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My first instinct was to just start running in the direction that Hazel had pointed, but Hunt thought we should, like, plan first.
“Ray and Hazel say they are picking up several survivors, the most noticeable of which could be your mother,” said Hunt. “They also think there is a decent-sized horde, and that it is further off-route than our other rescues.”
Hazel nodded. “I think it’s a couple blocks away. I don’t know if we can feel them because your mother is really loud, or if it’s because the horde is really big.”
“How does that work, again, exactly?” I said.
“It’s like that time we used you as zombie bait,” said Ray. “The more zombies pile up, the more the good mind kind of... echoes. Makes it louder. Draws in more. That’s how we were able to use you to take out pretty much all of the zombies in the outbreak at once.”
“Okay...” I didn’t think I would ever fully understand how zombie brains worked. At least, I hoped I wouldn’t, because I had zero interest in getting first-hand knowledge of it. “So is it definitely my mother, and maybe a big horde, or maybe my mother and definitely a big horde?”
“It’s probably both,” said Ray. “And maybe other people.”
“Like my Dad?”
They shrugged.
“I don’t want to bring all of these survivors into a big horde,” said Hunt, “and I’m still nervous about more super-zombies showing up, so I’d like to do this fast. I want Stella and half of the team to go check out this horde. The tank, the survivors, and the other half of the team will wait here.”
“Where will you be?” I asked.
Hunt looked torn for a second — only a second. “The survivors,” she said. “I trust my team to protect you, and I’m responsible for the people of this province in the case of an outbreak.”
She got volunteers to go with me. Andrea Kim came, and a guy called Mike McDowell, and a few cops volunteered to come, too.
“Don’t let Stella get killed,” said Hunt. “Ray — you guard her. Hazel — you stay here with me.”
“I mean, I am wearing armour now,” I said, but no one responded. They were busy picking up their weapons. I practically danced with impatience. I wanted my Mom. And I desperately, desperately hoped that Dad was with her.
******
I PRACTICALLY DRAGGED Andrea Kim and the others down Brighton Avenue. I was so tired that the world didn’t seem real anymore, and I had fixated on the idea of my parents. If I could just find them, if they could just be okay, then maybe I would wake up in their house and it would all be a dream. I imagined telling them about this crazy-ass dream where I went to Seattle to rescue Howie from zombies and flew back in a helicopter and crashed and then we had to electrocute Howie because he wanted to eat me, and now he was tied up in the back of a truck and I got to ride in a tank and...
I mean, it was a good story, if you weren’t actually in the midst of living it.
I didn’t see any zombies at all until we turned the corner. A massive horde was surrounding the Costco. The parking lot was smeared with dried blood and gobs of unnameable body parts.
Costcos don’t have windows, so the horde was concentrating on the door which was obviously smashed to pieces. They were crushing to get in and I could hear fighting sounds. Standing on tiptoe, I thought I saw fighting.
I am here. Make way for me.
The zombies paused, and then they turned. God, I was so tired. The ground seemed to be moving under my feet, like I was on a boat. On waves. The waves were going to knock me down.
The zombies were turning toward me. Some of them took steps toward me. Shit, I wasn’t doing it well enough. I was just beckoning them instead.
I am here. Make way for me.
They barely faltered.
Where was my mother? Was she really nearby?
“Stop them!” said Agent Kim.
“I’m trying,” I said.
“She’s too tired,” said Ray. “It don’t feel right. Look, I can talk through it. When she does it right I just stand here like a fucking dope.”
Make way for me! MAKE WAY, PLEASE, I WANT MY PARENTS.
The zombies were all drifting toward us.
“Shit!” swore Agent McDowell.
“I’M HERE!” I shouted at them. “STOP, YOU ASSHOLES!”
They were moving slow. They were faltering. But they were coming. Ray strode in and started whacking away, totally indifferent to snaps and bites. McDowell and Kim started swinging, too, but it was a big horde and they were surrounding us.
“HUNT!” I screamed. “HELP!” and then, “MOM!” God, I wanted my mother. I wanted her to hold me in her soft, comfortable arms. I wanted my Dad to come help me. I wanted him to come sweep me away, like he did when I was five and I stepped on a hornet’s nest, and I just stood in the swarm screaming until Dad came rushing right in, swooped me up in his arms, and ran me out of there. “Dad,” I called out, but my voice was breaking. I was breaking.
“Stella?!” It was my mother’s voice, oh Jesus, it was my mother’s voice. Where was it coming from? Was I dreaming it?
“MOM!” I stood on my tiptoes. “MOM, I’M HERE!”
“STELLA!” I heard my mother again. “I’m coming!”
And the zombies paused. They milled in confusion. Some shuffled forward, some shuffled back. They bumped into each other. My backup team started knocking them all out. The next thing I knew, my mother was bursting through the dead, elbowing them aside like a shopper at a Black Friday sale. She grabbed me, yanking off my riot mask to look into my face. Then she pulled me close and squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe.
“Oh, thank God,” she said into my hair. “My baby. My baby.”
“Mom...” I said, burying my face into her neck. “You froze the zombies.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “Are you okay? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m so tired. Where...? Is Dad...?” I was afraid to ask. I was afraid of the answer. Dad. Dad. I needed Dad. I couldn’t imagine life without Dad.
“Oh, shit, your father,” she said, loosening her grip and looking over her shoulder. “He’s still in there.”
I stumbled toward the Costco. “Dad!” I shouted.
The zombies were moving again, but the agents had taken out a lot of them. Ray shook himself and went in front of us, knocking down the remaining ones.
“Dad’s okay?” I said, clutching my mother’s elbow as we crossed the parking lot. The light was getting dimmer — the day was almost over.
“He’s unconscious,” said my mother with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “We stopped by the Costco to get supplies on our way to you, but we got trapped by a big horde. I thought The Service might show up to clear them away but they didn’t, so we decided to try and arm ourselves and get out so we could get to you. Your father was trying to get something off a high shelf when the zombies broke down the door. The noise startled Tim and he fell. I think he broke something. I tried to help him up and he passed out. And the zombies were getting in and the other idiots we were trapped with were being useless so I went to fight the horde. But it was a losing battle... and then I heard you... How did you know we were here? Did you see the car?”
“No, Hazel and Ray found you.”
“Oh,” she looked at Ray. “Thank you.”
He jerked his chin in a curt nod.
Mom kept patting me and looking me over as we entered the Costco. “Honey, you look exhausted. Why didn’t you answer our texts? Tim and I were scared to death.”
“Sorry. I kind of went to Seattle in the middle of the night to fetch Howie and I nearly got killed like five times and then I wasn’t here when you needed me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mom.” For some reason I felt more like crying now, when I knew my parents were safe, than I had when I was worried they were dead.
“You should be,” said Mom. “Come on. Let’s go show your father that you’re alive.”
******
THERE WERE AT LEAST twenty people trapped in that Costco. They were clutching chain saws, gardening tools and kitchen knives. They looked sweaty and bloody and scared. A dark-skinned woman was tying Dad’s leg to a gardening stake. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed. He looked dead.
“Dad?” I said, rushing to him and kneeling down. His eyes popped open and he half sat up, staring at me.
“Stella?” Then he burst into hysterical tears and wrapped his arm around me, yanking me close.
“Please lie down sir,” said the woman in a thick accent. “I am trying to immobilize your leg.”
“You’re alive... you’re alive...” Dad wailed into my neck. The woman gave him an impatient shove and lay down obediently but he pulled me down too and I almost fell over. I looked at the woman.
“Hi. I’m Stella. I’m his daughter.”
“I’m Doctor Mabele. Your father has broken his leg.”
“Thanks for helping him,” I said, squeezing Dad’s hand.
“Where’s Elaine?” Dad asked, looking past me.
“I’m here, Tim,” said Mom.
He turned to me. “And you’re really okay?”
“I’m fine, Dad. Really tired.”
“We might as well load up on supplies while we’re here,” said Agent Kim. “I’ll go see if we can find a truck that still has keys in its ignition.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “I’m... just going to sit down for a bit.”
A minute later I was fast asleep next to Dad, my head pillowed on his shoulder.
******
IT WAS COMPLETELY DARK by the time my mother woke me up. I was totally disoriented. Then some of it came back, and for a second I really believed that I had woken up from the both the worst and the coolest dream of all time... and then I realized that no, this was real. I was on the floor of a Costco in the centre of a zompocalypse, and the world would probably never be the same again.
But I had my parents.
I forced myself to sit up. People were leaving the Costco with big armfuls of canned food and prescription pills at the direction of Agent Kim. Dad had been moved onto a make-shift stretcher and was being loaded into the back of a pick up truck.
“Stella...” he called. “Elaine.”
“Don’t worry,” said Agent McDowell, “we’re all going to the same place.”
“Don’t worry?” Dad repeated. “Don’t worry? It’s a zombie apocalypse. I won’t be separated from my family in the middle of an apocalypse. Don’t you watch movies? You know what happens.”
“It’s not a zombie apocalypse,” said one of the other survivors. “There’s... it’s... they... is it?”
“Mom, go with Dad,” I said. “They’re keeping me in a tank because the super smart kind of zombies might come looking for me.”
“Oh, I like that,” said Mom. “Yes. Please hide in the tank. I’ll ride with Tim.”
“We’ll head out soon,” said Agent Kim. “We’ve got the most vital supplies — antibiotics and things — and we’ll grab some of the perishables to be eaten first. Hunt really wants to get back to Burnaby Mountain, but after all, we’re going to have mouths to feed, right?”
“Right,” I said.
“The good news is there was a delivery truck outside and we managed to find the driver and his keys in the dead zombie pile,” said Agent Kim.
“Score,” I said, holding up my hand. She high fived me again.
“You can start in the bread section if you want,” she said, pointing.
“Stella is exhausted,” said my mother. “She can’t lug supplies- she needs sleep.”
“It’s true,” I said, rubbing my head. “I’m not good right now.”
“We’ve all had a really rough day,” said Agent Kim, her voice hardening a bit. “But we’ve got survivors out there who need food and shelter. And we have to get this truck loaded and get them up to Burnaby Mountain.”
“Yeah. I’m up,” I said. I stood up and the ground lurched under my feet, tossing me right off of the planet.