The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (15 page)

“
So, there you are,” Sandy
said.

The dog lifted its head and vigorously
wagged its tail but remained where it was.

“
Got an admirer I think,”
Mike called over.

The dog focused on Mike and Candace and
wagged its tail even harder.

Sandy reached for a piece of meat that
was already tough and stringy and tossed it to the dog. The dog was
up and after the meat before it hit the ground near where it had
lain. Candace put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. The
dog stopped just short of grabbing the meat, spun around and sat
down staring from the piece of meat to Candace.

“
Go on, Boy. You can have
it,” Janet encouraged. The dog seemed to think about it, glancing
from Janet to Candace, but he only hesitated for a few moments,
hunger won out and he lunged for the chunk of meat, snatched it up,
then retreated down the road where he sat holding the meat between
his paws, gnawing hungrily at it.

Everyone fell silent watching the
skinny, yellow dog gnawing at the piece of meat. The sun continued
to creep into the sky behind them, burning off the fog and painting
the cliffs on the other side of the river with brilliant yellow-red
light.

The small dog finished the piece of
meat and looked back over at Sandy hopefully. Sandy took another
piece of meat off the drying rack. This time, the little dog’s eyes
stayed on Sandy and the meat, paying attention. She threw it, and
the dog caught it in mid-air, spun around a few times, causing
everyone to laugh, then lay down once again, holding the chunk of
meat between his paws and chewing with great delight.

“
Probably been pretty tough
for you, huh, Boy?” Jan asked. The dogs ears pricked up and its
tail thumped against the asphalt, but it continued to worry at the
meat it held between its paws.

“
Well,” Candace said,
“we’re going to use the vehicles to run for supplies today. Looks
like we better pick up some dog food as well.”

“
Already have some,” Mike
said. He jumped to his feet and disappeared inside the cave. He
reappeared a few minutes later with a can of chunky beef dog food
and a small can opener. He opened up the can, dumped the contents
onto a disposable plastic plate, poured some bottled water into a
disposable Styrofoam bowl and carried them over towards the
dog.

The dog stopped chewing, its ears
flattened back, but it didn’t run. Mike stopped about five feet
away, set the plate and the bowl down on the asphalt and then
returned to the brick pile with Candace.

“
Did you have a dog before
we came,” Candace asked?

“
No, but I saw a few
tracks, and I heard them too. I could hear them at night. I was
hoping one would come by. I spent a lot of time alone. I didn’t
like it at all, and truthfully, I thought, well, if a dog could eat
it…” He trailed off.

“
You were going to eat it?”
Sandy asked.

“
Lots of seniors ate it all
the time,” Janet said. “It’s meat.”

“
That was my reasoning. I
couldn’t... hadn’t found a lot of meat at that point. I was
thinking about protein,” he shrugged.

“
Yuck,” Sandy
said.

“
Double yuck,” Candace
agreed.

“
Well, I didn’t. It was
just a sort of emergency thing,” Mike said defensively.

“
It’s okay,” Candace said.
“I love you anyway.”

Mike looked at her and
smiled.

“
Yeah, I know. I said the L
word.”

Mike continued to smile. He kissed her
back as she kissed his lips.

“
I love you too,” He said
and kissed her once more.

“
Get a room,” Sandy said.
Everyone laughed, Mike and Candace included.

The dog, having finished the venison,
had discovered the chunky beef and was now busily wolfing down the
plate of food.

Candace leaned close and sniffed at
Mike’s breath. ‘Nope. I guess you never did eat it,” She said
seriously. Mike smiled and smacked her shoulder lightly.

“
Anyway,” he said, “I only
got one case of it, so I suppose I better get a few more.” Everyone
agreed. The dog looked up guiltily, wagged his tail, slurped some
water from the bowl and then went back to eating.

~

An hour after dawn the entire cave was
up and getting ready for the day. Sandy and Janet would stay to
continue curing the meat, but everyone else would be going to
collect food and other items they might need. They were all armed,
and no one would be going anywhere alone. One team of four would go
over to State Street and the grocery store that Mike had been
bringing food from, the same one Lilly had brought the ears of corn
from. The other group of five would head out Arsenal Street
searching for food items, as well as anything else that might be
useful to them.

“
More flashlights,” Nell
reminded.

“
The Ham radio you guys had
talked about, and a few C.B. radios too. We can put those right in
the trucks,” Ronnie contributed.

“
Uh,” Lilly said. She bent
and whispered to Patty. Patty nodded.

“
We need to find a drug
store too… for some personal things,” Patty said. Lilly turned red
but smiled through her embarrassment.

“
More dog food,” Janet
reminded. The stray had moved over to the fire where it had curled
up close to Sandy and had fallen asleep.

“
Battery powered radios and
a T.V., just in case,” Mike added.

“
I thought you tried that,”
Tom asked.

“
Only the radio,” Mike
agreed. “But the batteries are dead.”

“
Do you really think there
will be anything on the T.V.?” Nell asked.

“
Honestly? No,” Mike said.
“But we should make sure.”

“
Do you think,” Tim asked,
every bit as embarrassed looking as Lilly had been, “That a little
battery powered C.D. player and some music would be
okay?”

Candace and Patty both laughed. Tim
instantly looked worried, as if he wished he hadn’t said
anything.

“
No, Tim,” Patty said,
waving her hands at him. “It’s a good idea. There’s nothing wrong
with it. It just surprised me that none of us had thought about it.
It’s okay to need or want things for ourselves.”

“
We need to get some good
footwear… good socks. Like that,” Bob said. “Our feet are
important.”

“
We need sizes,” Mike said
nodding.

“
Got it,” Candace said. A
pen and a small note pad appeared in her hand. She’d been writing
down other suggestions as they were made. Now she copied down the
shoe sizes as they told her. “Babe,” she looked at Mike.

“
Eleven,” Mike
said.

“
More first aid stuff,”
Janet said.

The suggestions went on for a few
minutes and then began to taper off. Candace folded the cover on
her small notebook and slipped it into her shirt pocket. “We’ll
think of more stuff I’m sure. Just write it down when you do, or if
you’re somewhere where you can get what you thought of, get
it.”

The two groups split up, climbed into
their vehicles and headed out; splitting off where the broken and
twisted River Road ended, one road heading towards outer Coffeen
Street, where they could cut over to Arsenal Street, the other
turning abruptly up a small rise and back towards the public square
where they could access State Street. Two of the trucks headed in
that direction, Mike, Candace, Patty and Ronnie in those vehicles.
The other three headed for Arsenal Street, carrying Tom, Lilly, Bob
and Tim as well.

~ State Street ~

“
This was all me,” Mike
said as they stood just inside the shattered front windows of the
supermarket. The large piles of debris he had pulled out of his way
as he searched through the rubble seemed to frame the dark opening
that led into the interior of the store, piled high on either side
of the twisted steel frames. They formed a dark, forbidding
tunnel.

“
Maybe it’s a little worse
for wear and tear from the rain and the last earthquake.” He looked
around and shook his head. “Maybe not though. It doesn’t look any
worse at all. Doesn’t look like the rain got in.”

The smell was strong though. It made
Mike wish he had removed the bodies the last time he had been
there. Patty, Candace and Ronnie all had faces on, wrinkled noses,
squinting eyes, partially turned away from the darkened tunnel and
the aisles that were barely visible in the gloom.

“
It’s pretty bad,” Ronnie
said.

Mike simply nodded.

“
I shopped here a few
times,” Candace said. “I know the basic layout.” She looked to the
left then to the right. “Mostly canned vegetables, canned soups,
stews, that sort of thing?” She pointed to an area Mike had cleared
out.

“
Yeah,” Mike agreed,
impressed. “I was trying to remember which way to go.” All three of
the others were nodding in understanding.

“
Patty, did you and Ronnie
come here? I think we want to go to the left. I think the next
aisle is paper goods, utensils stuff like that.” Candace
said.

“
A few times,” Ronnie
elaborated.

“
All the time,” Patty
added. “He doesn’t like to shop if I remember
correctly.”

Ronnie laughed. “Pizza delivery for Two
C,” he said and laughed. Then, “yeah, it was easier to get
something on the way home, have a pizza delivered. I think my
refrigerator had two or three boxes with leftover pizza, and a
couple of six packs… maybe an old jar of Mayo.” He looked
apologetic.

“
Stuff’ll kill you,” Mike
said.

“
Yeah. Yeah, but it tastes
good,” Ronnie laughed.

Patty rolled her eyes. “Yeah… Paper
stuff… Toilet tissue. Some medications, gadgets, you know, like
little can openers, oven timers.”

They all looked at each
other.

“
Good a place as any to
start,” Ronnie said. They all nodded and started to work clearing
the debris from the front of the aisle, piling it outside the
shattered front windows.

Everyone wore heavy gloves to protect
themselves from all the broken glass and brick, so the work went
quickly. They had pulled the trucks as close to the front of the
building as they could, so once they reached the aisle it was easy
to retrieve and load what they chose to keep right into the
trucks.

Moving the debris that blocked the
aisles went much faster with three extra pairs of hands. In no time
at all they had progressed down the aisles and were nearing the
back wall of the supermarket.

“
The end,” Patty said,
thinking out loud, “Breads, Cakes, fresh produce…”

“
I think so,” Candace
agreed.

The closer they got to the back of the
store the stronger the odor of corruption became.

“
Bad,” Patty
said.

“
Yeah... I think that’s
lunch meat… Produce…”

“
The butcher shop is back
there also,” Ronnie said.

“
Storage?” Candace
asked.

“
Probably where Lilly got
the corn. She probably used the back door though,” Mike
said.

They had already come across two bodies
as they had dug their way through the aisles. Rather than leave
them there as Mike had done, they had dragged them out of the
market and covered them with a tarp at the front of the store.
Despite that, the store didn’t smell any better than it had. Rats,
mice, and bugs had infested the market.

“
Both the Suburbans are
packed. The pickup nearly is,” Ronnie said.

“
Yeah,” Mike said. “I’m
thinking, what else is there here that we could need?”

“
Duh,” Patty said and
smacked her forehead with an open palm. “Hang on. Follow me,” she
turned and walked down to the destroyed front window area and
stepped out into the bright sunlight. The others followed, stopping
to blink their eyes rapidly in the overly bright sunlight. Slowly
adjusting after so long inside the dark interior.

Patty made her way along the front of
the store, in the same direction they had been walking inside. Just
about twenty feet from the end of the store a single steel door
rested.

“
The back door,” Patty
said. “It used to be a drug store, but when it was closed the
supermarket snapped up the lease on that space. They took out the
front windows and bricked it all up, put in this steel door unit.
We can get into the back storage area from here. That’s what they
used it for, more storage. I remember reading about it in the
paper. One of those days when I was so bored I read every story in
the paper.” She laughed. “You know, in a small town, everything’s a
big story.”

Ronnie looked over the handle with its
inset lock. “This can’t be the way Lilly got in,” he
said.

“
No,” Candace agreed.
“There’s a whole different warehouse area at the absolute back of
the store. Different area.”

Ronnie nodded. “I don’t know if it
wouldn’t still be easier to go through from the inside though.” He
looked over the door. “That’s a steel jamb. And that,” He pointed
down at the inset lock, “Is probably a deadbolt. It’s going to be
tough to get opened easily.”