THE TRASHMAN (13 page)

“I don’t want to disturb the door. Let’s drive to the back of the store and find a way in. I’ll wear a mask and check the body to be sure it’s a dummy. If it is, I say we find a bigger truck, a box-truck like a U-Haul.”

Becky said, “I’d bet the store has a local phone directory. We can look for what we need and not drive randomly around.”

The rear of the bargain store had a raised loading dock. The steel door presented a challenge. Becky waited with the children while I snuck on foot to the hardware store at the end of the strip.

The door glass of the hardware store had been smashed out. There weren’t any signs of mass looting except behind the counter. The proprietor sold ammunition and all the shelves that held it were empty. I reckon hardware supplies weren’t big demand items for post apocalypse scavengers. I found a hefty pry-bar and went back to the rear of the mall.

After jamming the bar between the jamb and door, right above the lock, with Becky’s help pushing the bar, the door popped open.

Becky tied on a surgical mask to cover my mouth and face. “This is the last one from the pack. We need to get more.”

“Damn, I should have picked up some masks at the hardware. I’m going in to take a quick look. I’ll try not to breath close to the body. If it’s real we’ll keep on driving.”

Up close, without the glass and the distance distorting the view it was easy to see that the body was plastic. I returned to the door.

“It’s what we thought. Even close, it almost looks real. Let’s get inside. Honey, have you heard anything while you’ve been waiting, cars, people? Anything human?”

“Nope, nothing.”

“Kids?”

They shook their heads.

We did a quick survey of the store. Even though the space was dimly lit by the light coming through the front windows, it was obvious we’d found a mother-load of supplies. Becky went to the service counter and rummaged behind it.

“Viola!” She stood and opened a thin booklet and laid it on the counter. The light at the front of the store was much brighter. She flipped pages. “Ashburn has a U-Haul rental. It gives the address.”

“Bring the book with you even though it’s useless without a map.”

She flipped through the book again.

“Ha. City map on the inside cover. Let’s get us a truck.”

The U-Haul facility was on the west side of town on a road that led toward I-75. I warned Becky and the kids that in a town this size there were bound to be some survivors and to keep a close watch while we traveled. We didn’t see anyone on the drive over, but Will spotted smoke coming from a house several blocks over from the road we were on.

We would need keys for the truck we selected. The pry-bar proved its usefulness again to gain access to the facility. I was torn between a ten-foot or fourteen-foot box. I decided on a 14-footer simply because it would have more mass to push aside any wreckage that might block our way north to the Smoky Mountains. We packed the truck with moving blankets, boxes of all sizes along with a hand truck and moving dollies. Then we moved our belongings from my Durango. It sat, lonely and forlorn, slowly shrinking in the rearview mirror as we drove off.

When we arrived back at the strip mall we made a mistake that under different circumstances could have been life threatening. I backed the truck to the loading dock. Without slowing to reconnoiter the area, I mounted the concrete steps to open the rear sliding door of the truck. As I bent to unlatch the locking mechanism I heard someone behind me shout, “Freeze, Mister. Stand up and turn around.” And then, speaking to Becky and the kids at the foot of the steps, “You, too. Stay where you are.”

I turned to face a huge, burly man dressed in camouflage clothing. He had long, unkempt black hair and a scraggly beard. I was also facing the business end of a sawed-off shotgun.

“We’re not looking for trouble, sir. We can leave.”

He looked me over and then grinned, exposing yellowed teeth. “Hell, I know you ain’t looking for trouble, you’re just looking to take food that belongs to the residents of this town.”

I decided to play it straight. “We found this store un-looted and thought everyone here was dead. I see we made an unintentional mistake. We can look for supplies elsewhere.”

His backwoods southern accent was strong. “Don’t be in such a rush ta go.” He glanced toward Becky. “How ‘bouts you and the young’uns come join your man and let’s do some gabbing.”

Becky led the kids onto the loading dock and he motioned with the shotgun for them to join me.

“You and the lady slide your pistols my way? Do it slow. I’m disarming ya, but I ain’t inta killing.”

Becky and I did as he asked.

“Ya mind if your two young’uns go inside and fetch us some plastic chairs from the stack near the front of the store? We’d be a mite more comfortable settin’.”

Will looked at me. I nodded at him. “Take Jen and bring the chairs.”

The man shifted his position so the shotgun wasn’t pointed directly at Becky and me.

“Took me a look at the dead body up front. What clued you it wasn’t real?”

I saw no reason not to be honest. “The red blood. Blood turns dark pretty fast.”

“I guess none of us thought to look in there after our first go. Don’t know if we’d of spotted that tell anyways.”

“There’re more of you here?” I asked.

His answer was evasive. “A few. How about where ya came from?

“A few.”

“Yeah, like that all over I reckon. That plague was a rampage for sure. Where ya’ll headed that you need a big truck ta haul your takings?”

I glanced to Becky who nodded at me. “We’re trying to get to a place where we can avoid people until the plague runs its course.”

“It can do that? Ya saying after a while it’ll be over and we’ll be safe?”

“Like the flu. After a time it will die off.”

“I reckon ya got a point there. Where’s this safe place ya talkin’ bout?”

Again, Becky nodded for me to be open. I told him about our plan to find a secluded mountain cabin to hide in.

“Makes better sense than any idee we come up with. Look-a-here, my name’s Jed. There’s four of us. Me and Sadie Barnes, a woman I took up with, and George Walters and his wife. We must be ‘mune ta the plague cause we all been around them what had it. Heck, George and Diane was right with their boy, watching over him while he coughed ta death. Georg got it too, but he kicked it.”

Will returned through the back door dragging three plastic chairs. Jen followed with two. Jed snagged one from Will’s load. “Let’s get comfortable,” he said.

I took a chair and asked Jed, “Only four of you in the town survived?”

“Naw, there was a few more. Five more ta be exact, four men and a loose woman. Me and George ran them out cause they was no-accounts. Naw, there was six. George had to draw down on one of them what tested him. Son-of a…” he glanced at the kids and finished his sentence, “gun pulled his pistol ta shoot me in the back but George shot first.”

I was feeling a more comfortable with Jed, but was still confused. “What are your intentions Jed? Like I said, we thought we were taking things that no one had claims to. I have to say the shotgun is making me nervous.”

“I got no intentions with you. I just wanted to talk a bit and to pick your brains. What do you know about conditions all over?”

“Not much. Just that the government is gone and the power’s off. Oh, someone told us that some of the nuclear power plants might be in meltdown, but she was just guessing.”

“Mighty clear guessing. George has a ham radio he connected ta batteries. He’s been talking ta people all over the world. Course some of’ems talking gibberish foreign tongues, but lots of’em talk English. There’s meltdowns in New York and Texas for sure, but we ain’t talked ta all the states yet.”

“What about the Shenandoah Plant near Chattanooga Tennessee? We heard a broadcast that it was in trouble.” “We talked ta some in Tennessee and ain’t none of them said nothing ‘long those lines. Look-a-here, I a’thinking maybe me and George should get us one of those trucks and move ta the mountains, too. A couple times a pickup truck’s rode through town with a bunch of drunks in the back shooting at the buildings and raising hell. Same truck both times and I recognized one of the men. Him and his brother got busted for meth. They had a lab in a travel trailer. Mean SOBs too. I don’t know how he got out of jail, but there he was.

“Three days ago a gang of six motorcycles came through and searched a bunch of houses and stores. They had a girl with ’em. Pretty young thing if she weren’t so bruised up. Short of it is, we don’t feel none too safe this close to the freeway. What I’m gonna ask is ya wait ta load until I get back with George and the women. There’s four of you and four of us. We can split the booty here even-steven. There’s plenty for all of us.”

“Where do you plan on going,” I asked, hoping he didn’t say with us.

“I’m thinking a Wild Life Management area not too far from here. Good fishing and hunting. I’m sure we can find a cabin, maybe just a house near it. So longs we’re away from that…” again a glance at our children, “darned freeway.”

“Jed, I appreciate what you’re offering. By rights, everything in town belongs to you and your people. Of course we’ll wait until you return. It’d be better to load at night anyway. Anyone traveling the roads will use lights and we’ll have an earlier warning. I think we’ll load and then wait for morning to head out.”

Jed agreed. “We can block the front windows and use propane lamps for light. I’m going to trust you… What is your name?”

“Ralph. That’s Becky and the little ones are Will and Jen.”

“Ralph, Becky, you seem like decent folks. I’m leaving now and all I can do is trust you. The only other option is to shoot you, but I’m not that sort.”

*****

After Jed left, Becky told the kids to go inside the store and pick out six toys each to bring with us. She and I remained sitting on the loading dock.

“Why didn’t you ask Jed if he thought they’d like to go north with us?” she asked.

“Mainly because we don’t know them. Another thing is we don’t know exactly where we’re going. We may get to the place on the Yellow River and find it’s already occupied. Once we find a place, know its capacity to house others, we can look for people we’re compatible with. Remember, too, Sam and his family will be joining us.”

“Do you think Sam was exposed that night?”

I nodded. “Yes I do. He told me her spit went into his mouth and eyes. There is likelihood he infected Lucy when he carried her into the house.”

“Then he probably won’t be joining us.”

“Let’s keep our thoughts positive. I’m hurting inside just thinking about it. God, I wish Jerold had yanked him out of that truck. The boy warned him, but Sam wasn’t thinking straight. All he saw was an abused woman and he was hell bent on helping her.”

While I was speaking, other thoughts came to mind. “Jerold and Jessica said we are too nice for the times. I’ll take it farther. We are too weak and slovenly for the times. Like Sam, we aren’t thinking straight.”

“How do you mean?”

“We went to get the truck and the entire time we were at the facility neither of us was actually on guard. I mean appointed to guard as an only function. When we returned here, we shouldn’t have assumed that because it was safe before, it would still be safe. I should have parked at the other end of the service lane and snuck over to check it out.”

Becky said, “I agree we need to be more careful. Even when travelling, the one not driving needs to watch the sides of the road and the rear. You’re right about us being lazy. It’s hard to constantly be on guard, to be alert, but we have to.”

“Yes we do. Hey, let’s go inside and look the supplies over, get an idea of what we want to stock. By the time we load, it’ll be late and we’ll be worn out. Tomorrow we need to make some distance. We only made forty miles today.”

Becky stood. “No. Open the roll-up door. We can unfold the boxes and tape them while we wait for Jed to return.”

Three hours passed before we heard the truck arrive at the rear of the store. We went to the dock to greet them. Jed and three others exited the cab of the truck and climbed the steps to join us on the dock.

“Ralph, Becky, this here’s Sadie, Diane, and George. I’m thinking we all should eat before we start loading. Sadie has a hankering for spaghetti. That suit ya’ll?”

“Yes it does, and trust me, our children will be thrilled.” Becky moved to shake hands with Sadie. Sadie ignored her hand and pulled her into a hug and then passed her to Diane for the same treatment.

I offered my hand to George. Short, red hair and clean-shaven, he was a big man with a strong handshake to prove it.

“Glad to meet you. How about you show me the dummy that fooled all of us? I remember looking through the window back when the plague first came and damned if it didn’t look real. I gotta see it.”

“It’s a work of art,” I said, turning to lead the way.

One thing about preparing a meal inside a store, everything you need is right at hand. The women got busy cooking and we men got busy looting.

The storeroom was the first place we attacked. There were a great many boxes of canned goods, stacked separate from the rest of the merchandise. Cases of beans, greens and other vegetables were divided without controversy. We developed a system for uneven counts. The flip of a coin gave the winner the extra box.

I was amazed and delighted at the amount of meat products available. There was an abundance of tuna and salmon. Canned ham, chicken, and beef were well represented. I have to admit disappointment that the coin flip for the extra case of beef stew went against me.

All was well though. Both George and Jed expressed their love for Vienna sausages. Neither Becky nor I had a taste for them. I didn’t tell the guys that, but did make the offer of our share of those for the extra case of stew; an offer they jumped on.

Because the beds of the rental trucks were lower than the dock, we had to forego the flatbed carts and load with hand-trucks. We were finishing up with the canned goods when Sadie came to let us know dinner was ready.