Instead of pulling into a parking space, I slowed to a stop outside the front door. Unlike Kroger on the other side of town, windows didn’t line the front of this building, making it impossible to get a good look at the interior. The little bit I could see through the glass doors looked pretty much how I’d expected, though. Dark and foreboding. Like a nightmare or a horror movie.
“What are the odds there will be zombies inside?” Kiaya asked.
I gnawed on my bottom lip as I stared at the dark interior, possibly hoping to see something that would answer her question. There was nothing, though. No movement and no neon sign announcing how many of the dead were wandering the aisles at this very moment.
“We should be prepared for anything,” Devon said as he shoved his door open.
“Yeah,” I mumbled to myself.
No one else replied.
I climbed from the car, key clutched in my hand, but paused with my finger over the lock button on the fob. Should I keep it unlocked? What if we got separated and someone had to make a fast getaway? It could save someone’s life. If the car doors were locked, they would be stranded, but if I left them unlocked, they could at least take shelter. But what if someone showed up while we were inside? Would they be able to steal the car? Would they want to?
Devon was on the other side of the vehicle but had moved to the front so he could see me over the hood of the large SUV. “What is it?”
“Should I lock the doors?” I asked, looking first at him, and then at Lisa, who was behind me.
She didn’t answer, and when I looked back at Devon, he had his lips pressed together in thought. I could tell he was as unsure as I was, so I looked at Kiaya, who stood behind him, and even Miller on her other side. They said nothing, and they looked as uncertain as I felt.
Finally, Lisa shrugged. “It might be a good idea?”
That it came out sounding like a question wasn’t very reassuring, but I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one who felt totally unprepared for this situation. We were going to have to learn as we went and pray we didn’t make any fatal mistakes along the way.
“I’ll leave it unlocked, then,” I said.
When even Miller didn’t roll his eyes or grumble, I decided it was the best option available and shoved the keys in the pocket of my jacket, zipping it to make sure they didn’t fall out.
Devon once again had the M16, the strap across his chest so the weapon was on his back. He also had the wooden baseball bat we’d gotten from the Mercers yesterday. Kiaya had one of the metal bats and Miller the other one, while Lisa and I had the two good hunting knives we’d found in Vega. It was a relief to have so many weapons that wouldn’t make noise, but they couldn’t erase my unease. It wasn’t totally a bad thing, though. Being too cocky or overly sure of yourself could be just as dangerous as being too scared. We needed to be cautious, but ready for action. Or at least that was the balance I was striving for since I was pretty certain I’d never push my fear away completely.
As if reading my mind, Devon asked, “You ready?”
I nodded when I couldn’t form words.
My knuckles already ached from clutching my knife, but I couldn’t force my grip to ease. Even worse was the perspiration collecting on my palm. Would I even be able to hold on to the knife if things got crazy? I could already imagine the weapon slipping from my sweaty hand as I raised it, flying through the air instead of sinking into the head of a zombie the way it should have. At least we knew there was a chance we wouldn’t turn if we were bitten, thanks to Hank. Of course, none of us knew for sure how big of a chance that was. It could have been a one in a million shot or fifty percent or anywhere in between.
“Stick close once we’re in there,” Devon was saying as he led the way to the door. “Don’t shoot unless absolutely necessary, and never wander off alone.”
“The buddy system,” Lisa said, nodding.
“Yeah,” Devon replied. “Kiaya and Rowan, make sure you stick with someone who’s experienced with a gun. Just in case.”
Miller, who’d been mostly silent and holding back this whole time, perked up at that, his gaze turning to me. “Maybe we should split into two groups. We can cover more ground that way.”
Devon paused outside the front door and looked back. He did a quick survey of the group, frowning, and shook his head when he saw the hopeful smile Miller was giving me. It gave me the creeps, and I shuffled away from him.
Instead of arguing like I’d thought he would, Devon said, “Yeah. That’s a good point. Rowan you’re with me. You can show me where the camping stuff is.”
He grabbed my arm and tugged me to his side, his blue eyes hard and focused on Miller so the other man got the point. The action was part possessive and part protective, and neither one bugged me. Especially not right now, and especially not when Miller pressed his lips into a frown.
Devon turned his attention to Kiaya. “Why don’t you stick with Lisa? She knows what she’s doing with a gun. You two can head over to the food and fill up a couple carts. Okay?”
Lisa and Kiaya nodded in unison.
“What about me?” Miller grumbled. Still looking at me.
Lisa sighed. “You’re with us. We can use the extra hands.”
It didn’t sit well with Miller, who returned to pouting. God, he was like a child.
“Okay.” Devon let out a deep breath, shaking his head like he, too, was reaching the end of his patience with the corporal. “Let’s do this.”
The doors were automatic, but with the power out, they didn’t budge as we approached. As if expecting it, Devon barely batted an eye before going to work on the door, and faster than I could have expected—or wanted it to happen—it was open. It wasn’t until we stepped inside and I flipped on my flashlight that I remembered there was a second set of doors. As much as I wanted to get in there and get this over with, I was more than a little relieved for the delay.
Repeating what he’d done with the first one, Devon made quick time of getting the second door open, and then we were moving once again.
He paused just inside the door, the rest of us at his back, and flipped on his own flashlight so he could pan it around. I’d assumed emergency lights would be on, but if they had been at one point, they were no longer working, and the interior was as black as a cave.
We were on the opposite side of the store from the food, but that didn’t mean we were safe from the stench of rot. It permeated the air, making me nearly gag when I inhaled. Even breathing out of my mouth didn’t seem to help because I felt like I could taste the decay. It left a film in my mouth and invaded my lungs, making my chest tight.
“God,” Lisa said from behind me.
I glanced back and found her shirt pulled up to cover her nose. It wasn’t a bad idea.
I copied her, as did Kiaya and even Miller, but Devon didn’t bother. Either he had an iron stomach, or he was too focused on our surroundings to let it bother him.
“Which way?” he hissed, still panning the flashlight around.
Racks and racks of women’s clothing sat in front of us, some of which were lying on their sides, their contents scattered across the floor. Dread pooled in my stomach as I tried to imagine how it had happened. A fight of some kind? Panicked people, or maybe an altercation between a human and a zombie? Was the creature in question still here?
My gaze darted around, but the store seemed utterly still and deathly silent. Not only that, but the air around us lacked the stink of rotting flesh. If anything was in here, it wasn’t close, and it wasn’t yet aware of our presence.
“The food is that way,” I said, keeping my voice low as I waved my hand to the right. “Camping stuff to the left.”
Devon’s head bobbed as his gaze moved to Lisa. “Stay alert. We’ll load up anything we can find and head your way when we’re done. Okay?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said.
“Good.” Devon looked at Miller. “Be a team player for once, will you?”
&nbs
p; “No one is impressed by the macho boss bullshit,” the corporal spit out.
“People are even less impressed by a grown ass man who acts like a child,” Lisa snapped. “Now shut up so we can get to work.”
She headed off, Kiaya right behind her. Before she turned away, her gaze met mine, and she gave me a quick nod. I returned it, knowing she was telling me to be careful and wanting to convey the same thing to her.
Miller stomped after them, clearly not happy with Lisa for thwarting his attempt at insulting Devon.
Once they’d walked away, Devon turned to me. “Let’s make this quick.”
We grabbed a couple carts from the nearby corral before heading off. I led the way, keeping my ears open and barely able to stop my gaze from darting around. Both of my hands were on the cart, and I’d wedged my flashlight in the child seat so it was pointing forward. It was like having a headlight on the cart, but it also freed up both my hands just in case.
We’d been headed toward the outdoor stuff, but I made a detour when we passed the aisle marked Fist Aid.
“What are you doing?” Devon hissed, irritation ringing in his voice.
“Grabbing anything that might be helpful.” I stopped in front of the display of Band-Aids. “I’d been so focused on the camping gear, I hadn’t thought about this stuff, but we’re going to need it too.”
He sighed, but the expression in his eyes when he looked past me said his hesitation was only out of concern, not because he thought I was wrong. “Okay, but let’s make it fast. I want to meet up with the others as soon as possible. It’s too quiet in here. It’s making me jumpy.”
He wasn’t the only one.
We moved up and down the aisles in silence, scooping things off the shelves by the handful. First aid supplies like tape and gauze, vitamins, Tylenol in case someone got sick. I grabbed some personal hygiene items like soap and toothpaste and deodorant—it wasn’t like we were getting regular showers—but it wasn’t until I reached the feminine products that I thought about another thing I might need.
I paused in the middle of grabbing a few boxes of tampons and moved my flashlight to the left, illuminating the pharmacy. The windows were covered by metal shutters the way they usually were when no one was on duty, but to my shock, one was actually cracked.
I dropped the boxes in my cart then quickly grabbed more. I could clean the place out, but I wanted to be sure we had room for the other stuff we needed, so I made myself stop at ten boxes. We could come back.
Once those were in the cart, I headed toward the pharmacy.
“What are you doing?” Devon called after me, his voice low but urgent.
“It’s unlocked,” I said, nodding to the window.
He hurried after me, leaving the carts where they were. “So? We have all those drugs Miller took from Shamrock. Remember?”
“There’s something I need that I’m one hundred percent sure he didn’t get.” I glanced back at Devon when I stopped beside the pharmacy. “I might as well grab it while I’m here.”
“What is it?” His gaze moved me over like he was trying to figure out what was wrong with me. “Are you sick?”
“There are other reasons to take medicine.”
I rolled my eyes the way I so often did when talking with him, but mostly it was just me trying to distract him from the question. It would be nice if I didn’t have to go into detail about this, but I doubted that would happen. Devon thought everything was his business.
“Rowan,” he said, his impatience growing, “tell me what you need.”
Heat had moved up my cheeks, making me thankful for the darkness as I pinned him with a serious look. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react considering us, but there was no getting out of it now.
“Birth control, okay?”
Devon blinked, and for the first time since we met, he actually looked a little uncertain.
“Birth control,” he repeated.
It wasn’t a question, but I still said, “That’s right.”
I was anxious to get moving, but Devon’s confusion amused me more than made me uncomfortable. Not only that, it distracted me from the tension I’d felt since leaving my house. It happened with him so much, and it was such a relief, and even if this time it wasn’t intentional, it still made me smile.
“Relax,” I said, “It’s not like I’m asking you to shack up with me or anything.”
The tension in his shoulders finally relaxed, and his lips twitched. “Shack up with you?”
“You know what I mean,” I said. “This has nothing to do with you. I’ve been on it for years.”
Devon let out a low chuckle, and the sound warmed me. “I’d like to think it has a little to do with me.”
“Of course, you would,” I said, returning his smirk. “You think everything is about you.”
He shook his head, his smile not fading. “Climb through the window and get what you need so we can move on.”
I snorted, still smiling, and turned to face the pharmacy.
The metal shutter moved with little protest when I shoved it up, and I shone my flashlight into the pharmacy, illuminating the shelves. It was immediately obvious someone had already been here. Bottles were scattered across the floor, and more than one shelf was empty. The locks on drawers had been broken and the contents rifled through. They, too, were littering the floor. Hopefully, whoever had come here had been looking for pain killers or something like that and had left the family planning section alone.
“Can you give me a boost?” I asked Devon as I set my knife and flashlight on the counter just inside the window.
He leaned his bat against the wall, and a second later had scooped me into his arms, and even though it caused the cut on my back to throb, I didn’t tell him to put me down. He’d done the same thing back in Shamrock when we’d first arrived at the motel, and just like then, he paused so he could study me, his face inches from mine and his blue eyes intense even in the darkness of the store. Last time he did this, he’d asked how old I was, but I could tell he had a much more serious question on his mind today.
“It has a little do with me, right?” he asked, his tone dead serious.
“Devon,” I said, rolling my eyes so he couldn’t see what I was really thinking, which was yes. “This isn’t the time.”
“It only takes a second to answer.”
I sighed, trying to sound more irritated than I actually was. “You know it does.”
His dimple deepened when he grinned. “Can I get that in writing?”
“You’re impossible,” I said, but I couldn’t hold in my own smile.
His grin stretched wider.
He lifted me higher so I could twist and pull the top half of my body through the window, then I gripped the edge of the counter and pulled myself farther inside while wiggling my lower half. The still healing cut on my back throbbed with each move I made, but it wasn’t enough to deter me from reaching my goal.
“Not hating the view,” Devon said from right behind me.
God, he was impossible.
“Will you behave?”
He laughed, and I was very grateful he couldn’t see my smile, because it was so wide it actually hurt.
I pulled myself farther into the room. The window wasn’t big, but there was more than enough room for me to get through, and in seconds I’d tumbled onto the floor, practically landing on my face in the process. It was not at all graceful, but I barely had time to register that when something rattled. A moan followed, and I gasped. When I sucked in a breath, filling my lungs, I was met with the faint stench of rot.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself, trying to scramble to my feet so I could grab my knife.
That was when the zombie stumbled around a shelf.
The beam of my flashlight—still sitting on the counter—illuminated the thing’s face like a spotlight, as well as the bite on the creature’s neck. It was fresh, probably only recently turned. The thing had been a man at one time, or maybe even a tee
nager, but was now something that should have only existed in nightmares.
“Shit,” I said again as it groaned and moved toward me. Already reaching.
“Rowan?” Devon stuck his head through the hole, his eyes growing wide when he saw the creature.
I’d just gotten to my feet and managed to swipe my knife up off the counter when the thing reached me. Its mouth was already open, revealing a black tongue that made my stomach lurch. The zombie grabbed for me but missed when I twisted away. Before I could get farther, though, my foot landed on a giant pill bottle. It slipped out from under me, and I stumbled, slamming into a shelf and knocking even more bottles over. They clattered to the floor, the pills rattling against the insides of the bottles.
“Hold on!” Devon shouted. “I’m coming.”
I looked back to find him already halfway through the window.
He had to have removed the M16, because there was no other way he would have been able to fit the upper half of his body through the small opening. Too bad that was as far as he got before the zombie switched its focus to him. Devon had the bat in his hand, but with his body half in and half out the way it was, there wasn’t much he could do. He swung it but gained little momentum, barely managing to keep the creature at bay. It wouldn’t work for long, though. I had to move.
“Hey!” I yelled, grabbing a pill bottle and chucking it at the zombie.
It hit the thing’s head and bounced off, clattering to the floor, and the creature turned to face me.
“Come on,” I said, banging my hand against the counter at my side as I backed away from Devon. “That’s right.”
The zombie stumbled toward me, growling and reaching, trying to grab me from six feet away. My legs were trembling, and my heart was pounding like a jackhammer, but I didn’t let up. Every step had me stumbling over the debris littering the floor. I banged into a shelf on my left, then the counter to my right, barely staying on my feet as I led the zombie farther away from the window.
Far Series | Book 2 | Far From Safe Page 14
