by David Peters
“I like it, good thinking. Let’s hope we don’t have to test it anytime soon” Dylan said with a smile.
“Porter will be lead on top of the truck with Smitty. Jonathan will be driving the semi. While you and I will be in the bus with Niccole, Travis, Mayberry, and a few others and Julie will be driving.
“Julie? Why?” asked Dylan in befuddlement.
“Turns out she was a school bus driver for the last fifteen years. She has the experience and was more than willing to help out,” answered Daniel.
“Here comes Niccole, let’s go ahead and get down to brass tacks,” said Daniel. “We have a pretty diverse shopping list but keep in mind the priorities. We are thinking long term here, first aid and medical supplies, non-perishable food, blankets and heavy clothing, weapons and ammunition.”
Daniel continued “Our first stop will be the Wal-Mart. If there are any non-refrigerated trailers in the lot, we hook up with the truck and drag it back. We can sort out contents later. I know it’s kind of like the lottery in regards to getting something but in talking with Jonathan we came to the conclusion that we just won’t have time to go through a trailer while we are there. If it’s full we may not even be able to get past the first few pallets. Let’s hope it isn’t twenty four pallets of bicycle reflectors or something just as useless. Bus folks will park at the front of the building. After we establish that it is safe we separate into specific teams and raid the store.”
Julie raised her hand “How exactly are you going to verify it is safe?”
Dylan smiled “Fair question. I figure that our best bet is smell. If any of the buildings we are going into have any Corrupted in it the place will smell pretty strong.”
Julie nodded in agreement.
“Our next stop will be the emergency walk-in clinic on Front Street. It is a short hop from the store. We want all of the bandages and emergency type materials we can get. Niccole has spent some time with Doc going over what to look for in their pharmacy so she is in charge of that. I will be looking for any portable equipment we can bring back. At this point the two teams will split up. It is too difficult for the semi to turn around at the far end of town if things get tough so they will head back while the bus team will continue on in town. We will hit the police station where team one will scour the first floor for any radios or anything left on desks and team two will hit the armory in the basement and take whatever isn’t nailed down. After that it is a leisurely drive home. Sound good to all of you? Any questions?” asked Daniel.
“How are the two groups staying in touch?” asked Porter.
“We will put our cabin CB into the bus, so we shouldn’t have any issues there, when the bus crew is inside the store, we will not be in communication. One of the things we will be grabbing from the police station is radios for future use. But this run we won’t have the luxury.”
Porter nodded his understanding.
Daniel handed out the printed maps that Niccole brought to the meeting “Please spend some time looking at these maps. We will be using and referring to these frequently for this trip.”
The group was quiet as they mentally walked through the route.
Dylan paused “Does anyone have any idea where the Corrupted are living? Are they central to downtown or somewhere else? Everyone is free to speak, any ideas, let’s have ‘em.”
“If I had to guess, I would say central to the center of town, there are several large buildings. Based off of what we have gathered they really seem to be the Corrupted’s favored haunts,” offered Doc. “They seem to favor something wide open with central access and very large open rooms.”
“That means the Wal-Mart is a possible center. That could also leave the hardware store, the Smith Mill and the high school. They all have fairly large open buildings available. So let’s keep on our toes, we have no idea what kind of numbers we may be dealing with. Hopefully last night put a dent in that or at least slowed them down for a while,” added Daniel.
A few other minor details were worked out, but it was agreed that they would leave at first light the next morning. The group headed over to the vehicles in order to walk through location assignments and work a few drills at Dylan’s request. After several runs through and a few quick request changes to the bus the group broke up to finish their regularly assigned work and get a late lunch.
Daniel, Dylan and Niccole headed back to their cabin to discuss the radio work Niccole had completed. “We got the antenna working and we have much better range now. I have already found one other group holding up in Colorado although the signal was really weak and it was hard to carry a conversation. We probably won’t be able to talk to them when the weather is bad. We were able to get numbers and set up a schedule of communication. They are not nearly as prepared as we are and they were looking to us for advice. Currently it looks like we are the center of hope for humanity,” Niccole said with a smile.
Dylan laughed, “If that’s the case, I think humanity is kinda screwed.”
--1--
Dylan walked through the bus for a final check. The designated people were in place and all were ready to go. The bus was heavily loaded. Between the added armor and the several hundred gallons of water on the roof the bus was riding pretty low. The semi-truck was another story. It looked like it was born evil. There was no doubt to anyone who looked at that rig that it had been converted for combat. Dylan laughed to himself as he thought about the rig having its own theme music again.
“Let’s move out folks,” said Dylan into the CB.
Both trucks started up and headed out the open barricade and down the gravel road for the long slow trip into town. The bus rode rough on the road, but without the seats inside there was plenty of room to ride out the bumps and work through a few drills. The bus sat on the stops of its suspension. The water overhead was amazingly heavy.
Dylan had Travis try two shots with his T-Cannon. To say it was impressive was an understatement. Dylan made a mental note to make sure he got the kudos he deserved for this invention.
Each person fired a half dozen rounds or so out of their assigned ports. After all was said and done Dylan felt a little better about their ability to defend themselves.
It took about sixty minutes to reach the end of the gravel road and turn onto the pavement signifying the edge of town. Once they made the turn the ride smoothed out and the team got down to the business of looking for signs of Corrupted.
To say the town was quiet was an understatement. With morning air cool and calm nothing moved as far as the eye could see. Even the flag at the post office was hanging limp in the still air. There were two sounds in the town and the Paradise Falls group was responsible for both of them.
“Keep your eyes open folks. They know we’re here, we sound like a junk wagon driving down the road” said Dylan.
Dylan kept his eyes glued to his gun port. He was manning the position directly behind the driver so he had a wide view to the left of the bus. He could also drop down and look out the port in the front window that Julie was using to drive. Niccole had the position directly behind Dylan covering the right front of the bus while Daniel had the rear left position, Travis in the ‘tail gunner’ position as he liked to refer to it and Mayberry had the rear right position.
Julie kept the speed slow but constant “Ok, Wal-Mart in sight, about three blocks and closing. I’m going to circle the lot once. It looks pretty clear at this point. Remember kids, no talking, spitting, or fighting” she added with a smile.
As they made their first circuit of the nearly empty parking lot, Dylan got on the CB “Jonathan, I see two trailers on the loading dock, any preference?”
“I’m taking the one on the right. It’s riding like it is loaded heavy. I would hate to get a trailer back and having nothing in it,” Jonathan replied back.
“Sounds good. We will sit at the top of the ramp while you hook up,” Dylan said into the mic. “Alright folks, this is our first exposure point. Let’s keep it tight, no shooting u
nless you actually have a target.”
“Keep it tight? Really Dylan?” Niccole chided him, “I’m surprised you aren’t saying ‘over’ every time. Someone get that man a cigar and an army helmet.”
“I’m going to start calling you ma’am if you keep getting out of line lady,” Dylan jabbed back with a smile.
“Wow, give a man a grenade launcher and it goes right to his head,” Niccole laughed quietly to herself as she turned to watch her area.
Jonathan backed his truck like a professional and was out attaching the various lines. Porter and Smitty on the roof kept an active watch on the roofline above from their perch on top of the sleeper cab. Jonathan gave the thumbs up and climbed back into the running rig. As he pulled off the loading ramp the CB crackled, “is the roll door on the back open?”
Dylan watched as they slowly passed, “Nope, looks good. Give us fifteen minutes in the store. If the shit hits stay as long as you can, but don’t take any risks.”
“Got it,” Jonathan replied back.
Julie pulled to within ten feet of the front entrance. For as much light as there was outside, the inside was a pitch black abyss.
“Let’s go shopping people,” Dylan said as he stepped off the bus. The front door wouldn’t open, but it wasn’t locked. He simply slid the door open on its track and stepped into the darkness.
He could hear water dripping somewhere in the cavernous expanse of the building. The air was stale but it didn’t smell like a large group of animals had died anywhere in the building. Each member of the team had a small but extremely bright hiking light strapped to their head. Dylan’s lit up the shopping carts in front of him, grabbing two, pushing one and pulling the other; he set out for the sporting goods section.
The team moved through the store rapidly filling up their carts with their assigned goods. As Dylan was finishing his list he heard Niccole call out from somewhere in the cavern of a store, “Done! Heading to the front!”
Travis and Mayberry called out simultaneously from other more distant parts of the store mimicking Niccole, “Done! Also heading to the front!”
Dylan followed next, with Daniel making the call last.
Dylan met the team in the lobby and they headed out to the bus as a group. Their shopping carts filled to the top with everything from flashlights to batteries and underwear to blankets.
Travis’ first cart was filled to overflowing with cases of various bullets. Balanced on top of the heap was a basketball.
Travis saw Daniel give him a look “What? It was on the way. We don’t have one that isn’t flat you know.”
Daniel laughed at him and took his carts out the front door.
The original plan called for them to just drag the entire cart into the bus and tie them up towards the back. Although the plan was sound on paper, in practice the carts were wider than the bus door by at least six inches.
Dylan looked at the cart, then the swinging door and shook his head. “Well crap. Alright, everyone grab some of those red carry baskets. We need to transfer all this as fast as we can. How are we doing Julie? Have you heard anything from Jonathan?”
“He is still driving slowly around the parking lot. I haven’t heard a peep out of him.”
Dylan took a step back to get a view around the bus. The large diesel chugged its way slowly across the far side of the lot. It was like watching an evil battleship cruising a silent harbor. Beyond the truck the town was stark and silent. It felt so wrong to not see a soul walking the street or waiting at one of the darkened intersections.
The last basket was thrown to the back of the bus and the team loaded up and assumed their positions.
Dylan grabbed the CB “Alright Jonathan. We are heading to the next stop now. We will follow your lead.”
Without a word the semi turned out of the parking lot and onto Front Street. The clinic was two blocks down in a small strip mall on their right. The semi would use the hardware store parking lot across the street from the clinic to make its slow turns.
Julie pulled in front of the entrance to the small clinic.
Dylan tried the door and found it locked. He looked around the entrance. He grabbed a large rock in the landscaping off to one side. With a shattering of glass the team broke into the clinic and began their liberation of medical goods.
Dylan was the only one without clear direction on what he should be getting. The only portable equipment he found was a defibrillator, and that just didn’t make much sense. He decided to grab all of the first aid kits mounted on the walls. They were easy to carry and would have a nice assortment of goodies.
Dylan was the last one back on the bus.
“Anything at all moving out there?” he asked Julie.
“Nothing at all. Kind of creapin’ me out at this point too. I would expect to see something coming to check out all the noise,” Julie replied back.
“All right Jonathan. See you back at the ranch. We’re hitting the police station now.”
“Roger that. Be safe folks. See you back home.”
Julie turned right out of the small parking lot and headed for the end of Front Street. The police station was a modern style brick building made out to look like an old train station. Not one single local had ever been able to explain why they wanted their station to look like it serviced trains.
Julie pulled up onto the sidewalk to get them closer to the doors. “Last stop folks,” she called to the back of the bus.
Dylan was the first to step out. “Why don’t you shut the bus off, this run will take a little longer and we don’t need the attention.” No one knew the layout of the police station in any detail. Niccole could give qualified guesses as to what items might be where, but for the most part they would have no clue where to look.
As the bus shut down the sudden silence was deafening. They could hear the semi pulling its heavy load up the gravel road nearly two miles away, but other than that distant sound the town was ominously quiet. Dylan looked around and suppressed a shudder. He was looking at a life sized still photo of a town.
“Alright everyone, let’s repeat the last two performances. Clean and fast. Julie and Travis will be our eyes. Honk the horn if you see something moving out there.”
The four entered the darkened interior of the station. The front desk looked like the normal occupant had left for lunch. Further into the building was darkened but appeared in order. Daniel nodded to Dylan as he and Mayberry jumped the counter and headed into the first floor offices. He and Niccole entered the stairwell to the basement of the facility. The door at the base of the stairwell was closed and had a punch key door lock.
“Stand back” as Dylan ducked back around the wall Niccole put one shotgun round into the door lock and two more into the hinges. She slammed into the door with her shoulder and sent it crashing to the floor.
“Do you have any idea how hot that is?” Dylan asked.
Niccole nearly blushed at the compliment, “We have work to do cowboy. Less pervin’ more workin’.”
Niccole led the way through the lobby to the back armory. “Do you hear that?” she whispered to Dylan.
“One, I can’t hear you because my ears are still ringing from your demonstration. Two, you just fired three shotgun rounds, why are you whispering?”
She smiled at him “I’m going to beat you later.”
Dylan’s smile faded “Wait, I do hear something. What the hell is that?”
Niccole put her finger to her lips and the two of them headed in the direction of the noise. It sounded like someone crying or moaning but it was extremely raspy.
Niccole suddenly stood upright and started running down the hall “Crap Dylan! I know what it is, follow me!” She ran down the hall and jumped the counter at the end.
Dylan was whispering as loudly as he dared “Niccole, what is it?”
She stopped for a second and turned to him “Someone is locked in the jail. That means they have been here for nearly two weeks.”
The last turn
brought them to a wall of holding cells. Niccole walked quickly down the length of the room peaking into each cell. Each white steel door had a small viewing slit at eye level that she could look into. In the last cell a man was laying on the cot in the cell moaning loudly. “He must have heard the shots. He is pretty far gone.”
Niccole swung the override on the wall and all of the cell doors opened. The two of them entered the cramped cell and knelt down by the man “Can you stand or walk?”
The man opened his eyes and looked blearily first at Niccole then Dylan “I’m not sure why you are still holding me. It was just a bar fight. I really need some food, please. I’ll eat anything.”
Luckily the man had a small sink in his room so he had access to water but he was emaciated and obviously delirious.
“What’s your name?” Dylan asked him.
