Before the giant fell off of the platform and really got hurt, Mitch released his finger and kicked him to the wooden planks.
Mitch turned and looked around. Everyone else found something better to stare at.
“Nothing personal but I don’t play with men like you. I’d try to climb down a ladder and see if there’s a doctor who can reset your finger. That shit hurts. Trust me. I had a few bones broken when I was in Kuwait a few years ago. Tortured for six hours before I escaped,” Mitch said and smiled. “Of course, I killed all thirteen of them fuckers before I hopped a helo back to base. The rescue squad had nothing to do by the time they found me. I hope you didn’t take this personally.”
“Holy shit, dude, that was sick,” Terry said. He pushed through the lingering crowd and shook Mitch’s hand. “Let me show you around. Not that there’s much to see.”
“I thought you were on the ocean side,” Mitch said.
“Today I decided to see how the other half lives. I knew they’d put you up here so I wanted to be the welcoming committee,” Terry said and watched the giant man awkwardly climb down a ladder with his one good hand. “I guess I wasn’t in time.”
They walked down the line. Every fifty feet someone was standing, looking over the wall.
“Each person has their own section. Of course, it gets boring pretty quick. Hopefully the person to either side of you is cool and you can chat with them, but you can’t leave your area.” Terry pointed at the red lines painted on the walkway. “Just stay within your marks and you’ll be fine. It’s usually first come first serve on them, so get here early if you have a certain spot you like. It doesn’t matter to me. It’s all the same. At the platform spots is where meals are delivered and you pass them down if you’re the closest to it. Pretty simple.”
“What if a zombie comes out of the water or you see one on the other side of the river?” Mitch asked.
“You announce it first. Make sure it is actually a zombie and not a survivor who’s too hungry or dirty. Let people around you know what you see. Someone else needs to verify it’s a zombie,” Terry said. “Then you shoot it in the fucking head. You called it so you take the shot.”
“Sounds like an easy enough rule,” Mitch said.
“Of course, we really haven’t had too many zombies in a few weeks. I can’t remember the last one that crawled out of the ocean. Our fishing boats have been able to go out further. No zombies in the shrimp nets. No one hooking a zombie with a fishing line. It’s getting back to normal out there and, because we haven’t fished in so long and have not done massive commercial fishing of the ocean, it’s easier to pull them in they tell me. We’re getting a ton of great meals out of the fishing,” Terry said.
“I do enjoy fish,” Mitch said. He was looking forward to eating hot meals every day again.
They walked down the line, going south, Terry making a few introductions to the men and women on the wall.
“How far does the wall go?” Mitch asked.
“South it goes all the way to the south bridge. Used to be called Dunlawton, I think. Jumps over to another wall, which encircles Ponce Inlet, where all the fishing boats and crews are staying. They have their own teams out there,” Terry said. He looked north. “We’re all the way to Ormond by The Sea now. The goal is to keep adding the wall on either side and rebuilding the houses and clearing A1A. We do one block a week at this point. All of the construction crews live in that direction now. The northernmost bridge, which was called Granada, is where you came in.”
“There are only two bridges?”
Terry shook his head. “The two middle bridges are smaller ones but they’re never in use. There was structural damage on them when they first turned Main Street into a safe haven. So many zombies coming across the bridges, either directly onto Main or past the baseball stadium and the courthouse, the damage caused by weapons and grenades and everything else to kill the zombies took a toll. I suppose you could walk across them but you can’t drive a vehicle. They blocked them off and those are usually the best spots on the wall because you get a lot of action from zombies. Well, I guess we used to.”
“Where do I stand?” Mitch asked.
“All the way at the south end. There’s one section left. The very last one before the bridge. Not much happens there because there’s also a team on the other side who makes sure nothing gets over the bridge. Very boring and you get your meals last. Good luck,” Terry said and stopped.
“You’re not walking me down?” Mitch asked.
Terry laughed. “Too far. You’ll find it on your own. You free tonight to play cards?”
Mitch hesitated. He felt like he needed to ask Tosha before he answered, which annoyed him. He’d just met her. He didn’t owe her a thing. He knew the newcomers got to stay in the hotel right over the bridge he’d crossed. Plenty of rooms from what he’d been told, until they received permanent housing. Yet… he felt like he owed Tosha for getting him inside. “I’ll let you know. Where will you be tonight?”
Terry smiled and Mitch didn’t know if it was because he’d given him a maybe or he knew he had to ask permission before he could say yes. “We’ll be at the parking garage tonight. We set up a table and get some food. It was the original place the survivors would have to go to first. Now the only thing to do is to put the vehicles not in use in there. It’s nice and quiet.”
“Maybe I’ll see you there,” Mitch said.
Chapter Fifteen
The Lich Lord was right. There was nothing interesting going on for miles.
Tosha drove the car several miles west, with Bernie riding shotgun and enough firepower to wipe out a small country, but now she wished they’d packed beers and pizza. It would’ve been more useful.
The zombies she saw had been exterminated, heads either cut off or bodies burned. The Lich Lord had instilled in them the only true way to kill a zombie was setting it on fire and making sure not a drop of it remained but in a pinch a headshot would put it down and severing the head from the spine would keep it down.
Tosha pulled into the mall parking lot and parked in front of the entrance where the food court was.
“I thought your boyfriend told you he’d stashed everything on the other side of the mall?” Bernie asked.
Tosha got out of the car and took a rifle and two handguns with her as well as her backpack. “He’s not my boyfriend. Just someone to have fun with for a few days. In case you didn’t notice, there is slim picking with men these days. Even though he said it was all on the other side, in general, I don’t trust anyone. I’d rather do a quick sweep while we’re here to make sure.”
Bernie joined her on the sidewalk with her own weapons. “Why isn’t your boyfriend with us? It would be much easier if he was here to show us. If he has anything boobytrapped we’re in trouble, too.”
Tosha ignored Bernie and walked inside the mall, stepping over the shattered glass doorways and into the darkness. She fished for her flashlight in her bag.
“Ha. You never told him you were grabbing his shit, did you?” Bernie asked.
“Why should I? I’ll give him everything if he wants it. I just figured it would be easier to get out and do it without having him up my ass,” Tosha said.
“Seems a bit sketchy to me, but I’m not the boss,” Bernie said.
“The Lich Lord told me to do it this way,” Tosha said and shined the light on the ruined food court. “Not that I need to justify anything to a bitch like you.”
“Ouch. The boss doesn’t trust your boyfriend? That must really hurt,” Bernie said.
Tosha chuckled.
They walked to the main aisle of the mall. It had been swept a number of times in the past. Everything of value had been cleaned out, down to some of the store gates, lighting fixtures and all of the display cases.
“Where do we start?” Bernie asked.
“Mitch told me he put a mark near each one when I asked him. I was telling him about when I used to go door to door in St. Augustine, painti
ng a red X on each place so I’d know we were already there. He told me he did something similar but smaller so only he would notice, but once you saw it the rest would be easy to find,” Tosha said.
“Then we need to find it,” Bernie said, using her own flashlight to look on the other side of the main aisle of the mall as the pair walked slowly. “What if he hid them inside the stores?”
“Then we’ll be here for awhile. I just want to make sure he isn’t lying or making it like there are only a few spots when there are quite a few. We can always use more supplies,” Tosha said.
“Still think it would’ve been easier to bring the guy with us,” Bernie said.
“I don’t do easy. You know that,” Tosha said and shined the flashlight up and down the walls until she stopped at a small red X drawn over a store with the sign so ripped apart she couldn’t tell what it used to be.
Tosha turned to Bernie and smiled. “I guess everyone uses an X to mark the spot. After you?”
“I hate when you say that. It always feels like I’m about to step in a bear trap you have already seen,” Bernie said.
“That hurts. You don’t trust me?”
“No fucking way. Would you?”
Tosha laughed. “No fucking way.”
Bernie went in first. The space had been picked clean, with not even trash on the floor.
Tosha was about to give up when she saw another small X over the doorway to the stockroom. She went to it and shined her light, catching something.
“Smart bastard,” Tosha said and pointed at the thin fishing wire across the open doorway. “He’s set some traps. I wonder what he’s using.” She leaned forward into the back room, careful to stay clear of the tripwire. “Ha. Smart. He has a shotgun mounted on the wall.” She looked at Bernie. “Please, after you. I insist.”
“This is going to be loud. If there are any zombies in the mall, they’ll come running,” Bernie said. “Walking slowly, at least.”
“I’d welcome a fight right now. This is getting boring out here. If this keeps up, we won’t need the walls and everyone will start wandering around like assholes. I’d love a good zombie uprising,” Tosha said.
“Be careful what you wish for.” Bernie covered her ears and stood to the left of the door.
“You might want to get on the other side.”
Bernie switched and yanked the wire with her shoe, pulling it hard.
The shotgun went off, punching through the wall a foot behind Bernie.
“You asshole,” Bernie said.
Tosha shrugged. “I knew you weren’t in the blast range. The wall took the brunt of it. I told you I’m bored.”
“You’d miss me. Now you can go first,” Bernie said.
Tosha walked in. She felt a little guilty for messing with Bernie but she had to do something to feel alive again. This was getting ridiculous.
At the back of the room, directly above the mark, was a backpack. Tosha made sure there wasn’t another trap. When she was sure it was safe, she pulled it down and opened it.
“Sweet,” Tosha said.
It was filled with cans of food, a can opener, two boxes of ammo, a handgun, six bottles of water, two paperback books, a flashlight, a pack of batteries and a clear plastic bag full with matches.
“Let’s go find the rest of them,” Bernie said. “This is going to take us all day if he set traps in the mall, though.”
“He said he lived on the roof. I think we need to find the access and see what he had up there. Now that we know he wasn’t lying we can move quicker,” Tosha said. “We don’t have to grab everything today. We only have the one vehicle.”
“You’re just hoping we can do this run two or three days so you have something to do.”
“Pretty much. Unless The Lich Lord finds something new for us to do, I’m thinking our traveling days might be numbered. He’s not going to want to keep sending us further and further away. I know anything past twenty miles is a stretch for our safety. Too many unknowns and variables. Even without zombies, we still have to contend with marauders or lunatics who see a couple of hot chicks,” Tosha said.
“Definitely one hot chick,” Bernie said and pointed at herself.
“I don’t have time to argue with you. Besides, you know the truth,” Tosha said and wiggled her ass.
“Yep. You jump into bed with anyone because you have issues.”
Tosha went to argue but knew Bernie was probably right. She turned and went back into the mall, walking at a brisk pace as she searched for more hidden bug-out bags.
The pair got to the next intersection and decided to go right, past a kiosk that used to sell pretzels and lemonade. Tosha remembered what a treat it had been for her and her sister when they were still in high school and would drive over to the Harrisburg Mall and split a pretzel before going to a movie, or just hanging out and seeing who else was hanging out.
“We have two anchor stores, one right in front of us and one if we’d gone straight. I’m sure one or both have to have roof access, right? I say we check it out and maybe try on some dresses while we’re here. I’d rock it in a flower-print dress,” Bernie said.
“I can’t picture you in a dress,” Tosha said.
“I used to dress very girly. I even wore a lot of makeup to impress the boys.”
“What you see is what you get with me. A zombie apocalypse didn’t change my fashion sense. I always wore skin-tight jeans, concert shirts and my boots,” Tosha said.
They found two more backpacks filled with supplies, neither of which was trapped. In the back room of a sports store, Tosha found a size large teal football jersey. Her thoughts went back to the football stadium in Jacksonville and what had happened there. She was thinking about Darlene and what she was doing at this very moment.
“You thinking about if it’ll fit your boyfriend?” Bernie asked.
Tosha laughed and threw it to Bernie. “You can have it. I’m not much for giving gifts.”
“Only blow jobs.”
“Don’t hate me for being so damn good at it,” Tosha said.
“I guess practice really does make perfect.”
The department store had been cleaned out so well you could see to the back walls. Nothing remained except an X above a doorway leading to the stockroom.
“Maybe we can get to the roof,” Bernie said.
Two duffel bags and a backpack were hidden in the low ceiling of the stock room and they found a ladder leading to the roof.
“We hit the jackpot,” Tosha said when she saw all of the supplies on the roof. She leaned over the side and saw a metal ladder that had been pulled up. “We can get down to the parking lot. Toss the bags down and into the car and get out of here.”
“There’s plenty of time to check out the rest of the mall,” Bernie said.
Tosha shook her head. “We come back tomorrow. Bring a bigger vehicle and the rest of the team. I think we can milk this for awhile. After we’re done, we might not get another score like this. I want to make it last.” She threw the car keys to Bernie. “Pull it around.”
Chapter Sixteen
Tosha was grinning and Mitch didn’t like it. He’d had a long day, first showing he wasn’t going to take shit and then standing on a wall for hours and working on his tan.
They’d made love as soon as he got home. Actually, they’d fucked in the shower, Tosha really getting into it. Mitch hoped the neighbors were deaf.
After their shower, they ate grilled steak and fresh vegetables, washing it down with homemade beer.
Mitch had said he’d been invited to play cards tonight by one of the guys on the wall and said he was thinking of going.
Tosha was still smiling as she cleared the dishes and put them in the sink.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Mitch asked.
“There’s really nothing to say. I’m not your mother. You can come and go as you please,” Tosha said. “You’re a big boy.”
“You seem, uh… mad.” Mitch didn’t li
ke where this was going.
“There’s no reason for me to be mad. Ever hear of the band Lord Tracy?” Tosha asked.
“I’m not really into music. Is she a country singer?”
Tosha laughed and walked past Mitch to the living room. “They were a heavy metal band from the late eighties. I only remember one of their songs but it was a good one. I sang it to a guy I was dating. He didn’t appreciate it.”
“I’m guessing I won’t either,” Mitch said.
“Probably not. It was a song about a guy who decides his friends are more important than staying home with his girlfriend. It was called Out With The Boys,” Tosha said. She began to sing “see ya later, babe, I’m goin’ out with the boys.”
“I get the hint. I’ll stay home,” Mitch said.
“Oh, this isn’t your home. I thought I made it clear you could stay with me for awhile,” Tosha said and opened the front door. She swept her hand across the threshold. “Your time is up, buddy.”
“Seriously, we can talk about this. I don’t even like playing cards,” Mitch said.
“Go to the hotel tonight and check in. There’s a room for you. Tell them Tosha sent you. They’ll know what it means. I’ll send your stuff over in the morning,” Tosha said.
“Let’s talk about this,” Mitch said. He didn’t know what had happened or why it had gone wrong so quickly. “I want to stay with you. I think we have something.”
“I think it’s over. Done. In the past. I’ll see you around, Mitch.” Tosha leaned against the door. “Don’t make me force you out of my house. I don’t think The Lich Lord would appreciate you being a dickhead, do you?”
Mitch threw up his hands and walked out, completely baffled by what had just happened.
By the time he made it to the parking garage and was introduced to the dozen men and women who were hanging around, drinking and waiting to play cards, he still hadn’t figured out what had happened.
Terry gave Mitch a slap on the shoulder and handed him a mason jar filled with vodka.
Dying Days 7 Page 8
