I checked the back area, and found the storeroom mostly intact, save for a scattering of towels and such on the floor. I found a box of energy bars, and added it to the supplies I had in the bike trailer. Duncan found a supply of batteries that would be useful, and some cheap two-way radios. He unpacked them and put batteries in, giving me one of the radios when he finished. Tommy was checking out the bathrooms, making sure there weren’t any surprise visitors waiting for us.
Duncan and I were sitting in the employee’s break area, enjoying a lunch of Ho-Ho’s, peanuts, and stale Doritos’s, when Tommy came back and sat with us.
“Well, we’re alone, thank God, no surprises in the building. I was able to look out the window of the women’s bathroom and see our car. The zombies were crawling all over it like sniffing dogs, but they didn’t break in or anything.” Tommy said, picking up a Ho-Ho and having some lunch himself.
“Any idea what might have distracted them? Not that I’m not grateful, but if there’s someone else out there, we might be able to help them.” I said, opening another package of Doritos’s.
“Not a clue. Anybody willing to change the focus of so many Z’s has to be slightly crazy.” Said Tommy.
“ ‘Z’s’?” I asked.
Duncan piped up “Z for Zombie. Like calling them Zack or Zed.”
I shrugged. “Works for me.” I looked around our little haven. “Well, gents, what’s our next move? I personally would rather not spend the rest of my days in a gas station. Kind of lowers your ranking when you finally head to the Great Divide, you know?”
Tommy laughed. “I hear that. So what’s the plan?”
I pointed at the ceiling. “We should probably send someone up top to get a look at the situation, and see if there might be a break in the Z migration for us to make a run for it. We should also fortify the front windows, as they are our weakest point. If we can’t fortify them, we should at least find a way to keep from being seen from the outside.”
Duncan spoke up. “I can handle that. I saw some advertisement posters in the back area, I can tack them up without too much trouble.”
“Sounds good,” I said, “Just make sure our girlfriend doesn’t come back.”
“No joke. I swear she looked right at me.” Duncan stood up and headed to the back to get the posters. Tommy looked at me.
“You want to go climbing, or should I?” he asked.
“I’ll go.” I said. “Jake’s good for a while, and I am curious to see what kind of hole we managed to dig for ourselves.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy asked, his face scowling.
“We stopped here, but we could have kept going and put more distance between them and us.” I said.
Tommy shook his head. “You might have, but we would have been meat. We ran out of gas, remember?”
It was my turn to shake my head. “I forgot about that.” I said sheepishly.
“Yeah. When I saw you had just the bike, I thought you were nuts. But right now, you look like a freakin’ genius.”
“Got it. I’m going to head up. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
I headed to the back room, where the ladder was to get to the roof. I had already found the key to the padlock in the office where Jake was sleeping, and it was a simple matter to climb up, unlock the lock, and get on the roof.
Once up there, it was different. I had to stay low so as not to be accidentally seen by the zombies roaming around the area. The roof was covered in tar paper, so I was able to move quietly to the edge and peep over at the car. The zombies had abandoned it as uninteresting, and I could see them starting to shuffle down the street towards the east. Their walk was mesmerizing, the slow, steady gait, swaying from side to side as their virus infected brains worked at remembering basic motor functions. They had no direction, just wandering where they would until something attracted their attention.
I rolled to the center of the roof, then crawled up to the front. A four-foot false front afforded me a good bit of cover. I slowly raised my head over the top and looked about. There were still about twenty or so zombies wandering around, but none seemed interested in the store. They seemed to be heading in circles, and some were just standing still, waiting for stimuli to motivate them. I was curious enough to try a little experiment, and I looked around the roof to see if there was anything I could use. I spotted a tennis ball at the corner and belly crawled over to get it. Bringing it back to the front, I positioned myself and using a hook shot throw, lobbed the ball to the middle of the intersection.
The outcome was amazing. Even before the ball hit the ground, zombies had already zeroed in on it and were chasing it. Those that had not seen it, spun around at the sound of it hitting the pavement. The group as a whole converged on the bouncing ball and became a tangled mass of arms and legs. Several zombies fell to be stepped on by their comrades, and the group only lost interest when they realized there was nothing for them to eat. I did manage to move most of the zombies away from the gas station, and they were now focused primarily on the parking lot across the street. Useful bit of information, that, I thought. I didn’t figure a tennis ball would do any distracting if they were chasing live prey, but if they didn’t know you were there and got distracted enough to move, that could buy you some very precious seconds.
I turned around and as I made my way to the ladder I happened to look over the stone wall and into the backyards of the subdivision behind the gas station. I saw a lot of white flags on mailboxes and shook my head. I also saw a lot of zombies milling about and couldn’t figure out why they were there. That was until I looked at the second floor windows and saw what had to be thirty people looking at me. To say I was stunned stupid was an understatement.
The people had rigged together four homes by the upper floors. Ladders extended between the houses, and I shuddered to think what it must be like to crawl on an extension ladder suspended over a sea of hungry ghouls. I raised a hand in greeting, and got twenty in return. There was no way to communicate outside of hand signals, and I needed to get back inside. I went back down the ladder and met up with Tommy and Duncan.
Duncan had effectively managed to cover the front windows, so we were okay with anything looking in. We still needed to be as quiet as possible, since sound seemed to attract them in droves. We sat down at the employee section again and I had Jake in my lap. He was playing with some stuffed animals I had found in the store, and taking turns hitting them on the table, trying to eat them, and talking to them.
“So how was the roof? I saw the Z’s go running after a tennis ball. That your doing?” Tommy asked, sipping on a warm bottle of water.
“Yeah, that was me. Just running a little experiment.” I said.
“Well, it was exactly the right thing to do at the time. Duncan couldn’t put up the posters without attracting attention, so you gave him just the opening he needed.”
Duncan nodded. “I had everything taped and ready to go, but couldn’t move because three of them were too close. Thanks.”
I nodded back. “Speaking of close. Have either of you taken look out back, over the wall?”
Tommy shook his head. “Can’t see anything over the wall unless I stood on the dumpster, and I sure ain’t one to try that right now. Why?”
“Well, you’re not going to believe this, but behind the wall, there’s a subdivision of houses, and at least three of the houses are occupied with a number of people.”
Tommy and Duncan just stared at me. If I didn’t know better, I would swear Jake stared at me, too.
I continued. “They are living on their second floors, and have connected the houses with extension ladders on the roofs. It looks like several neighbors came together and have created a sort of refuge, but I can’t imagine they have enough food for all those people.’