Sighing heavily from exhaustion and wear, she took a few of the combs and mirrors and put them in the tote. And then as she turned over everything in the store, searched high and low, she found one small toothbrush sitting on a rusted-out shelf. A single roll of toilet paper was also a few feet away, rolled under a pile of smashed boxes, and the top layer covered in God knew what.
She was going back to her loft with more things than she thought she’d find, and it all sounded like nirvana at the moment. She could open one of these cans, heat up the contents with the few matches she had found, and enjoy a warm meal. She hadn’t known how good she had it until the little things in life were now a rarity.
A sound behind her had Rebecca spinning around and staring at a young woman. Well, she wasn’t a woman any longer, but a corpse with long, stringy blonde hair, lifeless, pale, almost white eyes, and dark coagulated blood seeping from every visible opening in her body.
She wore a pair of pants, ones that were tatters on her thin, skeletal body, and a tank top that showed the flesh hanging from her bones.
She’d been dead for a while, given the state of her decomposition. She was slowly shuffling toward Rebecca with her arms outstretched and her mouth open wide, and it was obvious she was starving. She was weak, and although she’d have enough strength to still go after fresh meat, this corpse was more of an easy target.
Ones that had eaten more recently were still slow as hell, but they also had a little bit of strength in them if they caught a person.
She held her knife tightly in her hand, set her bags down so they didn’t have her faltering in bringing this thing down, and waited for it to come closer. The infected tried to walk through one of the clear shelving units at first, and when that didn’t work and it finally fell to the side, she tripped forward. Righting herself and reaching out to Rebecca again, she made this nasty sound and finally lunged at her.
Rebecca fell backward, tripping over one of the end caps and landing on her ass. The woman corpse was on Rebecca seconds later. Rebecca struggled to get her arm free, as the coat sleeve was hooked on a piece of metal shelving.
Black goo slipped from the zombie’s mouth and landed on Rebecca’s coat, and then she finally heard the rip of her jacket tearing free of its prison of metal. She brought the knife up and plunged it right in the woman’s eye.
The body immediately slumped forward, and she scrambled back, trying to get away from the stench of death that the corpse emitted. Rebecca’s stomach churned painfully, and she turned away and threw up.
She might be able to kill these bastards, and she was usually hardened, but that didn’t mean there weren’t times, especially when she went head-to-head with these things, that it didn’t affect her.
7
One of the infected moved slowly past the vehicle he sat in, but Collin didn’t move, and the zombie didn’t notice him. He stared at the grocery store again, his bag beside him and filled with a bunch of shit he grabbed from the various little shops in this town, and then he noticed a corpse move into the store… right where his woman was. Yes, she was his; she just didn’t know it yet.
He stiffened as he watched the contaminated creature go farther into the building, but he couldn’t see the woman any longer. She was too far into the store for him to see her clearly through the broken glass.
Grabbing his bag and knife from the passenger seat, he climbed out of the car and slung his backpack over his shoulder. He silently, stealthily moved across the street, through the parking lot, and stopped when he reached the front of the building. He moved closer to the front doors, making sure the corpse was alone, and when he stepped inside, it was to see the woman had already taken out the infected.
The body was a gruesome mess of black blood and flesh on the ground, and his woman was in the corner, staring at it all.
Collin had to admit he was stunned and appreciative that this woman had taken out one of the infected. The sick, demented, and twisted part of him even got aroused over the fact that she could handle herself. He sheathed his knife and moved closer. The glass under his boots crunched, and she looked at him, her hand shaking as she held the knife high in the air.
“I am not afraid to kill you, so back the fuck off.” Her voice shook, and she now held the knife’s handle with both hands. “I mean it. Don’t come any closer. Just turn around and leave.”