answer came literally around the corner.
I spotted a gas station down a crossroad and headed for it. It was one of those large stations with a big convenience store. It was out of the line of sight of the zombies chasing us, and I hoped like hell they wouldn’t see us going for it.
I sped into the station and zipped around to the back of the building. There was a wall behind separating it from a subdivision and little else. A dumpster was nearby, but it was empty. I jumped off the bike and tried the back door. It was locked. Naturally, I thought. I grabbed my crowbar and went to work on the door, trying to open it as quickly and quietly as I could without damaging it.
I managed to pry the frame just enough to get the door open and I pushed the bike and trailer inside. Just as I got the trailer in I was wondering where my new friends had gone off to. I got my answer as a now-quiet car coasted to the back of the station, and Tommy and Duncan both jumped out, grabbing weapons and ammo.
As they jumped inside, Tommy said breathlessly, “Would you believe we ran out of fucking gas?”
I just shook my head at the irony and closed the door, using the crowbar to bend the frame back and secure the door. Tommy had run to the front door to make sure it was locked, and came skidding back to the counter, unlimbering his rifle and spreading out the clips on the counter. Duncan set up a position by the soft drinks section, after being shown how to use the rifle by Tommy, and I stayed over by the drink machine. I still had a crying Jake with me, and pulled out a bottle for him to take for lunch. I prayed it would keep him quiet until the worst of the danger had passed, if it did. I laid my carbine on the floor in front of me and sat back against the machine. I pulled out a spare magazine and placed it nearby.
We were actually in a better position than I could have hoped for. The glass windows were mostly covered in advertising posters, and stacks of water softener salt reinforced the windows up to chest height. Shelving units further obstructed anything looking in, and the place was in sufficient disarray that we would be hard to spot if we held still. The only thing that might give us away was sound, and my big concern on that was Jake. He was generally a happy baby, and liked to hear himself. Unfortunately, in our current situation, that could prove fatal.
We waited in silence for the ghouls to show up, the only noise was Jake slurping on his bottle. He fussed a bit from time to time and my heart was in my throat. We didn’t have long to wait. The first one, a bald zombie with a hand missing, slowly walked through the gas station. His head turned slowly from side to side, and I could see his nostrils flaring. Right behind him was another man, this one a grayish color, and in an advanced state of decay. Skin was hanging off him, and in more than one place I could see bone showing through. A woman came next and she gave us the worst scare. She came around the corner, with a ripped up shoulder and bite marks down one bare arm. She was right up to the window, and we all froze in place. She slid along the front, leaving a greasy trail on the glass, and stopped right at the door. She faced the door, and looked right into the store. None of us dared to move, and we all wondered how to get her to move on. Her dead eyes just stared, and I could see her nose flatten a little as she pressed her face to the door.
I suddenly realized what she was doing. She was trying to sniff us out, and if we had passed through that door, she would have found us. We waited in silence, and I was afraid to even look in another direction. She stayed at the door, and one hand rose to scrape against the glass. Another zombie saw what she was doing and came to investigate. He wasn’t in as bad shape, and I couldn’t see any trauma on him. He must have turned from internal infection. He walked up to the door and put both hands on the glass. I was getting anxious. Jake was about to finish his bottle and was going to need to burp. If I didn’t move him, he was going to get fussy and loud.
The zombies stopped moving and slowly put their hands down at their sides. I was stunned when I saw them actually close their eyes. What the heck was up with that? I wasn’t about to question their motives, I just decided to use the opportunity. I slid down further towards the floor and sat behind a shelving unit. I couldn’t see the zombies, and hoped they couldn’t see me. I shifted Jake, and he let out a small but forceful belch. I couldn’t see the zombies, but I saw Tommy tense.
“Their eyes just opened again” he whispered in a barely audible voice, not daring to move even his lips.
“Christ, they have good hearing,” I whispered back, just as quietly. I was silently praying that Jake would not make any more noise. I had to assume the store was currently surrounded, and we would be in serious trouble if they found out we were in here. For right now, I had to assume they knew we were somewhere, they just didn’t know where.
“How many are out there?” I whispered to Tommy. I couldn’t see from my hiding place behind the shelves.
I could see Tommy’s eyes darting around the station, and he hissed, “At least fifty that I can see, God knows how many more.” I felt bad for him. Being at the counter, he was directly in the line of sight of the zombies at the door, and couldn’t move at all. I felt Jake shift, and looked down to see that he was starting to get sleepy eyes. The fresh air and the excitement, not to mention the recent bottle, had done a number to put the guy to sleep. I held him to my shoulder and rocked him gently, praying he would go to sleep. Knowing my luck, he’d probably snore for the first time in his life.
I heard a scratching at the glass again, and figured the two ghouls were still trying to figure out if food was available in the store. I just hoped they wouldn’t decide to smash the glass and find out.
Tommy suddenly let out a breath and whispered, “They’re leaving. Something distracted them and they’re heading away.”
Duncan slid away from his position and went back by Tommy. “Thought that woman zombie was going to find us for sure.” He said, shaking his head and placing his rifle on his shoulder.
“Same here.” I said. “I thought a burp was going to be our undoing.”
Tommy shrugged, “We’d have figured something out.”
We were still speaking in whispers, as we could see dozens of zombies in the streets. The risk of one coming to investigate was still high, so we decided to retreat to the back areas of the convenience store. Jake had fallen asleep, so I brought him back to the manager’s office and laid him on a Mexican blanket I found in the store. I closed the door most of the way, and went to exploring our new home. At least for a while.
I checked the back area, and found the storeroom mostly intact, save for a scattering of towels and such on the floor. I found a box of energy bars, and added it to the supplies I had in the bike trailer. Duncan found a supply of batteries that would be useful, and some cheap two-way radios. He unpacked them and put batteries in, giving me one of the radios when he finished. Tommy was checking out the bathrooms, making sure there weren’t any surprise visitors waiting for us.
Duncan and I were sitting in the employee’s break area, enjoying a lunch of Ho-Ho’s, peanuts, and stale Doritos’s, when Tommy came back and sat with us.
“Well, we’re alone, thank God, no surprises in the building. I was able to look out the window of the women’s bathroom and see our car. The zombies were crawling all over it like sniffing dogs, but they didn’t break in or anything.” Tommy said, picking up a Ho-Ho and having some lunch himself.
“Any idea what might have distracted them? Not that I’m not grateful, but if there’s someone else out there, we might be able to help them.” I said, opening another package of Doritos’s.
“Not a clue. Anybody willing to change the focus of so many Z’s has to be slightly crazy.” Said Tommy.
“ ‘Z’s’?” I asked.
Duncan piped up “Z for Zombie. Like calling them Zack or Zed.”
I shrugged. “Works for me.” I looked around our little haven. “Well, gents, what’s our next move? I personally would rather not spend the rest of my days in a gas station. Kind of lowers your ranking when you finally head to the Great Divide, you know?”
Tommy laughed. “I hear that. So what’s the plan?”
I pointed at the ceiling. “We should probably send someone up top to get a look at the situation, and see if there might be a break in the Z migration for us to make a run for it. We should also fortify the front windows, as they are our weakest point. If we can’t fortify them, we should at least find a way to keep from being seen from the outside.”
Duncan spoke up. “I can handle that. I saw some advertisement posters in the back area, I can tack them up without too much trouble.”
“Sounds good,” I said, “Just make sure our girlfriend doesn’t come back.”
