The florescent lights hurt his eyes, and it took him awhile to adjust. The place was virtually empty, just as it usually was at thistime of the morning. Only this time, there were no employees to be seen. Therewere, however, signs of struggle. Boxes knocked over here, a forgotten shoe overthere, but nowhere was there a person in sight. The hair stood up on the backof his neck, and he felt as if he were being watched.
From the back of the store he could hear banging. Mortcrept silently, which was no easy task with a bum knee. He was more likely tobe heard hissing through his teeth than taking a heavy footfall, but he did apretty damn good job of moving quietly. He crept down the cereal aisle, puttingrandom thoughts of the last time he had eaten cereal into the back corner ofhis mind. Why the hell were there so many cereals? Who could possibly need thatmuch variety?
The banging got louder as he crept heel to toe, followedby a quick hop, down the aisle. It sounded as if someone were banging on ashutter. As he reached the end of the aisle, he slowly leaned out and peekedaround the end cap.
The grocery store had a pharmacy. In the pharmacy, awoman cried as six of those things pounded on the iron shutters that securedthe pharmacy after closing time. For a moment, his mind raced, wondering how toget the woman out of there. He could cause a distraction, giving her time toescape, but what then? He sure as hell wouldn't be running from any of thosethings, and if they were like the recently deceased cops that he hadencountered earlier in the night, he would be done for. He was about todisappear down the aisle when the woman in the pharmacy spotted him peekingaround the corner.
He could see her eyes widen in sudden hope, and even ashe was shaking his head and putting his finger to his lips in a shushinggesture, she began screaming at him for help. Mort backed away in haste,knocking a box of cereal to the ground. A red-headed leprechaun looked up athim from the ground, mocking him. The gang of creatures at the shutters turnedaround to investigate the noise. It only took a second for them to give chase,and then Mort was shuffling down the aisle trying to get away from them.
He had a head start, but he knew that he was running arace that he had virtually no shot of winning. As he reached the halfway pointof the aisle, he looked over his shoulder to see the first of them rounding thecorner, arms out, knocking more mocking leprechauns to the ground.
He redoubled his efforts, but the tightness in his kneewould only allow him to go so fast. He hoped that the woman in the pharmacy wasable to get away; especially if he didn't manage to get away himself. At leastthen his death would be for something. The prospect was a damn site better thanany demise he had ever envisioned for himself in his clearer moretranscendental moments.
As he reached the end of the aisle, he could hear theirsnarls getting closer, their shambling footsteps outgaining his mad hop. Theirsneakers squeaked on the bright, white linoleum. He silently cursed himself fornot snagging cigarettes as soon as he had walked into the store, but thenagain, how was he supposed to know that an army of dead things were wanderingaround in the back? That asshole in the truck could have at least given him aheads up.
When he passed through the automatic sliding doors, hefelt the fingertips of the lead corpse brush his jacket. He turned around andconfronted the snarling face; bloody furrows ran down the woman's face as ifsomeone with sharp fingernails had tried to gouge her eyes out. Her long blondehair clung to the blood, and Mort shuffled backwards. He felt his knee pop, andsuddenly he could barely move. The woman reached for him and he shoved heraway. She backpedaled clumsily before falling hard on her back. As she awkwardlyattempted to rise, the crowd of creatures behind her parted and moved aroundher form as she were a rock sticking up in the middle of a river.
His knee was now composed of pure fire as he hopped onone leg. He looked everywhere for some sort of escape. More fingers brushed hisback, and out of desperation, he put on a final burst of speed. He spotted hissalvation in the form of a metal shopping cart. The fingers were brushing hisback again, and despite the fact that it lit every nerve in his knee on fire,he forced himself to use his leg as if it were normal.
Mort ran for his life, screaming in agony, and wrappedhis wrinkled hands around the red handle of the shopping cart. The cold metalwas the most welcome sensation he had felt in a while. For the first time in along time, he felt alive. Now he had to keep it that way.
Mort used his momentum to push the cart along. He putboth of his feet on the bottom rail and leaned forward. The cart moved at afaster pace, although he could feel every pebble that the hard, rubber wheelsrolled over in his knee. He chanced a look behind him, and he almost screamedin excitement to see the creatures losing ground.
The wheels on the cart started to slow. So he hopped ontothe ground and ran some more, sending more pain through his knee. He couldn'tkeep this up either. Four quick paces, and he was done. He steered the carttowards the exit to the parking lot, and
