Relentlessly, gusts of warm wind assaulted the group of survivors trekking across a strip mall. Abandoned shopping carts littered the empty parking lot, accompanied only by the occasional dented car. A mirage of heat waves hovered above the dilapidated asphalt.
Pizza Chief, Gap, Charlie's Toys, Nike...
"Mom, come on, this place is a gold mine," Alicia tugged Madison's arm, attempting to reroute to the Nike store. "We should all get new shoes, look!"
She pointed at her lifted foot, jerking her mother to a halt. Her black Converse had long since turned grey, and the rubber sides peeled down to expose tiny holes worn into the sides of the canvas. "These will last maybe...two more hours?"
Madison crossed her arms and looked down at the shabby shoes, then flicked her eyes to examine the others' footwear. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, we should search every store anyway. Nick, find the quietest cart out there."
Before Alicia could even enter the shoe store, Nick barreled through the open door with a plastic-wheeled cart. The front of it was built to look like a little car, steering wheel and all.
"Nick," Ofelia whispered urgently. "Are you crazy?"
"Me? What, is it the kiddy cart?"
A walker groaned from behind the checkout counter, failing to pass through the waist-high door separating it from the rest of the store. Nonchalantly, Nick removed an oversized pocket knife from the bottle pouch on the side of his backpack, plunging it into the dead man's temple, then yanking it back out once the creature slumped over. "One: the plastic wheels and exterior makes it silent compared to the others. Two: no, I am not crazy," he punctuated his last word with a swift slide of the knife across the front of his jeans. "I don't hear any others."
Delighted, Alicia and Ofelia ran to the back of the store, straight to the running shoes.
"Hey, be careful!" Madison hollered from the front door.
The girls combed through the whole supply before them. For whatever reason, perhaps out of habit, they replaced the unwanted shoes back into lidless boxes and placed them back on the shelves. Almost everything in their lives had to change once the dead came back. The most monotonous tasks of the old world became comforting, even if it was as simple as courteously keeping an aisle tidy.
"Look at these ones," Alicia motioned for Ofelia to walk over to where she was seated, a pink pair of running shoes with black mesh fit snugly on her tired feet, the laces double knotted.
"Those are cute! Did you see another pair?"
Alicia pointed to a box right across from her.
"Cool, we can match," Ofelia winked, Alicia rolled her eyes.
The muffled roar of a motorcycle passing the mall startled the 18-year-old, prompting her to rush to the front for a better look. By the time she got there, though, the vehicle was already gone, its motor suddenly cut off. "Mom, wh-" she turned her head only to see nothing where her mom stood. "Mom?"
"Back here!" Madison called from the very back corner of the store, most likely searching the stock room.
Alicia huffed, the rising panic in her body falling back down. She wracked her brain for a quick excuse to inspect the noise, apparently unnoticed or brushed off by the rest of her group. "Can I go to the toy store?"
Madison's eyebrows furrowed. She captured the "why" that nearly flung itself from her mouth, knowing after 18 years not to question her daughter's actions. "Alone?"
"Please, yes!"
Madison sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, but you better stay aware of your surroundings, young lady. Take a weapon with you!"
"Got it," she turned on her heel and pushed the door open.
"Wait!"
"Whaaaat," Alicia twirled around, looked up at the ceiling, and bounced her leg restlessly.
"If you get into trouble, run back here! You better be quick with those new shoes!"
"Okay, okay, whatever," Alicia shouted over her shoulder, already halfway out the door.
The girl turned to her left and strolled down the shaded sidewalk. The motorcycle still hadn't reappeared or made any noise, nor did she notice anyone walking nearby.
Though the toy store was just an excuse to investigate the rare noise, it soon became more and more attractive as she approached the storefront. Her mind wandered back to her home and the chest full of toys in her room. She remembered the first time Matt came over and asked to see what was inside, and how embarrassed she was to say "They're just toys, it's whatever." She remembered the way her boyfriend's face shifted into the softest expression she'd ever seen, and the way he asked first so gently why she still had them, and secondly how she used them when she answered his first question with "they're for stimming." An hour must have passed as she pulled each item out one by one, explaining what she did with them and for which situations they were most comforting. Stuffed animals, both light and heavy. A Rubik's cube. A tactical puzzle made of large polished, twisted nails. Breyer horses. A Perplexus ball. And among other things, one of her favorites: a yellow plastic board with multiple plastic gears of different sizes and colors, connected, all powered by a crank on the largest gear which, when moved fast enough, made the most amazing sound that filled her with glee even through memory.
She was forced back into reality when she opened the door of the toy store and a bell atop the door jingled, the echoes of it bouncing up to the high ceiling and back. Alicia froze, unsure of whether she was alone within the four light blue walls of the store. Several seconds passed and produced nothing but the fading echoes of the bell. Oh, thank god.
Her eyes scanned up and down the racks as she tip-toed up and down the aisles.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
She scrunched her lips to the side, unsatisfied by the lackluster selection.
That is, until a huge woven basket of stuffed animals under the front window caught her eye.
She pawed through the pile, picking up the ones she liked the test their weight. No...no...why aren't they heavy?
But finally, the short curly fur of a teddy bear brushed against her fingertips, and the slight resistance she felt when she pulled it to the top instantly calmed her. She held it up to lean on her shoulder, as if she was about to burp a baby, and straightened up to head back to her group.
"Oh, shit!"
A horde of about a hundred roamers shambled through the lot outside. The uproar thumped against Alicia's eardrums and shot straight down to her erratic heart. She knelt down below the window and peeked out timidly, her knuckles white around the arms of her bear.
One of the dead caught the girl's sudden movement and started shuffling to the glass. Then another. Then another. And another.
"No...no!"
One of her hands released the bear's arm to fumble with the lock on the dense oak door. The lock clicked and the terrified teenager immediately scurried to the emergency exit in the back. When she threw it open, she was greeted by the rasps of four walkers. Too many.
She hurriedly jerked the door back into place and spun around to face the front. Walkers filled the space outside the windows. Their crooked fingers clawed at the glass, leaving behind streaks of red and black. Eyes wild, mouths chomping at the air, they pushed forward in a desperate attempt to smash through their obstacle and devour their next meal.
Tears dripped down her face. There was no way out, she was surrounded with only a chef's knife to protect herself. Her mind went blank as she sat on the cold, hard floor. She hugged the two pound bear to her chest and rocked herself, trembling all the while. "Dead, dead, dead."
Minutes passed as she struggled to find inner peace. Maybe this was her time, she thought. Maybe this was how she was supposed to die, maybe dying any other way would be against nature's intentions. Maybe her purpose was to be the walkers' distraction that her family needed to get out of the strip mall and live another day. Maybe she would be the one person who didn't reanimate, simply because the flock of ravenous zombies picked her clean like vultures.
More tears flowed down her cheeks, dribbling off her chin and onto her new companion. She allowed screaming sobs to rip through her throat. There was no point in staying quiet now, she figured. She was already a dead woman, it was only a matter of time.
Bright light flooded her peripheral vision. Over hot tears, she closed her eyes, although a bit confused. The walkers haven't entered the store yet, how could she possibly be dead?
"Get up, we can make it out of here."
A gravelly but exigent whisper forced her to snap her eyes open and whip her head around to the emergency exit.
There, surrounded by the rays of sunshine flooding in from the outside world, stood a blonde woman wearing an all-too-casual outfit of ripped jeans and a leather jacket over an olive green tank. She had a metal bat dripping with thick blood slung over her shoulder and a pistol in a holster around her waist.
Alicia could do nothing but stare up at her guardian angel. Her focus remained unbroken until the woman rushed forward, hoisted her up by the arm, and towed her out the door.
The bright light burned Alicia's eyes, and she reflexively brought the bear up to cover her face. Her rescuer tightened the grip around her wrist and sprinted, making sure the brunette behind her could keep up. At the increase of speed, Alicia lowered the bear and squinted, determined to focus on her feet to avoid tripping. The grunts of the dead on the other side of the building faded away as the two girls crawled under a warped area of a chain-link fence, separating the strip mall from a Walmart parking lot, and bolted through the lot full of deserted vehicles.
"In here, it's safe," the blonde panted and rounded the largest RV Alicia ever saw. The sides protruded and all the windows were tinted black, save the windshield. Alicia immediately recognized the danger of the transparent windshield, but was relieved to find there was a curtain separating the front seats from the rest of the interior as they approached the side door. The blonde opened the door motioning for the brunette to enter first. Relief rushed through her once again as she noticed the door swung out instead of in. She practically hopped up the steps into the safe haven and watched her hero close the door, lock it, then pull over another door from a compartment to the side and lock that one as well.
Alicia wandered farther into the RV and rigidly sat on a suede couch, hands on her knees, her bear sagging on the floor. She was safe in a spacious RV with a kind stranger, but nothing could stop the panic taking over her being. She began trembling again, and her breath came out in pants and was sucked back in with wheezes. She couldn't focus on anything, nothing in the RV seemed to sit still long enough for her to settle her eyes, and the back and forth rocking of her body only added to the effect.
"Hey...you're okay now," the gentle tone of the leather-clad girl did nothing to soothe Alicia. The calmer girl extended an arm to rub Alicia's back, but was met by violent thrashing.
Alicia kicked, pushed the woman's arm away, and whimpered desperately before flinging herself to the floor and a few feet toward the back of the RV, instantly curling her knees to her chest and tucking her arms between them. The cries tumbling out of her decreased in intensity as the minutes passed.
The other woman slowly sat down on the floor in front of her previous seat on the couch, careful to keep her distance. "You'll be okay," she tried again in the same tender tone, barely above a whisper. "I'm Elyza. You don't have to say anything to me until you're ready. We're safe in here, I've been staying here for two weeks and haven't had any issues." She offered a soft smile to the wide green eyes locked on her. "You're alive, you're okay."