Please, she asks anyone or thing who might be listening, please let me catch a break. Surely I’ve earned it.
26
Then
Isaac didn’t come back. We waited ten minutes, twenty. We waited until his brother was flushed red with fear and ready to explode.
“I’m going after him,” Jude finally said, jerking his arm out of Paisley’s grip when she clutched at him. “I have to. Isaac would come for me. Shit. Shit!”
“Shh.” Dan held up his hand and when he was assured everyone saw him at the door, he opened it carefully, the hinges silent because Evan had had the foresight to squirt them with WD-40. He popped back in after a moment, his face grim. “The little bit I can see of the parking lot is full of them. We aren’t getting to the vehicles any time soon.”
Had Lana stayed, they would’ve been surrounded and trapped in the van, so I was glad she’d gotten out. It still didn’t make me any happier not having her with me, though.
“What if we distract them to the far side of the building?” I asked. “There are kitchen timers in the main part of the store. A couple of us could duck walk out there to get some things to make noise. Toss them on the far side and then skate along this edge. It could be that Isaac is stuck in a car, unable to move.”
Jude had his fingers thrust deep into his hair, pulling hard as he paced. Any time Paisley got near, he jerked away from her until she was in tears.
“These aren’t movie zombies. I don’t know that they’d even be fooled by the lure. I mean, they use lures. If they have enough brain power to do that, they might have enough to figure out the timers are a feint.” Jean’s and Evan’s eyes kept going to the door, though, as if they wanted to rush out and after their kids, damn the consequences. The only thing holding them back was the fact that those consequences would be deadly. They might make a few yards, a quarter mile, but they were everywhere and eventually Evan and Jean would be seen.
Then it would be game over.
“We can’t just sit here and do nothing. If he is out there …”
“Remember the farm,” I said to Dan and he nodded grimly.
“What?” Jude asked. “What?” he almost shouted and we all shushed him. “If you know something …” he growled at me and I raised my hands in a ‘we’re all friends here’ gesture.
“We saw one using a tool. A rock. To try to break a car window.”
“Shit. Shit. So you’re saying, even if my brother managed to lock himself inside a car, he’ll still probably die?”
“No. I’m saying one of them managed to use a rock as a tool. Doesn’t mean they all know how to do that. Doesn’t mean he’s not safe. We just have to be a little cautious. That’s all.”
“Cautious,” he mocked. “Fuck caution. I’m going to go get my brother and if you simps don’t want to come, then fuck you all.” He grabbed one of the machetes and a gun and when Dan tried to stop him, he shoved the gun in his face. “Don’t.”
Dan stepped back and we all watched him disappear. Paisley followed soon after, apologizing as she went. As soon as she left, Dan cursed under his breath. “Great. Cuts us in half.”
“Not quite. Cuts us down a third is all. Well, if you don’t count Isaac.”
A scream rang out. Another. Gunshots.
“We have to do something,” I said, and Dan glared at me.
“What? Get yourself killed too? We don’t have to do anything.”
“No,” Jean said quietly, “but we should.”
I ran to what I assumed was a manager’s office, a tiny box of a room filled with paper and files and corporate despair. I grabbed the radio off the desk and checked it to see if it had batteries. It blared out static when I turned it on, so I dialed down the volume and went back out, holding it up.
Dan, tight-lipped and angry, nevertheless grabbed his weapon and nodded at me. Evan and Jean hefted their weapons too, which made me feel marginally safer. And by marginally, I really meant not at all.
What the fuck was I thinking? I said a silent apology to Lana and ran out the door after a quick check around, heading left to the opposite end of the building. It seemed to take forever and the farther away from the door I got, the more terrified I felt, until I was pretty sure I’d pee myself if anything jump-scared me.
Trembling, I peeked around the corner and didn’t see any of them. I gestured to Dan to keep going and we did, taking it slower, veering around pallets stacked with feed. When we got to the next corner, I eased my head out as slowly as possible. All of them were converged on the far side, huddled around something … someone. Evan’s truck was right in front, as was the car. We could all squeeze into the pickup and tear out of there, but that would mean leaving Jude, Isaac, and Paisley to their fate.
“What do you want to do?” I whispered, so quietly I barely heard myself.
“Evan should take the truck and see if he can lure them out. Leave the radio here full blast and then we’ll run back around the opposite way. Evan can pull up to the fence on the outside to get us out.” Jean squeezed her husband’s hand. “Go.”
He went. There wasn’t time to agree or argue. It was really our only option and once they got wind of us, it would be on.
I waited until
