Climbing Fish

Chapter one.

Bryar walked, or more, waddled into the store. She was 8 months pregnant and was having to shop by herself. She had to get enough food to last a month, seeing as she couldn't make it out very often. Single parenting was hard, but having no family around to help was harder. She grabbed a shopping cart and started pushing to the dairy aisle. She had a hard time bending down to get the milk on the bottom shelf. After finishing up the first half of the list,Bryar sat down. A well- earned rest. She was shopping on a budget, so this meant she had to go hunting for each item, trying to get the cheapest. After about 5 minutes ,Bryar slowly stood up. She glanced down at her pay- for- the- minute phone. She was expecting a call, a text, something. She had told her parents, well, her dad, about the pregnancy. They had already kicked her out at 17 for being queer, so when she called them at 21, well...things were awkward. Especially the whole pregnant thing. But Bryar had expected some form of help from her estranged parents, if not even a supportive email. But there was nothing. She sighed, and continued her journey.

It happened while checking out, it had been snowing dainty flakes all afternoon. So when people started panicking at the door, Bryar assumed someone had slipped. She peered over the cashiers shoulder, and saw a group of people pushing desperately against the door. Someone had parked their large van directly in front of the doors. She saw a huge man putting a sheet of chain link fence across the stores opening, and a group of other frightened people making a barricade of cars.then everything started happening in slow motion, the big man from earlier barreled through the stores emergency exit, shooting the alarm with his gun to get it to stop ringing. He led the group of people who had parked their cars at the entrance In through the doors. People were really screaming now. Bryar ducked, (with great effort) behind the counter, alongside the frightened cashier. The man started walking toward the group of terrified people congregating in front of the door. He started waving his gun and the people silenced.
"Hey, hey guys. I'm not here to hurt you. Everyone calm down, we're here to help."
People were silent. A man stepped forward from the group;
"Something terrible has happened. People are attacking others, people are eating others. We've decided that the safest way to keep as many people alive as possible is to barricade a large group inside of a large store."
There were stunned faces, Bryar began to rise, the cashier grabbed her wrist,
"Miss, no. That man could be crazy. Please, stay hidden, you're pregnant."
Bryar stooped down and looked the cashier at eye level. She had blonde- Brown hair piled into a bun, round glasses that covered a third of her face,  and green name tag with "Jane " written on it in sloppy print.
"We can't stay here forever, even if they are crazy, they'll find us."
Jane was shaking. Bryar rise again and started slowing walking towards the large man. He caught her eye and met her halfway. He hesitantly put his hand on her arm, and she stood unwavering.
"Honey, you're pregnant? Let us protect you and your baby, please stay."
She stood shocked, there had been an option? She looked past him at the group of shoppers, they seemed confused as well. She looked again, out the window, past the cars and the chain link, and everything was still. That was weird. She lived in the city, and there was never silence, much less stillness. Another man stepped forward from the shoppers. Falteringly, he asked;
"What happened? Why won't my call go through? Why aren't the police here already?"
Ballsy  move, mentioning calling the cops to the potential criminals, Bryar thought. The group all looked to the large man. He had a small, non- menacing from.
" sir,we already told you. It has all happened in the last hour, although we've been anticipating it for months,"
He gestured to his group.
"Something, we don't know what, has been making people, dead people come back, and they're  coming back carnivorous. It happens whenever someone dies. They come back. And with so many killing machines out there, it's been spreading quick."
He looked around at the group of people. Bryar could see that they believed he was crazy again. There was silence. A small teenage girl with a shaved head stood up, suddenly.
"You're lying to us."
The man didn't look surprised at this accusation.
"Whether you people believe us or not, it's happening."
" Why haven't I gotten any notifications about it on my phone? Someone, somewhere, would be talking about it." That was a good point, with modern internet, someone would be tweeting about it. Bryar knew why she hadn't  gotten any news about it, she glanced down at her pocket, which held her cheap brick of a phone. Her parents wouldn't even talk to her, much less strangers. She didn't even have internet at her apartment.
"I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know why there is no news, I dont know why there is no internet, no television, no cell service.. I don't have an answer. But please, you all have to believe us. You will die if you try to go home. We pose no threat, but they do."
He suddenly pointed at the window. There was a person, a pale person who appeared to be tweaked out of his mind on some kind of drug. But the reason people started screaming, why they started sobbing and panicking, was because his intestines were dragging across the pavement behind him.