If you look on our
map, there are several entrances in the rear of the store. On the far north end
of the building, there is the main dock where semi-trucks back up and unload
their pallets of merchandise. Near this dock, there is an emergency fire exit.
There is no handle on the outside of the door and this thing is made of pretty
solid steel. At the time of Zero Hour, a semi-truck was backed into the dock,
plus it stands a good five feet off the ground so that area is not really
breach potential. There is the produce dock with a scissor lift ramp for our
trucks to unload but I explained on my last entry how that area was secured.
But not all vendors make deliveries in semis. Frito Lay, Coca-Cola, Little
Debbie, Budweiser, all these companies bring their stuff in on pallets or on
hand carts and they wheel them up a ramp entrance into the main section of the
backroom. That ramp makes it easy for vendors to wheel in their product. It is
also a straight shot for a zombie that made it into the store just before
Kasondra called out for the lockdown.
And it was this
zombie that incapacitated the two girls, Toni Peters and Lisa Paulson, who were
working in the receiving office. [Every time I went back to the DSD office to
get a price changed or a sign printed, I would always tell Lisa, “Her name was
Lisa Paulson… Her name was Lisa Paulson…” But I don’t think she ever saw Fight
Club so that reference was lost on her.] So imagine Luke’s surprise when he
comes walking from one of the freezers, carrying a box of product, as he heads
back to the meat department.
As Luke tells the
story, he was walking back to the department, when the call went out. It was at
that time when Toni and Lisa were attacked. They managed to barricade
themselves within the Receiving Office but the office has two thin-paned
windows that the zombie smashed through quite easily.
To be honest, I don’t
know what lucky star Luke was born under but he managed to incapacitate the
zombie that was punching its way through the window. He rescued both the ladies
by hitting the zom with the box of product he was carrying and knocked it out
of the roll up door and off the dock without managing to get bit or coming in
contact with any fluid. He did say that he saw the ones attacking Holly but
there was nothing he could do. More were shuffling in from around the corner so
he slammed the roll up door shut and latched it.
Now, if you have not
recognized the names of Toni Peters or Lisa Paulson, it is because they were
not counted amongst the survivors. Many employees used to park their cars out
back, including Toni and Lisa. As the weather got warm, parking under the shade
of the trees was prime real estate. So the ladies decided to make a run for it
after assessing the situation. These are both family women with children and
grandchildren and the last place they wanted to be was away from their
families. Before escaping out of one of the security fire doors, the last we
saw, they made it to their cars and drove away. What has ever become of them, I
have no idea. Maybe they made it to their families and maybe they made it to a
safe zone… but we don’t even know where a nearby safe zone is…
Still Luke locked down
that rear entrance and probably saved us from letting an endless mob of those
zoms from getting in here. But this is when we came to the hard part. I was not
just concerned about getting all of the zombies out of our store. I was
concerned with getting one person in…
