How did this happen?
The good thing was that very few of them were interested in the store. A couple were at the door. I could hear the meaty slapping sounds of their hands on the glass. One was pushing this shopping cart in random directions. Every time he ran into something, or the cart was bumped by another of those things, he just kept going. It was like a 3-D zombie screen saver.
Anyways, I went to a skylight towards the back of the store. They were some sort of heavy-duty plastic. I took out a screwdriver, pried up the stripping, and popped out the panel. I tied the coil of rope I had found in the garage to a sturdy piece of pipe that stuck up through the roof, and then climbed down to the grocery store floor.
The smell of rot was already getting thick. Not the same as those things…but nasty nonetheless. I stayed low and crept around the aisles. To make things easier if I came back this way, I brought everything that could be useful, but that I didn’t have room for, and stacked it in the rear of the store, not far from where I had climbed down.
I went back in the stock area and found some more stuff. But not much. This store must’ve gotten overrun with folks in a panic when this all kicked off.
I imagine that when the delivery trucks stopped, it only caused more insanity. I must have missed a lot in those couple days at Erin’s house.
Has it really been a week and a half?
I wrote a note and left it secured to the supplies I stacked in the rear of the store. I detailed my plan. I explained that there is a warehouse out in the middle of nothing. It sits on a hill and is surrounded by a huge chain link fence that is topped with razor wire.
I used to have a route in that area. The complex sits on a ridge that only has one entry road. There is a thick area of forest that surrounds the whole thing. Hell, I even remember the big environmentalist rally that tried to prevent the clearing done to the crest of that hill. Initially, the company wanted to clear the entire thing. It was eventually agreed that only the area of the actual complex plus a two-hundred yard perimeter be cleared.
I left directions to the place…then took my newly acquired supplies and retraced my route back to my car and headed out.
What I didn’t count on was how difficult it would be to get there. You can’t drive anyplace without bringing those things out in droves! They clogged the highway so badly that I had to exit…across a damn field! Having no desire to drive in the dark, I decided to find someplace to hole up till morning.
I put a portable CD boom box on full blast. Once I had a moment that I could stop safely, I set it on the ground, coasted about four more blocks and stopped.
My biggest concern was not being seen, but leaving the car behind. I tried to park where I would remember. Then I ran into the fenced backyard of a two-story house on a cul-de-sac that looked empty.
Once I made sure the backyard was clear, I tried the sliding glass door. Locked. I checked each window and finally found one that was not latched.
As soon as I opened it, I knew I would have some dealings with a zombie or two. Luckily the bathroom I climbed in was closed off. Unluckily, something started pawing at the door before I was even all the way in.
I didn’t know how many might be in the house so I wanted to deal with this as quick as possible to minimize the noise being made.
I dropped my pack, grabbed my bat, and opened the door…
That little boy couldn’t have been more than six or seven. I actually considered just restraining him like I had Erin and Beth. Then, what I assumed to be his mom, older brother, and dad came down the hall.
From that point, it was like a switch had simply been flipped off in the part of me that is human. I swung that bat, coming down on that boy’s head. It took two more swings to actually bring him down. The mother was next. It was only after I calmed down, stopped shaking so badly (I don’t think the tremors in my hands will ever stop completely)…that I realized she had pushed the other two, dad and big brother, to get at me.
Could something in whatever keeps those things going cause that sort of reaction?
Once I had put all four down for good, I had time to look around and try to piece things together.
It looks as if it started with Oldest Boy. He has one single bite that I had to look for to find. On his left leg, just above the ankle. I really have no guesses on that. It looks like Youngest Boy was next, and that he did the most identifiable damage to Mom. Many of the bites that did not tear chunks out are small in size.
Poor Dad must’ve come home to all three. Since so much blood is upstairs…there is a big smear of it on the wall from the top of the staircase to the first landing where the stairs make a little “L” turn…I guess they got him up there. Also, most of Dad’s insides are gone. His abdomen is a horrid open hole. Mom and Youngest Boy are torn up pretty good. But nothing like Dad.
There is one other thing.
There was a baby’s room.
It was empty.
They didn’t leave anything behind except the morbid splash of blood on one wall and a tiny section of the carpet.
I’ll resume my journey to the warehouse just before sunrise tomorrow.
My biggest find here besides food and a case of bottled water was one of those pitchers with the built in filter.
I also found a .22 pistol and three boxes of ammo in a box on the top shelf of a linen closet under a bunch of sheets and towels.
* * * * *
Chapter 2
Friday, February 1
I made it!
There is a certain feeling from being around others that is gratifying. If you can remember back just a couple of weeks to when before all of this started…one of life’s pleasures was just having some time alone. Peace and quiet. No distractions or demands. For those few precious moments, you could almost block out the ‘real’ world.
Now, things are the exact opposite. But, I should back up a bit. I made it to the warehouse complex. It’s a distribution center for Wal-Mart. There is a lot of stuff here. There are also about seventy or so people!
There seems to be a real mixed bag here, but everybody has one thing in common—at least for now—over-shadowing all our differences. We’ve all lost somebody to something that was totally unthinkable just a couple of weeks ago.
What I have discovered is that it is even worse than I guessed. That is saying a lot considering what I encountered on my way here. Yesterday was a nightmare, I have no idea how I made it through alive…
I gathered my stuff and made sure to load the pistol. I remember looking at my watch and seeing that it was 4:17 a.m. I knew I still had a couple of hours of darkness left. My plan was to use as much cover as possible and sneak back to my car.
Then…there was the explosion. It shook the house, breaking who knows how many windows. It knocked things off shelves, and out front it was suddenly brighter than daylight. I made my way upstairs and took a look.
Two blocks away was a main street of sorts. A gas station was now a raging inferno. I saw some of those things blown out in an obscene depiction of the blast radius. Some of the ones furthest out were getting up! I thought I heard screams above the roar, but if they were real, they didn’t last long enough for me to be certain.
I took a look around the neighborhood. Those things were everywhere! Swarming to every house. I imagine all that breaking glass got their attention. It is like they just converge on the closest sound. I watched a couple fall through the broken remains of the living room window of the house across the street.
Then I heard them.
Downstairs.
Just looking into the yard, I could see ten or twenty coming at this house. By the time I was down the stairs there were three in the living room wandering around. I stepped on something that made a very loud crunch. All three heads snapped my direction!