In Hiding: A Survivors Journal of the Great Outbreak (24 page)

Finally
we made it to the far corner of the store, but our original plan had already
failed. More and more Zeds were heading for us, the gunshot hadn’t helped
matters and now our only hope was that that most the zombies at the front had
followed the sound to the back end of the store. Again we had what looked like
a wide-open aisle that would take us to the front corner of the store. From
there we would have to cut across the front to get to the front doors.

As
we ran down what used to be the dairy and meat department a zombie fell out of
one of the aisles on our right. The man reached out for us and fell face first
on the floor right at Sandy’s feet. I took my hatchet and smashed in its head
before it had a chance to get up. We kept moving. I could hear the sound of
displays and shelves being knocked to the ground. The terrible noises they
made, the clicks, the hisses, the moans filled the air and I could feel my
heart beating faster as I started to panic.

If
I was panicking then, what I was once we turned the corner into the produce
department was indescribable. Our hope that the some space at the front of the
store had somehow opened up was crushed when we saw the incredible crowd of
Zeds that were still in the area. They were everywhere, almost standing
shoulder to shoulder in some places and blocking our way to the front doors.
Derrick pointed out a spot that was right in front of checkout areas where the
crowd appeared to be a little bit thinner. If we could make it to that spot
there was a chance we could push through to the doors.

We
tried to stay close together as we moved across the front of the store and
through the produce department. We used the tables of rotten vegetable and
fruits to keep some separation between the zombies and us, moving in between
the obstacles and making it difficult for the Zeds to grab a hold of us. A
woman in a military outfit reached out knocking over a display of fruit bars
and grabbed a hold of my arm. I pulled my arm free and drove the stock of the
shotgun into her chest and knocked her to the ground, I kept moving with the
group.

I
heard someone fire his or her gun turning just in time to see a teenager
missing a large portion of his abdomen fall to the ground in front of Jacob. I
kept moving. A Zed wearing a reflective vest stepped out and grabbed Sandy by
the shoulder. She screamed and dropped to the ground in a panic as she fought
to pull away. The Zed fell with her and the two of them were on the ground and
they began to wrestle. Cody put a quick stop to it when he drove the hatchet
into the zombie’s head. Shannon picked up Sandy and we kept moving.

We
had made it through the produce department but we were heading into the heart
of the horde, and with Zeds in front of us, Zeds filtering out of the clothing
department and the ones in the produce department following us I was starting
to think that we were done for. Derrick kept pointing to the spot where he
thought we would have the best chance to get through but we weren’t going to
make there. There were just too many of them in the way and as we slowed down
trying to be safe, the quicker they closed the circle around us.

I
turned around just in time to see a Zed’s hand come reaching through a rack of
dress shirts for the back of Kerri’s head. I didn’t have time to line up a shot
so I fired the shotgun at the zombie’s legs. The force of the gunshot cut his
legs out from underneath him and he fell to the ground hard. Adam stepped up
and smashed in his skull with a hatchet.
 
They were closing in on us and as their numbers grew all around us I
realized that nobody had come up with a new plan. We were just standing there
in that same spot with no idea of where we were going or what we were doing.

Cody
started to shout that we needed to keep moving, we needed to get away from
where we were standing. That was when Jacob decided that we should push right
through the crowd of Zeds from where we were and try for the other side of the
checkouts. It was an all or nothing type maneuver and I wasn’t the only one who
protested. But Jacob didn’t listen. He fired a shot into the crowd right in
front of him and then fired again, knocking down a few of the Zeds and then he
charged right into the crowd swinging his gun back and forth as he tried to
push the crowd back.

Seeing
her husband charge into harms way Amy followed him despite Kerri trying to stop
her. She fired a shot at the crowd and ran into to meet her husband. Cody saw
that she was in trouble and followed right behind her and took out a Zed that
Amy hadn’t seen reaching for her from behind. I fired a shot from the shotgun
at a zombie that was closing in on Derrick. He had been distracted fighting off
two Zeds with his hatchet and hadn’t seen that it was right behind him.

I
could hear the gunshots coming from Amy, Jacob and Cody as they tried to push
on. I could hear gunfire coming from all around me. It always felt like there
was a Zed right behind me or next to me and whether there actually was or not I
couldn’t stay focused on moving with the group. I was sweating, my breathing
was off and I could feel the tingle of fear shooting through my spine. I fired
again at the zombie nearest to me and actually blew away half of it’s head. I
saw Kerri fire the rifle at a Zed in the distance and couldn’t understand why
she had chosen that one as a target.

That
was when I noticed that Jacob’s group had opened up some space for us and the
area that we were originally heading for had opened up just enough that it
actually looked like we could make it. The Zeds seemed to be more interested in
the chaos that Cody, Amy and Jacob were creating then us, and Kerri had seen a
Zed that was in our way. We pushed on. I drove my shotgun into the head of Zed
that was close by and kept moving. Derrick was cutting through the crowd with
his hatchet and his pistol and the rest of us followed.

Adam
pushed a rack of various impulse items into a couple of zombies and they fell
back into the crowd. That was when I realized that he was onto something. I
positioned myself by a tall wire rack that used to be filled with soft drinks
picked it up raised it up about chest high, held it sideways and charged into a
group of about six Zeds and pushed them all to the ground. I turned around and
charged at another group of about three and knocked them to the ground. Derrick
had seen what I was doing and called me next to him. He wanted me to push
forward while the rest of the others followed in behind. I handed him my
shotgun to hold and charged into the largest group in front of us. There must
have been at least thirty of them standing there.

Derrick
fired into the crowd, trying to keep my flank protected. I rammed into the four
that were closest to me and tried to push them backwards into the crowd.
Problem was that the crowd was too thick and they barely moved. Their hands
reached out for me and started to grab at me from the other side of the wire
rack. I pushed and pushed but they were overpowering me. Derrick was right
behind me and began to open fire at the Zeds but it was useless. I dropped the
rack, pulled the hatchet out of its holster and chopped the arms of the Zeds
grasping at the air in front of me.

That
was when I heard a woman’s scream. I turned around and looked at Kerri, then to
Shannon and then on to Sandy. I should have known that it hadn’t come from that
close to me. I should have realized that it had come from further away. I
looked out deep into the crowd on the other side of the checkouts and saw that
Jacob was in trouble. He had three Zeds hanging off of him and I could see the
blood. I couldn’t make out where he had been bitten, but at that point it
didn’t matter. We had lost him.

Sandy
was trying to get Amy to run back towards us. Derrick turned and fired at one
of the many zombies that stood between her and us. Adam did the same and we
called out for her to run, to fight her way back to us. But she didn’t. The
fresh blood spilling from Jacob had drawn the attention of every zombie nearby,
and it had given Amy a small window to escape but she didn’t take it. She tried
to swing her hatchet at her husband’s attackers but in what seemed like only a
matter of seconds there were four Zeds with their arms wrapped around her and
with that the two of them vanished into a crowd of the infected.

To
my surprise I saw Cody charging back towards us. He had used the tragic loss of
Jacob and Amy to get out of there and make his way back to us. I heard
something behind me and turned to see two Zeds on the other side of a rack of
jeans that were closing in. I heard the shot and one of them collapsed to the
ground behind me. I grabbed the other side of the rack and pushed, knocking the
other one back and onto the ground. Another one appeared right behind Kerri so
I charged at it and with one vicious blow from the hatchet it was no longer a
threat.

When
I looked up I saw that Derrick had just shot two more with the shotgun and I
realized that I didn’t know what to do. We were trapped. We had no plan. We
were running out of bullets. I thought about Paul and how he was probably
laughing at us from the safety of the garage. That was when it hit me. I had an
idea.

A
zombie dropped right in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed it in all of the
chaos. Cody had taken the shot and saved me. It was impossible to tell where
the shots were coming from anymore or what people were shooting at. The Zeds
were coming from every angle and I remember looking at Derrick for some kind of
direction. I wanted to share my idea with him but I needed to get closer. He
was yelling over at Adam to push on and keep moving. That was when I saw it
behind him, he hadn’t seen it, and that was when I saw a Zed bite down into his
bicep. He pushed it off and punched it in the face and then he drove the
hatchet into the front of its skull.

 
I ran to him, I am not sure why, but I
ran right towards him. I could see the fear in his eyes it was a look of pure
desperation. For some reason or another I asked him if he was okay just before
he raised the handgun up to his temple and pulled the trigger. I didn’t even
have a chance to tell him not to. I stood there covered in his blood staring at
his lifeless body on the floor and in that instant I lost any hope that we were
going to make it.

I reached down and picked up the
handgun. Everything seemed to have slowed down as I looked around at the
endless horde of Zeds that kept pouring into the building. I knew that we
couldn’t make it to the front doors let alone get outside. I saw Sandy on the
ground wrestling with two zombies that had her pinned. I tried to make my way
over to her to help but then I saw Kerri get knocked to the ground by a zombie
in a police uniform that had caught her by surprise. By the time she hit the
ground another Zed was on her. I managed to make it to her in time. I pulled the
first one off of her and grabbed a hold of the other just as I felt the hand on
my shoulder. I spun around as quickly as I could and pistol-whipped the Zed
that had a hold of me.

I knocked it to the ground but my
momentum spun me around, I tripped and I fell to the ground. I looked around
and then felt something grab a hold of my leg. My first instinct was to kick
and kick until it let go. But as the grip tightened I lifted my head and raised
the pistol ready to fire at whatever Zed that had a hold of me. But it wasn’t a
zombie. It was Kerri. She was down on her stomach reaching out and pulling at
my pant leg as she tried to get free from the zombie that was on her back. I
watched in horror as it bit down into the side of her neck and the blood spilled
out onto the floor.

Instead of shooting it, or
shooting her to ease her pain, I pulled my leg free and got myself upright
again. Then my idea, my plan that I had thought of earlier came to me again. I
did something that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life. I ran.

Instead of trying to help the
others or help them fight there way through to the doors, I ran. I just turned
around and started to run towards the back of the store. I needed to get as far
away as possible from the massacre at the front. I just ran.

I only made it through the first
set of racks of clothing before I felt something grab a hold of my wrist. The
grasp was firm and it felt like my arm was about to be pulled right out of its
socket as I stopped dead in my tracks and fell to the ground and when I turned
to look I fully expected to see Cody or one of the others trying to stop me but
instead I saw the face of Zed looking down at me. He reached his arms out for
me and I kicked hard at his knees with everything I could muster. It was enough
to knock him to the ground and before I had time to react he was on the floor
next to me. He reached out and grabbed a hold o my shirt and started to pull. I
started to hit him in the head with the pistol in my hand but from where I was
on the ground I couldn’t get the leverage to hit him hard enough.

That was when I turned the pistol
around in my hand, lined up the barrel right against his face and squeezed the
trigger. I turned my head away as his head exploded only a few feet away from my
face. I got back to my feet and I could hear the screams and gunfire still
coming from the front. I wish I could say that I thought about going back but
that would be a lie. I checked my immediate surroundings and once I saw that I
had some room I started to run again.