Marin's Dale

VI

There was not a single empty spot.

Minivans and sports cars and dingy Cadillacs and oversized trucks abounded in the supermarket parking lot. There were cars everywhere. But there were people nowhere.

The beige and white letters of "$aleLot" stretched across the building's face. Grocery carts were left in disarray along the front of the store, turned and flipped at odd angles as if the remnants of a small explosion. Behind the anemic face of the grocery store, the cherry sun burned. It was growing redder by the minute. And hotter.

Inside the store, there should have been something else. There should have been the electric rings and jingles of scanner guns filling the air. There should have been couples talking and walking, careful shoppers and hurried buyers, and a whole endless row of opened cash registers with listless cashiers serving the masses.

There should have been a lot of things. But there was nothing. Not a single person. The calming elevator music floated in the lifeless air. Up front, there was an alcove leading into a shady nook. Above this entrance on the wall, it read "Restrooms." And below the sign, on the floor leading to this quiet cove, a crimson puddle leaked out.

                  ###

"You wanna zip?"

Tyler needed to get things back on track here. Shit was lookin like some scene out of a Scifi movie. Real weird. But more than anything, Tyler was getting antsy.

"I dunno. I think I'm wigging out."

Tyler turned to Audrey's voice. A thick white fog hung like snow. But only for 10 feet or so. Above, the red bomb of the sun had a messy scratch across it; like somebody had gutted the very belly of the sky itself and sent its innards to the side.

They were walking side by side, along the outskirts of the soccer field that traced the far woods. The evergreens there were normally big and bushy, but today they seem withered.

"You'll be fine."

They made way through the weighty fog, punching through cotton haze. Audrey stopped with a stomp of the foot. Her arms were folded and she was shaking her head. "Why would an animal like that be trying to get into our classroom? It nearly bashed its brains in."

Tyler scratched his unkempt hair. "Maybe it smelled the McDonalds in my stomach."

But she was giving the face. Tyler knew very well the ramifications of that face. It was not just any face. The face was for real. And there was no point in attacking its impregnable walls. She was not playing around.

"Babe..."

She raised her eyebrows sharply. "Babe, what? Did you see its eyes? I'm tellin you Ty, you got a bad batch."

Tyler frowned. Things never stayed crazy for long with this bird. He just couldn't agree with her. If she didn't wanna zip, that was fine—it'd be for the better anyway. Tyler gave his standard nod. He looked to Audrey for acceptance but the worried girl was staring ahead.

Tyler followed her gaze. That's when he saw the naked bodies.