***
"I hate my job."
Jeremy whined to himself as he pushed the train of shopping carts back towards the building. It was hot. Just like he knew it was going to be. His clothes were drenched in sweat. The sweat dripped off his forehead like a heavy summer rain. Except that, this summer, there was no rain. Just heat. And sun.
He pushed the carts back into their appropriate place within the building and turned back to the parking lot to continue his torture of collecting them all.
"Sweet Jesus, it's way too hot for this," he mumbled to himself.
Jeremy watched as a woman on the opposite side of the parking lot pushed her cart onto a curb, got in her car and drove off. The very action annoyed him down to his core. Her car was two parking spots away from a cart corral. Two.
"Why can't you people put the carts back into the corrals? It's not that hard of a concept! You take a cart, you put it back! It‘s not rocket science!" He asked out loud as an elderly woman passed by.
She didn't seem to be too amused by Jeremy's tone because she huffed and scurried herself into the store. He let out a sigh and walked towards the rogue buggy. She was probably going to go complain to the manager. Who just so happened to be Brian. He thought about the lecture he was going to receive once he was done with the carts.
And that's when he heard the screaming. Screams came from inside the building. Blood-curdling screams. The kind you don't run to and investigate. Jeremy left the buggies in the middle of the road and sprinted for the store. He ran in past the door and stopped dead in front of the registers. It was there he saw something he thought he would never see.
A human eating another human.
There really is no way to prepare yourself for that kind of thing. A small, Asian woman was hunched over the register, clawing and biting the face of one of the cashiers. There was blood everywhere. So much bright-red, fresh blood. His hand went to his mouth, as if to hold back the impending vomit, but nothing came. The scene had shocked him so badly that it took him a moment to realize who was being attacked.
It was Ashley.
Jeremy's mouthed opened to scream, "No!" but no sound came out. He was frozen in place as the woman began to maul the girl he'd been dying to take out to a movie. The store was in full panic now. Customers were running, knocking things over and bumping into each other. Some even tried to make off with their groceries. Brian ran up to the woman attacking Ashley. On top of being a huge douche, Brian was also not very bright. He was holding a mop.
Yeah, good choice Brian, Jeremy thought.
He swung. Missed. Swung again, missed and lost his balance. He tumbled forwards, arms flailing, into the woman. She lurched forward and began ripping and tearing into her new snack. It all was happening so fast it almost looked choreographed. Things this bad couldn't run so smoothly. Jeremy barely had any time to react. He quickly snapped out of it and grabbed the mop from the floor.
"Ma'am!" he yelled. "I'm going to need you to stop eating Brian!"
Perhaps yelling at the person who just started eating people's faces off wasn't such a good idea. She lost interest in eating Brian and was now completely focused on Jeremy. She moaned and began to shamble over towards him. He swung the mop back and forth, trying to keep a good safe distance between the two of them.
"Lady! Back off!" he shouted.
She didn't listen. She didn’t even seem to comprehend. She just continued to claw at him; her jaw clamping up and down. Jeremy realized there was no reasoning with her. She was insane. The car was running but there was nobody behind the wheel-kinda thing. He swung the mop again but this time she caught the mop head, breaking it off from the handle.
"Great, now all I have is this pointy stick..." he muttered to himself.
Instinct kicked in and he jabbed her in the right arm. The splintered wood sank into her flesh like a hot knife into a tub of butter. He expected screaming and pain, but it didn't faze her one bit. No grimace, no shrieks. She just continued to try and eat Jeremy. He was not going to let her do that.
A rage sunk over Jeremy, a kind of anger he never felt before. Something primal, something buried deep within him. He yanked back on his makeshift spear, pulling free from her arm. The jolt sent her back a few steps. She regained her footing and came at him again. He hit her again, this time square in the right lung. Nothing. Again no screaming or any signs of pain.
What in the world is going on?
He yanked back on the mop again, freeing the handle. She lost her balance again, but quickly was right back on top of Jeremy. This couldn't be happening.
She should be dead right now...
The anger rose up in him. He set his feet, let out a yell and lurched forward, sinking the stick directly into the girl's eye socket. It sunk in deep and she fell to her knees, then to the floor. She was dead. For good this time.
Sweet Jesus, what did I just do? He thought to himself. I had to. I had no choice. It was self-defense. I just had to. She wouldn't stop...
As Jeremy reasoned with himself, trying to find some reason to make what just happened okay or believable for that matter. The store was empty now. All the customers and the rest of the staff were long gone. It was now just Jeremy and three dead bodies. One of which, was because of his doing.
"Uhh..."
A moan came from Ashley's collapsed body. Jeremy ran over to her and knelt down next to her. He pulled her up into his arms. She was still alive. Her breath was shallow, her breathing affected by the loose, mangled skin covering her face. She looked completely unrecognizable to him. The only thing that Jeremy could connect with her former self was her bright, blue eyes, which seemed much more vibrant compared to the ground hamburger look of her face.
"Ashley," was all he could muster up.
He sat there and watched as she died in his arms. Her body tensed and then relaxed as she breathed her last strained breath. She was dead. Jeremy sat there for a moment, soaking in everything that was happening. He was having a hard time believing it. He so desperately wanted to be dreaming, but he knew that wasn't the case. He laid Ashley back down on the floor gently.
What the hell is going on? I just killed a woman and Ashley just died in my arms. What the hell? And Brian's dead too, but who the fuck cares about Brian?
As he hung his head low, eyes shut tight; he tried to figure out what to do. Mid-thought, he heard movement. The store was still empty. The movement came from in front of him. The girl that just died in his arms, the girl who he felt the life go out of her, was now getting back onto to her knees and attempting to stand back up. This was not good. There was no thinking, "Oh, good! She's alive!" No, this felt all wrong. This was not a happy ending.
Jeremy watched on in horror as she began to do the same chomping movement that the other girl had been doing. He tried to slowly back away towards the door, not trying to draw any attention to himself. She didn't seem to notice him. Brian was also making his way to his feet again. The two of them just stood there, in what seemed like a daze. They were aware of each other. Brian tilted his head back and let out a bellowing moan.
It was horrible. Long and drawn out, it was filled with anguish. It seemed to last forever. Jeremy was mere feet from the door, his steps quiet and calculated. There was no need to bring attention to himself. The two newly reanimated corpses began to shuffle around, noses up in the air, sniffing for something. It seemed that Ashley was having trouble, seeing that she had lost her nose. But it quickly dawned on Jeremy what they were sniffing for. They were looking for food. They were looking for him.
As soon as his foot hit outside the doors, he turned and bolted for the back of the building. He had chained his bike up there before his shift. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the parking lot was a mess due to all the panic. There were cars smoking from collisions, a few people yelling but most had just fled the scene. Which was exactly the same thing Jeremy was planning on doing. He had no intentions of sticking around here to see what happened.
His bike was still there, chained to a fire hydrant sticking out from the building. He heard moans in the distance. They were outside the store. He quickly unlocked the chain and jumped on his bike, heading back out towards the front and to the road. He saw both Ashley and Brian on his way out. They were both now attacking the two guys who were arguing over what now seems like a very minor car accident. Jeremy just pressed on.
Peddle like hell, he thought.
He had to get home. And he had to get there quick. Everything was going to hell around him. He had to make sure his mom was okay.