Dead Stop (24 page)

The waitress
nodded, her jaw set tight. Even in the dim light, Rachel could see how white
her knuckles were from clutching her bat.

“Okay, then,”
Harley indicated the lock, “the clock is running. Let’s do this thing.”

“You two be
careful.”

Rachel almost
jumped out of her skin at the sound of Deke’s voice right behind her.

She turned to
see him and Stacey hunched under the table behind her. The look on Deke’s face,
and the fact he hadn’t even offered to go in with Harley, told her volumes
about the shape his shoulder must be in. She knew the young man’s pride must be
killing him, but the hold Stacey had on his arm told her the girl had already
explained to him that pride was no substitute for common sense. The fresh blood
on both of their bandages made her want to go over and kick Gerald in the ass.

“We will,”
Harley nodded, “we should be done and back within five minutes at the
longest…probably a lot less. You guys just keep your heads down till this is
over.”

Having said
that, he moved over and crouched on the other side of the doorway while Marisa
slipped the key into the lock. They all watched as she turned the key with
silent care. Harley then eased the door open, did a quick peek inside, and
slipped through into the darkness beyond. A second later the waitress followed.

The tips of
Marisa’s fingers were visible near the bottom of the door as she took care to
make sure it closed in slow silence.

Then she and
Harley were gone.

Another crack of
thunder shook the building, making the three of them jump. For a second, Rachel
thought it might be another gunshot. A quick scan of the windows revealed them
all to be whole, and she realized the sounds of battle from the direction of
the gas pumps had stopped. Headlights from at least one car still sparkled
against the glass, telling her that some people hadn’t managed to escape the onslaught.

Everybody who
could had already left.

They were now
alone.

“Ooookaaayyy…”
Rachel breathed after a few more seconds of silence.

She turned to
the young couple behind her, noting the looks of worry and guilt on both their
faces.

They want to
help Harley and Marisa,
she realized.
Those are both of their best
friends who just went into a dark place with monsters, and even though they
know better, they think they ought to be in there with them. They’re both hurt
and scared out of their minds, but they would step up in a heartbeat if asked.

Rachel realized
she really wanted to keep these two as friends…if they lived through this. Some
people, no matter their station in life, were just good people. She had a
feeling she would like Marisa and Harley too, if she got a chance to know them
better.

“They’re going
to be okay,” she assured them. “Harley seems like a pretty capable guy, and
Marisa is smart. They can handle this.”

And if they
don’t, I’m the last uninjured adult capable of doing much other than maybe
Holly. Don’t make a liar out of me, you two. I’ve had enough unpleasant
surprises tonight.

Of course, that
was when the fire alarm went off.

###

Rising Waters
- Marisa

Marisa barely
dared to breathe as she eased the door shut behind her. She squatted on the
floor, directly behind Harley, trying to peek over his shoulder at the darkened
room beyond. To her right, light filtered in through the tinted front windows
in an angled beam that cut off sharply at waist level. It didn’t illuminate
much, and left the floor near the front shrouded in blackness. The shelves
loomed like dim mountains to her left, cutting off almost all view of most of
the store.

The air reeked
of scorched coffee pot, and a smoky haze made visibility in the dim light even
worse.

This is me,
following a 200 lb redneck into a dark store full of killer dead people…armed
only with my good looks and a baseball bat. I’ve been watching way too many
Michelle Rodriguez movies. Next time, I’ll just throw a wig on Stacey and she
can play the gutsy Latina chick. 

She froze as
Harley reached back and tapped her on the knee.

He pointed at
the nearby front entrance, and made a twisty motion with his hand that Marisa
understood to be directions to lock the door. That made sense. The girl nodded,
crept in silent, slow motion over to the lock and inserted the key. She noticed
him shift position as she moved and realized he was doing it to keep himself
between her and the rest of the room.

Normally such a
move would have struck her as tedious male posturing or an overwrought gesture
of chivalry, but since there were real man-eating monsters out there in the
dark she decided she could be a little more generous in her evaluation of the
action. Besides, it didn’t
feel
like he was making some kind of
gesture…it felt like he was simply covering her back while she did her job.

The key turned
in the lock and the mechanism snapped home with an uncomfortably loud “
clack.”

Marisa winced at
the noise, and peeked back to see if a hoard of skull-faced monsters was
descending on her with gaping jaws.

Nothing.

Nothing but
Harley crouched behind her, scanning the darkness.

“Got it,” she
whispered, then winced again as she realized the only way he couldn’t have
known it was if he were deaf as a post.

He didn’t seem
inclined to give her grief about it, instead gesturing at her and then at a
spot at the end of the first row of shelves. Again, his meaning was obvious and
she moved to the indicated location. Once there, she stopped and watched him
for further instruction.

Harley started a
complicated series of gestures that made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever.
He must have seen the confusion on her face for he stopped before she could cut
him off and held up a hand to signal her to wait and not move. Keeping his eyes
focused somewhere down at the other end of the store, he did a careful crawl
over to her and put a cupped hand to her ear.

“There is one
down there behind where the cash register used to be,” he whispered. “I think
it’s the last one in here, but I can’t be totally sure.”

Marisa squinted
at the dark corner in question, but couldn’t see anything. If it was there, it
wasn’t standing up or it would be silhouetted against the window. For a second
she wondered what it would be doing on the floor, then remembered that was
where Gladys had died. Then she didn’t want to think about it.

“I’m going to
sneak down there and try and surprise it,” Harley continued. He put a finger to
her lips as she started to object. “I need you to stay here and make sure
nothing comes out of one of these aisles behind me. Understand?”

She favored him
with a suspicious look but he shook his head.

“I’m not just
trying to keep you out of harm’s way. If something comes out of an aisle after
I pass it, I need you to scream to catch its attention. Get it to come after
you. Then you jump back through the door so I can try to either get it from
behind or at least avoid getting caught between them.”

Marisa pictured
that in her head, and realized it made good sense. She nodded her assent at
Harley, who wasted no time in turning back to face the far end of the store.

The man moved in
a smooth crouch, staying just under the level of the light coming in the
window. This had the effect of him disappearing in the darkness under the smoke
filled shaft. She tried to keep track of his position and marveled at how he
could move so quietly in boots.

And given the
outcome of his last fight with one of these things, the girl now allowed herself
the hope that maybe…just maybe…he could take this one out by surprise before it
knew what was happening. She didn’t know how he planned to do it but had every
confidence he had a plan in mind.

Unfortunately,
she never got to find out what that plan might be.

A piercing
electronic shriek cut through the store without warning, causing her to squeak
in surprise, and the security lights in the back corner of the store came on.
While not as bright as the overhead fluorescents, they were still sufficient to
fill the store with light…revealing Harley to be halfway towards a monster that
had just finished tearing a large strip of skin from Gladys’s  body.

Oh shit!
Marisa gaped up at the security lights.
 The fire alarm! What the hell?
All the stoves are off so… so somebody just opened the fire door in the
restaurant!

She didn’t have
time to think beyond that.

The dead thing
rose to its feet, the long strip of skin still hanging from its jaws, and
Marisa tried not to look at the bloody wreck of her coworker at its feet. At
the same time, Harley started to run towards the ghoul.

“Marisa!” he
yelled, “The side door! You’re going to have to close it!”

The monster
charged, and Harley met it in a flying tackle just as it started to come over
the wreckage of the counter. His greater mass drove the dead thing backwards
and the two of them tumbled back over the mess, gripping and tearing at each
other.

This left Marisa
with a straight shot at the side door…other than for the savaged body of the
store’s last customer…the door still blocked open where Gladys used to enjoy
her smokes.

She hesitated,
torn between running for the door or rushing over to help the man fighting the
dead thing on the floor. She knew he hadn’t originally intended to get into a
clinch with the horror. It had been forced on him by circumstances. Whatever
advantages his fighting skills gave him on his feet might not translate into a
wrestling match on the ground…especially with an unnaturally strong monster
that bit, clawed, and didn’t feel pain.

She raised her
bat and took a couple of steps towards the struggling pair.

“No, Marisa! The
door! The things outside are going to hear this noise and come back! Hurry!”

A quick glance
at the front window confirmed this. Several snarling shapes were already
visible coming between the cars of the parking lot in a headlong run towards
the store. They would be there in seconds.

“Shit!” Marisa
sprinted for the open door.

It stood propped
open by a cracked cinder block Gladys used to prop her foot on while taking her
breaks. She could see it swing away from the block even further at times as the
wind caught it and pushed it wider. The driving rain flooded in, creating a
reddened puddle that surrounded the corpse of Gladys’s last customer and
covered about a third of the store.

Marisa didn’t
dare take the time to negotiate around the body so she jumped it while at a
dead run in the puddle. That didn’t end up working out very well. She landed
skidding towards the door, completely out of control. The tall girl fought to
maintain her balance, then had her feet fly out from under her just as her hand
closed on the metal handle.

“Goddammit!” she
shrieked as she grasped the handle in a death grip and flailed to get her legs
back under her as she continued to slide forward. Her momentum threatened to
carry her out the door, and she realized there now existed the very real danger
of the monsters coming around the corner of the store to find her sitting on
her ass outside waiting for them.

No. She
absolutely refused to die like that.

Water flew from
where she splashed and slid in the open door. A heavy blast of rain hit her in
the face, blinding her as she fought to stand. Things were getting worse by the
second. Time was running out and if she didn’t get this done fast then both her
and Harley were dead. The struggling waitress realized she needed to forget
about regaining her feet and just focus on getting the damn door closed.

Marisa lashed
out in an effort to kick away Gladys’s door prop and her sneakered foot flared
with pain as it connected badly, but with enough force to knock the heavy brick
over. It felt like she had broken at least one toe…maybe more. She pulled
herself to her knees, biting back tears, then leaned backwards in a final effort
to use her weight to drag the door shut.

It shut with a
squeaky hiss, cutting off the noise of the storm outside.

She was
safe…almost.

Marisa rammed
the key into the lock and twisted it, just as the faint sounds of splashing
footsteps announced the arrival of the predators outside. The bedraggled young
woman didn’t even look up, not wanting to see what would be glaring in through
the door at her. Besides, she realized her problems weren’t over yet.

A thunderous
crash announced that Harley and the monster still fought behind the broken
counter. At the same time, the slap of dead palms against glass drove home the
fact that both her and the battle were visible to the monsters outside, and it
was exciting the hell out of them. If she didn’t do something damn quick, they
were going to be in here…door or no door.

Marisa pulled
herself to her feet with a whimper.

Her foot hurt
like the devil itself, and in the process of getting up she discovered her hip
hurt as well. She had no doubt she was going to be sporting a major league
bruise there, probably acquired when she initially slipped and hit the floor.
The fact her clothes were now sopping wet was just icing on the cake.

She scooped the
bat up from where she had dropped it when she lost her balance, and tried to
use it as a makeshift cane as she tottered away from the door. It wasn’t really
the right size for the job and she decided it would be faster to just hobble in
misery.

“Hang on,
Harley,” she groaned, “I’ve got to knock those lights out and then I’ll be
back.”

“Good idea,” he
gasped. “I’ll be right here.”

 He and his
opponent came into view as she limped further into the store. Harley had solved
the biting problem by somehow stuffing a leather bank pouch from the busted
cash register into the creature’s mouth while holding its head against the
floor with one forearm. He had his legs wrapped around its middle and one arm,
and was struggling to keep the other from grabbing him. A ragged gash ran down
his forearm and blood covered his shirt.