As they all kept their attention on the rear of the store, Clementine stepped on a bag of Cheetos that had been knocked off a rack and lay on the floor. It popped as her weight came down on it and then the foil package crackled and the chips inside it crumbled. The sound was way too loud and way too sudden.
Oh shit.
Clementine looked back at Hal and mouthed the word, “Sorry.”
Sorry wouldn’t cut it. The growl they’d heard before now turned into a high-pitched wail. Then, to the right, near the bread aisle in the grocery section, a shriek sounded off. That led to a monstrous roar back in the auto supply area.
“Go!” Hal ordered.
Grant didn’t argue. He raced toward the home and garden section. Hal followed, but he really wanted to hightail it back to the front door and get the hell out of the store. It was too late though. He’d already committed to getting the permethrin. The others stormed ahead, paying little attention to the aisles on their left and right. Hal was all too aware. He wasn’t moving as quickly as the others out of fear something might pounce on them.
The others had already passed the greeting card aisle when Hal approached and heard the ruffling of cards and envelopes being knocked off their racks. He glanced right and saw it. A huge man, easily 6’4” and over 250 lbs., stumbled toward him. He walked with his hands outstretched, using his fingers to guide him, and the cards fell at his feet like congratulatory confetti. Hal was the lucky winner, and this creature was hissing at him, its hair clicking, as it came to give him his prize.
His first thought should have been to pull the trigger and blow him away, but he froze for some reason. The scene in front of him was surreal. Almost beautiful in its insanity. A card flew in front of Hal’s face and he was able to read it: Happy Father’s Day, Daddy. Your princess loves you.
As it fluttered to the ground, the big man’s face came into view behind it, and Hal considered doing absolutely nothing. Maybe the card was a sign from his daughter telling him it was time to come see her. It was time to let go of this cruel, nasty world and come be with the one person who loved him unconditionally. He raised his gun and pointed it at the creature, and then turned it on himself.
He would let the creature get to him, and as those tiny writhing bastards thought they had a new host, he would blow his own fucking brains out. Grant, Clementine, and Sally could finish their plans without him. He wasn’t much a part of it anyway. He lived a loner, he’d die one.
Come on, you bastard.
The creature was five feet from him when he heard a voice say, “Hal, what the fuck?”
A blast so loud he thought it might have blown out his eardrum screamed next to him, and the big man’s head exploded like a ripe melon. Blood and bone fragments sprayed across the cards.
Hal stood stunned, not only shocked at the creature’s explosion, but at the realization that he had been willing to die right now.
“What’s wrong with you, buddy?” Grant asked as he tugged on Hal’s shirt at the shoulder.
“I don’t know,” he replied, and as his eyes drifted down to the fallen cards, he read another one.
It was covered in blood and read: Live life to the fullest.
A shriek came from only a few aisles away and pulled Hal out of his trance-like state. He shook his head, cleared his senses, and ran ahead of Grant toward the others.
Clementine found the permethrin and held it up. It was in a yellow bottle with a black nozzle. Grant handed her an empty duffle bag and she shoved about ten bottles of the stuff in there. Grant grabbed two big jugs full of the stuff and Hal grabbed one himself. Clementine slung the duffle bag over her shoulder and kept her shotguns pointed out in front of her.
The sound of items being knocked off shelves was heard near the rear of the store making its way toward them. Clangs, clattering, bangs… something was making its way toward them quickly.
“We should go out the exit by the patio furniture,” Sally said, pointing into the adjoining room where Hal knew the store kept its lawn chairs, barbecue grills, and outdoor decorations.
She was right. They should get out of the store as quickly as possible.
“One of ‘em’s coming,” Clementine announced, speaking the obvious.
“I think we should try this stuff out,” Grant said.
“You go right on ahead,” Hal said. “I’m headed toward that exit. Ain’t no need to be getting ourselves killed so soon. I’d like to live to fight some more.”
“You sure about that, buddy?” Grant asked. “Didn’t seem like you were up to fighting a second ago.”
Hal glared at him. The man was right, but there was more to it than he knew. It was only a moment of self-reflection. Now, he knew what needed to be done. He needed to kill these things.
“I know I want to fight,” Grant said as he pulled one of the spray bottles out of Clementine’s bag, turned the nozzle to “on” and held it out in front of him. “So, might as well start now.”
Sally scratched at one arm nervously. She looked back at Hal and Clementine and then glared at Grant. “Grant, you’re not seriously planning to stand there and meet that thing head-on with a fuckin’ spray bottle.”
“If not, then what did we come here for?” he asked.
He barely finished his sentence when hands shot out from the next shelf over, swiping all its contents off as one of the creatures, a skinny man wearing overalls, with scraggly hair encircling the bald crown of his head, emerged and headed toward them. Barbecue grill spatulas and tongs clattered to the ground. Bottles of lighter fluid toppled over next. Grant held the spray bottle out and his eyes went wide as he waited for the limping creature to finally reach him.
“Grant, come on!” Sally yelled.
Clementine stepped away from Grant and moved to Hal’s side with her shotguns raised and ready. “I think it’ll work,” she said to Hal, “but I’m not sure it’ll work.”
The scrawny man, furious with infected rage, held his fingers out in front of him like claws and snarled as he grew closer. He was only about ten feet away when Grant pulled the trigger on his spray bottle. A stream of liquid flew about six feet away and was showering down generously when the creature stepped right into it.
“Take that, motherfucker!” Grant yelled, holding that spray bottle out in front of him like a kid with a super soaker water gun.
The infected man stopped in the stream and howled. Grant laughed and kept squirting.
Other infected came from around nearby shelves. Back in the makeup area, lipsticks and eyeliners fell to the ground. Boxed hairdryers toppled over and smacked against the tile floor. In the pool supplies, the entire shelf moved. It rocked as if being pushed from the other side. A pool pump fell from the shelf. Several boxes of floaties and innertubes came down next.
Grant’s eyes went wide as he realized other creatures were coming. The one he was squirting with the permethrin growled and leaped through the stream. Grant stepped back and his boot heel touched the puddle at his feet. He slipped and fell on his ass hard. He scrambled backward as the skinny man hit the ground and started crawling after him. The permethrin had done nothing. It didn’t even faze the man other than to make him pause for a second. Now, he was crawling forward while the others were coming from the left and right.
“Look out!” Clementine hollered.
The creature was about to grab Grant’s boot when Grant rolled out of the way and Clementine sent a shotgun blast that took the insect-infested man’s head clean off his body.
Sally was at Grant’s side quickly, pulling him to his feet as the other creatures came from behind their shelves.
The pool supply shelf rocked one final time and then fell forward slowly. The rest of its contents showered the floor before the metal structure struck the ground with a loud clatter sure to bring any other creatures in the store their way. On the other side of the shelf, now crawling over it, were two more of the infected creatures, each wearing the blue smock that read: How can I help you?