Authors: Gary F. Vanucci
“Well, There’s that, there ya go. Let’s put that to the test, eh?” Nick said, crossing his arms over his chest. He was not wearing his riot gear today, Alex noted, as he wore jeans and a tee shirt instead.
“Let’s go,” Liz said, holding the clumsy Polaroid camera in one hand and her shield strapped to the other.
“Let’s go hunt us some zombies,” Phil added with a wink to Alex.
“Don’t forget your task,” Nick advised, holding the gaze of Phil.
“Of course. I’m only gonna cut down the ones that try to stop us. Don’t worry, chief.” Phil donned his chain mail coif, removed the sword from his scabbard and stood before the few zombies still standing before the gate. Phil began to lop hands and arms from whatever was there until nothing else penetrated the gates. “We’re ready to go.”
Kelly opened the gate as Phil and Liz used their shields to shove the zombies back and Phil and Bryan, the latter maneuvering between the shields and slamming that heavy mace into zombie skulls, took them down quite easily.
Alex adjusted the quiver on his back, removed an arrow, bent low, and called Shadow to him. The wolf obediently followed and ignored the fallen zombies, moving to sit beside Selina. Kelly closed the gate behind them and they were off, stepping through the alleys and quietly going from building to building, searching for their missing companion.
Alex truly hoped that they would find him alive and well.
Alex loosed another arrow and downed the last of those half dozen zombies, amazed at the precision and coordination with which the others fought. So far, Selina had not needed to swing her weapon and Alex had fired only a pair of arrows. He stood on the skull of that zombie and yanked free the arrow, and then followed the others. He had to wait for Shadow, who was once again marking his territory.
They made it to the broken fence and Alex winced as it came into view. A thirty-foot section or so was down, the center of that completely shattered as the zombies had poured through that segment of fencing. They had even taken down the foliage and a tree that stood behind the fence.
“That’s quite a mess,” Bryan said, removing a cigarette and lighting it. Alex looked at him oddly, not realizing until that very second, how such a simple thing as smoking a cigarette was missing from their everyday life. “Yep, I got me a carton back at the castle. You want one?”
“Never touched the things,” Alex said sharply. Bryan simply nodded and went back to staring at the fence. Shadow stood right beside Alex and made to want to run toward the opening, but Alex bent low again and shook his head.
“Stay, boy.” Shadow did not listen this time and ran out of the gap and into the parking lot. “Shit,” Alex cursed.
“You get him and then get the humidifier. We’ll keep looking for Ben,” Phil said, scanning the area. Alex nodded and ran off after the wolf, Selina following right behind him.
Alex ran outside and watched as Shadow sniffed around, not realizing or registering any kind of danger. They were back in the parking lot and Alex noted that there were a mass of zombies to his left and right, all wandering around in between the cars.
“Shadow, come,” Alex whispered and the wolf surprisingly listened. He leaned with his back against a car as a zombie came closer, having seen him. As it neared, Selina sprung up and quickly sent its head flying from its body in one clean sweep, ducking back down.
“Fuckin’ A, right!” Alex said with a smile. She smiled back, the two of them caught up in the adrenaline of the moment. “We can make it to my van through the middle of the lot, between the cars. Probably won’t attract many of ‘em.” Selina nodded and he snapped his fingers to Shadow, “Come.”
He moved quietly from car to car, truck to van, moving in between them quietly, Shadow following behind them both at somewhat of a distance. They had almost made it completely across the parking lot, when Shadow disappeared behind a truck. Alex dropped to his knees and witnessed a dozen pairs of feet on the other side. Then he heard the snarling of Shadow and the sounds of snapping jaws that followed.
Alex removed his bow and ran to the other side, seeing a dozen zombies all closing on the wolf. Two of them fell over Shadow and Alex scowled, nocking an arrow and letting fly at one of the pair.
Selina suddenly appeared from the other side of the vehicle, swinging her sword like something out of a comic book. She looked like a warrior-god to him in that moment as he retrieved a second arrow and loosed it too, hitting the second of the attackers on the wolf. It was so close to them that the arrow went straight through the zombies head and into Shadow’s flank.
“No!” Alex screamed, biting off his shriek quickly and running to the wolf’s aid. He almost tackled Shadow, tossing aside the bow and his pack. Blood gushed from the wound and Shadow snapped at Alex, as he was in obvious pain.
“I need to treat this!” Alex yelled to Selina, who was cutting down the last of the zombies quite easily. Alex spun and caught another on his flank approaching quickly, and swung his compound bow so hard that he snapped the neck of the onrushing zombie, as it was sent headlong into the adjacent car, falling to its back as Alex ran over to it and stomped his boot against its skull repeatedly.
He then looked to the mini-van around which they stood, and a plan formulated. He grabbed the pack from the ground and swung it into the passenger side window, shattering it. He reached inside, popped the locks and opened the side doors. He picked up the wounded wolf and tossed him inside, closing the doors behind him.
Then he saw Selina climb into the passenger side of the mini-van, looking all around and tossing stray pieces of glass out the window.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Selina said.
A pack of zombies, having heard the glass shattering, began to make their way hurriedly toward them.
“Fish for some keys, we gotta get outta here now.” She did so, rooting through the glove compartment and tossing some things onto the seat. “Or better yet, you tend him and I’ll start this thing,” he said as they switched places, him climbing into the front over her.
He rifled inside the pack, retrieved the duct tape, and tossed it to her. “Here is some antibiotic cream, put it on the towel there and wrap it around him, then tape it,” he instructed as he got under the dash, fishing for the wires. He realized it was going to take longer than they had.
“Fuck it,” he said, seeing and grabbing a standard screwdriver and jamming the business end into the ignition and forcing it to turn over. The mini-van started immediately. He slammed it into gear and took off, running over a zombie right away.
He peeked in the back and watched as Selina forced the towel around the wound and held it there. Shadow was snapping and growling at her, but she did not back down. He allowed himself the briefest of grins for only a second, admiring her bravery in that moment as he stepped on the gas, the front of the vehicle striking another of the undead. He quickly maneuvered them through the abandoned cars, out of the lot, and onto the road as a mob of zombies chased after them.
He managed to put a good distance between them, the zombies all but fading in the rear view mirror, until the mini-van began to sputter.
“You gotta be shittin’ me,” he whispered, understanding that, as he looked at the gas tank, that the mini-van had no gas left in the tank.
“Is he all right?” Alex called back to her.
“Seems to be,” the bleeding is slowing and he is lying still now as if nothing happened,” Selina said. “What’s the plan?” she added, as the mini-van continued to sputter again and finally came to a stop.
“Look for a spare,” he said, seeing a few more cars in various states of disrepair along the side of the road.
“Tire?!” she asked disbelievingly. “Tell me you’re fucking kidding!”
“Car,” he answered dryly. “We need another vehicle—and fast!” he said, peering into his rearview mirror and seeing a mob of zombies rushing toward the mini-van. They were a good distance away, he recognized, but they would close the distance quickly. “Or we need gas for this one.”
“There’s a gas can right here,” she said, shoving it to test the capacity. “Looks like there’s some inside, like someone was preparing to fill her up,” Selina explained, still trying to keep Shadow calm.
Alex leaped out of the mini-van, leaving the door open, rushed to the side door and grabbed the can.
The zombies continued to close the gap.
He frantically spun open the gas cap and shoved the spout into the opening for the fuel tank and waited as it slowly drank in the gas with methodically timed gulps.
“Selina, I might need some cover,” Alex said frantically as she gazed through the rear window toward the onrushing mob of the living dead.
“Alex…you’ve got about thirty seconds,” she said calmly.
Alex finished his task and tossed the gas can away, running to the driver side, hopping in, closing the door just as a zombie slammed into the rear of the mini-van with such tremendous force that the window cracked under the impact. Shadow growled in response, and Alex closed his eyes as he jammed the screwdriver into the ignition switch again. It started up once more and he floored it, knocking over and leaving zombie attackers behind as he headed toward the filling station up the road a few miles.
Five minutes later and they arrived at their destination, having lost the zombie mob in the distance. Alex jumped out and started to fill the car with gas, looking inside to see how Selina fared with Shadow. The wolf seemed to be calm now and Alex smiled, thankful that he hadn’t seriously injured the wolf. Luckily, the zombie took the brunt of the arrow’s force and he hadn’t had time to pull back deeply on the bowstring.
Alex ran into the filling station market, seeing the remnants of their last visit, and found a few bottles of water and a case of soup cans in the back of the store. He covered his mouth and nose as the rotting and burnt flesh that remained stunk to high heaven. He gagged and almost puked, but held it down.
He ran back to the mini-van and tossed a few of the soup cans into the back, Selina opening them with a can opener and she poured them out into a hub cab, allowing Shadow to eat.
“It’s New England clam chowder—his favorite,” he added with a silly grin. “Now let’s get that humidifier.”
***
He pulled the mini-van slowly into the SuperMart parking lot, which was a few miles further up the road from the shopping center with the grocery store. He slowly maneuvered around to the side of the building, noting several pockets of undead meandering aimlessly around at the front side of the lot.
He stopped the mini-van beside a few other abandoned vehicles there, including a trailer that had been most likely scheduled to make a delivery, its tires flat and one door in the back was partly open. A minute later and Alex spotted a side entrance to the store.
“An employee entrance?” Alex asked, pointing to the door. It was steel and looked pretty secure.
“Probably,” Selina agreed, opening the side doors to the mini-van and looking to Shadow who had already finished his meal.
“You coming, Shadow? Or do you wanna sit this one out?” Alex asked, climbing into the mini-van and inspecting the dressing. The bleeding had stopped for sure, but he seemed very ginger, not moving in the slightest to exit the vehicle. “You stay here, boy. We’ll be back soon.” Alex shut the door, locking all the doors except the driver side and removing all of his gear again, as did Selina. “Looks like it’s just you and me,” Alex said absently, making off toward the side door.
“Wow, it’s our first date,” Selina said with a deadpan expression, sliding her sword from its casing.
Alex smirked wryly and climbed the four concrete steps to the door, pushed against it, and it swung open easily enough. Selina stepped inside as Alex removed a flashlight.
“Gimme that. You’ll need two hands for that bow,” Selina said, taking the flashlight from him. She shone the light back and forth revealing countless numbers of tall, steel racks filled with goods in the distance, a few desks and chairs along the walls and a forklift or two.
“Guess there’s no power in this store, huh?” Alex asked rhetorically, pulling an arrow from the quiver and readying it.
“I could use a lighter sword,” Selina mentioned, maneuvering the sword through the air with one hand on the pommel. Alex took note the movements weren’t nearly as fluid as when she had held it with both.
“Beggars can’t be choosers and all that,” he said sarcastically now, looking to her for the response, but none was to be found. She was intently focused on her surroundings. “You'll manage, I'm sure,” Alex said, following her and the beam of light through the back racks, looking for a humidifier. “We should probably grab an extension cord or two, in case they don’t have any.”
“I’m sure they have plenty—“
They both froze upon hearing something in the distance. The skinny beam of light displayed a zombie rushing toward them.
”Don’t waste an arrow,” Selina said. Alex watched the beam of light as it moved back and forth. He heard the distinct and sickening sound of the sword edge cutting through flesh, followed by the sound of something hard hitting the floor. That, in turn, was followed by another sound, coming from something much heavier than the first.
Selina shone the light on the floor to reveal the undead body and the severed head, the source of the consecutive thuds. She also revealed a notable and deep gash on her arm from the attack.
“Are you—“
“I'm fine,” Selina interjected, moving away from him. “Let’s keep going.”
“Maybe we should go out into the store,” Alex whispered, hearing more sounds in the back area. “That way we can at least see in the daylight coming through the windows.” Selina nodded and redirected the flashlight all about until it finally landed on a set of double doors. They quietly moved through them, down a short hallway, and into the store, where the light was indeed brighter. Alex noted that even with the natural light, there were also many pockets shrouded in darkness.