by Henson, Lynn
Kyle opened the door of a squad car and popped the trunk. Blake opened the trunk and looked inside. There was a spare tire, a number black lockers, and roadside emergency equipment. Kyle came out and looked as well, opening the lockers and checking under things.
“Have you noticed there are no weapons?” Kyle said as he closed the trunk.
“Yes,” Carrey replied as he looked in another squad car. “They probably took it all with them when the town was evacuated.”
They completed looking through what vehicles there were and went back inside. They pushed open a door to a room that was completely shrouded in darkness. It took several seconds to extract their flashlights from their packs, but once they did and shined them into the room, they’d realized they’d hit the proverbial jackpot. Blake realized that this was where the equipment was stored. Blake found a scratched up door ram placed in an out of the way location on the floor, next to some bins. He pointed it out to Carrey who nodded in approval. Kyle walked over and grunted with effort when he picked it up and carried out of the room.
Carrey took a few handheld transceivers and their chargers commenting that “These will come in handy.” Blake noticed though, that of weapons or ammunition there was still no sign.
“There’s so much stuff in here,” Kyle said holding up an armored vest to emphasize the point. “What do we take?”
“Just what we need,” Carrey replied as he looked around him, his arms full of walkie-talkies. Blake found a black duffle bag and held it open for him as Carrey dumped everything into it. “The armor would only be good if it covered your body head to toe. I wouldn’t bother with just a vest.”
Kyle shrugged and started to exit the room. He paused and backed up a little to grab a nightstick. Blake thought about getting one too, then noticed something else that seemed more practical. He picked up a black cylinder that had a good heft to it. He gave it a flicked, and the baton telescoped out to its full length. Satisfied, he pushed it into the wall to collapse it and took it with him as he left the room. Kyle put the nightstick in their newly acquired black bag and carried it out. They made their way back out of the building with their newfound equipment and loaded it into their car. On the drive back Blake again stared out the window trying to find some indication that they weren’t the only people on this town. He didn’t see any and it was giving him the heebie-jeebies.
“I don’t know if I can handle staying in this town for long,” Blake confessed.
“Why not?” Carrey asked.
“It’s creeping me out. It’s like everyone here just vanished like out of an episode of the Twilight Zone. I’d feel better if the town was wrecked and there were bodies.,” Blake replied.
“How the fuck does that make any sense?” Kyle wanted to know.
“I’m not explaining it right... it’s like... if stores were looted and the bodies of the locals were here, then we’d know what had happened here, right? That would be an explanation. But there’s no indication of violence, no squatters, no nothing. Doesn’t that strike anyone as odd?” Blake tried to clarify.
“I still think the best explanation is that the population was evacuated,” Carrey persisted.
“Maybe that’s what’s bothering me,” Blake realized, “We were evacuated as well, but the place we were evacuated also had infected people in it.”
“Well, LA has a whole lot of people,” Kyle pointed out. “Isn’t it likely that a few managed to slip in that weren’t exhibiting symptoms and then turned on the inside?”
“No. Er... I mean that is certainly possible, but that’s not the primary reason the convention center was compromised,” Blake replied.
“No? Then what happened?” Carrey asked.
“It seemed like zombies were deliberately allowed inside at an hour when most people would be asleep. Then when they started attacking, the exits had been all sealed shut to keep people from getting out.”
“Wait, what are you saying? That the fucking government did this?” Kyle asked sounding aggravated.
“I don’t really know if it was the government. They’re a primary suspect to be sure, but I saw police officers that had been infected as well, so if it is some crazy government conspiracy then it goes way up the chain.”
Kyle punched the steering wheel prompting a bleat of the horn. “Mother fucking government,” he decided.
“Calm down,” Carrey said reproachfully, “What possible reason would the government have to infect the general population? It doesn’t make any sense. How would that benefit them at all?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure they have some fucked up reason for doing it. Bourgeois fascist pigs,” Kyle replied hotly.
“Wow, you really don’t like the government,” Blake observed.
“Kyle has a problem with authority,” Carrey explained.
“Fuck you guys,” Kyle said dismissively.
“Back to the topic at hand though,” Carrey said with a glance to his brother, “it still doesn’t make any sense. If you intentionally cause an epidemic wouldn’t you be exposing your own country to all sorts of threats? Foreign invasion? The collapse of industry? Utilities?”
“Maybe it’s some Republican plot to get rid of the liberal states,” Kyle said defiantly.
“Really?” Carrey said flatly. “I think the only way this makes sense is if it’s a conspiracy on a global level.”
“So you think one country has engineered the destruction of the rest of the world?” Blake asked incredulously. “That explains how over the course of a week the world as we know it has been shot back to the dark ages?”
“Well, no,” Carrey said, annoyed. “I happen to believe that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. It’s a new virus and it got out of control.”
“Then how do you explain that shit he saw at the convention center?” Kyle shot back.
“Someone made a decision,” Carrey answered calmly. “They probably decided that the situation inside was beyond saving and whoever was in charge decided to seal everyone in to contain the damage.”
“Well... I guess that’s possible,” Blake said uncertainly.
“And until there’s definitive evidence otherwise, I have to assume that the way to survive this is to avoid contamination and wait until the authorities have restored order,” Carrey concluded.
“You can be such a dick sometimes,” Kyle protested.
“What? I’m just stating the facts,” Carrey said, wounded.
“Whatever man,” Kyle said dismissively.
They pulled into the driveway of the local grocer they had come to this morning and parked in the back. Kyle clapped his hands together in anticipation after he turned off the engine. Everyone got out and Kyle retrieved the door ram. Carrey and Blake gave Kyle some room as he hefted it into position and stood before the back door. The ram hung from his arms and he swung it back and leaned into it as he thrust it forward. There was a sudden loud “crack” noise and then a heavy metallic crashing that had resulted from Kyle dropping the ram to the floor. “Ow, fuck,” Kyle commented.
The door still looked intact. Kyle glanced at Carrey and Blake looking determined. “First time doing this,” he told them as he picked up the ram and reset himself for another whack.
He swung and there was another loud “crack” and the doorknob disappeared as well as a good chunk of the wood that had been around it. The door swung open.
“Yeah,” Kyle said setting the ram down appreciatively.
“Alright, excellent,” Carrey approved. They got out their flashlights and entered the doorway carefully. The back was a small area filled with boxes of items that were waiting to be stocked on to shelves. A brief search revealed that the market was indeed fully stocked, though most of the fresh produce had wilted with a sprinkling of ones that were just plain moldy. Blake grabbed a basket and started picking through the navel oranges.
“Oranges?” Kyle asked.
“Wouldn’t want to get scurvy,” Blake explained, placing ano
ther orange in his basket.
They mostly tried to stock up on fruits and vegetables that wouldn’t be easily attainable without finding a farm. Blake was delighted to discover that the milk had just reached its sell-by date and added a gallon to the cart with his other items. Inspiration struck and he grabbed several more gallon containers of it.
“You couldn’t possibly drink that much milk,” Kyle pointed out as he passed by with a few armfuls of corn chip products.
“Going to freeze it when we get home. This stuff is probably on the brink of going sour so unless you want to try to get a cow…” Blake explained.
Kyle shook his head. “Don’t really like animals, so good call on the milk thing.” He looked around. “Better get some chocolate syrup then and a couple boxes of cereal.” Kyle walked off presumably in search of his milk related items.
Half an hour later, they decided that they’d looted enough and secured the door as best as they could. They pushed a dumpster in front of the compromised door and headed back home.
forty-two
Kim bounded out of the house when they were backing into the driveway trying to get a look into the back of the SUV.
“Whadja get?” she asked excitedly as they got out of the vehicle.
Kyle opened the back and she started pawing through their groceries. “Vegetables?” she said, dismayed.
“You’ll miss them when we can’t get them anymore,” Blake warned.
“Oh please,” she replied exasperated.
“Help us with this stuff,” Carrey asked as he grabbed as much as he could carry and moved it into the house. The front door opened ahead of Carrey as he moved up the walkway. The rest of the girls came out to lend a hand and between all of them, they managed to completely unload the car and move everything into the kitchen where Lisa began the task of organizing the fridge.
It wasn’t until the smell of cooking hit him that he realized how hungry he was. Blake had sat himself down in the living room and was flipping through television stations to see if there were any that were broadcasting but was not successful. He turned it off and crouched down in front of the TV to look through the DVD collection while sneaking glances at the kitchen. A bored looking Gao was sitting with him in the living room, again having laid claim on the recliner. Kyle was hovering near the kitchen making no secret of waiting for the cooking to be done so the eating could begin. Carrey was in the backyard smoking a cigarette while Tiffany had laid herself out in the sun in a pair of cut off shorts and a thin top that left her belly exposed. Her large lensed, pink-rimmed sunglasses and a woman’s magazine completed the impression that she was on vacation.
“Soup’s on!” Kim called out.
Blake eagerly got up and turned to face the kitchen when Gao shot past him, clearly more hungry than he was.
Lisa and Kim were wearing aprons, so Blake surmised they were the ones who had done the cooking even though Doris and Bree were also buzzing around the small kitchen.
Food had been laid out buffet style, three of the plates contained a different steaming offering of green vegetable, another had a Chinese looking meat dish that was covered in brown sauce, and the last hosted a whole pile of tater tots. Blake got a heaping spoon full of everything taking it eagerly back to the living room and dug right in. Hot food was always a welcome change, especially since the preparation had been a lot more involved than just opening a wrapper and tossing it into a microwave. Blake was unexpectedly delighted with every dish. The tater tots were a nostalgic delight which invoked memories of elementary school. The meat was chopped up into little pieces but thoroughly cooked in a mildly sweet sauce that had a garlicky aftertaste. The vegetable dishes were surprisingly good, as Blake didn’t generally like vegetables. Growing up, he had been forced to eat them, so he had gotten into the habit of choking them down all at once so that he could savor the rest of his meal. Blake thoroughly enjoyed everything down to the last bite and sighed contently. The others had spread themselves around the room and were similarly enjoying the evening meal. He got up to take his dish to the sink, snagging a couple more tater tots and noticed a bowl of apples had joined the cooling dinner dishes. He chose carefully and picked one with a deep red color. He bit into it but it had lost a little of its crispiness probably due to age. It wasn’t offensive though and he took another bite, returning to the room. Tiffany walked in from the backyard, sliding the back door closed behind her and practically glided into the kitchen, her relaxed mood pouring off her in waves. Blake sat down and listened as Carrey was recounting what they’d seen.
“So you’re saying that if we want to stay here, we can get the things we need?” Bree asked.
Carrey nodded seriously. “The town is in good condition. My guess is that the entire population was evacuated and when they left, they expected to come back and resume their normal lives once the crisis had been resolved.”
“That’s great news!” Kim exclaimed. “We can lay low here and wait until things get back to normal.”
Several people nodded in agreement.
“The hardest part will be to keep ourselves occupied until things get resolved,” Lisa guessed.
“Speak for yourself,” Gao said. “Doing nothing is underrated.”
“But for those that do need something to do, I’ve got a list,” Carrey said.
“Big surprise there,” Kyle rolled his eyes.
“I’d like to transfer as much of the food to here as possible within the next few days,” Carrey continued, ignoring Kyle. “I’d suggest that we take the SUV and the minivan so that we can make as few trips as possible. Also, if we can find a hardware store, I want to change the lock on the other house so that we don’t have to always have one person inside.”
“Sounds fine,” Bree agreed. Tiffany emerged from the kitchen with a plate of mostly vegetables and plunked down cross-legged on the floor.
“Once we’ve done that, I’d suggest we explore the rest of the houses on this block and work on fortifying our own houses,” Carrey said.
“Fortifying?” Lisa asked.
“Yes. I’m talking about defensive fortification. Although it’s quiet here, we cannot be sure that it will remain like this. I think setting up some type of defense would not only give us a stronger sense of safety but will also occupy our time until this situation is resolved,” Carrey clarified.
“Ah. Good idea,” Lisa agreed.
“Sounds like work,” Gao complained.
“It is,” Carrey confirmed. “If you don’t want to help out, I have no objections. But if you ever get tired of doing nothing, I’d be more than happy to give you something to do.”
“I will let you know when that happens,” Gao said, grumpily.
Carrey sighed a little and took his empty plate to the kitchen.
“Next time you do go out, bring back more movies,” Gao called after him. “Whoever lived here before had bad taste.”
Kyle smirked at this and also got up to drop his plate in the sink.
“But for tonight,” Kim said brightly, “it’s movie night again. So what are we going to watch?”
forty-three
Blake returned to the other house with Carrey and Kyle. The brothers went off to do whatever they did in their downtime. Blake went to the kitchen and caught a glimpse of Bob eating the cat food he’d recovered from the market. Bob looked up sharply for a half second after Blake spotted him and the cat sprinted away to hide somewhere in the house. Well, at least he knows where the food is. Blake went to the living room, selected a movie he hadn’t seen yet and tossed it into the DVD player. He turned on the TV and after a moment, surfed through the broadcast channels. He found the usual assortment of white noise and then switched it over to the input where the DVD player was connected and let the movie think for him for a while.
He woke with a start to a dark room, illuminated only by the TV which was cycling the little music track that plays on top of the DVD menu. He sat up and switched on a lamp. This woke up Bob who looked up
quickly and bounded off the ottoman he was sleeping on and ran off elsewhere in the house. Crazy cat. He stood up and walked towards his bedroom when he heard the sound of the doorknob being tried. His blood ran cold and he instinctively crouched down, focusing his attention on the door. It continued to rattle and Blake continued to stay frozen in his crouched down position, not daring to make a sound. After a moment, the door became quiet. Blake continued to hold his position, unsure of what to do. A minute later, he inched towards the door and once he reached it he slowly brought himself upright to look into the peephole. The violent sound of breaking glass somewhere behind him brought him right back to a crouch. Blake thought his heart was going to burst from his chest and he retreated towards his room while still trying to make no noise. There were more glass breaking sounds accompanied by some kind of scraping. Then he could hear heavy footsteps echoing through the house. On the verge of panic, Blake found the doorknob of his room and turned it as quietly as he could, slipped inside, and closed it behind him while holding the doorknob to the right so that it wouldn’t click when it shut. He frantically went to his backpack and emptied it out trying to get to his baton which rested at the bottom. His hand found it and he gripped it tightly as he drew it out of the pack, it’s cold metal heft reassuring. He scurried back over to the door and stood to one side and froze again, listening. The footsteps continued and Blake could hear things being knocked over. Blake tensed up as it sounded like the intruder was coming closer to his room. The door opened and a bulky man entered his room. Blake screeched and swung at the man’s leg with his extended baton. The man let out a guttural roar when Blake connected with man’s knee. There was a disgusting crunching sound as the man’s weight gave out from under him and he crashed to the floor. Kyle burst into the room trying to take in the situation. The man threw up and Kyle lunged in and connected his nightstick to the back of the man’s head. There was another crunching sound and the man flopped down to the ground and was still. The ceiling light in the room turned on, and Blake saw that Carrey was in the doorway. Kyle stood over the man who could only be described as a biker. He was clad from head to toe in worn looking leather the back of which was adorned with a scorpion with bat wings coming out of its back. He had a buzz cut that was marred by a bloody bruise courtesy of Kyle’s nightstick. Vomit was pooled around his face as he lay passed out on the floor of the guest room.
