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ZombieMart — Part 5) The Source of The Smell (1st Draft)

This is post #5 of 5 in the series “ZombieMart”

I stared at the doors for a moment, wondering if they were locked or jammed. I have a way with locked doors, but unjamming them is trickier. And I might not have much time, sooner or later the zombies would head this way.

After all, there were still an unspecified number of zombies wandering round the store, not to mention that mist stuff. Forcing the doors open created another problem too. Whatever was attacking Supermart 13 was currently contained inside the store, what would happen if it got out?

My best bet was to locate the source of the mist and that god awful smell and then put a stop to it. Somehow.

"Who'd go and do a thing like that?" Lucas rattled the doors ineffectually, obviously at a loss for what to do next.

I considered sending him to hide somewhere, but quickly rejected that notion. He'd be as safe beside me as anywhere else in the store. Of course that did mean I'd have to listen to his muttering and questions.

I closed my eyes for a moment eliminating the background noise and distractions and sharpening my focus. This place stank of magic, and not just that noxious mist, so with a little work I ought to be able to find the source.

It didn't take long. Whoever, or whatever was creating Supermart 13's very own zompocalypse was throwing around a lot of power. Far more power than any even half-trained wizard would dare to use. There are consequences after all.

Whoever this was either didn't have to care or didn't know any better. I couldn't decide which of those options was the more terrifying. Either way it was time to face him, her… it. I headed for the freezer section with Lucas trailing behind.

It was a frantic dash, narrowly slipping by two zombies, the second of which almost got me. I didn't see it until it step out in front of me and I ran smack into its chest. Not an employee this time I noted distantly, just a random shopper. Not that it would help once he bit me.

At which point Lucas whacked it in the head with a bag of frozen peas. Not a killing blow, if the zombie was alive, but enough to send it reeling and give me a chance to get running again.

Okay I realize that all this running probably doesn't seem terribly heroic to you, but I want you to consider two very important things. One, I'm not a hero I'm a shelf stacker at a supermarket and two, I'm still alive! Running is good for your health.

I turned the corner into the second aisle of the freezer section and there he was. Or at least I assumed it was him because, even in West Virginia teenagers don't usually sit in the middle of a supermarket and chant.

I paused, studying the boy, no more than 18 I guessed, maybe younger. He was wearing some sort of medallion which he clutched in his hand as he chanted. From this distance I couldn't make out the words clearly, but the power emanating from the medallion was strong enough to make the hair on my neck stand on end.

That explained a lot, but it also left me with a huge problem. I needed to separate the boy from the medallion. But what would happen if I just interrupted the spell in progress?

I should explain for those of you who haven't spent a decade studying magical theory and practice. All magic requires energy from somewhere. Wizards, that's me, learn to use the smallest amounts of energy in ways that create larger effects. But there are other options, like borrowing power from another magical being. Or being handed a power source and then repeating an incantation that you don't understand. The end result of that last option is almost always bad.

In an ideal situation I would study the incantation, figure out what exactly it was doing and then subtly adjust it to a more harmless flow before removing the medallion from the greasy oik's hands. This was far from the ideal situation but I had to at least figure out what I was up against.

I had taken three steps forward when the teenager opened his eyes and stared at me. Have you ever looked a lizard in the eyes and realized that you're facing something fundamentally alien and different to you? Something that doesn't think the way you do or want the same things you want. The boy's eyes didn't look lizard like but there was nothing human at all in the look he gave me.

The boy stood in a strangely jerky motion, his lips still moving, shaping the words of the chant. I didn't have time for anything clever or subtle. Whatever had taken control of him sensed danger and would move to deal with me. I reached out into the flows of magic that were now all around me and tugged destroying the carefully built magical structure surrounding the boy.

He screamed. It was a sound that shouldn't have been possible from a human voice box, but the chanting stopped. Which was unfortunate because the medallion was still pouring power out into this world and suddenly it had nowhere to go.

I backed up, pulling Lucas behind me, as I frantically wove a shield spell out of thin air and wild magic. I couldn't compete with the raw force that was building up in front of me, turning the air itself into energy, but I just might be able to deflect it.

The boy/thing screamed again as the medallion burned through its hand and then everything exploded.

I don't mean there was an explosion. No single point from which everything pushed out. More like all of reality in my immediate vicinity, twisted, warped and then finally snapped back into shape. My shield worked, at least well enough that I didn't die, but I did black out.

Returning to consciousness from a reality warping magical explosion is painful. I'm not sure exactly how long I was out, but it was long enough for the fire to have caught hold and the emergency services called.

I was laying on a stretcher when I woke and my whole body ached. It didn't feel like I'd lost any essential organs, more like I'd been dragged naked along a gravel path at speed. My first thought, well second, was about Lucas. But I needn't have worried, he was nearby telling some unfortunate all about his experiences. Although, he didn't seem to remember any specifics at all.

Apparently there had been a gas leak, followed by an explosion or so they explained to me. I'd been really lucky they'd gotten to me when they did because the whole building was burnt to a crisp.

Strangely no one mentioned zombies. As far as I can tell my monkey wrench worked about as well as I could have hoped, short circuiting the spell and returning all the affected people to their normal state with very little memory of what happened.

Unfortunately the same could not be said for the victims of those zombies. Several dead bodies had been removed from the store, conveniently too burnt for the bite marks to show.

Which is about as good as result as I suppose I could ask for, but it did leave me frustratingly lacking in answers. Who had given that teenager the medallion and why?

Later that night after being discharged from the hospital I went to visit the charred remains of Supermart 13. It's amazing how little of the building had survived, but that's magical fires for you I suppose.

The medallion wasn't hard to locate, though it took me a while poking around in the dark to actually unearth it. I didn't recognize the design, but I planned to do some research. Magical coincidences were starting to pile up round here.

Next: Douglas Brodie Will Return in — Greed is Good

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