Jack typed out:
Direct messages from Jack
That was us on the bridge. A car came over to our side and the driver had a corpse in the passenger seat so be careful.
Come to Elmhurst and then make contact. We have a safe place and are just going to get some supplies.
“We can’t all fit in here if there are two of them,” Bernie grumbled.
Jack rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. I could see he was getting irritated. “They won’t be expecting the fucking Ritz-Carlton, Bernie. Besides, I’m not sure if it serves bowls of baked beans for lunch.”
I bit my tongue. There was no need to add to what had just been said.
Bernie sat down on the couch. “I’m not having any more shit from you about my food. You’re choosing what we pick up when we get there.”
”I will choose and even cook it for you tonight, are there any gun shops around here?” Jack asked.
“I wouldn’t even know where the nearest is. We should go to my local food mart, it’s only three blocks away and we can get there without attracting any attention.”
“Okay, Bernie, weapons check, then lead the way,” I said.
We opened the door and stepped into the street, I knew this was risky, but staying inside after this morning would be giving up. We had to tackle the situation head on and get control; otherwise, we would end up hidden in Bernie’s apartment with no hope.
As we left the apartment, I urged everyone to stay quiet, keep in the shadows of the adjacent buildings, and stay alert. Within minutes, we had arrived opposite our location and crouched to scout the entrance.
“How many entry points?” I whispered.
“Not a hundred percent sure, but I think there’s only one entrance, but I’ve never really scoped it before.”
Outside the store entrance, a dog was licking the head of a lady whose skull had been crushed, I could see a bloodied hammer by her side.
“Should we try and befriend the dog? It might come in useful as an extra pair of eyes and ears,” Bernie said.
“No, it’s just another mouth to feed. What if we can’t control it? It might start barking like crazy,” I replied.
“Come on, Harry, let’s give it a try,” Jack said.
I knew Jack would support the idea; he had two spaniels at home who were devoted to him.
I patted the sidewalk a couple of times to attract the dog’s attention.
“Here boy, here…”
The dog looked up and ran away; at least not everyone was out to get us.
I put a finger to my lips, and then gestured with the same finger that we should cross the street to the store. We approached cautiously around a pair of corpses who looked like they had been duelling with garden tools. One had been stabbed through the neck with a garden fork, and lay clutching the implement impaled in her neck. The other, who must have carried out the assault, had a large slice across his throat, some pruning shears lay next to him.
Bernie slowly entered the store and immediately sprang back out, “There’s somebody in there. I heard groaning.”
We all raised our weapons.
“Did you see anyone?” Jack asked.
“No, but whoever it was sounded in poor shape.”
I looked around and noticed that there were no other corpses in the near vicinity of the woman with the crushed skull.
“Do you think it’s the person who killed her?” I said, pointing at the woman.
Jack and Bernie shrugged.
“Bernie, you cover us with the flare gun. We’ll burst in and clear the store. It might be a trap,” Jack said.
“No. Jack, give me your rifle, and you take the flare gun. I know the store layout, so I’ll go first. Harry, you cover us from behind.”
I didn’t want Jack to swap weapons with Bernie, it felt a lot safer for Jack to have a rifle compared to a flare gun. Jack exchanged weapons with Bernie, and we all took up our positions around the store entrance. I planned to retrieve the pistol that was used against us in the morning as soon as our shopping trip was finished. Nobody had wanted to approach the body earlier, but Jack being handed the flare gun, suddenly made getting another pistol a priority.
“Now,” Jack said, as he pulled open the door. Both Jack and Bernie vanished into the store.
I stood with my back to the store, staring out onto the street, it suddenly felt like a lonely place and I shivered at the thought of watching eyes.
“Harry, come in. It’s safe,” Jack eventually called.
I walked inside the store, which was a complete mess; the shelves of food had been spilled in every direction. I found Jack and Bernie standing over a man in a condiment aisle that also had canned vegetables and dried foods. He was holding onto a broken bottle that he must have thrust into his eye.
“Is she? Is she? Help me, the bottle… Finish it. I haven't the strength,” he mumbled.
“What do you want?” Bernie said.
“He wants us to help him complete his mission, doesn’t he?” I said.
“Grab my hands… push the bottle,” the man groaned.
“That wouldn’t be suicide if we help. He’ll die soon enough anyway. There’s nothing we can do for him,” Jack said.
“Perhaps we should help him? It would be like putting down a sick animal,” Bernie said, looking at me.
“Let’s have a think about it while we grab some supplies. I don’t want to hang around here all day.”
I was hoping that the man would die while we filled bags with food.
I packed cans of soup, chili, fruit, and some bottles of cola into two plastic bags and met Bernie and Jack back where the injured man was lying.
“Please, end it now,” he moaned.
Bernie pointed the rifle he had at the man’s head and closed his eyes.
“No, don’t do it. It will draw attention to us,” I whispered.
“I can’t just leave him to die like this. I can’t do it.”
“This man probably caved in the skull of the lady outside with a hammer. He would have done the same to you or me if we were in her shoes. Let him die.”
“Fuck this,” Jack said, stepping towards the man.
He stamped on the bottle, forcing it deeper into the eye socket; a thick purple stream of blood ran down the side of the man’s face. He let out a long breath, and his head flopped to the left.
Bernie looked over at Jack with fear in his eyes. Jack picked up his shopping bags and headed for the entrance.
“We need to stop debating and start making decisions,” he said over his shoulder.
Jack had ended the man’s suffering and given him what he wanted, but it still didn’t sit easily with me. There was no realistic way to imagine him being any kind of threat, so we should have left him alone. He could also have been an easy victim for any other killer heading in our direction. That would have taken care of another potential threat.
As we made our way back to Bernie’s apartment, I scanned the area, which was made up of housing blocks in a grid system.
“What’s the view like from the roof of your apartment block?” I asked Bernie.
“Pretty good. You can see quite far around. Why?”
“I am sick of feeling like we are constantly being hunted. It’s time to get a handle on our situation.”
“What are you thinking?” Jack asked.
“We need a diversion, some way of attracting attention. If killers turn up and take each other out, then it’s less for us to deal with.”
“What has this got to do with the roof?” Bernie asked.
“We pick a spot that we can observe from the roof,” I explained, “find a car, and turn on some loud music or set fire to it. We can then watch what happens from relative safety to see if there’s any kind of pattern or behaviour.”