Motioning for the driver to continue further into the town. The Humvee stopped near a large blue metal water tower sitting on six metal poles with the round tank still standing without damage. Scattered along the roadway mixed in with the debris ranging from trees to parts of small buildings were neat piles of debris.
“Why are you stopping,” she asked the anger obvious in her monotone voice as she turned on him. The driver looked at the piles of debris sitting by the side of the road pointing to them.
“Look there Captain it looks like someone has made an effort to clear the road to get through here,” he said.
Captain Jones turned her head to focus on the pile of debris before she looked forward again.
“I can see that were going in the right direction keep going,” she chastised the driver as he put the Humvee and gear driving further into town.
Dan watched them move off as he moved to the trailer holding the golf carts. Pulling a set of keys from his pocket he unlocked the ramp for the trailer. Pulling the ramp down and climbing up to a red golf cart with a hardtop and built in solar panel. Dan sat down in the driver seat flipping a switch from charge to power watching the needle on the battery gauge swing to full. Putting the cart in reverse he backed it off the trailer before closing and locking the ramp. He could see a large group of people standing off to one side listening to someone speak. Unlocking a trailer he lowered it with a ratcheting strap from the side of the trailer. He had just finished hooking the trailer to the golf cart when he saw Mary approach.
“Morning,” Dan said in a way of a greeting.
“Morning,” she replied and she seem a little nervous Dan thought.
“I don’t have duty until this afternoon and was wondering,” she started to say softly before pausing. He had an idea what she was trying to ask.
“Do you want to go with me on this run,” he asked her and could see relief on her face.
“If you don’t mind,” she replied. Dan remembered the promise that he had made to her father about trying to help her and keep her safe.
“No problem, do you want to split everything fifty-fifty that we find today or finders keepers,” he asked her.
“Sure fifty-fifty that would be great,” Mary answered a little unsure of her answer.
“Get in,” he said pointing to the passenger seat.
Getting into the driver seat and watched as Mary sat down in the passenger seat. She seem out of place in the golf cart in her black swat armor and drove the cart towards the makeshift gate. Taking his place in a line of trucks waiting to leave. He could see the horizon brighten along the edges of the dark clouds that hung in the air.
“You missed the Commanders briefing,” he heard Rex say as he and T-bone approached the cart.
“Already know what is off-limits,” Dan said smiling, they both nodded at this.
“Suppose you do,” T-bone added thoughtfully.
“Say considering what you got already, how about joining with us,” Rex asked.
“Sorry, I promised Mary I would take her out,” he could see the disappointed looks on their faces.
“But I will give you a couple of pawnshops and liquor store in exchange for a few cases of liquor,” he saw Rex and T-bone exchange looks before smiling.
“Deal.”
Dan giving them the directions to the pawnshop and liquor store just down the street and of two more a few streets away.
“By the way, what are you after today,” T-bone asked Dan rather coyly.
“I told Doctor McGee I would pick up some stuff for her clinic before we head down to some shops on Main Street,” Dan said casually.
“I thought the hospital was off-limits to us,” Rex said.
“Yes the town has claimed what is in there,” he replied.
“Either they forgot to mention the medical buildings down the street from it or I did,” Dan finished with a smile this brought a laugh from T-bone and Rex.
“See you later, and if you know of anything else the town has not claimed let us know,” they said leaving. Dan turned to look at Mary and saw the puzzled look on her face.
“You gave them the good places,” she told him, he smiled at her.
“You think so,” he said as the sun came up. The gates opened as the trucks went speeding out in a hurry running down the few zombies that had not scattered last night. Dan drove the golf cart out and down the street. They passed Rex who had stopped at the pawnshop with his flatbed truck and was busy having one of the people with him pry open the door. Just a few moments later they past T-bone who had used a chain attached to his truck to pull the metal bar door off the liquor store to open it. Dan kept going down West Avenue turning onto a side street paralleling West Avenue for a while. After he made sure they no one was following them. He made the turn back on to west passing that large white unmarked building from last night. Once again not getting a good look at it as he made a wide arcing turn around a group of ten shambling zombies.
“Are we stopping at the mall,” Mary asked excitably as they approached Mellor Park Mall.
“Later there is a better stop ahead,” Dan said as he swerved to avoid a few zombies that where on the road. He could hear them start to moan as they passed, looking up he could see the sun trying to break free of the darkening clouds.
“Looks like another wet day,” he mumbled.
“Did you say something,” Mary turned looking at him. He shook his head.
“No,” he said as he drove on down West Avenue. Passing a gas station and some old fast-food restaurants past a video store, before the golf cart turned left off the four-lane road. To go down a slight incline road into the massive parking lot of a Wal-Mart. Mary looked at the large building in awe.
“Here,” she whispered.
“Try not to shoot anything unless you have to,” Dan told Mary as she pointed her black barrel of the M-sixteen assault rifle at some zombies that where approaching the cart.
“We don’t want to let anyone know living or undead we are here if we can,” he finished as he swung around the milling group. Dan steered the cart to the far end of the store towards a set of glass doors and pulled the cart up to them.
“Take the wheel,” he told Mary as he got out and took a large black metal pry bar from the backseat.
He looked at the zombies to see how close they were and could see there were ten of them heading right at them, it was going to be close. As Dan approached the doors as, Mary slipped behind the steering wheel of the cart. He started to pry the doors open, on his second try he bent the doorframe enough to break the lock free but also shattered the glass on one of the doors.
“Damn,” he thought as he pried the door open.
“Pull the cart in,” he told Mary. As he entered a brick enclosed alcove that had shopping carts to one side and some vending machines to the other and a second set of identical doors in front of them.
After Mary had pulled, the cart in Dan pushed the doors closed as the zombies approached.
“Can you take care of any zombies that try to make it through the door,” he ask Mary. She nodded yes and step out of the cart removing the machete she carried and positioned herself to one side of the door that held the broken glass. Dan could hear a dull whack over the moaning as he worked on the second door followed by another dull whack. He managed to pry these doors open without braking them.
He turned to see Mary bring the machete down onto a zombies head as it tried to crawl through the opening. Joining the two zombies in a pile now laying in the broken door frame. Getting into the golf cart he pulled into the store. Parking it out of sight of the door in an open walkway between the cash registers and the optical department set in the wall behind a roll down security gates. He quickly got out of the golf cart going back to help Mary.
“Get in,” he told Mary as she finished shattering the fifth zombie’s skull now stacked on top of each other’s as she moved forward through the open doors.
“Give me a hand closing them,” Dan
said as he started to push the sliding door closed. Mary helped him with the other door as they struggled to close the doors close with a dull metallic thumb. He could see the look of wonder and excitement on Mary’s face as their eyes adjusted to the light. Through the gloomy interior, they could see the store sat untouched.
“Where do we start,” Mary asked in a hushed voice.
“Over there,” Dan said pointing down the open walkway where he had parked the cart. Mary followed him about halfway down the hallway to the customer service area. They walk up to three large gray-wheeled carts, two where empty and the third had some clothes and toys in it. That sat in front of a counter that held several cash registers.
“Help me dump this out,” Dan said motioning to the cart. After Mary had help him dump out the contents of the cart. Dan pulled out the solar powered flashlight he had on his belt and handed her it before taking a second from his day pack.
“This way,” he said grabbing two of the carts and Mary the third while using the flashlights to guide their way as they moved into the store. The first stop they made was at the sporting goods section stopping in front of the gun counter.
“Would you look at all of them,” Mary said looking at the rifles lock in racks behind the glass display counter which held a selection of scope and other accessories. Under the rile racks where cabinets with glass door that held different calibers of ammunition.
“Start loading the ammunition from those displays. While I break the locks on the rifle racks,” he said. Holding the pry bar in his hands and pointing to an end cap display of boxes. Holding Twelfth gauge shotgun and Twenty-two ammunition that was on sale at the end of an aisle.
Mary started loading the boxes of ammunition into the cart as he set out breaking open the gun racks. After a few minutes of this Mary stopped.
“What’s up,” Dan paused opening a rack she was listening for something. Then they both heard a low moaning sound coming out of the gloom of the store.
“Sounds like a zombie or two are joining us. Keep an eye out and let’s keep going,” Dan said as he pulled on the pry bar and popped the next gun rack open. They went as fast as they could trying to load the ammunition and weapons into the gray carts. Filling two of them up when the moaning sound started to get louder after Dan had popped the last gun rack open.
“Finish loading,” he said to Mary as he hung the pry bar from the gray cart. To removed his katana sword from his sheath with a metallic hiss, using his left hand he swung the flashlight beam around the store. He heard something bump into a shelf to the rear of them. Mary almost finish loading the last of the rifles as Dan started moving down the aisle with a break halfway down allowing him to cross into another aisle.
There in the fishing gear isle he saw the zombie. It was a man once wearing a light blue security guard outfit, His face was sunken and ashen showing some decay and his eyes where a milky white. Once the zombie saw Dan it raised his arms as if to embrace him. Dan swung the sword down on to the zombies head in a one-handed arc. The blade stuck in the zombie’s head. Tearing free from his hand as the zombie fell to the ground silent. He looked around to see if Mary had seen this. Making sure she had not, Dan wrenched the sword from the zombies head and did a quick search of the body. He returned carrying the zombie’s leather belt that had a pair of handcuffs, radio and a canister of pepper spray.
“It was a security guard,” Dan said as he tossed the belt into the gray cart. Mary nodded then added. “
“I think there’s more than one. I heard more moaning,” Dan shrugged.
“Let’s load this on to the cart before we continue,” he said unconcerned. After they had finished loading and not hearing anymore moaning, they agreed to split up.
Dan went back to the sporting good section pulling a gray cart adding some archery bows and arrows and some bowstrings and hunting tips for the arrows. He also decided to add some fishing gear. He stopped in from of the camping gear and was examining some sleeping bags and decided to upgrade from his poncho liner. So he grabbed a couple of warm looking sleeping bags. A camping cook set that stacked to store inside its self. With a few other items then heading to the hardware section. Picking up some plastic drop cloths and tarpaulins. Rope and duct tape as he continued around the store. He found a selection of the solar powered flashlights and lanterns. Taking all of these plus the spare led bulbs the display had. He continued through the poorly lit store pulling the gray cart that keep getting heaver. He began to wonder why he was doing this. He could be sitting safely in the camp right now just waiting for everyone to finish. And be on his way with the big rig and trailer filled with all the stuff he had already found. Instead, he was out here getting more items he started to wonder if he was getting greedy remembering the last time he was here.
“No,” he told himself, he was here helping Mary she was getting half of everything they found here. Besides, could he sit in camp and do nothing but wait. He stopped in front of the bicycle section looking at all the new rows of bikes on their racks and shook his head.
“I have plenty already,” holding that thought, he tried to clear his mind that he was being greedy.
Meeting Mary on his way back to the cart. They started loading up the stuff they had found filling the backseat and small cargo area of the golf cart and most of the trailer.
“Where almost full and there is more stuff I want,” Mary told him. Dan looked at Mary through the dim light seeing the excitement on her face. Thoughts of what happen the last time of being greedy rushing back with vengeance into his head. Dan paused for a moment looking at her.
“We can tie these carts to the trailer towing them, but we will lose speed and that will cause issues if we run in to zombies.
“We can take care of any zombies we run into,” she stated. Dan saw the look of overconfidence mixed with excitement on Mary’s face and it scared him. It took a moment for Mary to realize Dan was staring at her.
“What,” she asked uncertainly when she noticed him looking. Dan thought for a moment before he spoke.
“Do you know why I asked you to work with me?”
Mary looked a little embarrassed before saying.
“Because my Dad asked you to?”
“Partially,” he replied. “Mostly because you always came across as a level headed person who thinks first,” Mary blushed in the dim light of the store embarrassed by this.
“I am going to tell you what happen the last time I was here,” Dan started.
6 Town of the Dead
“The two people I was here with I worked with before,” Dan started. “Both experienced good at what we do. We found this place and as you can see from the big rig I pulled up in last night. We scored big and even with leaving the truck behind. I still made it back with a wagon full of goods,” Dan said watching the expression on Mary’s face it had a slightly impatient look to it.
“Our mistake was we got to greedy and stopped thinking, stopped being careful and got careless. We did not know when to stop thinking we could handle anything,” Dan could hear his voice rising a little. He watched Mary’s expression change to concern at the sound of it.
“We got overran by zombies and even though we had automatic weapons, it did not help,” Dan paused fighting for control of his voice before he continued.
“And do you know why I made it out and they didn’t,” Dan said with pain in his voice and could see Mary shake her head no slowly.
“I could run faster than them, I made it passed the zombies, the zombies surrounded them,” he finished hoping his words sank in.
Mary’s expression changed a little and her voice did not hold as much excitement as before.
“But we are being careful and we can leave the stuff if we have to,” she said with a hopeful look on her face. Dan knew that if they left now it would damage them working together and possibly their friendship.
“This goes against my better judgment,” he said shaking his head.
“But we can take a few more min
utes before leaving.” Dan saw the excitement return to Mary’s face.
“Thanks and I will be careful,” she said grabbing the half-full gray plastic cart and headed out. Dan looked in to his plastic cart to see it was about a quarter full and they had one empty cart left. He stared into it for a moment then turned the flash light down an aisle and started walking pushing the cart in front of him. He stopped in front of the shoe section going down the men’s isle. He started grabbing all the size nine and a half shoes and boots he could find and piled them into the cart. Putting him near the warehouse entrance and lay away section. This area had a counter, doors for rest rooms and a set of swinging double doors that lead into the warehouse.
In front of this door was another large gray plastic cart that was empty. Begging him to take it into the warehouse. The doors tempting him to enter the warehouse to find riches he knew it would be foolish to try it alone. Instead Dan just grabbed it pulling it and the cart he had with him back into the store. He finished filling the first gray cart with pants, shirts, socks. Underwear and jackets that he could find in his size. He would simply remove all the right size from the shelf or rack and dump them into the cart. He grabbed some jeans for Luke in his size and a couple of sizes larger with shirts, and he did the same for Doug, Sandra and Sara.
If he got the wrong size he figured. They could trade it for what they needed Dan pushed the full cart back to the golf cart only to find the empty plastic cart gone and a full one sitting in its place. He took a moment to look into it and could see shoes, cd’s and a good amount of make-up. Dan shook his head Mary was not wasting time. He left the full one behind, before he went to grab the last empty one, he stopped at one of the cash registers to pick up a stack of plastic bags. He took his time as he then headed over to the grocery side of the store. This is what he liked about these stores he thought one-stop shopping. Dan knew most of the food here was bad or poisonous if you ate any. He also knew some foods as long as they were sealed and kept dry will keep for a longtime. He walked up and down the aisles checking the boxes, bags and jars to make sure that where sealed and no animals or insects had gotten into them. As he put jars of honey, flour, rice, beans, sugar and pasta into the plastic bags. He would push the air out and tie them shut to help keep out the water before putting them into the cart. Dan stopped at the next isle he had turned into and smiled at the shelf’s holding large plastic tubs, cans and bags of coffee of all different types and flavors. Loren will love this he thought as he filled his cart to the point of overflowing.
The Aftermath Trilogy (Book 2): The Aftermath [Town of the Dead] Page 13
