Zombie Day Care (2 page)

The sign of a small convenience store was in the distance. He forced himself forward. It seemed to take forever. He looked back and she wasn’t there. He kept moving, holding his stomach. He felt so sick. He made it to the glass doors and tugged on the handle. It was locked.

“
No!” he cried.

He pulled again and again, looking for someone inside. The shelves were half full, but there were no signs of people. Wiping the burning sweat from his eyes he surveyed the parking lot and leaned back on the door.

“
What the — !"

He fell inside the doors with a thud
.
As he looked up in bewilderment he noticed the words on the door: PUSH and PULL. A smile crossed his haggard face. He shoved the door closed and looked for a latch.

“
Come on,” he mumbled, “Come on!”

It was a key only lock. He screamed again. He hustled over to the register and rummaged his blood stained fingers through the shelves. He checked the counter.
Nothing!

He pounded on the counter as he shouted, “Damn! Damn! Damn!”

He knew she would arrive at any second. What now? He tried something new.

Whack! Whack! Whack!
He busted open the register with the ball bat.

He jerked open the drawer and a key lay in one of the change bins. He snatched it and limped over to the door. There she was, passing the gas pumps.
Almost here!
He stuck the key in the lock, but it didn’t fit. The key slipped in his fingers rattled on the tile.

“
Shit!”

He grabbed it and tried sticking it back in the keyhole. It didn’t fit.
No!
He turned the key over and slipped it inside. Something slammed into the door. She was pushing from the other side of the glass, moaning at him. He shoved back, wedging his foot against a store shelf. He turned the lock, but it wasn’t flush. She was pushing him back inside. She was stronger than a man.

“
No!” he screamed. He lowered his shoulder and knocked the door hard, shuffling her backwards.

Clatch!

He got it. “Thank God!”

He slunk down on the glass doors with a gasp of relief. He couldn’t move. His leg was throbbing and he didn’t have the strength to stand. His breathing was loud and he could feel sweat dripping off of his nose as he closed his eyes.

Wham!

Her fist busted into the glass leaving a spider web mark. He rolled away, eyes wide. How much energy did he have left?

I can’t do this.

“
Go away!” he screamed. “Go away!”

CHAPTER 3

Nate tore his jeans off just below the knee. The bloody gash made him sick as he spit up bile. He rummaged over the shelves, found some gauze, antiseptic, and medical tape. He closed his eyes as he placed the loose flap of skin back over his shin and knee. His eyes watered as he sprayed on the antiseptic. He pounded at the floor, biting his lip. He wrapped it with gauze and taped it off. He peered at the door as Jeanine pounded and moaned on the other side of the glass. The whole building seemed to shake with every blow.

His bloody hands wrapped an ace bandage he found around his knee. The blood no longer soaked his bandages, but he still felt ill. He ripped off the top of a bottle of ibuprofen and limped over to the glass cooler doors. He found a twenty ounce bottle of Fountain Dew and pulled it out. He twisted off the yellow cap and read the inside.

“
Better luck next time,” he said as he flicked it away.

He took a handful of pills and washed them down with the green liquid. It was luke warm, still he sucked the entire bottle down like ice water. It was delicious all the same and his stomach churned again.
I’d do anything for a burrito.
He tore into a box of snack cakes, washing them down with another bottle of the soft drink. He looked over at Jeanine, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, watching her continue to claw at the door.
I have to be dreaming. I can’t believe I was gonna marry that.

The sky was turning black as the sun dipped and blanket of grey clouds began to roll in. He heard the soothing sound of raindrops landing on the metal roof above.

“
Now it starts to rain,” he said, as he sat down in front of the fountain drink machines across from the entrance door.

He sipped on his bottle watching her hands bang and scratch at the doors. Her breasts jiggled underneath the black and gold jersey, and he thought of all the blissful mornings with her.
I’m sick. She’s getting ready to eat me and I can only think about her tits.
Her face was a maul of horror. Her hair seemed to be drying out. Blue veins began to swell under her tanned skin. Nate wanted to pinch himself, but the effort wasn’t in him.

Nate closed his eyes and tried to remember Jeanine from back when. They had been together for years and she wasn’t something he deserved. She had been a good person, but he had been the bad. Not bad in the good sense, but rather bad in the pathetic, character lacking, me first sense. He was spoiled and brainy, a bit of a slob who ate too much, played video games, collected comics, and watched too many movies.
What a winner.
But he also had a golden tongue that tickled a woman’s ear with all those words they liked to hear: I want you. I need you. I love you. They never meant a thing to him, until he met her. Jeanine was different.

She liked him for her own reasons, ones he never understood. They only had a few things in common; one of them was softball. He had the big bat and she liked it. They both were competitive and smart … maybe she liked that, he thought. He had the brains that got you a full scholarship anywhere, and missing classes still got him straight A’s. It was the only thing he was better at than Jeanine.
That and video games.
Whatever the connection was they had, it was special, and he loved her every single day. Now she was gone, her haggard face etched forever in his nightmares.

Nate peered around the convenience store. Where was everyone? Many afflicted cities such as his, fled the zombies who pursued them, that much he knew. He didn’t see any dead bodies though. Whoever owned the store picked up and ran, hoping to return one day. He pulled the bat along his side and took off his backpack. Unzipping it he reached inside. He pulled out his phone charger. He patted his pants pocket. His phone was still there. He squeezed it out and turned it on.

The display showed thirty percent battery life and no signal bars.

“
Great,” he said under his breath. He moved it around in the air and a small green bar appeared. He dialed 9–1–1. It was busy. He waited as Jeanine’s raps on the door were in a steady cadence now. Her moans continued, like a dying hound, and the glass and metal doors shook over and over. He covered his ears.
She never moaned that much with me.
He dialed again. Busy. He tried again. Busy — Busy — Busy. He fought the urge to sling the phone down, sighing aloud.

He stared at her long and hard. He had no choice. He had to kill her. He studied the softball bat he bought for her. It seemed like a crude way to go. He noticed the charcoal fluid stacked by some bags of coals near the door.
Maybe I should set her on fire.
The smell would be disgusting and there had to be a more humane way to kill her. It was the bat or nothing. At least he could bury her body then.

As darkness fell and the heavier rains came, his taunt body softened. The loud rain began to drown out her moans. It relieved him. He took another sip as his eyes fell closed. He was fast asleep as she still pounded away.

CHAPTER 4

Nate gasped. A violent shake awoke him from his deep slumber. His skin was cold and clammy. Sunlight from the storefront windows bathed his face and body. He rubbed his blurry eyes as his heart thundered in his chest. The double glass doors were still intact. Jeanine was still there too.

Her head was now sticking through the glass and her jaw clutched opened and closed. It made him think of a glass stockade, just a crueler device. The only thing keeping her from pushing through were the tiny wires holding the safety glass intact. Nate grimaced as he could see the glass cutting into her neck. She made no effort to force her way back out, only forward. She was stuck, but the moaning continued.

“
I can’t take it anymore!” he yelled.

He got up growling. He noticed his leg was swollen and purple from the knee down. He grabbed a plastic bottle of Fountain Dew and limped over to face her. As he came closer, her mouth snapped open and closed like a cow chewing its cud.

“
Sorry baby, I know you hate this stuff,” he said, shoving the bottle, cap first, into her mouth.

If Jeanine had a flaw, it was talking too much. He fantasized about doing that many times before. She hissed in and out of her nose, as her wide mouth was filled with the green bottle over half way in. He stepped back, eyes looking about. An eerie sensation of peace fell over him. The moaning was gone.

She crunched down on the bottle that was stuck in her mouth. Green carbonation squirted into the air. Shaking her head back and forth, the bottle remained. He limped over and grabbed the bat.

This is it. Got to do it!

He looked into her dark, long-lashed eyes and knew nobody was home. There was no other way. It was her or him.
Until death do us part.

As he approached, he could see her perfect white teeth biting deep into the bottle. It pinched inward and her eyes widened as she sucked on the bottle.

“
What the hell?”

She seemed to be drinking it. Green fluid dripped down her chin and gashed neck. He could hear a wheezing and sucking sound coming from her. The bottle began to empty and started to collapse as if it were squeezed by a hand. The bottle fell and rattled on the tiled floor. He looked at her, the bottle, then back at her. He approached with the bat raised high. Her listless face was silent. He watched as she struggled to pull her head free, her eyes catching his, passing him over like he wasn’t there. The hunger and aggression were gone. She was just stuck inside the glass, trapped like an animal, not knowing what to do.

“
Now what?” he said, setting down the bat.

He waited minute after minute. The store was becoming hotter as the sun rose further. It was past noon and it must have been a hundred degrees inside. There wasn’t a window to open. He had to pee and he headed for a bathroom in the back. His ears and mind were monitoring any signs of danger.

“
Ah!” he said as he began to pee.

It was the most relief he had felt in forever. He walked back out and there she was, moving very little, a defeated creature. He felt bad for her all of a sudden. Did the soft drink cure her? What was going on? He took over another bottle and twisted off the lid. Her black eyes glimmered up at him. Her arms pressed the glass from the other side as the jagged edges had her neck still caught. Nate poured some to her lips. She didn’t try to bite, but licked her lips with her blackening tongue. He noticed the liquid running down through a hole in her neck.

“
Ugh!” he said, stepping away and spitting.

Her eyes were fixed on the bottle now. He had to get out of there though, as the sweltering heat was too much. The key was still in the lock. He crouched down and slid over to it. He reached up, unlocked it, and slid back away. She pushed the door in and she pulled it back out. It was in slow motion as she went in and out, back and forth, legs shuffling over the sweep. It reminded him of a cartoon and a revolving door. He stuffed some pop bottles in his backpack, along with some candy, nuts and protein bars.

Here we go.
He mustered his courage and as she backed out again he shoved himself past her. He was free.
Yes!
He hid behind the gas pumps and waited. She kept moving back and forth. He checked his smart phone. One green bar showed with twenty percent battery power remaining.
Just get a car and go!

He walked around the building. No cars. There wasn’t a single one to be seen. He saw the backyards of tiny houses nearby with sheds on many lawns.
There has to be a bike in there
. He limped into one fenced in yard. It had a decent sized storage barn in the back. He straddled the rail and he fell onto the other side.

“
Ow!”

The barn was padlocked. He knocked the lock off after several swings with the bat. He jerked open the doors and a pair of mountain bikes hung in the back.

“
Yes!” he said, pumping his fist. “Thank you Jesus!”

He lifted one bike down and got on. The pedaling was excruciating as he wobbled at first, but he was fine, he was moving. Taking the road he rounded back in front of the convenience store. Jeanine wasn’t there.

“
Shit!”

He tried turning his head every direction at once, but she was gone. Fear filled him from head to toe as he listened for her. Nothing but the wind was with him, and very little of that.