Surviving Beyond the Zombie Apocalypse (5 page)

     “Help me with one of those carts. All together we might be able to throw it hard enough to break the glass.”

     We grabbed one of the carts near the door and lifted it.

     “Hey, I am waiting for you guys!”

     Taylor and I both turned, leaving Kat holding the cart which nearly fell on top of her.

     “Shit!” she yelled.

     I scooped Christina into my arms. “Are you okay? We heard you scream!”

     The little girl appeared to be surprised by my reaction. “Yes, I’m fine. I sorta got scared by one of those star-chewed things.”

     “Yeah, those star-chewed things scare me too!” Taylor laughed, shrugging to show his confusion.

     I looked at her closely before putting her back on the ground.

     “It’s pretty dark in there,” Christina said. “I couldn’t see the door.”

      “No problem. Glad you’re okay,” Kat told her as she gave her a hug.

     We headed to the back of the store and the open door. 

     “Did you see anything moving inside the store?” I asked before going through the door.

     “Nope, only a stupid star-chewed thing.” The little girl pointed at a mannequin wearing a bright pink sweat suit.

     I smiled and went slowly inside. The others followed quietly behind me. Christina had not exaggerated when she said it was pretty dark. I had to wait for my eyes to adjust before I could see much inside the room.

     We were in some sort of break room with a few small tables and three or four plastic chairs around each. The odor of rotten food was strong. I looked around to see a big yellow refrigerator. Before I had time to say anything, Christina pulled open the door.

     The overpowering stench of food gone bad immediately filled the room.

     “Yuck!” Christina whined as she looked inside.

     Even with the foul odor, none of us could resist moving next to the little girl and taking a peek inside the refrigerator. The interior was dark, but it was possible to make out a carton of milk, a hairy box of something, some soda cans, and a few dark paper bags.

     “Gross!” Kat exclaimed.

     “Nothing worth taking in there,” Taylor offered, stepping forward to close the refrigerator door. “Let’s see if we can find some better stuff.”

     “Good idea,” I said and followed him out into the main area of the store.

     Light from the windows lit this part of the store, and, surprisingly, it appeared to be mostly undisturbed. I pictured the employees on the final day of business.

     “Bobby, make sure you prep the register drawer for tomorrow,” a middle-aged woman with short blonde hair told a short, thirty-ish Asian man. “I want everything ready to go if you call in sick tomorrow.”

     “What’re you talking about? I’m fine.”

     “Yeah, like the rest of these guys,” the woman said, nodding to the many empty registers. “All of them left feeling fine and expecting to be in the next day. I’ve got to lock up the back, since the maintenance crew didn’t show up. Make sure you close the employee exit door behind you.”

     “Ready for some new clothes?” Kat asked, bringing me back to the present.

     “I’m sure new, clean clothes will make everyone happy,” I answered. “We’ll definitely smell better.”

     “Kevin!” Christina called.

     “Oh, sounds like someone found a gift for you!” Kat laughed.

      We walked over to the sound of the voice. Christina and Taylor stood in front of full-length mirrors. She was wearing a pink baseball cap, and he had on a dark purple beret. 

     “Wow, you guys look cool!” Kat exclaimed.

     Christina smiled at me and said, “I found something for you.” She went over to a little table near a cash register and brought back a black cowboy hat.

     “Put this on. It’ll be good on you,” she told me in a serious tone.

     I sensed the eyes on me as I took the hat. I had never been a guy who wore hats, but this hat was different. I took an instant liking to it. A look in the mirror surprised me.

     “Lookin’ good!” Kat whooped.

     I had to admit that I agreed with her. The hat did fit like it belonged on me.

     “See, I was right!” Christina cheered.

     “Yes, you were.” I smiled at her. “How did you get so smart?”

     “Okay now that you’ve made a fashion statement, can we get some food?” Taylor interrupted.

     We headed over to the food section of the store. As we passed the glass counters, I made a point of checking my reflection. As silly as it sounds, the feeling that I looked good made me feel good. Even the fact that the world was going straight to hell could not completely steal the good mood from me.

     That positive sensation continued as we found a fully stocked food section.

     Say what you will about the danger of preservatives in processed food; they make for the finest cuisine in an apocalypse. All of us were hit by an instant wave of euphoria as we looked at the food filling the shelves.

     “Don’t know what to eat first!” Christina exclaimed.

     “I do!” Taylor answered, grabbing a box of chocolate cupcakes off the shelf.

     In the next instant, he had ripped open the box and torn into the chocolate cakes. His hands and face immediately got covered by the dark color. He turned and smiled at me, revealing a mouth full of chocolate-smeared teeth with chunks of cake in between.

     I flashed on the image of Taylor tearing into a body. The blood covered his hands and face. He turned to snarl at me, revealing a mouth full of blood-smeared teeth with chunks of flesh in between.

     The horrible sight was enough to jolt me back to reality. I saw Taylor and Christina laughing as they stuffed each other’s mouths with cookies.

     “Mmmm, tastes good,” the little girl said with her mouth full, dropping pieces of cookie as she spoke.

     I had to laugh but also said, “Okay, you two, I know it’s great to have lots of food, but let’s not waste it.”

     Both of them looked at me with guilt and food all over their faces.

     “Sorry,” Christina said, food still falling out of her mouth.

     The sight sent all of us into roars of uncontrollable laughter. Taylor fell on the floor howling. Kat held on to my shoulder bent over with laughter. I leaned against a display counter. Christina was just looking around at all of us and shrieking with hilarity.

     “Really, really good,” she said.

     Kat went over and wiped the little girl’s face with her sleeve. “Well, it sure looks like you’re enjoying them.”

     We took our time going through the shelves of food, gathering what we wanted to take.

     “So make a pile of what you want and we can put it by the door later,” I told them without ever imagining how big the piles would get.

     I walked around looking at the shelves of food. Aside from some dust, most of it looked as though it had not changed from the day it had been placed on the shelf. I picked up a canister of potato chips…actually, these contained no potatoes, so I guess they should only be called chips, Anyway, I wondered if there would ever be a new canister made of such chips. Of course, the next question was whether having no more of these chips made was a bad thing. I noticed the other plastic containers of food that seemed more synthetic than anything remotely natural or nutritious. I wondered if such food with its chemical additives could have anything to do with how we got to this point.

     After considering things in this way, any appetizing qualities of the food were gone. Instead of gathering a pile of my own, I simply wandered around and looked on as the others scurried around like squirrels happily collecting the items that appealed to them. It felt as though I were a father on Christmas morning enjoying the sight of his family’s delighted faces as the opened presents.

     Kat helped Christina carry big boxes of crackers and cereal to her pile. The little girl was running around the stack arranging everything just how she wanted it.

     “So where’s your pile?” Kat asked me.

     “Oh, I don’t really see anything I have to get. I’ll grab some stuff before we go.”

     She looked at me with an expression of concern. “Are you okay?”

     “Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered, suddenly feeling exhausted. “I guess…I don’t know, seeing all this stuff reminds me of how things used to be and I wonder if things will ever be the same again.”

     “Well, no one can say for sure. Maybe the only thing we can do is find enjoyment in the present.” She stopped for a moment, remembering something. “You can probably guess that I never gave much thought to the future. Probably how I wound up here… But I guess I’m not doing too bad. I don’t know, I think about all the people who spent every second carefully planning every step of their future. Saving big bucks in the bank, studying hard for a good job, and all the rest of that shit, none of it mattered.” Kat laughed flatly. “Even though they worked their asses off for the future, most of ‘em are rotting away somewhere. You gotta admit, compared to a whole lotta people, we’re doing pretty damn good.”

     I nodded. “I agree. So you’re saying we should just live for today and let the future take care of itself?”

     “I’m not sure if that’s what I’m saying. You make me sound so smart. The thing is, I don’t know about spending your whole life worrying about what’s gonna happen.”

     I smiled and said, “I think you’re wrong. I don’t make you sound smart. You do that yourself.”

     Kat laughed. “That’s something no one’s ever told me before.”

     “You must have been hanging out with the wrong crowd.”

     “Well, you got that part right anyway,” she answered and giggled.

     I suddenly became aware of the eyes on us. I turned to see Taylor and Christina standing together and grinning at us.

     “What?” I asked.

     Taylor just shook his head.

     “Two little lovers sitting in a tree,” Christina began singing. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

     I felt the heat of my face getting red. “Grow up, you guys. Now did you get everything you want?”

     My attempt to change the subject was obvious, and the pair continued grinning.

     “Okay, let’s check out everything else,” Kat said.

     I had never been a person who enjoyed shopping, but that day was different.  The sheer joy with which Christina went through the store became infectious. Every time she laughed, it was impossible not to laugh with her. She paraded around in various outfits that she put together from the clothes on the shelves. I watched it all from under the brim of my new cowboy hat.

     Kat seemed to be enjoying the whole thing as much as I was. Clearly, all of us needed time to relax. Taylor laughed and played like a boy again.

     We had a good time, but I let myself lose track of the day. Before I realized it, the afternoon had passed, and it had gotten late.

     “Hey, guys, it’s getting late. We need to head back.”

     “Aww,” Christina whined.

     “It’s no big deal,” Kat commented. “We can come back tomorrow.”

     Taylor’s smile widened. “You know we never got to go camping. So I was thinking…” He nodded toward the large green and yellow tent set up in the sporting goods section of the store.  

     Christina immediately ran over to the tent and yelled. “Please, can we stay here?  Please!”

      I looked at Taylor and rolled my eyes. “Thanks a lot.”

     The young man simply shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

     “It’s not a bad idea actually,” Kat offered. “I mean, we’re going to be going to Tiburon and who knows after that, so we…”

     “Might as well get used to sleeping in different places,” I finished. “Well, let’s see what kind of camping gear we’ve got.”

     Obviously excited, Taylor trotted over to Christina next to the tent. As soon as I got near them, they ran inside the tent.

     Kat moved close to me and asked, “Shall we?”

     “After you,” I answered as we entered the tent.

     The interior was nothing short of incredible. Several cots with sleeping bags on top had been arranged in one corner at the back. To the right of the door sat a white plastic table with four chairs around it. The table had been set with plastic plates and cups. A big bowl of artificial fruit took up the middle of the table. Behind the table was another small table holding a stove, and next to it, a little refrigerator.

     “Well, this is certainly not my idea of roughing it,” I commented.

     I looked over to see that Taylor and Christina had already discovered a portable television and a laptop computer on a stand in the back. Kat searched through a nearby cabinet.

     The idea of this being my family instantly came to my mind. As strange as it might seem, that is exactly what we had become. I knew next to nothing about them a short time ago, but in this new world, the past did not matter too much. The only thing that truly mattered was the connection you had right now. I suppose that I could have felt guilty about not dwelling more on Bonnie and friends and family that had been lost in the past few months. But mourning the people who had been lost served no purpose. They were part of the old world, the world where things made sense, the world where people did not come back after they died. Considering those around me as my new family made perfect sense. In the new world, everything changed. I looked at my new family and smiled at the sight. We were certainly a diverse group. I wondered if Kat was even old enough to have a child as old as Taylor. I must have laughed, because I saw her look at me with curiosity.