In Hiding: A Survivors Journal of the Great Outbreak (7 page)

I
asked if he was okay.

It
was the first thing that came to mind and to this day I still can’t believe
that I made that mistake. I should have known better even then. That was when
the man turned away from the door slowly, his head jerked around in horrifying
fashion and he looked directly at me.

His
eyes were focused on me and he started stumbling towards Kerri and I. The
washroom wasn’t that big. There wasn’t that much room to begin with and he was
starting to close in quickly. I could see the blood on the sleeve of his shirt.
He had scratches from fingernails that covered his neck. He labored with each
step and his head jerked back and forth as he tried to pick up his pace and
close the gap between us.

I
warned him to stop. I told him to stay where he was. I was trying to reason
with him. But I should have known better. He took another step closer. I don’t
know why I expected him to listen. I made the same mistake that Anne had made.
It was the same mistake that the cop had made earlier that morning.

I
warned him again. I told him I would shoot. I warned him. I find it funny that
when people swear that they are going to shoot, it usually means that they
won’t. So I swore again that I would fire if he took one step closer.

I
could hear Kerri whisper in my ear to shoot him. I knew that was supposed to be
a last resort. But the thing in front of us had clearly shaken her. Hell it had
shaken me. He was getting closer.

She
pleaded with me to shoot him but I was ignoring her. I was trying to line up my
shot and go through the check list that Anne had given me in our quick tutorial
on how to use the shotgun. I tucked the stock firmly in my shoulder like I was
supposed too. I aimed like I was supposed too and then I went to squeeze the
trigger like I was supposed too.

Nothing.

There
was a scream from behind me and I remember trying to squeeze the trigger again.
Nothing happened. Then I did what every idiot does in the movies when the gun
doesn’t work. I looked down at it for a spit second as if I would be able to
recognize what the problem was. That was when I felt a hand grab the front of
my shirt and I knew I was in trouble.

There
was yelling and screaming and my mind started to race. I raised the gun up and
stuck it sideways into the man’s neck. His other hand grabbed a hold of my
shoulder and I just kept pushing his face back as hard as I could. Jamming the
gun with as much force as I could into his neck. I pushed him back against the
wall and then he forced me back out into the middle of the washroom. That was
when I saw the bat come flying around from behind me.

The
bat struck the face of the Zed and it knocked him back a few steps. I had to
give it to Kerri. She hit him hard and she had bought me some time. Then she
stepped between the man and me and started swinging the bat widely back and
forth. She hit him in the arm, she hit him in the shoulder, and then she struck
him with everything she had right in the chest. It was enough to knock him back
against the far wall and instead of both of us making a break for it I was busy
trying to figure out what was wrong with the gun.

I
couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working. But then again I didn’t know enough
about guns to troubleshoot the problem. So I did the only thing I could think
of at that time. I raised the stock of the gun up in the air and started to
charge at him. He took a step right for me and we met somewhere in the middle.
I jammed the stock of the gun right into his face and I swear to you that I
heard his nose break on impact. But he barely flinched as I smashed him in the
face.

Then
I don’t know if I slipped on the bathroom floor or if he simply overpowered me,
but he had a hold of me and I was falling backwards to the ground. I landed
hard on my back and he was on top of me. I had managed to get one of my knees
into his midsection and the gun was jammed sideways right into his throat
again. But it was taking everything I had to keep some distance between us.

I
remember consciously turning my head so that his drool wouldn’t land anywhere
near my mouth. That and the muscles in my arms were burning as I tried to push
his face further and further away. He was dead weight and I don’t say that
jokingly. It took everything I had to keep us separated. I could see just past
his head that Kerri was behind him and beating him with the bat. I don’t think
he noticed. There was so much noise in that small bathroom. I could hear Kerri
shouting and I was most likely screaming but I can’t remember for sure. The one
sound that I do remember was the clicking.

The
Zed kept biting air as he pushed his face closer to mine. His teeth made a
terrible clicking sound every time he bit down. There was a foul order coming
off of him, the disgusting smell of disease that usually fills hospital
hallways. His arms still had a firm grip on my shoulders and there was no way I
could muster enough strength to push him off of me. We were at a stalemate. But
deep down I knew, chances were that my arms were going to give out long before
he gave up.

Kerri
had dropped her bat at that point and was desperately trying to pull him off of
me. I just remember thinking about how bad it was going to hurt when he finally
did bite down into my flesh. I could feel the grip he had on my shoulders
getting firmer I was so scared that his fingernails were going to dig into my
skin. I had never been so afraid in my life.

What
happened next was an overlooked variable in that washroom. If I had been
thinking clearly I would have realized that there must have been a reason as to
why that monster was banging on that stall door. I only saw the blur of a
person charging towards me and I flinched just as they put their shoulder into
the Zed on top of me. The force of the blow knocked him off of me and suddenly
I was free.
 
I tried to race to my
feet but to my surprise the Zed and I both made it onto one knee at about the
same time. I shoved him as hard as I could and that was just enough to push him
back far enough for me to regroup.

In
all of the confusion, I had forgotten about that stall. There had been a woman
trapped in there by the Zed that I had just led away from her. She had finally
had a chance to get out of there and her actions had just bought me some
precious time. But that wasn’t all she did. Once I had freed myself from the
Zed’s hold she reached over and clicked the safety on the top of the shotgun
off. The one thing that I had forgot to do that I was supposed to do. Anne had
pointed it out. She had told me about it. She just thought it would be safer to
have the safety on considering my lack of experience. I don’t think she
believed that I would have to use the gun. I wish she had been right.

I
gathered myself as quickly as I could. I moved the gun into a firing position
and took aim at the infected man just as he regained his footing. I remember seeing
his head jerk over in Kerri’s direction and that was when I panicked. His
attention had turned to her and I knew I needed to do something fast.

I
warned the two women in the washroom to get clear as he started moving for
Kerri and I squeezed the trigger. That time something did happen. My shot hit
the man right below his left kneecap, blowing away most of his shin. He fell
hard as he lost his balance and he smacked his face on the bathroom floor.

I guess that is why you don’t
close your eyes when you’re taking a shot. I was actually aiming for his chest.
The one thing that nobody ever mentioned to me was how loud the gunshot would
be, especially in such a small bathroom like that one. My ears were ringing to
the point where they almost hurt. But worst of all was that I forgot to tuck
the stock firmly into my shoulder. The recoil, one of the things Anne had
warned me about had kicked the gun back right into my shoulder. There was a
shooting pain running all throughout my shoulder and arm. So I couldn’t hear
well, I was in a tremendous amount of pain, my senses were all disorientated
and now the Zed was crawling along the ground, coming right for me. I wish we
would have just gone back and got the others.

I
saw Kerri holding her ears sitting on the ground. The woman from the bathroom
stall was trying to get me to focus on the Zed in front of us but I was too
busy trying to pull myself together.

I
felt a hand grab a hold of my shoe. It wasn’t a strong hold, so I pulled my
foot away with little effort. I slid back against the wall closest to me and
tried to get myself back on my feet. He reached out again and grabbed my shoe
once more so I took aim with the shotgun again. Before I squeezed the trigger I
realized that another gunshot in there could blow out my eardrums. Besides, my
shoulder was in such pain it was hard to hold the gun properly anyway.

His
grip tightened on my left shoe so I kicked him in the face as hard as I could
with my other foot. Nothing. He kept coming. I kicked again and again but it
wasn’t enough to stop him. I stood up tall and brought the stock of the gun
down hard into the back of his skull. He stopped crawling. Then he reached out
again slowly and I brought the gun down again. I hit him harder that time. Then
before I gave him a chance to move again I hit him for a third time. Then a
fourth and a fifth and when I finally stopped hitting him, I knew that there
was no way that Zed was going to move again. He didn’t.

It
took us a while to get out of that washroom. I stood over the corpse of that
man for a few moments unsure of what I had just done. Kerri and the woman from
the stall were both in rough shape after everything that had happened. We could
barely hear each other speak and I remember just trying to process what had
taken place. I know one thing for sure, what happened in that washroom that
day, well it changed me in a way that I really can’t describe.

The
woman in the washroom with Kerri and I, well that was Shannon. She was older
then I was, my first guess was that she was in her late thirties. She was
blonde, wore glasses and to be honest she reminded me of one of my old grade
school teachers. The redness that surrounded her eyes told me she had been
crying and crying a lot.

When
we exited the washroom we came face to face with Paul and Anne pointing their
guns down the hallway at as. They had heard the gun shot, they made sure that
everyone had made it back to the meeting point in the sporting goods department
and then raced over to check on us when they realized that we hadn’t returned.

Later
Anne would tell me I looked like I was in shock when she first saw me step out
into that hallway. I don’t remember it, but she told me that I kept asking what
I had done over and over again. She told me that I eventually snapped out of it
but according to her I was a mess when they first found us. The first days were
the worst for that. There was just so much confusion.

We
told Paul and Anne about everything that had happened. Then Shannon introduced
herself and told us how she ended up where she did. Apparently, she had been in
the store trying to get survival supplies when she heard the commotion at the
front of the building. She hid from us, trying to avoid any trouble unsure of
what was happening. She was trying to sneak to the back corner until she was
cut off by that Zed who was now dead on the bathroom floor. She ran away and
found herself trapped down the hallway where the washrooms were. She tried to
hide in the washroom but the door didn’t have a lock.

She
tried holding the door closed as the Zed pushed his way inside. He eventually
overpowered her and she ran to the one place she thought she could hide. One of
the bathroom stalls. She locked the door and leaned as hard as she could into
the door with her back while pushing with her legs on the toilet. She didn’t
even know how long she had been there. I still can’t imagine how she did it.

We
discussed why the Zed never tried to go under the stall door on the way back to
our meeting point. We also learned that the rest of the store was empty. All of
the other groups had been far luckier then we had been. Kerri told Anne about
Scott’s car and what we had seen. I could see the concern in her face as she
heard the news.

When
we arrived back and met the others Shannon, Kerri and I had to retell our story
to the rest of the group. We also saw that Bruce had taken a turn for worse. He
had developed a strong fever and had been growing faint while we were away.
Sandy was in a panic because she had no idea what to do for him. Ray was busy
trying to calm her down and get a few of the others to go out and find anything
they could to help.

We
all scattered around the different departments trying to find something that
could help Bruce. We grabbed bags of frozen vegetables for cold compress, we
tried painkillers and we gave him bottles of water. Nothing seemed to be
bringing his fever down. It was while we were trying to help Bruce that we
heard what sounded like multiple explosions outside. I mean it sounded like the
fourth of July out there. Cody and Adam ran over to the front doors trying to
get a look at what had happened.

They
came back and told us that they couldn’t see anything through the growing wall
of zombies that had gathered at the doors. I felt helpless not knowing what was
going on around us I mean we actually believed that we were hearing the
military coming to our rescue at that point. Some of the others were trying to
find another way of seeing what was going on but nobody could think of anything.