Shopping with Zombies

V and Adam take their first trip outside and see how quickly the virus can destroy their world.

 We had our lists in hand as we made our way down to Adams car. He had an SVU, a black Blazer, we figured we would be loading up on stuff and should take the bigger of our cars. He opened the passanger door for me and I hopped in an unlocked his door. The lock on his side was broken and couldnt open from the outside. We sat for a few minutes letting the car warm open before we took off. We hadnt forgotten about the crisis that we heard about earlier this morning but our spirits had lifted quite a bit. We thought wed hit the stores, get what we needed and talk to the other people out and about. Certainly someone had to have more information. These were our hopes as we turned out of the apartment complex and started out on the half a mile drive to the nearest grocery store.

 

 As we got closer to the entrance of the Kroger I told Adam to slow down, something didnt seem right about the parking lot. I stared out the window, my heart beat picking up pace almost completly deafing me to any other sound.

 

 The parking lot was full of cars, but they werent carefully parked in the parking spaces as youd expect. Some were up on the concrete walkway surrounding the entrance/exit doors. Most car had collided with other cars in the lot. I could see dark brown/red splashes on some of the cars bumpers and hoods. Some of the windows were shattered with the same color running down them. The snow that had once been blindly white was now tainted with the brownish red substaince. There were a few people walking around outside but they seems disoriented or distracted. No one looked up at us as we passed by.

 

 Adam made a right into the next driveway, coming to a stop in a parking spot in the gas station. We were facing the grocery stores parking lot. Both of us stared out the window in silence. I noticed a large man jump out of the drivers side of a smashed up car. He had some sort of metal pipe in his hand, maybe a tire iron. He looked angry and scared. He made his way to the person standing closest to him, grabbed them by their hair and slammed their head into a car window. He pulled back then slammed their head into the hood of the car. The smaller person slumped down the side of the car blood was gushing from the deep gashes on thier face and head. The person appeared be to unconsious. The larger man raised up the metal pipe with both hands and brought it down on the person skull. I couldnt hear the sound from where we were parked but the sound that played in my head was of a watermelon being dropped from shoulder to the ground, a THUD-CRACK sound. I could fathom what I was seeing, neither could my stomach. I open the car door just in time to not puke on it. I emptied everything I could from my stomach, wiping my mouth clean as I sat back up and closed the door. Adam had already put the car in reverse and was pulling away. I looked through the front window in time to see the large man staring at us and laughing. He dropped the metal pipe to the ground sending snow and blood floating through the air.

 

 I couldnt help the tears that began following from my eyes. Is this what the virus does? Were we ALL going to end up like that? Adam didnt say anything, he didnt look my way, he just keep the car moving forward to our next destination. I wasnt even sure I wanted to go to the next store.

             "Couldnt we just go back home? Maybe the Pres will make another speech.

              Maybe theres somewhere we can go?" I had turned in my seat so I now faced him. My voice was thick from crying and trembled at every word. I didnt get a reply so I turned aback to the front window and watched what had been our home pass by now feeling cold and unfamiliar.

 

 We made it to Walmart with no incidents. I jumped and made a small squeaking sound when Adam laid his hand on my shoulder to signify that we had arrived and we were now heading in. I surveyed the parking lot and to my surprise not to may cars were here. Nothing seemed to cause any suspiousion, no car wrecks, no men waving metal pipes. I looked at Adam shrugging my shoulder at him.

             "Whatya think? Its either a Real slow day at Walmart or there closed." It wasnt really a question that needed an answer since we were already making our way to the front door. Either way we were headed in. We stopped just outside the door and Adam utter his first words in what seemed like forever.

             "I dont think we really have a choice.... We gotta get whatever we can from here

              Food, supplies, clothes, anything you even think we might need."

We stepped forward and the front door whoosed open for us, we rushed in feeling the heat from inside.

 

 The first thing I noticed was that not all the lights were one. Maybe every other row was darkened. I shoved an elbow into Adams ribs alittle harder then I meant to. He looked at me with one eyebrow raised asking what the.... with out saying it.

             "Um, look at the lights. Half the stores are off" I said trying not to sound scared.

             "Yeah? I dont see anyone or hear anything and we need to get this s**t before

               we head back to the apartment" he answered only sounding midly annoyed. We were going to get what we came to get then get home to our safe apartment. That sounded like the best place to be right now but I grabbed a kart anyways and headed out into the store. Adam grabbed a kart aswell and we seperated heading down different aisles. The only noise other then the squeaking wheels of our karts and our shoes against the floor was the hum of the overhead lights. That fact was bouncing all over my thoughts as I walked down the aisles I tried to push it as far back and away as I could concentrating on the products infront of me. I grabbed as much canned food as I could fit into my kart. Then dried food, then liquids finally we made it out of the food section.

 

 When we made it to the clothes section Adam helped me look for warm functional clothes verus anything resembling stylish. I didnt really care I hadnt be one for "fashionable" clothes, I was more of a jeans and T-shirt kinda girl. The last item in the clothes section we grabbed was new thick coats. We stored them in Adams kart and made our way to the next section: Tools and Outdoor/Sports.

 

 I was not completely inept when it came to tools. Adam brought his work home alot so I had learned to use everything he had: hand tools, power tools and the like. We already had atleast two of every tool at home already so Adam moved onto the sports section. He grabbed 2 metal baseball bats, a bow and arrow. I couldnt help but laught alittle as he loaded this into his Kart.

             "Planning on become Robin Hood Prince of the Apartments?" I put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing any harder. He shot me a mock laugh and stopped my laughing with his next comment.

             "Guess I wont be saving Your a*s if someone tries to bite you" ending it with his middle finger turning around to look at other possible weapons. I huffed alittle. I was only trying to lighten the mood. I leaned onto the kart taking some of the weight off my feet as he walked to the end of the aisle not looking back at me. I started to tell him I was sorry and explain that I was just letting off nervous energy when he hissed at me.

             "Stop V! Dont you hear that?"

I had already stopped talking and was now straining my ears to listen. I heard two distinct sounds; first, slow dragging noises. Second an unearthly moaning sound. This is the best I can describe the moaning sound: It would be the noise that a tuba player would make if they hit a middle note underwater with a cat stuck inside hissing at the same time. Can you picture that? Pretty f*****g unnerving.

 

 Adam was motioning me to join him where he stood. I made my way as quickly and queitly as I could. He had both bats in his hand and handed me one as I made it to him. Of course we were in one of the darkened aisles so we had a limited sight distance. A thin sheen of sweat started to appear all over me, I dont know if it was due to the winter clothes I was wearing or the amount of fear that coursed through my veins. I closed my eyes for a moment trying to pin point where the sound was coming from but it was echoing in the empty store. I opened my eyes and saw Adam moving his head slowly back and forth trying to do the same thing.

 

 My heart was pounding so fast in my chest that I could feel the vibrations through out my whole body. I tried taking deep breathes In and Out to calm down. It didnt help the dragging/moaning sound was getting closer and so far we hadnt seen where it was coming from. I felt the air around me change, you know when you can Sense someone is near you even though you cant see them? The hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you get goosebumps. Adam mustve felt it too because he blindly swung his bat out in front of him. I heard him make contact with something atleast 2 or 3 times.

 

 I wasnt much help. I dropped my bat and started screaming and crying. I let fat tears roll down my cheek and splash off my coat. My scream echoed through the building as Adam put his arms around. I tried to fight off his arounds until I heard his voice and realized it was him. I fell limp against him not ready to come to terms with what had just happened. We slipped down to the floor with me landing sitting in his lap. He whisphered in my ear that this was going to be ok, that we were going to be ok, that hed protect me. It took my awhile to stop crying and gain alittle of my composure back.

 

 He helped my get back to me feet. I turned my back on the grisly sight that was laying in the middle of the aisle. I did not want to see what had happened. Adam said to my back that he didnt want to just leave "it" there and was going to go look for a shovel or something to push it with. I was just fine with that as long as he was quick. As he walked away I took a quick look down at my clothes and noticed that some blood and bits had flowen back at me. I yelled out that I was heading to the womens section to get new clothes. I didnt get a response back. I grabbed my bat, wanting to be safe but not expecting to need it.

 

 My walk and my prerusing in the womens clothing section were lost in my thoughts. Where had that "thing" come from? Had it found us in the huge store or had it been standing around that area? Could it see us? Smell us? Or neither? Could it feel? It had made no noise when it was on the recieving end of Adam assault. But my biggest question was: Are there any more?

 

 There was no moaning or dragging sounds as I picked out a new long sleeve shirt and new jeans to put on. I carried the clothes over my free arm and headed back to where me and Adam had seperated hoping he had already taken care of the "thing" in the aisle. I was moving at a pretty good speed when I rounded then corner and before I knew it I was on my side on the floor. The clothes and my bat had flown out of my arm hitting items on the shelf and making a huge noise as they toppled to the floor. I managed to sit up and call out for Adam. I held my hands out in front of me to get a look at what happened made me slip. I could tell that the liquid was dark and had a metallic smell. It took me a minute to figure it out. Blood! I had slipped and now was sitting in a pool of blood.

 

 I pushed up with my feet trying to get out of the hellish liquid and almost fell on my a*s again. This time I screamed Adams name. I was able to grab onto one of the shelfs behnd me to keep my balance. I stepped out of the blood puddle as Adam rounded the corner.

             "Are you Ok? I heard you scream. What the..... What the f**k is all over you? He looked at me then down to the floor behind me. "Oh, babe, here Ill help you get out

              of these clothes. You got ones to change into?" I pointed to the unbloodied clothes I had just gathered, he grabbed them and hung them up on one of the shelfs at the end of the aisle. He helped me out of the coat and shirt I had on. I pushed him away as I walked to the end of the aisle taking me shoes and jeans off before grabbing the new clothes and heading down to the next aisle that was darkened. In case there were other people in here I didnt need them seeing me half naked. I was revulsed by what had just happened and I struggled to keep from puking again that day.

 

I tried to keep my thoughts from the blood, it was a hard task. I was almost finished getting dressed when I heard Adam.

             "What the......" he trailed off at the end. I slipped my new shoes on and went in search for where I had heard him voice. From the sound of it I knew we were in for another treat at Walmart!