hunt.  Kara wondered if he was actually sniffing at the air.  He took several hurried and jerking steps forward and then stopped and scanned again.  He took a few more steps then stopped once more.  He was slowly coming closer.  He would find their hiding spot.

* * *

Walter shifted slightly and scraped some pebbles across the asphalt.  The teenager’s head snapped in their direction, and Kara quickly ducked out of sight.  She gave Walter a cold and very annoyed look.  Walter looked very apologetically back.  If they died, Kara would not be accepting that apology in the afterlife.  The teenager started coming towards them.  Kara could tell by the sounds of his jerking footsteps on the asphalt.  He didn’t seem to quite know where they were, but knew the general direction.  If she thought he was going to find their hiding spot before, it was a guarantee now.  Kara quickly opened her purse and started rooting through it.  She a found a makeup compact and pulled it out.  Very slowly, Kara looked under the car to see where the teenage boy was.  He was close enough for Kara to see his feet, which was too close in her opinion.  With one quick move, she threw the compact away.  It bounced off a car an aisle over.

The teenager ran after the sound.  Kara peeked her head up and looked through the car windows again.  The teenager was still close, but was now looking elsewhere.  Kara started looking through her purse again.  Walter wasn’t daring to move; he was barely even breathing.  His eyes looked like they might fall right out of his head.  Kara found her emergency deodorant stick and pulled it out.  She picked her target more carefully this time.  She chose the most expensive car within her throwing range, a Lincoln, and took aim.  The deodorant stick flew true and bounced off the rear windshield.  The teenager ran towards the sound and smacked into the car.  This set off the luxury car’s alarm.  The teenager freaked out more and started beating on the car.

“Come on.”  Kara grabbed Walter’s shoulder and pulled him up.  They quickly headed in the opposite direction, glancing over their shoulders every now and again.  The alarm covered the sound of their escape.

* * *

“How did you know that would work?” Walter finally asked her when they took a breather at the edge of the parking lot.

“I didn’t,” Kara admitted.  “But it worked and that’s all that matters.  Don’t you think you should be calling the cops right about now?”

“Oh right.”  It seemed Walter had forgotten all about his cell phone.  The adrenaline rush and the fear were probably new to Walter.  Kara often said he was her bodyguard but she never actually had a use for one.  She, on the other hand, had felt the rush of adrenaline many times throughout her life.  She hadn’t felt it in quite a few years, but the instincts came back quickly.

Walter finally fished out his phone and held it out to Kara with a slight tremble in his hand.

“It’s your phone.”  Kara pushed it back to him.  The normality of talking on a phone might help calm his nerves somewhat.

Walter took the phone and dialed.  The first time he managed to misdial, but he got it the second time.  He held the phone to his ear and shuffled his feet.  He kept looking back into the parking garage.  Suddenly
, he frowned and looked at his phone as if he had misdialed again.  He hung up and dialed a third time.  His frown deepened.

“What is it?” Kara held out her hand for the phone.  Walter gave it to her without hanging up.  She put it to her ear and heard the busy signal.  She looked at the phone and clarified that it was indeed 911 Walter had dialed.  Kara sighed and handed him back his phone.  “We should be going.  Call George and tell him to bring the car.”

“Yes, Ms. Taggart.”  Walter seemed to be falling into the formal pattern he used at functions.  He stood straighter and spoke softer.  He wanted to be told what to do.  Good thing Kara was ready to command him.  Walter dialed the phone again.  He stood there for several minutes before hanging up.

“No answer.”  Kara could easily tell.  “Try again.”

Walter did but he got the same non-response.

“Looks like we’re walking.”  Kara headed for the street.

“Why don’t we try calling a cab?” With another look into the parking garage, Walter followed her.

“The buses stopped running.  Who do you think all those passengers have called?” Kara pointed out.  “We’re unlikely to get one anytime soon.”

Walter walked with his shoulders hunched around him as if he expected another attack at any moment.  “Where are we going?”  He sounded like a child.

“Home, where else?”  Kara thought it was fairly obvious.

“I thought maybe we could go to the police station,” Walter mumbled as if he were ashamed of this reasoning.

“If the phone lines are jammed, can you imagine what the actual station must look like?”

“What do you think happened to jam the phone lines?”

“Probably a terrorist attack,” Kara shrugged.  In truth, she thought maybe what she saw the teenagers doing had something to do with it, but she didn’t want to tell Walter that.  He was already being wimpy, something she hadn’t expected from him but should have.  She hoped these odd mood swings would end fairly quickly.  They reached a main street and Kara began to cross.

“Home is that way.”  Walter pointed across the other street.

“I don’t want to stay on the main roads.”  Kara continued forward.  She slung her purse strap over her head so that she wouldn’t have to worry about it sliding off her shoulder. At least she had worn her flats today.  If she had opted for heels, she would have surely been killed by that teenager in the store.  She wished she
were wearing something better than a skirt though.  “Which shoes are you wearing?”

Walter looked down at his feet as they reached the other side of the road.  He had the new sneakers on instead of the loafers he had left the house wearing.  “Oh!”  Walter turned as if to head back to the mall but Kara stopped him with her cane again.

“I think a pair of accidentally stolen shoes is the least of their worries, but if you really want to go back, you’re on your own.”  Kara didn’t need to add that last part but she did.  It added just enough seriousness to make sure Walter wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

Kara continued to lead Walter down the side streets.  They were heading in generally the right direction but the streets here weren’t always straight.  Kara had an excellent sense of direction though and made sure they were always heading
in the right direction.  She focused on where they were going as opposed to what had happened.  Kara was good at compartmentalising and would deal with those thoughts later.

“What’s going on?” Walter eventually whispered.

Kara had begun to notice the oddities on the suburban streets.  She had been hoping Walter hadn’t, but it seemed he had.  “I honestly can’t say.”

Everywhere was the feel of something hunting something else.  A wilderness feel.  The longer they walked, the more this feeling grew.  They came across increasing amounts of destruction and heard more and more distressing noises.  Kara suddenly decided to head down a pedestrian walkway that led between two houses.  It went perpendicular to the direction they wanted to go, but she had the sudden feeling that the street they were on wasn’t safe.  Since the adrenaline kick, her habit of obeying all instincts had come back full force.  They wound up on a street lined with large, old-growth trees.  Kara liked that the trees would help hide them, but didn’t like the fact that they could hide other things as well.  Especially the willows with their thin, sweeping branches hanging all the way to the ground.  As a little girl, she loved willow trees.  The hanging branches made a natural fort that she loved to play adventure games in.  This was an adventure, but it certainly wasn’t a game.

They came across just such a tree with a car smashed into its trunk.  Walter stopped for a moment to look at the car while Kara kept walking around it.  On the other side of the car, she found the crumpled form of a small boy.  His head was brutally smashed in and broken glass and torn willow branches lay all around him.  She looked back at the car and saw the smashed-out windshield.  The boy must have been driving, as absurd as that sounded.  If he had been in the passenger seat, he would have hit the tree trunk, not landed over where Kara was.