pitch black. Previous teams had managed to thin out the zombies in this area, but there was no telling if others had taken their place in the mean time.
Turning off the flashlight, he was plunged into total darkness as he slowly opened the door. Emerging from the stairwell, he only took a few steps before stopping and listening.
Through the darkness, Connor could hear the thump and slide of a zombie as it made its way through the pitch-black room. Seconds later, he was able to make out additional, more subtle noises . . . the slow slide of a shoeless foot . . . the sickening slap of a loose flesh as it hit the hard concrete floor. Connor was not alone.
He could smell the undead, but couldn’t make out where they were. The stench of death was overwhelming in this room, partly due to the decomposing bodies of the undead that were killed by prior teams.
Standing motionless in the dark, he listened as the noises echoed around him. The reverberation in the room made it difficult to pin point exactly where the undead were. There was only one way to get through the room safely, and that was to eliminate the zombies.
Removing the backpack, he set it quietly on the ground and carefully placed the flashlight on top of it in a way that would angle the beam upwards at a 45-degree angle. Gripping the sword tightly, he pressed the button on the back of the light and quickly took a few steps to his right where he stood, frozen.
Within seconds of the light going on, the sounds picked up, and a moment later the first of the undead appeared around the corner of one of the giant shelving units in the middle of the room. Connor didn’t move as the zombie approached, standing his ground like a statue as the grotesque creature reached the light source, still searching for food. As the zombie wandered about the light, another, more gruesome sight emerged from the shadows. Slowly, the horror made its way forward, dragging a flesh eaten foot behind it as it let forth a hair-raising moan. Watching, Connor steeled his nerves and remained perfectly still.
One by one the loathsome, terrifying undead materialized from the darkness, some walking, and some crawling. All were visions out of a nightmare. By the time the last of them staggered into the light, there were eight zombies milling around, their ghastly features amplified by the harsh shadows created by the flashlight beam.
Pulling his knife, Connor remembered the demonstration at the Chemcorp facility. Slowly, calmly, he maneuvered from one zombie to the next, driving his knife into the back of its skull. The process took a few minutes as he kept his actions slow and steady, never making any sudden moves. When all was said and done, eight bodies lay on the floor around the light.
Grabbing the flashlight, he slung the backpack back onto his shoulder and headed off through the massive storeroom, keeping his eye out for any additional, slow moving zombies. He saw none.
As he maneuvered through the storeroom, he eventually came upon the large, swinging doors that led to the main store area. Shielding his light, he slowly approached the door and peeked through the glass windows at the store beyond. He couldn’t see a thing through the pitch-black darkness.
Connor had been to this Walmart before the apocalypse happened, and he knew the layout well. The grocery section of the store was to his right, and he figured he could find what he needed there. Reaching quietly into his bag, he pulled out a handful of long, thin pieces of plastic, and then slung the backpack onto his back.
Sword in hand, he turned right and started to walk slowly through the darkness. From what he had seen at the Chemcorp complex, the ZOMBIE OFF protected you, even if you came in contact with the undead. As he moved forward, he was banking on it. Slowly, carefully, he continued on through the inky blackness. He could hear the sounds of footsteps as he walked slowly along, but he couldn’t see a thing.
The more time he spent in the dark, the more focused his hearing became. In his days working outside, Connor had needed to pace off distances by walking. Counting his steps, he was able to estimate approximately where he was within the store. He figured he’d walked about 50 feet when he heard footsteps getting closer.
Quickly he stopped as the sickening sound grew louder in front of him. Gripping the sword tightly, he held his ground as the staggering zombie approached, the foul stench of its rotting flesh getting stronger by the second. Moments later, he felt the zombie’s body as it bumped into him, pushing him to the side. Remaining frozen, he held his breath as the creature continued on, it’s footsteps slowly fading behind him.
Numerous times he came in contact with the undead as he made his slow walk across the store. Each time he held his ground, and each time the undead moved on, oblivious to the human in their presence. After four or five minutes of walking, he estimated that he was at the grocery section. This was where things got tricky.
Connor knew approximately where the items he wanted were located, but in the pitch black, he couldn’t easily find them. He’d need the light, and that would attract zombies. Unless, of course, they were distracted by something else.
Removing his backpack, he reached in and pulled out the last item he had inside. In his hand he held a small, square travel alarm, about the size of a small cell phone. Quietly he popped it open. The design was such that it opened like a clam, with the display screen flipping out to hold the top lid open. If you pressed on it when it was like this, the small screen lit up with a dim backlight.
Huddling down near the floor, Connor shielded the alarm and pressed it for light. Quickly he set the alarm for 5 minutes from his current time, and then moved into position. Feeling his way along, he backtracked two isles and waited, counting off in his head. When he reached three and a half minutes, he knelt down and shoved the alarm down the isle as hard as he could.
The scraping of plastic on tile broke the silence as the alarm slid away. Within seconds he could hear movement as those zombies close enough to hear turned to investigate.
Calmly he waited, until finally the beeping of the alarm broke the quiet. Without hesitation, Connor took the handful of plastic and bent it in an arc. Instantly the glow necklaces came to life, their neon colors illuminating the darkness. Quickly he tossed the glowing plastic down the aisle in the direction of the alarm, the soft glow instantly visible in the distance.
Moving slowly away, Connor headed for the grocery isles as the sound of undead footsteps echoed around him. He knew the zombies couldn’t see either, but the sound of the alarm and glow from the glow sticks would definitely keep them moving in that direction for awhile.
Reaching the grocery section, he counted off another two minutes in his head as he made his way to the far wall of the store. When he finished counting, he covered the end of his flashlight with his fingers, turned it on, and quickly moved down the aisle in search of the items.
First on his list were batteries, and he quickly located a vertical display at the end of one of the isles. Grabbing every pack, he shoved them quickly into his pack and continued on. A few isles down he found canned vegetables and quickly grabbed eight cans and placed them in the pack. Reaching the bottled water, he loaded up as much as would fit in the bag.
With the backpack full, he turned and headed back the way he came. To his right he could hear the sounds of items falling from shelves as the zombies ran into things in an effort to reach the noise.
As he headed down the end isle, he suddenly saw a shadowy form stagger around the corner ahead of him. Seeing the light, the zombie let out a moan and moved quickly forward. Connor didn’t have the time to play hide and seek with this one, so he simply waited. When the zombie closed to within five feet, his blade shot out, driving through the creatures chin and out the top of its skull.
Pulling the blade free, he quickly continued on. Reaching the end of the aisle, he turned right just as the alarm met its end. One of the many undead had finally found it. He had little time to waste if he was to make his escape. Quickly, he doused the light.
With the full load in his backpack, he knew that anything short of a very
slow walk would make enough noise to draw the undead. Positioning himself next to the wall, he began the slow walk back to the storeroom doors, counting his paces as he went. Off to his right he could still see the soft light from the neon glow necklaces. As he passed the isle, he could see the shadowy forms of dozens of undead as they hovered around the area in search of food.
The moans of the zombies now made it more difficult to determine if there were any zombies nearby, and this was where things went wrong. As Connor moved slowly along the wall, he ran into another zombie, causing him to hit the shelves on his left. The cans in the pack rattled loudly, and the zombie responded.
In an instant Connor reacted. Shoving the zombie away, he turned on the flashlight, illuminating the horror in front of him. The swords blade flashed through the beam and the zombies head dropped to the floor with a thud.
In a flash he was on the move, running down the end isle, his flashlight lighting the way. Fortunately, almost all of the zombies in this area had been drawn to the sound of the alarm, leaving the isle relatively clear. But a few still remained, and they stood between him and the exit.
Three times a zombie reached for him. Three times the headless body dropped to the floor. As the last