Generation Zombie

Chapter 13: The Bakery.

Ruby stared at the dusty uneven road the van was barreling through. They had been sitting in the car for three hours straight. He butt was beginning to get sore. She sighed and glanced at Elham who was in the seat next to hers; driving. "What if we get there too late to save her?"

Elham pushed the sunglasses higher up her nose. "Something tells me you've never actually played a video game in your life." She replied, not even bothering to return the sideways glance.

"She hasn't." Arthur chimed in from the backseat. He placed an empty gum wrapper in the center; bookmarking the page he was reading and shutting the book with a sigh. He was bored out of his mind, and needed more stimulus. More sound and movements and activity and...

Something. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but the lack of it made his bones itchy. He felt restless and began to bounce his left leg. Inches away from him, Ajax hugged a floral-patterned pillow and snored lightly.

Ruby adjusted the rear view mirror and glared at Arthur through it. "I played this one and look where it landed me." She criticized.

Elham smacked Ruby’s hands away from the mirror and adjusted it back where she could see the road behind her clearly. Not that it mattered anyways; they hadn’t seen a glimpse of zombies or signs of life since they began the journey. "Well it wouldn't matter if we lounged around for a year, and then go to the bakery to save her. In games, event sequences and missions don't start unless you get to the location... I mean, obviously." Elham explained even though it was not-so-common, common sense.

Ruby yawned and nodded vigorously. She really needed to stretch her limbs, or at least get off her butt before it caved in. But the road seemed eerily empty, and she wasn’t sure Elham would stop unless it was absolutely necessary.

The car fell back into silence again, the only sounds being Ajax’s snoring, the loud purr of the engine, and the wind brushing through the windows. Elham sped through the dusty road, avoiding plot holes but refusing to go easy on the slopes. She was a rough driver; easy with the brakes, and hard on the accelerator. The GPS system guided their path until they reached the bakery.

"Welp, here we are." Elham announced, stopping the car in front of a large abandoned building.

Ruby poked her head through the window and took in the cold bricks and shedding grey paint. "What's the plan?" She asked, unlocking the door and stepping out to stretch. Her muscles felt like knots.

"Stay close to each other, think fast, and try not to get devoured." Elham replied, getting out and shutting the door with a slam. She placed the keys on the kangaroo pocket of her jumpers.

The sound jolted Ajax awake. "I had a nightmare I was..." He stalled, and his face fell; the corners of his lips pulling low into a frown. "Oh, I'm still here." He said to himself almost ruefully.

Elham sighed. "That's right sleeping beauty. Now y'all get your weapons strapped in." She popped open the trunk of the van and unzipped the duffel bag that contained the little weapons she had found and gathered over the five days of surviving alone.

Arthur grabbed a rusted crowbar. He had killed a zombie with it once, so he was familiar with how to swing it.

Ruby eyed the g*n. It looked tempting. She could see herself using it like the heroine in an action movie. But there was the issue of her not knowing how to use it. Plus the possibility of hurting herself with it wasn’t exactly zero. She reached for the small axe, but Arthur handed her a tiny dagger instead.

“Practical. Simpler. More your size.” He said shrugging, when she eyed him in question.

Elham took the g*n and the old baseball bat, leaving Ajax with a small fishing harpoon that looked quite useless. He however, wasn’t complaining. The weapon was there to make him feel safe. He had no intentions of actually using it.

Arthur explored the bakery with his eyes. It was much too large of a building for a place simply meant to make bread and other flour-related pastries. The grey bricks squat in the middle of nowhere; a solitary songbird perched on the highest arch, watching the odd visitors silently. There was no signboard, no sweet smell of baked goods, nothing to signify that it was actually a bakery.

Elham led the way to the front door. It eerily creaked open before she even touched the knob, and a yellow light flickered on, inviting them to adventure, danger, and possible death. They stepped in.

The interior of the bakery looked more like a hunted house. Each hallway had more corners that led to more hallways and so on. The lights flickered, the walls groaned with age, and the floorboards creaked like hollow graves laid beneath them.

"It's awfully quiet." Ajax whispered, yet his voice bounced back and forth in faint echoes.

"Just like in the mall." Ruby added. The hairs on her skin stood in anticipation of danger. From where will the zombies appear? She stuck close to Arthur’s side, and hoped he didn’t notice.

Ajax gulped, a shudder going down his spine. The bakery was spoiling the reputation and high esteem he had for bread. The peeling wallpaper on the walls were horrendous, and the lack of furniture or doors made it even worse. "I have a bad feeling about this—"

"Help me! Someone help me!" The child’s frantic, tormented voice sent a violent jolt through all of them.

"Come on!" Elham yelled at the others and took to her feet, using her instincts to follow the echoes of the voice.

It was hard to navigate the building. It’s maze-like structure and strange lights didn’t make the work easier. The players sprinted down twists and turns until they came upon two identical doors, one on the left, and the other on the right.

Elham hesitated.

A shrill scream tore through the building again. This time it was more desperate, more frightened. It seemed to come from every direction.

Arthur strained his ears to listen to where the echoes were the loudest. "This way!" He informed and swung the left door open. Behind it was another door, and he quickly barged through it too before stopping in his tracks.

Swarms of zombies struggled atop each other to reach a girl hanging from the ceiling. The flaxen haired, dolly, wax-like child gripped the construction rod above her head, and continuously cried for help. Below her, the zombies snarled and wrestled to get to her dangling legs.