[Vodstok]

Marc glared at him. Steve interrupted. “I would have said the same thing, but I saw the old bastard, plain as day, walking with the rest of ‘em.”
Kevin dropped his apple. “Are you saying that they are all dead?!”
Steve shrugged and Marc nodded.
Burt smacked at some fruit nearby. “I don’t believe this crap. You dumb fuckers watch too much television. There is no godamn way that there are dead people walkin’ around trying to eat us. Bunch of fuckin morons.”
Steve’s face turned red and he was about to say something. Tim put his hand up. “Burt, you are more than welcome to stay outside and chat with them if you would like. Otherwise, shut up unless you have something useful to share.”
“Thank you, Tim.” Marc said, never taking his eyes off of Burt.
The group (excluding Burt), discussed what they would need to do.
“Well, we got plenty of food, here, I say we just wait it out. National Guard or somebody has to come through eventually.” Steve stated. Tim and Lucy nodded.
Marc shook his head. “What if this thing is bigger than just around here? What if it spread?”
Lucy shook her head. “We don’t know that.”
Marc shrugged. “True, but if it has, then we may be set for a month or two, but then what? Fruit will rot, food will run out, and then are screwed.”
Tim looked him in the face. “So what do you suggest we do?”
“Not sure. I think staying here short term is a good idea, but we have to think of something for a few weeks from now. I think a good start would be getting all of the working vehicles close to the building.”
Tim perked up. “I’ll do you one better. The loading dock out back in fenced in. We can move them in there.”
“Good idea. What about weapons? Do we have any more guns?”
“Nope. Just this one.” Tim patted the shotgun. Burt looked at the group, then put his hands in his pockets, suddenly self-conscious. No one seemed to notice.
Lucy piped in. “Maybe there is one in one of the cars out there.”
“Good point,” Marc nodded, “Maybe we should go out and move the cars to a safe spot and then discuss this further.” Everyone agreed. They didn’t waste any time getting to work.
They moved slowly, as a group, out the front door. Burt and Lucy lagged behind to close the doors after everyone else exited.
There were five cars, total. Steve’s was moved first. One of the other ones had it’s keys in it, but had been left idle, so it was out of gas. Two others didn’t have keys. No one knew how to hotwire them. The last two were pulled into the back. While they were starting the last one, Steve noticed something at the edge of one of the fields.
“Oh crap.” He pointed at what he saw. Out of the corn fields, facing the store, came one, then another. The another. Then two more. Then three. All of them people. All of them shambling. They were just close enough for the three to hear a soft moaning.
Many more continued to pour from the field.
“Godammit, how did they know to come here?” Tim was near panicked.
They decided to move the car and contemplate fate later. Once the last car was within the fencing, they snaked a chain through several times, and locked it. The fence was ten foot high cyclone. They hoped it would hold.
Burt was staring out the front windows, watching the approaching horde. “Shit. I was a week away from leaving that job. Was gonna move to Reno. Had some money from hurtin’ my back. Was gonna be booze and hookers ‘til God decided to take me.”
Lucy gave him a disgusted look and walked away. “Very classy…” She said sourly.
The others were walking in from the back doors, just catching the exchange.
“Oh yeah, and what do you know of class, you fat bitch?” Lucy stopped and gave him a challenging look. “What, you think you are any thinner, you old fart? I don’t care how much money you had, no hooker would touch you.”
“Shut up! Godamn women don’t know your place. Only use for a big bitch like you is fat women have big tits!”
Tim walked up to Burt and pushed him against the wall. “I would thank you not to talk to the lady like that, Old man.”
“You think I’m afraid of you boy?!” Burt bellowed. He shoved Tim back. Tim was trembling and started to move his hands to the grip on the shotgun.
Marc stepped in. “Whoa, people, easy. Somebody’s gonna get hurt this way. Tim, ease down.”
“You listen to your friend there, son. Learn your place.”
Marc snapped at Burt. “Shut up, asshole. I don’t want him wasting any shells on you. If you keep that up, I’ll have him kill you with the bat to save on bullets.”
Burt shut up. He had assumed Marc was quiet and meek. He was wrong.
Marc took Lucy by her arm and walked her away. “Do me a favor, ma’am, stay away from him. Things might get uglier than they need to be.”
“I am not going to ignore his insults..” Lucy started.
Marc cut her off. “Me either. But we need some peace for right now. Once we are all set, then the rest of us will discuss if he even gets to stay in here. As far as I’m concerned, we should leave him out for whatever those things are. But that isn’t for us to decide right now. Let’s make sure we are all safe first, okay?”
Lucy sighed. “Okay. But next time he says something like that, I am going to pop him.”
Marc smiled. “Here.” He handed Lucy a broomstick. “Use this.”
Lucy smiled and gave him an approving look.

It was late afternoon. The crowd outside was slowly growing. The shamblers from the field were now walking on the asphalt of the parking lot, approaching the building. One was walking straight toward the front door. Out of nowhere, a car smashed into it. The car screeched to a halt, the passenger side door flew open, and a man emerged running toward the front door.
He pounded on it, panicking. “Open the door! Oh Christ, open it! Please!.” Marc and Tim moved towards the entrance. Burt shouted at them. “Don’t you touch that door! We aren’t letting anyone else in here. It’s bad enough we have chunky here to eat all our food!” Tim, Marc, Steve and Kevin shouted in unison. “Shut up, Burt!” Marc pumped the palette jack, Steve grabbed the door, and Tim pointed the shotgun. He nodded, Marc pulled the palette, and Steve snapped the door open. The man fell forward. Several of the shamblers started toward the door. Tim pointed the gun at them. “Stay the fuck back!” Steve dragged the man in, and once he had cleared the entranceway, mark pushed the palette back into place, slamming the door on one shambler’s face. After a few seconds, the door was secure again.
The man was still panicked, thrashing around. Steve grabbed him by the front of his jacket and yelled at him. “Calm down man! Calm! Down!” He gave the man a violent shake. The man stopped. He was shaking, his lip quivered. Marc knelt beside him. “Hey, buddy, what is your name?”
The man stared at him blankly. “Your name?” Marc asked again.
“Al..Alex.”
“Good. I’m Marc. This is Steve, and Tim. Over there are Kevin and Lucy. The other guy is nobody.”
Alex nodded. They helped him to his feet. “You okay?”
He laughed a little. “No.”
Steve and Marc helped him onto one of the checkout lanes. Alex winced the whole time. “Jesus, what happened?” Steve was looking at Alex in horror. He had bites all over one arm and parts of his back. They got Alex some juice and aspirin. Lucy did her best to bandage up his arm. Alex’s shaking did not stop, but at least it slowed down. He was more coherent after a few minutes. He swallowed hard and began.
“I was just driving through here. I’m from up north. I saw this guy walking down the road, big dude. He was walking funny, so I stopped to ask directions and see if he was okay, and the big fucker attacked me.” Marc and Steve looked at each other.
“So I drove further down the road to this church. There was crowd out front, so I thought maybe there was a wedding or something. So I got out to ask if someone had a phone to call for help. I figured the guy must be sick or something. They fucking swarmed over me. Bit the shit out of me, pulled my hair. I got back in my car and drove off. They are fucking everywhere!”
Alex was getting worked up again. “I passed this place once, but kept going. I didn’t think anyone was here.” Alex shuddered. “There was a crashed bus, ran into a telephone pole down the road. I stopped to see if anyone was still inside. There was a little girl inside, crying. There was a man in there. Oh God! He was chewing on her foot! She was just a little girl. He was eating her! I had a gun in my glove box. I got it and shot the fucker. Six Times! He kept coming. One of them, I swear, hit him right in the heart. He should have dropped. But he kept coming. He stopped when I shot him in the head. The girl had stopped crying. I went up to her. She was cold. She wasn’t breathing, didn’t have a pulse….”
Everyone was silent, shocked. Kevin stared at Burt. Burt was looking at the ground, wide eyed.
Alex had started sobbing. After a minute he composed himself. “She opened her eyes. They weren’t normal. She started snarling at me. She got up, and was coming after me. I backed away…. She got up. She couldn’t walk well, but she was still coming. She made this awful sound, like an animal. I pointed the gun at her. I wanted to shoot, but I was out of bullets. I ran back to my car and drove back. I didn’t realize which way I was going until I saw this place. Then I noticed the cars had moved so I figured someone must be here.”
Everyone was still .Kevin broke the silence. “You mother-fucker!” He shouted and threw a coconut at Burt, hitting him in the shoulder. “Back off you little punk!”
“You bastard fucker! You said she was already dead! You said she died in the crash!” Kevin charged the older man, who swatted him with a closed fist. “Listen up you little bastard! The girl was down. If she wasn’t dead, she would have been. Plus, I wasn’t dragging her ass here! And you two are too weak or too fat!”