After the End (8 page)

They all fell silent and looked toward him. Joe turned down the volume on the static-filled radio.

"No one has to stay here against their will so if you want to go so badly, Deb, you should, but I believe we're safer staying together. We can find a way to accommodate what everybody wants to do. Derrick, you want a laptop? That's a good idea and we'll try to get one and food, too. Many of you are anxious to get home to your families. Let's talk about the geography of that, keeping in mind you'll probably have to walk all the way. Then there's the idea of trying to find some military personnel to evacuate us from the city."

He drew a breath, hoping he'd covered all their concerns and made them feel "heard" because now he was about to shoot them down. "The problem is it's dangerous out there and we're on foot. Some of us might not be able to run fast enough if we had to, especially after what we've already been through." He indicated Ronnie with a flick of his gaze. "To me, it makes the most sense to spend the night here where we're fairly safe. In the morning, after we've all had a chance to rest, we can reassess the situation. Meanwhile, we'll send out a party for supplies, but the majority of the group should wait here."

There were murmurs of agreement and he felt a surge of relief that there wasn't going to be any contention, then Deb spoke up.

"I hear what you're saying and I appreciate the logic, but I'm going." She slung a rifle onto her shoulder. "I'm going now. If I can, I'll come back here with Julie and whatever news I find out."

No one tried to persuade her anymore. Her determined face stopped their attempts. Lila said, "good luck" and Ann murmured, "be careful" as they watched Deb walk to the front of the store and check the street through the display window. She let herself out the front door, and Lila went to lock it behind her then stood, watching her disappear down the street.

Ari felt like he'd lost one. At the same time he wished he could take off like that, too, but a glance around at the faces of the remaining members of their group reminded him why he couldn't. He didn't know quite why he felt a sense of personal responsibility for their wellbeing, but he couldn't seem to shrug it off much as he'd like to.

Lila came back over from the door. "What now?"

Ari thought about a course of action. "There should be a guard at the window, keeping watch. We'll take turns. There's no way to recharge our cell phones so we shouldn't use them except to periodically try to reach 911. Derrick, you and I will go for supplies. I saw a grocery store farther down the block, and a rent-to-own place where you can get computer supplies." He wanted Derrick along because the kid knew what he needed. Ari wasn't computer ignorant, but knew more about cruising the internet than actually setting up systems.

"If you meet other people, you could bring them back here. There's safety in numbers." Ann's long fingers fiddled nervously with her bracelet. "Maybe you'll even find a policeman who can tell us what to do?"

"Maybe," Ari agreed, but he thought the cops were as clueless as anyone else, and he hesitated to expand their group by too many. The smaller the team the better the organization. Right now, despite they fact they were practically strangers, Ari felt he had a handle on who everyone was and what to expect from them. So far, no one had lost their cool too badly. Add in a wild card, someone unstable or abrasive and the group dynamic would shift.

"They say the first stage of a crisis is the most dangerous," he continued. "After things settle down is the time to make a move."

"There should be enough camp beds and sleeping bags for all of us here. We'll set up camp while you're gone." Lila supported him and he was grateful for it.

"I'll keep first watch," Joe volunteered.

"I want to go with you," Hector announced. "I'm a good shot and I can't stand waiting around any more. I wanna see what's happening out there."

Ari thought he could move faster with only him and Derrick, but Hector might prove useful. At least the guy could shoot. Likely the only shooting Derrick had done was with an X-box controller. "Okay," he agreed.

They checked their gear. With a rifle strapped to his back, a skinning knife in a holster by his side and another semi-automatic in hand, Ari figured he was as ready as he'd ever be. Hector also had his rifle held ready for use and Derrick held several empty backpacks to carry their loot.

Joe opened the door and locked it behind them after they'd stepped out onto the sidewalk. Even with sunglasses on, the outdoors seemed bright after the dimness of the store. Ari squinted down the street with its jumbled cars and nearly empty sidewalks. Such quiet stillness in the middle of the day on a city street was weird and unsettling. There were sirens in the distance and some traffic noise, also a helicopter off to the south, but overall the impression of desertion and silence rested like a muffling quilt over the city.

Pieces of the man who'd broken through the window earlier lay among the shattered glass in front of that building. There were other broken bodies here and there, but no living people in sight. Then in the distance, several blocks away, Ari saw people moving. He raised his binoculars to see if they were living or zombie. Several figures darted quickly down the sidewalk and around the corner. They were living humans. He'd already become familiar with the jerky gait of zombies, like marionettes operated by an amateur puppeteer. That should make them easy to outrun, yet the creatures seemed to be doing a pretty good job of attacking and killing people. They weren't slow, merely awkward

"This is freaky." Hector, walking on Ari's left, echoed his thought. The man's white knuckle grip on his rifle and his darting gaze made Ari a little nervous. It was good to be alert and vigilant, but not so good if the guy snapped and started shooting randomly.

They reached a mom & pop grocery which had caught Ari's eye earlier. Iron grates covered the display windows. The door was locked. Frustrated, Ari jerked on the door for a few seconds then began to beat at the lock with the butt of his rifle. A flurry of movement inside the store stopped his assault and a moment later the door opened a few inches. Dark eyes peered through the gap. "What do you want?"

"Groceries," Ari kept the
duh
to himself. He held his rifle in one hand and held up his free hand, palm open to show his harmless intent. "Just groceries. That's all. There's a group of us. We need supplies."

A woman's voice speaking in Korean came from behind the man in the doorway, a rapid-fire patter of either fear or anger. The storekeeper muttered a sharp comment and opened the door a little farther. "Hurry up. Come in."

Derrick and Hector entered first while Ari scanned the street one last time, then he followed them into the store. With its shuttered windows, the interior was even darker than the sporting goods store. But Ari noted the hum of a small generator which was keeping the refrigerated cases cool. A woman with her black hair in a loose ponytail stood behind the counter, staring at them. Beside her was an older man with white shot hair pointing a pistol at them.

The younger man who'd answered the door also had a hand gun. He let them see it, but didn't hold it on them. He bobbed his head in greeting. "Any news about what's going on?"

"Zombies," Derrick piped up and Ari cringed at the word, which still sounded preposterous. "They've overrun the city, and from what we heard on the radio, the rest of the country is under attack, too."

One dark eyebrow shot up. "Zombies?"

"Take a look around, man. Do you have a better explanation?"

"A virus or some other disease infecting people. Maybe a terrorist chemical attack that hits the nervous system and makes people go crazy. But zombies? Come on." The man holstered his gun. Ari noticed the old man behind the counter didn't.

"That's what I said," Hector added. "A virus."

The store owner nodded toward the shelves. "Go ahead and get what you need, but we're accepting cash only today."

"Are you kidding me?" Hector's voice rose. "We're in a crisis and you're worried about money?"

The man exchanged glances with his family members behind the counter. The old man rattled off some more Korean. The muzzle of his gun never faltered, remaining trained on the customers.

The younger guy frowned. "I don't want trouble, but we can't just give stuff away."

 "I've only got about twenty bucks." Ari cursed himself for not collecting cash from the others. It hadn't even occurred to him.

"I don't have anything," Derrick said. "I left my wallet in my jacket pocket and my jacket's with my sister."

Grumbling in Spanish, Hector fished in his pocket and pulled out a few crumpled bills. "I was going to cash my paycheck at the bank so all I've got is this."

Ari mentally added up all the food they'd need to feed the group, not only for tonight but possibly for several meals more. A little over twenty bucks wasn't going to cut it. "I'll make you a deal." He set his rifle down, leaning it against a shelving unit, and took the spare rifle off his back. "A trade. You give us supplies. We give you this rifle. Trust me, you're gonna need more protection than a couple of handguns can provide."

"You have to sever the heads from the spinal cord," Derrick added a helpful tip, "either cut them off or shoot through the back of the neck. Head shots don't work. They'll just keep coming."

The store owner accepted the weapon, examined it, and nodded without conferring with his father this time. "All right. Take what you need."

Ari collected perishables from the coolers first. He had a feeling before this was over they'd be eating a lot of canned foods. As he packed the items into one of the knapsacks, Ari asked, "How long ago did this start happening?" He wanted to know if the timing coincided with the attack on the subway.

"A few hours, I heard a car crash outside and my wife called 911," the man said. "It didn't take long to figure out there was something more than an accident happening. The power went out and people were running and screaming. I locked down the shop right away and we've been in here ever since."

"Mama!" a child's voice called from the back room. The woman murmured something to her husband in Korean and left through the door behind the counter.

"Where's the rest of your group?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Down the street in the sporting goods shop. We were on the subway when it was attacked." Ari shoved a bag of apples into the nearly full knapsack.

The man nodded. "The national guard or somebody has to come soon."

"I don't know. Could be awhile." Ari zipped the bag and hefted the heavy weight onto his shoulders,. It was just as well he'd traded the extra rifle. He couldn't have carried it anyway. Also a good thing he'd spent hours training with a pack on his back during the past weeks.

The man unlocked the door and Hector poked his head out. "Looks okay."

He stepped outside and Derrick and Ari followed him.

"Good luck," the store owner said as they walked past.

The sound of the door locking behind them reminded Ari of his stint in juvie, only now he was being locked into an outside world that was far more dangerous than detention.

They moved quickly past debris, abandoned cars and body parts, to the Rent-A-World across the street. This door was also locked, but the display window was smashed so they stepped right it through into the store.

Bits of safety glass crunched under Ari's boots as he led the way inside. He paused, waiting for his eyes to adjust from sunlight to the dark interior of the building. No working generator here—ironic considering they sold electronics. Or maybe they had one but no one had lived long enough to turn it on. He held his rifle ready to pop any shambling thing that raised its ugly head, but the place seemed empty.

Derrick beelined straight to the computer department, listing aloud all the things he wanted, as he searched the shelves.

"You lost me after 'computer'," Ari said. He followed Derrick, keeping alert for any surprises coming from the dark shadows. The encounter with the Korean storekeepers had reminded him it wasn't only zombies they needed to look out for. Frightened humans with guns could be just as lethal.

Derrick studied the packaging of an air card. "We won't be able to activate this, and with the power down there's no way besides satellite to get on the internet."

"Just grab anything you might need and we'll find out if it works later." Ari was anxious to get back to the group. He kept running scenarios in which they returned to find the rest of their posse torn to pieces. Images of Ronnie's blood-streaked face or Lila's body sprawled on the floor haunted him. He scanned the back of the store where the shadows were deepest and Hector did the same, keeping his eyes on the street outside.

At last, Ari couldn't take any more of Derrick's farting around. He stood over him as the kid shoved a package of cable and other electronic paraphernalia in his pack.

"Come on. Get moving," Ari prodded. "We've gotta go."

"Aye-aye, Captain." Derrick snapped a salute.

Ari felt like kicking the boy. The smart-ass attitude wouldn't normally have bothered him, but he was exhausted and dangling by his last nerve. He wanted to close his eyes and not open them again until all this was over.

Derrick zipped the bag closed, heaved it onto his thin shoulders and followed Ari to the front where Hector stood sentry.

They crunched through the window glass back into the bright sunlight. Ari flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes and marched double time toward the sporting goods store. He was almost there when Hector called out, "Hey, wait up."

Ari stopped and turned toward him. The older man lifted his Mets cap and ran a hand through his short, dark hair. "Listen, I can't go back with you guys. I know what we said about sticking together, but I've gotta try to get to my wife and kids. My mind's not going to change by morning. I need to get started now."

Ari felt like someone had added another stone to the heavy pile in his gut, but he nodded. "I get it, man, but we could really use you. Other than me, you're the only one who knows how to shoot."