Page 13 of The Pale Rider
Aeron held his sword up and moved towards the door. He held his fingers to his lips and reminded me again to be totally quiet. Like I didn’t know that by now, but he was talking too like apocalypse rules didn’t apply to him.
The lock on the door was long broken. Aeron turned the knob and snuck in on silent feet. I held Smurfette at ready and followed. I should have been scared. I’d seen those things at the hospital. I saw what they did to the staff. I was about to go into a cramped space with just me and a guy I was pretty sure was crazy who had a sword. I had to be insane to be out here with no memories and trusting the first person I met.
But there was something about the blue baseball bat that seemed familiar. There was something about it that made me think I could do anything. Even if I didn’t remember shit, I could take on a few cannibal corpses with this thing. And if Aeron and that crazy horse proved to be false friends, I could bash their heads in too.
The store was dim when I stepped inside. The only light was sunlight filtering through the broken glass at the front of the store. I didn’t hear that awful wailing noise again, but I could hear the shuffling of feet among debris on the floor.
My heart was racing. I needed to kill these things before they could call for backup. Aeron said they hunted in packs, and that noise I heard called the other Rage Heads. We needed to kill every single one of them in this store before we ended up in some swarm in this cramped space. I already knew I didn’t like small spaces.
I didn’t focus on the shelves or filling my rucksack. I knew that was the entire reason we were out here, but if I was working with Aeron, we needed to work as a team. Let him fill his rucksack, and I could watch his back killing these things. Or, he could watch mine while I snatched shit, but he had more experience with supply runs than I did, so he knew what to grab.
I turned the corner and spotted one. He wasn’t moving fast like the one at the hospital. He was just standing in the center of an empty bread aisle rotting in place. Think, Ariel. Aeron said they hunted by sound and smell. I couldn’t do much about what I smelled like, but I could be quiet.
Aeron had grabbed a pair of black stompy boots from my old apartment. They fit like an old friend and were surprisingly quiet on this linoleum floor. I just needed to not step on anything left on the floor. I raised Smurfette and locked my gaze on my prey. It was all well and good being told things about the Rage Heads, but I needed to study them and figure out how to kill them myself.
This one was just standing in the center of the aisle, letting out soft moans. How close could I get to it before it realized I was there and attacked? That was something I needed to learn for myself. I needed to study these dead bastards in their natural environment, so they didn’t eat me.
I crept up behind it. Closer and closer. Just a little bit more. I needed to avoid everything on the floor. I got precisely five feet behind it before it whirled around lightning fast and snarled at me. This was a ripe one. One of its eyeballs was dangling out its head. Gross. I needed to bash its head in before it called for more.
The nasty thing lunged at me, and I met it. It was way faster than I was. Whatever mutation these things had made them move much faster than regular humans. I gripped Smurfette and swung. That thing’s rotten fingers brushed my forearm right as Smurfette made contact with its head. I heard a sickening crack, and the thing fell over in a heap.
One down. How many were in here? I made my way to the end of the aisle. This would be so much easier if I had a way to communicate with Aeron. I saw black blood spreading at the end of the aisle. Aeron must have gotten one with his sword. I stepped around the blood and found a headless corpse. I kicked its head away and kept going.
There was the deader Rage Head. Where was Aeron? Shouldn’t we check-in? I looked down the next aisle. There was another headless Rage Head. Well, shit. Aeron killed two, and I only had one. I was slacking. I moved as quietly as I could, making my way to the back of the store while checking for the Rage Heads. I didn’t find any that needed to be killed. Aeron had gotten most of them.
I met him at the very back by a pharmacy counter.
“We hit the jackpot. It looks like most people hit the other grocery store here and focused on raiding the pharmacy. I will still hit up the pharmacy and see if there’s anything good. Clearing out a pharmacy is hard if there’s anything in there because space is always smaller, and the shelves are cramped. You never know when you step inside if it’s just one, or the place is filled with them.”
I knew why we had to do this, but could I also say I hated the idea of going into a cramped space with these things? I knew Aeron had done this alone countless times and could probably do this without me, but I couldn’t exactly tell him I wasn’t going in there with him because I had claustrophobia.
I would have to nut up, deal with it, and go in there even if the idea made me want to nope right out of this entire store. I took a deep breath.
“What’s the strategy for going in there? I don’t know about before, but right now, I have a problem with small spaces. I’m going in there anyway, but it would make things a lot easier if I knew there was a plan.”
“There is a plan. I go in, and you stay out. Go out to the rest of the store and start filling your rucksack. Monitor the rest of the store for Rage Heads sneaking through the windows or Scooter’s gang making a surprise visit to the town.”
“Shouldn’t I help now that I’m here?”
“You are helping by getting supplies and keeping watch. Let me deal with the pharmacy. We’ll tag team it.”
I knew he was just making me feel better. What happened to me that I had such a problem with small spaces? Did Aeron know, and he wasn’t telling me? At least I was helping a little.
I set back into the store and started exploring. There were some canned goods still left, but they were dented, and the label was long gone. It wouldn’t hurt to grab them, anyway. For all I knew, I was grabbing nothing but canned tomatoes, but if Aeron could hunt deer, we could find a way to make deer stew with it. We couldn’t exactly be picky. Maybe some of these were canned pears. I just had this feeling I used to like pears.
I went towards the back of the store. There was a lone jumbo box of tampons. Aeron might not need that shit, but I did, and if he said anything about them being a necessity, I would shove one up his nose while he slept. No one called off periods during the apocalypse, though someone probably should. It was only fair.
The store was pretty bleak. I hoped Aeron had better luck than I did. I got a bunch of unlabeled cans and my tampons. My rucksack was full, but Aeron hadn’t come out of the pharmacy yet. I decided to check on him. He said tag team it. I was tagging him by checking on his ass, even if he probably didn’t need me.
The pharmacy door was open, and I didn’t hear any sounds from inside.
“Aeron?” I hissed.
Nothing.
“You grumpy asshole, are you alive in there?”
He’d better not be dead. If he were just playing games with me, then I’d make him dead. I stepped inside the pharmacy, and it felt like someone had sucked the oxygen from the room. My heart was pounding in my ears, and I felt like I would vomit. All my instincts were screaming at me to get the fuck out of here, but if Aeron was in trouble, I needed to find him.
