EVELYN
Evelyn was not quite sure what she'd expected of Jonathan Johnson, but she knew that it had not been anything close to the unconscious young man that she was now pushing in a shopping cart through an abandoned mall. Sure, she had braced herself for the sight of him. As a pre-med student she'd readied herself for the worst and while his injuries weren't as terrible as she had been preparing herself for, she still felt completely ill-equipped. She hadn't really allowed herself to picture a face or body to match the voice she'd been listening to every day for the past month. He was taller than she'd thought, leaner and more muscular perhaps. She glanced down at him now, she'd propped him up to face her with his long legs hanging out the back gate. She'd used her jacket to create a sling from the handlebars so that his legs wouldn't bend. He'd likely dislocated one, if not both of his knees from their fall, she couldn't tell through his pants and amid the dirt, blood, and bandages he was covered in. She frowned, realizing that she also hadn't pictured him to be as reckless as he was. She, herself, had never been impulsive, in fact, her mother had always called her "my little worrier" because of her overly responsible nature. Rescuing Jonathan had been uncharacteristic of her to say the least, but then again so was leaving the bunker at all.
It was hard to look at him like that, his broken form slumped against the basket of the shopping cart. She caught herself studying the rise and fall of his chest, counting his breaths. When she'd first found him buried under the debris, she'd worried that he was already dead. She wouldn't think about that now. He was alive and she forced herself to focus on other things. His dark hair was cropped military style, and he was dressed in athletic pants, a t-shirt and utility jacket. Her cousin Kevin would have called him handsome, and he wouldn't have been wrong... Evelyn shook her head at that silly thought. Kevin was always so vocal about such things, at fourteen he had just discovered the joys of dating and he was always complaining that Evelyn was so boring because she didn't have boy drama to talk about. He would have been astounded to hear about how his uninteresting older cousin, with her bad sense of direction and terrible aim, had battled her way to Metrotown tower. No doubt he would poke fun at her for the way in which she'd lost both her bike and gun during the quest; one to a flat tire and the other to attempting to wrench open the Metrotown Tower stairway door, it was fine, the gun had been empty anyway— Evelyn's pace suddenly faltered; Kevin had been fourteen, before the Blackout. Kevin was now sixteen. At least Evelyn hoped that her cousin had reached his sixteenth birthday... The thought of her charismatic, bubbly cousin not getting to live out his teenage years or worse spending them shambling through some godforsaken place was too horrific to consider. She shifted her attention back to Jonathan. If Evelyn had to wager a guess based on his appearance, his survivor colony was probably somewhere nearby. He wasn't dressed in a way that suggested he might be travelling long-distances. She felt the faint yet familiar glimmer of hope in her chest. If there was a survivor colony nearby, it could mean her family was nearby as well. She glanced back and forth and the decaying mall signs and shivered. She refused to believe they were here wandering amongst the zombified hordes of shoppers.
✦•······················•✦•······················•✦
Jonathan woke up when they were in the healthcare section of Walmart. Upon seeing his eyes open, Evelyn immediately thrust an expired bottle of painkillers in his direction.
"Take this," She ordered and without hesitation, Jonathan obediently gulped the last two pills in the bottle down his dry throat. Evelyn didn't know how much pain he was in, but she knew it had to be considerable. He did a good job of hiding it, but she figured anyone who took drugs from a random stranger, had to be in pretty rough shape.
"What are we doing?" He choked out once he'd swallowed.
"Shopping," Evelyn said suppressing a smile beneath her mask. Evelyn scrouged through the shelves of the pharmacy, adding anything of possible use to the small pile of supplies on Jonathan's lap. "I'm almost done here actually. To be honest, there's not much selection,"
"I wonder why?" Jonathan quipped, "Oh yeah, restocking a Walmart shelf might be a low priority right now."
Evelyn sighed. "We are going to need bandages though. I can't find any except those,"
Jonathan glanced down and picked up the small box of Hello Kitty themed Band-Aids in his lap. "Yeah, somehow I don't think this is going to cut it." There was a lilt in his voice and Evelyn looked down to realize he was smirking.
"Careful," she warned, "the soulless."
"We're fine," Jonathan promised, "we're in my neck of the woods," He glanced down at his wristwatch. "Most of them are probably in the taxi line by now."
"Where?" Evelyn asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.
"Hang on, I'll show you. Can you... um... drive me out of here?"
Jonathan directed her out of the store and towards the glass balcony that overlooked the mall's center atrium, "didn't you wonder why you're standing in one of the largest malls in BC and you've barely seen any of the soulless?"
Evelyn leaned over the railing to get a better look and gasped. Standing in the atrium were about fifty people... no fifty corpses standing in a long zigzagging line of stanchions that stretched around the atrium leading nowhere. At the front of the line stood a security guard who unzipped the retractable belt every few minutes to let a member of the crowd through.
Evelyn watched a soulless shopper wander off the escalator and join the slow-moving line. "What is this? Crowd control?"
"I got the idea from when I used to work at the cruise ship terminal during my summers in high school. No matter what you did to try to direct passengers to the exit door, all anyone ever wanted to do was get in the taxi line even if they didn't need a taxi. They just saw a line and got in it, no questions asked. It's like people are just hard wired to stand in a queue, even if they don't know what it's for." Jonathan looked up at her, his eyes gleaming, "then I found Leonard, he used to work at the Nike store, damn that place always had long lines. The guy's employee of the year, maybe employee of the century. He's here at 9am every day and works a 12-hour shift."
"So, you just set all this up and got him down here," Evelyn's eyes widened.
"Yep," Jonathan said, Evelyn swore there was a hint of pride in his voice, "honestly, they just needed something to do. They won't attack if they have something to do. They'll spend hours in line and sometimes even circle back a few times. The first one was hard to convince but the rest just followed, kind of like herding sheep maybe. Once it became part of their routine, they just followed the same loop. If the records in the staff room are to be believed, I think old Leonard here has been working this stanchion for like 40 or 50 years. I've learned that the more ingrained a habit is, the harder it is for them to break out of it."
Evelyn watched Leonard zip the retractable belt back into place and return to his position as a gatekeeper to nowhere as his line of zombified shoppers waited patiently for their turn to be let through. There was a tight feeling in her chest as she watched the pointless gestures and limp attempt at purpose. It looked sad. It looked lonely. Even though they had almost been killed by these monsters, she sort of felt bad for them.
"What if Leonard stops?"
"It's happened a few times," Jonathan admitted, "sometimes he goes to the food court for a while, but so far, he always comes back. He's a reliable one."
"Wow," Evelyn breathed, "I didn't know they could do that, this is really smart."
Jonathan shifted in the shopping cart, "No, most people would have just killed them, but see? Even zombies are just looking for purpose."
"Why don't you just take the compliment?" Evelyn asked.
"Because I feel like I'm being lied to." Jonathan said with a shrug. Evelyn was about to protest but Jonathan cut her off, "C'mon, let's check out bedding,"
"Huh?"
"Bedding," He repeated, "The bedding section, we need bandages,"
"Oh yeah," Evelyn responded and pushed the cart back towards the Walmart. Within a few moments the two of them found themselves staring at a messy collection of bedsheets, duvets, and assorted linens.
"Grab those pillowcases over there," Jonathan said inclining his chin towards a shelf. His voice was becoming more noticeably strained, and Evelyn knew that they would need to find a safe place to rest soon. She too could feel her own strength waning, the events of the day were beginning to take their toll. She'd been running on nothing but adrenaline for hours. How nice it would have been to just collapse onto the pile of sheets in front of them, but Jonathan's injuries would still need tending to and they were still short supplies.
"I think pillowcases are the best tool in the apocalypse," Jonathan said, interrupting Evelyn's train of thought.
"What?"
"Pillowcases are probably the best tool in the apocalypse." He repeated then raised an eyebrow at her, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Evelyn held her hands up innocently, "I'm not looking at you like anything! Besides you can't even see my expression!"
The corner of Jonathan's mouth twitched, "your eyes are very expressive, nay, judgemental. Your eyes are very judgemental."
"How hard did you hit your head, lightning boy? I was only wondering about the pillowcases because I think a pretty good case could be made for duct tape."
"Lightning boy?" Jonathan shook his head, a hint of humour in his voice, "You would think that it would be duct tape but it's actually pillowcases. Duct tape is too obvious. It's the first thing to get raided same goes for bedsheets because they're bigger so there's more pillowcases around in general and second there are so many functions for them! Of course, you can use it as a pillow, blanket or towel but also it could be used as bandages, clothing including shoes and socks, a bag..." He emphasized his point by dumping the collection of their supplies into the pillowcase she'd handed him, "you can use it as a strainer, rope—"
"But what use is it if you get attacked by the soulless?" Evelyn said, thankful to him for the distraction from her exhaustion, "Let me guess, you can use it as a whip or a net?"
Jonathan shook his head, "nah, in that situation you can just put it over your head so you don't have to watch what happens next." At that, even Evelyn had to smile.
They spent the next two hours wandering the mall and retrieving supplies. Evelyn was extremely relieved to learn that Jonathan had created a safe house in the mall that they could use. Jonathan proved to be remarkably resourceful as he provided locations or creative alternatives for the list of supplies, she'd mentally put together. As he put it, he could "MacGyver" anything they needed. Jonathan seemed to know the entire floor plan of the mall by heart, including backup routes and short cuts when dazed soulless wandered into their path. He'd found a cloth mask in the store where they'd picked up a change of clothes, but Evelyn almost wondered why he'd needed it. She had never met anyone with a more impressive poker face.
"I've had practice," He informed her, "years and years of practice." The comment struck Evelyn as something that deserved some explanation, but his tone had told her that was the end of that particular conversation. Once they'd finished their shopping trip, Jonathan directed Evelyn towards his safehouse. Evelyn figured he would have tried to hold out on its location longer if the dire necessity of a place to sleep hadn't forced him to relent. He'd gotten quieter as they approached the little store tucked into the back corner of the mall, and Evelyn tried her best to ignore her urge to fill the silence.
The first thing Evelyn noticed as she entered the Sunrise Records was the smell. It was the scent of laminated cardboard, plastic wrap, and heavily treaded carpet. It reminded Evelyn of the library, a place she'd spent far too much time, pre-Blackout. She had forgotten how inviting the smell was, it signaled that this was a place of comfort, something she hadn't felt in a long time. The shop was lined with rows and rows of vinyl and CDs, lit by the glow of strings of Christmas lights. Along the back wall was a collection of movies and TVs shows on DVD, while the side walls featured a wide variety of pop culture items and boardgames. Jonathan had clearly customized the area by outfitting the room with a soft looking sofa, probably snagged from a furniture store, and a wide array of Christmas lights which lined the walls. By the front counter, a multioutlet surge protector was plugged into a single electrical outlet populated with half a dozen record players and CD players of varying shapes and sizes.
"It's not much, but it's home," he said in a stiff voice, noticing her staring.
"It's beautiful," She replied, "You did all this by yourself?"
"Yeah." He muttered as he lifted the gate of the shopping cart and winced as he tried to lower himself out.
"I can help," She offered, but he brushed off her offer and painfully manoeuvred himself out of the cart.
"Have to tell you though, running a record shop is not very practical in an apocalypse. Business has been slow." He deadpanned and Evelyn rolled her eyes at the joke.
Once he'd gotten himself out of the cart and collapsed onto the floor at the back of the shop. Evelyn followed his directions as he instructed her on how to ensure that the gate and glass doors were securely locked.
"Are those pillowcases?" Evelyn noticed, staring at the curtain of fabric patched together like a quilt that Jonathan had used for soundproofing.
"Best apocalypse gear, I'm telling you." He removed his mask and tossed it to the side.
"But look what's holding it all together," Evelyn said setting her own mask and goggles on the counter and wiggling her eyebrows at him, "duct tape."
The corners of Jonathan's mouth twitched, "sure, if someone got a hold of enough duct tape and pillowcases, they could rule the world."
"Now you're talking." She said with a small smile, "So, let's see about getting you fixed up."