Free Knight Terrors: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale by Stephen J. Beard Page B

this.”
         The road that we had been on the day before on the way to the Publix was filled with zombies.  More than 100, maybe a lot more.  They were just shambling along the road in between the parked cars.  We could smell their stench from inside the vehicles.
         “What the fuck?” said Mike.  “Where did they all come from?”
         “I don’t know.  There’s a shit ton of them though,” said John.
         “Why are they all moving together?” asked Tom.
         “Good question.  Maybe they congregate when they’re not after food,” I said.
         “Shouldn’t we turn around?” asked Keith.
         “No, I don’t want to lead them to Patriot’s Point.  Let’s head towards the bridge and we’ll find a way to turn around.”
         So, we made a left onto Hwy 17 and headed towards the Ravenel Bridge.  The zombies saw us and picked up their shambling pace.  At the next light we made a right turn away from Patriot’s Point.  There was no way to know if the zombies could even see that far but I wanted to leave nothing to chance.  The next left took us under the bridge and back towards Patriots Point but we were out of sight of the zombies.
         “Hey Ryan,” said Tom.  “Did we just doom downtown Charleston?”
         “Maybe.  Some of them might end up on the bridge.  Some of them might follow where we turned right.  I don’t know.”
         The back way to the Walmart and Lowes was a nightmare to navigate.  There were abandoned cars and wrecks every few feet it seemed.  We went through a lot of parking lots and pushed a lot of cars out of the way.  Then we backtracked twice because we couldn’t get through at all.  It took nearly an hour of creative driving to reach the Walmart.  The parking lot had maybe 100 cars in it.  Why did dying people come to Walmart?  Or did they come here and then get bit and turn?
         “Hey Ryan, It’s Tom.”
         “Yeah, go ahead.”
         “What can we get at Walmart that we can’t get at Lowes?”
         I had to think for a minute.
         “Camping stuff, tents and such.  Probably nothing else.”
         “But, none of that stuff is on the list for today, is it?”
         “I see your point.  We’ll have to deal with this eventually,” I coughed.  “But let’s deal with it later.”
         The Lowes in Mt Pleasant was on one side of a large shopping center called Towne Center.  There were about thirty or so cars out front.  More than I expected anyway.  And they were all empty. We pulled the two vehicles up next to the lumber side door and climbed out.  It took only a moment to adjust our gear.
         “Okay,” I said before breaking into a coughing fit.  It took a moment to recover.
         “Ryan, why don’t you let us do this?” said Tom. 
         “No, I’m supposed to be the leader…”
         “You are, Boss Man.  But, you obviously feel like shit.  I bet your head feels cloudy and heavy?”
         I nodded while I coughed.
         “Then why don’t you watch our backs and we’ll take care of this part,” said Tom.
         “Okay, be careful.”
         I turned around and found a good spot to cover the rear.  John went up to the door and slowly pulled it open about two feet.  But, nothing came through.  After a few minutes, John fired three rounds through the opening.  But after a few more minutes nothing appeared.
         “That’s weird.  Hey, Ryan,” yelled Mike.
         “Yeah.”
         “What do ya think?”
         “I don’t know.  Lets get our headlamps on and get ready to go in.”
         “Why don’t we give it a little longer?” said Tom. “Something about this feels wrong.”
         “You mean that the zombies weren’t at the door waiting for us?” I asked.  “Or, that they didn’t come to dinner when we called?  Or, that we’re actually talking about actual