Taking Life Seriously

-14-

Twelve minutes later they were all huddled together on the couch in the employee lounge of the Savemore, Dean hugging Anita fiercely, Martin looking at the floor and fiddling with his thumbs.

They had closed the shop's metal shutters and activated the alarm as soon as they all made it back, so they were locked in, safe, for now. Then they tried the TV and the radio hoping to get some idea of what was going on, but there was nothing, only white noise on all the frequencies. Then they listened to what was going on outside. There were a few isolated zaps, and some screams. Once there was the sound of feet shuffling and someone trying the lock. Then everything was quiet.

'What now, Oh Glorious Leader?' said Dylan.

Gordon frowned, he always frowned when he was thinking, except now that he had shaved the frown looked deeper, and had somehow encompassed his entire face. The others watched him in silence. 

Rajesh got up and examined his ruined goatie in the mirror above the microwave.

'Tom Seleck,' he said.

Anita looked around. There were twenty seven survivors including The Pack, all huddled in small groups on the other two yellow couches and the black plastic chairs in the lounge. A man in his late twenties was giving out water and people were mumbling thanks, too stunned to form whole sentences. The two teenage girls Rajesh and Martin had found were crying and their excessive make up had smeared so that they both looked like members of a Kiss cover band. And there was Aileen Anders, the only person to actually fight one of those things, still unconscious.

Dylan lit a cigarette.
'Ahem,' said a woman in a pink sweater.
Dylan ignored her.
'Ahem,' she said again.
Dylan sighed. Then he put on his best smile and said: 'Why, whatever is the matter?'
'Do you mind not smoking? Only there are children present.'
'Hmm,' Dylan looked at the cigarette, then back at the woman and said, 'Let me get this straight, you have just survived what appears to be a terrorist attack led by members of the Lady Gaga fan club, and what you are in fact worried about is second hand smoke?' 
'Erm...' said the woman.
'Right. Kindly sit down and shut your cake hole, Madam.'
The woman left.
'The shutters won't hold them for long,' said Anita.
'It's going to be okay, the army will come and get us.' said Martin.
'You don't know that,' said Dean, 'you don't know anything. What if it's like this all over the world? What if...'
'Shut up Dean,' said Dylan, 'let's let the man think.'
'Hey,' said Gordon suddenly, 'where is everyone?'
'What everyone?' said Dylan.
'Hello, the Savemore has some staff other than you right? Sixty something, no? And that prick Rogers. They couldn't all have died, I don't see any bodies here, do you?'
'No,' said Dylan.
'So where is everyone?' said Rajesh.
'The stock room,' said Gordon.  The pack all turned to look at him.
'Of course, the stock room, it's brilliant. They must all be locked up in there. It's got that huge metal door and the strong bolt, and enough food for a year's siege.' said Martin.
'Yes! it's brilliant, let's get everybody down there.' said Gordon.
'Nix not carrying the passed out lady,' said Dean, Dylan, Rajesh, Gordon and Anita.
'Seriously?' said Martin.
'Sorry, buddy,' said Dean and clapped Martin on the shoulder.
Martin sighed.

It took them a while to get everyone ready to move. Some of the older people looked like they were in a state of shock and needed a lot of help. Two people were wounded, one had sprained her ankle while running and the other looked like he had a broken arm. The Pack gave instructions, they brought back medical supplies and food from the shelves, and then they got everyone up and moving, well except for Aileen Anders, who Martin was carrying over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.
They walked down aisle 24 to the corridor that led to the loading bay and turned left toward the stock room.
Then the store's alarm went off