Brian Keene - Jack's Magic Beans

“That depends. You’ve probably got people you want to check on. So do I. We need to at least determine if the whole city is like this. The power is still on. Maybe we can find a television or a radio—check the news and see if we can learn anything.”

“Something tells me we’re not going to.”

“That’s crazy talk,” Jack teased.

“I just think we just need to prepare for the worst possible scenario. You and I might very well be the only two sane people left in this city. What if we find our loved ones and they’re like everybody else? Or what if they’re still alive—and they try to kill us? Could you defend yourself against your family? Do you have what it takes to stay alive? To kill them?”

Jack’s expression soured. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“You might not have a choice, Jack.”

“Shit…”

“And there’s something else to consider.”

“What?”

“While we’re watching each other’s backs, we also need to keep an eye on each other. If either of us misses a dose—or if we’re wrong about that and this… whatever it was that caused this, infects one of us, the other could be in real danger.”

“We’ll be okay,” Jack insisted. “In truth, I was thinking about that earlier. I figure that if we were gonna go psycho, we would have changed when Marcel did.”

“We don’t know that. We don’t know anything.”

Jack’s expression fell. “So you think we should split up? Go our separate ways?”

“No. I just think we should be careful around each other. Marcel was complaining about a headache right before he snapped. If either of us gets a headache, we should tell each other right away. Agreed?”

“And then what? We kill the person with the headache? We abandon them?”

“I don’t know.”

Jack sighed. He looked as if he were ready to cry.

“Look,” Angie said after a pause, “I think you’re right about finding some news. Let’s try that first. We’ll worry about everything else in time.”

“Okay.”

Still using caution, they found two student-sized backpacks in the employee locker room. They filled these with bottles of spring water, crackers, sardines, dried fruit, and other canned goods, as well as medical supplies, toiletries, matches, cigarette lighters, and anything else that might prove useful. Jack considered grabbing some cash from the registers, but decided against it. He wasn’t sure what good cash would do them now, except to maybe start a fire with. Angie took a carton of cigarettes from behind the customer service counter.

“Do you smoke?”

She shook her head and then shrugged. “Fuck it. I do now.”

They crept to the front of the store. The electronic eyes above the doors registered their movements and the doors slid open as they approached.

“Oh…” Angie stared out at the parking lot. Sodium lights bathed it in a sickly yellow glow. “It’s even worse than it is in here.”

Jack said nothing.

The parking lot was littered with corpses and debris. Something had sparked a fire, and many of the cars were now nothing more than blackened hulls. Some of the bodies were burned as well. Crows and other birds perched on the dead, scavenging the choice bits. The stench was revolting. A dog wandered amidst the chaos, but ran away when it saw them.

Slowly, they walked outside, clutching their weapons, supplies, and most importantly, Jack’s magic beans. The doors slid shut behind them, and the electricity went out, plunging the store and the parking lot into total darkness. Squawking, the birds took flight. The stench grew stronger.

“I can’t see shit,” Angie whispered.

“Neither can I. The power must be out everywhere.”

Jack looked around. There were no streetlights or glows from the windows of the nearby buildings. No car headlights, no radios blaring. Even the birds had fallen silent. He gazed up at the sky. The stars were hidden behind a curtain of clouds. He searched for the twinkling lights of a passing airplane, but the sky was empty.

The silence overwhelmed them.

“It’s the end of the world,” Jack said. “For real. The end of the fucking world.”

“No,” Angie disagreed. “It’s not the end of the world. It’s just the end of the people. The world will be just fine. Look around us. The world is still here. It’s just the people that are gone.”

“We can’t be the only ones left alive,” Jack said. “It doesn’t make any sense. There has to be others like us.”

To Angie, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

They took a few hesitant steps forward. Jack stumbled over a severed arm and almost tripped. After he regained his balance, Angie found his hand in the dark and held on tight.

“Be careful,” she whispered. “Wouldn’t do to break your leg after all of this.”

“That would suck. Doctors might be hard to come by now.”

She held up a hand, silencing him. Her expression was alarmed.

“What’s wrong?” Jack whispered.

Angie nodded at the Chinese restaurant, adjoined to the supermarket. The door was slightly ajar. The smell of cooking meat drifted out of the building. Despite his terror, Jack’s mouth watered.

“Listen,” Angie mouthed.

Jack cocked his head and focused. After a moment, he heard it—a slight rustling sound, followed by a crunching noise. Someone walking on broken glass, perhaps, and trying to be stealthy about it.

Gripping her weapon tightly, Angie crept toward the open door.

Something zipped by them—an angry bee. A second later, they heard the shot.

“Get down,” Jack shouted.

Angie was already ahead of him. She flung herself to the pavement, skinning her elbows and knees. Another blast boomed across the parking lot. Ducking behind a toppled shopping cart, Jack saw a brief flash of light from inside the restaurant.

“Get out of here,” a man screamed. “Get the fuck away from me, you crazy bastards!”

Unable to seek cover without becoming a target, Angie cast a terrified glance at Jack. Still cowering behind the shopping cart, he motioned at her to stay down.

“Hey,” he shouted. “Stop shooting! We don’t want to hurt you. We’re not like the others!”

The unseen man responded by firing another round. A car windshield exploded nearby. Fragments of glass rained down on the pavement. When the echoes of the gunshot finally died down, they heard the shooter yelling.

“The whole fucking world’s gone insane. But you won’t get me!”

“We’re not trying to,” Jack insisted. “Nobody’s going to hurt you. We just want to go home. Please!”

“Bullshit! You’re like everybody else. Bug-fuck crazy. They were cooking people in here. Cooking people who were still alive. Look at this grill! Who would do something like this?”

“Are you okay?” Jack called. “Are you injured? Do you need help?”

“You’re trying to trick me. I let you come in, and you’ll kill me. You think I was born yesterday, you crazy fucker?”

“We’re not crazy,” Angie yelled. “We’re like you. We just escaped from the grocery store.”

Jack decided to try a different tactic. “My name’s Jack. This is Angie. What’s your name?”

“Fuck you, Jack!”

“Why did you tell him our names?” Angie whispered.

“I’m trying to calm him down.”

“Well, I don’t want him knowing who I am. He just tried to kill us. Did it ever occur to you that he could be one of them? Maybe he’s trying to lure us in?”

“He just said the same thing about us, Angie.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Get out of here,” the man hollered. “I’m not telling you again. If you don’t leave right the fuck now, I’ll drop you right there.”