The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1) by McBain Tim & Vargus L.T

Author:McBain, Tim & Vargus, L.T. [McBain, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Zombies
Publisher: Smarmy Press
Published: 2016-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Mitch

Bethel Park, Pennsylvania

42 days before

The white light shimmered off the pale gray tiles. Mitch looked down to avoid the brightness, but he found orbs of illumination staring back at him every few steps anyway. The brightness proved unavoidable.

They straggled past a couple of racks of shitty DVDs and the horde around them splintered into segments moving left, right and straight. Mitch and the boys veered right, squaring their shoulders toward the produce department. Mobs of people swarmed the displays of plant life. From what Mitch could see, the fruit was already gone, the black racks picked clean aside from a stray grape and a lemon, shriveled and moldy. People shuffled around the empty shelves in small groups, skittering in all directions. They looked haggard, a few without shoes on, many with their hoods up and their heads down, like refugees fleeing some kind of genocide. Maybe that wasn’t so far from the truth, Mitch thought, more than most of them even knew.

He stopped walking, just planted his feet on a perforated rubber mat near the empty crate where the watermelons used to be. He tried to think. What would make the most sense to buy in this scenario? It was hard to concentrate with people bustling around the way they were, with panic and chaos broadcasting from brain to brain like radio waves. Voices brayed out staccato bursts, nervous chatter like everyone was amped up on 13 cups of coffee. It may as well have all been in a foreign language, like they teleported to some Middle Eastern country he’d never heard of the minute they stepped into the light.

“What are we doing?” Matt said, tugging at his dad’s sleeve.

“Huh? Oh, I’m thinking.”

“About what?”

“I’m trying to decide what we should grab. I didn’t think... I mean, I didn’t know people would clean the place out like this.”

“Oreos. We’re supposed to get Oreos.”

Mitch laughed and even that came out neurotic and rushed.

“OK, fine. We’ll try to get Oreos first.”

“Try? You think people took them all already?”

“I hope not, but look around man. People are going nuts.”

They angled left to get back out to the main aisle, working their way through the humanity to get to the Oreos. A squat man rushed past going the other way with both arms clutching hot dog buns to his chest, additional bags of buns dangling from his fists. Mitch made eye contact with Kevin as the bun man passed, and they laughed. He knew his older son was upset, probably a lot more in tune with the reality of the situation than Matt was, so it made him feel better to see him smile. Not that much better, maybe even a sad version of better, but it was something.

That’s the trick, right? Find these happy moments, these hopeful moments. Find them and hold onto them. Make yourself believe you’re happy for as long as you can, and then slip into oblivion. No amount of thinking can prepare you for death, Mitch thought. You can’t brace yourself in some certain way and ease into it.

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