by AJ Newman
The grocery store was picked clean. Sadly, several bodies were strewn around the store and were half-eaten and all rotten. The smell would gag a maggot. We did find a fully stocked first aid kit by the manager’s office. Greg also found a few cans of tuna and soup in the employees’ lockers. The employee vending machine was lying upside down on the floor, stripped clean. We moved on to the CVS Pharmacy.
Paul was actually helpful and worked hard searching for medicines. As I’d expected, the over the counter medicines and pharmacy looked like a bomb had devastated the place. Pill bottles had been thrown against the walls with pills scattered everywhere. Paul made everyone find a broom and dustpan, and we swept up the pills and placed them in plastic bags.
I heard Paul yell with glee, “I found one!”
I looked into the front doorway and asked, “What did you find?”
“I found two more! Those are pill identification books. They tell nurses and doctors what each pill is used for and what it looks like. These are for prescription drugs, and that one is for over the counter drugs. We need some more, if possible, to help sort this mess of pills.”
I said, “I guess the police also used them to spot narcotics.”
The man looked at me in a weird way. “I guess so.”
Greg later told me that Paul had abused drugs in the past, and that was why the weird look.
We found bags full of toilet paper, paper towels, feminine hygiene products, and household cleaners. We loaded up one whole wagon, just from the CVS store.
The animal shelter wasn’t as bad as I feared. There was a crude note on the door that read, “We released all of the animals. We couldn’t care for them anymore. May God smile kindly on them.”
I hate to admit it, but Paul actually knew which animal drugs were equivalent to human medicines. I knew a few, but he was a big help. The obvious narcotics were all gone, but as before the antibiotics and run of the mill medicines were thrown about haphazardly. Most were still in their plastic bottles. We quickly gathered every pill, bandage, and veterinarian medical device. Many could be used on humans.
The animal shelter was much the same, nothing but generic type pain medicines but nothing to get high on. I opened a back office and found an older man and a half-naked young girl. The man had been shot in the head, and the teenaged girl had been violently raped before being shot several times. I became sick to my stomach when I realized the girl could have been my sister or Kat and slammed the door shut. I just made a slashing motion across my throat and walked away.
We were finished early and ready to go when MMax growled and pointed to a building across the street. “Take cover and have your weapons ready. MMax, search for man.”
MMax led me across the street, but I made sure we kept stalled cars between the building and ourselves. We left the safety of cover provided by a van and worked our way around an adjacent building to come out behind the target building. As expected, there were several dirty looking people passing a bottle around trying to work up the courage to attack my friends across the street. The idiots had clubs, knives, and two pistols. I drew my knife and a hatchet I’d found at Greg’s place.
Clearing my throat got their attention. One man stepped out front, “Mister, those drugs and food are ours. We own this block. Give them up or die.”
The fool slurred his words, so I knew he was high or drunk. I felt terrible about what happened next. I threw my knife and yelled, “MMax attack!” My knife sliced into the man’s chest. He stared at me, dropped his pistol, and fell to the ground. MMax bit the man’s arm with the gun while I backed the others off with my pistol. I said, “MMax, hold’em!”
MMax bit with more pressure and the man burst into tears begging me to call my dog off. “MMax, Out!” MMax let the man go. “MMax, watch ‘em!”
MMax released his bite and stayed ready to attack again. I said, “I should shoot all of you now. If I see you here again, I’ll personally kill every last one of you.”
One of the men ran at me with his baseball bat. I blocked the bat with my hatchet, sidestepped, and sliced his back open with the razor sharp hatchet blade. The man whimpered as he bled out. “Anyone else feel lucky? I’ve killed a thousand men and women in Europe and won’t blink an eye killing scum like you.”
One man had a puddle by his shoe as he pissed himself. They heard what I said and ran as if their asses were on fire. I laughed at them and then turned to face a new danger as MMax growled behind me. The men who had come with me were standing behind me and had apparently seen most of the action. Their faces were pale.
Paul was the only one red in the face. “Did you have to kill them?”
I shook my head and said, “No, I probably should have let them kill you and keep raping and killing people for drugs. It was just your lucky day, and I felt like killing someone.”
Paul said something under his breath and headed to the wagons. I looked at the others and said, “I was only kidding, Paul. I only killed a few hundred in Europe and killed these two to make the point that they would die if they messed with your group. I’m leaving soon, and I don’t think most of you have the guts to defend yourselves. I want you to survive and thrive, but I have my doubts.”
Greg motioned for the others to listen. “We don’t have your experience, but except for Paul, these men and a few women will do what it takes to protect our homes and supplies.”
“I hope you’re right. Let’s go home. It’s daylight, and this will expose us to anyone with a gun along the way. Have the team place the tarps over the supplies and let’s roll home.”
Okay, I can be a bit intense, but I know when it’s needed and when to be cool. Greg and crew needed my little show, even though I didn’t plan it to happen. I learned on the way home, I was wrong about these men and their resolve.
We were ambushed twice on the way home. One attack was by another bunch of druggies who couldn’t shoot straight and didn’t know the difference between concealment and cover. The dumbasses hid behind a row of bushes and shot at us. Greg and several of the men unleashed a wall of double ought buckshot into the bushes from twenty-five feet, and four drugged out jerks died.
The next problem was a roadblock a mile before we arrived home. The idiots had placed the barrier so it could be seen a half a mile away. I sent a team to flank them while I snuck in closer with my pistol. The guys came upon the three men who planned to rob us and shot them dead where they stood. I didn’t fire a shot.
I gave them a thumbs-up, and we rejoined the others for a peaceful rest of the way to Greg’s home. Kat and the other women ran out to greet us. Kat hugged me and told me she was glad I had returned safely. It was only noon, and we’d had a full day. Gwen fixed a late breakfast for us. I ate and went to our room to catch some rack time. I laid on the bed, trying to sleep when Kat slid in beside me.
She said, “Don’t try to run me off. I’ll just make you miserable until you give up.”
“Kat, I’m afraid that you will get too close, and I’ll hurt you. Please let me sleep on the floor if you stay in the room,” I said.
Kat pulled my face close to hers. “Hey, you got this wrong. I don’t want you that way. I’m just afraid to close my eyes, and you’re comfortable like a big brother. Just think of me as your sister.”
I choked a bit but said, “That will work, but you have to stop running around the room half naked.”
Then it took me an hour to clear all the non-brotherly thoughts about Kat from my mind. That was tough with me spooned up to her back. I went to sleep saying, “Sister, sister, sister,”… to myself.
I rolled over when I heard her snoring and slept until Gwen woke us up. Kat was plastered to my back, and MMax was beside her. Gwen said, “Would you and Kat like to join us for supper?”
She winked at me and left the room.
I know Gwen thought we were doing more than sleeping. I knew I had to actually treat Kat like a brother would, and that didn’t include spooning against each other all night.
&n
bsp; ☆
Chapter 14
Southeast of Gallatin, Tennessee.
While Kat took her turn tending the garden, I had a straightforward conversation with Gwen and Greg. I didn’t have much time, so I dove in quickly.
“Both of you have asked Kat and me to stay with you and become part of the group. I have to go home to my parents and sister, but could Kat stay with you?”
Gwen’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Did you two break up? I hope not.”
I said, “Ma’am, I’ve been trying to tell you that we aren’t a couple. Of course, I care for Kat, and under different circumstances, we would have been more than friends. She needs a safe environment, as much as is possible these days. My parents would welcome her, but I’m not the guy for her. I’m not ready for a relationship and don’t want to hurt her.”
Gwen said, “You could have fooled me. You two sleep together.”
“Yes, we sleep in the same room. We have never …uh …you know.”
Gwen laughed. “You’re a grown man. You can say the word sex.”
This was just like talking about sex to my mom. “Yes, and we never had …sex.”
Greg said, “Jason, it will break her heart. She adores you.”
This was going south quickly. “Will it go any better if Kat finally realizes I don’t care for her the way she wants me to after we arrive at my family and friend’s compound? She was so hurt but sweet and nice when I met her. I never could have hurt her more by misleading her if we became intimate. I tried my best to comfort her and make her feel safe to get over the pain from being attacked months ago.”
Gwen had a frown, and a tear dribbled down her cheek. “We didn’t know she’d been attacked. Oh, crap, you’re right. Better, she’s hurt and stays with us than busting her bubble among people she wants to escape from after she’s hurt. When do you plan to break it to her and leave?”
“I plan to tell her tonight and leave in the morning. She’s a hard person to say no to, but I don’t want to sneak away without telling her first.”
Southeast of Lebanon, Tennessee.
The next day, we left the Johnson’s home, sharing a ride on the only horse they could spare. Kat was behind me with her arms around my waist. We took Burton Road over to Highway 109 South on the way to my folks home. Kat tried to speak with me several times, but I was still pissed that she had ignored everything I’d said about not loving her and about staying with the Johnsons.
I continued to ignore her until I heard. “Jason, you don’t listen to a thing I say. I’ve told you a hundred times that I’m not interested in you, other than I feel safe around you, and I do like you but not that way.”
I grinned because a thought entered my worn out mind. “Okay, you can come on to my folk’s home, but you have to sleep in another room. I don’t want you hanging on when Maria and I hook back up.”
She gritted her teeth but forced herself to smile. “Who’s Maria?”
“I’ve told you about Maria. She was in my unit in Europe and was my ‘friends with benefits’ lady. I can’t have you clinging to me when my girlfriend joins us.”
I could feel the blast of hot air expelled from her lips as I heard, “Hunnnh,” and felt her arms loosen around my waist.
Oops. Oh, sorry. I failed to mention earlier that Kat ignored everything I’d said and came with me to my parents. She didn’t pitch a hissy fit or scream. She just said, “I’m going with you. You can let me join you, or I’ll follow you. The outcome will be the same. Let’s go.”
I can still remember those days, and I still think she was the most stubborn woman I had ever met. She says strong willed. I say, stubborn like a mule.
Kat stopped the jabbering, and I could think again. I’m a dumbass. I should have flaunted Maria to her much earlier. I believe somehow ‘Bad Jason’ might have been interested in Kat, but ‘Good Jason’ won the battle. I know talking about yourself in the third person sounds a bit nuts but excuse me, because this was a very trying time in my life. Dealing with nutty, clinging women, killing bad guys, and trying to survive were about all I could handle.
Enough about my problems, now back to the story.
The Johnson’s home on the river was only twenty-six miles from my parent’s place. I didn’t want someone stealing our only horse, so we only traveled at night. Horses shod with metal horseshoes make a racket, and you can actually see sparks on the pavement. To reduce the noise and help the poor horses, we traveled on dirt roads or the side of the highways, which slowed us down quite a bit.
We stopped for the night, only about eight miles from the Johnson’s place southwest of Highway 109, and 40 junctions. There were several abandoned quarries, and we rode to the high side of one, so no one could sneak up on us from the rear. The front side had a clear view of about a hundred yards. We lucked out, and there was a huge quarry truck parked facing Highway 109 in the distance. MMax growled a couple of times during the night; it was a pack of coyotes howling nearby the quarry.
Throwing Maria in Kat’s face had worked. Kat curled up on the seat as far from me as she could get. It was a chilly night, and I missed the warmth from her body. The dirty traitor MMax curled up against Kat. What the heck was that about? MMax was my best friend. Later that night, I felt the seat shake a bit and realized she was sobbing. I wanted to comfort her but knew cutting it off now was for her own good.
Earlier I said, ‘Dealing with nutty clinging women, killing bad guys, and trying to survive were about all I could handle.’ Well, the next day, how much I could handle was severely tested. I woke up and found myself alone in the big quarry truck. MMax had left to keep Kat company. Bad dog. I needed to have a heart to heart talk with my dog before Kat totally stole him from me.
I searched the area and neither Kat nor MMax were found. I wasn’t worried about MMax, but there were too many less than honorable men trying to survive who would love to get their hands on Kat. I checked my weapons and left the rest of my gear in the cab of the truck. The horse was hobbled and only a few yards from where it started last night. The grass was thick, and there was a puddle of water from the rain a couple of days ago.
I found their tracks by walking in a circle around the front of the truck and followed them into a stand of trees toward the highway. They were easy to follow because they cut two swaths through the lush, green grass. I broke through a group of brushes to see Kat on her knees with MMax beside her. They were a dozen feet or so from an improvised shack. She faced away from me, so I couldn’t see what she was doing. I was about ten feet from her when I heard her crying. Then I saw some small feet sticking out on her right side.
I didn’t want to scare her, so I softly said, “Kat, are you okay?”
She didn’t flinch or move, but MMax turned to look at me. He didn’t even wag his tail. I raised my voice a bit, “Kat! Are you …?”
She whirled around with a knife in hand and sprang to her feet, ready to fight. There was rage in her red, watery eyes. She saw me and dropped the knife. “Someone cut their heads off.”
Kat buried her head in my chest and cried as I looked at the three small, headless bodies. Tears washed down my cheeks, and my mind couldn’t wrap itself around what kind of monster could do this. The children had been killed recently and had fresh bites that probably were from the pack of coyotes we heard last night.
I drew my gun. “Kat, please stay over here while I check out the shack. MMax, search for man!”
***
MMax instantly knew the smell of the evil man who had gotten away months ago. MMax didn’t know fear but had a tingling feeling that ran from his neck to his tail. He wanted to kill the man before he killed again. MMax sniffed the air and could tell the scent was a day old. MMax heard a sound behind him but remained focused on sniffing the air for the evil man’s scent.
***
I saw MMax sit facing north without moving. This confused me because MMax always did what I told him to do. I repeated the search commands and pointed to the shack. MMax went into t
he hut ahead of me, and the horror continued inside. There were a headless, naked woman and the lower torso of a man. I walked out of the shack, leaned against a tree and upchucked until my stomach was empty and the taste of bile sickened me. I wiped my mouth and said, “Don’t go in there. I’ll take the kid’s bodies inside, and we’ll burn the shack to keep them from being eaten. We need to get the hell out of here before these monsters return.”
Kat held me tight as we rode south several hundred feet west of Highway 109 in our haste to get away from whatever or whoever had killed that family. There were plenty of trees and bushes to hide us from the highway on our left and scattered houses on our right side. Kat didn’t speak for several hours. She just clung to me and sobbed the whole way. We had traveled about four miles before I steered our horse into a clump of bushes behind a warehouse. I helped Kat to the ground and then gave her a Cliff Bar and a bottle of water from my saddlebag. She pushed the Cliff Bar away.
“Kat, we missed breakfast. You need to eat.”
She moaned, “I can’t, my stomach is still queasy.”
I took a bite from a Nature Valley bar and stuck it in her face. She bit a small piece off and took my water from my hand. She chugged some water down and stole the rest of my bar. She washed the bar down and said, “Who could do something like that?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll kill them if I get a chance.”
She said, “I’ll help you kill them. I’ll neuter the bastards.”
I put my arms out. “Come here. I need a hug.”
“You said that you didn’t like me.”
Shaking my head, I said, “No, I said I didn’t love you. I like you a lot and if things were different …”
Oh, crap, I gave her hope.
