Chapter 2: Meat and Seafood

So the world was shit. I'm talking about war, famine, disease, and greed. Hellfire rained, and rivers ran red. It was the end of times and the worst of times, but I was somewhat lucky. You see, when the demons came and started running amuck, my store was taken over by one of the horned pricks. His name was Shawn, at least that's what he told us to address him as. He possessed the body of my former store manager, Rick, who no one liked, but seeing his deceased body paraded around like a puppet was sickly.

Shawn turned the store into a sort of safe haven to anyone willing to behave within its walls. He told us, the employee's, he would run things business as usual, but things naturally evolved. With money no longer holding value, the store had to operate on a trading system. In other words, we offered a shopping experience close to what you might have expected pre-apocalypse. The big caveat was Shawn asking for anything in exchange for whatever wayward souls might have been looking to purchase. We sold canned goods for children, baby formula for eyes and ears, and ammunition for souls.

Employees were safe and exempt from having to trade or barter as long as we kept the store running. We didn't have to leave to find refuge out in the chaos of the world. But there were rules. Choosing to leave the store meant quitting. Choosing to abandon work duties meant quitting. Choosing to help customers instead of Shawn meant quitting. Quitting meant losing all privileges and the safety of being a demon's employee.

I was the store's Meet and Greeter. Rick always said he wanted a woman's smile to be the first thing customers saw when they visited the store, but I'm sure he paid more attention to my ass than my teeth.  Anyway, my responsibilities were more dynamic than most. I didn't have a list of specific duties, so Shawn saw fit to use me everywhere. I had to greet customers and help out around the store whenever a department needed assistance. More than that, because most of the employees were too terrified to speak directly with our new employer, I had to act as a middle man.   Before long, I'm sure they saw me as his right hand, but I didn't care as long as I was safe.

The first week went by smoother than expected. There were monsters on the roof. Shawn's body continued to decompose until he was a walking skeleton shedding flesh. There were ghosts in the break room, but all things considered, I had it easy compared to the people outside. Things didn't get bad until we started to run out products around the store. Fruits and vegetables could be grown. Canned goods were king. But meat couldn't last forever. With the world utterly fucked, we weren't getting shipments of supplies anymore.

"You want me to do what," I asked from a seat in the breakroom.

"Find a new supply of meat product," Shawn instructed me as he stood before me with dead eyes and exposed bone.

The break room ghosts were more dickish than threatening. They flipped people's food and tossed chairs, but rarely hurt anyone because they were once human. When Shawn walked into the room, they all but dispersed completely. I couldn't see them, but I felt when their presence was gone.

"Where am I supposed to find meat products? We don't have a farm," I said.

"Faith, I'm fairly confident a soul as bright as yours will come up with a solution," he patronized me.

"How?"

Some people turned into thrill-seekers after the apocalypse, while others turned into shut-ins. I grew irritated with the constant threat of death. I figured if I wasn't dead yet, then there was no use in acting like I was. People might have called me irrational or stupid for speaking to a literal demon like he was an ordinary man, but I couldn't play the game of compliance without reality.

"Because you must. But don't fret, you won't be on this journey alone," he added.

"Journey? What do you mean by Journey?" I questioned.

His face gave no distinctive reaction, and yet I knew he was smiling at my discomfort.

"You'll have to leave the store, of course," he said.

I noticed a number of my coworkers enter the breakroom behind the demon's back only to hurry back out the door once they saw Shawn.

"I'm not leaving shit," I argued.

As bad as the store might have been, there was no doubt in my mind, the world outside had to be worse. I wasn't about to venture out into "literal hell" without a fight.

"Faith, is that any way to speak to your supervisor?" He said, leaning in to bring his desecrated face to eye level.

"You can't make me leave," I said, stumbling as his face dripped decaying ooze into my lap.

Do you have any idea how long it took to get that stain out of the fabric of my skirt? And it was my favorite skirt.

"I can make you do many things." He said with a dark growl behind his already demonic voice.

I was paralyzed, waiting for him to continue, and he knew it. His fingers were bare-bones worn down to tips sharper than spears. I saw him use them once. He slit a customer's throat with those fingers because they tried to steal from the store. Being within arms reach of Shawn was a death wish alone.

He clapped his hands together as he stood up straight and looked away from me. It was a sporadic movement that caught me off guard but held my attention.

"As I was saying, you won't be alone. Alick from Meat and Seafood will accompany you on your adventure," he added as he turned to leave me.

I took a breath of relief.

"And what if we can't find any meat?" I yelled before he left the room.

"Then don't come back," he said before promptly shutting the break room door, leaving me in silence.

Before I could stand up from my seat, a ghost picked up my bottle of water and tossed it across the room.

"Fuck you too," I yelled at the invisible spirit.