They were almost at the gulf when Atef turned the car into the parking lot of Harris Teeter. He wanted to get to the beach before they found trouble, but considering they hadn’t consumed anything but beer and weed and smokes since early the night before, he thought it a good idea to stock up before passing out.

Pulling into a spot, he turned off the ignition. The engine shuddered to a standstill. Spooks, at the changing rhythm of the automobile, lifted his head from the center console, his eyes bloodshot and barely open.

“Wait here,” said Atef. “I’ll be right back.”

Atef got out of the car and stepped into the morning sun. His legs wobbled after having driven through the night. It was still early, but the sun was white and blinding. He grabbed a nearby cart and pushed it into the store. It shook and rattled as the hard wheels traversed the sun-bleached asphalt.

In the store, Atef made haste. Four gallon jugs of distilled water into the cart. A bag of oranges. A handful of premade sandwiches. Kibble from the pet aisle. At the register, he threw some gum on the counter and asked for a pack of cigarettes. He kept his eyes down, paid, and went back outside.

When the store’s sliding-door airlock opened, Atef tasted the salt air. The sun was warm on his face and arms. A thick rope clanged metallically against a flag pole; there was a seagull eating what looked like rotting meat on the ground. He noticed how filthy the lot was--—stained and with a dried reddish muck all over the place.

Back at the car, Atef threw the food into the backseat and chugged from one of the jugs. After he was full, he dumped some in a cup for Spooks.

“Spooks.”

Spooks didn’t move.

“Spooks.” He shook him. “Wake up.”

“What?”

“Drink this.”

“I don’t want any.”

“Drink it and you can go back to sleep.”

Spooks moaned and curled up tighter.

“C’mon. Get up.” He shook him harder.

“Alright, alright.” Spooks sat up and stretched in the seat. “God I feel like shit. What the fuck did those spades give us last night?” He shook his head. “That’s the last time I hangout with the wait staff.”

He lapped the water from the cup. When he finished it, Atef filled it again. Then: “I need to piss.”

Atef walked Spooks to a grass median at the edge of the parking lot. There was a woman unbuckling a young child from the back of a small SUV, and she looked over dissaprovingly as Spooks lifted a hind leg to a light post and released a long, dark urination. Atef gave the woman a subdued waved. He thought one of the seagulls heckled him and started laughing.

Back in the car, Spooks asked “Where are we?”

“Angleton. We’ll be there in about 25 minutes. You ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

Atef lit a cigarette and turned the ignition. He put the car in reverse and backed up wide into the mostly empty lot. The rear bumper crunched into a curb and went over it with the back passenger’s side tire. Pay attention, he thought. This isn’t the time for a fender bender.

Atef put the car in drive and pulled forward. He noticed an attractive young woman exiting the Harris Teeter and pushing a short, upright cart down the sidewalk ramp. The cart was filled to the brim. So was her neckline. Atef watched her walk down the sidewalk as the car continued to roll forward.

Suddenly, a wheel from the woman’s cart snagged on a crack in the cement and tipped forward. She looked shocked as the bagged groceries began to spill out. Atef craned his head out the passenger side window to get a better look. Spooks barked.

“Lookout!”

Atef brought his gaze forward and saw a young girl had darted out in front of the car. Someone screamed and he slammed on the brakes as fast he could. They felt a sickening thud.

What happened next can’t be explained. The car was only traveling a few miles per hour, but on contact with the fender, the child burst like a waterballoon, spraying a chunky chum all over the hood and front windshield.

Atef was in shock. Spooks was losing his shit in the passenger’s seat. A woman screamed, “Nooo!”. Atef looked over and saw her fall to her knees, wailing. She was holding a baby.

Atef got out of the car and threw his cigarette on the ground. He couldn’t speak. The woman cried, “No, no, no!” She looked at Atef like a feral animal. He stood in disbelief and watched as her fear and pain transformed into wild rage. She started screaming at him in a hysterical frenzy, in a language he could not understand. Other shoppers had taken notice and were moving toward the car. A man approached the vehicle but paid no attention to Atef or the sobbing woman. He started licking the windshield. And then another man did the same. And more were coming.

“What the fuck is happening?” said Spooks. “We need to go!”

Atef jumped back into the car. He slammed the door shut and put his foot on the gas. The car peeled out and the two men licking the windshield fell to the side. One hit the pavement and splashed like a bucket of oozing, pulpy water. Atef turned on the wipers and what was left of the girl smeared across the windshield in a grimy mess. He turned the window crank and put his head out the driver’s side window.

Spooks was panicking. His lungs, bellows, automatically pumping in and out. Atef whipped onto the main drag. Eventually Spooks curled up and settled into a low whimper.

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