Twelve Days in Hell Read online

foot high fence but he didn't want to take any chances.

  A couple of men looked around the store and decided the best way to block the entrance would be to build a door out of the fitting room walls. They worked until they constructed a good sized door and then they bolted it into the metal frame of the smashed sliding door. Danny checked out their handiwork and he gave them two thumbs up.

  He turned the electric scooter away from the lawn and garden and made his way to the first exit.

  He pushed the door open. Nothing but the night beyond.

  He checked another exit. Still nothing.

  He checked the exit near the front restroom and once again he was facing the world outside.

  He then drove his cart to the rear exit next to the restrooms swung it opened and to his delight there was also a hidden room in the new store!

  He took out his radio and reached Samantha, Mark and William to let them know about the new hidden room. It had two recliners, a new sofa, and a big screen TV.

  The four of them went to find another recliner to put in hidden room and they also searched for the newest gaming system to hook up to the TV.

  While they were trapped in a store they thought they should find something to help them pass the time. The time now was 11:57PM and they called it a night.

  Day 7

  Everyone slept all night long.

  Many people awoke at 9:00AM to a bright and beautiful day.

  The milk in the walk-in fridge was still good, and many kids got up and ate a bowl of cereal.

  Danny, Mark, William, and Samantha awoke at 9:45AM and went to the break room to cook some eggs and pancakes with buttered toast. It was a much needed meal that they all enjoyed.

  Now it was the volunteers' job to make a huge breakfast for all the survivors. They prepared a large pan of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and muffins for everyone.

  After everyone ate their breakfast, the grownups started setting up basketball nets. They also set up pool tables, air hockey tables, foosball tables—anything they thought the children would enjoy.

  Some of the kids were walking back and forth through the Toy section looking for something special to play with. There were just so many things to choose from in this new store.

  Danny made his way to the lawn and garden in his little electric shopping cart. He opened the newly made door and saw that it was yet another beautiful day. If it hadn't been for the stench of the dead, he might have been able to forget all that had happened for a while.

  He found a phone next to the lawn and garden register and pressed the intercom button.

  This time he was looking for a clean up crew that he would take outside to clean up the zombie remains. When he got back inside he made his way to the front of the store and found thirty men waiting for him.

  He told a couple of them to look in lawn and gardening for some shovels and he told the others to try to find snow shovels.

  They met up at they entrance again a while later and made their way out into the parking lot. They were very quiet and very cautious, keeping an eye out for the undead. They saw nothing except for the blood and gore that was smeared all across the pavement. Guts, bones, brains, and limbs were smashed and spread across the blacktop.

  “This might take awhile” one of the men had said as he tried to scoop zombie parts into the snow plow shovel.

  Danny agreed that maybe their tools were never designed to scoop up human remains. He thought about it for a few minutes, and then asked the guys to check the back of the store for another gas station and some gas cans.

  They returned shortly to report that there was indeed a gas station. One of them ran inside and got a buggy and then went to the automotive section and grabbed fifteen little fuel containers. They all met at the gas station took turns filling up the containers.

  They started pouring the fuel over chunks of the dead zombies. Soon the whole ground was awash with gasoline.

  They went inside and locked the door behind them. One of them lit a match and tossed it over the fence. A huge fireball erupted.

  Danny watched as the fire spread through the parking lot. “I sure hope this gets rid of those remains,” he said to the others as they watched the whole thing unfold.

  ————

  Samantha, Mark and William paged Danny and asked for him to come to the break room.

  He rode his scooter all the way to the back of the store and when he entered the break room he stood up and hopped to the smokers section.

  The others were already there waiting on him. He lit a cigarette for himself and he passed one to Samantha and Mark.

  They finished their smokes and made their way to the hidden room where they took turns playing one of the most exciting racing games they had ever seen.

  Many people were walking around the store to get some exercise in. Many of the kids were playing their beloved games. Some of the people went to the electronics section and found e book readers that had 100's of books already loaded on them.

  It was only 11:00AM but everybody seemed to be in a good mood. Everyone was just doing their own thing.

  It was about time for the volunteers to start making lunch. So they lined up in the break room to discuss what they would be making.

  They decided on something easy that almost everyone would like. They ended up boiling hot dogs and making some chili and using up the hot dog buns before they went stale.

  They also brought several different brands of chips and placed them on a table in the center of the room so that people could just make their own plates. Cheese puffs, originals, ranch, cheddar, sour cream and onion—you name it, they had it. Everyone was fed and almost everyone came back for seconds.

  Danny got back on his motorized cart and went to the front of the store to see if the remains were all burned up.

  All that was left of them was charred ashes. It would be easy enough to find a way to sweep the parking lot.

  Danny went back inside the store and found a large rectangular push broom. He tied it to the shopping cart of the scooter and took off back and fourth across the parking lot.

  The remains sort of floated away with each pass of the broom. There were still dark stains in the parking lot but you couldn't tell what they had come from if you didn't know. It was much better than seeing all the zombie remains. The smell was also gone now that the rotted flesh was burned away.

  By 3:00PM the whole parking lot was clean again. No signs of zombies anywhere—but also, no signs of rescue.

  It would only be a little while before people would get tired of walking the store and doing the same things every day. Soon they will lose their cool and start tearing the place up. Danny was already starting to feel trapped.

  He also didn't see himself as a leader. Yet everybody else did. He was not only afraid that the survivors were going to snap but also feared that he would snap.

  Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe he would feel better by tomorrow.

  The time was slowly slipping away Danny's watch read 5:30PM.

  He ditched the scooter and started using his crutches again. He had hopes of being able to put pressure on his ankle by tomorrow morning. With the help of the pain killers it might just work out that way. The ankle brace helped a lot more than he had thought it would.

  He wanted to let his ankle rest for the remainder of the day. The sharp, shooting pain was gone, the feeling had come back, and his ankle looked its normal color. He was sure that by tomorrow he would be walking again.

  Samantha, Mark, and William were playing a childish game of Go Fish when Danny entered the hidden room. He told them about his fear of everyone freaking out, but he kept his fear of losing it himself buried deep inside. He couldn't let them know.

  They counted on him way too much, and if they thought he was losing his cool, then they would leave him there in the Buy-Right store all alone. He couldn't face that reality.

  His brain was starting to hurt.

  He asked William to walk with him to the pharmac
y to pick out the best headache medicine on the shelves. William said that he would like to look for some medications for himself as well.

  William walked while Danny hobbled to the pharmacy. Danny looked at William and asked, "What is the best medication for a headache that won't leave your insides bleeding?"

  William reached to the top of the shelf with the headache and fever reducers and pulled down a bottle that said All Natural Pain Relief.

  He tossed the bottle to Danny and said, “Here, give this a try. It's pain relief without the harmful side effects.”

  “Thanks William, Tom was right about you. You are a very bright young man.”

  “Thanks” William said as he filled a carry along basket with some strong muscle creams and cough and cold medications.

  “Feeling a little under the weather William?” asked Danny.

  William replied with, “Yeah, just a little bit.”

  They both decided that they had gotten what they needed and they started their way back to the hidden room.

  Danny, William, Mark and Samantha stayed in the back room telling stories of what their lives had been like before, and talking about how if they could have made some changes they would have. They opened their souls to each other and told of their fears and regrets.

  Danny didn't feel as bad as he had before because he'd found out that just like him the others were worried about how much longer they would need to stay in the super center.

  No doubt help was on the way. Good old USA never fails.

  Whoever had unleashed this new virus across the Country was most likely being punished to the fullest extent of the