Scattered

Scattered

A Zombie-ish Apocalypse Story

You are what you eat.

- Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher

“The zombies in my video games don’t run this fast!” Dustin panted as we skidded around a corner and scrambled over a low fence.

I didn’t bother to point out, yet again, that they weren’t zombies. Not exactly
,
anyway.
I glanced over my shoulder to see the three Nevermores still on our tr
ail, their yellow
hued
skin
glistening with sweat
; freaky sideways rectangular pupils dilated and
easily visible.
Mouths hanging open
,
they snarled as a unit
,
then sped up, the
ir
arms and legs pumping hard.
They were gaining on us.

Grabbing
Dustin’s
empty backpack
,
I
jerked him to the right, ya
nking
him after me as I
ran for a house;
slammed my shoulder into
the
door, busting through the light wooden frame.

“Get something to block the door
,
”
I said as I kicked the door closed behind me.

Dustin ran deeper into the house, grabbed a chair and dragged it back.
We jammed it under the handl
e as the Nevermores hit
, shaking the frame.

“Annie
,
” Dustin whispered.

I turned to face him, p
ressing my back against the faux wooden panels
.

“We’ll be okay
,
buddy
.” I gave him a smile and a wink. Normally he would have believed me, but with
only a thin barrier between us and
the monsters
,
his face remained drawn. Afraid.
He knew as well as I did that we were in a serious pile of shit.

With my body being shoved off the door with ea
ch slam of the Nevermores
, I wracked my brain for an idea. Something, anything.

It was so hard to believe that only a few short weeks ago, I’d considered tak
ing
the miracle drug, Nevermore. I
t
turned out to be a lucky twist of fate that my apartment was robbed
;
my credit card
s stolen. No money, no
drug for me.

Our parents hadn’t been so lucky. Mom had breast cancer
,
and as the drug touted
a cure
along with
so many other fantastic claims, she was one of the first to take it. Dad
took
the shot because it also was reported to prevent cancer,
Parkinson’s
and a host of other diseases. The rest of the world, well, one of the side effects of the drug was that you lost weight with
out changing
anything
.
It seemed t
o
o good to be true
;
we should have known better.
Mom and dad had gone on vacation right before the outbreak
;
we hadn’t heard from them since. I didn’t expect
,
now
,
that we would.

My body was thrown
off the door and I hit the green shag carpet
, my hands and knees taking the brunt of the fall. Dustin helped me to my feet
. W
e sprinted through
the house and out the back
into a small yard. There was no time to think, we just ran.

We burst out onto the road, doubling back on our own trail
, slowing down for breath as we watched the three Nevermores who’d been chasing us break into the house. They would search it before getting back on our scent trail. This wasn’t the first time we’d been chased and I doubted it would be the last.

“Annie, we have to get food still
,
” Dustin said, keeping his voice low
, adjusting the yet
-
to
-
be
-
filled bag on his back
. He hadn’t let go of my hand yet. He was fourteen, but with th
e
shift in the world’s food chain, he was no longer embarrassed to be seen with his older sister.
Not that there was anyone to see us.

“Right. Let’s go down to the Safeway. We can see what’s left and then . . .”

“We can’t go home
,
can we?”
h
e
asked
,
his blue eyes wide
, his lower lip trembling.

I shook my head, a mixed strand of purple and blond hair falling
in
front of my eyes. “No. We can’t.”

“I wish I never got that radio working.” He muttered, his fingers tightening over mine and then letting go.

I motioned for him to follow me and we d
ucked
in and out of the shadows of buildings, finally making our way to the front of the Safeway store.

“Do you really think there might be food?” Dustin whispered as we crouched between two rows of shopping carts.

“
I hope so. Once we get a little bit, we’ll head to the water and find a boat.”

Our plan was simple once we
heard
the radio announcement. Get food, get to a boat and get across the Georgia Straight to the mainland. There was a small group of people holding down the Vancouver airport and they were able to fly survivors out. It
—
the announcement
—
had come as we were down to our last three cans of food.
The answer was obvious
;
we had to go. Whether Dustin wanted to or not.

“I hate water
,
Annie. You know that
,
”
h
e whined as we crept toward the store.
I ignored him.
Broken glass and signs hanging askew were not a good indication that there was food left, but we had to try.

A single barking cough flattened us against the wall of the bu
ilding
. Again
,
Dustin reached for my hand and I took it, as much for myself as for him.

Carefully, I ease
d
toward the door, my c
lothes catching on the brick façade
; the scratchy sound seemed to echo down the street announcing our presence.

I peeked in
,
but didn’t see anything. Against the dark red brick I felt like we were a neon sign screaming, ‘Here we are, come and get us!’

Being in the open was not good. I took a breath, gave a tug on Dustin’s hand
,
and we crept into the shadowy building. Crouching in the
corner closest to the door, we scanned the interior of the room.

Dustin started to pant
,
and I was afraid he would pass out
,
his breathing was so rapid. I put my mouth to his ear.

“Easy
,
buddy. There might not be anything in here but a stray dog. We don’t know what the noise was
,
” I whispered.

Not that we’d seen a stray dog since the second week of the outbreak, but that was beside the point. I needed
him to
calm
d
own.

We sat in silence for nearly five minutes, long enough for my skin to begin to itch from the lack of movement. The fear of being in one place for too long ran hot in my blood.

Standing up
,
I led the way down the aisles. The produce section had a few rotten pieces of fruit, there was nothing left in the bakery and the
next
two aisles were cleaners and toiletries. Not exactly edible.
A scent permeated the store, growing stronger the further in we got. It tickled my nose
, not in a good way;
I couldn’t put my finger on it.

We came
around the
corner from aisles 3 to 4 and froze. Crouched over a body was a smallish Nevermore
, his back to us as he feasted.

We stepped back as a unit and
hid
in
aisle
3. Dustin started to shake and tears welled up in his eyes, quickly spilling over onto his cheeks. I wiped them away and gave him a hug, all in complete silence. We knew too well not to make a noise with
a
Nevermore that
close.