Apocalypse Supermarket: I Exchange Noodles for Artifacts

Jax Vance gasped for breath as a heavy leather boot slammed directly into his chest. The force sent him sliding backward across the cold concrete floor of the hallway.

Pain shot through his ribs like sharp needles, making it hard to take even a tiny breath.

"You think this place is a charity house, Jax?"

Victor stood in the doorway of the small apartment, his heavy arms crossed over his thick chest. His face was red with anger, and his yellow teeth showed in a nasty grin. In his left hand, Victor held Jax’s small black duffel bag, which contained every single thing Jax owned in the world.

"Victor, please," Jax gasped, clutching his bruised chest as he struggled to sit up. "Give me just three days. My boss at the supermarket promised to pay my monthly wages on Friday. I have been working double shifts every single night. I haven't slept more than three hours a day just to get that money."

Victor spat right on the floor near Jax's shoes.

"I don't care about your sob story, you useless trash," Victor barked, his voice echoing loudly down the dark hallway. "Rent was due on the first. Today is the fourth. If you don't have my six hundred dollars right now, you get out."

Jax pushed himself onto his knees, swallowed his pride, and looked up at the landlord with desperate eyes.

"I have forty dollars in my pocket," Jax begged, reaching for his wallet with trembling fingers. "Take it for now. I just need a place to sleep tonight. It's freezing outside."

Victor scoffed and stepped forward. Instead of taking the money, he kicked Jax’s hand away. The wallet flew out of Jax’s grip, spilling his cheap store ID card and a few crumpled paper notes across the dusty floor.

"Forty dollars?" Victor laughed loudly, a cruel sound that made Jax’s blood run cold. "Do I look like a beggar to you? Keep your pocket change and sleep on the street like the dog you are!"

Before Jax could move, Victor grabbed him by his shirt collar, dragged him three feet forward, and threw him headfirst out of the front entrance of the apartment building. Jax hit the hard concrete sidewalk. The impact ripped the skin on his elbows, leaving burning red scrapes.

Victor threw the duffel bag out right after him. The bag hit Jax squarely in the back.

"If I see your face anywhere near my building again, I will break your legs," Victor shouted. He slammed the heavy metal entrance door shut, locking it from the inside with a loud click.

Jax lay on the pavement for a long minute. His ribs throbbed with intense pain, and his right eye was already swelling shut from a punch Victor had landed earlier inside the room. Tears of anger and frustration burned in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall.

He had worked nineteen hours every day for the past six months at the corner convenience store down the block. He had done every dirty job his boss demanded, cleaning toxic chemical spills, carrying heavy wooden crates, and working night shifts without extra pay. Yet he had nothing to show for it. No savings, no home, and no respect.

Jax slowly pulled himself up from the ground. He dusted off his dirty pants, picked up his torn duffel bag, and gathered his few belongings from the floor. He had nowhere else to go except the tiny corner store he leased for his late-night shifts. The store owner barely paid him, but Jax held a spare key to the front door so he could open up early in the morning.

He dragged his aching body down the empty streets. The neighborhood was dead silent. The streetlights flickered with a strange, sickly yellow light, making the tall concrete buildings look like giant monsters crouching in the dark. A strange, cold wind blew through the alleyways, carrying a heavy metallic smell that made Jax’s nose itch.

Ten minutes later, Jax unlocked the glass door of the small corner convenience store and slipped inside. He quickly locked the door behind him and flipped the deadbolt.

The store was small and crammed with metal shelves. Bags of potato chips, cheap instant noodle cups, and plastic water bottles lined the walls. It wasn't much, but it was dry, and it was away from Victor’s brutal fists.

Jax walked behind the high wooden checkout counter, pulled a thin wool blanket out of his duffel bag, and sat on the hard floor. He popped open a small tin of cheap meat, eating it with shaking hands just to stop his stomach from aching.

"One day," Jax muttered to himself, his voice tight with quiet rage. "One day I will stop being the guy everyone steps on. I will make Victor and everyone who stepped on me pay for every single blow."

He closed his eyes, resting his head against the wooden counter.

Clocks on the wall ticked steadily.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Suddenly, at exactly midnight, the digital clock above the cashier desk blinked violently. The glowing blue numbers glitched, flashing zero across the screen.

A thick, dark shadow fell over the window. Jax opened his eyes and stood up, looking outside through the big front glass display.

The night sky had changed. The moon was completely gone, replaced by a deep, blood-red haze that rolled down from the clouds like heavy smoke. The red mist filled the air, thick and unnatural. It smelled like raw copper and rotting meat.

Jax pressed his hands against the glass, his heart pounding in his chest.

Down the street, a loud scream shattered the silence.

A man came running out of the apartment building down the road. It was Victor. The heavy landlord was clad only in his undershirt and shorts, his face white with total terror.

"Help! Someone help me!" Victor shrieked, his voice high and shrill like a frightened pig.

Behind Victor, three figures emerged from the red haze. They were his neighbors, people Jax recognized from the building. But they were no longer human. Their skin had turned a pale, sickly gray, covered in dark black veins. Their eyes glowed with a feral yellow light, and thick, black blood dripped from their mouths. Their fingers had grown into long, jagged bone claws.

One of the mutated monsters leaped forward with unnatural speed. It covered ten feet in a single bound, slamming Victor onto the hood of a parked car.

Victor let out a sickening scream as the monster tore into his shoulder.

Jax watched from behind his store window, his breath catching in his throat. The man who had beaten him and thrown him into the cold just an hour ago was now screaming for his life, begging the dark night for mercy that would not come.

Victor kicked the monster off and scrambled to his feet, bleeding heavily. He looked down the street and spotted the lit window of Jax’s store.

"Jax!" Victor howled, running toward the shop with wild, desperate eyes. "Jax, open the door! Let me in! Save me!"

Jax stood behind the counter, his face cold and unmoving. He did not reach for the key. He did not unlock the bolt. He simply watched as the consequences of the cold world caught up to his bully.

Victor reached the sidewalk right outside the store, his hands slamming against the glass door.

"Open the door, you trash!" Victor screamed, his blood smearing across the clean window. "I'll give you the apartment for free! Just open it!"

Before Jax could make a move, another shadow dropped from the roof above the shop.

It was a giant mutated ghoul, twice the size of a normal man. Its jaws opened wide, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. With one swift strike of its black claw, it hit Victor across the chest, throwing the screaming landlord into the dark alley across the street.

The giant creature slowly turned around. Its glowing yellow eyes locked onto Jax standing behind the thin glass display.

The beast stepped up to the entrance. It raised a heavy, mutated arm, its claws covered in fresh, dripping blood.

A mutated ghoul with blood-dripping claws smashes against Jax’s glass storefront, cracking the glass right near his head.