I cannot remember how long I had been
working at Reason’s when Zero Hour hit. I want to say seven years. In that
span, I had two different bosses running the department. My first boss was literally
the best boss I had ever had. He was my friend, he kept me insulated from all
the corporate crap, and we would have lengthy conversations about absolutely
nothing. So, when he decided to move on, it was a pretty rough day for me. Even
now, I have to assume that Dave has been lost to this apocalypse. I would go
and see him often on lunch when I wanted to get away from the store (if he
wasn’t at school) and we would discuss World of Warcraft. He only lived a few
minutes from the store by car. I would think most people would consider Reason’s
one of the few refuges in Langley so if he hasn’t made it here by now… he is
not going to.
My second boss – Dave’s replacement –
had some big shoes to fill. But I liked Holly and over the last year, she had
performed quite well. My biggest complaint about Holly was that she was a
smoker. Smoking killed my mother. I have no doubt that it caused her cancer and
robbed me of years with her. I don’t know how many times I told Holly and those
guys from the Meat Department to quit. It is easy for me to say having never
been a smoker but because of Reason’s Breathe Easy program, smoking was not
permitted on store property. So the smokers would head off property to smoke,
generally right at the property line. It is not so far that you are not within
shouting distance if you have a phone call but it is too far a distance to run
when a shamble of zombies emerge from around the corner…
When Kasondra’s call went out to lock
down the store, I was in the produce cooler so I was the first one to the roll
up door that leads out to our back dock where we unload our trucks. When I
poked my head out of the plastic flaps that keep the air conditioning in to
wave Holly inside, I emerged just in time to see her being overpowered and drug
to the ground by three of these things.
I have to admit that I froze in my
tracks. I mean your mind can barely comprehend what you are seeing. I have seen
all kinds of zombie movies and Alex plays that zombie level on his Call of Duty game but you never imagine
that you are going to get thrown into that nightmare. I mean this is the kind
of horror story that you only see in the movies, right?
But when those things turn their dead,
yellow eyes on you, reality sets in pretty quick. If not… well, I wouldn’t be
writing this. So I saw Holly drug to the ground and these guys are sinking in
their teeth. I am sure that doctors can tell you (or at least they wouldn’t be
surprised by this) but the human heart is a miraculous machine. And the force
at which this wonderful vessel pumps our blood…
I say this because on that day, I was
shocked by how far blood squirts out when zombie teeth get sunk into an artery.
That is what I remember most. I remember that blood spray. Thankfully, when
Holly was hit, she went down fast and these monsters jumped on top of her so
that I could not see her eyes. Truth be told, I am not certain if I even
remember her screaming. She was gone so fast and there was nothing I could do.
I wanted to rush out there and save
her but when I screamed her name, one of the three looked up at me, blood
running down his chin and a savage look in his eyes. Then he jumped up and
charged at our produce dock. I am ashamed to admit it but I was frozen solid in
fear. Thankfully, Lance responded fast to Kasondra’s call. He had come off the
floor to the prep area because he knew Holly was outside. He yanked me back
inside and had the wherewithal to shut the roll up door. Thankfully, that door
slammed down a split second before that zom collided with it.
We lost our manager but the Produce
Department was secure.
