Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Six (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 6)

by Douglas Wayne

  It wasn’t himself he was worried about. It was the mass of people he couldn’t control that scared him. Alone or in small groups, Tyler was sure he could handle anything. But he thought back to the gas station and the group of people who rushed the truck, taking most of his supplies. If it hadn’t been for Harv and the other guard, he would’ve lost everything, and probably his life. While Marcy had been an asset before, she was already showing signs of breaking. He wanted to keep her around, but wished he had someone else to help.

  “What do we have left?” Marcy asked, looking into the bed of the truck through the back window.

  “Not much.” He filled her in on their losses. While she was upset to hear about them, she was the first to say it could’ve been worse. There was more than enough in the back for them to live on for at least a week, and likely two or three. By then Tyler hoped he’d be back at home. That way he no longer had to rely on supplies he had to haul around while he traveled across the country. Unfortunately, there was one thing they needed in decent supply to make it back home, and he needed more than they already had.

  “We need gas,” Tyler said.

  Marcy looked at him, mouth agape in horror. “We can’t do that again.”

  “We don’t have a choice. The best we can hope for is that we can get in and out by using one of my cards. Otherwise, we need stuff to trade.”

  “Didn’t you trade most the beer for the gas already?”

  Tyler nodded. “And gave another two to Harv and the other guard at the last one. Saying the next station gives me the same deal, we have enough for a few more gallons. Not close to enough.”

  “What if they don’t want the beer,” she said. “Or the food? What will we do then?”

  “We need to find something they’ll want.”

  “Like what?”

  “With the world going into full survival mode, most things are worthless. We can’t expect to get much for anything big or that takes electricity. From there, I’m willing to bet jewelry will lose most of its value.”

  “You think?”

  Tyler nodded. “You can’t eat it or drink it. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take anything we find. Might find that one person who still wants the shiny stuff.”

  Marcy laughed at the thought and Tyler joined her. He was having a hard enough time dealing with the world as it was. But the thought of a world without high-pressure salesmen was pure bliss. No longer would he have to go to a car dealer and have to put up with a guy hounding him for a sale like his life depended on it.

  “Guns will also be worth a decent amount.” Tyler looked back in the back seat at the two M-16s and the remaining handgun on the floorboard. “And ammo. If the rest of the world is like it was back in Mobile, people will want a way to defend themselves.”

  “We can trade these off then,” she said. “For gas or whatever.”

  “Maybe the other handgun. I’d rather keep the rest. After the hospital and gas station, I want to be ready.” If he used up the remaining bullets in the M-16s he might trade them. That was saying they didn’t find a decent cache of ammo or a gun shop that still had a decent supply of bullets for it.

  Marcy nodded. “So what’s the plan?”

  Tyler looked at her and smiled. “We have two options. We can find a shopping center, ideally one with a department store or a grocery store, and stock up. Our best option is a store well away from a major city or town though it needs to be big enough to support a small community. One that will probably be closed or locked up.”

  “Don’t you think they’ll be protected?”

  “I do. I’d be willing to bet most the major stores have already been looted. Those that haven’t probably have people protecting the property. Even the smaller stores well away from the highways will probably be that way.”

  “So let’s say the stores are out of the question, where would you check next?”

  “Houses,” Tyler said.

  “People’s houses? Like robbing them?”

  Tyler sighed. “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Won’t they be protected too?”

  “Some will. Others will be empty.” Tyler slowed the truck to avoid a pair of stalled cars blocking most the road. “You said the news reported over forty percent of Mobile was missing, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “That was before all this chaos. I’d be willing to bet another ten or twenty percent are dead, or holed up in big groups like back at the hospital. That means six out of ten houses will no longer have anyone watching them.”

  “I don’t know, Tyler. What if someone is home?”

  “Then we go to the next house,” he said. “Or we go a few blocks away before checking again.”

  He continued driving and watched her expression as she stared out the window. He could tell she didn’t like the idea any more than he did, but he didn’t have many options. The best option would be to find a few empty gas cans and fill them up by siphoning abandoned cars, but safeguards put in place by the car companies had made that more difficult through the years. Sure, he could crawl underneath the car and unbolt the tank, but that effort may be for nothing. He’d be exposed while he did the work with no guarantee of success. He could spend a few hours pulling one off only to find a few gallons of usable fuel or nothing at all.

  Of course, he could hit the jackpot and find one that had been topped off before the event. But that came with its own complications. He would have to find a way to unbolt it without the tank crashing down on him, pinning him under the car. Even at ten pounds a gallon it wouldn’t take much force to break a few ribs or pin him forever.

  “I say we hit the houses,” she said after a few minutes. “Less risk. But if anyone is home…”

  “We leave. I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”

  Chapter Three

  Noticing a set of houses on his right, Tyler pulled off the highway and into an attached subdivision. He continued down the street, not stopping until he couldn’t see the highway. He wasn’t sure if anyone else was doing the same thing they planned to do, but figured leaving the truck in the open wasn’t a good idea.

  Most the driveways had cars in them which wasn’t surprising since the event happened in the middle of the night. While it was expected , it made it difficult to choose a house to hit first.

  Tyler stopped the truck in a cul-de-sac in front of a house with an empty driveway with the truck pointed out of the neighborhood in case something went wrong. He grabbed his handgun off the seat and slid it in his waistband at the small of his back while Marcy kept hers in her hand.

  They approached the house slowly, each keeping an eye to the sides to see if anyone was watching their approach. The danger of scavenging out of the houses didn’t only lie with people inside of the house. Neighbors could prove just as deadly as any homeowners could.

  Tyler kept the lead until they got to the front door. He looked at Marcy, who once again had her gun in a death grip. “You ready?”

  “Not really,” she huffed. “Lets just get this over with.”

  Tyler nodded then rang the doorbell. Placing his ear against the wooden door, he listened for sounds of movement inside. He’d hoped to hear the sounds of shuffling feet or moving furniture letting him know someone was home. After a minute, he pulled his head back and tried again, this time placing his hand behind his back in easy reach of the gun. Not having heard anything the first time made him believe that if anyone was home they were hunkered down waiting for a fight, but more than likely that mean the house was empty.

  “Here goes,” Tyler said a minute later ringing the bell a second time.

  He twisted the handle and found the door unlocked. It felt unsettling to know the house was already wide open. Perhaps that meant someone was already inside the house like the homeowner or a neighbor who was locked out of their own. The other possibility was that the door was left unlocked on purpose. Perhaps this was one of those friendly neighborhoods where the neighbors kept a close eye on each o
ther in case someone came in looking for trouble.

  He figured, more than likely whoever lived in the house was a night owl or had just returned home before the event and hadn’t locked the door before the world went to shit. Or maybe the people inside were part of the missing and the unlocked door was the clue. In either case, he knew it meant the house was probably empty, but grabbed his gun to be sure.

  “Hello?” he said as he walked inside. Sweeping the gun from left to right, he made sure the front room was clear before having Marcy join him. As she came inside, he tried another ‘hello’ before searching the rest.

  Tyler took the lead as they swept the house, moving from room to room to make sure the place was clear. As they searched a room, they shut the door behind them. The move wasn’t so much paranoia as it was protection figuring if anyone good enough to hide during the sweep would need to open the doors to get to them. And if they were armed that meant firing blindly through the walls. It also let them know where they’d already looked, so they knew not to look again.

  The sweep took ten minutes before they realized the house was empty. Tyler placed his gun back in the crook of his back and searched for something to put things in.

  “Look for trash bags or something to help carry stuff back to the truck.”

  “Will a laundry basket work?” Marcy asked, as she bent down to pick it up off the living room floor.

  “Good enough.”

  Tyler started with the pantry, opting to load up as many of the canned and dried goods as he could. He pulled canned vegetables and soups out by the handful and set them on the kitchen table for Marcy to load into the basket. Once the cans were gone he grabbed the boxes of pasta and instant rice and put them with the rest. He left the things that wouldn’t be of immediate use unless the world reverted to some sense of normal in the next few weeks. That meant things like lard and cooking oil were left behind in favor of items that were easier to fix. He did, however, grab spices to spruce up some of what they found.

  Once done, they took the load of canned goods out to the truck. They set the whole basket up near the cab and covered it like the rest. It left an awkward looking bulge compared to the neatly stacked supplies they already had, but it wasn’t a huge deal. Once they had a chance, they could sort through everything to figure out what all they had.

  They went back in the house to make one final sweep, this time looking for anything else of value. They left the big bulky TVs and electronics, knowing they weren’t worth the components used to make them and focused on smaller things like jewelry.

  In the master bedroom they found a small wooden box under the bed with a small metal lock. He searched the nearby dressers for a few minutes looking for a key before giving up. We can open the box later, he thought as he gave the room one last look.

  Marcy took the box and held it in the air. She grabbed a bobby pin off from the top drawer of the nightstand on her side of the bed, popped off the rubber ends, and jammed it into the lock. She took a few minutes to hit the tumblers just right, popping it open just as Tyler stood up from the other side of the bed.

  “How did you do that?” Tyler said, surprise in his voice.

  “It was a hobby as a kid.” She smiled and set the box back on the bed.

  “Since when is picking locks a hobby?”

  Marcy shrugged. “I liked to see what I could get open.”

  Her ever increasing skill set impressed Tyler. When he first met her back in the CVS he thought her to be an everyday retail employee. Since then she’d proven her value time and time again. With everything she seemed capable of doing, he wondered if the surprises would ever end.

  He took the small wooden box and dumped the contents on the bed. Inside were a few old silver dollars dating back to the early 1900s, a pair of gold earrings inlaid with pearls, and a handful of one dollar silver certificates. Before the world went to hell, this would’ve been a dream find in a storage locker somewhere, but not it wasn’t the case. Marcy kept the golden earrings, but they put the rest back in the box and replaced the lock.

  After finishing their sweep, they put everything they found into the truck and moved to the house next door. From the outside the layout looked similar to the last, so they used the same plan of attack.

  Tyler stood up to the door and gave it three firm knocks while Marcy stood off to the side with her gun at the ready. After a few minutes, Tyler tried to knock one last time and once again was rewarded with silence. The similarities to the other house ended here as he found the front door locked tight.

  “Think you can pick this one?” Tyler asked, wanting to put her skills to the test.

  “Maybe. Door locks are a lot more complicated than those cheap brass locks.”

  “Willing to give it a shot?”

  Marcy looked around nervously. Her eyes twitching as she looked down the street. “Not sure that’s such a good idea.”

  “What?” Tyler scanned the street following her lead, but found the place as deserted as when they drove in. “I don’t see anyone around.”

  “Not now,” she said. “But what if it takes a while for me to pop it?”

  Tyler nodded, understanding the problem. The longer they sat out in the open the better the chance someone would come by and notice. They had no way to tell who was home and who wasn’t as they came into the neighborhood. As far as he knew, there could be three hundred sets of eyeballs already watching their moves.

  “We could try to kick it in,” Marcy offered, as she noticed the gears turning in Tyler’s head as he stared off into the distance.

  “Worth a shot.”

  Tyler stood with his back to the door, intending on a rear thrust to pop the door open. A running kick stood a better chance of breaking the door or the frame, but came with a higher risk of injury if they learned they were dealing with a steel entry door with matching frame. He pulled his leg out then popped his foot back into the door and was rewarded with the crack of splintering wood behind him. It took two more solid kicks to kick the door in before they could get inside.

  Once in they swept the house the same way they did before. Moving as a team through the house room to room, shutting doors behind them as they passed. It took about twenty minutes to make the first pass after which they gathered in the kitchen to start there.

  Unlike the first house, this one was bare. Scant traces of food were left in the cupboards. Tyler hoped to find another case of two of food to add to their supply on top of a few boxes of dried foods, but found only three open bags of stale chips.

  Marcy checked under the sinks but couldn’t find anything, then resumed her search in the hall closets and found the same.

  Tyler suspected the owners were out of town often, ate out a lot, or simply purchased enough food to get through a few days. There was also a chance the freezer and fridge were stocked to the gills with various processed foods. As tempting as it was to check, he knew opening the door to the fridge could release smells he’d never forget. Taking the chance would reward them with food they’d have to use soon, likely today or tomorrow if they didn’t want to deal with a bout of food poisoning. To him, it wasn’t worth the risk.

  “Nothing?” Marcy asked, noticing the lack of food sitting on the table.

  “Empty.”

  “We could check the house for other stuff.”

  “Nah, lets move on. Food and water should be the main priority. That and anything we can barter for the stuff we need, like gas. Anything else is bonus, but potentially a waste of time. I say we move onto the next house and see what they’ve got.”

  Marcy nodded and made her way to the front door. Tyler followed close behind and pulled the door shut as it would go with a shattered frame. He hoped whoever lived here was long gone. If not, they were going to have a very bad day.

  The third house they approached differed than the others, thanks to having a second floor and an attached two-car garage. It was the biggest house on the street and likely the neighborhood. They walked between the
cars as they walked up the driveway, admiring the yard. The time the owner spent landscaping the yard had it set above the rest. Two trees sat in the front yard, surrounded by waist high hedge bushes which were then surrounded by concrete paving stones a foot high filled with top soil and mulch. More of the waist high bushes lined the front of the house, set in front of each window with another in between. Decorative white fencing lined the porch, making it difficult to get to the door.

  They approached the door from the driveway and walked in front of a large picture glass window on their way to the door. Tyler looked back at Marcy to make sure she was ready then gave the door three loud raps when he noticed her nod. They weren’t holding their weapons at this house. The emptiness of the other two had put them at ease. But as the door opened and Tyler looked down the barrel of a shotgun at the old man in the threshold, he wished he had it out.

  Chapter Four

  “I take it you have a good reason for breaking into my neighbors’ houses,” he said as he thumbed the safety. He was an older man, in his late fifties by Tyler’s guess. Other than the look of conviction in his eyes, his face was stone. It was a look Tyler had seen before. One he’d surely given a time or two. He knew the old man meant business and would do what it took to protect himself and his property.

  “Just looking for supplies,” Tyler said as he raised his hands in the air. “Grocery stores have been hit hard. Figured with all the people missing I’d search the houses for a few things.”

  “So that gives you the right to steal?”

  Tyler’s face went flush. “No. But we knocked on the door first, to make sure nobody was home.”

  “Let’s see how good that defense works when I call the Sheriff. How about you and your little lady friend step inside the house and take a seat on the couch.”

  I’d rather not, Tyler thought to himself. He wanted to head back to his truck so they could drive away, but had the hankering suspicion that the old man wouldn’t be willing to let them go. There would always be another house to hit, or another place with food and water. But staring down the barrel of a shotgun, he knew he had something more valuable to lose than the few things he’d already scavenged.