Chapter 6

The trio slowed to a stop as they approached Main Street. Viktor and Petra turned back to see what remained of JJ.

"It won't take them long to finish him," Viktor observed.

"Then we better be gone before they are." James pressed himself to the brick that made up the back half of the café building and inched towards the wrap-around windows that would allow him to see out onto the main road.

"I don't see anyone," he whispered.

Petra and Viktor crowded forward to look for themselves. They all reached out with their senses to try and detect where the next danger would come from. The full moon helped to fill in some of the night shadows, but there were still far too many places danger could hide.

"We need to get right out there to see what's what," Viktor said. He held his ax ready in both hands, constantly shifting the weight as if to check his ability to wield the weapon, and checked on the horde they'd left behind them.

The other two just nodded. The silence of the street before them consumed their desire to make noise.

James was grateful when Petra clenched his hand briefly. His heartbeat was so loud in his ears he wasn't sure he'd make out any other sounds. He wiped his sweaty palms on his legs again.

With careful steps, they moved to the front corner of the café. The streetlight ahead, usually such a sanctuary at night, seemed like a spotlight that would immediately draw any threat to them.

Even though he could easily see through the glass front that the sidewalk and street were empty, terror almost froze James when he took hold of the leading edge of the glass window and stuck his head around to Main Street.

He glanced left towards the bank, but it was empty. Right, however, explained where everyone was.

As he'd suspected, the shooter had been near the bar, and the noise of the shotgun had drawn all the nearby zombies to it.

Just like during the Fall Fair or the Spring Fling, the street was crowded from one side to the other with people, except this crowd looked to be more zombies than normal people.

"It's like some gruesome version of the dance on the last night of the Spring Fling, isn't it?" Petra asked.

"Yeah, but I definitely don't want to buy a ticket to this dance," Viktor quipped.

"I know it sounds awful," James said. "But I really don't want to go anywhere near that mess. At best, we'll take out like one or two zombies. There's just so many of them. We'll be overpowered."

Petra snapped her fingers, startling them. "I've got it! Come with me!"

She raced in the opposite direction without waiting for them.

"Petra! Wait up!" James whisper-shouted.

She didn't slow, just led them down the sidewalk past the bank and general store, then veered onto the parking lot of the hardware store.

"Pet, it's closed!" James whisper-shouted again.

He was craning his neck trying to see everywhere at once. This end of the street was quiet, but much darker due to the forest that stretched out behind the hardware store. He shuddered imagining the branches being pushed aside by a zombie horde.

"I know where the spare key is!" she called over her shoulder. She went to the corner of the building and began running her hand up and down behind the drainpipe. "Where is it? Where- Ah ha!"

She held up a small rectangular case triumphantly and led them to the entrance.

"How did you know that was there?" Viktor asked.

"Same way as you get all your dirt. I keep my ear to the ground." As she unlocked the front door, she gave a little giggle. "I also just happened to be here when Mr Connor was chewing out Elijah for not opening the store on time because he'd lost his keys again."

"I don't know why Mr Connor kept him on. He was total space cadet," James said, following Petra inside the cavernous store.

He laid his hand over the light switch when Petra reached for it. "Better keep things dark, like the Chief said. We don't want to attract any zombies. What are we here for, Petra?"

"Follow me. And Mr Connor doesn't fire Elijah because he's his son." Petra led them down the centre aisle.

"What?" Viktor's exclamation was loud in the dark.

"Shhh!" Petra and James immediately said. Viktor clapped his free hand over his mouth. She went down the second aisle and got a wheelbarrow.

"How do I not know that?" Viktor whispered, annoyance in his voice.

"Mr Connor had an affair with Ms Langston-"

"The librarian? Like Onion-Breath Langston? He slept with her?" Viktor shook his head in disbelief.

"Yup. Mrs Connor didn't take too kindly to it. So she went and had an affair with Mr Stacey-" Petra turned into the handheld tools aisle and slowed down, perusing boxes to find what she was looking for.

"Wait, Mr Stacey!? Why the hell would she sleep with him? He's about as exciting as a dead mackerel."

"Mrs Connor wanted to rub Mr Connor's nose in it. Since he gets fish and chips from The Chip Shop two or three times a week, Mr Stacey was an obvious choice. Plus, they were rivals in high school. Ah, here we are!"

"How do you know all of this?" Viktor asked.

"It's the advantage of being invisible. You can't keep your mouth closed, so people always know you're around. Me on the other hand, I know how to fade into the background and just observe. Now, let's weapon-up!" She pulled the box for a nail gun off the shelf and held it out proudly.

"That's brilliant, Petra! Excellent thinking!"

"They hold about 100 nails each, right? A few guns should take care of all the zombies out there. It'll be just like building, except " She beamed widely and tore open the box in her hands, letting the packaging fall to the ground.

Several rounds of gunfire made them all jump. Viktor and Petra screamed.

"That might be the Chief. We've got to hurry!"

"Take this brand," she said and pointed to the box she'd dropped. "The battery comes charged. I don't know about the rest."

They unboxed and loaded the ten nail guns on the shelf as fast as they could. When they left the smooth floor of the store for outside, the nail guns bumped and rattled noisily in the wheelbarrow.

"Shit! They'll hear us coming!" James said.

"Wait!" Petra raced into the store.

More shots rang out while they waited. Viktor and James exchanged scared looks.

"They'll be alright," Viktor assured.

James bounced on the balls of his feet. "Come on, Petra! Come on!"

The door flung back and whacked off the wall when she came flying out with a blanket in her hands. "Put this under them!"

Moments later they were on their way with James pushing the wheelbarrow.

A few of the zombie horde that ate JJ was stumbling out onto Main Street. Their vacant eyes instantly swung towards the slapping sound of their sneakers on the asphalt and the rumbling squeak of the wheelbarrow.

"Time to test the theory," Petra said. She leaned her spear against the wheelbarrow, huffed in a breath then ran directly at the walking dead group of their fellow townspeople.

James' heart leapt into his throat as she got close enough for her to be grabbed. With the ease of having used a similar tool on construction sites, she lifted it and fired a shot dead centre into the forehead of the first person.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Patterson," she said to the woman. Just like with Mrs Marsten, the zombie's body jerked, then tumbled to the side, dead.

"Yes!" crowed Petra. "I'm not sorry about you, Cory. You're a dweeb." With a small pffft sound the nail fired into his forehead, and he went down.

When she started heading down Acorn Street to the other zombies, James called, "Petra! Let's go!"

She turned to continue walking backwards quickly, "A dead zombie can't bite us. It'll just take a minute."

"She's right. It's better to know these guys aren't coming for us," Viktor said watching Petra begin to jog.

"Let's go help her out," James said.

He passed a nail gun to Viktor. They carefully lay their axe and crowbar in the wheelbarrow before running after Petra, but she proved it unnecessary. By the time they reached her, she had managed to fell every single one of the group.

In order to get the last few stragglers, she'd stopped and tried firing at a distance. A few nails thunked into fences or the sides of buildings, and one nail when skittering off down the road, but she quickly found the sweet spot for distance.

With shining, excited eyes she turned to her friends. "This is great. We can totally take them out from a bit of a distance!"

Petra stood surveying her kills and gave her head a shake. "Have you noticed something, guys?" She pointed at the dead. "Some of these people I would have expected to be in the bar at this time of night, like Cory and Bud over there, but why are so many people out here in their pyjamas and slippers?"



WORD COUNT: 1565

NANO WORD COUNT: 9, 672

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 11, 497

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

As you've noticed, in this chapter I described the group of zombies that followed them off Main Street a bit more. In earlier chapters, I'll develop the description of who those people are when I go back to do edits, So I've kept it light in this one.

Thank you for reading! See you in the next chapter  :)

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