Thursday, August 25, 2011

Old Navy: A Zombie Story (part 8)

Disclaimer:  This is a work of fiction. The events that take place are for entertainment purposes ONLY.  This was written very quickly.

And now….

Before Noon Presents

Old Navy: A Zombie Story
Part 8
Harper’s Ferry




            Stephen Harper is having a drink at the end of the bar. This is a drinking man’s bar. They don’t sell bottled beer. They don’t have games other then one lone dart board; however no one really ever plays it. The stuff on the wall speaks to the owners and its employee’s, nothing else. They have two 20 inch TV’s, one at each end of the bar. It’s not well lit but not dark. A place where some one could loose them self in a pint, have a moment with their single malt Scotch. Stephen Decided to lose himself tonight in a few pints.
            Stephen had been drink here for years. When he wanted to talk he sat in the middle of the bar and would baby a Jack and Coke. When he wanted to get drunk he would sit in the corner booth with Shots of Jose. When he wanted to be left alone he sat and the end of the bar and drank, one beer followed by one glass of water. He would keep his head down and just space off into his beer. Tonight was one of those nights. The piss pour weather out side made him want to curl up on the couch and watch reruns of American Gladiator. But something made him go to the bar tonight. The howling wind out side blasted cold to Stephen’s core, but the lager that he was drinking kept him warm. The Bartender would not even ask, he would just give him water then a beer, then water then a beer. This went on for about two hours, and then Stephen had to pee.
            In the Men’s room Stephen stood at the urinal spacing off. He had been done for a few seconds when he looked at the wall above the pipes and flusher. Boogers had caked the wall.
            “Huh” Stephen said aloud. “Every good men’s room has a booger wall”
He heard a weird sound out side. At first he could not make it out. Then he shrugged it off as just Cows mooing. This was, you see, Gardner, Kansas. While cattle did not roam the streets if some got out of one of the farms near the town then they would have a chance to end up at the bar.

Stephen washes his hands and returns to a fresh beer. He looks across the bar and Jimbo was there. Jimbo was the local survivalist. When Stephen would be nice and drunk he would chat with Jimbo. Jimbo would rave about the best way to stay alive during a world changing catastrophe was to either fortify your self up where no one could find you or to stay mobile. Jimbo had both, or so he bragged. A concrete bunker that was old Missile Silo and something he called Bertha. He said only a tank or Nuke could stop it.
           
            Through the door burst an American soldier with a look of terror in his eyes. The three men in the bar can hardly make out the camouflage through the blood and green stuff that covers him. The green stuff smells like Vomit. The soldier passes out. Stephen and the bartender run to his aid, Jimbo looks out the window. The Bartender cleans off the solider. His name and rank also become uncovered, Sergeant Sams.
            After a few moments the soldier comes to.  “Where am I?”
            “Son you’re in a bar in Gardner Kansas.” The Bartender replied.
            “Gardner, man I must have run forever.”
            “What do you mean? Whose Blood is this? Are we under attack?”
“I was in Lawrence, We where in Lawrence, or just to the west of it any way. My platoon was sent to not let them enter the city. They had already over run Topeka.”
            “Who? Who over ran Topeka?” Stephen Asks.
            “Them, the Zombies”
Every one stops and stairs at each other.
            The Sergeant continues.
            “In Manhattan, at K-State there is a highly Secure Bio Research lab. Some one broke into it a little less then a week ago.”
            “Yeah they said that nothing was missing and that they caught the guys.”
            Right, well the good news is that they where just kids wanting to protest the lab and the War, But when security came they some how broke a cabinet and it fell on to one of the guys. There was a combo of chemicals and biological agents that absorbed into the skin. I was on the response team. We took them to Topeka to hold them for Homeland to see if any thing needed to be done or if there was more of a threat. We did not see what happened next. The one guy bit the other guy and we thought that the second one died. But in the morgue something happened. Then it spread. My Black Hawk pilot said that the groups of Zombies look like herds of buffalo roaming the flint hills.” The Sergeant was starting to ramble.
            “Sergeant!” Stephen Shakes him a bit and continues. “What happened to you?”
            “They came over the hill and we fought them off as long as we could. We had to fall back. I lost a lot of good men.”
            Just then two Zombies rip thought the door. Sergeant Sams whips up his M4 and shreds the first one, his gun clicks, it is empty. The second Zombie does not stop. He pounces on the sergeant and starts to feed. The bartender pulls out a double barrel shot gun and blows the zombies head off with both barrels.
            “Wow, that was intense” Jimbo says.
            “Yeah,” Stephen says as he nudges the dead bodies. He bends over and picks up the M4.
            “What are you doing?” the bartender asks.
            “if there are more of them then we might need this to kick some ass.” They check the soldiers dead body for more ammo. Jimbo shows Stephen how to load and “clean” the riffle. Jimbo picks up the Desert Eagle hand gun that the Sergeant had on him.
            Jimbo starts to stair out side. “We should go.”
            “Where?” Stephen asks.
            “To Bertha”
            “Bertha is real?”
Jimbo puts in a dip of chewing tobacco and offers some to Stephen. Stephen also takes a dip. Jimbo spits. “Yeah. She is not fully armed. But she runs and she has food and 2 Cases of Jack.”
            “Well ok how far?”
            “Over the hill. Bout a mile.”
The three of them start to walk out of the bar. One Zombie runs at them from a bush. Jimbo blows its head off with his new hand cannon. The Zombie’s head explodes like a watermelon.
            It starts to rain. It is a cold rain.
            “you know I don’t think I am drunk any more.” Stephen says.
Jimbo looks at him.” This cold ass rain and the Zombie killin’ will do that to man.”
            They are walking along the bottom of a valley. The Bartender shushes them and holds his hand up like he has seen a bunch of war movies.
            Stephen whispers loudly. “Why are we stopped?”
            “I heard something.”
            “Ok, I guess I will just stand here in the rain in a creek. Huh?
            “What?”
            “This is kind of cool”
            “What do you mean?”
            “Its like I’m in ‘nam”
Jimbo slaps him on the back of the head. “Yeah you would have done real well there.”

In a burst of red and flesh a pack of 5 Zombies jump out of the brush and engulf the Bartender. He gets of one shot with the shot gun and takes out the legs of one of the Zombies.  Stephen and Jimbo lay down a path of bullets that would make Schwarzenegger Proud.  After both of them reloaded and empted again the Zombies where no more than a pile of flesh and the creek was red.
            Stephen stands there, jaw open, holding his riffle. Jimbo picks up the shot gun and the bag with the shells in it. “Come on man, not far now.”
            “I need a drink”
            “Well that I have”
As Jimbo works on Bertha, Stephen proceeds to drink away the pain and the cold.

After about three days spent with his good friend Jack, Stephen Drunk calls Danice all he gets is her voice mail.
            “DANICE, Woo, I am drunk and it’s the end of the world. I hope that you are still kicking and not a Zombie thingy. Work Sucks and last I knew you are <burp>  at the Old <burp> Navy. Woo, we are all going to die! Damn it. I need another one. He hangs up.

Back at the store all of the Old Navy survivors are in the Break room going over the plans that Andy had left.  Jason, Scott, Josh and Shawn where building a wall in the back so they had a place to get fresh air.
            Shawn looks at the almost done wall. “Weird, Andy took the time to make plans about a wall in the back so we could fort-a-fie the back as well as the front.”
            Josh and Jason finish the wall. They had “cut” the fence and welded it to the trash dumpsters. Then moved three cars together and turn them on their side to complete the wall. Shawn turns to Scott and asks “What will you miss about the old world?”
            “Getting paid to sing”
            “Yeah”
            “What will you miss?”
“Humor, I think it will take some time for humor to reach the level that it was at. Death on this crazy scale does that to people.”
Jason walks over. “You know what I won’t miss.”
Josh, “No what”
“Those assumptions that people have for no reason.”
“Oh like racism and bigotries”
“Well those too, but I was thinking more along the lines of because of steroids when I would see an athlete do something great I would think that they cheated. Because of Porn I would see a hot young chick with a nice rack and think that she would jump my bones if I was just a plumber or cable repair man.”
Shawn pipes in, “I know what you mean man.”

Danice comes running out side. “Burr it is cold out here.”
            Jason replies “well it did snow.”
            “Shut up and Stephen just left me a voice mail. I think he is drunk.”
            “Is?”
            “Yeah it just came though about 10 minuets ago.”
            “Do you wanna call him back?”
Danice just stands there shaking from the cold.

Jason takes her phone and calls Stephen back.

“Hello?”
“Harper is you drunk?”
“Hell yeah man, it the end of the world, bitches.”
“Where are you drinking at?”
“I am in Jimbo’s Winnebago of Death, This thing is awesome.”
“Great can you come and get us there are about a thousand Zombies in the store.”
“Well yeah Jimbo, Bertha and I will be there as soon as we can good buddy.”
Stephen hangs up.

Danice asks, “Well?”
“I think he is come here in what he called a Winnebago of Death.

Next week a totally new Part 9…

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Old Navy: A Zombie Story (part 7)

Disclaimer:  This is a work of fiction. The events that take place are for entertainment purposes ONLY.  No prejudice was taken in to account; this story was allowed to flow and written very quickly.

And now….

Before Noon Presents

Old Navy: A Zombie Story
Part 7
Numb3rs





There is a weird almost silence. Not that one that she was used to. There was the buzz from the lights and the sound of people breathing, but there was something else, something that sounded familiar, but not of this earth. Jen Ross looks up to see Steve slam the door.  He leans with his back to the door and puts his hands up to his face. Jen looks around the room. Lani is stand next to her. Sherri is checking up on Danice and Amy Larson.  Katie S. Shannon and Emily look white like a ghost. The kid’s stock room seems duster than normal tonight. Jen thinks to her self, what the hell where those things.

Steve looks up with his back still on the door and asks, “"Is every one ok in here."
Sherri looks up, "I think so but Larson and Danice both tossed their cookies on the way back here."

Shannon is a shorter woman that has 8 kids but looks like she might have had one. Emily is skinny and has a bit of punk rock look to her. Amy Larson went to school to be gym teacher and played softball in college.

Jen notices that some one as scribbled something down above the door on the exposed dry wall and she point to the writing.

Almost every one looks up and sees:

4 8 15 16 23 42    Find these numbers. They will save your life.

Steve reads them, "Huh? What do you think that means?"
"I don't know," Jen Ross replies. "But we might want to find those numbers."

Lani and Jen start to look around on the walls. Steve is looking through the boxes when he stops. He slowly pulls out a medium size brown cardboard box. It is a little heavy. It has the numbers written on it.  He sets it on the floor.

Steve just stands over the box. Jen notices this and walks over to where Steve is standing. She also just stands there. A moment passes and Lani shouts across the room, “Hey! Are going to open that thing up or what?!”

Steve opens slowly opens up the box. On top is a note hand written poorly. Steve thinks to him self. This must have been written by Andy.  He reads the note aloud.

So the items in this box will save your life for a little bit. I put this together as a joke some time in October.

Love,
Andy

Jen starts to look through the box. Inside are a few Items:

1 gallon of water
2 cans of Ensure
1 can of Spam
3 large candles unscented
1 small box of water proof matches
1 plastic Bic lighter
1 Muilti-tool
A full salt and pepper shaker
A flash light
8 D size batteries
And a handful of hard candy (butterscotches, peppermints and such.)

Jen lines them up.

Larson comes up and looks them over, “What the hell are we suppose to do with this stuff?”
“Well,” Jen replies. “We might just have to make this last a while.”

Steve picks up the box to move it out of the way when he notices that it is still a bit heavy.  He examines the box a little bit more and finds that there is a false bottom to it. He removes the last bit of cardboard and sees a Dictaphone, a small digital voice recorder. With a note attached to it, also hand written. It reads:

If this is a real emergency, play me.

Steve hits the play button. Andy’s voice starts to come out of it.

Test, Test, this is a test. 

Andy’s voice makes everyone’s head turn and listen. Every one is in aw that he is speaking to them from the dead.
Andy continues on the recording.

Ok this may seam weird. Hopefully ever one that is listening to this is ok and no one became hurt.
Over the past few weeks I have gathered up supplies and made out detailed plans that will help you turn this Old Navy into a safe haven. Hopefully I have gotten them all here and into place before you had to play this. First and foremost I have gathered enough food to feed a small army. Now this is not the best food in the world but most of it won’t expire for 10 years.

Now I have a list that I will also put with the items but I will read to you know. This list may change or I could not get the item.  Check the hatch in this room for the first set of items.

Now I have the list broken down in to a few categories:
 1. Protection
2. Food and Water
3. Communication
4. Security
5. Survival

Let’s start with Protection.

Ok now Guns would be ideal. How ever I don’t really have access to them and Dicks is right next door.  I have include some knifes, bats, and crowbars that can be use for a lot of things.

Also In a few parts of the store I have hidden in plane sight the items you will need to board up the front windows……

Steve fast forwards the recording a bit.

…Now the food and such a few ways to cook them are also stored in the hatch with the blankets. I have provided and electric skillet and hot plate, as well as a small propane grill.  There should be enough propane to last a few weeks. But use is sparingly.

Steve stops the recording, “I don’t know about you but I think we should find this hatch.”

The group scourers the entire room,  Lani climbs up to read the numbers off of a metal panel.

4 8 15 16 23 42    I think I found the hatch!” Lani shouts.

They open it up and start to remove the boxes.  The first box is marked: Other box 2, Knowledge.

Larson and Danice open it up. They pull out a few books.

Danice starts to read the names of the books. “Adobe: the art of mud bricks.  Skilled labor: Carpentry and welding for beginners.  Basic Electronics.  Wooded Love.”

“What!” Larson snaps her head around. “What is that one about?”
“I don’t know.”
Amy starts to read aloud from the middle of the book:

Jamie pulls the sweaty lumberjack toward her, her heart pounds so loud that she is sure that he can hear it over the wind that is rustling through the trees. They embrace and kiss like long lost lovers reuniting. However the two of them just met. He picks her up and firmly grabs her bum. Jamie can’t help but wrap her long and slender legs around him.  As they spin around the clearing all that Jamie can hear is the lumberjack’s boots crunching the leaves on the forest floor.  He gently lays her down on the picnic table. She un-wraps her legs and looks at the lumberjack through the top of her eyes as he slides her skirt over her boots.  Jamie sits up, unbuttons his pants and…

“What the hell are you reading?” Amy gets interrupted by Katie.
“Shut up and let her finish.” Lani says with excitement. Everyone else seems excited. Except for Steve, he continues to unload the hatch as Amy reads on.

All that Jamie has on is her unbutton white cotton blouse, her black lacy bra that has been pulled down to expose her creamy white breast and her black knee high boot. She is probably getting splinters but she doesn’t care. A bead of sweat runs down the square jaw of her lover of the moment. It goes over the two day stubble that sits upon his chin and just hangs on. Waving back and forth like the two of them, in perfect harmony.

Amy puts the book down and looks up. “We should probably get back to work.”
Danice and Sherri fight over the book.

A little more than an hour passes and they have all but cleared out the hatch.  Other then food and a random selection of books are list and where to find the items on the list. Some are hidden in and round the store. Some require a trip across the street to one of the many stores. Left for them seems to be diagrams for just about every thing that could happen and cause the end of the way of life as we know it.

They cook up some of the caned chicken and dehydrated veggies and pass out bottles of water. Steve has been listening through the door and wall to hear if the Zombies have gone. They have not. He can hear them. The sound is not getting any quieter, just the same low moan that has been going on all night. Every one else has fallen asleep. Steve keeps nodding off. Emily wakes up and walks over and sits down by Steve. She asks him, “where up all night?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t really sleep much. Those, those things, those zombies, this is real. I’m not dreaming am I?”
“Well Steve if you where dreaming I don’t think that I would be the one sitting on the floor talking to you.” She stands up. “come on we should look at a way to get out of her. There is a walkie right.” Emily helps Steve up.
“Yeah,” they walk over to the Walkie that was left in the hatch. They turn it on and it beeps. The beep wakes up Lindsay.
“what the hell are you doing?” Lindsay whispers.
Steve replies, “Maybe some one is trying to use our walkies?”

Just then the Emergency Exit door from the back corner of baby goes off. It wakes up every one. The sound is deafening. 

Everyone has to shout to be heard.
Some one yells, “Maybe some one is alive and trying to get out!”
Some one else shouts, “Or maybe it the zombies just running in to the door?!?”

Just then the walkie crackles “…going to have to jump down …though the fitting room. You should …kill or run by the …Zombies.”

“Was that Jason?” Danice asks. She then rips the walkie out of Steve’s hands and shouts into it. “Jason! Jason! We are in the Kids stock room!” She looks down at the walkie. “It’s dead. We might as well be dead.” She drops to the ground and covers her head with her arms trying to drum out the sound from the alarm. A thud on the wall by the door shakes every one. Lani and Jen open the door slowly and see a couple of dead Zombies and a T-stand face out in the wall. Lani takes the face out of the wall. She turns in to the store and sees a mound of zombies swarming the table in men’s three. They don’t see her. She sneaks back in to the stock room and Jen shuts the door.

Lani starts to shout over the Alarm, “Well good news there are no zombies right out side the door. However, there are about fifty in men’s three and they look to be feasting on a fresh kill.”

Half of the group does the half vomit thing and the other half just stands there.
Steve asks, “Do you think that we could make it in to the other stock room to see who else is Alive?”

Lani answers, “Yeah, But I Don’t think we could all make it at once.”

Steve looks around. Ok Katie and Jen you two look to be in the best shape to run right now. Do you think you could make it through the fitting room?”

“Katie I am game if you are.” Jen shouts to Katie.
“I am ready I guess.” Katie replies.
“Lets wait to make sure that the big group of zombies settles down then we make our break for it.”

An hour passes. The door alarm finally quits. Danice looks up. “Did I just go def or did the alarm quit?”
“It Quit” Sherri replies.

Steve listens to the door. Nothing?
Amy gives Katie a crow-bar and Jen takes the face out from Lani. The two young women get ready to run out the door. Steve opens it up. Katie and Jen sprint around the corner. They stop. One zombie is trying to get through what looks to be like a super H-fixture that has been fasten across the back of the fitting room. The zombie stops and looks at them. Jen looks at the zombie and throws her face out at the zombie head. It hits his jaw and knocks it off.

“Well I guess he can’t bit us.” Katie jokes. “We could just run by it now.”
“Right, let’s go.”

With that Jen and Katie run pass the Zombie. Katie takes a swing at the zombies head and it drops to the floor.

“Huh?” Katie says. “Well I guess that worked.”
Jen get over the fixture and Katie follows. They are out of breath. They walk through the doors there is a group of people including Josh and Jason. Shawn seems to be the only one who notices them Jen waves as Katie and her try to catch there breathe.  Josh and Jason are talking about something.
Josh just asks Jason, “What are the numbers on the hatch?”
Jason replies, “4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.”
“Those are the numbers from the TV show Lost. I would think that Andy or some one would have used them so we look in side of it.”
Katie looks up and says, “Those same numbers where on the hatch in the kids stock room. That is where we found the food and other stuff.”
Katie being there does not faze Josh.
Josh continues, “Ok we should look in the hatch…”
Josh pauses.
Shawn says, “Wait for it.”
There is a short beat. The Josh turns and runs to Katie.
They Hug and share a small kiss. The short passionate kiss that lovers share when one picks up another at the air port.
Jen Ross clears her throat, “So are we all going to go get every one else or what?”
Shawn looks at Jen, “There are more of you?”
“There are 10 of us in the other room. We need to go get them; also Andy left some really nice stuff over there.”

Patrice turns around “ok let’s get a plan together and go get them.”


Coming Soon to a computer or phone near you Part 8……

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Old Navy: A Zombie Story (part 6)

Disclaimer:  This is a work of fiction. The events that take place are for entertainment purposes ONLY.  This was written very quickly.

And now….

Before Noon Presents

Old Navy: A Zombie Story
Part 6
In the Kids stock room







Andy and Steve are up in the front of the store.  Katie W is ringing out a customer and Alex is folding a table of shirts in the front of boys. Andy and Steve are talking; they are both shivering a little bit because of the cold. 
“So when did they say the Pizza would be here?” Andy says.
“Oh any time now.” Steve says through his chattering teeth.

They stand there, shaking. Over the walkie Brian calls Andy to the Office.
Andy turns to Steve, “Crap its even colder back there.”
“Well man, good luck.”

Steve starts to fold some shirts by the truck.  He looks up just in time to see the pizza guy come in the door.  Steve takes the Pizza to the men’s stock room and starts to set them up.

Danice walks sees Steve setting up the food and can’t believe the amount the pizza that they ordered.

“Ok so how many stores are we feeding tonight?”
“Oh just ours, but we got one heck of a deal, Gosh darn itl.”
Danice sneaks a slice of pizza, she takes a bite. With the food in one cheek she asks, “Do we put the cooler on to the left or the right of the pizza?”
“Well we could do both.”

The wind howls so loudly that Both Danice and Steve glance up hoping that nothing comes crashing down on them.

Andy walks back through. He starts to count the T-stands.
“2,4,6,9,12…”
Steve looks at Andy, “Do we need a count of T Stands for something?”
“Oh, kind of, it is part of a game for the meeting.”
“Oh yeah. Brain said something about that.”

Andy walks back out to the floor.

A few moments pass while Danice and Steve each have a few slices of pizza.  They finish just as Jason and Josh walk through the door.  They say hello.

Jason sees the pizza. As he reaches for a slice he shouts, “Hey, Pizza!”
Danice slaps his hand away. “We are not ready yet. Just wait till every one gets here.”
“Sorry,” Jason lowers his head and walks away in shame.
“Can you believe that guy?” Danice Asks.

A Trains horn is drowned out by another gust of screaming wind.  It sends a shiver down Danice’s spine. Patrice, Nick and Andy come barging through the door to the men’s stock room.   Danice jumps. There is some laughter from the break room.

Danice and Steve leave the food and continue on with their night.  Steve works his way out to the floor.  He makes it to the daily zone chart to see if any one missed a break.  His eye is caught by a well worn and folded up piece of paper.  He opens it up.  Across the top is typed

Zombie Contingency Plan for Old Navy

A few lists follow.

1. Protection
2. Food and Water
3. Communication
4. Security
5. Survival
6. Other

Steve Flips to the next page it is labeled: 6. Other.

Nothing is typed on it but there are about two dozen hand written notes.  He can tell that Andy has written this by the style of the chicken scratch.  He reads a few of the notes:

Heat—if this is going to happen soon then we will need some kind of heat. There are plenty of close in the store…maybe some sort of fire or electric heat?

Need something to cook the food.

Those two thoughts are circled and an arrow is drawn to a word with that has been circled many times in three colors of ink:

Propane
A bang comes form the front doors. Steve snaps his head around and sees a big group of employees come in the front door for the meeting.  He looks at his watch, almost time to lock the doors.

Steve locks the kid’s side doors. Just as he locks shuts them for the last time and gives them a shake. The wind howls and the rain starts to poor out of the sky. It’s a heavy rain like blobs of Jell-O. In a matter of moments Steve can not see Popeye’s from the door.  He walks back into the store and tosses Andy the key so he can lock the Adult side doors.

Steve watches Andy struggle with the door. Brian starts the meeting, then Danice starts with her part.  Steve looks back over and Andy is still struggling with the door, this time with Shawn standing next to him.  The wind gust and slams in to Andy knocking him down. Shawn helps Andy in to the store and slams the door shut but it did not latch on all the way.  Andy looks to be bleeding but people are taking care of it.

Later in the meeting Steve and Danice are going over some Loss Prevention items with one of the groups by the kid’s side doors up around register six.  The group starts to get rowdy. Steve whips his hand in the Air.
 “Hand goes up, Mouths go shut.” He says with a smile.
The group laughs.

All of a sudden a man runs up and bangs on the windows behind Steve and Brian. He looks like he has just come from a meeting with the Devil. Soaked to the bone he has a determined look on his face.  Brian tries to tell the man that they where closed. But the man just yells through the glass.
I need to get in and call for help! My Wife, My wife was just eaten alive!”
The man runs to the middle of the glass and starts pounding away.
            “Let me in! Hell has been released!” The man stops shouting. He looks to his left and then out into the parking lot. Then he runs away in terror, screaming.

Lani standing next to Jen Ross asks in her northern accent, “What the heck was that about?”

“I have no Idea.” Jen replies, “You would think people would have better thing to do that try and con their way into a store.”
Lani Ask, “you don’t think that, that guy really needed help do you?”
“A rain coat, yes. Help most likely not.”

With a bang and a crash the wind rips the door on the adult side of the store open.  Andy gets up and dashes to the open door.  With the cold rain pound down on him Andy is having trouble closing the door. Then all of a sudden he just stops, then he turns and stairs into the rain. The rain by this point is dripping from his nose and beard. Every one in the store is watching him like it is a movie.  Brian finally makes it over to see what is wrong. He yells something to Andy and Andy replies. Finally they get the door shut.  Brian has a little rain on his shoes and pants but Andy is soaked to the bone.  Shawn brings a mop and some paper towels to clean up the water. The three of them are talking. 

All of a sudden about five people come to the kid's side doors and slam into them.  They smear the windows.

A scream comes from some where. "Is That Blood?"

Every one starts looking at the windows more and more zombies appear and slam them self in to the giant windows that cover the front of the store. A weird greenish substance is mixed in with the blood that is being smeared onto the windows.

The Zombies break through the adult side doors where Andy is standing. They grab him and start to pull him out side.  Brian and Shawn try to pull him back in side. Shawn slips and falls.

Steve starts to run over to help out but he sees Andy getting ripped into four pieces. Then Brian becomes engulfed.

He hears some one shout, "To the back!" Steve starts to get his group to the kid's stock room down kids Main Street. About half of his group tries to cross to get over to the front stock room. While running to the back Steve sees a few people scramble up some ladders to get on top of the booth sets. 

Steve is the last one into the entrance of the fitting room the group that went into the kid's stock room. He looks around before he walks into the stock room and sees ten zombies plodding toward him through the baby section. He doesn't see any other zombies but he can hear them. The hum from the grown of the mass of zombies coming from the other side of the store could put you to sleep. Steve shakes off what he has just seen and slams the door behind him.

He turns around, "Is every one ok in here."
Sherri looks up, "I think so but Larson and Danice both tossed their cookies on the way back here."
Jen Ross points to a set of numbers and some words that are written on the wall above the door.

4 8 15 16 23 42    Find these numbers. They will save your life.

Steve reads them, "Huh? What do you think that means?"
"I don't know," Jen Ross replies. "But we might want to find those numbers."


Be back next week for Part 7 or Numb3rs or the room with a bunch of stuff in it that someone had way too much time on their hands to do……

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Old Navy: A Zombie Story (part 5)

Disclaimer:  This is a work of fiction. The events that take place are for entertainment purposes ONLY.  This was written very quickly.

And now….

Before Noon Presents

Old Navy: A Zombie Story
Part 5
 But Wait, There’s MoreOf Them


Austin and Fitz walk in to the back room where Krissy is enjoying some Pizza and a bottle of water. 
Amy and Care are setting out the last of the Pizza for Austin and Fitz. Austin barrels into his few slices.
“Woo, slow down tiger. That is the last of the Pizza.” Care says.
Austin has his mouth full when he replies, “Maorry. M nust nearlly hunnry.”
“What!”
Austin swallows, “Sorry, I’m just really hungry.”
Care looks across the table and Jen Fitz is just sitting there looking down at her Pizza, not touching it.  She did open her bottle of water; she has not taken a drink however she is spinning the cap like a top.
Care sees this and asks, “What’s wrong Jen?”
It takes Jen just a little bit for the question to register but she replies, “Well, I almost died out there. I slipped and fell. If it wasn’t for Austin I, I…”
Austin interrupts, “You where the one that caught your self on the pole. I just helped you up.”
“Well, thank you, any way.”

Care makes sure that the Krissy, Austin, and Fitz are all doing ok before she goes to see if any one else made it. As she walks into the Men’s stock room she sees Alex he looks a little frazzled. She runs up and gives him a big hug. He awkwardly hugs her back. It is quite a funny sight, petite Caroline and extremely tall Alex.  After their quick embrace Care runs back into the break room to get Alex some food and drink.  She comes back and gives Alex the food and bottle of water.
She then asks him, “Did any one else make it?”
“Well Shawn and Aaron did but…”
“But what?”
“well I think that he was bit.”
“Oh!”
“Yeah but Madeline is taking care of him.”
Josh walks in, “Who is taking care of what?”
“Oh Aaron is hurt or something.” Alex replies.
Hearing this Josh runs over to Madeline and Aaron. There is a small pool of blood below Aaron.
Madeline is talking to Aaron, “You’re missing a chunk of you arm. We need to take care of this.”
Aaron falls to the floor.
Josh asks nervously, “What is wrong with him? Was he bitten, by a Zombie? If so we have to kill him”

 “I was going to help him. You are not going to kill him.”
“Yeah, you can’t help him. If some one is bitten by a zombie they become a zombie. Don’t you want to survive? If so no questions ask let me drive this face out through his skull.”
“What!? You just can’t kill some because they are hurt. We can tie him up and see if he will come around.”
“Ok fine we can do it your way.”

They drag Aaron out to Women’s four. The moan of the Zombies seams to be getting louder. The alarm from the door back in baby has been going off hours now.  Josh ties Aaron to a spine of a booth set on the wall away from both the door and the other zombies. Madeline climes up on top of the booths to take a look, she can see that the entire adult main street is covered with Zombies.

Josh yells up to Madeline, “Hey so how many do see?”
“Well, there is about, I don’t know a lot. Main Street is full of Zombies, but just Main Street.” Madeline replies.   She climes down.
“Well?” Josh asks.
“Well, there are no zombies out side. There are a few dead ones out side from what I could see and the only thing left of Martha seems to be, well, pieces of bones.”
“That’s going to haunt my dreams. Lets get back in we’ll check on Aaron later.”

Josh and Madeline walk into the back where Scott, Shawn and Jason are looking through some boxes.
“Are you sure that there is some in these boxes?” Shawn asks.
“Yeah there is no way that we put it all out.” Jason replies
“I thought so too, but all I am finding is socks.” Scott says.
“Well that’s just great but I am not wrapping up my balls in a bunch of socks.” Shawn sneers.
Josh is taken back by this. “What the hell are you guys talking about?”
“We decided that we should all change into some fresh underwear.” Jason replies.
“Oh” Josh leaves them and walks to the break room.

Madeline says nothing and continues into the break room. She passes Patrice as Patrice goes to see what the guys are doing.   As Patrice rounds the corner she sees all of the guys bare butts, as they pull on their new underwear she lets out a “Damn, so I guess that none of us ladies where good enough for you just had to experiment.”

There is a bit of silence.

Patrice continues, “Just kidding.”
Jason gets a little defensive, “Hey it took us a while to find the new underwear. We had to plow though a bunch of socks.”
Shawn replies “Plow though. Bow chick-a Bow.”
Scott tries to explain “We had some trouble finding the right box. It was kinda hard.”
“Bow chick-a Bow wow.”
Patrice by this time is rolling on the floor laughing. All of the guys are standing there with there pants around their ankles in their fresh underwear.
Patrice tries to ask a question why still laughing. “So you…plowed a bunch of boxes…and it was kinda hard.”
“Bow chick-a Bow wow.”
Every one breaks out in a fit of laughter.

It gets to be around three in the after noon. Amy H is fishing though her pockets to find some change to get some food from the vending machine. “Hey, does any one have a dime. I am getting hungry.”
“Uh, Hang on.” Jason says from across the room. He walks to the tables picks up a chair and with a mighty swing cracks the front to the candy machine.  He takes another swing and the glass shatters into about 6 large pieces.
Jason looks at Amy, “Keep the change.”

As the survivors eat some of the last food they have access to there is a group around the table with Scott and a group in the men’s stock room lounging. Scott starts to tell some jokes.
“While traveling thru the Appalachians, a circus lost one of its elephants.
The elephant wound up grazing in a hillbilly garden and the owner spied him.
Not recognizing the type of beast it was the backwoodsman phoned the Sheriff.
The Sheriff asked the man what the animal looked like to which he replied, “Well, he’s big and gray and has a tail on both ends.”
The Sheriff then asked what the animal was doing.
The backwoodsman replied, “He’s standing in my garden pulling cornstalks up with his tail.”
The Sheriff then asked “What is he doing with the cornstalks?”
The backwoodsman said,” Sheriff, if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me!

There is a lot of laughter. Madeline finishing her Fritos, Snickers and Sprite walks into the Men’s stock room giggling. She is going to take a nap. 
Erica looks up at Madeline and asks, “What is every one laughing at.”
Madeline replies, “Oh Scott is telling jokes again.”
“I could use a good laugh can you tell it to me.”
“Ok the Appalachians where going to a circus and found an elephants. No wait. It was a hillbilly. While traveling thru some hills an elephant lost it circus…Damn!”
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, let me try again. While traveling thru the Appalachians a hillbilly was eating cornstalks. And an elephant was there. CRAP!”
“I could just go ask Scott.”
Scott walks in, “Ask Scott what?”
“Nothing. I was just telling Erica your Elephant joke.”
“Ok lay it on me.”
“While traveling thru some cornstalks a hillbilly sees an elephant and the Sheriff.”
“Are you ok?” Scott asks.
“No I just some times.”
“You can’t tell a joke, can you?”
“No, wait, yes I can.”
“No, no. It’s like a little kid. You get the joke but then when you start to tell it you mess it up.”
“Ok one more try.”
“Ok.”
 “While traveling thru the Appalachians, a Sheriff saw a lost elephant.
The elephant was eating some corn with its butt and…Wait the circus lost the elephant. And it’s the Hillbilly. DAMN IT!”
“Keep working on it. Besides Josh said you where suppose to check on Aaron with him.”
Madeline stomps off in both anger and frustration.

Madeline walks past Jason digging through the boxes on the shelves by the lockers and into the Women’s Stock room.  Josh is in there swing a face out. 

Shawn starts to follow Madeline but stops to see what Jason is doing.
“What are you looking for Jason?”
“Well we are out of food. I was hoping that with all of the Zombie talk the other day that food might have been hidden up here…”
Jason pauses for a second.
Shawn notices the pause, “What did you find.”
“Well,” Jason continues. “There are some numbers written on this panel up here.”
“Numbers, what Numbers?”
“4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42”
“What do you think those numbers mean?”
“I have no idea. It might be in Andy’s hand writing. It is a little sloppy.”
“Josh may know we could go ask him.”

Jason hops down from the ladder and Shawn and he walk in to the Women’s Stock room.  They see Madeline and Josh having a heated argument.

“Josh you just can’t kill Aaron! He is not a zombie! He was just bitten!”
“Yeah, he was bitten! That’s how you become a zombie!”
“Could you just wait till he IS a Zombie! Hell, you know the man for peat sake!”
“Being bitten and being a Zombie are the same thing!
“No they are not.”
“You say potato…”
“Yeah I do, and so does every one else I know.”
“Fine we will just let him turn into a Zombie first.”

After a few beats Jason interrupts the argument.
“Hey Josh, we found some numbers on the hatch/panel thing.”
Katie S. (Josh’s girl friend) and Jen Ross walk in from the door that leads to the fitting room.  Shawn sees them. But no one else, the two ladies are catching there breath.
Josh just asks Jason, “What are the numbers on the hatch?”
Jason replies, “4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.”
“Those are the numbers from the TV show Lost. I would think that Andy or some one would have used them so we look in side of it.”
Katie looks up and says, “Those same numbers where on the hatch in the kids stock room. That is where we found the food and other stuff.”
Katie being there does not faze Josh.
Josh continues, “Ok we should look in the hatch…”
Josh pauses.
Shawn says, “Wait for it.”
There is a short beat. The Josh turns and runs to Katie.
They Hug and share a small kiss. The short passionate kiss that lovers share when one picks up another at the air port.
Jen Ross clears her throat, “So are we all going to go get every one else or what?”
Shawn looks at Jen, “There are more of you?”
“There are 10 of us in the other room. We need to go get them; also Andy left some really nice stuff over there.”

Be here next week for more amazing, fantastic, gory zombie-ness…Part 6