The Rot

Chapter 18

Before the dead things in the parking lot could make it to the entrance, Cynthia and I were already running towards the stock room. As soon as I opened the back door, one of the eaters had made his way around the front of the building and saw me step outside. Cyn or myself could have handled the corpse, but he was soon followed by three more dead things right behind him. Cynthia and I had no choice but to close the door and lock it from the inside.

The corpses started pounding on the back door, trying to get into the building. The door was sturdy enough, and I didn't think they could get through it. The front doors were a different story, however.

Cyn was looking out of the back room towards the entrance. "Listen to that. They want in here, bad."

I sighed, "Shit."

"Reid, are you sure there was a big mob of them out there?"

"From what it looked like? Yeah. The ones that are in the parking lot broke off from the original horde or whatever you want to call it."

"And they were heading in the direction of the apartments?"

I nodded at Cynthia. "Yeah. It would appear so, Cyn."

"Damn. I hope Ang doesn't do anything that could alert those things."

"Try not to think about that right now. What we have to do is just wait for the eaters to pass us by and we should be fine."

Me and Cynthia heard the sounds of glass shattering from back inside the store.

Cynthia shook her head. "Yeah, 'should be fine,' huh, Reid?"

"Shoot the messenger why don't ya?"

One of the eaters had broken out the top window of one of the entrance doors and slid inside the store. It was an older man with a gray beard and long white hair. He was wearing a brown suit jacket and blue jeans. The dead guy didn't see Cynthia or myself looking at him from the back room, and he ran deeper into the store.

Then another one of the windows broke and an eater tried to get into the store. I started to see the door frame begin to buckle as more undead creatures pressed up against it.

"Reid, we have to get the hell out of here," Cynthia told me.

"That would be advisable, Cyn," I responded.

Cynthia and I were trapped. The corpses behind the building were still pounding on the back door, so we couldn't get outside that way, and the mob at the front of the store was starting to filter in, one eater at a time.

"Reid, there's a few more getting inside from the front doors," said Cynthia.

"Cynthia, I'm kinda running out of rabbits to pull out of my hat over here Or from any other orifice for that matter . Do you have an idea?" I asked her. "Because I'm open to any suggestions you have here."

Unfortunately, Cynthia shook her head at me. "No, can't say that I do, Reid."

"Fuck."

"Ain't that the truth."

I looked at the big, heavy, shelving units in the back room. Since we couldn't lock the swinging double doors of the stock room, Cynthia and I would have to barricade them somehow. The last thing we needed was for one of the eaters to spot us peeking into the main part of the store.

"Cyn, we have to block off this entrance," I said.

"How?" Cyn wondered.

"These shelves should do the trick."