Lucas closed the case and went to the kitchen again. He paused for a moment when he again saw Ethan's body lying in the middle of the room, but left the apartment and headed to his car. He started the car, and drove down the road.
Chapter 2 Supply Stop
He did not get too far before he noticed that the sun was setting. Driving around in the dark did not set well for him. He decided that he had better find a safer place to spend the night hours.
He decides that the supplies he has in his jeep will not last him. He needs to find food and water.
"There is a Kmart up the road." He thinks to himself. "I have to get some food."
As he pulls up to the store he notices the lights are still on, but no one is walking around outside. There are cars parked everywhere. As he drives by he looks in the windows, but there is no one to be seen. He doesn't bother to park his car, but pulls right to the doors.
Lucas grabs the gun and clips from the seat next to him. He puts the clips in his pocket and keeps the gun in his hand. Walking up to the doors they do not open. As he forces them he looks in the store. Shelves are collapsed and there are goods strewn across the store. The lights are still on, which is helpful he thinks. He makes his way down the isle and to the food.
"God, I hope it isn't all gone.." He says quietly to himself.
Suddenly a hard object is pressed against his back. He can feel it being pressed firmly against his spine and he freezes.
"Now, you are going to drop your gun, and you are going to kick it down the isle. Nice and slow." A woman's voice says behind him.
"Alright," Lucas says and does as he was instructed. He raises both hands in the air. "I just want some food."
"I don't remember asking what you wanted. Did I ask him what he wanted?" The woman says.
"Nope, I didn't hear you ask him anything, Samantha." A man's voice chuckles out.
"Damn it! Why did you say my name?" Samantha says. A loud smack is heard behind Lucas.
"I am unarmed. What do you want?" Lucas says shakily.
Samantha pulls the broom handle away from Lucas' back. He turns around and sees the two standing in front of him.
Samantha is short. Maybe just over 5' tall. She is rather stocky and not in the best shape of her life. She is obviously Latino, though Lucas was never any good at picking out specific ethnic groups. She has a set of those obnoxiously large loop ear rings in and a pair of jeans and a black blouse on. What really struck Lucas was the color of her eyes. She had a purplish tint to them which he had never seen before.
The man standing next to her is a scrawny looking man. He is Latino as well and standing about a full foot taller than Samantha. He had a white muscle shirt, though no definition to be showing off, and a pair of camo cargo shorts on.
"What gives? A broom?" Lucas says as he notices the object of his fears and the woman who had disarmed him.
"My sister is a bit crazy with a blunt object. I wouldn't have put it past her to do some damage with that thing." The man said. "However, she is just being safe. The name is Bradley."
"Lucas"
"Well, Lucas. Sorry to scare you. We don't want trouble. We just had to be sure you wouldn't start any either." Samantha said. "Are you from here?"
Lucas stayed quiet trying to inch backward toward his gun.
"Hey, where are you going?" Bradley says stepping forward toward Lucas.
Before Lucas could get close enough to the gun Samantha had leapt forward. He felt the cool wood slap his face before he even saw what was happening. He fell to the side and crashed into a shelf of ceramic bowls. The bowls crashed down on top of Lucas before he could react.
His vision blurred and spun around. He could feel a sharp pain in his arm and saw the blurred outlines of the two attackers standing above him. The broom was lifted above Samantha's head and before it slammed into him again he was asleep.
Lucas sat up in bed and looked over at the man next to him. Ethan was still lying still, but he was awake. Lucas could tell by the pattern of his breathing. When he was sleeping he would skip breaths, but when he was awake it was always steady. Lucas wrapped his arm around Ethan.
"Hey." Lucas whispered in his boyfriend's ear. "Hey." Ethan replied.
Ethan rolled over and looked into Lucas' eyes. They met and he pulled him into a kiss. Ethan rolled on top of Lucas and kissed him down his neck. Lucas moaned in response to the pleasure shooting through his body from the touch of Ethan's lips.
Ethan continued his advance down to Lucas' chest. He stopped at the left nipple and playfully nibbled on it.
"Stop it, stop it!" Lucas laughed, but smiled down at Ethan.
Suddenly the room went dark and Ethan's face changed. No longer was he smiling. His face rotted away, leaving chunks of flesh to decay and recede from the muscle and bone under it. His eyes sunk back in their sockets and clouded over.
Lucas tried to push Ethan away, but his arms would not move. Ethan pulled his left arm up and bit into it. The pain shot through his left side like a bolt of lightning. He screamed out in agony.
"Hush you! Hush! You are going to attract attention to this place. I swear, Bradley, if the zombies can hear him I will finish him off." Samantha said.
"Well maybe you shouldn't have slammed him into the shelves with your dildo stick there." Bradley said.
"Fuck you!" Samantha said.
Lucas sat up. He looked around, but all he could see was darkness. Then there was a light. Bradley was standing over him with a flashlight in hand.
"Whoa, I don't think you should stand up just yet." Bradley said lightly holding him down.
Lucas stayed sitting down and looked at his arm. It was stinging and every few minutes it shot with pain. Someone had bandaged up most of his left arm with first aid wrapping and gauze.
"What happened to me?" Lucas said, more to himself than anyone in particular.
"Samantha hit you with a broom. You knocked over a shelf of ceramics on top of yourself. Got a few pretty nasty cuts on your arm there. I fixed you up, though, and you should be ok when it heals over." Bradley said.
"Oh." Lucas said wondering why his attackers would have bandaged him up. "Why is it so dark?"
"Power went out a couple hours ago. We had to stumble around to find a flashlight and batteries." Bradley said. "We thought the generator would have kicked in, but it must be malfunctioning."
Samantha walked around the corner with a flashlight and a bottle of water. She walked over to Bradley and took a seat.
"Here, Lucas, right?" Samantha said holding out the bottle of water for him. "I am sorry I over reacted. You should have stayed put. It looked like you were going for your gun."
"Yeah. Well.." Lucas said hesitantly. "My gun! Where is it?"
"It is in my bag. I figured I would hold onto it until we knew you were not going to shoot us." Samantha said.
The idea hadn't crossed his mind, but a pain shot through his arm. It started to sound like a more pleasing plan.
"I have to get to my jeep. I have stuff in there that I need." Lucas said.
"You can't go outside right now. It is still night and too dangerous." Bradley said. "Wait a couple more hours. Daylight is good."
Sleep did not come well for Lucas. The nightmare of what had happened in the last day was enough to keep him tossing, let alone the pain from his arm. What was that crazy bitch thinking? Who goes around whacking people with brooms?
Lucas awoke a couple hours later to a scream and clanging of metal. Light was coming through the glass door of the store. The isle was a mess, pots and pans thrown about on the floor. Samantha was running toward Lucas and Bradley.
"Shoot it! Shoot it!" Samantha said.
"What? Where? Huh?" Lucas said sitting up fast enough to send a lightning bolt of pain through his arm.
"SHOOT IT!" Samantha said, pointing into the next isle.
Lucas stood up and reached into Samantha's bad. He pulled out his gun and cocked it back. As he edged around the corner he heard a clank as another pan fell from the shelf.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a rat scurry across the floor. Its tail had been smashed and was leaving a trail of blood behind it.
Lucas sighed and looked around the corner back at Samantha.
"You are fucking joking right? What the fuck was that ab.." Lucas was cut off mid sentence by shock as he felt something grab his foot. He looked down and let out a scream himself.
A man, or rather half a man, was grabbed onto his foot and moving in to bite his ankle. The man had been cut in two along the waist and was crawling along dragging his torso behind him.
Lucas kicked away the hand and jumped back. He aimed the gun at the torso's head and shot twice. Holding the gun in his left hand was a bad idea. Pain shot through his entire arm. He clenched his arm and dropped the gun. It fell right next to the now still torso of a man.
"What the FUCK!" Bradley said coming around the corner. He grabbed Lucas and dragged him away.
"I want to go. I want to go. Lets go! I'm leaving!" Samantha said grabbing onto Bradley and trying to drag him to the door.
"Yeah, ok." Bradley said.
"Where are you going?" Lucas asked them.
"There is an apartment building not too far from here. We have a few friends there. Come with us. You can't last long on your own. These things have killed most of the city by now." Lucas said.
Samantha was still pulling on Bradley and insisting on leaving. Lucas picked up the gun. There was a large box of food, water, and other supplies by where they had slept. Bradley picked it up and they made their way to the door.
"You have a jeep, right?" Bradley asked.
"Yeah. We can take that." Lucas said.
They forced open the door and ran to the jeep. Lucas unlocked it and hopped in the driver's seat. Samantha was already in the back with the supplies before Bradley had opened the passenger door. Lucas started the car and drove in the direction that Bradley pointed out to him.