When They Come (8 page)

Jason stopped to look back and saw the woman weakly reaching the stumps that used to be her legs. She was painfully looking at the ghouls eat them right in front of her. Jason caught sight of a zombie pulling at her outstretched hand. He felt a sharp pull and quickly drew the bat.

It was Dave.

“Come on, it’s open! And put that thing down!”

Jason ran in, unable to shake the sight of the woman.

The mall was dark. Barely any light was getting through it’s huge windows. The friends stood quiet, but it was hard since they could still hear the zombies beating on the car where the woman was. It was only a matter of time before the zombies discover anyone else who may be hiding in the other cars in the lot. Jason grabbed his pocket and felt Dave’s car keys inside of them. They were still there. He smiled a little bit at this.

“So, now what, Jay?”, Dave asked

“I’m really not sure, but while we’re here, maybe we can find something useful”, Jason said. He began looking around the mall, holding on tightly to the bat.

Dave pointed to a flickering sign.

“And this?”

“And this, could be very, very handy.” Jason ran his finger up and down looking at the directory.

“Well now, I think we should get some new clothes, don’t you think?”, Jason said.

They both looked down at their disheveled and old clothes.

“Yeah, that could work”, Dave replied, holding in a little bit of laughter.

It was good for the both of them to laugh a bit. It took some of the tension of the situation away slightly.

“Alright then, that’ll be our first stop, and whoa, hey now. Check this out.”

“What?”

“Tanzili’s Gun Emporium, top floor.”

“I love it, it’s a toy store for grown-ups!”

“Alright, let’s get some new threads and get us both some new toys.”

“This pleases me, dude”, Dave happily said. “Come on, my clothes smell like ass.”

“Well, we have the Bulls-Eye men’s clothing emporium on the bottom floor. Clothes first, guns later?”

“That sounds about right to me”, Dave instantly replied.

They heard faint noises; several fast steps in the distance.

“Shit man, you think we’re alone in here?”, Dave asked quietly.

“No, let’s keep quiet and make this quick, and just in case, be ready for anything.”

The steps were still far away. They sounded too coordinated to be from anyone who had already died and returned hungry.

They walked down the escalator, slowly as not to make any noise. Their first stop was to get themselves out of their smelly and sweat covered clothes.

“Well, here it is. Bulls-Eye” , Jason said pointing his bat at the sign.

Dave tugged at the door.

“It’s locked.”

“Hey, I saw this in a movie once. Stand back”, Jason said excitedly.

A bench suddenly flew through the large paned window of the shop and slid a few feet.

“There dude, instant entrance”, Jason said, while cleaning out the glass around the bottom with the bat.

“Whoa, how did you do that, Jay?” Dave was in awe.

“Well, remember all that protein I’ve been taking and all that time at the gym?” Jason replied.

“Yeah?”

“Nothing to do with it, that bench is light and isn’t bolted down.”

“Ass.”

They both climbed in through the glass keeping an eye out for any movement.

“Think that exploding window brought any zombies over?” There was some fear in Dave’s voice.

“No. We didn’t see any on the way here. We should be okay. Whoa! Check this out!”, Jason replied while pointing at the hat rack. “We could always use some hats, and well, we have the end of the world discount!”

Dave put on a golfer’s hat.

“Hey look! I look like a jack-ass!”, Dave said to Jason.

“Yeah I know! And that hat doesn’t help.” Jason said mockingly.

“Ass.”

“Oh man, check this out!” Jason put on a suede black cowboy hat with a chin strap. “Now THIS is fucking awesome! Here, there’s one for you, too!” Jason handed Dave a similar hat, only in brown.”

“I love this thing!” Dave said while stroking the brim of the hat.

“We need more than hats, Dave”, Jason said. “Let’s see what we can find.”

The friends spent a long time going through the aisles, throwing shirts on the floor, unfolding pants, and generally being any retail employee’s nightmare, if there were any left to be annoyed with them, that is.

Jason put on a tight, solid black t-shirt with a pair of good-fitting, dark washed boot cut jeans. He topped it off with a brown, hard cloth jacket with many pockets. He found a pair of brown sneakers to top it off with.

Admiring himself in the mirror, he called to his friend. “Dave! Find anything, yet? We need to keep moving!”

Dave crept out from within the aisles wearing light washed jeans, white sneakers, and a brown torn jacket which barely covered the form fitting “#1 Grandpa” shirt.

“Oh my God, Dave, seriously?”

“What!? It fits and I crack up whenever I see this shirt!”, Dave quickly replied.

“Well, if you insist. We probably won’t be coming back here anytime soon, you know.”

“I’m good, Jay”, Dave replied with seriousness in his voice.

They both took a look at their clothes, that looked much older than they really were, while they stood looking lifeless on the store’s floor. It was a poignant moment for them. There would be no coming back to the store. They both walked out quietly

“Jay! Let’s head to Tanzili’s Gun Shop!”, Dave broke the silence.

“Come on. Let’s go. I need something loud that goes great with this outfit”, Jason said.

Walking up the escalator slowly, the footsteps they heard earlier were much more hurried and accompanied by some noise. All they could make out were muffled voices and the sounds of something soft getting pounded.

“Jay?”, Dave quietly said.

“Just keep quiet for now. We don’t need any needless confrontation. Let’s just stay quiet, get what we need, and head out”, Jason replied back while looking in the direction of the noise.

“Right”, Dave whispered.

Climbing up the escalator grew more and more tense between the two friends. The noises weren’t stopping and the voices were barely audible. All they could make out were hostile noises. It was at this point where they didn’t know if they should be more afraid of the living, rather than the dead.

“Do you think it’s pirates?”, Jason asked.

“Pirates? Like, with swords and parrots?”, Dave replied with a hint of sarcasm.

“Yeah, kind of, you know, without the boat?”

“Yes, Jay, pirates are in the mall. That’s exactly where they’d go. Not to peoples’ houses, not prying open the cars, but yeah, they’d come to the mall to steal your amazing hat. Yes, Jay, those are pirates”, Dave ranted.

“…Ass”, Jason replied back quietly.

“Hey, hey whoa! Check this out!” Jason whispered excitedly. “There are some copies of that book I wanted to check out on display; ‘Deviant’, a story of sex and sexual addiction.” Sounds interesting enough.

“Sounds kind of hot”, Dave replied, uninterested.

Flipping through it, Jason replied, “Sounds kind of boring.” And he soon tossed it aside. “Come on, one more floor to go before we hit the gun shop.”

The friends arrived at the gun shop. The store’s sign was a simple “Tanzili’s” on a dark wood background with a picture of a pistol after the S. Jason tugged at a door, only to find that it was open. The lock was broken. Ironically enough, it was shot off.

“Well, shit”, Jason said as he slowly and effortlessly opened the door.

Dave ventured inside, bat at the ready, but it didn’t matter. The store was all but empty, save for a few old and worn looking weapons. There were bullets scattered all over the floor and glass reflected softly in the light.

“Let’s take what we can and get out of here. We need to get to the army site before they leave without us”, Dave said.

Jason grabbed a 9mm pistol from the floor. “You’re right”, he said as he released the clip and checked for bullets.

“Do you know how to use these things?”, Dave said in a surprised voice. To his knowledge, neither of them had ever played with guns before.

“Well, no, but I’ve played a lot of video games”, Jason replied.

“Oh”, Dave said.

Dave looked at the walls and noticed that almost all of the gun accessories still remained. There were many holsters of different colors and textures. There were even slings left on the walls.

“Jay, look. I think we can totally make use of these”, Dave said excitedly.

“Something is kind of off, man” Jason said. “Why is there such a mess around the guns, but all the tools and accessories are fine? If the people here had ample time to get ready, you know, in a zombie-free place, wouldn’t they have taken a few things and left the store the way it was?”

It was then that both friends looked outside of the store and noticed cracks in the windows that they thought were in great shape. There were traces of blood on the floor, but not enough to be a dead body. There were also torn pieces of clothing scattered around the mall.

“Shit. Sometimes you need to be more afraid of the living than the dead in these kinds of situations”, Dave said.

“Well, I got a C in Philosophy, so I say we just take the guns and get to the army site”, Jason said back.

Dave found a few handguns left in the glass case under the counter. They were under a pile of glass which would explain why no one grabbed them in their haste. He brushed the glass aside and laid 4 of them out on the counter.

“These are all nice and simple 9mm handguns, Jay.”

“Good find!”, Jason said excitedly.

Taking two holsters each, both friends helped each other put on the gear and stored the guns they found into them. They each took a few seconds to admire how each other looked.

“We’re badass, dude”, Dave said.

“You know what would make this MORE badass?” Jason said.

“What? Bigger guns? A flame thrower? Oh! A bazooka!”, Dave said, practically jumping up and down.

“No”, Jason said as he pulled out a gun from his holster. “Bullets. See if you can find any.”

The both laughed at themselves for looking over something that important. However, their laughter stopped when the noises that they heard from earlier started to get much, much closer.

Both of them knew that they had to be quiet and thus they were. They both knew what they were looking for and needed to get them fast. They didn’t know what to be more afraid of more: desperate, living humans, or hungry zombies.

The gentle ringing of a bullet hitting the floor began to sound off in the store.

Dave had found several boxes in almost plain sight. He then began to wonder if the last group of people that were here made the same mistake he and Jason did.

Just as Dave was about to turn to Jason and tell him of his find, he saw his friend standing over him, holding a shiny, chrome, single barreled shotgun and a desert eagle handgun.

“Oh, you found the bullets”, Jason said to a wide-eyed Dave. “So I guess you get first pick.”

Dave, without a word, motioned towards the shotgun.

“A fine choice, sir. Hold on, I found a bunch of shells in a random box behind the counter.” Jason handed Dave half a box of shells, it wasn’t much, but it was great for getting out of a pinch.

Jason looked at his new toy. He had found 4 magazines full of .50 caliber bullets for it.

Dave motioned towards the bullets that he had found. The friends spent a few minutes gathering the bullets and putting them into clips they had found strewn about the store. Each friend wound up with about 6 full clips each. Jason stored the rest of the stray bullets.

“You never know, dude”, Jason said, pointing at his full pockets.

Dave’s smile quickly faded when the noise of glass shattering and scurrying feet made themselves known practically outside of the store. Both friends looked at each other and turned pale.

They heard faint voices, both male and female outside the gun shop. They couldn’t make out what the voices said, but they were definitely there.

Jason went out to investigate.

He saw a silhouette running at him.

The light was behind the figure.

He couldn’t see a face, just the form.

It got closer.

It stuck out it’s arm.

Jason stuck out his.

Dave heard 2 gunshots and a body hit the floor hard.

“Jay?!”