Running with the Horde (24 page)

             
As fast as my stiff zombie legs could carry me, I charged at the doors and smashed the steel can into the glass as hard as I could.

             
The crash echoed through the store as I stepped through a hailstorm of glass. Jagged shards sliced through my bloodless limbs like razors through bed sheets.

             
The other zombies were right behind me as we breached the front foyer of the store. A wide-eyed man was standing in front of us with his mouth agape, his gun forgotten in the cart behind him.

             
This unofficial greeter stood there frozen in shocked terror as I plowed into him like a tackling dummy. He flew backwards into several carts, unconscious before he hit the ground. I snagged his rifle from the cart and a radio I found on his belt.

             
It belched out sound as I regrouped my zombies by the customer service kiosk, “BREACH! Converge on the front entrance! Converge on the front entrance!”

             
The thundering sound of footsteps raced in our direction, I jumped to a short fat zombie wearing a plush white jumpsuit. Rather, it used to be white, someone had cut the man’s throat, staining the front of his clothes red. I figured he wouldn’t be much good in a firefight against armed men but he would serve my purposes as gift gopher. I took the rifle from Lurch and sent the rest of the zombies to meet the men, they were more than eager.

             
Rifle at the ready in my new pudgy fingers I set out at a slow trot for the sporting good section. The sounds of gunfire and confused shouting met my ears. I hid in the darkness behind a display of beach balls and jumped outside to check on the guards. As I feared, they were moving to flank the breach from the sides of the building leaving only two guards in back to guard the trucks. I quickly sent my reserve zombies to outflank the flankers and try to keep them busy.

             
I hopped back to my chubby buddy just in time to see two soldiers sneaking quietly past my aisle on red alert with two carts full of guns and ammo from the sporting goods section. I snuck up behind the rearmost man and struck him hard over the head with the butt of my rifle.

             
He dropped to the ground out cold, his gun clattering to the linoleum. I was pointing the rifle at the lead man when he spun to face me, shining a tiny flashlight in my eyes.

             
“Drop it,” I said as I squinted at him but it came out sounding like
glurkish.

             
Apparently having your throat cut was tough on your vocal cords. The man could not decide what to do as he wavered between shock and terror.

             
“But you’re…you’re a...”

             
“GLURKISH!” I shouted as I gestured at him menacingly with my gun and took a step forward. He screamed in panic, threw his light at me and dashed away in the darkness, I heard him trip into a display case in his haste to get away.

             
I jogged the rest of the way to the sporting goods section.

             
The radio was quite active during those chaotic minutes, someone in charge issuing orders and screaming commands. I was jumping from inside to outside issuing orders of my own. Gunfire was heavy in the store until it petered off slowly but a major firefight could still be heard outside the store.

             
“Sir! They’re everywhere out here! They seem to be flanking our position on both sides. Sir…Sir…they’re coordinated or something. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

             
“Davis, I swear you better stop fucking with me. We’re up to our eyeballs in shit in here!”

             
“Sir, I repeat, (a pause as Davis was probably firing his weapon) they are most definitely coordinated and more coming from the north and south corners of the property.”

             
More gunfire as the man in charge tried to process this information.

             
“Sir, orders?!! What should we do?!! Sir?! ARRRGH!!”

             
Then a brief belch of static. The sound of gunfire was deafening as the men in the transport trucks were mowing down zombies with two large mounted machines guns.

             
“Fall back! Fall back to the front entrance of the store! I repeat fall back! Jones do you copy?”

             
“Here, sir,” came a harried reply.

             
“What can you see?”

             
“Sir,” the man was breathless, “the men are retreating to the front of the store but there is a large crowd out here. We drove around to provide them cover but we are basically cutoff and are going to have to bug out. Davis is down sir. We radioed base for reinforcements but it sounds like they may be awhile. I suggest you find higher ground until we can get back.”

             
I spotted the Daisy Air Rifle I wanted. The men had taken the real guns but had little use for an air rifle. The glass door for the counter was still ajar, I pulled the rifle out along with a few boxes of pellets. I grabbed a gym bag from the next aisle over and shoved the pellets inside. The rifle had a convenient strap that I looped around my shoulder. The gym bag went over my other shoulder and I headed for the toys just a few aisles away.

             
The gunfire slowly faded only to be replaced by a series of very loud crashes. The men were barricading the broken front windows with anything they could get their hands on. The boss or the captain or whatever he was came back on the radio giving orders to the largest group of men up front to hold their positions as long as they could while a few others swept the inside of the store again looking for stragglers.

             
I very clearly heard the man I had recently threatened with a gun speak into the radio in a soft shrill voice

             
“Sir, I know how this will sound, but I’m not crazy and I’m not making this up,” he began.

             
“Wilson, where the hell are you?”

             
“Sir, I am hiding in automotive. Lanskey is down but not dead yet I don’t think. I am going to try and go back for him. But listen, sir, a zombie got the drop on us with a rifle.”

             
“I’m not following you, Wilson. Did you put the zombie down?”

             
“No, sir, I’m telling you he had a rifle pointed at me. He bashed Lanskey over the head with it. Put him out cold. I’m pretty sure he wanted me to drop my gun. He spoke to me but I couldn’t understand him.”

             
“So what’d you do, Wilson?”

             
“I…I ran sir.”

             
“You fucking coward,” he sighed deeply into the radio, “You were obviously dealing with a human holding a rifle. Clearly we didn’t get everyone when we secured this place originally and he’d been living here since.”

             
His tone indicated he was speaking to a small, dim child.

             
“Now go get Lanskey and bring your dumbasses up front. I tell ya, Wilson, if I wasn’t short on soldiers I would throw your sorry ass to the zombies and cheer while they had you for supper.”

             
“Sir,” he whispered, “no offence to you but I’ll stay where I am. I’m no doctor but I know healthy people can’t walk around with their throats slashed open wearing half of their bodily fluids on their shirts. Don’t take it personally, sir, but go fuck yourself.”

             
“That’s fine, Wilson,” came the eerily calm reply, “But next time I see your ass, its shoot on sight. You cool with that?”

             
Wilson chuckled gravely into the radio, “Yeah, that’s cool, sir.”

             
I was feeling pretty confident Wilson was going to stay parked where he was. I actually hoped he would help Lanskey and make it to somewhere safe. Wilson had grown on me during his little tet-a-tet with his asshole boss.

             
Besides, I had a strong feeling that good old regular human beings were now tops on the endangered species list and I had no desire to kill any that I didn’t have to.

             
The toy aisle was just as orderly as the rest of the store and loaded with choices. It took me a few precious minutes to locate a Sparky Speaks dog. Of course the batteries were not included but were conveniently located the next aisle over.

             
I stuffed the toy, the batteries and a roll of red ribbon into my bag. I was getting used to my chubby little zombie’s stiff arms and limited range of motion. With the bag secured on my shoulder next to the air rifle I crept softly toward a side exit door.

             
I stood in the dark shadows near the door and listened for the men but all was quiet. I took a quick glance outside the building and was surprised by the number of undead that had amassed there over the last few minutes.

             
The rest of the men had fled to safety within the store, died or were on the truck on their way out of Dodge. Several hundred zombies were gathered in the front parking lot, bottlenecked at the front windows I had smashed in. That wouldn’t do.

             
I spread them out around the store until they formed a tight circle. I also enraged them until they were pounding on the brick and mortar building from all sides causing a hell of a ruckus and threatening to cave in the remaining floor to ceiling windows in the front of the store.

             
I was hoping to scare the shit out of the men inside to keep them pinned down so I could make my escape from the roof without getting shot.  

             
Jumping back to my fat zombie, I stepped from the shadows and pushed the door open into the throng waiting outside. It was an emergency exit door but with the power out that was no longer a concern. I was physically holding them back with my too short arms before I remembered I could just tell them to step aside which I did as I closed the door quietly behind me.

             
I passed through the crowd without incident and was soon hiding behind the dumpster that had also become a crematorium. The plan was to have the zombie wait for me by the bike until I could climb down and take my presents from it. It would have been a fine plan but then a whole bunch of bad shit happened.

             
While I was busy remote-jogging my zombie to relative safety behind the dumpster, I grossly underestimated the profound psychological effect the commotion around the perimeter of the store would have on the besieged men inside. They panicked when they heard the hammering on the walls and front windows and were making a hasty retreat to the stairs in back of the store.

             
More precisely they were making a beeline for the roof where I was hiding in my little alcove. To make matters worse, the zombies did indeed succeed at smashing through the large front windows while I wasn’t paying attention. They were currently streaming through the gaping holes encouraged by the scent of live prey.

             
I was debating the best way to regain control of the horde and get them turned around when the heavy door to the stairs flew open and men burst through winded and cursing.

             
I lost all focus as my consciousness shot fully back into my own mind. I pressed myself further into the wall counting them as they dashed past my hiding place which was just two feet from the door.

             
There were thirteen of them, all heavily armed. Three were wounded and being supported by other men as they regrouped and began arguing about how to secure the door.

             
I jumped back to the zombie by the dumpster and was alarmed to find him ambling halfway across the back parking lot intent on the rooftop meat. I got him turned around as the radio in his hand belched out. It was Wilson.

             
“Sir, what the fuck is happening!?” Wilson’s panic stricken voice cut through the darkness. “Sir!” he screamed again.

             
I didn’t wait to hear the boss’s response.

             
Wilson sounded really scared and I felt a twinge of regret, I was going to try and save him but I was finding it hard to focus and multitask, something I was never good at in the first place. I was just going to have to focus on one thing at time. I hustled my zombie back behind the dumpster and commanded him to stay, unsure if he would comply.

             
In a moment I was back in the store.

             
We were hard charging toward the automotive section, knocking entire display racks over with the force of our assault. I could hear two hearts, one beating rapidly and one slowly as if asleep. We were close, I could smell them just ahead. I jumped to the front of the pack in time to hear Wilson let loose with a terrified primal scream.