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ZombieMart — Part 4) Cleanup In Aisle 11 (1st Draft)

This is post #4 of 4 in the series “ZombieMart”

At this point I'd like to tell you how, as a skilled wizard, I applied my craft to free myself from the zombie that was currently firmly gripping my leg. And I was going to do that, really. Although, it is surprisingly hard to concentrate when a mindless zombie, in the form of your shift manager, is threatening to eat you.

Fortunately for me there was someone with a little more focus available to save the day. Just as I felt as though I couldn't hold on any longer a can of Best Value Baked Beans slammed straight into Maggie's face, only to be rapidly followed by two more.

Maggie, or former Maggie, slumped to the ground dazed if not unconscious. Can zombies become unconscious? I'm a little vague on the rules for that.

I jumped the rest of the way down and glanced up to see Bethany scowling down at me, another can in hand.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" She gestured with both hands. "Go!" Never underestimate a stroppy teenage girl's capacity for violence. I did as instructed, taking off at a modest run.

Okay, it was a jog. I'd tried to get myself into a bit better shape after the whole being chased by werewolves thing, but I'm still no athlete. Fear is a strong motivator though and I was soon out of the warehouse and into the store itself.

The greenish-yellow miasma was spreading slower out here, perhaps hampered by the sheer size of the store. Yay for big box chain stores! The zombies were not so hindered however and I could see a group of them along aisle 11, meanwhile several unfortunately shoppers lay either injured or dead on the floor.

I paused, torn with indecision. On the one hand, the smart thing to do would be to head for the doors. On the other, there were injured people to attend to. And on the other, other hand, what was that zombie pack doing in aisle 11? Nothing good, that much was certain.

Checking on the injured, or dead, shoppers would be the humanitarian thing to do, but I've seen just a few too many movies and the idea of leaning in only to have my throat ripped out just didn't sit well with me. On the other hand, how many hands is that now, if there was someone on the other side of that zombie pack, well I couldn't just walk away from them.

Cursing my own stupidity I ran headlong towards the zombies.

There must have been at least a half dozen of them all pushing at each other, eager to get at the fresh meat. Whoever it was had gotten themselves thoroughly trapped against the chips and dips with no easy exit. The only thing that had kept them alive this long, I could tell they were alive from the steady stream of curses, was the fact that the zombies were not team players and were spending more time fighting each other than actually going in for the kill.

The question was, what was I going to do about it?

I didn't come to work expecting a zombie outbreak, mainly I was expecting to lift boxes, but being a wizard isn't about being powerful so much as being prepared. Up to now I'd just been reacting frantically, it was time to be a little more aggressive. The problem was, I didn't know what was effective against these zombies. So I went with the basics.

Almost any time you see or hear about a wizard they're throwing things around casual as you please. And moving things is relatively easy. But there's a catch, physics. Newton's Third Law says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Which basically means if I try to push around something bigger than me, all that actually happens is that I go backwards.

Physics can also work in my favor though. Archimedes knew what he was talking about even if he had never heard of Newton, it's all about leverage.

So rather than try to push the zombies out of the way, I pulled the shelves towards me. It still took some effort, but once I got to the tipping point, over the whole thing went, bags of chips and all.

Of course the shelves would have come down on the unfortunate shopper too, but he was comfortably cushioned by a layer of zombies who, being less than brilliant even before their zombotomy stood there trying to hold up the shelves and wondering what had happened. God help us if the world ever encounters a smart zombie.

I grabbed hold of the shoppers ankles and hauled him out from the mob. Lucas smiled up at me in grateful surprise. I didn't stop to ask him what he was doing there, just yanked him to his feet and set off at a run for the front door.

Priority one was to stop any zombies from leaving this store. Priority two, get the remaining shoppers out of here. Priority three world, or at least Supermart 13, peace.

A quick glance back showed that Lucas had the good sense to follow me, so I kept moving, eventually the zombies would figure out to just step away from the shelves.

My brilliant plan came to an end when I actually reached the doors, or to be more precise slammed into them. Like most shop doors they had sensors and were supposed to slide open as soon as someone got near. Except they didn't.

And they didn't open when I tugged at them either. I was looking around for something to use to pry them apart when Lucas stated what had become disturbingly obvious.

"Somebody locked us in man!"

Next: Part 5) The Source of the Smell

Zombiemart is weekly serial sequel to The Wolves of West Virginia, which is available on Kindle.