ZombieMart - A Contemporary Fantasy Short Story

Part 1: Night Shift (1st Draft)

One of the sucky things about working at a superstore is the night shift. Even if the store itself isn’t open 24 hours a day, there’s still a night shift because someone has to stock those shelves ready for the eager hordes of greedy shoppers the next morning.

And if it is open 24/7? Well then you get to stock the shelves while harassed by said greedy shoppers. Usually not hordes of them though. Most of them like to sleep.

However, if you happen to be in dire need of some money, say to repair a home that was trashed by werewolves (or a demonic creature of some indeterminate nature), in that case night shift is great because they pay you more!

At least that is what I was trying to persuade myself of as I walked under the glowing neon Supermart 13 sign and into the air conditioned sterility of a chain superstore. Honestly it’s not that bad. The pay sucks, of course, but some of the people are sort of nice and it’s the sort of job that doesn’t attract a lot of attention. Which is what I want.

My name is Douglas Brodie. I’m a wizard, I’m Scottish and I live in Charles Town, West Virginia. Why? It’s complicated. Long story short, I’m keeping a low profile. Or at least I was until that werewolf incident. I blame my geas. It has a way of attracting unwelcome supernatural attention towards me.

Right at that moment though, it wasn’t supernatural attention that was worrying me. It was the attention of my manager once she noticed that I was late, again. For some reason she took it as a personal insult every time someone was late. And it had been a rough week.

I was heading straight for the back of the store, hoping to clock in before Maggie noticed when Lucas hobbled into view smiling broadly. I stifled an inward curse and returned the smile, slowing to a stop. Lucas was in the store every night, taking his daily exercise. He knew everyone by name and always wanted to chat. It wasn’t really about the exercise. Some people just need an excuse to get out and be around others. So, I did the right thing.

“How’s it going Lucas?” I asked him, hoping that the answer would be a short one.

“Can’t complain.” Lucas smiled again, showing several missing teeth. The man must have been nearly 80, I’ll be happy if that’s all I’m missing by that age. “Been awful hot lately ain’t it?” The weather was never to Lucas’ satisfaction.

“It’s the humidity that gets me.”

“That’s why I take my walks inside.” Lucas laughed. The conversation would meander on like this forever if I let it. I was paying even less attention than usual though because something was off.

Not with Lucas, he was just Lucas. Something about the store itself felt wrong. Wizards are sensitive. No, not in a new age see the aura's sort of way. It's just that we have trained ourselves to be aware of the interactions of various energy types. Actually... that does sound kind of new agey doesn't it?

Now the energy fields in Supermart 13 tend to be pretty subdued. People who talk about soulless modern superstores may be onto something. But today. I don't know, it just felt different. Perhaps if I'd had more time I could have figured it out, but I didn't.

“Got to get clocked in.” I interrupted Lucas who was still chatting away amiably and gestured towards the back of the store. “See you on the next lap.”

Lucas nodded happily and turned away as I practically sprinted towards the back of the store. I didn’t actually run of course. That would have been against store policy and I am an obedient employee!

It didn’t do me any good mind you. Maggie was waiting for me when I reached the time Clock, and she had one of those looks on her face. The sort that told me no amount of charm would make the slightest difference.

“You’re late.” Was all she said.

I nodded and tried to look suitably guilty. I didn’t have a good excuse, but it really hadn’t been deliberate. Maggie seemed surprised, she was probably used to listening to people blame everything and their dog.

“You can go and help Bethany in the steel. There’s a new shipment of toaster ovens in and we need them out on the floor.”

Now it was my turn to be surprised, I was expecting at least a chewing out. Maggie’s tongue was not something you wanted to be exposed to when she was angry.

“We’re short three people tonight Douglas. At least you turned up.” She massaged her forehead with the tips of her fingers, her face suddenly looking more tired than angry.

Nodding, I turned to go. I was getting off very lightly, working in the back meant I didn’t have to deal with customers for a bit. No need to make Maggie’s life more difficult than it already was.

The “steel” was how staff referred to the small warehouse at the back of Supermart 13. Like most modern stores, they ran a “Just In Time” inventory system so a full sized warehouse wasn’t required, but you needed somewhere to store the stuff that wouldn’t fit on the shelves or for promotions that hadn’t started yet.

As a result it was a cramped area with the space maximised by use of a clever motorized rack system that slid the shelves from side to side and allowed them to fit in far more storage than would normally be possible. So it wasn’t hard to find Bethany, basically she was in the only rack that you could actually reach right now. Well, that and the pallet half stacked with toaster ovens right in front of it was a bit of a giveaway.

I hadn’t worked with Bethany before, though I had seen her about the store in the last few months. She must have started here straight out of school, she couldn’t be more than 18 I guessed. She had that overly confident pushiness that really only comes from being young, blonde, curvy and thus popular.

“Took your time.” Was her greeting to me. “There’s more boxes on the second shelf.” She pointed at them and stepped out the way, clearly expecting me to take care of it. I gave a mental shrug. Work is work, no point in getting all knotted up about who is doing what.

Bethany watched as I stepped on the bottom shelf, boosting myself up a little and grabbed the top box. Toaster ovens don’t weigh that much so I wasn’t too worried about balancing like this. I glanced over at her, planning to throw her the box, but she was leaning against the supports and clearly had no intention of doing any more work now there was someone here to order around. I could feel my good will evaporating.

Biting down on a comment that would only have earned a sullen glower anyway, I stepped back down and added the box to the pallet. Only twelve more to go.

“Ewww. What is that smell?” Bethany complained, her otherwise pretty face twisted up in a grimace. I was about to tell her I didn’t notice anything when the sulphuric odor hit my nostrils. I hopped down from my perch and stuck my head out to look down the warehouse.

You remember that sense of wrongness I was feeling earlier? Well if I had a spider-sense it would have been blowing my head off about then. Even in Supermart 13 there is a natural flow of energy. Whatever was causing that smell was not natural.

“That’s disgusting.” Bethany continued her litany of complaints. She went on at some length but I had largely tuned her out. There was a strange dirty yellow fog spreading across the concrete floor of the warehouse. That could not be good.

It was already large enough that I couldn't pinpoint the exact starting point of the miasma. The color looked deeply unwholesome. The smell was considerably worse. But most disturbing of all, the yellow mist was between us and any of the exits. We were completely cut off.