Apocalypse [1]

Day 2- 21.08pm

  DAY 2 –21.08pm

The car shuddered to a halt outside the darkened pharmacy, and Luke cut the engine.  Thick silence blanketed the three of them as they stared at the seemingly-lifeless windows of the abandoned pharmacy.  The door of the pharmacy was battered, and there was a zigzagging map of cracks in its dirty, blood-stained window.  All was silent.  All was still.

Luke tapped his fingers loudly and restlessly on the car’s steering wheel, the drumming sound like gunshots in the quiet of their surroundings.  “Here’s what we do,” he said eventually, breaking the silence.  He turned in his seat so that he faced both Megan and Hayley.  They met his gaze attentively, grim determination masking their faces.  “We get in there and get what we need for Poppy.  Nothing else, alright?  We don’t want to take more than we need if we can help it.  If we meet any undead company on the way, we deal with them silently, quickly and efficiently.  We avoid a fight if possible.  Any questions?”

“What if we meet any other people?” Hayley asked nervously.

“We stay out of their way,” Luke told them.  “They could be in need of supplies just as much as we are; I’m not going to stop them getting supplies.  They’re human after all, just like us.  They’re trying to survive too, and I’m not going to prevent them doing that.”

“But if they want a fight?” Megan added, swallowing anxiously. 

Luke shrugged.  “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it,” he said.  “Let’s get going.”

Carefully and quietly, the three of them inched their doors open cautiously, their eyes and ears alert for any signs of danger or movement in the dark night.  A soft tinkling sound reached their ears and Hayley froze, flattening herself against the car.  An empty Pepsi can rolled across the gravel in front of them, the culprit of the sound they had just heard.  The can came to a halt slowly, and quiet descended once more.  They inched around the car, Hayley keeping an eye on the road for any passing headlights and her ears alert for the rumble of an engine or the slow shuffling of undead feet.  The whispering wind and the rustling grass where the only sounds that reached Hayley’s ears, and so she ushered the group on, keeping low to the ground in an uncomfortable squatting position.

They reached the pharmacy at last, and straightened up in the shadow of the door, each raising their respective weapons.  Luke rested his hand on the dirty door handle, and wrinkled his nose in disgust.  He used his free hand to gesture silently to Megan and Hayley, who nodded understandingly at him.  As Luke readied his shovel, the girls took their places either side of the door, weapons raised and ready to lunge at any attackers.  Luke counted to three silently with his fingers before letting the door creak open gently.

Hayley, her heart pounding, readied herself for zombies spilling out of the pharmacy, drooling blood and dribbling pus.  But none came.  The three of them waited for a few seconds in stunned silence, and with baited breath, Hayley’s heart still slamming almost painfully against her rib cage.  She strained her ears, but heard nothing.  Luke stepped forward cautiously into the shop, shards of broken glass crunching like popping candy beneath his feet.  Megan and Hayley followed just as carefully, Megan bringing up the rear with a raised baseball bat and wearing a look of terror on her face.  Hayley smiled reassuringly at her sister, remembering doing the same only the day before when they had been trapped in the History classroom.  It seemed like almost a lifetime ago now.

“Stitches, antiseptic, bandages,” Hayley reminded they as they all split up, hurrying as quickly as they dared towards the messy shelves.  Hayley approached the one nearest to her, and scanned the products, routing quickly through the cardboard boxes.  Her eyes danced over the products on display, and she knocked a few cardboard boxes off the shelf in her haste to locate what they needed.  The boxes she knocked cascaded to the floor in a pile of others that had been swept aside in what must have been a mad panic.  Looking at the highest shelf, Hayley saw a few loose, blood-stained bandages hung draped like tinsel just above her head.  She reached up with a hand, standing on her tiptoes and using her fingers to brush the contents of the shelf.  She felt something cold and sticky on her hand, and quickly withdrew it at once.  Squinting in the dim glow from the illuminated streetlights from outside, she saw red smears of scarlet blood on her hand.  Hayley wrinkled her nose in disgust, wiping her hand on her jeans quickly.