Wildfire - A Fanfiction

Chapter Two

The pair followed Kami to their room, their backpacks slung over their shoulders.

"Did you ask anybody at the store?" Kami asked as she unlocked the door with the keycard.

Georgia nodded. "Yeah, but he didn't know anything. No use bothering him when the poor kid thought we were nutjobs. And maybe it really wasn't even anything."

Alex scoffed. "You mean like a shared hallucination? Like the Mothman?"

"First of all, Mothman is real. Maybe it was sasquatch's cousin," Kami suggested.

Georgia snorted. "I thought humans were sasquatch's cousins?"

"Well it looked pretty human, didn't it?"

"Maybe you're sasquatch's cousin," Alex lightly jabbed Kami's shoulder.

They set down their bags and dug out their dinner from the flimsy plastic bag. Kami poked holes in the thin film on a microwaveable lasagna.

"Any other theories from our resident conspiracist?" Georgia looked at her.

Kami shrugged. "Aliens?"

The microwave rattled.

Alex took a pillow from one of the beds and laid down on the couch below the television on the wall. He yawned and slung an arm over his face. "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight."

"Night."

"Goodnight," Georgia echoed.

Georgia did try to sleep at first, but every time she closed her eyes the figure's monstrous red eyes would follow her. After a few hours, she sat up and stared into the dark.

The red eyes were still there.

Wherever she looked, over to Kami sleeping on the other side of the room, by the door, those eyes were watching her.

Eventually, she got up and quietly moved an armchair by the window, electing to stare out the window onto the dark street until she got tired enough to fall asleep. It felt like hours until the world finally drifted away.

She heard rustling behind her and her eyes shot open. Bright sunlight was just creeping through the misty street beyond the window. She looked over her shoulder. Alex was waking up. He sat up and stretched before noticing her. "Didn't you sleep at all?" He blinked.

"Sort of. I guess yesterday shook me up a little more than I let on, huh," she admitted wearily.

Alex nodded sleepily. "Same here."

They both turned and watched Kami dozing on the far side of the room. She must have felt their gaze because she soon stirred. Georgia looked away.

They hardly spoke the entire time they prepared to check out. As they left the office and headed to the car Georgia turned briefly to Alex. "I'm exhausted. Can we stop somewhere for a drink?"

"Sure." He took his bag and threw it in the back sear. "There's probably something at that gas station, and Kami looks like she needs something too." Kami silently trailed behind them as they walked across the silent street.

Georgia pushed open the door, ringing the bell. Like the night before, the small shop was empty besides them. This time, a cashier was nowhere to be seen.

"This store is open, isn't it?" Georgia said quietly.

Alex nodded. "Pretty sure. That's what the hours here say, anyway." He tapped a sign on the door. "Maybe the cashier is just in the back."

Kami grabbed a basket and went to look at potato chips while Alex and Georgia headed to the refrigerator at the back of the store.

Georgia inspected the shelves. "Cherry wave? Rain berry? These sound an awful lot like shampoos," she said incredulously. "Why isn't there a coffee machine?"

Alex grunted in agreement.

A violent crash resounded from the back room.

Georgia froze. Kami popped out from behind a shelf, basket piled high with junk food. "What was that?"

"It was probably nothing," assured Alex.

There was a loud growl from the back room and some heavy shuffling. Georgia peeked around a corner and saw a familiar man with fresh red stains on the front of his uniform drunkenly stumble into the storefront. His vacant eyes were red. Georgia jumped back.

"Not a word," she hissed and pushed the others out of sight. She got low to the floor and watched the man bump into the till from behind the counter.

The counter was open on one side, and nothing but air would keep him from jumping at them once he noticed he had guests.

The only exit Georgia could see was the door they entered on the other side of the store, right beside the counter.

The others peered around the corner. Alex gasped. "Isn't that-"

Georgia clamped a hand over his mouth.

Kami made a strange expression. She slightly straightened and surveyed the store, but when her eyes rested on the far door, Georgia knew that she had reached the same conclusion he did.

"We have to make a run for it," she whispered.

Georgia nodded, pulling the others to their feet and pushing them ahead.

They started weaving around shelves, heads ducked.

They were halfway through the store when the zombie noticed, bursting from behind the counter, snarling and knocking candy bar displays from their spots by the register. Then he was between them and their way out.

"Go!" Georgia shrieked, dropping any attempt at stealth. In seconds the others vanished behind other shelves, leaving Georgia to stumble backward before darting to the back of the small store as fast as she could.

Within seconds she skidded around the end of the aisle, bumping into a refrigerator door while sweeping her arm over a shelf. Several dozen cans were knocked to the floor, some colliding with the zombie's chest, others merely getting trampled underfoot, slowing it but not by much. She grabbed another can and threw it at the zombie's head as she drifted around the corner. It barely touched his arm, but the zombie didn't seem to notice or care.

Georgia kept running to the door. The mist-filtered sunlight beckoned her closer.

She made a sudden ninety-degree turn around the shelf and collided with something only a few feet from the door. She hit the ground hard. Pain shot through her wrist and she felt something hit her ankle hard enough to bruise.

Stunned, she stayed still for a split second. A heavy metal stand had fallen on her legs and she was now surrounded by cheap umbrellas. She looked up in a panic, but the zombie was still stomping down the aisle. Her eyes locked on the zombie, and she felt around for anything to act as a shield. Her hands brought back a pink umbrella. With the zombie only meters away, she popped the umbrella open and held it in front of her, squeezing her eyes shut. All she could do was wait, and hope that Kami and Alex at least made it out.