Sven the Zombie Slayer (38 page)

Her spirits were now officially lifted.

Then Lorie decided to get something for Evan. He was just guarding the door, and she was sure Sven and Jane weren’t finding him weapons. Evan needed something to fight with just like the rest of them did. Lorie half-skipped into the next aisle and picked out two small, aluminum baseball bats—“Home Defense Bats,” their tags read—one for Evan and one for herself. The bats were light but felt very solid, and Lorie was confident they would make a very nice cracking sound against the back of a zombie’s head.

She tried to put her skipping under control and walked out of the aisles and over to Evan, with the two baseball bats behind her back.

“Evan...” she said, “oh Evan...”

Evan turned around. “Hey, what’s that you got behind you?”

“You get three guesses.”

Evan frowned. “Oh alright. Is it for me?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t count as a guess.” Now that Evan was turned away from the parking lot, Lorie found herself glancing behind him to make sure nothing snuck up on them.

“A t-shirt?”

“What? No.”

“A chess set?”

“A chess set? We’re in a gun store. That doesn’t even count as a guess. You still have two more.”

“I dunno, maybe there are deer chess sets or gun chess sets or something. There are all kinds of chess sets, you know, with all kinds of different figurines.”

“Okay, okay, but that still doesn’t count as a guess.” Something about the air had changed, and it was making Lorie feel uncomfortable. It wasn’t the zombie smell, definitely not that. But it felt like the pressure had changed or something, although Lorie wasn’t sure what that meant. Her body felt stiffer than it had only moments before, and she had become impatient with Evan. “Come on already.”

“Uhh, is it a...is it a knife?”

Lorie shook her head. “Nope, not a knife, guess again.”

“Uhh, okay, is it a...is it a...”

Then Lorie’s eyes moved beyond Evan, and she was staring out into the parking lot. She forgot all about keeping her arms behind her back and they fell to her sides.

“A bat!” Evan said triumphantly and sneezed. He took one of the bats from Lorie as she was backing up from the door.

Evan’s smile faded. “What, what is it?” He began to move toward Lorie as he turned around, but of course he must have heard it now. Sven and Jane must have heard it too.

The sound was almost deafening—no, that wasn’t the right word for it, the sound drowned out everything else.

“Wow,” Sven said, coming up from behind Lorie and stepping in front of her. “That’s some rain.” He was shaking his head and had his hands on the knives on his belt. “Guess we better get moving right away.”

Jane joined him in front of the door. “Don’t you think we should wait this out? This kind of rain can’t go on forever, and we won’t be able to see anything if we drive out in it.”

“What if it does go on forever?” Lorie asked. “Everything else has been going wrong today.” They all turned to her, and she went on. “We have to leave. We have to leave now, they’re coming for us, I know they are. We can’t wait for it to end.” Lorie was surprised at the sobs that suddenly tried to choke their way out between her words. She didn’t know why she had lost her composure at the sight and roar of the rain.

“I’m with her,” Sven said. “We’ll just have to take it slow and be very careful.”

Evan nodded and raised his baseball bat over his head. “Yeah,” he added.

Jane sighed. “Okay, let’s go then.”

Jane and Sven went back to the counter where they’d been packing.

“I’ve never seen rain like that,” Evan said.

“Yeah,” Lorie agreed. “There’s something wrong about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. It’s just wrong.”

Lorie watched as sheets of rain fell onto the pavement and cars in the parking lot, sending watery explosions in all directions. Then she looked down and saw that the rain was beginning to seep in, under the door. She backed away, gripping the thing in her back pocket.

78

The Beretta 92FS that was now slung at Jane’s side made her feel significantly safer. Racking the slide and squeezing off that first round into the hunter zombie’s brain had changed everything. The bit of recoil from the sleek, silver and black gun in her hands and the zombie’s death rattle had given her hope—hope that they could all live through this.

“Come on,” Sven said. “We gotta get moving again. With this rain, we’ll be going even slower.” There was Sven, always in a rush.

The skies had darkened so much that there was now more light in the store than outside. They were waiting for her at the door—Sven and Ivan, Lorie, and Evan.

“I’m coming,” Jane said. “I just need to check I’ve got everything.”

The dark camouflage duffel bag that she had taken for herself had two spare magazines for the Beretta in it—one that held fifteen rounds and one that held ten—they were the only two left, besides the one in the gun that held fifteen.

At least the magazines hadn’t all been ten-rounders, she thought, and thanked God there had still been plenty of boxes of 9 mm Luger ammo. She had taken them all.

She had her gun now, heavier than the Walther P99 that she kept at home for self-defense. She had shot the Beretta before, and was comfortable with its feel. She had also packed a Swiss army knife and some flares just in case, though she didn’t know what she would ever need the flares for.

“You guys have the survival kits?” Jane asked.

“Yeah,” Lorie said, “two. They’ve got batteries, flashlights, a fire starter, emergency blanket, whistle, mirror—” Lorie laughed after that one, “—water purification tablets, and first aid stuff.”

“Okay,” Jane said. “Let’s get some of the compact sleeping bags too. It doesn’t look like we’ll be sleeping in beds tonight.”

That was good there had still been some left, and that everything was packed and ready to go. Jane arranged four sleeping bags on the counter. They hadn’t been able to find any gas masks, so they would have to work with the surgical masks Sven had found.

Jane was still rummaging behind the counter, but she couldn’t find the last thing that was on her mind. She gripped her Beretta, reassuring herself that it was still there, and then zipped up her duffel bag and came out from behind the counter with it. She walked briskly up and down three aisles, picking up four ponchos, and finally, spotting the knife sharpener she’d been looking for, grabbed that too.

“Okay,” Jane said. “I’m ready, let’s go. Just maybe put this on first.” Jane handed Sven a poncho, he looked at it, shook his head, and handed it back to her. Jane guessed he didn’t want it, fine, whatever. Just for that, she would tell him how ridiculous he looked in those duck pants, when they got to safety.

“I’ll check to see if it’s all clear,” Sven said. “When you see me start up the car, all of you come out and get in.” He picked up his duffel bag, which was bulging with the shape of a shotgun in it, along with the irregular shapes of the boxes of shells they had packed with paper and plastic bags to protect them from the rain.

Jane, Lorie, and Evan nodded to him, then he glanced over his shoulder to look at Ivan. “You might wanna duck,” Sven said to his cat. “You’re likely to get wet out there.”

Sven opened the door, and as he strode into the rain, Jane saw Ivan drop down into the backpack, and out of sight.

Then Sven disappeared too, lost in the thick rain.

Jane stood there with Lorie and Evan in silence, feeling on edge while she put on her poncho. She considered wrapping up her Beretta and putting it in her duffel bag, but she didn’t want to take it off. She needed it there, against her body, and she wasn’t shy about wearing a poncho. They were taking excessive precautions with the ammo anyway, it would have to be submerged in water for a while to be ruined, but then again, it had been a disastrous day already, and the wrapping was a quick and worthwhile precaution to take, however unnecessary.

“Now you guys put these on too,” Jane said. “Don’t let him lead you with his bad example.”

To Jane’s relief, the kids obeyed and put the ponchos on. Why that made her feel relieved she didn’t know, but it did.

It seemed that Sven was taking a little too long to get the car started, and that made Jane nervous. She began to glance back toward the far end of the counter, wondering about who or what might still be lurking deep inside the “Employees Only” section of the store. They hadn’t checked back there, and she didn’t want to be surprised by any zombies.

“How you feelin’?” Lorie asked Evan.

“Not bad, kinda dizzy, but okay.”

“Maybe you’re hungry,” Lorie said, and Evan began shaking his head in protest.

Ignoring his head-shaking, Lorie proceeded to pull out one of the granola bars she had found in the back of the store. Then she made Evan take it.

“Come on,” Lorie said. “Eat it, it’ll make you feel better.”

“Maybe if I only have half…will you split it with me?” Evan asked.

“Sure,” Lorie said.

“No!” Jane cried, the word escaping from her mouth before she could stop it. “I mean, I mean you should eat a whole one, and you Lorie, you get your own whole one. You’re both hungry and can’t be sharing food like that…because Evan you need all the strength you can get, so eat it all.” Jane paused. “Understood?”

The boy gulped, nodded, and began to unwrap the granola bar. Jane ignored Lorie’s bewildered stare, but kept a sharp eye on the eating boy to make sure there was no sharing. Sven had reassured her about their situation, and Jane now thought that the boy did only have a cold or flu or something regular—something that wouldn’t end with him becoming a zombie—but she was still going to play it safe.

The car’s park lights finally came on, shining a fuzzy red through the downpour. It was a downpour worthy of being called a torrent, not that Jane would ever use that word in real life, it wasn’t a word that people said, but when Jane read books and saw the word “torrent,” this was the kind of rain she pictured.

“Okay,” Jane said, looping her arm through the straps of their remaining bags and herding Lorie and Evan toward the door. “Try to keep the plastic tight around you.”

Jane held the door open and watched the kids run out. Lorie opened the right rear door and Evan opened the left. Then they were in the car. Jane was relieved that Sven had remembered to unlock the doors. It was an easy thing to forget under all the pressure they were experiencing.

Then she stood there.

The rain was starting to pick up sideways, and her feet and the bottom of her poncho were beginning to get wet. She let the door close a few inches and kept standing there, looking at the car as it was washed clean by the pouring rain. Jane took a breath and her mind moved forward, toward the car, but her body stayed in place. She thought she heard a honk, but it was hard to hear anything through the noise of the storm.

Then a thick flash of lightning cut through the sky, and a few seconds later there came a loud thunderclap that jolted Jane into action. She ran to the car and got into the front passenger seat.

She knew why she was having such a hard time leaving, and it wasn’t because she was hesitant about going with Sven, Lorie and Evan. There was something she was leaving behind, and she didn’t know if she could.

Jane put her bags down in front of her feet and Sven began to pull out.