In the Lone and Level Sands (17 page)

Max opened the trunk, moved some things out
of the way, and found a pipe wrench. He closed the trunk and jumped
at the sight of a man standing next to him. Max raised the wrench
defensively, but the man didn’t seem to care. He was bleeding
profusely from many wounds.

“Hey man, you gotta help me, I’ve been
bitten,” the man said. His eyes moved away from Max, and he stared
into the distance.

“I’m just… I have to go,” Max said. No
longer a man, the zombie looked back at him, moaned, then lunged.
Max swung the pipe wrench and hit the zombie in the temple. The
zombie spun around, then fell to the ground. Max couldn’t believe
what he had just done.

“Max!” Andrew said. The zombie from earlier
had gotten back up and was slowly moving toward August.

“Andrew, do something!” Margaret said.

“Hey! Hey, over here, hey!” Andrew said. The
zombie slowly diverted from August back to Andrew. It lunged,
Andrew stepped back, and the zombie fell on its face. Andrew took a
step, but the zombie had grabbed his ankle, so he fell. The zombie
went to bite his leg, but Andrew kicked it in the face with his
free foot. This didn’t seem to deter the zombie, who went in for
another try.

Max ran up to the zombie and clubbed it in
the head with the wrench. The weight threw Max off balance, and he
fell to the pavement. The zombie’s neck had snapped, and it was no
longer moving. Andrew got to his feet, then helped Max up.

“I didn’t tell you to do that,” Andrew
said.

“You wanted the pipe wrench,” Max said. “I
got you the pipe wrench.” He shoved the blood-spattered wrench at
his father, who took it from him. The family pressed on.

“There’s an apartment building at the end of
the street,” Andrew said.

“How will we be safe in there?” Max asked.
“It’ll be full of people.”

“They live right down the street from the
carnival. Most, maybe all of them will be gone.”

“So we just get in there and lock everybody
else out of their own homes?”

Andrew stopped, and the rest of the family
followed suit. He grabbed Max firmly by both shoulders and looked
into his eyes.

“Better them than us.”

The building loomed into view. The street
they were on ran perpendicular to the one it was on, and the
apartment was right where the two streets met. It was only three or
four stories tall, but it was wide, extending lengthwise in both
directions. A big glass double-door led to the front lobby.

A tiny bell rang as the family entered the
building. The lights were all off, and there was no one at the
reception desk. Andrew stopped in the center of the lobby, and his
family waited for his next instruction.

“We’ll go right,” Andrew said. “We find an
empty apartment, and we board it off. Then we wait.”

They headed for the corridor to the right.
Max instead turned toward a wall near the hallway, which consisted
of the entire building’s mailboxes.

“Look, we can find out which ones are
empty,” Max said.

Andrew went to his side. “This one.” He
pointed to an empty box, which was adorned with a sticker revealing
the apartment number. No name was written below it, while most of
the boxes had one. The number was 131, and it was on the second
floor.

The family headed down the hall, not seeing
anyone as they went. They reached the stairs and climbed them, then
proceeded down the hallway. Max watched the numbers pass. 128. 129.
130.

They reached 131. Andrew tried the knob, and
it was locked.

“Damn it. I forgot to get the key from the
desk.”

“Kick the door down,” August said.

“That’ll leave us vulnerable.”

“I’ll go get it,” Max said. He wasn’t sure
why he was volunteering. He also didn’t wait for an answer; he was
already heading back the way he had come.

Max didn’t run or jog, but walked briskly.
He was beginning to wonder if the power had gone out. He got back
to the stairs and went down them.

When he returned to the lobby, a man was
sitting on the ground in the center of the room. He was breathing
heavily. Max wasn’t sure if the man was one of
them
or
not.

“Excuse me?” Max said. He stood a good
fifteen feet away from the man, still taking step after step toward
the reception desk.

The man looked up at him.

“Holy shit,” he said. He got to his
feet.

“Keep your distance,” Max said.

“Relax, I ain’t one of them. Whatever the
hell
they
are.”

“Do you live here?”

“I do now,” the man said. “You?”

“Lived here my whole life. Know where the
keys to the unused apartments are?”

“I was hoping they’d be behind the
desk.”

“Pick an apartment number, then watch the
door. I’ll get us some keys.”

“I barred the door off,” the man said. Max
could hardly see it, but he had wedged what looked like a tall,
thin, metal lamp across the door handles. This would stop the door
from opening entirely, though someone skinny enough could get an
arm or leg in. But not a mouth.

“What if anyone needs to get in to get
home?” Max asked. The man laughed.

“Kid, it’s every man for himself, now. At
least as long as this shit lasts.”

Max didn’t like it. He hopped over the
reception desk and saw a small board that held the keys to the
apartments in numerical order. He grabbed the key to apartment
131.

“Any preference?” Max said. The man looked
at him. “For an apartment, I mean.”

“Oh, yeah. Give me one that ain’t near any
others.”

Max looked at the keys, searching for one
that was in the middle of a cluster to let him know the ones nearby
were vacant. “There’s one on the top floor.”

“Beautiful. I’ll take it.”

Max tossed him the key, then hopped over the
counter, and the man walked with him until they reached the
stairs.

“You all alone, kid?”

Max shook his head. “My whole family’s
here.”

“Man, I don’t know what’s going on here, but
the more people you’re with, the harder this’ll be. I mean, if it
keeps up. Not trying to be a dick, but don’t be so naive that you
think your whole family will last forever.”

“I’ll see you around,” Max said.

“No offense meant, kid. Just… Every man for
himself.”

“I’ll see you around.”

Max left the stairs at the second floor, and
the man continued up them and out of view.

Max could see his family waiting outside the
apartment. He tossed the keys to his dad, who caught them and
opened the door. The family went inside together.

The power was indeed out, and the empty
apartment was dark and empty. It didn’t look like something that
could ever be a home.

Andrew closed and locked the door behind
them.

“So, what now?” Max said.

“We wait for this to end,” Andrew
replied.

“What if it doesn’t end?”

“Then over time, we collect some furniture,
some food, necessities. And we wait until it does end.”

“But what if it doesn’t end?”

23

At Customer Service

“Here’s the deal,” Jordan said. “My friend
Ashley needs help, and she’s in the meat department. Sir, will you
help, since you have a gun? We can get out of here afterward.”

“The name’s Christian. I don’t go by ‘sir’.
And yeah, I’ll help you…” Christian squinted at Jordan’s nametag.
“Jordan.”

“Thanks,” Jordan said. The others emerged
from behind the counter and joined Christian and Jordan as they
started toward the meat department.

“Hey,” Christian said, “anyone else notice
everyone who got bit by a crazy person went crazy too?”

“Come to think of it, yeah,” Jordan
said.

“So, let’s not get bitten.”

“It’s not in the plans.”

John glared at Christian for a few seconds.
“I assume you have a reason to carry a gun.”

“You’re a store director
and
a cop?”
Christian said. “Wow, what a busy bee you are.”

“I’m not a police officer, but I do know
that you have to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.”

“I don’t keep it on me, John.”

“You don’t have it,” John said under his
breath.

“Kinda cute that you’re getting your panties
in a bunch about me keeping a gun on me. Seems like it’s saving
your ass right now.”

John didn’t reply.

“We have more important things to do than
argue,” Jordan said.

The group headed past the registers, the
blood, and the bodies, into aisle seven. The floor was dotted with
items customers had dropped in their haste, and near the end of the
aisle was a cart. As Jordan pulled it out of his way, his phone
vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to look at the text.

Jordan where are you?

Were coming Ash. Were trying. Please don’t
make a sound. Be there in a sec.

Jordan slipped the phone back into his
pocket and headed toward the door to the meat department. The
manager was reaching over the counter at them, even though they
were several feet away. Christian raised his gun and fired.

“Okay,” Jordan said. “I’ll head in there
with Christian. Everyone, keep your eyes open. We don’t know how
many are still in the store.”

“I hope Hollis was the last damn one of
them,” John said.

“You and me both,” Evelyn said.

Jordan and Christian entered the meat
department, but saw little besides Hollis’s body. “Ash, where are
you?” Jordan said. He didn’t want to be too loud, but he couldn’t
whisper either.

Ashley emerged from one of the coolers.
Jordan ran across the brown tiles of the cutting area, stopped in
front of Ashley, and smiled.

“I’m so glad you’re all right!”

“I’m glad you are too,” Ashley said.

“All right,” John said, “we’ve rescued the
girl, now to get to work fortifying.”

“Aren’t we leaving?” Erin asked.

“Who said that?”

“Jordan did.” Erin blushed, somewhat
intimidated by John’s voice.

“Yeah, I did. I need to get home and see if
my parents are all right. Speaking of which…” Jordan pulled out his
phone and dialed his home number.

“Based on what I saw out there, none of us
wants to go out, not for a while anyway,” John said.

“You know, I’m with John,” Evelyn said. “I
live alone, and I really don’t want to be alone right now. This
place should hold against those things outside.”

Erin called her parents. Jordan reached the
answering machine on his own phone. He sighed in frustration and
left a quick message.

Erin hung up shortly afterward. “My dad… bit
my mom.” She covered her mouth, and Evelyn hugged her.

Ashley tried calling her mother, but there
was no answer.

“I can’t get through to my parents at all,”
Jordan said. “Just their fucking voicemails!”

“Well, keep trying, but we should do a
thorough search of the store,” John said. “There could be more of
those things around.”

“There could even be other survivors,”
Evelyn said.

“Good idea,” Jordan said. “And then we
should hole up here for a little while. I’m not going to give up on
calling, but it might be best to stay here for the time being.”

“Where can we stay?” Evelyn asked. “Down
here seems a little unsafe. It’s so open, and all the plate glass
at the front…”

“The conference room maybe?” Jordan
said.

John nodded. “We can block the stairs with a
pallet or two and wait it out up there.”

As a group, Jordan and the others moved
around the store. There weren’t many zombies left. Most had
followed the stampede of survivors out, but there were others
lurking in a few of the aisles. Christian was able to easily
dispatch every one of them.

The group scoured every department and any
area a survivor might take refuge, but none were found.

“All right, there’s nothing here but us and
the wares,” Christian said. “We should probably get to locking up
the place.”

“Yeah,” Jordan said. “First thing’s first.
Evelyn, since you have the keys, you should lock the automatic
doors. Christian should go with you.” Evelyn nodded and looked to
Christian.

“Right this way, madam.” Christian offered
his hand.

Evelyn laughed. “How polite.”

“We’ll work on getting pallets of crap to
block the doors,” Jordan said.

Christian and Evelyn went off to the front
of the store while Jordan and the others worked in the back.

In the small lobby area where the carts were
stored, Christian stared through the windows into the parking lot.
He saw a man who had tried to get away with his groceries, as well
as the stolen wares, scattered all over the pavement. There wasn’t
much remaining of the customer. He looked away. “Tell me, Evvy, why
do you work for such an ass?”

Evelyn reached up to lock the automatic
doors that led out of the building. “Well, he was never
this
hard to deal with before. I don’t really know. I just need a job,
and this is one I could do. It was either this, or work two fast
food jobs. There isn’t much choice.”

“There’s always a choice, you know.”

“I like this job though,” Evelyn said. “It’s
paying my bills, and it’s not a bad job, really. I deal with it,
even though…”

“Even though what?”

“Well, it’s just that I like to write. I’ve
written a lot of poetry, but I never published any of it.”

“That’s great,” Christian said.

“You’re just saying that.” Evelyn shook her
head, looked away, and locked the set of doors leading into the
main store.

“Course not. Evvy, I think if we make it out
of this, you should get your work out there.”

“I don’t think I’m good enough,” Evelyn
said.

“There’s always a million little reasons for
not going after what we want.”

“That’s true.” Evelyn smiled. “I’ll do it.
If we come out of this okay, then I’ll look into publishing
something.”