sometimes that happens.”
“Well, uh, if I forgot is that okay? I mean it is summer and everything right now, I am sure shoes are more of a hassle for you than….”
“What if we have to go into a restaurant or a store? You have to wear shoes in stores, it’s the law! The police will arrest me!” Cory wailed.
“Hey, hey, settled down, no big deal, the police won’t arrest you right now, they know how things are all messed up and everything.”
“No! We have to go back and get my shoes!”
Amelia thought about it and there was no way she was running the gauntlet of those men at the Youngsfield exit again, who knows what they wanted? Remembering the layout of Arvada a little she recalled there was a Target store just off Kipling and if that didn’t work out there was a K-mart a bit further down the road, she thought there might be a shoe store or two in there somewhere as well.
“Okay, Cory, calm down, I have an idea, alright? I know where we can get you new shoes okay? I could use another pair myself, maybe tennis shoes for both of us alright? You seriously won’t get in trouble for going into the stores barefoot anymore either, the laws have changed honey and no one is going to care what people have on anymore. We’ll stop right up here and get us both some new shoes.”
As she sped past the Ward Road exit she was relived to see that the road looked clear up to the Kipling exit, a few minutes later she was exiting on Kipling and turning left under the highway to go north. Three blocks beyond that she pulled up into a shopping center along the side of the road, there was one super Target store and several smaller strip mall outlets. Amelia eventually stopped outside a “Two For Twenty” shoe store, which might not have the best brands available, but would definitely have shoes for both her and Cory. She could see into the front of the Target store from where she was at and it looked ominous. She was not sure, was that something moving she spied from within the big box store? The “Two for Twenty”’s front door had been forced open, leaving a large swath of glass around the front entrance. Amelia spied a rack full of flip-flops not too far in from the front door, discounted to a mere three for ten dollars, excellent Amelia always liked sales. The lights were on in the place making it a beacon in the surrounding darkness and the place looked empty.
“Look kiddo we gotta make this quick okay, we get in, we grab some shoes our size and we get out. First thing we do is get to that round rack of flip-flops and you put a pair on, I will carry you over the broken glass by the front door. Got it? Cory. Cory listen, if we see any zombies, any zombies at all, you run back to the car and yell loud enough for me to hear you okay? You got it?”
“Okay Amelia, I am not a baby! We go get flip-flops first.”
“Okay good and you yell if any zombies come close. Okay do you know what size shoe you wear?”
“Uh, six?”
“You don’t know huh? No big deal buddy, it is more of a mom thing anyway, I think. We will just try on a couple pair until we get the ones we need. Ready?”
Cory nodded ‘yes’ and Amelia stepped outside of the car and waited until he scrambled up into her arms, she hefted him with her left arm and reached in and pulled out her trusty fire-poker, which had served her so well in the hotel. Fully prepared she cast a quick look around and seeing no zombies she trotted into the “Two for Twenty” after scrambling over the broken glass she set Cory down and they both approached the flip-flop rack. Amelia pulled the tags off of a few that looked to be Cory’s size and waited while he tried them on, a size three, not that flip-flops were any good judge of size, they still gave her a ball-park to work within. She hustled him down the ‘boys’ aisle and when they got there she raised her hands in front of her face in a ‘shhh’ing motion, they waited and listed. Hearing nothing Amelia whispered, “What kind do you want? Tennis shoes okay? Or hiking shoes, or both.”
Cory pointed out several styles and Amelia threw the boxes onto the floor, three seemed to be spot on for size inside of two minutes they had three pair of shoes picked out for him, a pair of ‘swim shoes’, tennis shoes and a pair of ankle-high hiking boots. Amelia made Cory put on the tennis shoes and carry the other shoes, insisting he take the flip-flops too. Then they moved over to woman’s footwear and Amelia chose a pair style of tennis shoes she wanted, then grabbed her size, a half size smaller and a half size bigger then made for the front door. Along the way they stopped to grab two bags of boys socks and Amelia picked out half a dozen pair of ladies socks as well, she was a bit low on clothing. Amelia always thought it was hilarious that boys bought socks by the bag and girls by the pair. They moved quickly out the front door and Amelia pulled up short seeing two zombies on the passenger’s side, across the car from where she and Cory now stood.
“Cory!” she whispered, “Get low and crawl into the car!” Surprisingly he quickly dropped immediately to his hands and knees favoring his uninjured arm made his way to the vehicle. While he did this Amelia made as if to run around the front of the car, leading the zombies to that side, then feinted and ran towards the back of the car, the zombies, not quite to the front edge of the bumper started moving around to the back end instead to cut Amelia off. Amelia then took six big steps forward and into the car, barely missing Cory’s leg as he pulled himself all the way into the passenger’s seat. She slammed her door shut, put the keys in the ignition and drove away, catching one zombie on the rear bumper, however even that was not hard enough to made it lose it's balance or fall over. ‘That was close!’ She thought looking in the rear view mirror.
“Amelia!” shouted Cory, peering out the front windshield.
Whipping her head around she spotted a mob of zombies coming out of the Target store, some were very fast, others carried bats and sticks, a few even had lamps or other household furnishing to use as impromptu weapons. Amelia swerved the car down a parking lot lane and put the mob of unruly zombies behind her. Turning north back onto Kipling she made her way past the K-mart, the lot there was filled with roving undead, they looked up at the car as it passed, two blocks away, but none of them headed towards her. Amelia kept going into greater suburbia until she reached the cross street that she knew would take her to Max’s house. He lived in an established neighborhood, the trees were all fully grown, it looked like a nice place to raise a family. A few more turns and one mistaken drive around the block brought her outside of the house numbers that were printed on the sheet of paper she had taken from the MAC Corporation lobby the day before.
“This is it buddy, we are here.”
“This is it? I don’t see anybody?”
“Uh, they are probably hiding, we need to go up and tell them we are here.”
“Amelia, the door is open. I don’t think anyone is here.”
Sure enough, Amelia examined the house closer and noticed the front door was ajar. This was not good. Max was supposed to BE here, with his wife and kids and they were going to save Amelia and Cory and Diane!
“Amelia? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” asked Cory.
Amelia looked at him and smiled through her tears, “Dude, we got those shoes and you are barefoot again?”
He looked at her a moment and then started scrambling around for his shoes, “Yeah, my mom, she said not to wear sneakers without socks, I took them off to put on my socks and then you started crying and, I am sorry Amelia, I’ll put them back on if you will stop crying.”
“No-no Cory I am not crying about your shoes kiddo, it is, this!” she waved at the house, “Max and his family are supposed to be here, it is not supposed to be like this, empty and dead. They were supposed to be here!”
“Well are you sure they are not here? Maybe they are hiding? We have to go look. Lets go!” with that Cory popped open the passenger’s side door and started walking up to the front door, still barefoot Amelia noticed. She called out softly, “Wait for me buddy! I am right behind you!” then grabbed the fire poker and went into Max’s house.
Chapter 43
Sarah was frantic. It had been more than twenty four hours and she had not heard from Max. The worst part had not been hiding in the attic all day and night nor was it the discomfort of having to stay up in the rafters amongst all the insulation and Christmas decorations, no the worst was simply not knowing what was going on. All
