SlackerInTraining: Thanks for your comment, gotta love gore hehe!

SC Girl: Thank you for your suggestions :) Don't worry, they won't be in the store for long - it's an electronics store, they don't have much in the way of food there! I never really intended for it to be set there anyway, so you can rest assured that it won't be a boxed in story! Thanks again, and I hope you like this chapter.

CrichtonFan: Gothgoddessrhia is awesome, "As The World Dies" is a fabulous story, I can't get enough! She was great inspiration for me to give the zombie genre a try myself. And like I said to SC Girl, they won't be trapped in the store forever, they'll get to roam around and all that :P I still have no idea what's going to happen next, I'm just writing it as I go! Thanks for the feedback.

poweroflove14: Thanks for your comment, I think detail is important in stories. It's why I always hated writing stories for school assignments, you have to stick to the word limit and that can often mean cutting out the really cool details. Thank god I don't have to do that here!

Author's Note: Okay. Yet another chapter I came up with out of nowhere. I thought I was being quite original when a certain event unfolds here, until my cousin John mentioned that the same thing pretty much happened in "Dawn of the Dead", I was like, damn it! But hopefully it will still be a little bit different, let me know if you pick what I - well, accidentally stole - from "Dawn of the Dead" hehe. Also, please let me know if you want the characters to know about zombie movies and call them zombies etc, because soon I'll need to start doing that, and I would like to know if that is what you all prefer! Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

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The electronic store came into view on the right side of the road. Leah kept driving, slowing down to avoid deserted cars and in some cases, remains of bodies. After passing one particularly mangled body of an old man, she was relieved to see the rest of the road was mostly clear. As she came closer to the store, she could see five people slowly shuffling around in front of the store. Leah pulled off the road at a safe distance. She dialed Seth's number.

"Hey, are you close?" he asked.

"I'm parked on the street, can you see me?"

"No, I can't look for you. Those things out there go apeshit when they see people. We hid for a while and then they calmed down. I don't want to get them fired up."

"So how do I get to you?" Leah questioned. "The loading dock?"

"Yeah, that might work. Just hang on." There was a pause, accompanied by footsteps. "None of them are out the back. At least, none that we see on the surveillance monitor."

"That's reassuring." Leah swivelled to look over her shoulder. Nothing behind her.

Thump! One of them slammed against the driver's seat window. "Fuck!" she screamed and dropped her phone. Her foot found the gas pedal and she drove away. The thing had left a bloody smear on the glass.

"Leah? Leah!" She could hear Seth's voice shouting anxiously.

Picking up the phone, she took a steadying breath. "I'm here," she replied.

"What happened?"

"One of the... I don't know what they are, but one of them scared the shit out of me." In her rear-view mirror, she could see it stumbling after her. The blood drained from her face as three more sprang into view, in hot pursuit of the car. "I can't stop now, it looks like you're opening the loading dock!" Leah turned the wheel and circled round, trying to shake them off. She was heading away from the store now, and soon her way would be blocked by those cars.

"Damn it! Hold on." Seth spoke in a muffled voice to someone, then he began shouting. Leah made out the words, 'just open it'. Obviously there were people in the store who didn't want the dock opened. Then Seth came back on the phone. "Okay, once you're close the dock will open. We'll stay open until you can drive your car in. But if there are any of them out there, we have to close it and you'll have to go somewhere else for a while and try again later, I guess." Seth sighed. "I'm sorry, but I thought he'd listen. It's Roger who's saying most of the no's, and that's probably because he's a complete asshole." Seth said the last few words a bit louder, as if Roger was listening.

"Just get it open! And I'll be coming in fast, so make sure everyone is out of my way." Leah slammed the phone shut and put it back in her pocket. She hit the brakes and the car screeched to a halt, mere inches away from the first car in her path. Putting the car into reverse, she sped backwards and spun the car round to face the direction of the store. She'd seen it done in the movies, but had never attempted it in real life before. She was more than relieved that it worked; a flipped car was the last thing she wanted.

The three fast ones were about fifteen yards away, and the one that had bashed against the window was slowly limping towards her, arms outstretched. "Okay," she whispered to herself, clutching the steering wheel even tighter. "Here goes." She accelerated forward, knocking the first one to the ground. The car lifted a bit as the body was squashed under the tires. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to scream. The second one glanced off the hood and rolled off the car. The third one hit the windscreen and remained there, scratching at the glass and smearing blood everywhere.

"Shit!" Leah swerved and it fell off the car, tumbling onto the bitumen. The windscreen was smeared with blood; she could barely see where she was going. She turned on the windscreen washer nozzle, and water sprayed on the glass, shifting some of the blood. The blood smeared a bit more when she turned the wipers on, but at least now she could see. She dodged the slow one easily and was close to the store. The car turned right and went into the parking lot, heading for the loading bay. The five things in front of the store saw her fly past and began chasing.

Leah was fast approaching a dead end; the brick wall at the end of the alley was getting closer. To get into the loading area she needed to turn left but her car would most likely slam into the wall at that speed. Chewing on her bottom lip, she thought. There was one way she could pull it off, but she wasn't that skilled a driver. Hell, I did that cool reverse thing, I can do this, she thought, bolstering her courage. She turned the wheel and applied the brakes, drifting the car sideways along the alley. Tires screeched as the car slid unnaturally along, and eventually came to a stop before the wall.

The things entered the alley. All she had to do was drive down the ramp into the loading dock and that was that. She looked in front of her. The dock wasn't open. "Fuck fuck fuck!" Leah yelled, grabbing her cell phone. The things were about twenty yards away, and moving fast. She quickly pressed a number on her speed dial. Seth answered after two rings. "I'm here, I'm here, open the fucking dock! Hurry!" she screamed into the phone.

"Okay, I can see you on the monitor. Shut up, Roger!" Seth shouted in the background. "Leah, drive now!"

The large dock door began creaking open, ever so slowly rising upwards. Leah shoved her phone into her pocket and the car rapidly moved forward. The door was only opened halfway, at this speed she was going to crash into the door. She was forced to slow down and wait. The things rounded the bend, screeching and making awful sounds.

Finally the door fully opened and the car shot into the dock. "Close it, close it!" Leah cried.

She saw Roger press the button that powered the automatic door, and it began to descend slowly. The things were ten yards away. The door was almost closed when a bloodied, decaying arm shot underneath, desperately clawing for the people within. But the strong metal door was ultimately more powerful, and easily closed completely, severing the arm from its owner. A loud inhuman moan of pain was heard outside, followed by loud bangs on the door.

Leah's head collapsed against the steering wheel, her hands gripped so tight that it was painful. She began to sob, as the horror of the situation she'd just gone through hit her full force. Her mom was gone, and the entire suburb had become a death trap. What the hell is happening here?

Her door opened, and Seth's concerned face appeared beside her. "Are you all right?" he asked tentatively.

Leah looked at him. She said nothing.

Seth unbuckled her seatbelt and helped her out of the car. She was pale and shaking with shock, and seeing the severed arm laying on the cement didn't help any. "Come on," he said gently, leading her from the loading dock into the stock room. They sat down on the overstuffed couch, where less than a day ago they had been laughing and complaining about customers. It all seemed like a pleasant dream to Leah now.

"Nice PJs," Seth smiled a little.

Leah gazed up at him blankly. "What is going on?"

Seth breathed out heavily, the exhaustion he felt becoming apparent. "We'll go into the store. There's something you should see."