Losers vs. Zombies, page 3
“The police station.” I said. I wasn’t in the mood for talking yet. We weren’t back inside where it was safe.
“I didn’t even think of that! Wow, don’t I feel stupid.” One of them stopped walking and stood there like she was mad at herself for not coming up with the same idea I had. I wanted to hit her and tell her to get her ass inside.
“Get inside and we’ll discuss it later.” I motioned to the zombies for emphasis.
“They are so slow. We could stand here for a while before they got to us.” She said but started walking toward the door.
Once we were all inside, I shut and locked the door. We went back to the food area where we had been. Amy was in a bad mood. I took one of the chairs and put some distance between me and her.
“My name is Tina and this is Angie.”
“I’m Steve. This is Amy, my wife. That is Brad.” I nodded as a greeting.
“I don’t guess either of you were cops or in the military were you?” Amy asked.
“Nope. We worked at Olive Garden. We’re waitresses.” Tina replied.
“That’s great! Two waitresses, a writer, and a florist. We’re safe now.” Amy was being a bitch.
Our introductions were cut short by pounding on the doors. We all looked to see the zombies pushing against the doors trying to get in. The doors were holding them back. We all had the same thought though. If many more of them show up, how long can the doors hold them out? I for one didn’t want to find out.
“I think we should try and kill these zombies before they attract more of them. We can scatter their bodies across the parking lot and get back in here before any new zombies show up.” I suggested.
“But if we shoot them, any zombie nearby will hear it. You’re going to bring even more of them to us. What the hell are you thinking?” Amy complained. I was starting to hope that she would get bit. Then I would have a reason to kill her.
“He’s right. Remember what we saw on the news? They start with only a few then more show up and the doors can’t hold them out.” Steve reasoned.
“I don’t care. I would rather take that chance then go out and attract more of them to us by using these guns.” Amy retorted.
“We won’t use the guns.” I said. Everyone’s eyes widened in surprise, including mine. Did I really just say that?
“Now I know you’re stupid.” Amy added her two cents.
“Let’s look around and find some weapons. There’s bound to be some stuff we can use.” Angie finally spoke.
“I have mine.” Steve held up his crowbar.
The two waitresses and I went through the store looking for things we could use against the zombies. I found two hammers but that was all that looked useful to me. Tina came back with an iron skillet. Okay.
“We open the doors and try to only let one in at a time. Unless you guys have a better idea.” I looked around to see.
“That sounds as good as we can hope for. One at a time would be easier.” Steve said in agreement.
We all crept forward which was stupid. They saw us coming. They were drooling at our approach. Yet, there we were inching forward afraid of making a sound.
“Tina, you get over here and try to hold this door shut if you can. At least try to slow them down.” I told her as I handed Angie one of my hammers.
We braced ourselves and I unlocked the door. The one in front barreled through the door knocking Tina on her ass. I hit him with my hammer and he fell in a heap. Steve got the next one with his crowbar. Angie took off running. Damn. Tina got up and started beating them over the head with her skillet. She wasn’t doing much good but she was sure trying hard enough. I took out two more on two quick swings. I raised my hammer to kill a third one when I was hit in the head by a skillet.
I woke with a headache to see the zombies all dead. Steve and Angie were dragging one of the bodies out into the parking lot. I rubbed the bump on my skull and looked around for the others. Tina had her head down crying and Amy was eating.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying? You didn’t get bit did you?” I asked Tina. She raised her head when she heard my voice and ran over to me.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to. I was just swinging and I hit you by mistake. I will be more careful, I promise. Don’t kick me out!” Tina was barely coherent.
“No one is going to be kicked out. At least you were trying. This isn’t something we are trained for. I will be okay.” I said as comfortingly as I knew how. She started to calm down and stopped crying.
I stood slowly. The floor tried to throw me off by slanting in different ways but I showed it. I managed to stay upright until the dizziness passed. I went and grabbed one of the two remaining bodies and started dragging it out to the parking lot.
Steve and Angie were on their way back from where they took the last one they hauled off. I could see the pile of bodies out by the road. I headed in that direction cursing my back with each breath.
Once the last body was dumped by the road, we had one more problem. Tommy was still in the car the girls came in. He was pressed against the window staring at us with his mouth moving in a biting motion.
“We have to kill him too.” I told Steve and pointed to the car.
“He’s trapped. Couldn’t we just leave him?”
“If he gets out, he will head straight for us. I think it would be safer to kill him now.” I looked at Steve to see if he agreed.
“Alright. If you think it is better that way.” Steve consented.
“You open the door and I will kill him.” I said as I pulled the hammer from the waistband of my jeans.
Luckily, this plan was executed properly. Tommy fell out onto the pavement and I hit him before he could get up. Steve and I dragged his body over to the others.
“I guess I can stop considering myself to be nonviolent now.” I said sadly.
“We don’t have a choice anymore.” Steve said.
As we walked back to the store, I looked at the Jeep and thought it would be better if we parked it in the back of the store. There was a door for us to get out back there and it would be better than having to fight our way to it if we were attacked again.
“Look, go through the store and open the back door. I am going to drive the Jeep around to the back in case we need to make a getaway. Remember to lock the front door behind you.” I instructed.
“You got it.” Steve answered.
Once the Jeep was in place behind the store and the doors safely locked, we had a quiet few hours. I spent them on my back trying to ease the pain. They had Tylenol and ibuprofen but nothing stronger. Why couldn’t we have holed up in a damn drug store?
It was getting dark when I rejoined the others. They were sitting around moping. I didn’t want to sit with them but I grabbed a coke and a can of chili and took a seat. No one was talking which was fine by me. It stayed that way until time to try and sleep.
We posted a watch in case the zombies came around.
Chapter 3
The sun came blaring through the windows. It looked like it would be another hot one. Of course the weatherman for Mobile had an easy job during the summer months. Every day it was the same forecast. Hot and humid with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. From mid-May until late September, the same forecast.
“Any sign of zombies?” Steve asked as he walked over to where I was at my post. He seemed to be the likeable sort. His wife was a different story.
“No. Thank God.” I replied.
“Maybe they won’t find us.”
“I wish they would look like they do in the movies. These zombies all look normal except for being somewhat catatonic. In the movies they are all gross with skin hanging off and open wounds.” I said. My nightmares had been full of zombies.
“It would make it easier to kill them then. It won’t be long before they do look like that. These we are seeing are still fresh. They haven’t started to rot yet. Plus, we aren’t seeing the people that were already dead rise like in the movies. Those start out rotted and gross looking. Not like these.” Steve explained. “The ones turned usually only have one or two bites taken out of them. Whatever causes the change, it spreads fast enough that the zombies don’t want to eat you anymore after the first five minutes.”
“How the hell we supposed to take a bath?” Amy was awake. Damn.
“We may have to go without one, Amy.” Steve gave me an apologizing glance as he spoke.
“You mean we’re stuck in here for God knows how long and now we all going to be stinking? That ain’t right.” Amy complained.
“I wonder how long the water will keep running. When that stops, the toilets will quit working and we will really be in a bind. We can’t waste the drinking water to flush the toilet.” I wondered aloud.
“I didn’t even think about that. I hope it keeps working for a while. At least until we find a better place to stay.” Steve stated.
I began to wonder if we would find anyplace better than this. At least we could eat. The zombies couldn’t see us as long as we stayed to the rear of the store. No, this might be as good of a place as we were going to find.
I was about to stand up and go get something to eat when a group of people came down the street. They headed into the parking lot. Two men were carrying a third. There were two women following them. The two healthy men looked older, maybe fiftyish. The girls and the injured man looked to be in their early twenties. One of the women pointed directly at Fred’s. Well, we had company.
“I better go let them in.” I said as I moved toward the door.
“I will go get my gun just in case. Some of these people might not be so nice.” Steve said as he walked away. I was too busy thinking that these people couldn’t be any worse than Amy. At least I hoped not.
I was almost to the door when the zombies came from the same direction as this group. The zombies just kept coming. I opened the door and motioned for the people to hurry. They looked exhausted but tried to pick up their pace.
As soon as they were inside, I started trying to move the cooler full of soft drinks in front of the door. I called Steve over to help me. We got it there just before the zombies hit the door. It looked like it would hold but I wanted to move another one over to make sure. Once that was done, I went to the newcomers.
“What’s wrong with him? He wasn’t bit was he?” I asked the two men who helped carry him in.
“No he wasn’t bit. His leg looks like it is broken and he may have a concussion. He got hurt in a wreck. We were trying to go to the grocery store but he swerved to miss some of the zombies and hit a truck.” One of the girls answered. She was short and blonde with a bunch of tattoos and piercings.
“What are your names?” I asked.
“I’m Laura, she is Cindy. The hurt one is my brother David. The other two men are Harold and Bob. Who are you?”
“I’m Brad. This is Steve, Amy, Angie, and Tina. Are y’all hungry? Thirsty?” I asked as I looked them over.
“Hell yes!” Cindy said and went for the food.
“Now we got to share our little bit of food with these people too? We won’t last a week with this many mouths to feed.” Amy complained.
“I need to think for a while. By the way, what did you guys do for a living?” I said hoping to hear a good response.
“Me and Bob worked in a hardware store.” Harold told me. It wasn’t great but it was better than getting another writer or florist.
“I worked in customer service.” Laura told us.
“I was a manager at Burger King.” Cindy said between bites. She was a chunky girl. Not fat like me, just a bit on the heavy side.
“What did David do for a living?” I asked Laura.
“He was in the Army. He was home on leave.” She said.
Woohoo! A soldier.
“Wonderful! We needed someone with a military background. Let me know as soon as he wakes up. I need to think for a while. Let me know if that door starts to open.” I told them as I walked toward the back room.
“If they start coming in you’ll hear me screaming. Don’t worry, you’ll know.” Amy just had to put her spin on things.
I grabbed my flashlight and found a chair in the storeroom. I sat down with a painful thud. My back and feet were killing me. If this kept up, I might go let them bite me. At least then I wouldn’t have to listen to Amy.
I tried to clear my mind enough to think. We had a way out. What good would running do if everyplace we went had this many zombies? We didn’t have enough bullets to shoot every zombie in Mobile. There were 300,000 or so people living here a week ago. How could we kill them without putting ourselves in too much danger?
“What kills a zombie? Damaging the brain. How do you damage the brain? You puncture or break the skull hitting the brain tissue. How do you crush or puncture the skull of that many zombies without getting bit?” I sighed.
Talking to myself helped sometimes when I was writing. It wasn’t helping me right now. I could almost smell my brain cells burning.
Burning.
Fire!
I stood back up against the protests my feet and back put up. I went out into the store and took some inventory. There was charcoal fluid for grilling. Lots of big bottles of that. Rubbing alcohol would work. There were gas and fuel injector cleaners in those little odd shaped plastic bottles. Those few things might be enough!
“What are you doing? We out here trying to think of a way out of this and you walking around the store shopping.” Amy was complaining as usual. I ignored her and went to join the others. They were sitting around eating and talking.
“Does anyone know if stores like this have roof access?” I asked.
“Some have a ladder with a trapdoor in the ceiling. Why?” Harold asked.
“Look, we can hide out in here but the food will eventually run out and the zombies might push through the door. We could shoot them but we don’t have enough bullets for every zombie in Mobile. My Jeep is parked out back but running would only be a temporary solution. It doesn’t matter where we run to if there will be hundreds even thousands of these zombies.” I took a breath. I am not used to giving speeches. “We need to kill them as we go. If we can get to the roof, I think we have a chance to kill them without wasting a bullet.”
“How the hell are we going to do that?” Amy again.
“Fire. You kill zombies by damaging the brain. Fire damages everything it touches. We have stuff to use to spread the fire if I can figure out a way to” I stopped as inspiration hit me. The smell of our perspiration was hitting me as well.
“A way to what?” Bob asked.
I got up and went over to the toy section. Yes! Water guns. I grabbed a few water blasters and a gallon jug of charcoal fluid on my way back. I saw how to load the water blaster and needed a bucket for this kind. I saw a bucket earlier so I went and got it. I poured the fluid into the bucket and used it to load the water blaster.
“Would you tell us what you are doing? Please?” Cindy asked.
“We go to the roof and spray the zombies down with the flammable liquids from the store. Then we set fire and drive away before the building burns too.” I explained. “It might not kill them all but it will kill a whole bunch of them.”
They sat pondering my idea for a minute before anyone spoke. I watched their faces to see if they liked or hated the idea. Bob looked up at me with a strange look then put his head back down as he thought.
“We can do this but we need to make sure we can get to the roof before we try anything.” Harold was the first to respond.
Everyone rose and went to the backroom. Other flashlights from the store were shining all across the ceiling as we looked for the trapdoor. Laura was the one to find it. As bad as I hurt, I was the one to go up and see if my idea was going to work.
The roof wasn’t completely like I wanted it to be. The front of the store rose up higher than that section of the roof I was standing on. I thought we could still pull this off. Probably. Maybe. Well it was worth a shot.
It took us a little while to load the guns and a couple of boxes of food and drinks into the Jeep. We still had no idea of how we were all going to fit inside to drive somewhere new. The car Tina and Angie arrived in was still there but there were all these zombies in between. We would have to cram into the Jeep.
We worked for almost an hour getting everything up on the roof the way we needed. The number of zombies at the door was over thirty now and slowly growing. My mind lit up with another idea that was worth a try.
“I bet if we shot a round or two into them then more zombies would head this way.” I stated looking to see their responses.
“Good idea, Dumbass! Bring more of them here. Are you stupid?” Amy made her response loud and clear.
“I think it is a good idea. The more we can gather, the more we can kill.” Bob said.
Since the others were nodding yes, I pulled my gun out of the waistband of my pants. I made sure the safety was off and carefully aimed the way I’d seen actors do it on TV. I braced myself as I aimed at one of the zombies and squeezed the trigger.
I missed. I aimed again and squeezed the trigger. I hit one but it wasn’t in the head. I put a good sized hole in one of their shoulders. I decided not to try again. I put the safety back on and waited to see if this idea would pan out.
After a few minutes more zombies began arriving. The gunshots worked. It seemed to take forever for them to reach the store front area. After one hour’s waiting time, there were maybe sixty of them in the parking lot.
“I guess it’s time to start dousing them with the stuff.” I told them.
Steve, Tina, and Harold manned the water blasters. Bob and Angie were unscrewing the smaller bottles of fuel injector cleaner and tossing the bottles into the crowd of zombies. They kept spraying until the zombies were dripping wet.
I grabbed the makeshift fuse I created in the store. I wrapped a shirt around a child’s ball and dipped half of it into some of the lighter fluid. I looked around at everyone as I silently prayed that this would work. I lit the shirt on fire and threw it over the side of the building. The zombies went up in a blaze.
