Alone (7 page)

There was no one in control now. Those fortunate enough to be alive should be grateful and help anyone they found alive in this world with them. Instead, they took advantage of the fact there was no one to stop them and did whatever they wanted.

The closest thing anyone had ever done to help her was the boy at the warehouse. He had given her tasty treats and then offered her more. Trish was suspicious. Fortunately he was trapped inside the warehouse.

Would he have been so nice to her if he had been able to come outside the warehouse? Would he have trapped her?

Trish was so weary and scared.

Would she be better off alone?

Trish began to tremble nervously as the bed and breakfast came into view.

She looked around nervously and began to run towards the house. The only thing worse than going inside and facing Roy was getting caught outside by loud mouth before she could make it inside.

Chapter 8

Tony was up with the sun this morning. His mind was working too hard for him to be able to sleep.

He had prepared another three arrows to send more food out to Trish.

He studied the edge of the clearing. So far, no movement.

He looked down at the dead standing in front of the warehouse. Yesterday he had started out to use three boxes of pellets but ended up using five boxes. He had spent most of the afternoon shooting at the dead. There were only about fifty of the dead left. As long as more of them didn’t come around, he might be able to eliminate the rest of them today.

His thoughts about what Trish had said yesterday also made him work on his plan to move food and supplies around in the warehouse. His plan originally had been to be prepared in case the dead managed to get inside the warehouse. He didn’t want to end up being trapped in the little office. With his experience that the dead seemed to hang around as long as they knew you were there, if they got in the warehouse and he wasn’t prepared, he could starve to death in that little office. So he had prepared a way out of his room and places he could go to get food, supplies and weapons. He had also thought about how he could take back the warehouse from the dead.

Hearing the comments Trish made about the living, Tony thought maybe he should also start thinking about preparing in the event he had to defend himself against the living.

The sound of it, preparing to defend himself against the living, sounded strange. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. For the last year he had only thought about wanting to meet up with other living people.

He had forgotten all about the bullies in high school. It was possible some of the survivors had been bullies. In a world that was a struggle to survive, a bully would not be someone you would expect to help you. A bully would be someone that would take what you had.

Tony looked out his window and down at the zombies staggering around the warehouse.

“A bully would be like a zombie that could think!” Tony thought. “Not a good thing.”

Trish had definitely had given Tony something to think about. Tony smiled at the idea he had been naive. “How could a guy that had lived the last year in a zombie infested city be naïve to the ways of the world?”

Tony picked up his pellet gun and filled the gun with pellets. He looked around the office. He had brought a lot of extra food to the office. He now had a rifle and ten boxes of shells, two bows and half his arrows and five boxes of pellets. He felt he needed to be better prepared for anything until he learned more about what Trish had been talking about. He was concerned he had become too complacent the last few weeks living in the warehouse. From what he had experienced, life was unforgiving. He had to reassess things.

While he waited to hear from Trish, he had work to do.

Thup!  Thup! Thup!

The sun was now directly overhead. Tony had used up two more boxes of pellets. There was only ten of the dead that still staggered around outside the warehouse.  Tony smiled at what he had been able to do the last few days.

Farmer George still lumbered around, occasionally rumbling up to the warehouse door to bang against the warehouse and groan.

Tony felt today he would be able to finish off the last of the dead. He smiled at the thought that he might be able to go out and walk around in the grass.

Maybe he would be able to go out and meet Trish in person.

The thought made his heart beat faster.

Tony picked up his pellet gun, reloaded the gun with another half box of pellets and began firing.

He had finished up the entire box of pellets. All that remained was now Farmer George.

Tony began firing at George.

He had shot George in the head almost twenty times. He almost felt bad for George. The twenty hits to the head had done little other than piss George off.

Tony leaned the gun against the corner of the window and began to reach for the bow and arrows.  He had practiced shooting the bow at targets in the warehouse. He felt sure he could hit George with an arrow, but hitting him in the head might be a different story.

A hit anywhere but the head wouldn’t do much. If Tony couldn’t hit him in the head, maybe he could somehow disable him by breaking a leg or something. If he could do that, then maybe he could run out and hit him over the head with his metal bar. But he hoped he could get a good head shot. As large as George was, he would probably make quite a racket when Tony went out to finish him off. If he attracted another mob of zombies, Tony could end up back at square one.

As Tony reached for the arrows the walkie-talkie chirped.

He picked up the little radio and stared.

It clicked again.

Tony pushed the button.” Trish is that you?”

The radio clicked again.

Tony smiled. He hoped he knew what was going on and that it just wasn’t some random static. “Push and hold the red button when you talk.”

He waited.

“Sorry.” The radio sounded.

“I’m glad you came back.” Tony said. “How are you doing today?”

“Fine. Will you give me more bars and jerky today?” Trish asked.

“Yes I will.” Tony said happily over the radio.

Tony reached for the arrow he had prepared and sat it on the bow. “Here it comes. I’ll try to get it to the same place in the clearing.”

Tony pulled the bow back and let the arrow fly.

He watched as it landed near the edge of the clearing. He sat back, lifted the binoculars and watched.

After a few minutes, Trish ran out, grabbed the arrow and disappeared back into the high grass.

Tony gave her a minute then spoke over the radio. “How’s that taste?”

“Good.” Came Trish’s voice a moment later. Tony smiled as he heard Trish trying to chew and answer him at the same time.

“Are you ready for another one?” Tony asked.

“Yes!” Tony received a quick response.

Tony thought for a moment as he looked at the arrow lying on the floor with a single granola bar taped to the end.

“Trish, how would you like a whole box of granola bars?”

Trish sat back on the ground. She would love to have an entire box of those granola bars. Saliva was running down her chin thinking about having a whole box.

Trish wiped her chin and began to tremble. She quickly looked around to make sure no one was sneaking up on her.

She pushed back the high grass and looked down towards the warehouse. She was ready to get up and run. “It has to be a trap. Lure me in with a few granola bars, then promise me a whole box to distract me then wham!” The image of Roy, Tom and loud mouth flashed through her mind. That sick look they always had on their faces when they talked to her glared at her in her mind.

“Trish?” the voice from the radio sounded in her hand. She jumped, startled at the sound.

“Where are you?” Trish asked as her voice trembled.

“I’m in the warehouse.” Tony’s voice came back.

“Prove it!” Trish almost demanded in response.

“Look up at the window where I’ve been shooting the arrows.” Tony replied.

Trish looked up at the window through the high grass. A boy in a white shirt stood their waving, then disappeared back into the room.

“Satisfied.” Tony asked.

“OK.” Trish answered.

“Why did you ask where I was?” Tony asked. “You know I’m stuck in here.”

Tony waited but Trish didn’t answer.

After a minute he decided to press on. “Trish, if you look at the front doors, you will see there is only one zombie left. If you give me a few minutes, I think I can kill it with my bow. After it’s gone, I can bring you out a whole box of granola bars.”

Before Tony could continue Trish answered in a panic sounding voice. “NO!”

Tony thought for a minute. “Trish, are you afraid of me?”

No reply.

“Trish, I promise you that you don’t need to be afraid of me.” Tony added.

No response.

Tony thought for a minute. He looked at the bow in the corner and thought.

“Trish. I understand. I want to give you a whole box of granola bars, but I promise I will not come out of the warehouse. I just want to help you. If I promise I won’t come outside, will you wait until I send you out the bars?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know.” Trish replied. Her instincts were telling her to run, but her mouth was watering at the thought of an entire box. Then she thought about going back without any thing to offer to Roy and Tom. She was worried about what they would do to her.

“Shit!” She swore under her breath.

“Trish you can watch me at the window the entire time. You won’t have to worry about me coming out. OK?” Tony asked.

Trish didn’t know what to do. Maybe if she could see him at the window it might be OK. The day was getting late, she wouldn’t have time to find anything else before she went back. Maybe she would have a better chance of getting the bars and running before the guy came out after her than she would have going back empty handed.

“OK.” She answered reluctantly.

“Good. Give me a few minutes to get rid of Farmer George.” Tony said.

“Who is Farmer George?” Trish asked. Was there someone else around that she hadn’t seen. Were there two of them?

Tony pressed the button and laughed. “Sorry. It’s the name I have for the big zombie at the front doors. He’s too big to be brought down with my little pellet gun. I’ll have to try to get him with an arrow. I hope I can do it.”

Trish breathed a sigh of relief. “Maybe he is in there by himself.” She thought, but she watched the warehouse carefully, in case it was a trick. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried to pull a trick on her.

Tony grabbed a half dozen arrows and crept to the corner of the window and looked for George.

He spotted George standing and staring at the front of the warehouse.

Tony set an arrow on the bow and shot at George. The arrow hit about four feet behind George and lodged in the head of one of the dead that laid out front. George turned and took a few staggering steps towards the arrow and just stared.

Tony almost gagged as a breeze pushed the heavy odor of the dead into his face. Tony had almost become used to the foul smell of the dead as they stood in front of the warehouse. The hundred or so of the dead that Tony had downed, after laying in the hot sun for the past few days, smelled worse than he remembered the dead ever smelling.

Tony took a breath inside the room, then took aim. He let go of the arrow and watched as it hit George square in the middle of the back.

It must have severed the spinal column and George went down.

He watched as the big creature squirmed and wiggled. It wasn’t dead, but it was unable to get up and move around.

It wasn’t what he had wanted, but for what he needed. It would work for now.

Tony quickly left the room and slid down the metal ladder to the floor below. He ran over to the sporting goods shelves and grabbed a hundred foot spool of 50 pound fishing line, a box of granola bars and a box of beef jerky. He turned and ran back up the ladder to the room.

“I hope this will work.” Tony thought as he unrolled the spool of fishing line. When he had it lying all over the floor, he took the end and tied it to the latch on the window.

After following the line for a few minutes, he found the other end and tied it to the end of an arrow.

He stood at the window and shot the arrow at a spot on the ground below, about seventy-five feet out from the warehouse. It stuck in the grass at the end of the parking lot.

He stood and looked around the office. Next he ran over to the coat rack and grabbed two wire coat hangers.

He used the duct tape to tape the bottom of the hangers to the granola box and the box of beef jerky.

He took the boxes over to the window, hung the box of granola bars on the fishing line and let go. He watched as the box slid down the line, picking up speed as it went, finally crashing into the grass. Next he slid the beef jerky down the line.

Tony stood and picked up the binoculars and the hand held radio. “Trish. Did you see where the granola bars and beef jerky landed in the grass?”

A second later she replied. “Yes.”

“I’ll be standing at the window so you can see me the whole time while you go get them.” Tony said.

He held the binoculars to his eyes and watched.

Five minutes went by and there was no movement.

“Trish?” Tony asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you going to shoot me?” Trish asked seriously.

“What?” Tony asked. “I would never shoot you.” Then he laughed. “Besides, you saw me shooting at George. I could never hit you even if I wanted to.”