Zombie Outbreak: 30 Days Trapped In A Grocery Store

The Outbreak and Initial Survival Plan

An unnamed man is trapped in a supermarket when an emergency alert tells everyone to shelter in place. A crowd gathers outside, and the manager, Ray, lowers the steel security gate.

Ray and the store staff later leave through the loading dock. The man stays behind, unable to reach his wife by phone. He focuses on practical priorities: food is abundant, but water, refrigeration, and safe shelter require planning. He writes down three rules:

1. Stay away from the glass, where the crowd can see him.
2. Eat food that will spoil first.
3. Never touch the front doors.

Managing Food, Water, and Shelter

The narrator cites a guideline of about one gallon of water per person per day for drinking, cooking, and washing.

After the power fails on Day 3, he relies on food-safety time limits: an unpowered refrigerator keeps food safe for roughly four hours, while a full freezer may last about two days. He eats the perishables quickly, then abandons the meat cases as they spoil.

He checks the canned goods and discards cans that are bulging, leaking, or badly dented at the seams. He warns that botulism contamination cannot be reliably detected by sight, smell, or taste.

On Day 9, he moves into the windowless back stockroom and establishes a routine: check the gate, count the water, and mark the day on the wall. He notices signs that someone else may be moving around the store, including displaced groceries and a trail of crackers.

Finding Another Survivor

On Day 12, the walkie-talkie he bought for his son’s birthday picks up Jess, a 16-year-old employee hiding in the pharmacy. She has survived on snack food and drinks and has been trying to contact someone on the same radio channel.

Jess explains that she placed the moved items and cracker trail to test whether anyone would respond. However, neither of them can explain the shopping cart that moved by itself on Day 3.

They establish hourly radio check-ins and take different positions to watch the store.

Additional Survival Lessons and the Threat Inside

On Day 15, Jess points out that a typical home-style water heater may hold 30–60 gallons of water. The story advises letting it cool and draining it from the valve at the bottom.

On Day 18, the narrator mistakenly mixes bleach with glass cleaner. The fumes cause severe eye and throat irritation and coughing. He explains that many glass cleaners contain ammonia, which can react with bleach to produce chloramine gas. Mixing bleach with vinegar or toilet cleaner can produce chlorine gas. His rule afterward is:

Use bleach with water only, and keep the area ventilated.

While he is coughing, Jess warns him that one of the creatures has entered through the loading dock door, which he had left propped open. She distracts it by knocking over canned goods, giving him time to crawl away and reach fresh air.

At first light, he uses a loaded pallet jack to force the creature back out through the dock and chains the door shut. He adds a fourth rule:

Every door is a front door.

On Day 19, he is still coughing and has painful breathing. He stays near fresh air, while Jess keeps him awake over the radio and shares that her father is the only person who calls her “Jessie.”

On Day 20, a pickup truck arrives at the loading dock. The driver is Ray, the manager who left earlier, and he demands that the survivors open the door. The subtitles end before revealing what happens next.

Speakers and Sources Featured

People and Voices

• Unnamed male narrator/protagonist — tells the story and explains the survival decisions.
• Jess — a teenage store employee hiding in the pharmacy; communicates by walkie-talkie.
• Ray — the store manager, first heard ordering the gate closed and later arriving at the loading dock.
• The narrator’s wife — appears through a text message.
• Emergency alert — a phone alert instructing people to shelter in place.

Factual Sources Named in the Subtitles

• FEMA — cited for the guideline of one gallon of water per person per day.
• USDA — cited for refrigerator and freezer food-safety time limits after a power outage.
• U.S. poison centers — cited for reports of people inhaling chloramine gas from mixed cleaners.