The First 400 Days (Book 1): We Are What Remain

by Taja Kartio

  "Jesus Dani," Kale muttered.

  I glanced at him incredibly, "What? She scared me."

  "Gotta be on your guard at all times kiddo Always watch where you're stepping." He side-stepped around me and grasped the hatchet handle, pulling it out with a strained groan. I cringed at the cracking of the gore as the metal blade was freed. Kale held it up with a successful grin, "Snug little sucker, huh?"

  I glanced back down at the dead woman before me, "So do you think this chick was trying to jump me too?"

  Kale followed my eyes and shook his head, kicking the woman in the leg gently, "Nah. An Infected probably placed her there."

  I gave him a look, also noting that Beckett was staring at our brother in an expression that was just as confused as mine. Kale let a silence dawn on us for a couple moments before chuckling, "Kidding. You just gotta watch where you're stepping Dani, like I said."

  Right. Watch where I'm stepping, "Got it."

  Beckett shined his flashlight down the aisle, "I'm sure we can find something for Hayden down here."

  I followed. Still holding the hatchet in front of him proudly, Kale rounded away, "I'm gonna check out the next aisle."

  "So what can we give an eight-year-old for a fever?" I asked, pooling over the shelves that were still relatively stocked.

  "Well for adults, generally a couple ibuprofen tablets along with some sleep do the job,"

  I stared at my brother. Alright, easy enough. Now what about an eight-year-old kid, like I just asked?

  Beckett took no notice of the look and was quiet as he scanned the different boxes and containers before trailing his finger over one particular label, "This one says it's for pain and fevers for ages two to eleven."

  He held up a small red Tylenol box and I shrugged, "Sure."

  He tossed me the box along with an extra and I shoved them into my backpack. Soon, we were both grabbing other, different, random drugs and medicines. A little of everything for just about any situation that could rise up. We, unfortunately, couldn't take the whole pharmacy with us.

  "We should try to get into the actual pharmacy now," Beckett said, "There might still be some strong narcotics in there that could come in handy in the future."

  I followed his gaze to the gated windows. Maybe. This Target didn't seem like it'd been touched much but if I was thinking right, the pharmacy would have been combed through first. Prescription medicines were probably worth more than gold in the apocalypse.

  "We can try."

  Beckett glanced down at me, "You got enough from over here?"

  I nodded, zipping up the backpack, "Plenty."

  "We can come back later and grab more afterward," He picked up the duffel bag at his feet and cornered the next aisle where Kale was also shoving various medicines into his bag, "Hey, help me get into the pharmacy."

  The gated windows had been pulled down to the front counters but didn't look very secure. In fact, the farthest to the left hadn't even been pulled down all the way, only hovering a couple of inches off the counter surface.

  "How?" I heard Kale ask from behind me, "Those windows are probably bolted shut. We'll probably need a key to get in through that side door and I don't see that happening."

  "Well, we could try to pick the lock," Beckett suggested with a small shrug, earning a forged laugh.

  "Pick the lock? When have either of us ever picked a lock before?"

  "I'm just trying to come up with ideas man."

  I tapped my knuckles on the counter, "Would it help if I said that this window is open?"

  A moment passed and Kale punched Beckett in the shoulder, "Ya, you idiot. The window was already open."

  "You didn't know that either!" Beckett stared his jaw half open like he'd been openly betrayed.

  Kale spurted his lips as he walked in my direction, "Sure I did."

  There was a slight roll of his eyes and Beckett shouldered the strap of the duffel bag over his shoulder, "Sure you did." He muttered.

  I stepped aside, waving my hand to the gated window. Kale his fingers ran across the bars lightly before flipping his hand over and tapping his knuckles on the metal. A silence followed.

  Slowly, careful not to make too much noise despite the lack of any assailant presence, my brother gripped the bottom of the gate and slid it upwards. I shined my flashlight inside to find it almost untouched. No medicine was spewed on the floor and the cleanliness was held as if it had just been recently closed for the night.

  "Sounds like nobody's home," I said softly, receiving no answer to prove him wrong. Both brothers exchanged a cautious look before Kale jumped the counter. I followed.

  Though there was still a lingering and faint smell of blood and rotting flesh from the outside, the inside of the pharmacy had a cleaner atmosphere. Perhaps a little musty after months of hibernation but it was probably had the most welcoming demeanor in the entire store.

  "Well, where do we start?" I asked, eyeing the tall shelves.

  Beckett shrugged, "I don't really know, to be honest. I didn't think we'd actually be able to get in here."

  "We'll give you a second to think about it then,” Kale placed his arms on his hips and stood, portraying an incredibly impatient and sarcastic stance.

  "Just start going through the drawers for syringes or something," Beckett rolled his eyes, "Should be easy enough, even for you."

  Kale spurted his lips again and turned sharply, heading for the cabinets on the far wall. Beckett was already scanning the closest wall of pharmaceuticals so I wandered in my own direction. I wasn't entirely sure where to start and I had no idea what in particular I should have been looking for. I skimmed the shelves with orange prescription bottles that would never be picked up, scanning the name of the medicines the bottles held inside. I wasn't doing too much good for anyone as I barely pronounce most of the medications, let alone wonder if we needed it or not.

  "Beck, I'm not sure what I should be looking for in here." I poked my head into the small dead-end aisle my brother was in. He was scavenging through white bags that also had prescribed medications inside.

  "Just hang out for a bit, will ya?"

  I shrugged. That worked for me, "Sure."

  "Actually," Beckett looked up in a puzzling array of thoughts, "Look around for IV bags. I don't know if something like that would be stashed in here but it's worth looking for."

  That also worked for me. IV bags were pretty easy to spot out, "Alright."

  If anything, I was going to guess they were stashed in some kind of drawer like the ones Kale was searching through by Beckett. I mean, it was just a guess. Even with a clear image of the items I was searching for, I didn't have a clue where they would be in this joint. I shined my flashlight around the area. As far as I could see, there was more potential storage on the other side of the room. I guessed I would just start over there. My short walk passed a few more small aisles of medications and crap I didn't care to even look at. There was so much in such a small area that it almost gave me a slight headache. Even thinking about it made my head spin. I stopped in my tracks for a second to regain total vision clarity. This wasn't even an ordeal to get nauseous about so my sudden overwhelming feeling was a bit off-putting. My fingers rubbed my eyes and a cold hand took me by the throat.

  I was so unprepared for an attack that I toppled over, only being stopped by a small countertop behind me. My hip collided with the hard surface and the flashlight flew from my hand. At this moment, I realized I had left my weapon, the metal baseball bat Kale had used in the past, hadn't even been brought inside of the pharmacy. I must have left it outside by all the cold medicine Beckett and I had been taking.

  Shit, shit, shit!

  My aggressor managed to keep a tight enough grip on my neck to get me from being even remotely vocal but the sudden movement of the assault was enough to raise an alarm for my brothers. In an instant, the two of them were there. Beckett managed to pry the Infected off of me with a hard shove and it stumbled back hardly two full steps be
fore Kale had a knife rooted in its cranium.

  "Where the hell did he come from?" Kale shook his knife and let the blood splatter on the white aisle end-cap beside him.

  Beckett didn't even take a second glance at the Infected and immediately turned to me, one hand on my shoulder and an incredibly aching concerned look in his dark eyes, "Are you okay?"

  I nodded and brushed his hand off, "I'm fine. It just surprised me. That's all."

  Beckett gave me a once over and eventually seemed satisfied with my appearance. He nodded acceptingly and looked down at the Infected, "Well..."

  "Was that what you guys meant about Infecting just hiding around?" I asked.

  Kale nodded, "Exactly what I meant. We should have scoped out the entire room before we started going through stuff. We could have found this bastard." He kicked the unmoving mass at his feet angrily.

  "Well, that won't help now," I commented as I watched my brother kick it a second time.

  "No, but it makes me feel better."

  I rolled my eyes.

  Beckett turned to the eldest, "We should tell Everett about this."

  "How do we bring that back up? He didn't really believe Riley and I the last time."

  "Unless you'd seen it for yourself, I don't think you'd believe it either. How do explain that mindless zombie things that aren't calculated in the slightest, are starting to act like cougars waiting to get the jump on their prey?"

  Kale shrugged, "I don't know."

  "How did you tell Everett last time?"

  "I said that Riley and I were Batmanned."

  There was a short silence, "Batmanned?"

  Kale nodded, "Ya."

  "Gee, I wonder why Everett didn't take you for real."

  "What? I thought it got the point across just fine."

  Beckett sighed at our brother and reversed the conversation quickly, "Let's just get the supplies and get the hell out of here."

  "What exactly do you want us to do still?" I asked, "Still look for IV bags and syringes?"

  Beckett bent his head, "Ya. I think I found some penicillin over here too."

  Before we could really make a move, a light shined on us from behind. A single flashlight blinded our view of the person behind it but it was followed by the cock of what sounded like a shotgun,

  "And who said you could be taking any of this stock for yourselves then, huh?"

  Forty One

  One flashlight was followed by another, and another. Dark shady figures climbed over the counter one by one into the pharmacy until altogether, there were four bright lights shining in our faces. As if instinctively, Kale and Beckett broadened themselves in front of me like human shields. I watched the shadow of Kale's hand creep behind him to his waist where a bulge poked from underneath the bottom of his shirt. He was reaching for his handgun.

  "And who said anything about it being yours to take?" Beckett asked cautiously.

  The same voice spoke again, "We found the place first. We locked it up until we could transport more than a few bottles and I don't know how you were able to get in here without the key but you ain't walking out of here with any of this gold."

  Kale 'pfft'ed his lips, "What are we, in third grade?"

  Beckett's foot kicked Kale in the shin quickly, "Lots of big retailer stores have a pharmacy so you can't possibly think that nobody except you would have stumbled upon a fully stocked medicine cabinet like this, did you?"

  "Course we did, that's why we locked it."

  "This place wasn't locked up," Beckett pointed to the open counter area, "That gated window wasn't even shut all the way."

  The man turned his head to the counter quickly and then used the butt of the shotgun to hit the person standing next to him, "Wasn't even shut all the way, eh? Didn't want to take the time to pull down a fucking window?"

  A wimpy "ow!" was cried out and a flashlight was dropped, "I thought I did lock it!"

  "Ah ya? Seems like you didn't think it enough boy."

  "Look," Beckett shook his head quickly at the scene in front of us. This group seemed to be a bit dysfunctional, "There's plenty that could be shared. We weren't even planning on taking that much."

  There was a short pause and I could feel the man's eyes glowering on us hotly, "Well we were plannin' on taking all of it so I think you're gonna have to try lookin' elsewhere,"

  My jaw hung slightly. We were all trying to survive, we all needed medicine to help us get along, didn't that make us all in this together? What a bunch of fucking douchebags. Kale had it right, these guys, especially their macho spokesperson, were literally acting like the penny-pinching kids on the elementary school playground.

  "I suggest you start movin' your sorry asses outta here."

  "And why's that Marcus?" A new voice asked. I didn't remember seeing someone leaning on the countertop outside the pharmacy. I barely noticed him.

  Flashlights turned and Marcus almost choked, "Adam? Uh, these guys are tryna take our shit."

  Adam cocked his head as if confused, "Ours? Who said any of this was ours? I think these folks found all this the same as we did and there's more than plenty to go around."

  "But-"

  Adam hopped the counter with a slight frown, "No. I see no reason to be so greedy. Now all of you point your guns elsewhere for goodness sakes," He shouldered past a huffed Marcus and approached my brothers and I with an outstretched hand, "Adam. I'm sorry for the trouble my men are causing you."

  Kale was the first to accept, "Kale. This is my brother Beckett and my sister Dani."

  He had a small smile on his thin lips when he shook my hand and I was a bit surprised with how gentle he shook it. Not firm in any way, there was hardly a grip, as if he was being particularly careful touching my skin. I wasn't sure why it made me extremely cautious.

  "Nice to meet all of you, still alive and ordinary."

  "Likewise," Beckett replied just as relieved as Adam did.

  "It's not too often we see people anymore. Where are you from?"

  "Litchfield."

  Adam nodded slowly, "That's a ways from here."

  "Ya, we uh... hung around for a little while and then we were run out."

  "I understand."

  I shifted my foot. This small talk was fun and all but it wasn't exactly going anywhere useful and I was still uncomfortable in front of all these new faces the way it was.

  "Adam?"

  All eyes turned to Everett, standing behind the counter with an incredible amount of surprise on his face. Riley and Scott stood behind him, just as surprised.

  "Holy shit," Adam immediately stepped forward, "You three are still alive?"

  They knew him?

  Everett climbed over first and embraced Adam like some kind of long lost family member, "Jesus man. Of all the people I thought I might see again, you were not one of them."

  Adam laughed, "Ouch. I take that very, very personally. Though I have to say I felt same about that," He then turned to Scott and Riley, panning his head between the two of them and back to Everett, "Well aren't you guys the toughest fuckers I've ever met. What the hell happened to you? Where have you been?"

  Everett scratched the back of his head with a slightly awkward grin, "Well um... it's a long story, but Dayna and us were holed up in that damn office complex for a couple of weeks and when we got out, we ran into a few people, got a group formed."

  "The office complex? What? I got the hell out of that shithole the second the news screen started spelling out 'Zombies' at the bottom of the screen."

  Everett shrugged, "Ya well, we're out now."

  "Where is Dayna anyway?"

  "We got a place fortified in that cul-de-sac on Geranium Street. She's there with a few others."

  Adam stepped to the side and nodded back toward Beckett, Kale, and I, "These your people too?"

  A sharp nod, "Ya. They're with us."

  "Well, take what you need. There's more than plenty to go around," Adam then turned back to Everett, "So... Geranium Street
?"

  I noted the dark glare in Marcus's eyes. I definitely wanted to keep my eyes on him. I wasn't sure what he was all about but I couldn't even imagine what his freaking problem was.

  Beckett bumped me lightly, "Come stay with me. We're just going to grab a few things and then we'll get out of here."

  It sounded my brother was just as uncomfortable as I was. Adam seemed nice enough, and Everett seemed to know him pretty well but the way the situation had unfolded still rubbed me in the wrong way. There was a hostility that really, at least in my opinion, made no sense in the slightest. I could barely comprehend it all into one coherent thought, the level of bitterness and aggression toward my brothers and I because we were taking a few bottles of medicine from a fully stocked pharmacy that didn't belong to Marcus or any of those other people either. We should have all been on the same page yet here we were with guns pointed at each other and completely on edge. I could see lives were at stake in an apocalypse but where in the hell was the morality?

  Kale, while still keeping a wary eye on Beckett and I, joined the conversation between Everett and Adam as Scott, Riley, Marcus, and everyone else in the room started piling over the medicine. I really didn't do much other than stand around. I still had no idea what we should grab or not, I just took the liberty to do as Beckett had asked of me and stayed by his side.

  Minutes later, Beckett bumped my shoulder again, "This should be good for now. Let's get out of here."

  Everett caught us walking toward the counter, "You guys good?"

  Beckett nodded.

  "Then I suppose you'll be heading out then," Adam placed a friendly hand on Everett's shoulder, "I'll see you in a couple of days?"

  I had an itching urge to leave, I hopped the counter and I picked up the bat I had left behind. I leaned my shoulder against a cold support pillar in the aisle in front of the pharmacy and lightly swung the bat in an attempt to keep myself slightly entertained. I heard a sharp laugh and I cringed, turning over my shoulders. I hoped there weren't any Infected hiding out in the store right now.

  Let's go, let's go…