Christmas With the Dead by Joe R. Lansdale Page B

town for
supplies, a morning like this, he had seen zombies in the dumpster, chewing at
bones, strings of flesh. It had driven him crazy. He had pulled over right then
and there and shotgunned them ,
blowing off two heads, and crushing in two others with the butt of the twelve
gauge. Then, he had pulled the tire tool from
his belt and beat their corpses to pieces. It had been easy, as they were
rotten and ragged and almost gone. It was the brain being destroyed that
stopped them, either that or their own timely disintegration, which with the
destruction of the brain caused the rot to accelerate. But even with them down
for the count, he kept whacking at them, screaming and crying as he did.
    He swallowed as he drove by. Had he not
been napping after a hard days work, waiting on dinner, then he too would have
been like Ella and Tina. He wasn’t sure which was worse, becoming one of them,
not knowing anything or anyone anymore, being eternally hungry, or surviving,
losing his wife and daughter and having to remember them every day.
     
    * * *
     
    Mud Creek’s Super Savor parking lot was
full of cars and bones and wind blown shopping carts. A few zombies were
wandering about. Some were gnawing the bones of the dead. A little child was
down on her knees in the center of the lot gnawing on the head of a kitten.
    As he drove up close to the Super Savor’s
side door, he got out quickly, with his key ready, the truck locked, the shotgun on his shoulder, and the tire tool in his belt.
    He had, days after it all came down,
finished off the walking dead in the Super Market with his shotgun, and pulled
their bodies out for the ones outside to feast on. While this went on, he found
the electronic lock for the sliding plasti -glass doors, and he located the common doors at side
and back, and found their keys. With the store sealed, he knew he could come in
the smaller doors whenever he wanted, shop for canned and dried goods. The
electricity was still working then, but in time, he feared it might go out. So
he decided the best way to go was to start with the meats and fresh vegetables.
They lasted for about six weeks. And then, for whatever reason, the electricity
died.
    It may have been attrition of power, or a
terrific storm, though not nearly as terrific as the one Ella and Tina had
described. The one that had changed things. But something
killed the electricity. He managed to get a lot of meat out before then, and he
tossed a lot away to keep it from rotting in the store, making the place stink.
    By then, he had a freezer and the smaller
refrigerator both hooked to gas generators he had taken from the store. And by
siphoning gas from cars, he had been able to keep it running. He also worked
out a way to maintain electricity by supplanting the gas powered generators
with car batteries that he wired up and used until they died. Then he got
others, fresh ones from the car parts house. He didn’t know how long that
supply would last. Someday he feared he would be completely in the dark when
night fell. So, he made a point of picking up candles each time he went to the
store. He had hundreds of them now, big fat ones, and plenty of matches.
    The weather was cool, so he decided on
canned chili and crackers. There was plenty of food in the store, as most of the town had seen the storm and
been affected by it, and had immediately gone into zombie mode. For them, it
was no more cheese and crackers, salads with dressing on the side, now it was
hot, fresh meat and cold dead meat, rotting on the bone.
    As he cruised the aisle, he saw a rack with bags of jerky on it. He hadn’t had jerky in ages.
He grabbed bags of it and threw them in the cart. He found a twelve pack of
bottled beer and put that in the cart.
    He was there for about six hours. Just wandering. Thinking. He used
the restrooms, which still flushed. He had the same luxury at his house, and he
could have waited, but the whole trip, the food, walking the aisles, using the
toilet, it