“Why wouldn’t they?”
“I know you said you don’t want to think about it, but . . . maybe this isn’t happening just right here. This could be happening all over town, all over the state, all over . . . well, anywhere.”
“That’s nuts,” Chen declared. “You’re catastrophizing.”
She rubbed her face and sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. The authorities will be here soon. It will all be over. And then we can get on with—“
He glared at her again, raising his voice a little. “Our normal lives?”
Oh, right. He had relatives he cared about. He had seen them murdered. Oops.
She sighed again. “I’m sorry.” She looked down at her crossed legs. “I’m just—”
“You’re sorry? Are you sorry you tackled me, kept me from saving my family?” His voice rose some more. Janice was concerned he was being too loud.
“You know I did that to save you, right? You’d have gotten yourself killed.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do, and so do you.”
He seemed to ponder this. He sighed, a little too loudly for Janice’s taste. “Okay,” he conceded, this time at a lower volume. “I suppose you’re right.”
Chen stared down at the floor. He looked depressed. She knew the signs from back when she had been a nurse. That was such a long time ago . . .
“So what about you? Do you have family?” He was still staring at the floor.
“No. I live alone.”
“What about your parents?”
“They’re dead. I have no siblings, I have no cousins, I have no children, I have no one . . . except my cat.”
“That must be very difficult.”
“Not as difficult as . . . well, what you’ve gone through just now.”
Chen nodded, still staring at the floor.
Though Janice had saved his life, she understood why he wasn’t grateful. She hadn’t done it for his gratitude.
She looked at her watch. Though it seemed like forever, she guessed it had only been ten minutes. There had been no noise since the terrorist/zombie opened the freezer door and left.
“I’ll try to see what’s happening,” Janice declared. “We don’t want to stay in here too long.”
“I’ll go, you stay here.”
She shook her head. “We’ll both go.”
“All right.”
They tried to remain quiet as they removed the crates from in front of the door. Then Janice opened the door a crack and peeked out. There was no one in the cooler. She crawled out the door, Chen following her, and she approached the employee access door that opened into the main part of the store. Slowly easing the door open a bit, she looked through but saw no one. She crawled behind the register counter and poked her head up to view what was happening. All the creatures, the zombies, the terrorists, whatever, had all moved on.
But not just them.
There were no dead bodies at all. It seemed as if while she and Chen were in the freezer, someone had cleaned up all the corpses. This was absurd; they couldn’t have been in there for that long—not enough for anyone to remove that many bodies. Right? Cars scattered all over the road, sidewalks, parking lots, etc., but there were no dead bodies.
No dead bodies? How could this be?
Jize was back in the freezer with Janice as they had decided to hide out for several more minutes. He realized he hadn’t introduced himself. He had told her about his family, but not about himself, though he suspected she already knew. Now was the time to see if she was a real fan. “I’m Jize Chen. Sorry we met under these circumstances.”
“Janice Fernley.”
“You recognize me?”
She shrugged. “I am a big fan, but let’s not talk about that right now. I’m sure the last thing you need is a fan fawning all over you.”
That was the truth.
“And I’m not in a fawning mood at the moment.”
They waited a little longer before checking outside again. Maybe the zombies were all hiding, waiting to strike. Maybe they had picked up all the bodies and hid them, though that didn’t make much sense.
“Do you think they’d attack cats?” she asked.
Why would she think about cats? Oh, right. She said her cat was all she had. He shrugged. “I doubt it.” He had no idea, but she needed comforting.
After about ten minutes had passed, they slowly and cautiously emerged from the store and into the sunshine.
Cars filled the road, and some had crashed, unmoved from their positions since the last time Jize saw them. Some motors still ran but with no drivers. Jize noticed hundreds of bloody footprints originating from pools of blood and heading up the street.
Amidst this shocking scene, Jize spotted a man walking with a young girl in a princess outfit, both covered in blood, the girl on the man’s shoulders. The man carried a shotgun and did not look like a terrorist or zombie.
Jize risked contacting him. “Hello! Over here!”
The man stopped and pointed the gun in Jize’s direction.
“What’s your name, Snow White?” Vin asked the girl on his shoulders.
“Silly! You just said it!” She giggled.
The girl was not coping with this well.
“You must have another name. What is your . . . not pretend name?”
She took a few seconds before responding, “Emily.” She said it with such sadness that Vin’s heart ached.
“Hello! Over here!”
Vin turned toward the voice and saw two people in front of a gas station across the parking lot from the supermarket—a white woman and an Asian man. The Asian man, who looked in his sixties, had a full head of jet black hair and wore denim jeans and a well-tailored sport coat. The woman appeared to be in her fifties, with straight, dirty-dish blonde hair. They both looked scared as hell, and they had no weapons—at least, nothing out in the open.
Vin raised his weapon and pointed at them. Their facial expressions betrayed a similar experience to his and Emily’s.
“You’re unarmed?”
The man nodded. The woman gave a soft yes.
Vin didn’t like it, but he would have to trust them. They
