The small group of survivors walked along the back of a small set of stores, the stores in this part of town are speciality shops, a couple of clothing stores and a few chain restaurants. Like most of the new strip malls popping up in town, the store fronts were not facing the road. Instead, they were all facing the giant parking lot that they all shared. Along with Princess Road, there were still cars in the ditches scattered along their walk.
They had been walking for just about five minutes before they saw any movement on the road. A noise to the right startled Dennis and he whirled around to face the noise with is crowbar ready to do damage to anything that moved. The noise occurred again, to Henry it sounded like it was coming from the other side of the road like something was trying to get out of a car. It was then that a large tabby cat landed on the ground. The cat was soaked, likely covered in the blood of the occupants of the car.
Dennis hissed at the cat and scared it off.
"Shit, that scared me," Meri said breaking the silence of the last five minutes.
"Me too," Dennis said and turned back to the path and continued to the back of the building.
They had quickened their pace along this stretch of the walk. The cold brick buildings had no alcoves, no place for them to duck or hide if they sensed any danger. Out here the group would only have one option, and it was something not of them wanted to think about.
Like after they left the bus Dennis was leading the way, holding his crowbar tightly in one hand but resting it casually on his shoulder for a quick reaction. Meri was in the middle holding onto what was left of their food, after the last encounter the group decided they needed to build up their energy reserve. Henry was following behind the others, always checking behind him looking to see if they were being followed or if that large group had decided that it wanted to come back.
He was more concerned with the return of one of the people that he met this morning. "If that mechanic can track me down, it's possible that someone else could have done that too."
Henry thought back to everyone that he saw up close this morning and could not picture anyone that stood out in his mind, he was always worried and concentrating on the mechanic that he never actually took a good look at anyone else that he would have been dealing with at the time.
"Anyone that I would have remembered, we dealt with already." He said to himself.
Henry kept such a vigilant eye on the route behind them that he did not notice when Dennis and Meri had stopped until he ran into Dennis.
"Holy!" Dennis snapped at him quietly. "You need to be a little more careful where you're walking."
"Sorry, I got caught up in making sure we were not being followed." Henry looked back at Kings Road. "After that mechanic, I've gotten paranoid about these zombies."
"It's OK, we're all concerned about them. I appreciate you being so watchful." Dennis said to him.
Dennis turned around and looked at the corner of the building. The corner marked the end of the temporary coverage that the group had from the massive parking lot for the area of strip malls. The end of this building was separated by about 100 meters of asphalt and a small grassy knoll. When the first set of buildings went in the town built 5 or 6 access points for the parking lots connecting Kings Road and Princess Street to alleviate traffic and let people gain access to the shops that they wanted quicker.
This access road was the biggest of them all, connecting Princess Road and Route 156 to the parking lot that fed into the Hardware and Wholesale store, among others. The road was 5 lanes wide with sidewalks on each side, the distance was too far for them to go the entire way unnoticed. The only thing that the group could do is hope that nothing was moving in the parking lot to see them.
Dennis sized up the distance first, "That's too far for me to run now, with my knee and back after the past few fights I cannot go fast anymore."
"Let just see if there's anything out there that can see us," Henry responded.
Dennis nodded in agreement and walked towards the corner of the building to peer out.
"No, no," Meri called back quietly. "Down there." She was pointing to the ground. "You'll be less likely to be seen if you're down there out of eye level."
She could tell the point when Dennis and Henry both understood the point she was making when they both smiled at one another and began to crawl along the ground.
Meri pressed her back against the brick of the pizza shop and slid down to the ground. She looked over at the two men still crawling on their bellies, "I guess I'll keep an eye out for danger this way." She said.
Dennis gave her a thumbs up while he was moving and continued on.
She smiled and slowly opened the zipper pocket of Dennis' jacket and took out the bologna sandwich stuffed into it. While looking through a car shortly after they got off the bus, she had found the sandwich and put it the jacket for safe keeping. It was the one thing that they found that she did not want to share with everyone else.
She looked up and down the road for any danger and looked carefully at the two men as they positioned themselves by the corner.
Meri took a bite out of the sandwich and leant her head back on the wall. Slowly chewing, the flavour of the mustard mixed with the spices of the meat brought back memories of her family while growing up. People she'd probably never get a chance to see again, she never did get a chance to tell her mum why she left in the middle of the night a few months ago. Even though she was only a few kilometres from where her parents lived she knew their habits well enough to have avoided them since then. Despite all of those lost moments, Meri knew that she was better off where she was then still with them.
Dennis and Henry position themselves behind one another and lay on their sides since Henry is the smaller of the two men, he stakes his claim closest to the building to give Dennis more room to look over his head.
"You ready for this?" Dennis says to Henry as he places his hand on his shoulder.
"Not really, but let's just do this." He says back to him.
The men begin to wiggle their way along the ground until they can start to see around the building and into the parking lot. Once they start to see the parking lot, they do not move any further so that they do not attract attention to their current spot.
The area where the strip malls are located can be broken into two regions, the big box stores and the strip malls. The box stores are the free standing buildings that require a lot of square footage to keep and display all of their merchandise. These stores are located on the fringes of the parking lot, mostly scattered to the back. The strip malls run along the length of Kings Road and Princess Street, but inside the parking lot, there are 4 more buildings like the one they are behind, making 8 total in the entire area.
Henry and Dennis can only see a significant portion of one of the buildings in the parking lot, but that was plenty for them.
They could see three businesses from where they were currently watching: a stationary store which was already open for business, a shoe store, and a clothing store. The parking lot in front of them was full of cars. Henry stopped trying to count cars when he reached thirty-five.
The stationery store and clothing store were quiet. The door to the stationary store was propped open with a body allowing a few racoons to go racing into the shop to look for their next meals. The picture window to the clothing store was shattered with a small pickup truck parked in the middle of the floor. Debris and body pieces littered the ground around the truck.
The shoe store was a different matter.
Gathered in front of the window to this store was a group of a dozen zombies that were banging on the glass. Henry was going to ask Dennis what he thought was going on when he saw a figure running by the window stacking boxes in front of the zombies to try to hide from them.
Dennis tapped Henry on the shoulder and whispered, "Watch the guy coming from the right."
Henry noticed the zombie walking along the front row of cars, the zombie staggered and wobbled as it approached
the building. The group of zombies in front of the window started to separate as this one zombie got closer. The zombie approached the window and stood in front of it and looked into the store.
Henry could see the employee inside the shop freeze a few feet from the window.
"Why is not he hiding?" He whispered.
"I have no idea," Dennis responded.
The zombie took a step away from the store and brought its hands over the top of its head.
"Holy crap!" Henry gasped in surprise.
Held firmly between the hands of the zombie was a large rock that the zombie had gone to get from somewhere else in the parking lot. The weight of the rock almost pulled the zombie over backwards, but it was able to keep it's balance and slam the rock into the glass window.
A large noise echoed all around the parking lot scaring Meri from her happy memories.
She looked all around to make sure that nothing was happening in the immediate area that she had missed.
Meri scurried down the length of the building to where Dennis and Henry lay watching.
"What's happening!?" She said sounding mildly panicked as she looked to the men for answers.
Dennis just lifted his arm and pointed at the building.
Meri, sitting on her knees did not bother getting closer to the ground like the two men, leant around the corner in time to watch the zombie bring the rock above its head again and send it crashing through the window.
The window to the store shattered as the rock plunged through the window and into the stack of boxes and debris that was piled against the glass. The zombies started surging towards the opening in the window. They began reaching into the hole in the window, ripping the skin off of their hands as they broke more and more of the window away.
Glass started falling to the ground and shattered as it hit the asphalt, sending an eerie echo around the parking lot letting other zombies know that it was time to feed.
Meri could hear screaming coming from the newly exposed store. She squinted her eyes against the bright reflection of the sun and managed to see a middle-aged man charging out of the window as zombies started pushing and shoving as they attempted to enter the store. The man was carrying a small parcel under his arm as he charged with his elbow up to protect his face from any sharp pieces of glass. The man only made it past the first few zombies before the ones in the back swarmed him and brought him to the ground as they started ripping and tearing at his body. The parcel his was carrying hit the ground, and this lid opened, and a little kitten jumped out. The man watched as the kitten started running away from the terrible noises and took refuge under a car before looking back. Agony passed over the man's face as another zombie began to feast on the meat around his spine, ripping it from his body, and he was still.
Meri wiped a tear from her eye and leant back shielding herself from the horror that she just witnessed.
Henry and Dennis watched for another minute before they both sat up and looked at Meri.
Dennis put his hand on her knee and looked at her.
Meri reached out for his hand and took it from her knee and placed it on her cheek as she began sobbing a little more.
Dennis looked to Henry, "We should probably leave now, most of the zombies in the parking lot are going to be focused on that building for the next little while."
Henry looked at Meri, "You're probably right, but we can wait a minute if we need to."
Henry laid back down on the ground and looked out into the parking lot at the parts of it that he could see. There were a few latecomers to the shoe store who were just arriving and looking for leftovers.
Henry stood up quickly. "Alright, we should go."
Dennis reached his other hand out and put it on Meri's other cheek. He raised her head so that she was looking at him. "I know this hurts, and it sucks, but we have to get going to the Wholesale store. If we do not, then we're not going to make it through the day."
Meri slowly released her grip on Dennis' hand and wiped the tears away before moving the hair that had stuck to her face. She took in a big raspy breath and exhaled slowly.
"I'm ready." She said as she was standing up.
The group gathered what few belongings that they had and walked to the edge of the building. Henry leant over the side slightly, as he had seen spies do in the movies, and surveyed the parking lot. All of the zombies were either in the store or still hovered over the body of the man who tried to escape.
Henry held up his hand to the others in the group and slowly started counting down from five.
"5.... 4.... 3.... 2... Go!" Henry whispered with authority as the three people started running from behind the building.
Henry was the first out from behind the building, his adrenaline was pumping through his body as he tried to force himself to run as fast as he could across the entryway and up the little hill to behind the other building. If he had of been able to time himself, he would have noticed that he would have been close to breaking the 200m world record.
Meri was following closely behind Henry for the first few meters of the run before she started slowing down to watch every direction around her for danger. She almost tripped on the kerb of the median as she made it halfway across the road. She was able to catch herself while she was running but ended up dropping most of the food she was carrying to do it.
"Shit!" Meri cried as she continued running and behind the other building.
No one would have picked Dennis first to play any sports other than an offensive tackle in football. He was a large lumbering man who towered over most people that he met, yet he was good with his hands and able to perform well in the small confines of an engine. That did not mean that the man was able to run. Henry watched in suspense as the man ran across the road with his work boots thundering with every step, his face red with exertion and high blood pressure. As Dennis got closer to the other building Henry could begin to hear him wheezing and whining, his lungs were not used to this kind of workout.
Henry hurried over to the edge of this building and slowly leant out and looked into the parking lot, seeing an entirely different perspective from this side. Henry's eyes widened, and his mouth went dry and slack.
"Oh my god!" Henry said slowly as he looked into the other side of the parking lot to see it teeming with activity.
On the other end of the little strip mall where the shoe store was located was another larger strip mall where some of the more traditional and bigger stores were located. Here is where you could find the dollar store, a pet store, a craft store and the hardware store. Henry was not the first person to think that coming to this part of town would be safer. There were probably 20 or 30 other people walking around the parking lot, each of them slowly turning around with every loud noise that Dennis' boot made on the pavement when he ran.
Henry looked to Dennis who had slowed down to a jogging walk with is hands on his hips breathing in as much air as he could.
"Hurry up." He shouted to Dennis to get his attention. "We're going to have company soon." He pointed past Dennis towards the other side of the parking lot and the large crowd that was beginning to walk towards them.
"Fuck," Dennis said as he turned around and started walking backwards towards Henry and Meri.
"What!?" Meri said from somewhere behind him.
"Get going. Now!" Dennis said as he turned around and started walking faster.
Dennis raced to the building and got behind it. He looked to Henry "Man, I wish we would have known about that earlier."
"There's nothing we can do about it now, other than hope that they follow us back here instead of cutting us off on the other side."
Meri turned around and looked back at the men. "Well, stop squawking like a couple of old ladies at bingo and let's get going."
Henry smiled and looked at Dennis, "Shows what she knows," he said with a smile "I'm more of a shuffleboard man myself."
The two men shared a laugh and started hurrying to catch up to Mer
i.
Henry kept a vigilant watch on the path behind them turning around every 4 or 5 steps to make sure that nothing surprised them. Dennis focused on the road in front, there was not much of a chance that they could have gotten in front of them. Henry just hoped that these zombies had not learned to communicate yet.
Every time Henry came across a garbage bin or any kind of debris behind the stores he made sure that he threw it into the path. So far he had managed to put 4 hubcaps, 5 pallets, 3 garbage cans, and a small bag of trash into the walking path. He was hoping to give them any kind of advantage that he could as they made their way to the Wholesale store.
They had made it three-quarters of the way across the building when the first of the zombies came around the corner of the building behind them.
"We have company," Henry said to the rest of the group.
They quickened their pace to put as much distance between them as they could now that they were being followed.
"We were walking that slow that they caught up to us so quickly?" Dennis said over his shoulder.
"I do not know. I did not get a good look at all the people before we ran, this might be another group altogether." Henry said as he emptied another garbage can and tossed it to the ground.
Behind them, the zombies began to trip over the first of the obstacles that Henry had placed in front of them. Two of the zombies got tripped up in one of the plates and fell to the ground smashing their chins on the hard surface. The rest of the zombies trampled over top of them as they continued their relentless pursuit of the fresh meat in front of them.
Dennis announced to the others in the group that they're about twenty feet from the other side of the building. "We're almost there."
"Once we get clear of this building we're not going to have long to check for danger before we run for it," Henry said back to him.
Henry turned around and tried to count the zombies following them. With the zombies so packed close together it was hard to get a good count until one of them fell over and revealed some of the ones standing behind it.
"There's probably only about 8 close behind us now." Henry said, "They lost a few along the way and trampled them. They're still mobile, but they're not walking anymore."
Henry took one last look at the zombies behind him and turned around to see the short distance they had left to cover.
Dennis took the crowbar from on his shoulder and held it out to the side, using it as a partial shield to keep it from Meri and any danger in front of them. Henry pulled his hammer from his pants pocket and wrapped his hand tightly around the handle. Dropping it could be the difference between life and death for the next few minutes.
Dennis stopped at the corner and waited for Henry to stand next to him.
Dennis turned to look at Meri, "Meri, we're going around the side of the building first. We tell you to run and which direction to head to get to the Wholesale front door, and you do exactly what we say. OK?"
"Yeah, I got it." She said as she nervously looked behind her to see how close the group of zombies was behind them.
Henry catching her glance, stopped her. "Don't worry about them. They are too far away to give us any trouble right now. If we're still standing here in... oh... five minutes, then we'll worry about them. But for now look forward."
Meri nodded at his words and turned her eyes forward and watched Dennis and Henry walk out from behind the building.
Chapter Eighteen