Hand of Blood

[Part 5 of...]

I sprinted to the front of the building with my riot shield readied. If I could leverage myself into one of the doors, I could make them come out single file. My confidence in outrunning them died with the last of them I had encountered. Apparently some of them were fast. My best guesses were maybe it was fresh ones or some sort of mutation/evolution. It did not matter why, there were four of them and one could probably catch me. The former clerk of the store was the first one out and beat me to the door. Running on instinct I charged her, shield-first, and pinned her against the door. Her frayed blond hair was matted in blood. She was in a frenzy as her potential meal pressed her up against the glass door. Her fingertips were raw as she clawed at the barrier.

To my luck one of the doors was 'push' and the other was 'pull'. This was a foreign concept to the undead who uniformly pushed without regard to effectiveness. I raised the gun to put her down, but the other three zombies made a hard lurch at the door and I lost my balance. I could hear her ribs cracking as one of their arms got out of the door and began to jar it open. Two things happened at that moment: I received a text message and I could see headlights shining onto me from behind. The lights grew huge and the driver frenetically honked. I gave one last push into the former clerk and I rolled to my left. A silver sedan crashed into the double doors, effectively cutting her in half as well as the arm that had made its way out.

Pulling myself up I could see the driver of the car, it was Sarge. "Back from your honeymoon already?" I shot in between heavy breathes. He and his wife Squish were supposed to be out of town for a few more days last I heard. He got out of the car with a black steel hammer in his hand and responded, "Yeah cut it short when that video from the camp went viral." He motioned for his wife to look away as he brought the claw down into the pinned zombie's skull. The car held the door closed, but the spiderwebs in the glass were getting larger. I said with a sympathetic sigh "Well I am not so sure that gift card to Target I got you is going to be valid. I mean you could have this instead if you really wanted it?" I offered up the handgun. He scooped it out of my hand like I was holding a baby wrong.

I pulled out my hand axe as Sarge checked the clip and gave an affirmative nod. We stood on opposite sides of the car and readied for Squish to plow open the doors for us the sweep the place. I counted down, "Three....two...one....GUN IT!". The front end of the car burst through the glass doors knocking the Zeds down on top of each other. She threw it in reverse and we moved in. The first on up was the one armed man. I brought my axe into face as I kicked out his stable leg, dropping him off to the side of the pile. Sarge peppered the other two in gunfire as I rained blows onto my target until he went limp. A stirring in the back of the store got our attention. It was the missing second officer, he could barely stand up in the slippery gore that used to provide him life. I met him in the aisle falling all over himself. They gnawed so much of his connective tissue and muscle he was unable to operate. I put him out of his misery.

Sarge used his hammer in lieu of ammo to do the finishing touches on the other two. It did not take much of a search to find the second officer's weapon. He was also packing a smaller gun on his leg. We took a few minutes to raid the store of bottled water, nuts, jerky, granola bars, and anything else edible with any sort of value. There were also a few five-gallon tanks we could fill up and take with us.

We unwound in the parking lot. I checked my phone to see the message from BigWampa saying, "Sarge and sis r otw, dont die you prick!". Thanks buddy. I tried to think of a snappy retort as I was looking around. Sticking out like a sore thumb on the front of my shield was a bloody hand print. The front glass of the store showed the same thing. A single print in a sea of scratches. This would be our moniker. This is how we would let the world know where safe areas were. I replied toe the text, "the eagle has landed and it is pissed. also we are ok". Not my best work, but I was under a lot of pressure. Maybe I would punch him when I got home. After all he called me a prick.