Despite the heat, they were all in jeans, boots, gloves and jackets.
Jenni's hair was braided and pinned up on her head to avoid giving the zombies anything to grab onto. Her work gloves were lightweight, but would be a bitch for any zombie to bite through. She was overheated already, but they had to stay safe.
They slowly approached the Dollar Store. It was hard to see inside past the advertisements taped to the windows. The lights were off; the gloom was unwelcoming. Bill went down on his knees before the door and started to pick the lock. Busting the door open would be the last resort.
“Ha. I bet everyone thought the black man would be doing that,”
Felix remarked with a grin.
“You learn things on the job being a cop,” Bill said somberly.
“Don't care if you're black or white or brown or whatever,” Ed said, “just as long as you don't turn green and bite me.”
Jenni laughed and Felix smiled.
Bill's brow furrowed as he concentrated. After a moment, he smiled. With a twist of his wrist, the lock spun, and the door opened slightly.
They all gagged at once. The smell coming out of the store was putrid.
“Fucking shit,” Felix gasped.
“We got a dead one in there all right,” Ed said grimly.
Bill crawled away from the door, his eyes watering, trying to get a clean breath of air.
Jenni pulled her bandana up over her nose. “Gawd, that is awful.”
“Enclosed space and rotting dead stuff; not a good combo. Let's do this, people,” Ed said, pushing the door all the way open with one foot.
He stared into the gloom, his rifle with the makeshift bayonet at the end at the ready. “Hey!”
His voice filled the store. A low growl answered.
“It’s dead and talking,” Ed said somberly, and walked in.
Felix moved in right behind him as Bill climbed to his feet and joined Jenni. He wiped his eyes and cheeks with a bandana, then nodded to her. His eyes were still smarting, but he looked ready.
Jenni slid into the darkened interior slowly.
4. The Store
The front of the store was empty except for a line of small shopping carts. Both checkout stands stood empty. Jenni walked cautiously toward the first aisle to the right as Ed and Felix moved to check out the left side of the store. Bill peered behind the checkout stands just to make sure they were truly empty. He held his machete at the ready, but with a swift motion of his head, indicated nothing lingered there.
Jenni lifted the ax a little higher as she headed down the first aisle.
It was loaded up with makeup and all sorts of lotions. A lone bottle of shampoo lay in the middle of the aisle. She scooted it out of her way with the tip of her boot. Bill moved up alongside her, close enough for Jenni to hear his steady breathing. It was comforting. Slowly, she edged around the corner, looking into the aisle that cut down the side of the store. It was empty.
Together, they advance slowly to the next aisle.
Ed and Felix were obviously not finding anything as well, but the stench and low moans told them all quite clearly something was dead in the store and still moving. The aisle packed with baby supplies made Jenni's head swim for a moment, but she shoved any thoughts of Benji out of her mind and set her jaw determinedly.
The aisle was clear.
Bill moved up toward the next aisle.
Another low moan reverberated through the store.
“Is anyone alive in here?” Felix's voice called out.
Another low moan, not a screech, but a moan, answered.
“If you're human and hurt, say something,” Felix went on.
Somewhere, the moan grew into a hungry growl.
“Yep, zombie,” Ed said.
“For sure,” Felix agreed.
Bill froze for a second as they reached the aisle full of photo books and frames. A lot of merchandise lay on the floor, broken and smashed. Slowly, Jenni lifted her eyes upwards. An arm dangled off the shelf over the display of cheap, but cute frames. It was savagely bitten in several places. A low moan came from the shelf.
“Found one,” Bill called out.
The zombie moaned. Its arm twitched.
“I bet he crawled up there to get away,” Jenni whispered.
The zombie, wedged tightly between two metal shelves, wiggled anxiously, knowing human flesh was nearby.
“How do we do this?” Bill looked perplexed.
Jenni motioned to the zombie's foot. “Drag it down and deal with it?”
Bill frowned deeply. “Could go wrong on the way down. Could twist around and land on us or something.”
The zombie thrashed around still unable to free itself.
“Let's go to the other side,” Jenni suggested.
Bill and Jenni crept around to the other aisle, this one loaded down with all sorts of household supplies. The zombie's other leg and arm were hanging out on this side. It was a young man, probably in his late teens. If he hadn’t such a slim build, he may have never wedged himself between the two metal shelves. He saw them and thrashed even more, growling. Jenni looked around her and spotted a small stepladder used to stock the higher shelves. It was toppled over on its side and she bet the kid had used it to climb up out of the way of a zombie. Grabbing it, she dragged it over in front of the zombie. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see its decaying hand reaching out desperately to get her, but she was out of reach.
“Hold me,” Jenni ordered Bill, then stepped up to the top step.
Bill's big hands grabbed her hips and held her tightly. Jenni was now face to face with the zombie. Its hand waved in front of her eyes, straining desperately to reach her. The kid's face was stained with his tears and blood. She felt sorry for him. He didn't look that much older than Jason. But, regardless of his youth, his time was done on this earth. She was ready to send him on.
She swung her ax as hard as she could into the face of the zombie.
He grabbed her wrist just as the ax head buried itself into his skull.
Almost as soon as his fingers gripped her, they went slack. Jenni wrenched the ax out of his dead features. Bill tightened his grip on her hips.
“One more whack to be sure,” she said.
She swung the ax again and felt it cleave the zombie head in half.
Now she was sure it was over. Black goo slid out over the edge of the shelf.
“It's done!”
Her voice echoed.
A low moan from the back of the store answered.
“Sounds like we got another one,” Ed called out.
“I figured that. This one climbed up on a shelf to escape something,” Bill answered back.
A more desperate moan answered.
Jenni dropped off the stepladder and held her dripping ax tightly in her hands. She felt a little sick about the death of the kid. The first death, not the one she had given him. The world was just fucked and awful.
The next area was full of hanging clothes and bedding supplies.
Jenni and Bill made sure to study any shelving above eye level. The moans they kept hearing were from the back of the store, but they were very cautious as they moved on. They had to be. It was far too dangerous to let their guard down.
“Found her,” Felix called out. “She's on your side. And you won't believe this.”
Bill and Jenni finally reached the back of the store and turned the corner.
A female zombie was reaching toward Felix and Ed who were approaching her from the opposite side of the store.
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Jenni said and almost laughed.
The ground was covered in overturned trash bins of all sizes, plastic clothesbaskets, and plastic storage containers. They were splashed with blood and it was obvious a struggle had happened here. At some point, the female zombie had stepped into a bucket and caught her foot in it. As she had tried to pass between the metal shelves and a support column, her foot in the bucket had become wedged. Unable to move her foot, she was simply standing there moaning. Jenni couldn't see her face, but her body looked slim and young. She wondered if this was the one who had bitten the boy.
“Kinda dumb, ain't they?” Ed smirked.
Jenni heaved the ax over her head and brought it down hard onto the zombie's head. It wedged halfway into the thing's skull. The zombie slowly collapsed down to the floor and Jenni yanked the blade out of the dead girl.
Bill leaned down and looked at the zombie thoughtfully. “There is a bite on her hand. Only mark other than her head being split apart.”
“So, she gets bit, dies, attacks the boy here, he gets bit up, she gets caught, he goes and climbs onto a shelf.” Felix nodded his head.
“And he dies. Makes sense.”
Jenni frowned down at the body. “But who bit her?”
“They're both wearing vests and name tags. Boxes are open in the aisles. They were early morning stockers. Do you think she came in bit?” Bill looked thoughtful.
Slowly, they all looked toward the door to the storeroom.
“Great,” Felix moaned.
“We do this right and careful,” Ed said firmly.
The four of them slowly moved toward the swinging metal doors.
The battered metal doors swung open into a long narrow room filled with boxes piled along one wall almost to the ceiling. At the far end was the open door to a narrow bathroom.