by Mark Lukens
Kate crept to the end of the truck, watching the store. Brooke was right behind her. At least the truck protected them a little from the wind. The store’s interior was dark beyond the busted windows. The double metal doors were closed, but most of the glass had been shattered. A few shopping carts were on their side among a scattering of clothing and empty food containers.
Still no sign of the rippers, still no screeches or cries.
Where had all of the rippers gone to? There had been a lot of rippers a few days ago when Kate’s SUV that Ted had gotten for her had run out of gas. Five rippers had chased her into the alley, but she was sure there were a lot more of them in this town. Were they in that store? Was the store like a den for them? A picture of a mass of bodies sleeping together flashed through her mind, but she pushed the image away.
They couldn’t wait out here forever—at some point they were going to have to try the store.
“Let’s try it,” Kate told Brooke as she stood up at the end of the truck.
They were running again, this time across the parking lot. They got to the shattered front doors. Kate went inside first and then Brooke followed her. Kate darted over to where the rest of the shopping carts would have been stored if they were still in the store, but there was only one left, lying on its side like a dead animal. The cash registers and counter were to the right of the doors. Aisles ran through lines of shelves, most of them empty or filled with trash and broken merchandise.
The front of the store was bathed in a muted gray light that came in through the wall of windows and the shattered doors, but the rest of the store dissolved into darkness within the next thirty feet. It felt like the entrance to a cave, the deeper part of the store hidden in the dark.
The store may have been looted in the first few days of the Collapse, like the supermarket Kate had gone to that Friday afternoon. And she figured that the store had been picked over several more times by survivors of the plague and then the rippers. The chances of finding a lot of food and water in this store didn’t look very good.
But they had to try.
Besides, Kate had something else in mind that she wanted to look for. But to do that, they would need to venture deeper inside the store.
CHAPTER 21
Kate made herself wait at least five minutes in their little hiding place behind the knee-wall where the shopping carts used to be lined up. She listened for any noises coming from the darkness. She wanted to be careful, but they couldn’t wait too much longer—it would only be a matter of time before rippers, or even other survivors, came by.
“We’re going to go over there by the cash registers,” Kate whispered to Brooke, pointing at the counter on the other side of the front doors. “Okay?”
Brooke nodded.
Kate hurried across the floor in front of the shattered doors. She got to the counter, then around it, crouching down behind it. The floor was littered with papers, wrappers, trash, receipt paper, and even money. It was strange to see money lying all over the floor, some of the bills crinkled and stepped on, others looking almost brand new. There were some small boxes on the floor—electronic supplies and cell phone accessories that needed to be locked up behind the counter so people wouldn’t steal them. But they were worthless now, just like all the money.
She thought she might find a purse or a set of keys tucked into a little cubbyhole under the countertop near the cash register, maybe the employees stashed them back here, but there was nothing.
It was time to check the rest of the store. Kate gestured to Brooke that they were going to leave from behind the counter. Brooke just stared at Kate for a moment, then nodded. Kate hurried past Brooke to the end of the counter, walking over DVDs all over the floor. She spotted a plastic shopping basket and picked it up to hold anything they found.
Kate led Brooke to the aisles. They started with the aisle farthest to the right, along the wall. This was where they used to have the freezer and refrigerated food. Most of the glass was broken, and the shelves inside were completely bare. The smell of spoiled food coming from the shelves made Kate want to gag.
No food on the floors; there were some wrappers and packaging, lots of shattered and crushed glass, liquids that had merged together and dried. The farther they walked down the aisle, the darker it got.
“Brooke, can you use your flashlight?” Kate whispered.
Brooke pulled her small flashlight out of her pocket and turned it on. She had been holding on to her drawing tablet and pencil, but Kate had her drop it into the bottom of the plastic basket so she could keep her hands free.
“Hold your hand over the front of it to cut down on the light,” Kate told her. “So no one outside sees the light in here.”
Brooke looked immediately frightened by the prospect of someone seeing them inside the store. She cupped her small hand over the front of the light, extinguishing a lot of it. “Like this?” she whispered.
“That’s good. You’re doing great.”
Brooke smiled.
They made their way down the aisle, working slowly. Brooke shined the flashlight down at the floor as they worked their way down the next aisles. Kate was able to find a few things to add to her basket: a sweatshirt hoodie, a few bottles of multivitamins, a package of Band-Aids, a few cans of food (but she couldn’t find a can opener), and a small stuffed animal for Brooke to replace the one she’d left behind (this one was much cleaner than the one Brooke had been sleeping with in the tunnels). Brooke also wanted a new drawing tablet and a set of colored pencils in a box. Kate couldn’t say no. She also found a pack of plastic spoons to add to the basket, and a hairbrush for Brooke’s hair. In another aisle Kate found a bar of soap and two toothbrushes still in their packaging, and a small tube of toothpaste.
They had spent at least thirty minutes combing through the debris, collecting what they could find. The basket was full and getting a little heavy, but not too bad. Kate wanted to make another pass along some of the other aisles, but she also felt like time was running out. She couldn’t help thinking that the rippers would be here soon. Even though the place had been picked over, maybe the rippers couldn’t help coming back, couldn’t help hoping to find something.
It was time to get going, but Kate wanted to check out the back of the store.
The storerooms were just as looted as the rest of the store, ripped-up cardboard boxes and packing all over the floor, ripped bags and metal bands and strings of plastic wrap. She didn’t think she was going to find any food or drinks in the storeroom, but she had another destination in mind.
They entered the rooms beyond the main storeroom, exploring those. Brooke guided their way with the flashlight. Since there were no windows back here, she didn’t need to keep her hand over the front of the flashlight.
They found a small break room. It had a microwave oven on the counter with a small refrigerator at the end of it. Kate didn’t bother looking in the fridge, but she checked out the row of six lockers across the room; they were tall lockers, the kind they used to have in her junior high school. Four of the doors were unlocked, the doors wide open, the lockers empty. The last two lockers on the end were locked with padlocks.
In the manager’s office, just off of the break room, Kate found a small tool box shoved into one of the drawers. She used a big screwdriver and hammer to pry the locked doors open, peeling the metal back enough to spring the doors free. She was making a lot of noise and Brooke was getting nervous. But if she found what she thought might be inside the lockers, then it would be worth it.
Bingo. She found a jacket in the last locker. On the top shelf there were a few packs of peanut butter crackers and two snack cakes in clear cellophane. Someone had obviously been hiding their snacks from their coworkers. The next locker had a purse and a cloth lunchbox with a long strap and a zippered pocket on the side. Inside the lunchbox Kate found a bottle of water and a can of soda, along with a plastic icepack and a Tupperware dish of something she didn’t want to open.
Kate set the lunchbox down on the floor next to their plastic basket.
Brooke smiled at her.
Kate grabbed the purse and set it on the floor next to the lunchbox. “Can you shine the light right down here?” she asked Brooke.
Brooke did as asked, shining the beam of light down onto the purse, holding it steady.
“Good,” Kate purred. “You’re doing great, Brooke.”
She pulled a cell phone out of the purse, setting it to the side. There was some makeup; a wallet with photos, credit cards, and money inside; a pack of napkins, and then she found what she’d been hoping to find—a set of car keys. She’d hoped for more; she had hoped to find pepper spray, or even a gun, but the car keys were good enough.
The keys had to go to one of the cars parked outside, probably parked in the back or far away from customer parking. It would be a Toyota according to the symbol on the handle of the key.
Kate turned to Brooke with the keys in her hand and a smile on her face. “I think we can leave now.”
But Brooke wasn’t smiling—she was shaking her head no. She didn’t want to leave.
CHAPTER 22
“We have to leave,” Kate told Brooke.
“I want to go back,” Brooke said.
“It isn’t safe here. It’s not going to be safe in those tunnels much longer. Eventually the rippers—the monsters—will find their way in. You can see that, can’t you?”
Brooke didn’t seem to want to budge on this. She shook her head no again, her wild blond hair flying back and forth.
For a moment Kate wasn’t sure what to do. She’d never been around kids very much in her life, so she had no experience with this. She had assumed that Brooke was on the same page, ready to escape the dungeon under the ground where she’d been hiding for the last week. But now she realized that to Brooke those tunnels were the only safe place.
She couldn’t drag Brooke outside with her, drag her to the car and force her inside.
Maybe she could keep trying to reason with her. “Those monsters, they’ll be back. If you go down into those tunnels again, they will find you. You’ll have to keep coming out of there and look for food. You’ll have to go farther and farther to find food and water. Eventually they’ll see you and follow you back.”
Her reasoning didn’t seem to be working on Brooke. Kate had assumed that Brooke understood that they were leaving, that they weren’t going back to the tunnels. But maybe Brooke had assumed they were just looking for food and water and then going back.
Brooke looked stubborn, but she also looked terrified.
Kate grabbed the lunchbox and pulled out the icepack and Tupperware dish, sliding them away along the floor into the darkness. She added the packs of crackers, the two snack cakes, the package of Band-Aids, the two bottles of multivitamins, the two toothbrushes and tube of toothpaste, and then she zipped it up. She took her jacket off, put the hoodie sweatshirt on, and then put her jacket back on. All they had in the plastic basket now was the stuffed animal, the hairbrush, the few cans of food, another small sweatshirt for Brooke, the drawing tablets—Brooke’s old one and the new one—and the packs of pencils. Kate slung the lunchbox strap over her shoulder and stood up. She picked up the plastic basket with mostly Brooke’s stuff inside and walked into the storeroom.
Brooke followed her with the flashlight, right behind her. Kate walked to the back door, a metal door with a push bar and a warning that an alarm would sound if it was opened.
Not anymore, Kate thought.
Brooke grunted from behind Kate; it was nearly a scream.
Kate turned around and stared at the girl. She stood in the dark with her flashlight pointed down at the floor, but there was enough light to illuminate the look of anger on her face.
“I’m leaving,” Kate said. “You can come with me or you can stay here.”
Brooke marched toward her and grabbed at the plastic basket, but Kate wouldn’t let it go.
“You want this stuff?” Kate asked. “Then you need to come with me.”
Brooke stopped. She looked stunned, like she’d been slapped.
Kate felt instantly guilty. She felt like a big, stingy bully. But she needed to be tough with Brooke right now—it seemed to be the only thing that was getting through to her. “There’s no food or water left in this store, Brooke. There’s probably nothing left in this town. I know you want to stay. I know you feel safe in the tunnels, but you’re not going to survive much longer if you stay here.”
Brooke stood still, her flashlight still aimed down at the floor. She stared up at Kate with her big blue eyes.
Kate thought she might be getting through to Brooke. This reminded her of talking to Ted right before she got into the SUV to leave the city, begging him to go with her. In a way Ted had been like Brooke, clinging to what he felt was safe, clinging to the place he knew best. But they both had to realize that they couldn’t stay in one place too long; the food would run out or the rippers would eventually catch them. Maybe Kate’s idea of going up into the mountains seemed dangerous to them, maybe even silly, but in the long run it was much more dangerous to stay in one place too long. She should have made Ted understand that, and now she needed to make Brooke understand.
“I don’t want to leave you here,” Kate said, staring into the Brooke’s wide eyes. There were no tears in the girl’s eyes, but Kate could feel her own eyes tearing up. “I want you to go with me. I’m going to the mountains. To my home. To where my family lives. I know a place where we’ll be safe, where the monsters can’t get to us, a place where there will be plenty of food and water.”
Kate knew she was lying to Brooke, and the guilt was already weighing on her. But she was lying for a good reason—sometimes you had to lie for a good reason.
“You promise?” Brooke asked.
Kate felt the tears brimming. She wanted to swipe at her eyes with the shoulders of her coat, but she didn’t. She smiled at Brooke, lying right to her. “Yes. I promise.”
“I don’t want you to leave me,” Brooke said and hugged her. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Kate couldn’t help it now. The tears came, blurring her vision. She hugged Brooke back, squeezing her. Brooke buried her face into Kate’s coat and began sobbing. Kate just held her for a few moments, stroking her hair and trying not to catch her fingers in the tangles. “I know,” Kate whispered to her. “I know. I won’t leave you. I don’t want you to leave me, either.”
Brooke cried even harder, her body shaking with her sobs; it was almost like she was having a seizure. She wailed into Kate’s shoulder, all of the terror and sadness coming out of her all at once, everything she had bottled up since the Collapse coming out in a torrent of tears.
“Get it out,” Kate whispered. “Get it all out.”
A few minutes later, Brooke pulled away from Kate and wiped her eyes.
Kate wiped her own eyes. “I’m so glad you found me, Brooke. You saved my life. You know that?”
Brooke nodded, still wiping at her eyes.
“You saved my life, and I’m going to save yours. Okay?”
Brooke smiled and nodded again.
“Let’s go find that car,” Kate said and pushed the back door open.
CHAPTER 23
From the doorway of the back door, Kate spotted the Toyota the keys probably belonged to; it was a small white car that looked to be at least fifteen years old. She would have rather found an SUV or even a pickup truck, something larger and more powerful, something that could go off-road. But beggars couldn’t be choosers. Maybe between this town and her family’s town they would find another vehicle, a better one. But for now this Toyota would have to do.
She glanced around at the back parking lot. Beyond it was a field of grass with trees hundreds of yards away in the distance. To the right and left, things looked clear. But she’d heard some of the rippers calling out. They sounded far away, but there could be some coming this way.
Brooke had heard them too.
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br /> “It’s okay,” Kate said. “We just need to make it to that car over there. Do you want to wait here, and I’ll drive the car over and pick you up?”
Brooke shook her head no, grabbing on to Kate’s arm like she would hold on if Kate tried to leave.
“Okay. We have to run and be quiet. You go around the car to the passenger side and I’ll let you in.”
Brooke still looked nervous.
“I’m not going to leave you. I said that earlier because I wanted you to come with me. Okay?”
She still didn’t look sure.
“We need to hurry.”
After a few more glances around, Kate took off across the parking lot with Brooke right behind her. She wanted to use the button on the key fob to unlock the doors, but she was afraid the lights might flicker or the horn might beep—she couldn’t risk the noise and the lights.
The air had gotten a little colder and it was beginning to drizzle. Puffs of breath misted up in front of Kate’s face as she reached the driver’s door with the key poking out of her fist. Brooke was around the car and waiting at the other door. Kate still had the lunchbox slung over one shoulder and the plastic shopping basket in her other hand as she stuck the key into the lock on the door, her hand trembling. The key almost slipped out of her wet fingers, but she poked it in and turned, praying that the door would unlock and that this was the right car for this key.
The door lock popped up. Kate opened the door and pushed the button down to unlock all of the other doors. Brooke got inside while Kate opened the back door and threw the lunchbox and plastic basket into the back seat. She closed the door, not bothering to be quiet anymore—any rippers nearby were going to hear the sound of the car starting up in the next few seconds.
If it starts . . .
She couldn’t think about that. She got into the driver’s seat and eased the door closed, then jabbed the key into the ignition. She twisted and the car started right up, the motor purring. The needle on the gas gauge jumped up to a little over halfway—plenty of gas for this little car. She shifted into drive and drove around the building, speeding toward the exit at the front of the parking lot. She was out on the street when she saw the rippers running across the grass of the vacant lots toward them.
