The recording of past events has been going faster than I thought possible. Besides the Wife has night duty in the kitchen and I haven’t got anything else to do.
****
The trip back to the Depot was interrupted by my planned side trip to the CVS. We pulled around the building and up into the parking lot. I parked close with the front away from the store. Too many games of Grand Theft Auto I guess. The front windows were broken out and stuff swirled around us in the wind. Magazines, newspapers, small items, like someone on a movie set had put up all this for us. John actually said this as we moved toward the store, his gun in his hand. I checked the safety on my 9mm and put it into my belt holster. The interior was dark, but enough sunlight streamed in though all the broken glass we could see. Besides I heard robins in the parking lot chirping. I am beginning to theorize animals flee from these ‘zombies’, or whatever they are.
Inside we moved to the back where the pharmacy is/was. As we thought, most of all the Oxycontin, and any other heavy pain killers were gone. John got a cart and found a not to badly beaten up cardboard box and went down the aspirin isle. He was actually humming to himself as he swept entire shelves into the box. I went behind the counter, I felt weird going where I normally wouldn’t be allowed (this would wear off in the days ahead) and looked over the shelves. I grabbed the pill books laying in the pharmacists’ office, and looked around all the debris on the floor. All the metal cabinets had been pried open and the pry bar lay discarded on the floor. Damn drug addicts. Hope the zombies get high off a few of them. I laughed out loud at this and shook my head. I went through the cabinets and saw a lot of useful medicines were left behind. I had to reference the pill books (Actually one was called ‘The Pill Book’) to see what I was grabbing, then I thought, why bother? I went up front and got my own cart. We stayed maybe forty minutes gathering as much as the Humvee could carry. We only gathered medicals this time, but I told John to radio back to the Depot and see if they want us to wait they could send a 6X6 out to get what was left before it all disappeared. I went back inside with the cart and passed the magazine and paperback rack, so I stuffed the cart with a little of all. I was walking back up to the front when I thought about the Library. All those books. Hopefully no one will torch the place, but who knows. Just killed me to think of that much knowledge lost.
I was still daydreaming when John came back inside at a rush.
‘A bunch of them are coming into the lot from the far end. The Major said just to get back for now.’ I nodded and he helped me push the cart to the Humvee where we literally started throwing things into the truck. There were no birds singing anymore. Damn. I could hear footfalls in the quiet parking lot and not our own. John shut the back door as quietly as he could and went to the front to pop open his door. We both heard a weird gurgling noise from the corner of the building. My corner of course. A woman, well what was left of her, in a pretty blue dress, now blood stained came shuffling around the building. Her neck and upper torso was torn up and bloody, several large chunks of flesh missing. Her glassy eyes held me like a deer in the headlights as she turned and started for me in a straight line, the mouth cracking as it closed and opened. John was already inside yelling for me to come on. I pulled my 9mm out and aimed at her chest just to check my horror movie lore. I squeezed the trigger when she was about two arm lengths away. Nothing. Startled, I racked the slide, ejecting an unused bullet onto the ground. I hurriedly aimed and squeezed again. Nothing. Suddenly I realized the safety was on, and I looked down to fumble it off, the whole time she was getting closer. I raised the gun again, this time higher, not having time to fool around, when her left hand clamped down on my right arm and pulled. I am 6 foot 3 inches, and weigh 275 (I know, I know, I am overweight.) and she probably weighed maybe 100 pounds when she was alive. I wasn’t going anywhere but she did use the leverage to get closer. I fired the pistol, the 9mm bullet tore through her forehead and she dropped like a puppet with the strings cut. Unfortunately she was still clamped on my arm. (Death Grip, ha, ha.)
I was prying her fingers off when I noticed the parking lot was getting a bit crowded. The closest ‘person’ was almost to the Humvees’ front bumper, when I finally pried her bony fingers off and moved quickly (okay I ran) to the Humvee. I slammed the door into one of those things, a man in a dark business suit, tie and all, and slid into the seat.
‘Lock your doors’ I said, as John was looking around us. We were surrounded.
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