Chapter 3: Clearing out the Fort

As we sat in the Deli of Farmer's Market, we began to discuss our next move. "So how long are we gonna stay here?" asked Will.

"I don't know," I said, "I think we should just stay here overnight."

"Well," said Amos, "If we're gonna be staying here overnight, then we'll need to clear this place out."

"Are you saying that there's still zombies wandering around in here?" asked Zayna.

"Yeah," said Jacob, "me and Amos wouldn't have been able to take 'em out ourselves, but now that you guys are here, we can all split up and exterminate 'em."

"I guess so," I said, "You wanna start right now?"

"Fine with me," said Seth, "I'm always down to kill some more zombies." I looked over at Will and Michael. They both nodded and I looked over at Zayna.

"Sure, why not?" she said.

"Alright then," said Jacob, "Let's all split up and take 'em out. Amos and I will go together."

"What do you say, Seth?" asked Will, "Partners?"

"I guess so," said Seth, "You'd die if I didn't go with you."

"Hey, shut up," said Will.

"So, Michael," I said, "You wanna go with me and Zayna?"

"Sure, I guess being a group of three would help," he answered. We all stood up from the tables and loaded our weapons.

"So how're we gonna do this?" asked Seth as he put the eighth shell into his shotgun.

"Well, I guess me and Jacob can take the storage area," said Amos.

"Me and Seth can take the west side of the store," said Will.

"I guess that leaves the rest of the store for us," I said to Michael and Zayna. We all headed out to our areas and began searching for zombies. After only a few minutes, I heard Seth yell something and his shotgun went off.

"Well, he's getting an early start," said Michael.

"If you ask me," said Zayna, "I'd say that he's a little too eager to kill things. I worry about him."

"That's just Seth," I said, "I've worried about him since the day I met him." We walked into an aisle and saw a small group of zombies. Michael fired his pistol, hitting one in the head. Zayna fired a burst from her MAC-10, staggering one of them. I fired two shots from my shotgun, mowing down two of them. Zayna fired another burst, finishing off the one she'd wounded. One of them rushed us and Michael grabbed a can of soup from the shelf next to him. He threw the can at the zombie as hard as he could, denting both the can and the zombie's skull. I fired my shotgun again, taking out the last of the group.

We stood amongst the fallen zombies and took a moment to reload our weapons. "That soup can kill was pretty good," I said with a smile. Michael grinned as he reloaded his pistol.

"It was right there and I just couldn't help it," he said. We all chuckled and continued down the aisle. I heard Seth's shotgun go off again and I heard Will yell at him for something. He was probably complaining that Seth was taking all of the kills. I heard guns going off in the storage area, as well.

"Sounds like those guys are having fun too," I said. We walked down the next aisle and saw a couple of zombies hitting each other. We just stood there and watched them fight for a few seconds.

"Think we should step in?" asked Michael. Without even answering, I took both of the zombies down with a couple of shots from my shotgun. As I reloaded, I heard someone cough loudly nearby. I looked over at Michael and Zayna and confirmed that they'd heard it too. It was like a hardcore smoker's cough (like three packs a day). We readied our weapons and proceeded down the aisle cautiously. We were about halfway through the aisle when someone stepped into view at the other end.

They were pretty tall, maybe about 6' 8", and really lanky. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth, almost to the floor. He coughed and I realized that this was what we'd been hearing. It was some kind of zombie, I knew that for sure. Suddenly, the zombie screamed and his tongue shot out of his mouth, straight towards us.

The tongue hit Zayna and wrapped around her, pulling her to the ground. "Help!" she yelled as the zombie reeled her in. Michael fired his pistol, hitting the tongue. The tongue split and Zayna fell to the ground. We quickly ran over and untangled her. We helped her up and I looked up to where the zombie had been to see that he was gone (Ninja Vanish). I quickly looked around, hoping to see him somewhere.

I heard him cough again and it sounded like it had come from above us. I looked up to see the zombie standing on top of the shelf. He screamed again and shot his tongue out at me. I dodged to the left and fired my shotgun. He coughed one last time and exploded into a cloud of smoke. We all coughed as we hurried out of the cloud. We took a moment to catch our breath and I put another shell into my shotgun.

"Thanks for saving me," said Zayna, "I really hate being the damsel in distress."

"It's cool," I said, "but what the hell was that thing?"

"I don't know," said Michael, "but that was some crazy shit."

"It's obvious that it was a zombie," said Zayna, "So what're we gonna call this one?"

"Well," I said, "that cough reminded me of a smoker and he exploded into smoke when I killed him, so how about Smoker?"

"Sounds good," said Zayna.

"Sounds good to me too," said Michael. We walked out of the aisle and looked to our left and saw Seth and Will walking towards us.

"Heard some racket," said Seth, "just thought we'd come and make sure you guys were alright."

"Yeah, we're good," said Michael, "but we just took out some crazy-looking zombie."

"What do you mean?" asked Will.

"We'll tell you later," I said, "So did you guys already clear out your area?"

"Yep," said Seth, "not one zombie left over there."

"Yeah," said Will, "Seth killed almost all of them. I only killed, like, two."

"It isn't my fault that my trigger finger is faster," said Seth.

"I'm just gonna stop you guys right now before you start arguing," I said (Seth and Will argued a lot, but it never went past that because Will knew that Seth would kick his ass without hesitation).

"That's probably a good idea," said Seth. We all walked back towards the Deli, where we found Amos and Jacob waiting for us.

"What took you guys so long?" asked Jacob.

"We actually had some zombies to kill," said Seth, "We weren't just going for a stroll, like you guys."

"Hey, we killed some zombies too," said Amos.

"But did you kill one with a soup can?" asked Michael.

"What?" asked Amos, "No!"

"Well, I did," said Michael, "and it was fucking epic." We all laughed and we walked back over to the tables.

"Now what was it that you were saying about some crazy-looking zombie?" asked Will as we sat down.

"Oh, yeah," I said, "Well, we were walking down an aisle and heard coughing around us. We had gotten halfway though the aisle and this really tall zombie stepped in front of us. This guy's tongue was dangling out of his mouth, almost to the floor. Then, he starts screaming and shoots his tongue at us."

"And he wrapped me up in it and started pulling me in," said Zayna.

"Me and Paul managed to free her," said Michael, "but when we looked up that zombie was gone. We heard him cough again and it turned out that he was standing on top of the shelf. He tried to get Paul with his tongue, but Paul dodged and shot him. Then, the guy exploded and smoke went everywhere."

"That's some crazy shit," said Jacob.

"That's what I'm saying," said Michael.

"Did you guys come up with a name?" asked Will.

"Yeah," said Zayna, "We decided that Smoker was a good name." All of the others agreed. I glanced up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was already 5 PM. I realized that I hadn't really eaten all day.

"Is it just me, or are you guys hungry too?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Michael.

"Hmmm…I wonder what zombie tastes like," said Seth.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" asked Jacob.

"It was a joke," said Seth, "Calm down. I wouldn't ever eat a zombie. I'd probably get AIDS or something." We all went and got some food from around the store. We had food in our backpacks, but we wanted to save that for when we really needed it. We all made some bologna sandwiches and had some potato chips (keepin' it simple).

We ate a few sandwiches each and just relaxed for a minute. I sat over at the tables and looked out the windows. More zombies were already starting to gather in the parking lot. Zayna walked over and sat down across from me.

"What's up, Paul?" she asked.

"Just thinking," I said.

"About what?"

"About what to do next. Do we go to the airport or do we just try and wait it out here?"

"I think we should go to the airport," she said, "that's our best chance outta here."

"Yeah, but the longer we wait here, the harder it's gonna be to blast our way outta here. I mean, look at that. Just a few hours and the zombie population is starting to replenish itself." Zayna looked out the window and nodded.

"Then we should leave ASAP. Tomorrow afternoon, by the latest."

"Yeah, that's probably the best idea. So how've you been? You doin' alright?"

"Yeah, despite having a tongue all over me earlier, I'm just dandy. I'm just…" she paused and let out a sigh.

"Just what?"

"I'm worried about Luke. I haven't heard from him since yesterday. I called him after that news thing and he said that he was going home. His boss told all of the workers to go home."

"I'm sure he's alright. Luke's a smart guy. He'll figure something out."

"I hope he's alright. I just wish that he was here with us. I'd feel a lot better if I knew he was OK.".

"Zayna, look at me." She looked over at me, her eyes starting to water. "It'll be fine. Don't let yourself get discouraged. It'll all turn out fine in the end." Zayna smiled slightly and wiped her eyes.

"Thanks, Paul," she said, "You always know what to say."

"That's what friends are for," I said.

"I'm glad to have you as a friend. Especially now. Without you guys, I probably would've died by now."

"Don't talk like that. You're a tough girl. I'm sure you could take care of yourself. I know I wouldn't want to fight you."

"Oh, shut up," she said with a smile. I glanced over at the clock again. It was already 6:30. The others walked over to the tables and joined us.

"So what's the verdict?" asked Seth as he sat down, "When are we leaving this dump?"

"Does early tomorrow morning sound good to you guys?" I asked.

"Just how early is 'early'," asked Seth, "because I need my beauty sleep."

"I was thinking about 3 or 4," I said, "If we go to sleep now and sleep in shifts, we can do it."

"I guess," said Seth.

"Come on," said Will, "haven't you ever heard that saying 'the early bird gets the worm'?"

"Why the fuck would I want a worm?" asked Seth.

"How about this?" asked Michael, "The early bird kills the Tank."

"Now, that's more like it," said Seth, "something I can relate to."

"So who's going on guard duty first?" asked Amos.

"Me and Seth will go first," I said.

"Me?" asked Seth, "Why me?"

"Because if we let you sleep first, then we'll never be able to wake you up for your shift," I said (Seth is a ridiculously heavy sleeper).

"Me and Amos will go next then," said Jacob.

"Then, me and Will," said Michael.

"Well, what about me?" asked Zayna.

"You can wake me up and I'll stay up with you," I said.

"I guess that works," said Zayna.

"So," I said, "we'll guard in two-hour shifts and we'll leave at 3 AM. How does that sound?" Everyone agreed that it sounded good and everyone except for Seth and I went to try and go to sleep. They walked behind the counter of the Deli and they had gathered some blankets from the store.

Seth and I stood and looked out the window at the darkness spreading across the parking lot. The sun was setting and there were even more zombies in the parking lot now. "Damn," said Seth, "we're gonna have a hell of a time gettin' outta here."

"Yeah," I said, "but we don't necessarily need to go out the front. There's a backdoor that we could use."

"But where's the fun in that?" asked Seth. I chuckled and shook my head.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

"It's pretty fun if you think about it as a game."

"Is everything a game to you?"

"That's usually the only thing that'll get me to even try."

"Wish I could be like that." We had turned off all of the lights in the store and the only lights came from our flashlights now. We pointed the lights out of the window and noticed that the light reflected off of the zombies' eyes. It was like dogs' eyes or something. "They're like animals," I thought to myself. We watched as the zombies fought amongst themselves. Even going so far as to kill on another.

Seth and I talked a bit and just wandered around the Deli, snacking on the merchandise. When our time was up, we woke Amos and Jacob and laid down on the blankets. Most other nights, I would've fallen asleep easily, but not tonight. I could hear the growls and snarls of the zombies outside and that kept me awake for a while. After about twenty minutes, I managed to fall asleep.

"Paul, get up," I heard Zayna say. I opened my eyes and she was sitting above me, lightly shaking me awake.

"What's up?" I asked.

"It's time for our shift," she said.

"Oh, yeah, that's right," I said. I glanced over at Michael and Will, who were already making themselves comfortable. I sat up and Zayna helped me to my feet. We walked over to the tables and looked out at the parking lot. We could barely make out the silhouettes of the zombies without our lights. I could easily spot a Boomer and a Smoker in the crowd.

"I wonder what they're thinking," said Zayna, "I wonder if they even do think."

"It's hard to say," I said, "but one thing's for sure: We can't let them be the end of us. We're only teenagers. We have our whole lives ahead of us. I wouldn't want it to end now." Just then, Zayna and I both froze when we heard a low-pitched growl nearby. I flicked on my flashlight and looked around. Nothing. We heard the growl again and it sounded like it was inside.

I looked over at Zayna who had become very pale. "It can't be inside," I thought to myself, "We cleared this place out." Zayna also flicked on her flashlight and we frantically searched the area. All the while, the growl seemed to be getting closer and closer. I looked to my right and my light brushed past something. I looked back and saw a guy on all fours. Instantly, I knew this was another zombie. He was wearing a black hoodie and had blood dripping from his mouth. His fingers had claws on them, most likely due to mutation.

He continued growling, and suddenly let out a loud shriek. He pushed off with his legs and arms and flew through the air, right towards me. The zombie landed on my chest and took me to the ground. He raised his clawed hands and he intended to rip me to pieces.

Zayna ran over and kicked the zombie in the head. He fell off of me and onto the floor. She fired a burst from her MAC-10, hitting the head. The zombie slightly yelped in its death and Zayna helped me up. "Oh, shit," I said, "Thanks, Zee. That thing would've carved me up like a Christmas Ham."

"Don't mention it," she said.

"What the hell's goin' on out there?" I heard Jacob yell from the behind the counter.

"Nothing," I yelled back, "We've, ummm, we got it under control." I heard Jacob mumble something and the others mumbled something back (except for Seth…I'm pretty sure he was still asleep). I looked down at the zombie's body and wondered what we'd call him.

"What do you think for a name?" I asked Zayna. She looked down at the zombie and thought for a moment.

"Well," she said, "he stayed hidden from us for a while. At least, until he decided to attack. To me, that seems like a hunter. So, how about Hunter?"

"Sounds good," I said. Zayna and I sat and talked for a while longer. I glanced back at the clock. 2:45. We'd have to wake everyone up in about 15 minutes (waking Seth up was gonna be a chore). Once we were all set, we were gonna have to fight our way to Farmington. No easy task, but it would have to be done.