Locke and Key: Finder Locke 1
by twinblade
Jan. 27th 2006
The Beginning of the Prophecy Wars
Chattanooga TN.

Finder Liked his new job. It was much simpler than his last one. Here he just had to help unload the trucks, put the freight on the shelves, go home. Yes much less stressful than his old job in Louisiana. A lot of natives had cursed the hurricanes that had driven them from their homes, but not him. Mother Nature had saved his life with those storms.

As if summoned by his thoughts on Mother Nature, Sabrina (just call me Rina) came up behind him and slapped him on the back good naturedly as she walked by. The Wiccans blond dread locks were pulled back from her face and showed the sweat that had beaded up there.

“Pat wants everyone back to receiving,” she said in her soft English accent as she walked on, “we’re going to brainstorm on what to do about those weird refrigerators that came in tonight.” When the truck had been unloaded at eight almost half of it had been full of a new fridge that had no home on the sales floor or in the receiving area. Finder followed Rina to receiving, enjoying the view from behind her as she walked in her unconsciously sexy way. As they rounded the corner to receiving he felt a cold chill start at the base of his spine. The two could clearly see Pat, their boss, getting ready to pull one of the strange boxes open. Finder slowed down long enough to grab the sledgehammer they used to knock down the old rusted receiving ramp.

“Rina, mon ami,” he said to get his friends attention.

“Yeah, Cajun, what’s up?” She had slowed down when he had. Her eyes were opened wider than usual as if she were looking for something she knew she couldn’t see. She had also pulled the pentacle medallion she always wore out from under her sweat stained tee-shirt and was fiddling with it nervously.

“There is something amiss,” he answered as Pat finally opened the first box. Pat turned toward the twins, Bob and Rob. The two hardcore Dungeons & Dragons players were both working on a box apiece.

“There has been a big mistake, don’t open those two boxes,” he ordered. Pat had gone green in the face and looked as if he might pass out. The twins walked into Finder and Rina’s view and looked into the open box. Finder and Rina had come to a complete halt, and they both were breathing quicker.

“Cool,” the twins said in unison, “cadavers.” As soon as the word escaped their mouths Finder felt the spell of animation flow through and around him.

“GET AWAY FROM THOSE, NOW,” he yelled at his three other co-workers as he grabbed Rina’s hand and started pulling her away from the receiving area.

Pat and the twins turned towards them, “Locke , what is your problem?” Pat asked as the twins took a few steps away from the box. Finder didn’t have a chance to answer his boss and friend as the arms of the now zombies grabbed Pat and pulled him into their hungry mouths. He barely had time to scream. The twins started running, Bob towards a receiving rack, Rob towards Finder and Rina.

The three heard Bob’s voice over the intercom. “Climb a rack, zombies can’t climb.” Finder had to grab Rob to keep him from following his brothers directions.

“We don’t know what kind of zombies these are,” he explained as he pulled Rob towards the front door.

“Three per box, thirteen boxes, thirty-nine zombies, and me without even an athame… FUCK!”

“Sabrina Harkness, watch your language!” Finder exclaimed with a smile on his face. The door was right around the corner, but as he turned towards it the smile faded. More zombies were pushing in on the glass doors.

“Okay, can she curse now?” Rob asked, panic evident in his voice. Before Finder could answer, Robs leg buckled and he screamed. A few hundred feet away they heard a feint scream echoing from receiving. Rob grabbed at his throat as his scream gurgled to its end.

“Well,” Rina said as she gasped for air from their sprint to the front, “they can climb.” Suddenly Robs body sat up and bit deep into her thigh. Finder pried it loose and pushed it away from her. With one swing of the hammer he caved its head in and it stopped moving. Rina pulled her shirt off and wrapped it around her leg injury. “What now?”

She had no more than said the words when the glass doors shattered inward and the dead poured in. Finder threw the injured woman over his shoulder as he started running away. “We go for the roof,” he answered as he ran to the narrow ladder. As he righted Rina so she could start the twenty-five foot climb to the roof hatch he looked behind them. A mass of undead were walking their way. Climb, CLIMB!” he ordered her even though he knew her injured leg would slow her down. Of course trying to climb while holding a fourteen pound sledgehammer wasn’t as easy as he had imagined, but he refused to give up his only weapon. She reached the top when he had ten more feet to go.

“Watch your head.” she yelled down at him as a large padlock fell past his right ear, and clattered on the ground below. Finder watched its decent, and it stopped bouncing on the concrete floor at the foot of the closest zombie.

‘Damn they’re close,’ he thought as he climbed out of the hatch into the cold January rain. Rina slammed the hatch closed and put her pentacle on the top of it. She sat cross-legged and started whispering something in Gaelic. The effect was immediate as the latch started glowing. “The magical equivalent to super glue,” she explained as she laid face down in the puddle of water that had collected on the roof of the building. She took one long breath and let it out in a sigh. “Okay, just do it.”

“Do what exactly?”

“Smash my head in you idiot,” she exclaimed angrily as she turned to look up at him.

“Why would I do a damned fool thing like that?” Finder asked, sounding genuinely perplexed by her comment.

“It bit me,” Finder looked on, still confused, “ I don’t want to turn into one of those things, so smash my head in already.” Finder started laughing. A long uncontrollable laughter that welled up from deep inside him, and helped heal some of the horrors from the night.

When he finished laughing he looked down at her, still smiling broadly. “You’ve seen way to many movies, cher.”




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