Day 06: Aim for the Head

“Nina!” Johnathan rushed forward and pulled his daughter back. Moving towards his luggage, he quickly sifted through the piles of perfectly folded shirts and grabbed the 9mm handgun from beneath. Hurrying back to the restaurant’s main entrance and the rapidly disintegrating glass doors, he aimed and fired two shots. The first went wide. The second shot hit the approaching zombie center mass. “Damn,” he growled and moved a little closer.

Aiming his weapon once more, Johnathan caught the man in the forehead and he instantly dropped to the ground. The growling and smashing stopped and the group appeared safe…for now. “What the hell…did you see that?” Liz stammered, clambering to her feet. She’d dropped beneath a table as the shooting started but kept an eye on the action. “He…you shot him but it didn’t seem to have an effect. He just kept coming!”

“The head,” Johnathan answered. “The only way to stop these…zombies is by killing the brain. You’ve gotta aim for the head.” He put his weapon away and hurried to his daughter, checking her for injuries. “Ok listen to me, these people are no longer living, breathing humans like you and me. You’ve seen horror movies. Think of this as a real-life slasher flick where the bad guy is a reanimated corpse. They can’t think. They have no emotion. They’re running on the base human need; the need to feed and unfortunately for us, we’re lowest on the food chain.”

“You’re saying these things are hunting us?” Fadil summarized, closing the top of his laptop and dropping into a seat at the table.

“Yeah. Basically,” Johnathan replied before turning to Reggie. “Is there someplace we can go? Away from the windows that can be securely fortified to keep us safe?”

“I can lock the secondary doors which, luckily, aren’t glass but metal. So if they make it through the first set, we can rest assured they won’t make it through the second. But as far as places to hide…I have a kitchen, I have this dining room and my office upstairs. Everything has windows except maybe the employee’s lounge.”

“Then we’ll hide there. Come on, honey, get your things we’re moving.”

“Wait, you still have a lot to answer for,” Reggie stated as Johnathan closed up his suitcase and started for the back.

“And I will just…once we’re safe, please.” 

After Reggie locked up, the group settled in the back room. He quickly prepared them all dinner and they sat quietly and ate. Meanwhile, the noise outside seemed to diminish though Fadil kept a close watch on the security feed on the monitors.

“Daddy, I’m tired,” Nina moaned and rested her head on the table.

“I know you are, baby. Why don’t you go and lie down on the couch while the adults talk, ok?”

“Ok.” Nina skipped over to the couch and Reggie grabbed a blanket from one of the lockers beside the door.

“Alright. Now explain to us why we shouldn’t kick your ass and throw you outside with the mess you’ve made,” Reggie expressed, moving with Fadil and Liz in a corner with Johnathan.

“Because this wasn’t my doing. Yes, I worked for BioCore. But I wasn’t in Oversight. My job was supervising projects. Once I learned what was happening I immediately went to my boss with the information. It was his job to ensure the samples made it back safely.”

“Not good enough. Those people out there, this entire city and three others surrounding it are all infected because you and your company were playing god. Catering to the rich and their unending desire to be young again. Look at what you’ve done!”

“I’m sorry. Ok? I don’t know what else you want me to say. I don’t…”

“Is there a cure?” Fadil asked before Johnathan had the chance to break down again.

“No. This WAS the cure. It was supposed to be anyway. I thought we were doing good. A cure all for cancer and other diseases. I’m sorry.”

The lights went out and it got really dark really fast. “AH!” Nina screamed and Johnathan hurried to her side.

“It’s ok, sweetheart, it’s just the lights. We’re fine.” He turned to look at Reggie, his eyes asking what his mouth had already spoken.

“One of those bastards must have ripped out the line. No worries though,” Reggie returned. “There’s a backup generator on the roof. We just need to get it going again.”

“Wait, you’re not seriously thinking about going out there are you?” Liz asked. “If they’re on the roof then no way is it safe.”

“If we don’t get the lights back on the food in the freezers will thaw and spoil. Do you want to stay here with nothing to eat? There’s no telling when or if help is coming. And I for one would not like to starve to death,” Reggie replied.

“He’s right. One of us needs to go up there and fix the generator,” Fadil agreed.

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