The Grocery.

Sam’s greatest problem had been that he couldn’t maintain a relationship.  It consumed him to the point he felt like a failure for being alone.  Getting a first date had not been a problem, whether it was through a friend of a friend or someone he had met through an internet site.  But, getting to a second date?  It just didn’t happen, and that nagged at him constantly.  Was he doing something wrong?  Was there something he needed to do differently?  Were all women just crazy?

         Yes, it was a problem that took up a lot of Sam’s time.

         Until the dead started walking the Earth.

         Being alone wasn’t such a bad thing when there were so many people now that wanted to eat your brains.  A zombie infestation made isolation seem downright swell.  And, Sam had been alone, boarded up in his apartment for the last two weeks.  He had made it through the two weeks, but he now had a major crisis on his hands.  He was completely out of food.  He consumed the last morsel, a can of lima beans, the previous day.  He felt secure in his apartment, but what good was his security if he was going to starve to death? 

           A small grocery sat on the corner.  Sam’s goal was simple, grab all the food he can and hightail it back to his apartment.  Not a long-term goal, granted, but immediate survival outweighed everything else.  He grabbed his only weapon, a wooden baseball bat used in better days, and he darted out the door.

         When Sam left his building, the odor hit him like an overpowering wave as he dashed to the grocery.  He fought through it, keeping his head down.  With his peripheral vision, he glanced at the zombies.  They were only a few, scattered here and there paying him no mind.  If they kept ignoring him, his mission might be a success.

         Entering the grocery, he grabbed two sacks and headed right to the can goods.  Carefully, he loaded the bags, making sure to not make the bags too heavy so they wouldn’t split when he went back to his apartment.  Happy with his bags, he was about to jolt out of the grocery, when he saw her.

         Karen, the girl he had a crush on his entire time through high school.

         Karen, the girl he had wanted to ask out, but had chickened out.

         Karen, the girl he found had liked him back, but he had waited too long and his window of opportunity had passed.

         Not wanting to attract attention to himself, he didn’t scream her name out.  He jogged over to where she was in frozen foods.  “Karen,” he said, pulling on her shoulder.

         “Uuuurrrrgggh,” Karen said as Sam turned her around.  Her pupils were gone, her eyes now a cloudy white unable to focus on Sam.  Her natural color drained out of her, a pale pallor cast all over her.  Karen was a zombie.

         “Man, I can’t catch a break,” Sam said, swinging the bat and connecting with Karen’s head knocking her to the ground.

         Sam’s mind told him to bolt, but he found himself frozen in his spot.  He looked at Karen, sprawled on the ground.  He still felt what he always felt for her, even with her changes.  He couldn’t just leave her here. 

         He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.  Carrying the dead weight, he moved as quickly as he could out of the grocery and back to his apartment.  Zombies still spotted the sidewalk, but they took no real interest in them as Sam maneuvered back to his apartment. 

         Karen, groggy from the blow from the bat, began to thrash more violently as they entered the apartment.  Thinking quickly, Sam pushed her into the bathroom and locked her in.  To strengthen the door, he jammed a chair under the knob and sat in the chair.

         “UUURRRGGGHH!” Karen screamed, as she slammed her weight into the door.  The door shook from the impact, but it held.

         “Calm down, Karen.  You’re just not yourself right now.  No, not yourself at all.  It’s Sam, you remember?  Sam?”

         The door shook again from slamming impact, but it carried less impact from before.

         “It all makes sense to me now.  You don’t see now, Karen, but you will.  All these miserable dates I’ve been on?  All these relationships that went nowhere?  It’s because we were meant to be together.  I’ve always liked you, and I missed my chance.  We would’ve been a great pair.”

         Sam now heard frantic scratching on the door, like a dog urgently trying to enter a room. 

         “Just calm down, Karen.  This infestation, I mean, what are you supposed to do?  You’re sick, that’s all.  And, one day, you’ll be better.  You’ll be Karen again.  And, when you are Karen again, you’ll know who saved you.  I saved you.  Because, we’re meant to be together.”

         “Uuuurrrrggggh,” Karen said, weaker than before.  The scratching on the door died down to a faint squeak, repeated infrequently.

         “We just need a cure,” Sam said.

         He grabbed the near-by TV remote, and he turned it on, watching TV for the first time in a week.  The news had simply been bleak and depressing before.  But, now, he needed good news.  He stared at the TV intensely, waiting on news of a cure.

         And, he waited.