“Give me a minute.” Alec put down his pack and opened it up. He took out the scope from his rifle and brought it up to his eye to inspect the place from afar.
“See anything?” Danny asked.
“No. There’s no movement, and I can’t see anything out of the ordinary.” Alec brought the scope away from his eye and held it out to Danny. “You want to take a look?”
“Sure, thanks.” Danny took the riflescope and looked through it. He didn’t know what any of the dials on the sides were for, so he didn’t touch them. He trusted that Alec had set them to the appropriate distance. The closest building was definitely a gas station, but the roof that jutted out over the pumps blocked off the view of the building next to it. Danny guessed that it was probably a restaurant of some sort.
“Think it looks safe?” Alec asked him.
Danny knew Alec didn’t need his opinion; that he was asking as a way to make sure they were back on good terms. Danny nodded and handed the scope back.
Alice yawned. “I’m tired.”
“Don’t worry, we’re almost there.” Alec ruffled her hair.
She scrunched her face up into an exaggerated scowl at him and tried to fix her hair.
Alec woke up Shoes and put him on his feet. “Danny, do you mind taking his leash?”
“No problem.” Danny untied it from the chair.
“Try to encourage him to walk in front of us too.” Alec put the scope back in his pack and slung the pack back over his shoulders. He then took out his pistol.
Danny got Shoes moving with a slight bump to his butt. He yawned larger than Danny ever could and began waddling forward. Shoes walked slower than the rest of them did on a normal basis, but now they made sure he took the lead, pacing his little legs. Alice knew something was going on and stepped closer to Alec. She reached up and held onto the handle at the back with one small hand. Danny took a breath, then decided to take out his own pistol. Holding it in one hand at his side, it felt heavier than it had all day. Slowly they approached the gas station.
At no point while they were walking did Shoes react. He just waddled along as if he was out on one of his daily walks. They even had to stop for a moment while he did his business on the side of the road.
As they got closer, Danny saw that the other building was not, in fact, a restaurant. It was a mechanic’s shop. It appeared not to have many windows either, which Danny took to be a good thing.
They approached the gas station first. Even though the sign announcing their hours indicated they should be open at this time, the other sign next to it stated that it was closed. Alec went up to the glass-paned door and looked inside. Danny looked through a big window between some brightly coloured advertisements. It looked closed and empty. It was also very dark inside and hard to make out much detail. They didn’t bother to try the door, as there were security gates closed across it. Danny thought it was likely that whoever worked there had heard the radio report and decided to close up early.
They went over to the mechanic’s shop next, where they checked things out through one of the few windows. It appeared to be split into two sections. The first was the reception area, with a desk and some waiting chairs. Danny could just make out two doors behind the desk: one looked like it was labelled ‘washroom’ and the other ‘employee lounge.’ There was a third door on the left that led into the other, larger section of the building. It was unmarked and made of metal. Judging by the two roll-up doors on the front of that section of the building, it was the actual garage.
Alec put down his pack again and opened it up. He took out a pair of flashlights. One was a large, police-style flashlight, and the other was a small, LED light on a shoestring. He put the shoestring over Alice’s head so that the light hung around her neck. It hung to her belly. He turned on the police light and shone it into the shop. There wasn’t much more to see with the added light, just more dirt.
Like the gas station, there were security gates over these windows and the door as well. Alec handed the big flashlight to Danny. He pointed to Danny’s gun, and then swept the area around them. Clearly, he wanted Danny to watch their backs. He then reached over and clicked on Alice’s light. He held it up and pointed it at the gate, then got Alice to hold it up in that position. He took out some of the tools that he had packed as well as his lock picks.
Danny didn’t watch him work; he did his job of watching everything else. At first, he pointed the light around, but it was spooky doing that. He couldn’t see anything outside the cone of light. It was a clear night and the moon had already risen, so he shut off the flashlight. He decided to let his eyes adjust and use his night vision, resorting to the flashlight only if he thought he saw something. That happened more than he liked.
When Alec broke the glass pane, it was quieter than Danny expected, but also much louder. It startled him even though he knew it was coming. The rest of the night was so quiet that it felt out of place. As Danny thought about it, he couldn’t even hear crickets or frog song or anything, just a very light breeze through the trees, and Alec working to get the gate open.
In was obvious Alice wasn’t totally focused on her task. Her light kept drifting down, only to be jerked back up, most likely by Alec correcting her.
Danny looked up at the stars that had started to come out. It was odd how they were the exact same. Despite all that had happened this day, the stars hadn’t changed at all. Well, maybe they were brighter actually.
Danny looked toward the city then, or at least the direction he thought it was in. There was no glow on the horizon, no light pollution. The power must have gone out at some point.
He continued to scan the woods and the road. He could see about a tree or two’s depth into them but then the brush was too thick, and it got too dark. It was unnerving not to be able to see that far. Anything could be between the trees. Anything could be watching them.
There was rattling as the security gate slid open. Danny turned. Alec put down his tools and gripped his pistol in both hands. He pointed to Danny and then Alice and then held his hand up in a stop sign. He was going in, and he didn’t want them to follow. He looked at Danny, pointed to his eyes and then the surrounding area again. He wanted Danny to continue being a lookout. Alec took the flashlight from Danny, then rolled through the door, broken glass crunching beneath his wheels.
Danny was left alone outside with Alice. He hoped he wouldn’t fail her as he had Emma. He held out his hand to her, the one not holding the gun, the one that had Shoes’s leash looped over the wrist. Alice placed her little hand in his, staring with him out at the forest. The light hung against her belly, casting a weird light up from the ground.
Shoes seemed totally unperturbed by all of this. He huffed and lay down. At first Danny thought it might be his signal, but the dog rolled onto its side, wanting to sleep, and made no more noise.
Danny could hear Alec moving around the reception area. The doors to both the washroom and the employee lounge opened and closed. He couldn’t tell in which order they were checked, but they were both checked. Next, the metal door was opened with a creak. Once Alec went through that door, Danny couldn’t keep track of him with his ears anymore.
Waiting in both the silence and the dark was the worst. Danny’s imagination started to act up. Did that bush move against the wind? Did he hear something scraping its way up the road? He expected something to grab him out of the dark at any moment. It was like watching a horror movie you didn’t know the ending to and couldn’t turn away from. Or worse, having a nightmare and just not being able to wake yourself up. Danny had never had as good an imagination as some of the other kids, but it was going full tilt at the moment. Not that anyone needed much after today.
Alice’s hand slowly squeezed his harder and harder. She was younger, so she probably had a better imagination than he did. Danny looked down at her to see that she was looking up at him. He was surprised to find no fear in her eyes. Instead, she looked worried. She looked like she was worried a
bout Danny. He realized she could probably feel his fear, and it was likely that he had slowly been squeezing her hand back. He did his best to relax, for her sake. If she could bravely face this, so could he.
Things like that were always easier said than done.
* * *
The metal door inside creaked again, and Danny heard Alec’s wheels rolling toward them. He turned to look.
“It’s clear,” Alec whispered, grabbing his pack. “Come inside, but be careful of the glass.”
Danny let Alice go in first. She stepped carefully around the glass, looking like she was afraid it would hurt her despite the fact that she was wearing shoes. Danny scooped Shoes the dog up into his arms and carried him over the glass. They followed Alec into the garage section.
With both flashlights shining around, Danny could see the inside was full of tools and scrap parts. Two vehicles appeared to be in for repair. One sat at the far end with its hood up, and the other was a minivan that was being stripped. The seats had been taken out and were lying around the space, the engine was out of it, hanging off a large chain, and the tires were nowhere to be seen. One side of the van was partly smushed in. It had definitely been hit by another car at some point.
Alec closed the door behind him. “I want you both to watch this.”
Alice and Danny turned to Alec. He shone his light on the door so that they could see what he was doing. He had apparently found a loose piece of chain earlier and now wrapped it around the inside handle of the door and a solid-looking bracket on the wall nearby. Once done, Alec then showed them how this stopped the door from being opened.
“Get it?” Alec turned to them.
Both of them nodded.
“Good.” He then wheeled over to one of the van’s bucket seats and put his pack down next to it.
Danny went and put his bag on the van’s long back seat. He then untied Shoes’s homemade string leash from his collar and put it on top of his bag. The dog went off, busily sniffing all the exciting smells of the place. Danny thought it smelled of rust and oil.
“Don’t sit down yet.” Alec came over to him.
Danny sighed. All he wanted to do was sit. Sit and sleep.
“You and I still have a job to do.” Alec headed toward the door again.
“What’s that?” Danny followed him.
“We’re going to break into the gas station and get some food,” he told him.
“What about Alice?” Danny looked at the girl, who stood watching them.
“It would be better if she stayed here,” Alec said. “Alice, come over here.”
Alice walked over.
“Do you think you can chain this door closed by yourself?” he asked her.
“Yes,” Alice nodded.
“Okay, well Danny and I are going to go next door and get something for us all to eat tonight and tomorrow morning. When we go out, I want you to chain the door closed, okay?”
“Okay,” Alice agreed. “But how will you get back in?”
“We’ll say the password,” Alec said.
“What’s the password?” Alice got excited, like it was a game.
“I don’t know,” Alec shrugged. “What do you think it should be?”
“Purple monkey dishwasher!” Alice giggled excitedly.
Danny couldn’t help but laugh. “All right, purple monkey dishwasher it is.”
Alec started to unwrap the chain.
“I get to keep the flashlight, right?” Alice held onto the little light around her neck.
“Of course,” Danny comforted her. “You and Shoes just hang out until we get back.”
“Okay,” Alice nodded.
“And be careful,” Alec warned her. “Some of the things in here are sharp and dangerous. Don’t start touching stuff if you don’t know what it is.”
“Okay,” Alice nodded again.
Danny had a bad feeling she would touch at least one thing in here. He hoped that if she did, it wouldn’t be something that would hurt her.
Alec got the chain off and opened the door. He handed it to Alice to make sure she could even lift it. She could. Alec rolled out through the door, and Danny followed after him.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Danny promised her.
Alice then shut the door behind them. Both Danny and Alec waited until they heard her threading the chain through the door and the bracket, before they headed back outside.
They crossed over to the gas station quickly. Not at a jog, but it was at least a fast walk. Well, a fast walk for Danny, a quick roll for Alec. Alec’s tools were sitting on his lap. When he had picked up his pack earlier, he hadn’t bothered to put them away. He must have been planning to head to the shop all along. He probably had decided it the moment they looked through the shop’s windows.
Alec rolled up to the door and handed Danny the flashlight. Danny pointed it at the section of the door where the lock was located. He kept glancing between watching Alec work, and the area around them. There wasn’t as much to see this time though, because of the pump islands. The pumps blocked most of the view to the other side of the road.
As Danny watched, Alec used the end of a screwdriver to break out a section of glass. He did it in such a way so as not to break out the whole window. Still, breaking glass was noisy. Once he had a space big enough for his hands, Alec didn’t bother to stop and listen for any noises. Danny tried to listen but couldn’t hear anything beyond Alec working. He saw that Alec was now using the screwdriver to take out the screws around the gate’s locking plate. Danny wondered if all shop security gates were designed this way or if this gas station just had some sort of cheap kind. Either way, it worked out for them.
Alec separated the gate’s bars from the locking mechanism and shoved them aside. Once the gate had been moved out of the way, he then had enough space to bend his hand around and unlock the glass door. Danny held the door open while Alec shoved the gate open the rest of the way. The gate’s lock was still holding itself in place in the door jam. Danny made a mental note to see if the other gate had been dismantled that way.
“Try to find some healthy food,” Alec whispered as they went inside, “stuff that will last for days like the stuff we’ve been carrying with us.”
Danny went to one side of the store while Alec took the other. Using the flashlight, Danny found mostly bags of chips and salsa. He did find a fridge, however, and it had milk in it. He needed something to carry the milk in, though. He went to the cashier’s counter to grab some bags.
Danny had never stood behind a cash register before. His initial reaction was that he shouldn’t be there, that it was wrong. That thought quickly passed though. He found the bags rather quickly but he took a bit of time to look around. Behind the counter, he found cigarettes and skin mags. He debated stealing some, glancing over at Alec. Danny had stolen a gun already; how bad could stealing them be? He took a skin mag bearing the image of a large-breasted, topless woman but decided to leave the cigarettes. Too many things had already tried to kill him today. He also found some scratch lottery cards. He took those, too. Even if the world ended and money became useless, scratching them would give Alice something to do.
After raiding the counter, he crossed the store again, over to the fridges. He opened one up and was surprised by how warm it was. It was still cooler in there than in the store, but it was warmer than he expected these kinds of fridges to be. With the power being out, milk was something that wouldn’t last very long. Danny wondered if the milk he was stealing would be the last he ever drank. Since he wasn’t sure the milk would keep till morning, he also swiped a few cans of pop, some energy drinks, three sports drinks, and a few water bottles. His bags were now heavy, the plastic handles stretching.
Danny walked over to Alec to see if he had found anything.
“I got some bread, some peanut butter, and some jam,” Alec told him. “I hope you like sandwiches.”
“Sandwiches are good,” Danny shrugged a shoulder. He was rather indi
fferent about sandwiches.
“Do you know what this Nutella stuff is?” Alec picked up a dark jar.
“It’s like peanut butter, but it’s chocolate,” Danny told him, shining the light on it so he could see better. With only the one light between them, Alec had been searching in darkness.
Alec placed the jar on his lap with the other stuff. “Anything else good you see around here?”
Danny looked around and shone his light up and down the aisle. There wasn’t much on this side of the store, mostly just household products. He did spot some small cheesy toys, though. He went over to them and looked at the shelves. There was nothing as grand as a Barbie, but there were some cheap plastic horses. Danny remembered from the conversation in the car that Alice liked horses. He grabbed a few and fit them into one of the bags.
“Let’s go.” Alec took the flashlight from Danny and headed toward the door.
While Alec quickly surveyed the outside for danger, Danny took one last look around. They crossed quickly to the mechanic’s shop again. Alec went up to the metal door and knocked.
“What’s the password?” Alice’s small voice called from inside.
“Purple monkey dishwasher,” Alec answered her.
They listened as Alice giggled before she started to unchain the door again. As soon as it was open, they went inside and closed the door behind them. Alec started chaining it up again as Danny went to put his bags down. He took the skin mag out of the shopping bag and quickly hid it under his backpack. He then felt something poking at his arm.
“What?” He turned to see what it was.
Alice stood there with this long, thin, wire-looking thing that waved around in her hand.
“What is that?” Danny wondered.
“I don’t know,” Alice shrugged. “But look what it can do.” She pressed a plunger on her end of it and these really thin, slightly claw-shaped wires came out of the end of it. With her tongue sticking out in concentration, Alice waved the thing about until the claws were over a screw on the floor. When she released the plunger, the little claws retracted. After three tries, she managed to get them to pick up the screw. She looked proudly at Danny.
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