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Deciding they would need a multitude of supplies to barricade themselves in at the old church, Steffi and the others decided
to go to the hardware store. It was the best and biggest and more importantly the nearest place to go and find everything
they would need. It was only two blocks from the Johnson Bro’s garage but it seemed like miles as they pulled up in
the dark parking lot.
”Ok, look you guys, I've been in here a million times so stick close to me.” Steffi turned off the key but left
it in the ignition.
”Um, Smitty, I don't want to go in… I think I want to stay here.” Mel Kandie grabbed Smitty’s arm
and was squeezing with a ferocious grip.
”Hey it's up to you babe, but take this and don’t be afraid to use it.” Smitty handed her the juggling knife
he had kept from his battle with the Johnson Brothers and at this point it was the only weapon any of them had.
Steffi and Buggy gave each other a disapproving glance. Neither of them liked the idea of their only weapon being left for
the big boobed bimbo blond who was too scared to accompany them.
”Ok, thanks...I am sure I’ll feel safer out here with the doors locked.” Mel held tight to the bloody knife
that still had bits of brain matter clinging to it, but she didn’t notice nor did she really care.
”Ok, Smitty, Buggy and I will go in, but stay down. Keep your head below the window line. That way any nearby zombies
probably won't notice you.
”But if you see us coming… you damn well better unlock these doors… you got that toots?”
”Don't worry Buggy, I won't let you down.” Mel said as she curled up in a ball on the floor for the back seat.
Smitty, Buggy and Steffi slowly got out of the SUV, trying to make as little noise as possible and quietly made their way
into the darkened moon-lit building.
The hardware store was dark and empty as they made their way inside. Steffi led them slowly through the dark silent store
interior. Pretty much all they could see as they made their way, as an ocean of shelves that stood roughly seven feet high
on every side. There was a narrow walkway that led from the front door to the main check out counter that was just next to
the office door. The narrow isles between the towering shelves were just too menacing looking for any of them to want to venture
into, so they all creped down the main isle. Feeling a bit vulnerable, not having any weapons, they quietly begin to grab
things off the shelves. There was a strange odor in the air. It had that sweet but revolting smell of rot that suggested the
presence of something dead.
Even though all was dark and quiet, the possible presents of zombies was on everyone’s mind. With this suspicion dancing
in their imaginations, Smitty grabbed a 12 inch wood chisel that was curved and sharpened on both sides… very handy
for stabbing. Steffi grabbed a hatchet that was shiny new and appeared to be razor sharp, and finally, being a bit of an over-doer
at heart, Buggy grabbed a battery powered drill with a razor sharp concrete bit snuggly tightened into place.
“Ooo, La, La” Buggy smiled as the shiny bit reflected the moonlight in his eyes.
********
Mel Kandie was cowering in the SUV scared out of her mind, clinging to the juggling knife as if it were a life saver. She
would peek over the bottom edge of the window every time she would hear the slightest noise. It always ended up being nothing
and she knew darn well her imagination was getting the best of her. Suddenly she heard something very different. It was strangely
familiar at first but then it became clearer and closer she could tell exactly what it was. It was the sound of a small kitten
meowing.
”Oh my god… it's a kitty.” Suddenly she pressed her face against the window. All caution had seemed to be
thrown to the wind. She laid the knife on the seat and looked around with reckless abandon, through the various windows of
the SUV. Hearing the sound of an innocent kitty caused her to completely forget the reality of where she was. Popping her
head from one window to another, any nearby zombie could have easily seen her bright blonde hair waving around inside the
vehicle like a yellow flag. She continued to look around but she couldn’t see anything. Suddenly without thinking, Kara
Kandie rolled down the window and stuck her head outside. “Kitty… are you ok?”
********
Weapons in hand and at the ready, Steffi and the others made their way through the dark dank shop. The putrid odor was getting
increasingly worse, as if they were moving toward it, when out of the darkness they heard a low gurgling sound.
”Um, Steffi…” Smitty whispered.
”I heard it…” She replied as quietly as possible and still be heard.
”It doesn't sound like one of those things…” Buggy saddled in close to Steffi and whispered as well.
”Yeah it sounds more like an animal…” Steffi replied out of the side of her mouth with her teeth clinched.
”This might be a dumb question,” Smitty whispered again, “but if a person can come back to life as a zombie…
can an animal do the same?”
”Oh yeah…”She quietly answered… “That's exactly what Randy and I saw at the circus earlier tonight.”
”What was it…?” Buggy whispered again.
”A Lion!” Smitty replied teeth clinched and hands holding tightly to his chisel.
”No it wasn’t…. it was a Bear!” Steffi said indignantly.
”Well that’s nice, dear, but this one isn’t a bear it’s a LION!” Smitty said a bit louder as
he pointed in the direction of the hardware store office. There in the darkened doorway is a huge zombie lion, inching its
way out toward them, all the while making a disgusting gurgling growl.
The circus only had a few animals but the ones it did have were some of the most menacing around, a dancing bear and a performing
lion as well as a huge elephant. It was small but hey what is a circus without animals.
********
Mel Kandie slowly got out of the passenger's side of the SUV. She crouched down and looked all around… no sign of zombies.
”Kitty… are you there?” the kitten meowed somewhere close by. “Come here little kitty… you shouldn't
be out here, it's dangerous.”
The words echoed in her head because she knew they applied to her as much as the kitten, but she was a sucker for cute and
cuddly. Crouched almost all the way to the ground, she began to inch around to the front of the vehicle. Slowly making her
way around the SUV, Mel still heard the kitty meowing.
“Here kitty, kitty,” The kitty meowed one last time and then suddenly came to a strangling halt.
”Come here Kitty, I'll protect you.” Just as Mel turned the corner at the back of the SUV she saw Pei Chee, the
Chinese acrobat zombie, with the knife still sticking out of her chest, eating a dead kitten that she had just ripped in half.
“OH MY GOD!” Mel screamed at the top of her lungs but her screams just echoed off into the damp night air as Pei
Chee threw the kitten aside and lunged at her. Pei Chee overpowered Mel, pulling her to the ground, where she began to rip
her like some bloody child’s piņata.
********
Armed with his 12 inch wood chisel, Smitty stepped in front of Steffi and Buggy as if to protect them.
“I’ll handle this… I used to see the Amazing Marvo handle his lion during rehearsals. Maybe it’s still
got some sort of memory left.”
“Isn’t its name Lorenzo?” Buggy quietly asked.
“I REALLY doubt it will respond to that.” Steffi hissed back.
The Lion slowly and methodically moved toward them, all the while making that growling gurgle. A huge portion of its muzzle
had been ripped away and its horrible bloody teeth were exposed. The gurgling sound was coming from a large chunk of flesh
that had been gouged out of its throat, making a six inch diameter hole that revealed the animal’s wind-pipe.
”You guys back up and get to the vehicle.” They thought Smitty was out of his mind but the idea sounded pretty
dam good.
”We're not leaving you here.” Steffi declared. “We’re all going or none of us are.”
”Listen to me little girl…get to the fucking TRUCK NOW!” Smitty waved them back and pushed against them
with his weight.
Reluctantly, Steffi and Buggy turned to go, but the way wasn’t clear as they thought. There standing right inside the
main entrance was a zombie version of Steffi’s boss Devin. She was standing between them and the door and she is out
for blood.
Smitty was standing there holding the chisel in front of him, trying to detour the lion from coming any closer when suddenly
without warning it lunged at him, knocking him to the floor.
While lying on the floor pushing against the weight of the grotesque rotting lion, it was all Smitty could do to yell “GET
OUT OF HERE!” to his two friends.
”We can't… We have a little problem.” Steffi glanced back to see Smitty struggling with the lion in the
floor. Just as she turned away, Devin lunged grabbing Steffi and knocking her to the floor. Devin instantly got a fierce grip
on Steffi's leg and beginning to try to bite a chunk out of it.
Just as this was going on, the lion grabbed Smitty by the throat, but he was able to drive his twelve inch chisel through
its skull, killing it instantly, but none too soon as blood began to quickly gush out of the huge gash in his neck.
“I GOT THE BASTARD!” Smitty gurgled as he reached for his throat to stop the bleeding. Seeing what happened, Buggy
ran over and tried to help Smitty, who was obviously dying. Buggy could see that Smitty’s throat was ripped open and
blood was gushing everywhere. As Buggy lifted Smitty’s head onto his knee Smitty quietly spoke.
“Go! Get Steffi out of here.” Buggy put his chubby little hand on Smitty's face and leaned in closely as Smitty
died.
”You should have just made the dam thing disappear!” Buggy gently dropped Smitty the magician’s head onto
the floor just as Smitty exhaled his last breath. Suddenly Buggy remembered that Steffi, who was down the isle from him kicking
Devin repeatedly in the face, trying to keep her from sinking her teeth into her leg, was in grave need of help. He ran over
to her side and used his big battery powered drill, driving the bit right into Devin’s brain, dispatching her instantly.
”Dam, my first chance to drill a woman in months and I do it with a Black and Decker!”
”Oh you’re funny... but that was way too freaking close!” She used her shiny razor sharp hatchet to whack
off Devin’s hand that still had a death-grip on her leg. No sooner had she yanked the cold dead hand from her leg, when
a horde of zombies came busting through the doors of the store office, where the lion had come from. Shrieks and moans filled
the quiet darkness of the abandon store and they knew they had vey little time to get back to the SUV.
”Let's get the hell out of here!” Buggy grabbed Steffi and yanked her to her feet and pulled her toward the door.
Back at the SUV they could see that Mel was nowhere in sight and the juggling knife had been discarded and was lying on the
seat.
”Now where the hell did she go?” Buggy said as he picked up the knife and examined it for fresh blood.
”Man this is all we need. We didn’t even get the supplies we needed and we sure as heck don't have time to go
looking for her.” Steffi was furious at the bubble headed bimbo. She had secretly always hated blondes anyway.
Slowly and quietly they walked around the vehicle until they got to the back bumper. They didn’t dare look around the
side at the back of the SUV because they could both hear the recognizable sound of someone eating someone else was. Silently
Buggy put his hand on the edge of the bumper and Steffi put her hand on his shoulder and they quietly creped around the corner.
There they saw almost exactly what they expected to see. Hunched on the ground at the back of the SUV was the zombie Pei Chee
and she was busily eating Mel's body and hadn’t even noticed the two of them.
”OH MY GOD!” Steffi looked away as if she was going to puke.
”Don't worry… I'll take care of this one.” Buggy motioned for her to back.
”What are you going to do?”
”A little something Savini taught me.” With that, Buggy took the juggling knife, aimed and threw it, sticking
it right through Pei Chee's head with such force that it threw her backward and the blade of the knife stuck into the ground.
”Jesus… how did you do that?”
”Hey, I work in the circus for Christ's sake!” Buggy yanked the knife out of her head and wiped it on some grass.
“Now… can we get out of here?” ”Let's go get Brian!”
********
Having found themselves completely on foot and vulnerable, Tara, Randy and the Sheriff were making their way through the woods
toward the old church. The trek ordinarily would not be that far but with the slow cautious pace they were forced to take
due to the meandering zombies that seemed to be everywhere, it just seemed to take forever.
”You know what happened to that girl was an accident, right? I mean we don't have to say anything about it, right?”
the sheriff lit a cigarette and looked at Randy over the rims of his glasses.
”Not say anything? Oh my GOD… I'm not helping you cover up a fucking murder. I thought you were an asshole before,
but now I'm just sure of it. You're ego is so big you really don't think of anyone but yourself, do you?” Randy replied
indignantly.
”Look you little pecker… It's not my fault you two and that girl came sneaking in the office. How the hell was
I supposed to know that you weren't one of those zombie things?”
Tucker angrily flicked his lit cigarette at Randy. ”Boys, we don't have time for this crap. We need to get to the
old church and hunker down till help comes. Besides all your yapping is going to attract every zombie in the county and in
case you haven't noticed we're pretty vulnerable out here….” As if her words had some summoning power, the moment
she stopped talking, zombies attack from the darkness on both sides of them. Three of them attacked Deputy Tara and one attacked
Randy. The deputy pulled out her gun, but it was quickly knocked out of her hand by one of the attacking zombies, causing
it to roll down a dark overgrown incline.
”Help us!” Randy did his best to overpower the zombie that had attacked him, but he was only able to keep it at
bay. Seeing Tara fighting off three of them he yelled at Sheriff Tucker to help her, but he just stood there and watched.
”Sheriff Tucker, help her…”
”Bob, help me…. Use your gun!” Paralyzed with fear, the sheriff just stood there in a daze and didn’t
move.
”I can't… I've got to get out of here…” Tucker began to slowly back away from the scene as if he was
about to cut and run for it but before he did Randy pushed his attacker down the same incline that Tara's gun fell down. It
was at that very moment however that Tara was overpowered and one of the zombies attacking her took a huge bite out of her
throat while the other two ripped huge chunks out of her arms with their gnarled gaping jaws.
Finally free, Randy grabbed Sheriff Tucker's gun and shot all three zombies clean through their heads, spraying the trees
with clotted red goo, but he was too late, Deputy Wood was laying on the ground writhing in pain… and then she was dead.
”Damn you Tucker… how could you just stand there and let her die? What in the hell is wrong with you?” With
a wild look in his eyes, he pointed the gun at the sheriff. He held it with confidence as if he was seriously thinking of
blowing the sheriff, whom he had always hated, away without a second thought. “God damn you! I should just blow your
FUCKING BRAINS ALL OVER THAT TREE BEHIND YOU!” Wild with rage, Randy held the barrel of the gun up to the sheriff's
forehead. He was so overcome with emotion that he was shaking all over.
”Now son, put the gun down. It was a mistake… I'm sorry I didn't move fast enough…” The Sheriff tried
to calm Randy down.
”FAST ENOUGH? YOU DIDN'T MOVE AT ALL!” Randy pressed the barrel harder against the Sheriff’s skin and he
clicked the hammer back.
”Son, don't do something you're going to regret later. If you shoot me, you're going to be a cold blooded killer.”
”You're right…” Randy clicked the hammer back into place. “I wouldn't want to be a killer. I couldn't
live with myself; I don't see how anyone could live with themselves if they kill someone in cold blood.”
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