by Connor Mccoy
Doc Sam’s garage mostly had filled her field of vision, but she had been looking away from it to the street. However, she could not ignore the fact that the door was slightly open. The padlock was gone. Someone had gone into the garage.
But Doc Sam and Brandon are inside the house, and Jubilee is resting. A cold jolt ran down her spine. Who else could it be? Cowell? Isn’t he inside, too? And besides, the garage usually is locked up. Doc Sam has to be on hand to unlock it. Did Doc Sam unlock it for him?
“Cowell!” Domino cried out, “Cowell, are you there?”
Shit! Shit! Shit! What the hell do I do?
Domino was calling for him. She knew he was out here. Cowell remembered that he had left the garage door open. He had figured he was as good as gone, so why relock it? Thanks to his stupidity, Domino had been tipped off.
“Cowell?” Domino called from the other side of the garage, “Hey! Are you in there or what?”
Calm down, Cowell thought. She doesn’t know you did anything. Maybe if you go out there and talk to her, you can get her to go back inside. Leave the gas here. She won’t see it. Go back for it later.
It seemed like a good plan. There was no way he could flee with the gas in hand now. She would spot him and catch up to him for sure. A good bluff was his only chance.
Domino’s jaw tightened. No one was responding from the garage. She would have to run back and ask Doc Sam if he had let anyone inside. If not, they had an intruder on their hands.
But before Domino could flee back to the house, Cowell ran from the other side of the garage. “Miss Avery! I heard your voice! Is everything alright?”
“Cowell!” Domino exhaled deeply. “Damn! I thought for a moment we had trouble.” Cowell stopped a few steps short of the garage, leaving a wide gap between them. “Doc Sam. He let you inside, didn’t he? Why?”
“Oh, the garage.” Cowell pointed to the building behind him. “Yes. Yes, he did. The good doctor was very neighborly. He let me, uh, that is, add some tinder to my backpack, for the trip to Fall Crossing. He kept it in there.”
Boy, he’s nervous about something. I’ve never seen Cowell that flustered, not even when we were talking about the EMP. “Well, want me to help you? It’s getting dark and we shouldn’t be out here.”
“Actually, I’m finished. I should lock up. My apologies. I left the door open.”
Domino frowned. For such a by the book guy, he sure is sloppy today.
“You can go on ahead. I’ll finish up here,” Cowell said.
Domino nodded. “Okay.” She turned to walk back to the house, but something bugged her. Didn’t Doc Sam and Moses Travers give Cowell some tinder? Why would he need more of it?
Well, I suppose some more tinder certainly wouldn’t hurt at all. In fact, he might need some for a few days’ trip. Even so, she couldn’t quell her discontent until she heard from the man himself.
“Hey! Doc Sam!” Domino cried toward the front door. “Did you let Alex Cowell into the garage?”
Cowell’s eyes widened. At the same time Doc Sam pushed open the front door. “Did I let who into the garage?”
Domino felt her question mostly had been answered already. Cowell looked shocked, as if he had been caught in bed with someone else’s spouse.
But before Doc Sam could supply a full answer, the sound of a roaring truck engine cut through the air. Domino turned to the street. The delivery truck that Brandon had spotted was barreling down the street—with the ignition running. The truck sped past the house and stopped on the other side of the garage.
Two men ran into the open. “Hey! Move it!”
Cowell turned and fled behind the garage. Domino started running after him. The rear of the garage soon became visible to Domino, allowing her to see two more men grabbing gasoline tanks off the ground.
“Cowell! What the hell is going on?” Domino cried out.
Cowell turned and flashed her a look of shock, anguish, perhaps even regret. But the two men reached him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Come on, let’s go!” one of them shouted.
“Cowell!” Domino drew her gun. She wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but she deduced those gas tanks were not theirs. They must have come from the garage. Cowell was stealing Doc Sam’s gasoline!
Cowell was being ushered around the front of the truck. At the same time, one of the men whipped out a pistol. Domino jumped to the ground. Shots rang out, but all of them either struck the side of the garage or the ground close by her.
Domino bit her lip so hard it was bleeding. The gunfire had stopped. Domino clung to the shadow of the garage wall as she inched forward, looking to see if she could return fire. But instead she heard the delivery truck kick into drive and pull away from Doc Sam’s property.
Chapter Nineteen
“Domino!” Doc Sam charged up to her with a loaded gun in his hands. “Did they hit you? Are you alright?”
Domino climbed to her feet. “I’m fine.” She wiped a bit of blood off her lip. “Bastards. Goddamn bastards!” She kicked a pebble into the street, right where the delivery truck had stopped. Domino then coughed. The exhaust from the truck still was fresh.
“I saw them take something,” Doc Sam said.
“Tanks. Looked like gas tanks.” Domino brushed dirt off her pant legs. “Cowell must have broken in and took them.”
“I hid a supply under the workbench,” Doc Sam said. “Must have searched that place, hard to find them.”
Domino cringed. “I can’t believe it. Why? Who the hell were those guys? Did Cowell know them all along?”
“Calm yourself,” Doc Sam said, “you’re more upset over it than I am.”
“And how’s that truck even working?” Domino pointed to the street. “The EMP, didn’t it shut down every car and truck on the road?”
“Mrs. Avery!” Doc Sam did not raise his voice much, but it was enough to snap Domino out of her rage, at least enough for her to heed his words.
Domino cringed. “I’m sorry. I’m just…”
“The important thing is that no one was killed. Let’s hurry back inside and discuss what happened. I’m sure your son has heard all the commotion and wants to know you are safe.”
Cowell, sitting in the front passenger side seat of the truck, clung to the shoulder strap of his seat belt. He knew Sykes’s men had come to get him and had ushered him into the delivery truck. He wasn’t expecting that, but he was glad for the quick getaway. However…
“You shot at her?” It was barely a question. He was more outraged than anything else.
The truck’s cab had a back seat. Sykes was seated there along with one of his men. “Just a little insurance to keep the woman off your back. Didn’t look like we hit her. She’ll probably be alright.”
The callousness in Sykes’s tone rattled Cowell. “We’re talking about someone’s life here.”
“Well, I suppose you thought we were going to use the velvet glove for this operation, huh?” Snark laced Sykes’s voice. “You got the gas. I just wanted to make sure we received it with no problem, hence our little ‘rescue.’”
The driver, a lanky man with a short black beard, giggled. “You liked our little plan, huh?”
Sykes smiled. “We didn’t drive up to Doctor Sam’s house. A truck with a running motor would get everybody’s attention. So, we pushed this baby close to the house and kept watch over you. When the time was right, we moved in.” Sykes pointed to the storage compartment behind the truck cab. “We got quite a haul in there. Some of my boys are back there, along for the ride.”
Cowell shrank back into his seat a little. He had wound up with some dangerous men. If he had known these people would turn guns on the Avery woman, he never would have gone along with it.
But she’s okay, he thought. The events of today would rattle her in the short term, but she would go on living. His job was to make sure he would go on living. Today, he assured that, or so he hoped.
“So, where are we going now?” Cowell asked.<
br />
“Fall Crossing!” Sykes leaned up to the back of Cowell’s seat. “A deal’s a deal, and you fulfilled your end. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.” He chuckled.
Cowell looked to the road ahead. He was riding in a vehicle, just as he had back before the EMP had hit. Cool air blew over his sweat-dampened body. At this rate, he would be in Fall Crossing in hours.
Well, I suppose I’ll be a survivor after all. Just in my own way.
And as the minutes passed, the guilt over his actions melted away.
Brandon studied Domino’s right leg. Domino had rolled up the pant leg to check for scrapes or cuts. “It’s alright,” she said.
Brandon was unusually quiet, perhaps because he had heard the gunshots and wasn’t sure for a minute if his mother was alive or dead. Domino spared a moment to console her jittery son.
“So, Mister Cowell was a cyborg,” Brandon said.
“Mister Cowell is many things,” said Doc Sam as he wandered past. “A fool being foremost among them. I’m afraid he has chosen his path very poorly.”
“The man’s a snake. I knew it from the start,” Domino said.
“You knew he was an overzealous social worker. That doesn’t immediately point to a gasoline thief,” Doc Sam said.
“Oh, he had it in him this whole time. I don’t doubt it,” Domino replied with bitterness. “And I led him here. He followed us to Trapp. We led him to your door.”
“You couldn’t have known what he was going to do. Most likely, Cowell ran into some unsavory characters while repaying his debt to Moses.”
“But how come that truck still was running?” Brandon asked.
“It looked as though it had some years on it,” Doc Sam replied. “If it lacked the electronics of many vehicles today, it could have survived the EMP unscathed. There will be a few of those out there. I guess whoever owns that machine bribed Cowell into stealing gas for a prolonged journey.”
“Prolonged. Guess that means he’s going somewhere far,” Domino said.
“Probably to Fall Crossing,” Doc Sam said.
“Well, I don’t care. I hope I never see his face again.” Domino pulled her legs up to the sofa.
Doc Sam looked at Domino with sad eyes. “Why don’t you use the tub in the bathroom? I drew enough to bathe myself, but you should go ahead and use it. I’ll make a fine dinner for all of you.”
Domino put her legs down. “Thanks.” At least she would end the day on a happier note.
A shiver suddenly coursed through her body. Jacob. What is he doing now?
The glass shattered all across the pharmacy floor. One good hard blow with a piece of loose concrete taken from the sidewalk smashed the window dead center, permitting an easy path for Jacob to dash through. Without electricity, there would be no cameras to document his presence or alarms to alert people, and so far, the street behind him remained empty. So, there were no witnesses to see him break in.
The only thing that stopped him from rushing inside was the odd feeling of breaking into a store. Even though he understood his current circumstances, he couldn’t shake how strange it was to break and enter a place of business. In the ordinary world he had known, he would be in the back of a police cruiser in handcuffs in the near future.
But this isn’t the ordinary world. Go!
Jacob dashed through the broken pane. He passed by the empty cashier’s station on his way to the aisles. A quick look at the aisles confirmed that the pharmacy had not been looted. The shelves still were well stocked. The first round of shelves was filled with two-liter bottles of soda.
Soon he reached the end of the aisle. A lane cut across his path on the way to another round of shelves. Jacob stopped in the lane and looked up for the directory signs. The darkness made it almost impossible to make out the letters on the signs. He was still in the food and drink section. He needed to find the bandages and the medications. Hunting for the supplies down every aisle would eat up a lot of time, time which he wasn’t sure he possessed.
Hold on. This shouldn’t be too hard. It’s hard as hell to see, but you still can make out what medicine looks like. It’s in bottles and little boxes. Quick looks at the shelves should tell him whether it was worth it to search that particular aisle.
Jacob eliminated three aisles in quick order—their stock was only food. Jacob felt tempted to check the aisles for cans of soup or vegetables, but food was not his problem. His homestead was self-sufficient for him and his family. The medical supplies were everything tonight.
To his amusement, it was harder to tear himself away from the toy aisle. Seeing the array of plastic figurines and crayons made him think of his children, particularly of Jubilee. Sometimes when she had fallen ill, he would buy her a toy to help cheer her up. Even though she was fifteen and had outgrown toys such as the ones before him, the fatherly instinct to cheer up his little girl still took hold. He also felt a little sad as he recognized shopping for toys would become a thing of the past until society got back on its feet —if it ever did.
By the next aisle, he had found what he was looking for. The shelves were filled with medicines of various types. Of course, now he had to read the boxes, which would be a hell of a task. Still, Doc Sam had given him a few brand names to keep in mind. Those names would be prominently displayed on the boxes. Unfortunately, if he didn’t find the right brands, he would have to look more closely. A painkiller, for example, might only be available in the generic brand, which would be a little harder to spot.
No need to bitch about it. Jacob opened his bag and pulled out a small empty corded backpack. Ordinarily, he would use this bag for collecting wood or herbs in the forest. Today, though, it would be used for collecting of a different sort.
Jacob identified the boxes of painkiller medication. He took what he thought would fill Doc Sam’s needs. Farther down the shelf, he discovered antibiotic ointments. A few of them went into his bag as well.
If he stumbled upon the antibiotic ointment, he hoped the antibiotics were not far away. He was right, he could see the pharmacist’s counter at the end of the aisle. After climbing over the counter and breaking a few locked cabinets, he found what he needed.
Holy shit, I think I hit the jackpot.
The shelves were particularly packed in the antibiotic section. They must have received a recent shipment. There were so many for the taking, but Jacob held off. He reminded himself that this pharmacy still serviced the people of Middlesburg. He had to leave as much of it as possible for them, even if he wondered what the leadership of this town was really up to.
With the oral antibiotics in the bag, Jacob climbed over the counter and back into the general pharmacy area. He moved on to look for lidocaine on the shelf just ahead. He needed something to substitute for the anesthetic gas he could not find. However, the anesthetics were not on this shelf. Fortunately, they were stocked on the next shelf over.
From there, Jacob checked for bandages. It took a search of the next shelf from the anesthetics to find them. Gauze, big bandages and little band-aids went into his bag.
Am I missing anything? He put his corded bag and get home bag on the floor, and then pulled out Doc Sam’s paper. Iodine! That’s what he was missing.
He frantically checked for it. However, shelf after shelf yielded nothing until he reached the center of the pharmacy and discovered the iodine. A couple of boxes would suffice.
Jacob let out a breath of relief. He had done it! He almost couldn’t believe it. The task had been so hard and so elusive. Now he could pay off Doc Sam and return home with his family.
He stood up and looked down the nearest aisle, gazing at the windows beyond. However, this aisle also happened to be the toy aisle. He couldn’t resist checking it out once again.
Specifically, he found something that caught his eye. A plastic doll hung off a top prong. The figure was feminine, with big black button-like eyes and a smile made of an inked line. She was dressed in purple boxing trunks, with red boxing gloves over her hands.
This was a “Cutie Bruiser” doll. Cutie Bruiser was a fictional character who at one time was quite popular and even starred in her own short-lived cartoon series. Even though Cutie Bruiser had fallen into some obscurity in the past couple of years, she always had been Jubilee’s favorite.
She had to come home with Jacob. He plucked her off the prong.
As he turned to the side, he noted the small plastic cars in their casings. Brandon would like one of these. He fished off a red car.
But as soon as he plucked the car in his hand, he heard the sound of crunching glass. Someone was in here. The newcomer must be stepping over the broken glass Jacob had made when he had smashed into the pharmacy.
Shit! Who could that be? Another “thief” who spotted the smashed window and decided to avail himself of the opportunity of the pharmacy’s stock?
The footsteps multiplied. Soft chatter rang out in the air. Jacob froze in place and listened. All of the voices belonged to men.
“What do you think?” asked one of the men.
“Look, somebody chucked a piece of concrete in here,” responded a second man.
“He’s got one hell of a throwing arm,” the first man said.
Now a third man piped up. “There’s got to be a looter inside. I’m surprised this place wasn’t taken down already.”
“The people here are compliant. They knew when the big man threw down the gauntlet not to screw around,” said the second man.
“Look, if there’s a looter in there, he’s not getting away. The patrol’s got the front doors and the windows. He comes this way, we got him,” the third man said.
“Perfect. Let’s go find the shithead. We got enough men,” suggested the second man.
Jacob cringed. The mayor’s civilian force had this place surrounded. He was trapped!
Chapter Twenty
Jacob’s mind raced a mile a second. Okay, think! What would happen if you revealed yourself to these guys? Would they understand that you need these supplies? No, they sound as if they want to make an example of you. I’ve got to get out of here.
