Original Stories Fan Fiction / Horror Fan Fiction ❯ Plague 11: The Outbreak ❯ Rumble With Hardware ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 7: Rumble With Hardware
The military vehicle carrying John and his friends flew down the countru road. One day had passed since the attack at the safety camp. Traveling on the unpopulated highway made the trip to California's coast seem not as frantic as the past week had been. However, the safe passage they sought started to vanish as the car passed a marker indicating the town of Mesa, Colorado. They knew it wasn't a largely populated city, having no more that 2300 people in it. But going into a city was almost suicide. And in addition to that, they had no weapons.

"Are we really going through there unarmed?" Trent asked.

"I have a friend who lives there. I doubt he's there now, or even human. But what I do know is that there's a huge hardware store. We could get tons of supplies there." Andrews explained.

John thought for a second. "How long would it take to get there? We can't linger for too long." he said.

Andrews replied, "I figure it'll take ten minutes when we enter the city. But there's only, like, 2000 of those freaks. We shouldn't have too much trouble."

The car flew past a sign that read: WELCOME TO MESA. As they passed houses and buildings, they saw the infected. Each of the zombies noticed the car roll by and started moving behind it. As some undead wandered into the streets, Andrews steered into them, crushing them upon impact. They traveled down a large hill and saw the hardware store that Andrews told them about. It sat on the opposite side of town, down a straight road. The car made its way through the town. More and more zombies started their chase. Soon enough, The car turned a corner before coming to the hardware store with a big sign on it saying "HENDERSON'S HARDWARE."

"Why didn't you go into the parking lot?" Lauren asked.

"What? And ditch the ride? No freakin' way!" Andrews snapped at her, "We'll go in through the service entrance in the back."

Once in the back, they drove quickly to the service entrance. A few zombies were already walking around there. John climbed through the window of the car and pulled himself onto the back. He quickly grabbed a hold of the mounted machine gun and started firing at the enemies, both in front and five that had followed them. Andrews drove the car right next to the door and the got out. Trent pulled at the handle and the door slid open. They slipped inside and locked the door. As they made their way, they passed emptied boxes that were once filled with wood and tools.

John stepped into the main store followed by the rest of the team. He glanced around quickly and saw a crowbar sitting on top of a recently opened wooden box. Grabbing the crowbar, he walked farther into the store. It was, as it seemed, one huge single room with multiple shelves and sections. They moved through an aisle and saw a shadow up ahead. John readied the crowbar and jumped out of the aisle. He was just about to swing when he saw the shadow-caster. It was a young woman holding a large hatchet. John stopped himself from swinging the bludgeon and stepped back. "Whoa! Sorry! I thought you were a zombie!" he said loudly.

"Where did you come from?" she asked anxiously.

"From the service entrance in the back." Trent said.

They all relaxed for a minute. The girl got up and introduced herself as Mary. She'd been trapped in the hardware store for the past week with her parents. They'd blocked the windows up with the large amount of wood and were planning to use all the tools for weapons if need be. But after four days, her parents left the store in search for help. They still hadn't returned and judging from the outside, they weren't coming back. The group settled in and told Mary about their plans of going to California. Trent went as far as to invite her. After some consideration, she agreed. After a well earned break, Andrews started walking around the store. "There anything to eat in this place?" he asked.

Mary followed him. "No," she said, "I finished the last of the food this morning. It was only a few snacks from the check out lines and that soda machine." she pointed at a vending machine with the front torn open.

"Well that's just great!" Andrews yelled, "We need to eat. We haven't had food in about two days!"

"Well, I saw a grocery store not that far if we backtrack across the city." John said.

"If we're going to go back out there, we should at least prepare for it." Lauren suggested.

"That's true." John said, "I say we spilt up and grab as many things to use as weapons as possible."

The group divided and ventured through the store for new equipment. There were shelves upon shelves of new would-be-weapons. John had ditched the crowbar. He found some gloves to increase his grip on objects and found the section stocked with machetes. One benefit of the Plague 11 virus was that he didn't have to pay. He grabbed the most expensive and durable blade. Grabbing the sheath, he kept the machete on his belt. He also grabbed two smalled blades which he was able to work almost like a swordsman. He strapped them on his back and continued to look.

Andrews had one thing on his mind. He searched for and located what he considered the greatest zombie slaying machine. Andrews let out a cackle as he lifted a huge chainsaw from a box and revved the engine. The blade spun on its frame and made a humming sound that, to Andrews, sounded better than a symphony orchestra. While he held this, he strapped a modified weed-wacker to his back. They way he "modified" it was simply taking the guard off to make it more useful. Andrews grabbed his power tools and began searching for portable fuel containers.

Trent searched for a while. With his bad leg, he would need something that could take out zombies from a far. He passed from aisle to aisle until he rested his eyes on the pinnacle of hardware weaponry. Before him sat a handheld nailgun. Trent almost squealed with joy as he picked it up. I wonder how far it shoots, he thought, pulling the trigger. A nail blasted from the tool and embedded itself in the far wall. Wide eyed, Trent pulled out a second nailgun and collected "ammunition" fvrom the shelves.

Lauren and Mary seached together, trying out all kinds of blugeons. The had gathered a larghe amount of turpentine bottles and clothes that they could use to make Molotov Cocktails. The eventually settled on using sheers, shovels, large hatchets. Most of the weapons they founder were slower, but deadly upon contact. The grabbed a staple gun to use for speed, using large enough staples that would hit the brain. The fitted the clothes into the turpentine bottles and returned to the checkout lines and grabbed a handful of flickable lighters.

They gathered in the center of the store and prepared for the escape. John led the way, wielding the long machete. He was followed by Trent, holding the nailgun and Lauren, who held a hatchet, waiting to slash. John undid the latch and kicked the door open. As he ran outside, he saw numerous zombies had entered the back lot. He swung his machete back and forth, hacking and slashing up the infected. As he chopped one's neck, he sliced back against another's back. He took one more swing with his main machete, embedding it in a zombie's bloody skull. Trent compressed the trigger and blasted away at the undead. With each nail that went out, he released the trigger, only to pull it again. John ran out swinging the chainsaw. He slid it against a zombie's torso. It roared against the fleshy monster. A cloud of blood splattered across the road. Lauren chopped at any zombies that got near her. Mary, however, still stayed inside, quivering in fear. John let go of his machete and reached back. From the back of his right shoulder, he pulled two smaller blades and began slacing up the enemy.

After five minutes of hearing the grunts of the zombies and and the sounds of the team working their way through the horde, Mary stood up and ran out into the sunlight. She turned to swing at a zombie in the corner of her eye. But as she turned and faced it, she stopped short. "Mom?" she said silently.

Mary's mother, now turned into a zombie growled and jumped at her. John sheathed his smaller blades aand ripped the larger one from the skull of a previous victim with a loud shucking sound. A scream came from behind him. He spun around and saw Mary on the ground with an undead woman on top of her. With a loud chop, John slammed the machete into the back of her head. Mary scrambled out from under her as John placed his foot on the woman's head and pulled out the weapon. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"That...that was my mom." Mary said slowly as tears rolled down her cheeks.

John was silent for a short moment. "I'm sorry." John said. It was all he could say.

Mary looked at him sadly and let her eyes drift beyond him. She saw an infected run up behind him. "Watch out!" she screamed.

John caught on immediately and spun around again, swinging the machete. Blood squirted his shirt as the head of the zombie was sent flying across the back lot. He looked back at Mary quickly. "Thanks." he said and then ran off to finish off the crowd.

Once the zombies were finished off, they all looked around. It was in mutual surprise when they realized that this was the first time they didn't try to run and , instead, stood and fought. They tried the military vehicle, but after trying to stuff everyone into the same car as all of the dangerous power tools, they decided that it was either the car or weapons. The answer came quickly. Trent looked across the lot and saw a mid-sized cargo truck parked not too far away. He alerted the team and they all ran through the open space. Behind them, another horde of zombies started following of them. Lauren turned and tossed a Molotov Cocktail at them. The bottle broke with a burst of fire and several zombies fell down.

Andrews reached the truck and climbed into the driver's seat. He set his weapons in the passanger seat and called to the others, "Get in the back! Go!"

John and Trent reached the back and pulled the sliding door open enough for everyone to get through. The cargo compartment was no bigger than a U-Haul truck, but it was more that accomidating for the team. They slammed the door shut and the small room went black. In the front cab, Andrews looked out the window and saw the oncoming swarm. He checked the ignition; no key. He pulled down the sun blocker on the ceiling and a set of keys fell into his lap. He smirked and started the truck up. "Just like the movies." he said as the truck drove off.

The truck flew into the street and roared down toward the grocery store the planned to go to. In the back, there was no light. Everyone slid around as the truck turned and jutted. Trent pulled the trigger on his nailgun and blasted a series of holes through the thin metal wall. Beams of light poured through and there was quickly enough light for them to see. John, Trent, and Lauren sat on one end of the room and saw Mary sitting alone on the other side. They called to her, but no answer came. John positioned himself so he could see her better. His heart turned cold as he saw her laying motionless with a large bloody bite mark on her arm. He moved back to his friends. "Guys! She's bit! Mary was bit!" John said.

"Are you sure?" Trent asked.

A zombified groan came from the unlit end of the car. John nodded quickly. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure." he said.

Andrews almost jumped out of his driver's seat when he heard an undead shriek come from the back, followed by several popping sounds and a loud chop. He pulled into the empty grocery store parking lot and circled around back. He grabbed his chainsaw and weed wacker and left the cab. Andrews moved to the back and opened the door. Light poured into the compartment. John sat with a bloody machete next to Lauren, who had her eyes covered, and Trent, who held the nailgun out in defense. Mary's bloody and gorey corpse was strewn across the floor. A puddle of blood and guts was forming around her split head. "What the hell happened?" Andrews asked.

"Mary was one of them..." Lauren said, finally taking a breath.

They pushed her body out of the truck and used a broom leaning on the outside of the store to wide out the blood. John walked to the door and tugged at it. The door remained stationary. He called the ground over. LAuren took her hatchet to the handle. The blade broke off the handle and they tried pulling it. The door opened and the went inside. The store was filled with all kinds of foods. The took their time moving a number of non-perishables to the truck and fed on a few odds and ends. John traveled to the front of the store and found a rack of genaric, grey shirts that had the word COLORADO on the front. He pulled off his week old shirt that was caked in dirt, water, sweat, and lots of blood and slipped on a new shirt. The others eventually copied his example and soon, all four of them wore the state name on their chests. John grabbed one last box they had filled with soda cans and bottles and walked through the back. As he opened the door, he was greeted by two of the infected.

Dropping the box, he pulled out the large machete and swung at the zombies. He sliced one across the chest and turned and ran. He entered the main store and called to the others. "Come on! They got in!" he yelled.

What started as two zombies quickly grew into around ten and they darted into the store. Andrews, Trent, and Lauren ran after John toward the front of the building. Lauren crashed the hatchet through a window and they ran through the opening. As they got outside and witnessed a large number of zombies running toward them. They turned and ran back to the truck. John and his friends jumped into the back and slid the door shut. Andrews leaped into the cab, nearly avoiding the jaws of a stray creature. He started up the engine and they pulled out of the parking lot.

Andrews drove the truck back down the road, past the hardware store, and out of Mesa. It was only one stop, but they had almost lost their lives. But they now had weapons. And they had rations to get them to California. Things were starting to look up. Hopefully, it would be smooth sailing, here on out.