Henry, Meri, and Dennis sat in the makeshift jail for a few hours getting to know what had happened to the other guests that Gilles was holding hostage while the others did his bidding.
"When you said that you gathered everyone here, what did you mean?" Henry said as he sat on the floor across from Malcolm.
"Oh, that," Malcolm said. "I'm a DJ down at 99.9; I was just starting my overnight shift when things didn't seem right."
Malcolm looked directly at Henry, "I could tell from the moment that I walked into the building that things weren't going to be going right that night. Normally when I arrived, there were 5 or 6 people in the office finishing out their day. On an average day, they're usually waiting for me outside for a cigarette to fill me in on all the gossip that's been happening at the office."
"When I rolled in today. There was no one there, except for a stain on the stairs. Looked like someone got into a fist fight from the mess all over the place. There were a few people that I wished I could punch in the face before all of this happened."
Malcolm was lost in his own thoughts for a few minutes. Henry waited patiently for the man to return to continue his story.
"Right, sorry. Turns out there was a zombie hiding around the corner that almost got me while I was looking around. Ran inside and started broadcasting about safe places to go, where to avoid that kind of thing. I left the office around 5 am when I got a phone call from the manager here saying he'd be opening up the store for people to seek refuge until things got better.
"I made that announcement, and made a recorded message before getting out of there and coming here."
Malcolm looked down at the ground for a second and inspected his shoes a little closer.
Henry could tell there was more to this story but did not want to press for more details right now.
Malcolm introduced the others who had to be segregated for misbehaving.
"Let me give you a brief introduction to everyone that I've met here. Over there next to the photocopier is Beverly, she keeps to herself mostly, she's either a nurse or a daycare worker. She hasn't said much since she arrived her, so that's all we know." Malcolm looked at her for a few seconds longer before continuing.
"Here to my right is Thomas, he's a college kid, he helped Gilles clean this area out initially, and we're kind of sure he managed to grab couple fist fulls of pills. He's been pretty out of it since for the past couple of hours."
Malcolm leant slightly and nudged Thomas with his shoulder. The slumbering student slowly started falling to the floor. Henry watched in amazement as the boy took a slow-motion swan dive to the floor, not even attempting to use his hands to stop his fall.
Henry winced as his face made a hollow sound as it connected with the ground.
"That's going to hurt later," Dennis said from beside Henry.
"Hanging out over there with the young girl you came with is Oliver, he's a postal worker. He was on his way to the sorting facility to start work when the building came under attack. Luckily he managed to get out of there before he got bitten."
Dennis glared over at the man talking to Meri and started to get up.
"Easy big man," Henry said as he put a hand on his shoulder. "This is probably the best conversation that either of them has had all day."
Dennis tried to shrug off what Henry said and began to sit back on the floor.
"Give them five minutes. Then you can go over." Henry said with a smile.
Dennis nodded in agreement; refusing to take his eyes off of them.
"The punk kid over there smashing on his game is Theo." Malcolm paused a moment before continuing. "I don't trust him one bit, I have a feeling he might be working for Gilles, to see if we're planning anything."
Theo looked up from his game and gave Malcolm the finger. "Keep on thinking that, you has been."
Henry gave Malcolm a puzzled glance.
"I used to be the lead singer of a relatively significant regional band from about 10 years ago. There was an accident on the road, and we all called it quits." Malcolm looked at Theo. "I think he's just jealous that he didn't get to see us play, I've noticed him bidding on a few of my memorabilia pieces at some charity auctions. He'd never admit it to me, though."
Henry nodded.
"Now what do we do?" Henry asks.
"Nothing. We looked for other ways out, but the door you came out is the only one." Malcolm nodded in the dark in the direction of the door. "There's an opening in the window for talking to patients, but none of us can fit through there either. Trust me, we tried."
A smile crosses Henry's lips as a plan begins to form in his head.
"What are you thinking, man?" Malcolm grows concerned. "I don't want any trouble. They feed us in here, and it's much safer than being outside."
"I know, but I think we should be running this store." Henry raises his flattened hand. "I wonder what these go to?"
Glistening in the faint light from the skylights are several keys from the key ring that Henry was able to pull off the ring before giving them to Gilles.
"Oh!" Malcolm smiled. "I like where this is going."

-----------------------
Somewhere on the other side of the store, Gerry, the store manager who opened up the doors of his store to the public, opened his eyes and gasped a frigid breath.
A little moan escaped his lips as he started rubbing his hands on his arms to try and warm himself up.
Gerry looked around the room and tried to remember how he ended up in the walk-in refrigerator in the loading bay. He leant forward and tried to bend his leg to stand when a shooting pain erupted from his knee and sent him sprawling back to the floor.
He groaned in pain. The memories of what happened came flooding back to him in an instant.
Gerry had just gotten off the phone with the radio station when he heard a noise from the back of the store, figuring that it was people ready for refuge he went to the loading bay doors and began to open the big heavy steel doors. As the early morning light began to creep into the storage area, Gerry could sense that something was not quite right.
Holding on to the big dark switch that housed the buttons for raising and lowering the doors.
Gerry bent down to look under the door he was greeted by a pair of hands that reached for his loafers and tried to pull him out of the door. Gerry's head hit the hard cement floor, and stars started filling his vision, he could feel his eyes going dark from the force of the ground on his skull.
He could feel pressure on his leg as the hands pulled him harder and forced more of him under the door. Gerry used the last of his strength to grab hold of the bottom of the door and pull against the hands the pulled him.
Gerry screamed in pain from his knee. He instinctively kicked his other leg towards the source of the pain and made contact with something.
He felt the hands on his leg let go and started scrambling back under the door. The adrenaline running through his body made standing on his injured leg tolerable until he got the door closed again. Gerry reached for the buttons and pressed the red button on the bottom making the door slide down. A thud echoed through the quiet store as the door slammed closed, trapping the horrible creature outside.
Realising he was safe, Gerry slid down the door and fell to the ground. He looked down at his knee and knew in an instant that the man outside had just bitten him. He was aware that from the news report that there was a sudden outburst of violence happening throughout the city.
Gerry decided to get the rest of the store ready for the incoming city folks when he collapsed after trying to put weight on his leg.
Sweat started beading on Gerry's forehead, and he looked around for a fan to keep himself cooled down. The loading bay did not have any fans for circulation like the rest of the store, but it did have a giant refrigerator they used to keep all of the dairy cool until they could get it on the floor.
Gerry began to pull himself along the floor, he was still sitting on his bum and
used his one good leg to help push himself across the floor, trying not to leave a trail of blood on the floor as he went.
A few minutes later Gerry found himself laying on the floor in the middle of the refrigerator and closed his eyes as he began to cool down.
Gerry stared at the wall of the unit as he finally came to his senses.
He realised that he was now hungry for his lunch, his wife had packed him a piece of leftover chicken for his dinner, and he was eagerly looking forward to it.
Gerry sat up and noticed that the pain in his legs has since disappeared and that he could walk on it. Even without the feeling in his leg, he knew that he was limping and would be limping for the rest of his life if he did not get this seen to.
Gerry wanted to call the hospital, or his wife to let her know that he was OK but he was so hungry that he could only think about finding something to eat. He walked out of the refrigeration unit and began the slow journey to the front of the store where his lunch bag sat waiting for him.
As he walked, Gerry began to hear noises coming from other parts of the store, people shouting, and some banging on the front door. He thought that people were waiting to get in but with a store this big it was hard to hear the doorbell from the back.
He began to notice different smells in the store as well, it seemed as though there was fresh steak cooking on a grill from different parts of the store now. The closer that he got to the source of these smells, the hungrier that he got. Gerry tried to call out for whoever was in the store, but he found that his words came out muffled and garbled. Probably from the cold or the bang on the head, Gerry thought to himself.
Gerry rounded the corner of one of the aisles and found a man looking through the boxes on the upper shelf. He knew exactly what was in this area and wanted to help the man. The closer that Gerry got to this man, the hungrier he got, he could feel the saliva running down his face.
Gerry watched as his hands reached out for this man and wrapped around his throat. He began squeezing the life from this man and a smile crossed his lips when the man stopped struggling, and his body went limp.
He dropped the man to the floor and fell to the ground beside him. Gerry felt like crying, having killed the man, but he figured that he might as well see what this man tasted like first since he smelled so delicious.
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