After Genocide: The Dead Live Again (4 page)

I walk towards the zombies with the arrows stuck in their head and pull them out, “We do some shopping,” I reply
with a smile.

Ch.4: Wal-Mart

We begin to walk in different directions.

“Hey keep your eyes open anyway,” I say.

“Okay,” the rest reply. I could agree with everyone else, they were happy to finally rest on something, shooting causes fatigue. I walk around the aisles and spot the watches and I stared until I found the one I liked the most, “You know life is better spent doing something instead of nothing,” says Pam as she approaches. 

              I look up and smile, “Psychology education,” I ask and Pam laughs.

“No, just basic ethics,” she replies. 

“You like watches?” she asks.

“Yeah I like the one with blue,” I reply.

“I think that’s a nice watch also; I suggest you get it.” 

              I look at her “Cover your eyes,” I say, and then I smashed the glass with the back end of my crossbow and I grab the watch. 

“Using the key would have been better, but oh well,” she joked. 

“Oh my, what a beautiful ring,” she gasps and turned her attention to it. She walks over and she stares at it from the glass. 

              “Wow; wish I had something like that on my hand,” she says, I look at her then I smashed the glass while Pam covered her eyes. I pick up the ring and handed it to her: “Here,” I say. Pam looks down and she turned away quickly. She walks away and sat down near the women’s clothes section with her head down. 

              I sighed, and walk towards her and sat beside her, “I’m sorry, I forget about the guy you love,” I apologized.

“No, it’s not that. I mean, I’m just so upset at the world. You’re a nice guy, you saved me and all but I don’t know I feel like it’s too quick to move,” she says concerned. 

              “Hey I’m not trying to force you to do anything against your will. It’s not like I’m proposing either. I’m trying to be here for you that’s all, just trying to be a friend, a companion at that,” I reply. Pam stared into my eyes as did I and there is that smile again, “Thank you.”

              We leave that aisle and begin to walk around again, exploring the foods that are available and then the book shelves come into sight. There is something that catches my eye, Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead graphic novel and beside it a copy of season ten. A spectacular adventure of survivors trying to outlive becoming food for the reanimated dead. On top of that they get a major villain each season, well usually. I can’t help but to reflect on this graphic novel with our situation at hand.  

              A loud yell echoes through the store, “Help!” the sound of a feminine voice. Pam and I stop what we’re doing and stand up.

“Where did that come from?” she asks.

“I don’t know?  Straight ahead; perhaps the restrooms,” I reply. 

              Pam and I rush to the restrooms, “Which one,” she asks.

“Men’s room,” I reply. 

“Okay it could be somebody mutating into a zombie so let’s reload,” I say and we quickly reload and I begin to lead, “You ready?” I ask, and Pam nods while aiming her firearm. I enter the Men’s restroom and quickly re-turned to a posture holding my crossbow in the air, aiming straight.

              There is only a frightened girl, maybe about eighteen years old, “Who are you?” I ask, but she did not reply. I slowly begin to approach her and lower my weapon at the same time.

“It’s okay, we are not going to hurt you,” I say with comfort. Pam kept her aim steady just in case, “Pam you can lower your weapon,” I suggested.

“But if she turns?” she asks.

“She’s just scared,” I reply.

The female figure looks up at me, she has long black hair, and a white face that had seen a lot of disaster, “My name is Ruby,” the girl speaks. 

              “Okay, my name is Joe, and this is Pam,” I say.

“Nice to meet you both,” Ruby replies.

“Come on, we should regroup with the others,” Pam suggested.

“Yeah, come with us,” I agreed. The three of us walk through the quiet store; we pass through the clothing sections, the pastry section and find ourselves walking through the electronics section. 

              “Hey it’s Max” Pam says, Max is playing video games but he stops at the sound of Pam’s voice; “Hey guys, did you find anything useful?” he asks. 

“Nah, we barely began to explore this place. Pam and I were relaxing and then we heard a yell, which turned out to be Ruby,” I reply.

Max looks at Ruby and is paused by her face, he could tell something is up with her but waves it away in his mind, “Oh, well that’s cool, I found a first aid kit, bet nobody thought of that.” 

              “I’ll stay here,” Ruby says while Pam and I look at each other.

“Okay,” we both agree with a puzzled look; we take off to do some more exploring. Pam finds a shopping cart and grabs it; she enters the clothing section and begin to grab items. 

“Hey I’m going to check the home defense and make sure the doors are closed to secure the place,” I say.

“Okay,” she replies. 

              Meanwhile, Six regroups with Max at the electronics section.

“Who is this?” asks Six.

“Oh, Ruby,” replies Max. Six looks confused but nods his head.

“I guess,”—he looks around,--“I found a backpack full of grenades, Maximum I suspect about thirty,” says Six.

              “Cool,” replies Max, barely paying any attention; he is too busy concentrated on the video game he is playing. 

              A couple of hours went by and soon after checking the doors and the rest of the Wal-Mart, I went back to the electronics section, Pam is there, Max, Six, Ruby and Blade. 

“Hey sorry I’m late but I just had to double check everything to make sure we are secure, so what’s new?” I ask. 

“Well I found a lot of clothes for me…and night vision goggles,” say Pam.

“I found a first aid kit and a collar for Blade,” says Max.

“I found grenades,” says Six.

             
Grenades?
I thought,
now why would there be grenades in a super store? Unless we’re not the only ones to have come by this place or if some World War veteran is hiding here. Perhaps Ruby? Nah, that can’t be right at all.

“Looks like we found something useful,” I say, “the only thing I found useful is this flashlight.” 

“Um, what’s for dinner?” asks Ruby.

“Oh that um, well how about subway for dinner?” I ask the group.

“Sounds great,” they reply. 

“Great, just write down how you want the sub and I’ll go make it,” I reply. The group writes their name on a piece of paper each and writes down their order from bread, to meat to vegetables. I grab the tickets and say, “I’ll get started on dinner at Subway. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

              Pam enters the women’s restroom and begins to undress her shirt and pants. She changes to black jeans and a black shirt with the words PINK written across the chest. She removes her socks and shoes and puts on a new pair with more comfort. She opens the faucet and begins to splash water on herself to help her wake up a little. She is tired already, and this is just the start, what about in one week? She puts on a black hoodie sweater and again looks at the mirror. The person reflected is tired, almost wants to give up but she can’t. She doesn’t know why, she just can’t.              

“Dinner time,” I shouted, almost everyone came rushing, “Yes, food,” says Max and Six hungrily.

“Wow, somebody is hungry,” I say.

Ruby came by walking patiently, “Dinner” she said and she began to eat. 

“Anybody see Pam,” I ask the group.

Everyone looks at one another, then a voice speaks, “Hey sorry I’m late.” I turn and Pam is walking patiently as well, wearing her black hoodie and pants and a new set of shoes as well. I stare, and she smiles; “Miss me?” she asks. I shook my head trying to awaken from my sudden hypnosis, the group is now staring at me.

“Just in time for dinner Pam” I say and I seat her, “Thank you Joe,” she says and smiles. 

              Blade enters hungry as well, he barks and I smiles, “Okay Blade, you can have a sub,” I reply and the group laughs. As a group we eat like starved hyenas. It has been a while since we did something like this, just enjoy a nice meal among company even if some of us were strangers. 

              I take a glance at my new watch, “Well it’s nine, we better call it a day,” I say. Nine in the evening so soon, how quickly goes the day. The rest of the group stood up; “What about the dishes?” asks Max.

“Leave them, there is always tomorrow,” I reply. 

“Question, where do we sleep?” asks Ruby.

“Find a place and sleep,” I reply.

              Max went to sleep in the electronics section and beside him Blade; Six went to sleep in the men’s clothes section, Ruby in the female clothes section, and I went to the shoe section, all the way to the back. 

I heard footsteps approaching me, I cocked my handgun and prepared to aim, “Joe” Pam’s voice called out. I relaxed my fingers and hands and put my handgun aside, “Yeah I’m over here” I reply.

              She puts a sleeping bag in the women’s shoe section and begins to relax.

              “Why did all this happen to us?” Her question lingers around.

              “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” I stare at the ceiling, and the lights get dimmer.

              “Do you think we’ll survive?” Another question from Pam now.

              “Depends on how well we stick together and fight for our survival.” I take a deep breath and Pam does as well.

              “Any family that you might have alive?”

              Now this question strikes me, I know about my little brother but who else. It begins to come back to me now, my father, sister, older brothers? Where are they?

              The night passes by faster than seconds at least that is how it feels. It is four o’clock in the morning when I hear the sound of roaring; a helicopter landing on the roof. I quietly awaken Pam.

“Hey.” I shook her body a little.

“What?” she wakes up.

“There is a helicopter on the roof, go wake everyone,” I say.               

              “Alright,” she agrees barely awake. She grabs her weapons and leaves. There is a stairway that led to the top of the roof. I stand in the pathway with my crossbow in aiming position. Pamela comes rushing with Max, and Six, along with Blade behind them.

“Where is Ruby?” I ask.

“I don’t know, she isn’t in her sleep area,” she replies.

“Okay every one, steady,” I ordered. 

              Pam, Max, and Six prepared their weapons to fire for any situation; the footsteps echoed through the quiet stairway, and they get closer with each step. Each one of us with our fingers placed on the trigger ready for anything; our intruders made their way down the stairs and met face to face with us aiming our weapons at them. 

              There are five of them, one female and the other four male; each dressed in some kind of special military uniform, S.P.O.S.A is what is written in the center of the shirt.
Kevlar body armor, some tear gas, a handgun, a machine gun, black boots, a knife; however their uniform is a black and gray camouflage color.

              “Freeze and put your weapons down,” a soldier demanded; Blade began to growl.

“Quiet Blade,” I say.  

“You picked on the wrong group at the wrong time bub,” I speak. Tension is growing between us, our fingers ready on the trigger. 

              “Are you infected?” the woman in charge asks.

              “No.”

              “Swear to a spray check?” she asks.

              “Only if it’s non-lethal to healthy humans,” I reply.

              The tension decreases and the weapons are lowered on both sides of the confrontation.             

“Sorry about all the inconvenience, but its standard S.P.O.S.A procedure,” says the female agent in charge.

“We are on the friendly side” says a male agent.

“Never heard of SPOSA?” I ask.

              “My name is Kelly Saldana, and these are my partners: Mark Rodriguez, Eduardo Lugo, Aaron Rodriguez and Michael Camarillo,” says Kelly.

              “Mike? Long time no see brother. I can see you managed succeed acquiring a well-paying job after all the bad grades you earned as a student in school,” says Six

“Well as people say, sometimes the worst are the best,” replies Mike. 

“Is this who I think it is?” I ask.

“Yeah Joe, it’s Mike; remember he would go to visit and play video games with you?” asks Six. Still I look puzzled, “Oh yeah, man you grew,” I complimented.