by Dulaney, C.
Jake sighed and closed his eyes, seemingly impatient with her, before answering.
“That’s a sporting goods shop, Grandma. Read the sign out front.”
He jerked his chin in the direction of the store, continuing at a slow walk down the street. Nancy looked down the road and this time noticed the sign: Hartley’s Guns and Ammo. In smaller letters underneath, Fishing Tackle and Bait. She grinned and clapped her hands together.
“This is great, Jake! Let’s go back and tell the others.” She snapped the reins and started to turn her horse around. Jake kept moving however, and called back over his shoulder.
“Go ahead, I’m gonna check it out.”
* * *
“So what do you want to do about it?” Mia asked.
We’d filled her in on what we’d seen, and had been waiting for Nancy and Jake to return. The hour was almost up and I’d already decided if they weren’t back by five minutes after, we’d go looking for them.
“I’m not sure yet, Mia. Shit keeps getting weirder and weirder,” I said, shaking my head. We were stretching our legs and pacing around while we waited, Gus following me as I slipped him treats.
“Listen, let’s see what Nancy and Jake think,” Zack offered. “Then if we agree, we’ll load up the packhorses with what we can from the IGA.”
Mia and I nodded but it did nothing to alleviate our anxious dread. That’s when Gus decided to make things worse, scaring the shit out of all three of us, by letting out an ear-piercing bay right at my feet. Mia screamed, I jumped, and Zack laughed so hard he fell over against the storefront sidewalk. Gus took off down the street and met Nancy.
“Jesus Christ, I’m gonna kill that fucking dog.” I clutched my chest. Apparently the high tension was getting to all of us.
“Kasey!” Nancy called out while waving me towards her. I pulled myself together and jogged down the street.
“Where’s Jake?” I asked. Nancy looked like she might cry, she was so nervous. And mad.
“We found a gun shop, but Jake stayed behind. Said he wanted to look around. I tried to get him to come back, but he made me go without him.” She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, her hurt feelings giving way to grandmotherly fury. “I’m goin’ back there and whip his ass.”
“Easy, Nancy, we’ll all go back. We’ve got another situation to deal with, but we’ll load up on ammo first.”
I waited until I was sure she wasn’t going to take off before letting go of her reins and looking back up the street. Mia and Zack were already riding in our direction and leading my horse and the packhorses behind them. I looked back the other way, hoping Jake wasn’t doing something stupid.
* * *
“Where is it, Nance?”
We were approaching the end of the street, so I figured she’d gotten turned around and taken us the wrong way. When she pointed to the last store on the right, I noticed the rickety and faded sign out front. Jake was nowhere in sight.
“Shit,” I mumbled and trotted Daisy the last hundred feet.
Jake’s horse was picking grass in a vacant lot behind the store. The front door was open. I slid out of the saddle and drew my pistol at the same time, waiting until the others caught up before approaching the sidewalk and calling Jake’s name.
I stepped up onto the walk and peered into the darkened doorway. “Hey, Jake, are you in there?”
That was a stupid question, of course he was in there. His recent behavior, however, made me question the wisdom of sneaking up on him in the dark. I was so engrossed with trying to see inside the store that I didn’t notice the sun was beginning to set. Or that the others had snuck up behind me. Or that Gus had let himself in, already darting through the open doorway and happily sniffing around inside.
“C’mon.” Zack pressed his hand against the small of my back.
I jumped before straightening from the crouch I had unknowingly assumed and strode through the doorway. Turns out it wasn’t as dark on the inside as my mind had made it out to be. This prompted another lecture to myself about getting freaked out over nothing.
“Jake!” Zack shouted while we fanned out through the store.
It wasn’t very big; one large room with a glass counter along two of the walls, and several aisles down the center. The other two walls were devoted to fishing equipment. Poles of all different sizes hung there, along with assorted bait and accessories. There were shotguns and rifles on the wall behind the counter, with handguns inside it, under the glass. There were shelves under the gun racks lined with ammunition, usually inaccessible and unseen to the everyday customer, unless for whatever reason they jumped the counter. Which is exactly what Mia was doing as Zack and Nancy walked through the store yelling for Jake.
Gus and I stood just inside the doorway, considering and studying the area. It smelled stale, like an old bookstore. Besides the inch of dust that covered everything, it was clean. No blood, no deadhead stench. I’d noticed before coming inside there were windows above where we stood now. From that I assumed there was an upstairs to this place. Most likely Mr. and/or Mrs. Hartley had lived above their store.
Gus and I made our way through the aisles and towards the back of the store. Mia relieved the shelves behind the counter of all the rifle ammunition. I snapped my fingers at Zack and Nancy to quiet them when I noticed the back door was ajar. They followed my eyes and immediately crossed the store. I nudged the door open with my boot and raised my pistol. Nothing but an empty staircase. We listened for any noise from above but heard nothing. I tapped Gus on the top of his head to get his attention, motioning for him to ‘stay’ when he looked up at me. I jerked my chin towards Mia, signaling Zack to snap his fingers once to get her attention. After a few hand movements from him, she stopped what she was doing, leapt over the counter, and joined us by the back door.
“Ready?”
Jake was here somewhere, and I was pretty sure he was upstairs, but I had no idea if something had ambushed him or worse. With a nod from the others, I stepped through the door and started up, my hands gripped tightly around my gun. Gus stayed in the doorway as I’d instructed, even though I knew it was a struggle for him not to follow. I just couldn’t take the chance of him running into something that bit back.
I kept my eyes glued ahead and above me, watching for anything that might jump out of the darkness. There was light at the top of the stairs, and as we drew near we noticed the door to the apartment was open as well. Wide open. The last rays of sunlight were shining in through the windows and casting down the top few steps. I motioned for the others to stop at the top, then tilted my head and listened for any noise. Still nothing. I pointed Mia over to the opposite side of the door frame from where I stood, then signaled Zack to step inside as she and I covered him.
“What the hell is going on?” Mia asked.
The room was empty.
Everything looked as it should in any living room. No mess, no blood, no signs of a struggle. Just an empty beer can on the coffee table next to a half-eaten plate of what I can only assume had been spaghetti once upon a time. Nancy came in behind and moved past us into the adjoining kitchen. After a quick glance around she shrugged her shoulders and jerked her thumb behind her, toward what was probably the bedroom or bathroom. I caught Zack’s eye, then moved toward the closed door. Mia and Nancy stood back in the kitchen with their guns raised. Zack grabbed the doorknob, gave it a twist, and threw it open. I thrust my gun into the empty space and took two steps inside.
“Goddamnit, Jake.” I let out the breath I’d been holding and quickly lowered my weapon.
Zack muttered something along those same lines as he came in behind me. I blew out another breath, forcing out my pent-up fear and anxiety, and planted my hands on my hips. Zack let out a small chuckle beside me, then went back out to the kitchen to inform the others we had found Jake.
Sound asleep on the bed, with his boots on.
* * *
“Hey man, what are you doing up?” Mia whispered to
Jake, who was standing as still as a statue by the living room window, his arms crossed, his eyebrows lowered and his mouth frowning. He didn’t answer her, or even look in her direction.
Mia tiptoed around the pull-out sofa-bed that Zack and Kasey were sleeping on. “You okay?” She laid her hand on his upper arm. Only then did he turn to look at her, his eyes sleepy and slightly puffy.
“Not really.”
They looked at each other for a moment, knowing there was more to be said, not wanting to wake the two cuddled tightly together in the bed next to them. Mia curled her index finger close to Jake’s face, tilting her head away from the bed, motioning for him to follow her. He did so, hesitantly, and she snuck back the way she came. Instead of walking back into the bedroom, she turned right and stepped into the darkened bathroom. Once Jake was inside, she eased the door shut and flipped on the battery-powered Coleman lantern.
“Okay, so what’s up?” she asked again, her voice still low and her arms folded around her. The night was chilly and there wasn’t any heat in the building.
Jake ran a hand through his hair. He looked over his shoulder at the door, stepped closer to Mia, and crossed his arms.
“Fuckin’ nightmares, can’t shake ‘em.”
“What kind of nightmares?”
Jake sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Same old shit, Mia. Mostly Ben though.”
Mia knew they had been best friends, and it was understandable that Jake would still be grieving. Hell, Kasey was, and Kase hadn’t been as close to the man as Jake had been.
“That’s normal, hun. I’d feel the same way if it’d been Kasey. Nothing wrong with that. And it doesn’t make you weak either. But you gotta find a way to deal with it, Jake. We can all see what it’s doing to you. Well, I don’t think anyone knows what’s really bothering you, but they can all tell there’s something. Are you sure that’s it?”
Jake clenched his jaw, his eyes glazing a bit.
Should I tell her? he thought. Fuck it.
“Yeah there’s somethin’ else…” Then he told Mia what he’d found that last day in Matias.
“Oh…that bitch!” Mia yelled. His hands flew up and covered her mouth.
“Shh! Shh, sshhh! You’ll wake up the whole goddamn house!” His face was so close to hers that her heavy and stifled breathing was making his hair flutter.
“You gonna be quiet?”
He waited until she calmed down before letting his hands drop from her face. He could clearly see she was pissed beyond belief, but at the same time, it made him feel better. Maybe it was finally getting this huge secret off his chest, sharing it with someone else who could understand its meaning. It’s full meaning. Either way, he felt much better, and for the first time in months, he thought he’d be able to get a good night’s sleep.
“I can’t believe that bitch. Jesus Christ, Jake, I mean, do you know what that—”
Mia was beside herself, struggling to come to terms with the same realization Jake had been dealing with alone this whole time. She stopped talking when she noticed he was slowly nodding with a smile.
“Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know.”
“So that’s what’s been eating you. She’s the reason Ben is dead, whether directly or indirectly, as you see it,” she clarified. He nodded. Mia put her hands on her hips, bit her lower lip, and stared at him from under dropped eyebrows. “And now you want to put that bitch in the ground.”
“Smart and pretty. Lethal combination. Let’s get some sleep.” Jake opened the bathroom door and flipped the lantern out.
She mimed pulling her hair and screaming, instead settling for letting the subject drop for the time being. She crept out of the bathroom, looked over at the sofa-bed (neither Zack nor Kasey had moved), and tiptoed back into the bedroom. Jake was already snoring on the floor next to the bed, and she had a strong and sudden urge to kick him in the guts on her way around him. She didn’t. Instead she crawled under the blankets as gently as she could so as not to wake Nancy, and tried to force herself to sleep.
Chapter Three
March 21st: IGA Parking Lot
“Let’s hurry up and get this over with. This place is freakin’ me out,” Jake said as we rode into the grocery store parking lot.
We’d spent the night at the apartment above Hartley’s instead of loading and leaving after dark. I’d even allowed us to sleep in, and for one night, canceled the night watch. Apparently it was just what Jake needed. Sure, we all felt better that morning than we had the whole trip, but it was Jake who was the most refreshed and ready to go. He was almost back to his normal self. Seeing that made me decide that if we didn’t run across the cons shortly after crossing into Ohio, then I was calling off the search. It just wasn’t worth it.
I looked around for something to tie the horses to as we approached the storefront. The only thing on the sidewalk was a Pepsi machine. It was often an advantage having the horses. At times like this it was just a pain in the ass.
“Let’s check around back.” Mia rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly, which caused me to do the same. Our matching wounds ached from time to time. “There we go.”
There was a large loading dock behind the store with a railing along the side. Perfect for bringing supplies out and tying off the horses.
Everyone dismounted and tied off to the railing while Gus ran up the ramp and sniffed at the crack under the door. He whimpered and growled deep in his chest a few times. I wasn’t sure if he was alerting us to danger or simply smelling the food inside. Jake walked around and met Gus at the door, then turned to us after giving the door a kick.
“Won’t open from out here. Someone needs to go around and open this from inside.”
“Shit,” I whined.
Zack took my hand. “Come on.”
We walked around to the front of the store. “We need to get this done as quickly as possible so we can get the hell away from that church and back on the road. I’d like to be in Blueville by dark.”
Zack voiced his agreement and reached out to push the door open. Turns out it was the first locked door we’d encountered since before Z-day.
“Well, shit!” he yelled, his voice laced with frustration.
I covered my face with one hand, thought What the hell else can go wrong?, then watched Zack search the nearby grass at the edge of the pavement for a rock. He ended up prying loose a piece of asphalt.
“Stand back.” He gave me just enough time to take a few steps away before launching the chunk of pavement at the large front window.
The glass exploded with a huge shatter, leaving the pane clear of any shards as it fell inside the store and all over the sidewalk. A second later the walkie chirped in my pocket, causing me to jump and nearly fall inside the building. Zack caught me and helped me regain my balance, then stepped back and drew his pistol. I pulled the radio from my pocket and answered.
“What?”
I was pulling my pistol loose from its holster with one hand, and whispering into the radio in my other hand. The store was dark, but not so dark we couldn’t see to walk. The only light came from the large front windows, and there were no other windows throughout the rest of the store.
“I’ll find some flashlights,” Zack said, moving off down one of the aisles.
Nancy’s voice came back over the walkie. “What was that noise? Are you okay?”
I explained to her what the situation was, told her not to worry about bringing flashlights to us, Zack was looking for one now, and to just stay put until we got the back door open. After confirming that she understood, I stuffed the radio back into my pocket and caught up with Zack as quickly as I could. I hadn’t noticed the smell or the mess when I’d first came in through the window because Nancy had been distracting me. After I thought about it, the state of the store explained the look on Zack’s face just before he went looking for flashlights. It was a wreck. There were broken jars on the floor, smashed boxes and cans littered all around, and even toilet paper strewn up and down the ais
les. The smell wasn’t a dead smell, just that of very bad hygiene. It reminded me of the smell when we’d first found Shannon.
I followed the noise Zack was making rummaging around on one of the shelves in the hardware department. When I finally found him, he was trying to put batteries into a flashlight, except he was shaking so badly he kept dropping them. I took his hands in mine, squeezed them tightly, and pulled the light away from him. After picking the batteries up off the floor, I slid them into place and switched it on.
“Hey, take it easy. Just stay calm.”
He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. I swept the light around on the floor and up and down the aisle; same as the rest of the store, a mess. Since the door was locked from the inside it was hard for me to believe that whoever had done this was gone. The store was too big for just the two of us to clear safely, so I decided we would go to the stockroom, open the back door for the others, then do a thorough sweep before taking what we needed. Zack agreed, and we began creeping our way towards the back of the store, taking the straightest route possible, our guns drawn and our heads down. Zack had tucked the flashlight into his back pocket; we figured sneaking around in the dark would be better than announcing our location by swinging a light around.
We stopped at the end of each aisle, crouched down, and listened for anyone following us. The only sound was our breathing. Whoever was here was holed up tight, most likely in the damned stockroom. At least that’s what I’d figured before rounding the corner at the end of the chip aisle.
That’s when something jumped up and nailed me in the face.
Zack was only a few steps behind me; we had been switching positions the whole way through the store. It all depended on who was on point at each corner and intersection. The other would go on, the point person covering. We’d been leap-frogging this way right up until I got hit. It just so happened I was point at this particular corner.
