Apocalypse Atlanta (37 page)

Oddly enough, Darryl was reasonably sure there was actually less unsettled feeling among the Dogz over Bobo taking control than there probably was among the women over Jody.  The Dogz were used to pecking orders in the club.  The Dogz didn’t have a heavily structured rank system like bigger clubs often did, but they were guys, and guys were used to having people be in charge.  It was a guy thing.

The wives and girlfriends though, some of them seemed to almost enjoy the bickering.  Darryl had only caught a little of it since everyone had begun gathering at the clubhouse, but it had only gotten more spirited since Bobo began spurring the Dogz into action.  He hoped the women would settle themselves as the Dogz seemed to have.  If what was happening in Atlanta spilled out into the surrounding area, he didn’t think quibbling over who was doing which chores would help keep them safe.

“DJ, you there bro?” EZ asked.

Darryl shook his shoulders and glanced behind himself, seeing the carts lined up and ready to go.  “Sorry, just tired.”

“Have a smoke.” EZ suggested.  “Keep you awake better.”

“Yeah.” Darryl said.  “Let’s get to the first aisle though.”  He led the way down the broad space between the self-service checkout registers.  Jody had some very clear suggestions, orders really now that Bobo had confirmed she was in charge of the supplies, about what they needed to be getting.

Some of Darryl’s ideas, and apparently Big Chief’s on his previous food runs, were not the same as hers.  She said they already had more meat at the clubhouse than they could fit into the refrigerators, and needed to focus on shelf stable stuff.

So Darryl led the way, carts rolling behind him, right over to the canned goods aisle.  There were some cans rolling around on the floor, but the shelves still had plenty of items remaining on them.  Darryl went all the way to the end of the row and stepped out to keep watch on the cross aisle, EZ covering the other direction behind him.

As Darryl pulled his pack of smokes out of his pocket, one handed so he kept the shotgun at least somewhat ready, he heard cans start clattering into the shopping carts.  The sound was fast and furious, apparently little effort or time being wasted on stacking them neatly.  He got a cigarette stuck into his mouth, traded the pack for his Zippo, and took a single glance back into the aisle as he lit his smoke.  He saw whole shelves of cans were being cleaved into the waiting carts unceremoniously, heedless of any that might miss and fall to the floor.

As Darryl returned his lighter to his pocket and puffed on the cigarette, a trio of middle aged men emerged two aisles over.  They had a cart each, stocked mostly with the kinds of things Big Chief had been bringing back, and getting yelled at by Jody for.  The men seemed a little taken back to see Darryl standing there, shotgun held loosely across his chest in both hands.

“Uh, we were gonna get some canned stuff.” one of them ventured after a few moments.  Darryl shook his head and shifted the cigarette into the corner of his mouth, using only his lips and tongue to move it.

“Wait until we done.”

“There gonna be anything left then?” one of the men asked in a challenging tone.  Darryl had already noted all three men had holstered pistols, pretty good ones too.  The one who was talking to him just now had a Sig Sauer.  Darryl didn’t know which model it was, but Sig was not known for being a budget handgun manufacturer.  Their weapons were pricey, and generally well made.

“Ain’t got no problem with you.” Darryl said instead of directly answering the question.  It never paid to argue in these sorts of situations, he knew from experience.  Better to just explain how things had to happen, and go from there; not get caught up in debate.  “Leave us be, we leave you be.  But the way things are, just give us some distance.  Okay?”

The man with the Sig frowned, but said nothing when Tank stepped out from the aisle to join Darryl and EZ.  Tank was another construction worker, and lost out in height only to Tiny.  What he missed in a few inches of vertical reach though, he made up for in bulk and muscle.  His build matched his height and profession, and his general demeanor was something he’d developed over the years.

Darryl supposed when you went though life being the big guy in every situation, it would color your outlook.  Tank’s was one of confidence in his ability to handle any physical challenge.

“We here for the same reason you is.” Tank rumbled.  “Don’t bother us none, we won’t bother you none.”

“Right.” one of the men behind Mr. Sig said with a short nod.  The Sig guy turned and looked at him, his expression a little cloudy, but he turned with the others and they went up a different aisle with their carts.

“We full up.” Psycho said.  Darryl backed into the aisle, then turned and walked sort of sideways as he now brought up the rear of the line of carts.  It was awkward, and he kept weaving a little like a drunk, but it let him watch behind them as he moved.  A few loose cans got in the way of his boots, but Darryl had expected that, and was keeping his feet low enough that he only kicked them rather than stepping down on and tripping over them.

They got back outside without incident, where the Dogz who were on the Guard team waited.  The teams were Bobo’s idea, and the situation here at the Kroger was making Darryl quite glad for the division of their available manpower.  They had some people designated to do nothing but load and haul stuff, the Grabbers.  They were all armed, but that was the only thing they were supposed to be responsible for; getting things back to, and in, the vehicles.

The Escorts went everywhere the Grabbers did, and protected them.  And while those two groups were off doing the looting, the Guards stayed with the vehicles.  They were supposed to make sure the vehicles weren’t messed with; either the things loaded in them, nor the vehicles themselves.

Most of the convoy vehicles were hot-wired, and couldn’t easily be shut off or started back up unless you were, like EZ, an accomplished car thief.  So it was especially important to not leave the vehicles alone where someone could just hop in and be gone in seconds.

Darryl watched the doors with EZ and Tank, making sure no one coming from inside the store could bother them without warning.  Behind him, the other Escorts fanned out a little to cover the Grabbers as they transferred everything from the carts to the convoy.  It took about as much time as it had to get the carts loaded, then Big Chief called out, and they headed back in.

“More cans?” Darryl asked.  The aisle hadn’t been empty when they’d left it.

“Yeah.” he heard Jody reply.

“Hope them assholes is busy somewhere else.” EZ muttered.

Darryl agreed, though he didn’t say anything.  When he turned into the aisle he half expected to see the men there, but they weren’t.  Darryl moved back down to the far end and resumed his guard position there while the Grabbers started grabbing.  That trip cleared most of what Jody said was worth taking from the shelves.  She insisted some things were a waste of time, like canned broccoli, since few people would willingly eat it.

After dumping the rest of the cans into the vehicles, their third trip headed over to soups, where they applied more Jody logic as they cleared most of that section as well.  A few things, like split pea, were ignored, and Darryl couldn’t blame her.  Split pea soup was nasty stuff.  After that, they took every bit of sugar and tea and coffee they could find, which actually wasn’t as much as Darryl would have expected.  Well, at least as far as tea was concerned.  All the tea in the store fit into only two carts.

Some of the convoy vehicles were starting to get full, at least as far as weight went.  Darryl knew that when you were dealing with things that were heavy, like canned goods, weight usually mattered more than space.  Bobo had most of the soups and bagged sugar loaded onto the ‘flat beds’, saying that would leave room for things that were lighter, and more likely to blow around, in the more enclosed vehicles.

While two Grabbers stayed behind briefly to do a little load shifting, the rest of the Grabbers went back into the store with the Escorts.  The next several loads they hauled out brought boxes of crackers, cans of shortening, and jars or bottles of oil.  They brought out flour and rice, two whole carts that were the sum total of all the spices, along with a lot of salt, in the store.  A lot of peanut butter and jelly, crammed into left over cart spaces.  One trip of nothing but dried pasta. 

Darryl got confused when Jody finally directed them to make a pass through the refrigerated section.  She was the one who had said the clubhouse was running out of cold storage, after all.  But he didn’t have to say anything, one of the other women who was on the Grabber team raised the question.

“We got some coolers, and can get some more if we need to.” Jody said as they walked.  “We can rotate ice packs between the coolers and the freezers to keep stuff cold enough.  At least until we can get it cooked in the next day or two, and then as long as we eat it pretty quick it’ll be fine.”

Darryl shrugged.  All he knew about cooking was that he liked to eat it.  He led the way through the dairy section, where they found no milk or cream remaining, but plenty of cartons of eggs and packages of cheese.  They came back through the bread aisle just as an experiment, but as Darryl expected there was nothing left there either.

“We done?” he did ask when they got back and started adding the cold stuff to the loads, mostly packing it into the van.

“Almost.  One, two more trips.” Jody said as she handed eggs over to Little Chief, who was kneeling inside the van and stacking things quickly but carefully.

“What else can we take?” 2C asked, sounding somewhere between exasperated and curious.

“We ain’t get anything out of the powered drinks section yet.” Jody pointed out.  “Or you wanna drink boiled lake water until things get better?”

“We got the tea and coffee.”

“Yeah, but we got kids with us.  Plus that’s where they store the milk.”

“Milk was all gone.” 2C protested.

“Sure, all the cold milk.” Jody grinned.  “But there probably still lots of powdered milk left, and maybe some of boxed milk that’s good at room temperature until you open it.”

“An we need to grab at least a couple of carts of stuff like soap, razors, that kinda shit.” Bobo said.

“Tampons.” Jody nodded.

“I don’t need to know the details.” 2C said hastily, which brought a couple of laughs from some of the Dogz.  2C, short for 2-Cool, was named that because he maintained an aura of being cool and confident no matter what was going on.  Apparently even he was unable to handle specifics on female hygiene without flinching though.

As it turned out, there wasn’t as much milk on the shelf as Jody had apparently been hoping.  They were able to fit all the powered and boxed milk in the store into one trip, and still had room left over for a detour on the way back through the hygiene section.  One cart of soap, another of shampoo, and a two more of various items seemed to satisfy Jody.

The convoy was now basically full.  The trucks, which were all little light trucks like Ford Rangers and Nissan Frontiers except for Big Chief’s F-250, were sagging on their shocks.  So was the van, though the SUVs were holding up a little better mostly because their interiors limited what could be packed in somewhat.  Only the Home Depot trucks seemed to have available weight remaining, though in their case they were nearly out of room in the makeshift ‘beds’ their flatbeds had been converted into.

As the drink powders and packages of bathroom items started being loaded into the vehicles, Bobo caught Darryl’s attention with a shout.  When he looked around, he saw Bobo gesturing to him.  Darryl went over and stood sort of sideways, so he could keep an eye on the store doors.

“Take two Escorts, Vivian and another Grabber, and go clean out the pharmacy best you can.”

Darryl stared at him for a moment, a little confused, then managed to get his tired brain to catch up with Bobo.  “The pharmacy?  Uh . . . yeah.  Okay.  What we need?”

“Vivian works in a doctor’s office, so whatever she thinks y’all should get.” Bobo shrugged.  “But make sure you get a lot of stuff for pain and infection.”

“Just two carts?”

“Yeah, just two.  That ought to be plenty.  Don’t take too long neither, just fill up and get back out here.  We’ll probably we waiting on you.”

“Okay.” Darryl said, reaching out and grabbing Smoke by the elbow as he went past with an armful of soap.  “Dump that in a car and come with me.”

Smoke eyed him for a moment, then changed course and dropped all the soap into the back of the closest truck.  “I need a cart?”

“Yeah.”  Darryl said, looking for Vivian.  He was about to shout when he saw her in the ‘airlock’ formed by the store’s sets of inner and outer doors.  She already had a cart, and was looking at him expectantly.  He nodded and headed that way.  EZ and Evil were near the doors, covering them as well as the sidewalk to either side.

“Yo.” Darryl pointed at them as their heads came around.  “Come on, we gotta cover these two on a quick trip inside.”

“What we getting?” EZ asked as Smoke went around Vivian and grabbed an empty cart from the rows parked inside the ‘airlock’.

“Drugs.” Darryl answered.  “Bobo say we need some.”

“But we already got drugs at the crib.” Evil protested, looking confused.  “Needles done brought his whole stash, and Stony an Psycho got some too.”