Tracy ducked just in time as the walker swung it’s grisly arm toward her. Rolling out of the way, she backed into a display of magazines which fell over, spilling across the floor behind her. I watched in horror as the zombie turned toward her, bearing down on her with unusual speed. She scrambled to get her footing, to retreat backwards but the magazines flipped under her feet, causing her to slide in place. I had no way to get to her, with two walkers bearing down on me and just beyond them, the locked door. With a surge of adrenaline I swung at the nearest walker, removing it’s leg completely just below the knee. It crashed to the ground, tripping the second zombie. With both on the ground I had the perfect position from which to strike. I swung hard and felt my machete lodge securely in the top of it’s skull. Instantly it stopped moving, it’s body weight pinning the crawler below it, leaving it reaching for me in frantic futility.
I immediately turned my attention to the interior of the store, where I saw Tracy shoving a rolled up magazine in the zombie’s mouth. It was crawling on top of her, it’s boney fingers scratching at her arms and face. She dodged left and right and looked over at me. A sadness filled her eyes, as though she was giving up, as though she knew this was the end. “NO!!” I yelled at her. “You FIGHT!” I screamed, banging on the glass with the butt of my knife. The loud crack echoed through the store and the zombie looked toward me for a moment, it’s eyes encrusted with the thick dried puss characteristic of the advanced stages of the infection. I banged again, hoping that the sound would continue to draw it’s attention. It hesitated, almost confused between its urge to attack it’s current prey and it’s instincts for following sound. I doubled my effort, pounding so hard on the thick safety glass that it began to chip off under my knife. Tracy wiggled her feet under the creature’s chest and I watched as her leg muscled flexed. With a tremendous effort she pushed up hard, launching the zombie upwards into the air. It crashed against the counter, sending tubes of beef jerky and stacks of gum flying. She immediately used this moment to scramble to her feet, dodging backwards behind a shelf full of crackers and cookies.
I watched as Tracy played tag with the zombie, running around racks of food and auto parts and near the refrigerators full of drinks. “Come unlock the door!” I call out to Tracy. “Let me help you!” She nodded, dodging left to avoid a lunge and kicking outward, sending it spilling onto the ground. She raced to the door and met her there, staring into her eyes as she flipped the lock. I pulled the door open and she bolted out, jumping to the right of the corpses on the ground. The zombie inside pursued her quickly and as it got to the doorway I swung the door into its head as hard as I could. It flung backward with a sickening crack, crashing onto the ground, finally silent.
I turned at looked at Tracy, who flung herself into my arms. She buried her head in my neck and began to sob uncontrollably. Her body shook and I could feel her tears trickling down my shirt. I pulled her close, wrapping my arms around her tightly. “I thought I was going to lose you.” I said with a whisper, kissing her hair and pulling her head against my cheek. She sobbed again, nodding and nuzzling against my chest. She pulled away, looking up into my eyes. Her water caught in her eyes made them glisten and her lips and nose looked swollen and red from her tears. “I love you.” She said sincerely, leaning up toward my face and pulling her lips to mine. We kissed and I felt a flood of emotions tingling throughout my body. I pulled away for a moment “I love you too.” I replied, and she smiled as she kissed me again.
Considering how awful the world had become, I was feeling pretty good. I was spending the apocalypse with the girl of my dreams, and she felt the same way about me that I did for her. We exchanged flirtatious glances as we carried box after box out to the car, loading it up with canned food, beef jerky, and cases of water. I tossed her a pack of Reese’s cups, which she opened and ate gratefully, and she rewarded me with a peanut butter and chocolate-flavored kiss as I passed by her carrying a case of granola bars. We loaded up on lighters, newspaper, and the limited inventory of tools. Tracy found a revolver under the register, and I found a box of bullets and a letter opener in the small office. Comparing everything piled in the sedan to what was left in the store I knew we would need a second vehicle. None of the cars had keys in them, and we only found one set of keys in the pockets of one of the walkers laying in the pile by the gas pumps.
“It’s too bad this place isn’t more secure” I said ruefully. Between an almost unlimited supply of gas and all the food we are leaving behind this would make a pretty good stash.” Tracy nodded, looking out in the direction of the city. “There’s no telling who or what will come down that road, and this is the first place they would stop. Our best bet is to make multiple trips until we’ve cleaned this place out.” I hefted the last case of water onto the roof of the car, noticing that the tires were almost rubbing in the wheel wells. “We’re not gonna move very fast with all this weight.” I said analytically. “Let’s hope we don’t run into any trouble.” Tracy agreed and started climbing into the passenger seat.
“Hang on.” I said, looking back at the gas pumps. “We should fill a few of those red gas containers and bring them with us. I have no idea how this pump still has power even though the store’s power is out, but I don’t want to depend on that to stay this way.” We walked back into the store, grabbing the four 2.5 gallon plastic cans from the bottom shelf of the auto supplies. Filling each one to it’s brim I ran the tow strap through their handles and slung them across the back of the car. “There we go. It’s no jeep but it’s the best we’ve got!” We hopped into the car and started the engine. It sputtered to life and I pulled slowly away from the pump, heading back up the road toward Tracy’s cabin.
“So what next?” I ask, glancing over at her as we drove. “Stop by the cabin and rest for the night?” Tracy shook her head. “No, we can’t risk it.” She said matter-of-factly. “Once we get to the cabin we’ll head northwest on the road leading over the mountain. It’s about a 3 mile drive to that abandoned mine. We can unload everything there, then make a trip back to the cabin and grab as much as the car can carry. We’ll want the mattresses, the pillows, the blankets, and probably things like the stove and propane tank.”
I flipped on the radio just to see if we could pick anything up but was greeted with static. “Maybe the CD works?” Tracy guessed, and pressed the button marked “disc.” The cabin was immediately filled with pop music, the kind typically adored by teenage girls. I rolled my eyes, reaching to turn it off but Tracy slapped my hand. “No way mister!” she sang out to the tune of the song. “This is my jam!” I laughed at her ridiculous attempt to imitate a cheerleader and swung the wheel left and right to the beat. I recognized the song but didn’t know more than a sentence or two of the lyrics. Tracy seemed to know every word and used a strip of beef jerky as a microphone, mock-serenading me as we drove. Suddenly the smile on her face disappeared. “Look!” she called out, pointing to the left through the trees. She turned the music off and I pulled the car to a stop. Thick, black smoke rose from over the hill, exactly where her cabin should be.
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