[Vodstok]

The entire building stared at Burt. If they disliked him before, they hated him now.
Tim was shaking with anger. “You let a little girl DIE because you were too fucking lazy to help her?”
“Go fuck yourself, trailer trash. I ain’t risking nothing for no one!”
Marc lifted his bat. “Burt, I believe you just got voted off.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Steve pointed his iron at Burt. “He means, you aren’t sleeping indoors tonight, you rotten fuck.”
Burt stared everyone down. “Oh, yeah?”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol. “And who is going to make me? You?”
Tim pointed the shotgun at Burt. “I will, asshole.”
“Shit, boy. Point that thing away or I kill this little queer.” He pointed the pistol at Kevin. “Don’t!” Tim shouted.
“Put that fucking gun down, Boy!”
Tim glanced at the others. He didn’t want to put the gun down, but he didn’t want Burt shooting Kevin either. “If you shoot that kid, I will gut you with this, you piece of shit.”
“Well then, it looks like we have ourselves a Mexican standoff here. I can wait.”
Kevin was red-faced. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. “You son of a bitch..”
“Mind your manners, son. I will cap you in a second if I feel it.” Burt worked his way around Kevin, towards the back of the store, keeping his gun on him the whole time. Tim followed his every move. When he got to the doors leading to the back, Burt spoke. “I am leaving through the back. I am taking one of the cars, and I’ll be on my way. Any of you assholes try to follow me, and I will shoot you where you stand.”
“You aren’t taking any of the cars, Burt.” Lucy said. Tim nodded. “What did you say woman? You better learn your place, too, Orca.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Tim yelled.
Burt smiled. He kicked the double doors open behind him, jumped back, and shot all at once. Tim fired too. Burt howled as pellets tore into his shoulder and grazed his scalp. Steve fell to his knees, a look of shock on his face.
Tim ran after Burt, firing at him whenever he thought he had a clear shot.
The others ran to Steve. Burt’s bullet had struck him just bellow the sternum. Marc was almost crying. His brother rolled onto his back. Lucy took off her sweater and held it onto Steve’s wound. Steve cried out in pain once she applied pressure. “Steve? Steve? You’re gonna be all right, buddy, you hear?” Kevin ran after Tim and Burt. Alex sat and watched helplessly. A minute before he thought he was saved. Now the world was ending all over again.

Burt limped to one of the cars, he was in luck, the keys were in it. Tim kicked the back door open. He saw Burt and fired two shots at him. One cracked the windshield, the other hit Burt squarely, just above the left hip. Burt screamed in pain. He pointed his gun towards Tim and started shooting until he was out of bullets. Tim ducked and caught a bullet in the thigh. Kevin was running out after him at the last second. He wasn’t so lucky. Two of Burt’s rounds hit him in the chest. He dropped, dead the second he hit the ground.
Burt started the car, threw it into gear, and sped toward the gate. He was getting dizzy and couldn’t feel his left arm or leg. “That fucker killed me.” He smashed through the fencing, knocking over a couple of shamblers. He drove to the front of the building and stopped. He was fading fast. He noticed little details with new clarity for a second. The person Alex had hit was trying to crawl with it’s hands, it’s back was broken. Many more clustered around the windows, pounding in futility. Burt had an evil grin. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He pushed down on the gas pedal with all of his strength. The car lurched forward, speeding toward the front of Mike’s. He crushed two shamblers as he smashed through the front of the store. Slammed into the registers, throwing Alex over Steve, Lucy and Marc, head first into the wall. Alex came down hard, his neck broken. His suffering was over. Marc got up from Steve and looked into the car. Burt was dead. He was leaning back in his seat, his head at a weird angle.
Marc looked back at Steve, who was choking violently. “Oh shit.” He said as he dropped to his brother’s side. Lucy held the sweater over his wound. Steve thrashed a bit and tried to say something, then stopped. Marc was shaking. His eyes glassed over as he stared at his brother. Lucy reached up and gently held his chin up. “Marc, we have to go.” She nodded past him. Shamblers were walking in the front of the building. They became excited as they noticed Marc and Lucy. The two of them got up and ran. Marc looked back one last time at his brother.
They went through the double doors in the back.

Tim got up and looked at the mess Burt had made. One car was gone, the fencing destroyed. He looked back. “Oh no…”
He hadn’t noticed Kevin. Kevin lay on his side in a pool of blood. There were two holes in his chest, and two larger ones in his back, where the bullets exited. He put his hand over the kid’s face so he wouldn’t have to see the look on it, then got up for the door back in.
It only opened from the inside. “Fuck!”
He looked around. This was the only way in. He couldn’t go around the front. He didn’t know what Burt had done, but he knew he couldn’t run with a gunshot in his leg. Tim thought for a second. He could shoot the hinges off the door.
But that would leave the back wide open, and all of them would be in trouble.
He looked around, desperate for something. Near the dock was a dumpster for recycling cardboard. It was less than half full, and over six feet tall. He could hide in there, with the lid closed, at least for the night.
He limped over to it. Jumping in was going to hurt. Kevin moved. Tim stopped halfway to lowering himself in to the dumpster. Kevin sat up slowly, making weird coughing noises.
“Oh, damn……kid…”
Tim was horrified. Kevin was dead. But he was moving. Tim decided to cut his losses and crawled into the dumpster, muffling his cry when his weight landed on his injured leg. He swooned and almost threw up. Tim grabbed the lid, and slowly closed it. The day’s light was failing, but he could still see fairly well. He took off his flannel and tore off one sleeve, then tied up his leg with it. He crawled to the darkest corner of the dumpster, lay the shotgun across his legs, and closed his eyes. Outside, Kevin beat against the loading door and wailed.
Marc and Lucy ran through the back of the store, trying to find someplace to hide. They briefly considered hiding in one of the coolers they passed, both of which were easily thirty feet square, but decided that they wouldn’t last very long at 35 degrees, especially with Lucy in just a t-shirt now. They continued into a storage area. There were more palettes of paper bags, another door leading to the main body of the store, plastic containers, forks, and many other things one would find behind the scenes in a grocery store.
They worked their way towards the back of the storage room. They found stairs.
They moved cautiously to the second floor, marc took lead and held his bat ready. There were noises, moaning and scraping, coming from the first floor. As best as they could tell, the first floor was filling up.
The second floor had some storage, mostly baskets and fake flowers. There was an office, with a door. They briefly considered it, but Marc pointed out that the door was a hollow core, any man could easily put his fist through it, so if the things found out they were in there, it wouldn’t take much for them to break it down.
They checked the storage more deeply, and found what they needed. The old barn had an attic, with a retractable staircase.
“Oh thank God.” Lucy sighed.
Marc pulled the string, and the stairs folded down. “Stay here a second.” He said and went up to double check the attic. Aside from dusty piles of paper, and never-discarded old storage containers, it was empty. Marc went down, then helped Lucy up, following her. They lifted the stairs and locked them in place from inside. They were safe, for now.
The attic had windows, but they were dirty and dusted over. What they could see was a fire escape that went down to the first level roof.
“With luck, if they don’t find anything else in here, they will move on by morning. We can use the escape to get to one of the cars and get the hell out of here.”
Lucy nodded. They stacked some old containers over the entrance, if for no other reason than to feel safer, then found a corner to try and settle down. Marc gave Lucy his jacket. They could hear shamblers bumping around downstairs.
“I hope Kevin and Tim are alright.” Lucy said. Marc only nodded. He hoped so, too, but wasn’t very confident. They had heard gunshots shortly before Burt had crashed into the store. He figured if the other two were okay, they would have seen them by now.

After a few hours, Lucy fell asleep. Marc did not. He stared out the dirty windows, wondering what he had done, wrong or right, to still be breathing.
Tim drifted into a troubled sleep. Pain and blood-loss made him weak, and he drifted off less than a half-hour after entering the dumpster.

When morning came, all was quiet. Tim woke with a start, suddenly frightened. He remembered what had happened the day before, and felt silly for allowing himself to drift off. At least he wouldn’t have had to witness his death, he thought. He gripped his gun, afraid, still, to move or make noise. He couldn’t hear anything outside, but he had visions of walking dead people waiting, patiently, outside the dumpster, ready to pounce at the first sign that he was still alive. He hoped the others were okay and would find him.