So despite the fact that my stomach was flip-floppin’ like a nervous acrobat, I just kept right on trucking. Pushed my hands into my pockets, looked around at all the stores with what I hoped to be an expression of bored detachment. I wanted to play myself off as some dude who was just waitin’ around for his girlfriend to get off work, dig? Hell, I even started whistling a little tune because I figured the most conspicuous people are the ones who try their damnedest to look inconspicious.
Up ahead, I could just make out the Dollar Bonanza. Because of the angle, I couldn’t see their signs or anything, but I’d been at that mall often enough to know where it was.
I had to tell myself to keep strollin’ along at the same pace, right? To not even break stride in the least bit. And it wasn’t because I wanted to get there more quickly, exactly the opposite. That little part of my mind was whisperin’ again, practically begging me to turn back before it was too late.
But I don’t think I could’ve. Not even if I’d been one hundred percent committed to the idea. ‘Cause it felt like something was pulling me, right? Like Clarice fucking Hudson was this irresistible force and I was as powerless to stop as an iron shaving in an MRI chamber.
I still tried to play it off like it was all part of some grand scheme, ya know? Hell, I didn’t even know for certain whether or not our dear Clarice was even workin’ that night. For all I knew, she could already be out there, surprising some unsuspecting horndog with the gift that keeps on giving. So it wouldn’t hurt to just take a leisurely stroll past her store, right? Yeah… that’s what I thought, too. Or, at least, wanted to believe I thought. That distinction needs to be made, I think.
So the Dollar Bonanza is looming closer with every step, and the whole place is still empty, which is really starting to freak me out a little. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been there when the place was packed, but it felt like I was walking through the world’s largest mausoleum, man. Like maybe all those clerks were sprawled in the middle of toppled displays while their lifeless bodies slowly cooled to room temperature.
Even the clanging from the food court had fallen silent, but I could still hear the whine of that floor buffer, only it didn’t rise and fall in pitch like it would if someone were actually pushin’ it around. It was just this constant drone, like it was sittin’ in one place.
I tried to tell myself not to be such a pansy ass. There was no way that everyone in that place could’ve bought the big one all at the same time. No way that I could be the only living soul in a mall full of corpses. Just wasn’t fuckin’ logical, man.
But that didn’t keep the chillbumps from creepin’ up my arms as I got closer and closer to that store. I should at least see someone, ya know? Some tired looking dude with ruffled hair and drooping shoulders. A part-time student pushing a vacuum through a store. Hell, man, even a sound would’ve set my nerves at ease. Something like a laugh or the murmur of a conversation, but there wasn’t anything but the clack of my own footsteps against that polished floor.
I got to where I could see the display racks of Dollar Bonanza and realized I was holding my breath. My throat was so tight and dry… but I couldn’t have kept that whistling facade up even if it hadn’t been.
When I saw the shadow appear in front of the Dollar Bonanza entrance, my heart just about turned to ice, man. I still couldn’t see who, or what, was casting it and my imagination filled in the details all too readily. Mottled skin streaked with blood, maybe a few gashes displaying now useless organs, that vacant stare from eyes that never blink. Pupils that never dilate.
Rotters.
But that was absurd. I mean, what are the odds that that this bitch’s infection wiped out the entire mall on the same fuckin’ night? At the same fuckin’ time? I’m no mathematician, but it’d be astronomical, dude. Probably run a better chance of hittin’ the lottery on the same night you’re struck by lightning.
And I knew this, yet, I still couldn’t shake that feeling of impending doom. That cold certainty that things were about to go horribly, horribly wrong.
By the time I got to the front gate of Dollar Bonanza, my hands were clenched into fists, and it felt like my nutsack had hopped up into the safety of large intestine. My heart was palpitating and I didn’t want to look up from the floor, didn’t want to see whatever was waiting for me in that entrance.
I mean, it’s one thing to plan this shit out, ya know? To tell yourself that you’re Bosley fuckin’ Coughlin - Zombie Exterminator Elite and Champion of the Future. However, it’s a whole different ball game when it comes time to put thought into action. It’s like the difference between playing cops ‘n robbers and walking in on an armed robbery in progress.
So yeah… I was scared. Ain’t no shame in admittin’ that, dude. But there comes a time in every man’s life when he has to make a choice. Is he gonna sit by, with his thumb up his ass, and simply allow things to happen? Or is he gonna grow a pair and take control of his own fuckin’ destiny?
Let me tell ya brother, my time to make that decision had finally come.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was probably just her imagination, but with the rough and leathery flesh of Corduroy’s burned palm pressing against her lips, it seemed as if the taste of singed flesh flooded Ocean’s mouth. It thickened her saliva and made the back of her throat feel as if something had been left there to rot and sour. Her teeth gnashed at the skin, hoping the man would jerk his hand away long enough for her to scream, for Gauge to come running to her rescue, sickles flashing in the flickering light of the fire, his long hair flowing as his eyes blazed with indignation.
But Corduroy didn’t even so much as flinch, despite the fact that she could feel a fold of flesh slip between the gap in her front two teeth.
Maybe he couldn’t feel pain. Maybe the fire that had distorted his skin had also melted his nerves away, leaving nothing but a contorted mass of scars that were no different than a beetle’s shell. Or was he just that determined? Had his mind seized upon her so intensely that he could endure things that would make an ordinary man howl like a speared dog?
“Stop squirmin’, damn it! I’m taking you and you’ll fuckin’ thank me for it later!”
His voice was a low hiss and he tightened his grip on the back of Ocean’s head while the other hand pushed against her mouth so roughly that her teeth scraped against the inside of her lips. The taste of blood seeped across her tongue, the tangsharp. Rather than frightening the girl into compliance, however, the taste caused her panic stricken mind to react with the most primal of impulses.
Bleeding, oh God I’m bleeding, oh shit…
Her hands pummeled his chest with a series of dull thuds as she tried to twist and pull her way out of the man’s grasp. Part of her kept expecting Corduroy to slam her head against the brick wall or cover her nose as well as her mouth, shutting off her breathing entirely. Instead, he merely grunted as he fought to keep the young girl pressed tightly against his body. Again and again, his mouth darted toward her ear, but Ocean thrashed so violently that her hair was like a mass of tiny whips lashing out against his lips.
“Stop fighting and make this easier for both of us.”
Ocean kicked as hard as she could and connected with Corduroy’s shins firmly enough that her bare toes felt like they’d curled underneath themselves. Flares of pain shot through her foot. The man’s grip on her never loosened, the only sign that he’d even felt her attack was a slight widening of his eye.
She tried biting again, harder this time, clamping down on his hand so violently that her entire head trembled with the effort. A sharp intake of air let her know that Corduroy was, indeed, capable of feeling pain… but instead of pulling away, he simply set his jaw, and the entire time, his words haunted Ocean’s thoughts. I’m going to take you…