Those Lazy Sundays: A Novel of the Undead Read Online Free

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    Andy leaned forward, looking for a bell.
    Not finding one, he bellowed loudly, “Excuse me! We’d like some service please!”
    They waited. And no one came.
    “If you don’t mind taking a five minute break, we’ll buy our stuff and you can keep doing… whatever it is you’re doing!” he yelled, raising his voice even more.
    “Weird,” Kate said.
    “Let’s just leave the money on the counter. I’m sure they’ll be fine with that,” Andy suggested, looking at the rest of them.
    Mary looked around the store hesitantly. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind getting the money, but…” she trailed off.
    Andy looked at his friends, who all looked uncertain about the situation. It wasn’t just the money. Something didn’t feel right, and they all knew it.
    Andy, however, found this not unsettling, but curious. He walked to the other side of the counter by himself, inspecting the area where the clerk would normally stand. Finding nothing there, he looked across the store, scanning the aisles and the walls.  Spotting something, he walked back in the other direction. There was a small alcove next to the cold cuts cooler, with two doors side by side. One was marked “Restroom,” or more precisely, “estroo,” the R and M stickers having long since peeled off. To the right of that was a plain door with no markings. Andy grasped the knob of the unmarked door and turned. The door opened easily, revealing a narrow wooden staircase that ended at another door.
    Cautiously, he ascended the stairs. As he reached for the doorknob, Sarah called out behind him.
    “Andy, what’re you doing?”
    He pushed the door open.
    “Andy? What the hell?”
    He looked over his shoulder.  Sarah stood at the bottom of the stairs, her hands on her hips.
    “You can’t just go in there.”
    “I just want to see if anyone is here,” he said.
    She ran up the stairs and tugged on his arm, then gave him a scornful eye roll and head shake.
    “There’s no one fucking up here Andy,” she said with a deliberate slowness. “Let’s just go.”
    “Hang on,” he said, and passed through the doorway. Sarah groaned angrily behind him.
    The floor of the upstairs was wooden, just like the bottom floor, but the ceiling was the high, vaulted barn roof, a mixture of graying wooden planks and newer, bright tan replacements. Various boxes and other items were stacked around the room.
    “What genius put the storeroom on the second floor,” he grumbled, looking around.
    A partition that reached only halfway to the ceiling divided the upper level into two rooms, though another closed door prevented him from seeing what was on the other side.
    “Excuse me!” Andy yelled out again, taking a step forward, the old wood creaking loudly beneath his feet.
    “Andy, nobody is here,” Sarah insisted. “Come on !”
    He took a last glance across the room, wanting to see what was on the other side of the partition. He looked back at Sarah, who glared at him and motioned angrily towards the stairs. He was smart enough to know when to let things go, and he could tell her patience had already run out.
    “You’re right honey,” he said, flashing a smile that only intensified her glare. “Let’s just drop a few bills on the counter and get the hell out of here.”
    They descended the stairs and went back to the counter, where their friends were still waiting.
    “Nobody having sex on the second floor?” Kyle asked.
    “If there are, they’ve gotta be the stealth bombers of screwing,” Andy replied.
    “So what’re we doing?” Kate asked. “Are we just going to leave some money… or find some place else… or just leave?”
    “Let’s leave the money, and go,” Andy replied.
    “Sounds good to me,” Kyle said, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. “This place is kind of creeping me out. Feels like a Friday the 13 th movie or something.”
    After pooling their money and trying to get as close to exact change as possible (they still left