The Plague Unto The End (13 page)

We all just stood and stared at each other for a few moments until I finally snapped back to reality.

“The plan!” I blurted out.

“What?” responded the woman.

“We have a plan, but I think we might have to modify it slightly,” I replied.

Jim chimed in behind me, “Do ya, think?”

“Okay, um, we’ll need to distract them somehow,” I said as I looked around the room.

“Why don’t we just leave the same way we came in?” suggested Sid.

“Did you see the same cluster of those rotten, bite-happy people that I did?” Jim quickly snapped. 

I thought Jim might have been a little more shaken up by the old lady than he was letting on.  His calm, cool attitude seemed to have vanished.

“My name is Beth by the way...thanks for asking, but we have been sitting in the back of this office keeping quiet and they never acted how you fellas just made them behave,” said the woman.

“We don’t have time to sit down and gossip and wait for them to simply forget that they want to eat us,” responded Jim.

“Well, what do you suggest?” said Beth.

“Um, how about not getting yourself locked in the back of a clothing store surrounded by fifty rotten cannibals during a national disaster,” Jim blurted out.

Beth took a couple steps toward Jim, “Well, you must be the brains behind this well-thought-out rescue mission that ended up with all three of you trapped in the same place as me.”

“C’mon, people, we can figure this out,” said Sid as he bounced against the rumbling doors.

“Beth...right? Give me your walkie-talkie,” I said.

“Why?” replied Beth.

“You said they ignored you before when you were quiet in here right?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with this,” she stated as she held up the walkie-talkie.

“Everybody into the back, except me and Jim,” I said as I snatched the walkie-talkie from Beth and took Sid’s position on the door.

“Sid, you get ready just in case this goes wrong,” I said.

I looked at Jim and held up the walkie-talkie.  “I’m going to open the door just enough to throw this out there and then we’ll be quiet for a few minutes.  Then, I’ll press the call button and see if they will go after it.”

“That’s a stupid idea,” said Jim.  “But I guess we can try it.” With that, he tried to brace up against the door a little better.

I readied my hand to throw the radio, looked at Sid, and saw that he was ready with his shotgun.  I looked at Jim and gave him a nod.

He quickly cracked the door and I threw the radio as hard as I could through the gap.  I heard it bounce off of something and hit the floor.  Jim and I shoved up against the doors again to keep them shut, but a greenish-gray hand slid through the opening.  Jim slammed into the door several times, but the infected person on the other side was not fazed.  Jim let go of the door and the creature stumbled into the room with us.  Jim smashed the shambling carrier’s skull with his baseball bat and it collapsed to the floor.  He then rushed back to the door, shoved the body outside and was able to get the door shut again.

We piled everything we could move in front of the doors and propped a pair of mannequins with their feet against the wall and their heads against the doors.  When the doors seemed to be holding, we joined the others in the back of the office.

CHAPTER 11 - Passing the time...

PFFFF
, “You guys okay?  What’s taking you guys so long?” Matt came over our radio.

CLICK
, “We’re alright, but we need to keep quiet for a little while longer,” Sid responded.

“Give me the walkie,” I said to Sid.

CLICK
, “Matt, I’ll explain what happened and what we’re getting ready to do in a little bit.  But I need you and...um...Curtis to get ready for us to come back.  We’ve got the girl with us and she’s not bitten,” I said.

PFFFF
, “Okay, be careful.  I still think you guys are dumb for doing this,” replied Matt.

CLICK
, “Thanks,” I said with an annoyed tone.

“Your friend sounds like the heroic type,” said Beth.

“Well, he’s been through a lot,” I said, defending Matt.

“And the rest of us haven’t?” replied Beth as she looked down the narrow hall to the dead body of the male.

“Was he in here when you got yerself stuck…er…trapped…sorry, uh, hid in here?” asked Sid awkwardly.

“No...he was with...us,” said Beth as she looked at the floor.

“He...Derrick is...was a friend of mine,” added Beth.

“So those are his brains all over that dummy’s arm,” said Jim rather thoughtlessly.

“Yes...he was attacked by one of them about three to four hours before we got here.  But he only got one bite on the hand.  He seemed fine for a while.  I thought he’d pull through it, but even that one bite was enough.  He’s probably the only reason we made it into this room without being bitten or worse ourselves,” answered Beth.

“You done what you had to do...for you and this little girl,” said Sid trying to comfort her.

“I know...he’s not the only person I knew that I have seen as...one of them,” said Beth.  “But he was the first person we have watched change.  He started vomiting a lot and he started getting very...distant when I tried talking to him.  He would just stare but would eventually answer.  Then...he didn’t answer any more.  He stopped breathing.  His skin went pale.  He never closed his eyes though.  He just kept staring.  I took
her
and we went to the opposite side of the office and I kept watching him.  I had a feeling that he was going to...change so I pulled one of the arms off of that mannequin.  I was so tired...we had already been up all night.  I almost fell asleep.  At first I thought I was dreaming when he stood up.  I remember saying his name and seeing that...look on his face.  I knew.  Then he came at me....”

I cut her off, “You don’t have to finish the story.  I can see you’ve been through a lot just like the rest of us.  We’ll probably have to go through some more on the way out of here.”

“I did what I had to do.  That’s what I’ve been doing...what’s necessary,” said Beth very sternly as she glanced over at Sid.

“So what’s your name?” said Jim to the little girl huddled behind Beth.

The little girl hid further behind Beth and didn’t say anything.

Beth rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.  “She hasn’t really talked much at all since I met her.  I found her just sitting on the ground next to a van.  She was holding a bag from a video game store, and she still hasn’t put it down.”

“What’s in the bag?” I asked.

“Don’t know.  She wouldn’t let me look in the bag,” responded Beth.

“The only thing she said since I found her was when I told her to put the bag down.  She said, ‘No, it’s my brother’s birthday present.’“ Beth looked over her shoulder at the girl.

The girl clutched the bag tighter.

“That’s pretty screwed up.  He’s probably already dead or one of them,” said Jim.

“You know, Jim, sometimes I think an alligator could think of some more appropriate things to say then you,” said Sid shaking his head.

“Hey, whaddya you want from me? I’m trying to keep things realistic,” said Jim, seeming very annoyed.

Jim sat on the floor with Beth and the little girl while Sid and I took a quiet look around the office.  The room was about twenty or so feet long and about six feet wide with a cutout for a computer at the end where Derrick’s body laid.  There were shelves with a few catalogs and some piled-up clothes.  There were also some racks with clothes on hangers lining the walls, but other than a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall, there wasn’t much else that looked useful.  We checked the barricade on the doors and it seemed like it would hold.  When we had first entered the store, the smell was overwhelming. I didn’t think I could stand being inside for very long, but after what felt like two or three hours sitting in that office I didn’t notice the smell as much.

The banging on the door had stopped off and on during our time inside that oversized closet, but with all of them up against the door, one would occasionally bump the door and the noise would get them going again.

“What do you guys think?  Should we try the ringer the next time they stop pounding on the door,” I asked the rest of the group.

“I’ve been ready to get out of this place,” said Beth as she quickly stood to her feet.

“Alright, bud, but you’re always the one with the plan on what we’re gonna do.  So...how we gonna do this?” questioned Sid.

“Look, I think sometimes...a step-by-step plan just doesn’t work out.  Sometimes, you just gotta wing it,” said Jim

“Yeah, a lot of good my plan did once we started this thing,” I responded.

“Hey, we can still stick to what you’d put together, we just got to add in how we get back to the truck,” Sid said, pointing his shotgun in the direction of the truck.

I looked at everyone in the room and they all just stared back at me. “Okay, once I hit the call button, we probably will only have seconds before they find us more interesting than the noise.  I’ll probably hit the call button a few times before we open the doors, to give them time to move toward it.  I’ll try to keep hitting the button as we move, but I’m betting they’ll forget all about it once they see us moving.”

I was anticipating that the banging would stop shortly after my little speech, but it must have been another half-hour or so before the noise stopped for long enough.  Jim had seemed to warm up to the little girl with Beth, but she still wasn’t talking.  Jim had managed to make a little puppet out of some of the clothes on the shelves and was quietly dancing his raggedy creation in front of her.  He got an occasional smile or a little giggle out of her.  He told me that she reminded him of his niece.  I think Sid was trying to envision our grand escape.  He was pointing his shotgun down toward Derrick and making quiet gun noises with his mouth, but he might have just been bored.

I must have checked my Glock’s magazine several times only to find that it was still fully loaded with one in the chamber every time.  I also checked the blade of my pipe sword several times.  Prior to all of this, I had hacked some small branches off of a few trees, but it had never seen the kind of abuse I was doing to it now.  I did my best to straighten it out and get it ready for a few more strikes.

We all agreed it was finally quiet enough to make an attempt.  We had already agreed that the best arrangement was me in the front, Sid behind me, followed by Beth and the girl and Jim bringing up the rear.  I had the keys to the truck.  Sid could help me if there were any to deal with on the way out of the room, and Jim and Beth could take out any that tried to come up behind us.

I stood at the door and took a deep breath.

“You got this, bud,” said Sid from behind me.

I pressed the call button and we heard the ringer go off.  We could hear an increase in movement outside.  It seemed to be working.  I pressed the button again and the ringer caused even more commotion the second time.

I looked at the others and said, “After the third one we’ll go.”

I pressed the button for a third time and cracked the door as the ringer started.  I could see a group of them huddled around where the noise was coming from.  The store was a lot darker inside than it had been when we first arrived.  The sun was going down outside and we probably only had about a half an hour of daylight left.  I slowly opened the door further and waved my hand for everyone to follow me.  As Sid came out behind me I pointed to where the group of the carriers was crowed.  As everyone else came out behind me, the noise stopped again.

I pressed the button a fourth time and the ringer went off again.  This time I could see the agitated bunch around the walkie-talkie, trying to find the source of the noise.  I again pointed to the group and I took my eyes off of them as I moved toward the doors we had come through, into the building. It was starting to get dark outside already.

It took all of the self-control that I had in me to keep from running to the exit doors, but I had to think about the others that were behind me.  I slowly continued to creep toward the doors, but must have been so focused on getting to the doors that I didn’t notice that the ringer had stopped and I didn’t press the button again.  I was just about to touch the door handle when the ringer on
my
walkie-talkie went off,
DA DA DA DA...DA DA DA DA!

I froze, at first not realizing where the noise had come from.  Then I figured it out.  I turned and looked back toward the crowd, and they were no longer looking for the other walkie-talkie...they were looking for mine.  One of them must have stepped on Beth’s walkie-talkie and hit the call button.  The entire store began to move inside.  I pressed the call button on my walkie-talkie again, out of desperation.  The advancing mass paid no attention to the noise.  They were all focused on us.

“RUN!” yelled Jim from the back of the group.

I turned and looked out the front doors again and could see the truck outside.  I shoved open the doors and began to sprint.  Sid, Beth and the girl all came out just after me, but Jim was slowly walking backwards toward the doors, swinging his bat ferociously.  He was so engaged with the crowd that had been around the walkie-talkie that he didn’t see a pair carriers coming at him from the children’s section on his right.

I saw Jim through the windows of the truck as I was opening the driver’s door.

“Sid! Get Jim!” I yelled as Sid was helping Beth into the passenger’s side door.

Sid turned and ran back to the doors with his bat in hand, but as he got closer and the first of the carriers grabbed onto Jim, Sid dropped the bat and pulled up his shotgun.  Jim shoved one of them to the ground just as the second one latched its boney hand onto his arm.

BOOM
.  Sid blasted through the glass, into the shoulder of the attacker.  I could see chunks of the infected male flying into the store.  Jim fell backward onto the floor and pulled out his .45.  The larger clump of the staggering corpses was almost on top of Jim when he started shooting.  Most of his shots missed their mark and had no effect on any of carriers.  Sid jammed his weapon into the face of one that was about fall on top of Jim and threw another volley of buckshot into the crowd.  Sid began using the shotgun as a club and gave Jim just enough time to get to his feet.

I had the keys in my hand but had been too intent on watching what was happening at the storefront; I hadn’t slid the key into the ignition.  I started the engine and Beth began to scream in the passenger’s seat.  I looked over at her and saw that she was looking at me.  I looked out toward the dimming parking lot and saw that every one of them in the surrounding parking lot had heard the gunshots.  They all knew exactly where we were too.

“C’mon, guys we’ve gotta go now!” I yelled at Sid and Jim as they began running toward the truck.  The remaining carriers that the two of them had not destroyed were limping quickly behind them.

“Get in the back!” I said, pointing toward the camper shell.

Jim flung open the tailgate and they both started climbing in.  I didn’t want to start driving off until they had the tailgate closed.  Several of the carriers slammed into the passenger’s side of the truck and a pair of hands came in through the passenger’s window.  The shards of shattered glass on the floor reminded me that the window was already broken.  Beth began to punch and shove the creature outside the vehicle as hard as she could while sitting down, but the arms just kept grabbing and pulling on whatever they could.  Beth was having trouble keeping the carrier back, and the little girl sitting next to her started to strike the rotting arms pulling at Beth.  The little girl leaned over and hit with all of the power that an eight-year-old girl could deliver.