“You have to say it like that?” I asked.
“You want honesty or for me to blow smoke up your ass so you can feel better?”
“Normally I want honesty but when there’s a hoard of zombies behind me and God knows what ahead of me, I would prefer the smoke,” I replied.
“Well, you never clarified that, sorry.”
We made it to the end of the hall without incident. I felt myself beginning to breathe normally as I opened the door. The door led to a loading dock with garage doors for the semi deliveries. All the doors were closed.
I heard the growling immediately and shined the light in the direction it was coming from. A zombie missing the lower half of its torso was in the corner. This wasn’t something that stopped the dead from coming after you, as I had seen more than a few use their arms to make their way after food. However this one was pinned in by several chairs and shelves. It even appeared to have one of its hands nailed into the ground.
I scanned the room for any other possible threats but none were there. We made our way into the loading dock. Ian shut the door.
I went over to one of the garage doors and opened it. The sight that appeared before me was extremely unpleasant. There was another hoard of zombies in the back alley way behind the grocery store. The noise of the garage door got their attention and they turned our way. They seemed to growl in unison at the sight of us, the sight of food.
It was like when a crowd would cheer in unison when a band or performer would take the stage. Maybe that thought only crossed my mind since we were on a platform elevated above them. Above our adoring fans who only wanted to rip us limb from limb and devour our insides.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“I’m going to leave the box with you. You keep the high ground. I’m going to fight my way through the crowd and get the car,” Ian said.
I looked at him. I could feel that my eyes were the size of dinner plates and about to pop out of my head.
“You can’t be serious?!”
“Cate, you gorgeous girl. That’s the best I can do with less than sixty seconds to plan.”
I could feel the panic rising in my chest.
He looked into my eyes. His dark brown eyes penetrating into my soul.
“Have we ever not made it before?” He asked.
“No,” I replied.
“Then why should this time be any different?”
“Because our luck isn’t going to last forever.”
“Yes it is. This is why we never won the lottery. God was saving all our luck for this.”
With a wink he jumped off the platform into the swarming crowd of the undead.
“Ian!” I screamed after him.
He was gone. I couldn’t see him. But I saw dead bodies fall to the ground lifeless. I didn’t see any fresh blood or limbs flying up but that was no comfort. That didn’t mean he wasn’t dying. There were no screams from him but that could just mean they got his throat first.
I was lost in terror when I felt the weight on my left foot. An ugly dead woman was grabbing at my shoe. I took my knife and knelt down to stab her in the head. She fell to the ground but she was followed by more ugly dead things.
I continued to stab them in a seemingly endless repetition. The good thing was that the higher ground was an advantage that helped keep me safe.
Now that I had my barring’s back somewhat, I made sure to keep my eye on the door when I caught a break from the swarming crowd below, in case the other hoard made it through and came after me. I didn’t want to be blindsided.
I swallowed my panic even though it was difficult. I was worried about Ian since losing him in the crowd and it felt like a lot of time had passed since he jumped from the platform. Though it had probably only been a few minutes.
The crowd was getting smaller. Only a few stragglers remained. In the carnage of the motionless zombies, I didn’t see any fresh blood or body parts that would belong to a recently dead human. I took that as a good sign that Ian had made it through.
Just then, I heard the engine of the Mustang revving as it turned the corner to the back alley coming my way. Ian stopped in front of the platform but not before crashing into one of the zombies. The walking corpse went flying about five feet from the car.
I smiled and turned to pick up the box of food. The whole point of this mission. As I bent down to pick it up, I heard a loud crash.
I looked up to see the door from the hallway standing wide open and the hoard from inside spilling out.
I moved the box to the edge of the platform as quickly as I could. The zombies were on the move fast. They were hungry and apparently they thought Cate was on the menu.
I jumped off the platform and grabbed the box off the side. I barely missed getting my hand bit by the lead zombie.
With no time to thank the Lord for quick reflexes and a little luck, I ran to the car. It wasn’t easy as the weight of the box was slowing me down significantly. I got to the car and opened the door with some difficulty as I didn’t put the box down.
I tossed it in the backseat causing several cans to spill out on to the floor. I hopped into the passenger seat and shut the door. Looking out the
