In the Lone and Level Sands (28 page)

“You fool!” Layne heard. He turned to see
May and Frank rounding from the back of the church. May was
inspecting the barricade, checking to see if the fire could be put
out before the whole church went up. She turned to Frank again.
“You damned fool! You should’ve moved the cars farther away!”

Layne walked toward them.

“Forgive me,” Frank said. “They weren’t even
supposed to go off yet. I didn’t mean—”

Layne was already upon him. He punched Frank
in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. Mother May glared at
him.

“You dare strike those more righteous
than—”

“Righteous? Don’t you
dare
speak to
me about righteousness, you stupid bitch!” Mother May fell silent.
“You just tried to kill us!”

“My intent was never to kill, though if God
planned—”

Layne slapped her across the face. He
would’ve punched her if he thought he could do it without killing
her. Mother May recoiled, then fell to the ground, near where Frank
was still lying, holding his face.

“You could lock us out here and leave us to
die, or shoot us all in the head,” Layne said. “It ends the same
either way, and the blood is still on your hands.”

He rushed back to his friends, leaving
Mother May on the ground, silent. “Is everyone okay?”

Dex was helping Lacie up. Jessi and Kara had
been clear of the blast. Warren had returned from the zombie he
fended off, also unaffected by the explosions. Layne saw Ralph off
to the side; Garrett was helping him up.

What was left of Gina was hanging from the
back of the jeep, burning up with their weapons. The top half of
her was almost completely gone, a splatter spread in a fifteen-foot
radius from the charred remains of the vehicle.

“That son of a bitch,” Kyle said.

“We have another problem,” Garrett said.

Zombies were approaching from all sides.
They weren’t running, and they couldn’t keep perfectly straight,
but they were much quicker than before. A few had already found
some of the church-goers, and were ripping them apart as they tried
to escape.

“We need to get out of here.”

“How?” Layne said. Zombies poured in from
every opening.

“I guess this is the end, then,” Kyle
said.

The zombies rushed upon them. And then right
past them.

They headed for the church, which was now
one large, raging bonfire. Some of the zombies ran directly into
the flames. Within a few moments, they were clear of Layne and his
group, leaving them unharmed.

“What in God’s name just happened?” Warren
said.

“I think we ought to take this opportunity
to get out,” Layne said. “On foot, if we have to.”

“I think that’s a damn good idea,” Garrett
said. He found a gun on the ground near him and picked it up. “If
any of you see a useable gun or ammo, grab it, and let’s go.”

Layne had only taken one step when he heard
a click.

“Apologize,” Frank said.

Layne turned. Frank was pointing a gun at
his head. Everyone froze.

“This is hardly the time, Frank,” Ralph
said.

“Shut the fuck up,” Frank replied. He turned
to Layne. “Apologize for what you did to Mother May!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Fucking mean it!”

Mother May was near the back of the church,
being surrounded by zombies.

“Maybe you should go help her,” Kyle said.
Frank turned to see what was about to happen to her. Kyle knelt
down and then stood back up as Frank turned back.

“This is your fault!” he said. “You’re going
to stay right here and die with us. I’ll keep you here until they
kill every last one of us. You don’t deserve to get away!”

“You’re crazy,” Katie said.

“Frank, put the gun down,” Layne said. “Come
with us.”

“Shut your fucking mouth! You aren’t saved!
I’m saved! I’m forgiven! You’re damned, damn—”

His head shot backward, the back of it blew
off, splattering the ground behind him. Frank fell to the ground.
Layne turned, and Kyle lowered his gun.

“I can’t believe you just—”

“Spare me, Layne. Fucking spare me. He was
going to get us all killed. I needed to do it, and you know
it.”

“Kyle…”

“This is the world now, Layne! I know you
hate it. But those who don’t accept it, they leave it.”

Layne could hear Mother May screaming in the
distance. Overhead, clouds were rolling in, threatening to ruin the
sunny day. “One way or another,” Kyle said. He tucked the gun into
his pants. “Let’s get out of here.”

The group did a swift search for weapons and
ammo and then walked away, mostly unnoticed by the zombies, who
were attracted to the large fire. The ones who did notice them were
put down easily and quickly.

As they left the parking lot, Layne didn’t
even look back.

Torrential Downpour

Norman expected to be dead by now. He had
been unlucky. Someone had started a fire, and the sprinkler system
kicked in. With no one around to shut it off, he now had plenty of
water. Instead of dying of thirst in a matter of days, he would
starve to death over the course of a few weeks. And after only a
few days, the screams had faded. Now he was left with only the
moans of the surviving prisoners as they starved.

The drains in the floors kept the water
level from rising more than a few inches at first, but as the water
kept pouring, the drains couldn’t keep up. The walkways outside
were made of bars sticking out of cement that rose a foot off of
the ground, and the water reached above the cement and then poured
down toward the lower levels. The water could not rise any higher
than that.

He decided he could spend a while watching
the waterfalls, and perhaps find some peace in them.

Besides, if he listened hard enough, the
rushing water sounded like screams.

Part
Four

Counter-Clockwise

33

Living in the Ferrington

Things were growing very uncomfortable for
the six survivors at the Ferrington grocery. Everyone was doing
what they could to keep themselves clean. There was no suitable way
to shower in the store, so everyone took turns using the sinks in
the restroom. They used soap they nabbed from the health and beauty
aisles, and spray deodorants to cover for the lack of clean
clothes. It was better than nothing.

John grew angrier with every item the others
used and didn’t pay for. His name was clean though, which he was
proud to be able to say.

John scanned each item from the basket he
carried.

“Potato chips, peanut butter crackers,
sandwich meat… It looks like I’m set,” he said. A few feet away,
Christian saw him paying for his groceries.

“Hey, whatcha doing there, John?”

“Exactly what I should be doing. Paying for
my things.” John pulled a fifty from his wallet and pressed the
“cash” key. The drawer shot out, and John traded his bill for the
change he was due.

“No offense, but that’s a little weird. I
don’t understand your reasoning. Things are different—”

“They’ll change back soon enough.”

Christian raised an eyebrow. “How do you
know that?”

“I just do,” John said. “These things don’t
last forever.” He began placing his groceries back in his basket
with the receipt.

“What? Apocalypses? This is the first one
I’ve been to.”

John looked up with narrowed eyes. “Look,
I’m just minding my own business, why don’t you mind yours?”

Christian shook his head and walked
away.

****

“This fucking sucks,” Jordan said. He was
leaning against the wall of the conference room, below one of the
ceiling vents, next to Ashley and Aiden. The air that blew down on
them felt nice.

“It sure does,” Ashley said. “Do you guys
wanna do something? Like play cards, maybe? I think there’s a rack
with decks of UNO cards.”

“Sure,” Aiden said.

John was lying down on his makeshift bed,
trying to sleep. Evelyn and Christian had a stack of paper on the
table. They were playing tic-tac-toe.

“We’re going downstairs to look for
something to do,” Jordan said. Evelyn looked up, a look of concern
replacing one of boredom. “There’s nothing up here.”

“Be careful down there,” Evelyn said.

“We know the drill.”

“Here, kid,” Christian said. “Come here.” He
reached for his jacket, which was hanging over the back of his
chair. His gun was in one of the inner pockets. He held it out, the
barrel facing him, and looked up at Jordan. “You might need
this.”

“The store’s empty though,” Jordan said.

“It’s still best you be prepared for
anything.”

“That’s true, but… I’ve never shot a gun in
my life.”

“Well, maybe it’s time you did.”

“Okay.” Jordan’s face turned white, and he
looked confused and nervous.

“You just point and shoot. Just make sure
when you do, the safety’s off. Kay?”

“All right.”

“You’ll be fine,” Christian said. “Just get
what you want and come back up here.” He smiled, revealing yellowed
teeth.

Jordan and his friends turned and left the
conference room. Their feet clacked on the hard plastic steps as
they hurried down. Jordan held the gun in his hand carefully. It
was heavy.

There was a small rack of UNO decks across
from the greeting cards. Ashley grabbed one and tucked it into the
pocket of her skin-tight blue jeans. “This’ll be more fun than Go
Fish, anyway.” She laughed a little, and Jordan smiled. They headed
back to the conference room.

****

Ashley threw a green three on Jordan’s green
seven, then Aiden came around with a green reverse, then Ashley
with a green skip. They went around, trying to keep their minds off
of the outside world, trying to stay sane, trying to laugh as much
as possible.

Not long after the three teens had come back
with the game, Christian joined in, and so did Evelyn. When asked
to join, John declined. He didn’t converse much with the others,
nor did he want to. He just sat around keeping to himself. No
matter what happened, John was not going to budge, and he made sure
the others knew it.

****

“It’s been four days,” Jordan said as the
others sat around him at the small table they had pulled from the
wall to use for their UNO game. “The situation really isn’t getting
any better. We can’t just stay here forever. I’m worried about my
family.”

“Yeah, without phones I can’t get a hold of
my mom,” Ashley said. “I want to make sure she’s still okay.”

“We’ll definitely make that happen. We just
need to figure a few things out here, get our ducks in a line, and
then we’ll be on our way.”

“We’ll need to gather things together,”
Evelyn said. “You know, food and supplies. We can fill a few
baskets.”

“Yeah, we’ll do that before we leave,”
Jordan said.

“Wouldn’t a cart hold more?” Aiden
asked.

“Yeah, but we can’t very well put a whole
cart into any of our cars,” Evelyn said.

“Good point. I guess if we all carry a
basket, we can still gather a lot of stuff.”

Christian leaned in and spoke low. “Doesn’t
seem like your store director wants anything to do with this.” He
turned back to look at John, who was across the room reading a book
that he’d paid for the day before. He was scowling.

“Yeah, I wonder if he’ll come with us,”
Jordan said. “He doesn’t seem too interested in leaving.”

“He’s acted different these past few days,”
Evelyn said. “He’s just been dreadful to be around. I hate to say
this, considering what’s happened, but he has.”

“I think there’s more to him,” Ashley said,
“but he puts up a wall. It’s sad.”

“Like I said, he wasn’t like this at all
before. He was a hard-ass to work for, but as a person, he was a
good guy. Some people don’t handle crises very well, I guess.”

“Did you all know he’s been paying for
everything he’s been using?” Christian said.

“Yeah,” Jordan said. “That’s odd.”

“Who the fuck cares if we take the stuff in
the first place?” Aiden said.

“John does,” Evelyn replied.

“I guess he can’t handle the idea of
stealing,” Ashley said.

“Nope, not at all,” Jordan said. “You should
see him when we have a shoplifter. He’s nasty as fuck.”

Ashley nodded. “I can see that. Anyway, I
know some of us could have paid for the stuff we’ve been using, but
I personally only brought enough to buy what I came up for when
this started.”

“Yeah, I definitely can’t afford to buy half
of what we took,” Jordan said. “Not until payday, anyway. That
would be almost a week away.”

“Well, I suggest we grab what we need and
shove off,” Christian said. “Sound good to everyone?”

Everyone gathered their things and readied
themselves. John set his book down as the others were moving
around.

“What’s happening?” he asked. His voice was
shaky. Everyone stopped and turned toward John. He crossed his
arms.

“We’ve been thinking a lot about what’s
going on here,” Jordan said, “and—”

“You weren’t thinking about going out there,
were you?” John’s right eyebrow rose slightly.

“John, we can’t live in a grocery store,”
Evelyn said.

“It sure would be safer to stay here than be
wandering around out there.”

“Maybe, but I’d rather die trying to make a
change for the better than sit here waiting to die, which is what
you seem to have in mind.”

“I’m not trying to make you all stay here,”
John said. “I’m just trying to tell you it’s not safe out
there.”

“We know it’s not safe out there,” Ashley
said. “We know, but we’re doing what we’ve decided, and what we
feel we need to. My mother’s out there. We all have family out
there that we have no contact with. Aren’t you worried about your
family?”