Page 101 of Bound in Ashes

“Let’s go,” Miles whispered.

We did, clearing the shelves like we were on a game show, except more than $5000 was on the line.

Jack hit the pharmacy, and emerged with his own carts, equally full. “I’m loading the truck. Stay here,” he said.

As he left, I spotted the box of condoms he stuffed in his back pocket, but a thud from the back wiped the smile off my face.

“Travis?” I whispered urgently.

No response.

“Miles, stay here,” I said.

“But Jack said⁠—”

“I know but if there’s something back there…”

I trailed off and crept toward the back of the store and walked through the door marked Loading.

The door Travis was supposed to be guarding.

He wasn’t there.

Instead, that door was propped open with a cinderblock, and sunlight streamed in.

Where the fuck was he?

“Travis?” I hissed.

I turned the corner into the employee break room and found him.

He stood on a chair, digging around on the top shelf of a pantry cabinet. He had a box of chocolate bars in one hand and was reaching for a carton of cigarettes with the other.

“Travis, what the hell are you doing?”

He jumped, nearly dropping the chocolate.

“Come on. I just—” he stammered, climbing down. “It’s candy and some smokes. Don’t suppose I need to worry about cancer anymore and I’m surely not watching my figure. It’s fine.”

“Jack told you to hold the door.”

“I am holding it! I propped it open so I could hear if⁠—”

A low groan cut him off.

It didn’t come from the break room. It came from the hallway behind me. The hallway that led to the store.

To Miles.

I sprinted down the hallway, and saw them when I skidded around the corner.

Three of them.

An older woman with blonde hair and no face.

A man wearing a polo, his right arm hanging at an unnatural angle, still trying to grab Miles anyway.

I couldn’t catalogue anything about the third before its head exploded, a mist of black-red goo spraying the air.