by David Rogers
She topped the bag off with whatever potato chips would fit, then hefted it over her shoulder and lugged it out to the car. Jessica didn’t care if any of the chips got crunched up due to rough handling; she’d already started experimenting with potato chip stew. The concoction was bolstered with whatever kind of canned soup she might have on hand from the latest scavenging, but the chips helped stretch it and bulk up the calories. And it wasn’t bad if the chips didn’t go in too soon, and if more were reserved to sprinkle across the top while eating.
“Potato chip soup.” she thought as she stuffed bags of Lay’s and Ruffles into her sack. “What hell my mom would raise if she knew that’s what I was feeding my daughter.”
She burned a few more trips hauling out some two liter bottles of soda, plus a few cases of bottled individual sized sodas, just because they would count as cheap calories that would yield more water bottles once drunk. But other than some packs of lighters and a double handful of batteries, that was the extent of what was on offer. Not much. Something, but not much.
As she was scooping the batteries and lighters into a plastic bag from the store’s stock, Austin spoke up.
“We’ve got maybe two hours until dark.”
Jessica nodded. “Probably.”
“What’re you thinking?”
She doubled the bag into another, then tied its handles off in a firm shoelace knot so the contents wouldn’t escape. “After what happened earlier, definitely get the hell out of Georgia.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What then?”
He gestured upward. “Traveling after dark is stickier than daylight, especially when we’re going to have to stop for gas. Even if we don’t have any problems with visibility, driving through the night is going to mean we have to do another fuel stop before morning. Or we’ll have to stop and stay in the car, without a lot of fuel left in the tank to keep us going.”
Jessica left the bag on the counter and leaned back against the shelves behind her. “Yeah, that had occurred to me.”
“We’re quite a ways from Knoxville. One night around here somewhere won’t hurt. Unless you want to sleep in the car; but we should probably still take a look around and pick a spot to stay until morning.”
Jessica nodded unhappily. She really wanted to keep going, but being out after dark was dangerous. Zombies were quiet, with nothing but the scrape of their feet on the ground and the occasional bit of rustling clothing to announce their presence. Moaning and growling; that was the movies. When a body died, the heart and lungs stopped. Without air moving through the throat, there was no Hollywood soundtrack or Foley artist to announce the monster’s presence.
How the zombies kept walking and eating without the use of their heart and lungs was an entirely different question; but she had to work with what she knew. They walked, they ate; they killed. Why, how . . . irrelevant, and they weren’t in any sort of question-answering shape. Seeing them was the only defense. In the dark, that was much harder.
“We’re . . . what, a hundred miles from Florida?”
Austin considered, then shrugged. “About that, I think. I didn’t count it up.”
“So tomorrow we can do our next fill up south of the border.”
“No sweat, unless we get seriously stuck back tracking and side tracking as we go.”
Jessica sighed. “It’s been a while since I drove it, but if I remember correctly, once you’re south of Valdosta, I-75 is pretty dead until you get a good ways into Florida.”
“Sounds about right. Easy enough to check on the map.”
“And the GPS.” she pointed out. They had a GPS picked up from an abandoned car a couple weeks earlier. However completely screwed the Earth was with zombies rampaging around eating and destroying whatever they got their teeth into; satellites in space were working quite normally. As far as she and Austin had been able to tell; the little unit was functioning without problems.
“Yeah, but we’ll still need to stop somewhere and get a paper map that covers Florida.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Call it habit. Never rely on things that plug in. Batteries go flat, get lost, go bad, whatever. Don’t worry, we can probably combine it with the gas stop.”
“Fine.” she said, deciding arguing about procuring a road map for the other state to back up the GPS wasn’t the worst idea she’d ever heard. “So here’s my plan. Find a spot to sleep in, same as we’ve been doing. If dark comes and we can’t find something safe, we’ll park and sleep in the car. Tomorrow, we head south and keep our eyes open for anything useful in the way of supplies, until we get south of Valdosta and can swing over to the Interstate. If it holds up, we take the fast lane south.
“With any luck, by the afternoon we’ll either be somewhere around, I don’t know, Gainesville or something, or we’ll have hit the jackpot on food and gas. If our luck doesn’t hold, then we’ll just deal with it as it comes; but we keep heading south.”
Austin nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
She studied him, but – as usual on something important– he didn’t seem to be making fun of her. He only did that when it was harmless fun, never when it was important. “You know, you don’t have to go along with everything I say.”
“I know. And if you said stupid things, I’d speak up. But your decisions are generally solid. And, like I keep saying, you’re in charge.”
“Austin, this is a team. I’m not some warrior princess you’re sworn to protect.”
He grinned. “Now there’s an image I’ll enjoy.” His grin widened as she turned a little pink, then he sobered enough to give her a calm look. “Jessica, I’m not just sticking around because I’m hurt. There’s nowhere else I need or want to be. Honest.”
“It’s just . . . I guess I’m not used to someone . . . someone like you being so . . .” she said haltingly before finally trailing off, her thoughts stumbling to a halt as she realized she couldn’t find the right word.
“Accommodating?” he finally suggested as the pause went on long enough for it to be obvious she was stuck.
“Patient.” Jessica replied. “You’re just so damned patient it’s . . . strange.”
“That’ll make Candice laugh, another middle name to add to my collection.”
Jessica smiled. “If all this ever goes back to normal, I’m going to make you print business cards. Just so you can see how ridiculous having seventeen hundred middle names looks.”
“Threats?” he taunted.
“Promises. I remember someone told me promises are a lot worse than threats.”
He winked. “That does sound familiar. Well, we’ll file that one away for better days. In the meantime, come on Your Highness. We’re losing sunlight.”
“Oh you are so not calling me that.” Jessica said as she grabbed the bag off the counter. “Don’t even.”
“Your Worship?”
“Stop.”
“Her Royal In-Charge-ness?”
Jessica couldn’t help her giggling as she followed him out of the store.
Chapter Four – Good Fences
“You’ve got to decide.”
“I know.” Jessica told Austin without looking at him.
“Come on Mom.” Candice said after several moments of silence.
“You guys are just trying to get me to make another mistake.” Jessica said as she studied her cards.
“Life moves pretty fast.” Austin said with a laugh.
Jessica eyed him briefly. “Where have I heard that before?”
“I’m going to point out that I’ve never said one of my middle names is ‘Original’.”
Candice giggled as Jessica rolled her eyes at him. “You’re the one that’s taking too long.” the girl said in a cheerful tone. Jessica turned her gaze to her daughter, but she couldn’t summon enough resolve to keep her smile from leaking in as she tried to glower at Candice. The ten-year-old just giggled again.
Austin produced a second deck of cards from
one of his pocket and opened the flap. “Come on Candice, let’s play something else on the side while Mom takes her time.”
“Okay!” Jessica said abruptly, realizing that staring at her cards wasn’t making them any better. “Okay, okay, okay!” She pulled the four of clubs free and dropped it on the discard pile. The problem was the three of them were all about even in tricks at the moment, and she was having trouble remembering what had already cycled through the discard pile and been picked up.
Austin was just about as good with cards as he tended to be with all things violent and lethal; but Candice had proven a remarkably quick study. To be fair, the girl had gotten a lot of practice in. Without power and with only a limited number of books she found interesting, cards were about the only fun activity available.
Jessica’s fears were confirmed when Candice reached out and snagged the four off the discard pile. “Hah!” her daughter crowed, dropping it next to her other tricks along with the two, three, and five of clubs.
“I blame Austin.” Jessica announced.
“Why is this my fault?” he protested with a chuckle.
“One, because I said so. Two, because it usually is. And three, you encouraged her to rush me. Again.”
“Mom’s just unhappy she’s losing.” Austin said to Candice in a stage whisper.
“Mom is still up twenty points.” Jessica said archly.
“No way.” Candice protested, looking at the matched sets arrayed out next to them. “I just scored twenty. We’re tied!”
Jessica glanced at the cards and did swift mental arithmetic. “Hmm, I guess we are.” She switched her gaze back to Austin. “And four, you cost me the lead.”
“Your turn Austin.” Candice said brightly as she dropped the nine of hearts into the discard.
“Now I’m scared to get near you.” Austin said as he slowly reached for the cards in the middle, drawing the motion out like he didn’t want to come into range of Jessica.
“I promise I’ll bite.” Jessica said with a mock scowl.
“See how she’s trying to intimidate me?” Austin asked Candice.
“Mom does that to you a lot.” the girl observed. “She likes being mean sometimes.”
“Hah!” Jessica snorted. “Austin likes being naughty.”
“Naughty?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Naughty is it?”
Jessica saw something more than simple amusement in his expression and felt herself starting to blush. But before she could summon a response, a heavy thumping came from downstairs. It was muffled and slightly distant, but the house’s structure carried it clearly enough for her to hear. Before she even fully realized what she’d done, the cards had fallen from her hands and she was on her feet with one hand on the holstered Taurus.
“Front door.” Austin said, rising to his knees. That put him nearly as tall as her even though she was standing.
Jessica drew the stainless steel pistol and clicked the safety off. “Are you sure?” she asked as she pulled on the slide to load it.
“Yeah, pretty sure.” he grunted as he pushed himself from knees to feet in one swift motion that left him upright but swaying slightly. She caught the wince that went across his face as he rose, even though he tried to cover it with a brisk expression.
“Okay, I’ll check it out.”
“We’ll check it out.” Austin corrected her.
“What happened to me being in charge?”
“Jessica, it’s dark with a new moon. What kind of squaddie lets his leader wander around in that alone?”
“I need—” Jessica began, but she cut herself off and settled for a fast eye flick toward Candice. The girl had risen with the adults, slower to be sure, but now she stood watching and listening. Another thumping came from downstairs, followed by a splintering sound of breaking wood.
“Not after dark.” Austin said as he produced one of his pistols and clicked off the safety. Covering and protecting Candice had been discussed, frequently, but actual incidents had been rare in the weeks since leaving Knoxville.
Jessica studied Austin for another couple of seconds, then looked at her daughter. “Candy Bear, lock the door after we leave. Hide under the bed. Stay there until me or Austin get back. You understand?” She leaned down and blew out the candle they’d been using for light, plunging the room into near darkness.
“Yes.” Candice said, nodding once.
“Stay quiet, stay hidden.” Jessica repeated.
“I got it Mom.” the girl insisted.
Another complicated breaking and splintering sound came from downstairs, followed by some more thumps. “Door just got broken down.” Austin said.
“Okay, back me up.” Jessica said, moving to the bedroom door.
“Right with you.”
Jessica paused long enough to crack the door open – with her foot and shoulder planted to keep it from opening more than that bit of a crack – for a quick look and listen. She didn’t see anything in the upstairs hallway, but she heard someone moving around downstairs. “Something.” she thought as she heard the loud, uncoordinated footsteps. “Several somethings.”
She kept a small flashlight in her pocket these days, and now she pulled it out and arranged it in her left hand, then settled both hands to put flashlight and pistol next to each other like Austin had taught her. It felt weird, and the mass of the gun was uncomfortable in only her right hand, but it was that or shoot blindly in the dark. The flashlight couldn’t control itself. Drawing a slow breath, she stepped back and nudged the door fully open with her foot.
The hall was still empty. She moved out and headed for the stairwell, staying on the balls of her feet and moving as quietly as she could. Behind her Austin moved with silent grace that still amazed her; even hurt, even as big and tall as he was, he was scary good at this sort of thing. Her feet were making slight noises on the floor, but she couldn’t hear him at all. His presence was reassuring as she edged toward the top of the stairs.
Then the bedroom door closed behind her. Not loudly, but it was definitely a door being closed, and the sound carried in the darkness.
“Hello?” a man’s voice called from the first floor. Obviously the door’s closing had carried all the way downstairs.
“Larry!” a woman hissed.
“What?”
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
Jessica reached the stairwell and put herself against the wall as she looked down. Austin was right, it was quite dark in the house without any serious amount of moonlight filtering through the windows. But there was just enough weak and begrudged illumination for her to recognize a humanoid shape approaching the stairs. A long, different shape was in its hands, some sort of weapon. A long gun.
“Stop right there.” Jessica said loudly before crouching down behind the shelving unit she’d pulled out of a bedroom and tipped over across the top of the stairs earlier. “Don’t come upstairs.”
“Hey, we’re people, just people.” the man said. She heard a scraping as the couch she’d moved to block the bottom of the stairs started shifting, as someone pushed on it. A metallic clicking sound went off behind her, to the left some, as Austin thumbed back the hammer on his pistol. She couldn’t do that – her thumb never seemed to have enough strength or leverage or whatever to pull it off – but Austin had been shooting for twenty years. She wasn’t even two months in yet.
“If you even think about pointing that weapon up here you’re dead.” Austin said, and his voice was utterly devoid of the relaxed cheerfulness it had held during the card game. “Stop moving.”
“Jesus!” the woman blurted.
Jessica’s eyes were starting to adapt to the near dark. She registered three people downstairs, not two. One was right at the bottom of the stairs. Another was off to the side of that one, and the third was just barely in view at the edge of what she could see before the stairwell cut off her line of sight.
The one at the bottom of the stairs was standing very still,
directly behind the blockading couch. He spoke very slowly, very carefully, as she kept her pistol pointed at him. “Let’s not nobody do anything drastic.” She was fingering the button on the flashlight, but kept it off for the moment. Another Austin tip was how having the only light source in a dark area could make you a target. She didn’t know enough about what was going on down there to chance the light just yet.
“The house is occupied.” Jessica said.
“I know. We saw the window upstairs, lit from inside.”
“Then why’d you break in?”
“Our car ran out of gas down the road a ways. We just need a place to rest for the night.”
“Sorry, but we’ve had some bad experiences with sudden visitors.” Jessica said.
“Well we didn’t mean to be sudden, but it ain’t like there’s exactly a ton of places around here to bed down in.”
Jessica frowned. She wasn’t unsympathetic, but she really didn’t like the idea of sharing the house. Maybe during the day it might be one thing, but not when she and Candice and Austin were about to sleep.
All of her standard ‘security’ measures were geared mostly toward zombies, and with the primary purpose of keeping anyone else from being able to surprise her. Someone who was already inside would only have to get through the bedroom door and they’d be in a position to cause problems. And, contrary to what the movies and television showed, Austin had assured her most guns would shoot right through the doors and walls of a regular house.
“No.” she said firmly.
“Hey—”
“But—”
“Nothing personal, but we were here first.”
“We’ve been on our feet for hours.” the woman said.
“Hours?” Jessica asked skeptically. This was the middle of nowhere, as best she could tell, but houses weren’t that far apart. It had taken Jessica half-an-hour to find this one, but only because she refused to compromise on her requirement of a second story for safety and security reasons.
