We
crept as silently as possible to the back of the store towards the bakery. Loaves of French bread and rows of
donuts waited indifferently behind their glass display cases, as if today were
any other day. Another sound
pierced the air—this one more like the pots and pans were being kicked around
on the floor. There wasn’t much
light coming from the windows that peeked into the kitchen, but I could see a
slight, shadowy movement somewhere in the darkness.
Minh
had removed the Glock from her waistband and now held it rigidly, ready to blow
a hole through anything slimy that we found back there. I pressed the barrel of my shotgun up
to the swinging door that led into the kitchen. My mouth had gone dry, and I felt my heart thudding against
my chest. On my second step into
the kitchen the lights flicked on, and I ducked behind the nearest
counter. Minh ducked back into the
bakery. I saw her pink and black
hi-tops slide quickly out of the way.
“Is…is
someone there?” I heard a shaky male voice ask. My first instinct was to jump up and give the owner of the
voice a big hug, but my experience with that crazy bastard back on campus made
me think twice.
“Yes. There’s two of us,” I yelled back
without standing up, “We’re not here to make any trouble.” The male voice
gasped in relief.
“Oh!
Survivors! How…how wonderful.
Please, come out. I’m not
going to hurt you.” My paranoia had not quite subsided, and I poked my eyes up
over the counter so I could see the owner of the voice. He was an older guy, maybe mid
50’s. He was beanpole tall and an
unkempt mess of a comb-over clung halfheartedly to his balding head. He was wearing an apron that was
stained with blotches of dried blood.
“Let
me see your hands,” I yelled from my cover. He raised them quickly, as he glanced around the kitchen. He was unarmed, but that didn't necessarily mean he was stable. I stood up and
set my shotgun on the counter in front of me. As soon as he saw me, he dropped his hands and let out a pitiful
moan—one that hinted at both grief and excitement.
“What
are you doing here?” I asked as Minh entered the kitchen and stood behind the
counter with me.
“I…I
work here. Or, I guess, I did
before all of this happened. I had
just started my evening shift when I saw people’s heads buh-blowing up. Customers, employees. Some ran outside, but I…I wuh-was too
scared. I just waited here until
the screaming stopped,” Tears started to well up in his eyes, “Muh-my wife and
daughters…I duh-don’t even know if…if they’re still alive.” The man broke down
the way a toddler does when he finds out he’s lost and alone in the middle of a
department store.
“If…if
only I could reach them…I…I…” His sentence was interrupted by another bout of
sobbing.
“Well,”
I spoke as softly as I could, “Where is your family? Where do you all live?”
The man regained a bit of his composure.
Rubbing the wetness from his eyes and face, he explained that he and his
wife live in the Avenues, which was about seven or eight miles away. I guess the violent arrival of extra
terrestrial lifeforms had left him a bit too petrified to make the trip back to
them.
“So,
right now they’re just as likely to be alive as anything else. Let’s just go and find them. I’m sure they’ve just holed up inside
your house.” His face brightened a bit at this.
“Duh-do
you think so? Really?” I shrugged.
“Only
one way to find out. We’ll go with
you, right Minh?”
Nod,
followed by a grin. The baker
introduced himself as Lyle Wallace and once we got packed, I found him to be
kind of pleasant in an awkward way.
As we left the shattered remains of the front entrance to Dan’s behind
us and stepped into the light of the morning sun, a hideous thought entered my
mind.
“Lyle,”
I asked, “Your wife and daughters…have they by chance been using Vonix
cellphones?”
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