End of the Line (23 page)

             
Dave still hadn’t said anything.
             

             
“Dave,” I said. “We can drop you off back at the house.”

             
“I’m not going into the city with you, but my daughter lives in Fordham,” he said. “Maybe it’s time I found out what happened to her.”

Chapter 14
             

“There’s a gun store in Floral Park,” Dave said as he turned from Jericho
Turnpike on to
Tulip Ave. “I’d like to check it out.” It was getting on late afternoon and we needed to find a place to crash soon. We didn’t go back to the house, instead we radioed the others. As leader I didn’t like splitting us up but hoped fewer people at the
house meant fewer zombies. I trusted Annemarie to keep Jake and Aisha safe and I hoped that Dot wouldn’t be too much of a pain. At least they had plenty of food. If we weren’t back in a week they would move on. We would meet back at CostKing. Annemarie didn’t seem happy. I guess she wondered if we would be coming back at all. I didn’t tell her my plan to visit Manhattan.

I wondered that myself. Was I being as stupid as Ashley? Manhattan had to have millions of bodies and I don’t know how many zombies. Was a deluding myself? If Cam was alive, he would have come home. We had been on the road for a few hours, moving from the LIE to Jericho Turnpike and had passed New Hyde Park. We didn’t call CostKing because I knew Rachel would freak out.

Soon we would be in Queens. As we got closer, roads became more congested and we saw more zombies roaming the street. This time Tanya didn’t take them down. We didn’t know how many were hiding and would come out from the sound of a gunshot especially since we were in a car not a truck. Also, Tanya only had her handgun and told us she had 10 bullets left.

No one disagreed with Dave, but I didn’t think we would find anything. Guns and bullets had become even more valuable than food. The place was probably ransacked by now.

Dave drove down Tulip Ave. I spied dozens of formerly pretty garden apartments in disrepair, burnt down or taken over by trees. Litter filled the streets and the sidewalks. I saw a LIRR overpass. No trains would be passing over it and the trestle looked rusted and overgrown with weeds. I saw the shuttered ticket window:
Floral Park station
. I wondered if the trains would ever run again.

             
Dave drove two blocks and had to stop. I could see the gun shop a few stores down: pitch
black with the gate down. The faded letters of Floral Park Guns and Ammo could still be read. The stores around it were all sprayed painted with the same message.
NOTHING BUT DEAD HERE.
We passed a supermarket missing all its windows. Inside it looked bare. Tulip Ave was a two lane street and now four cars blocked the gun store’s entrance including one on the sidewalk. Dave pulled behind one of them.  None of the cars looked smashed, so I wondered if this was some kind of blockade. Would a psycho limo driver pop out of one of the cars, but I could see they were empty.

             
No sign of zombies either. The street was quiet, except for birds tweeting. The sidewalk was stained with old blood. Dave went to the gate and knocked loud.

             
“Hello!” he yelled.

             
No response. He looked at Tanya. “Do you think you can get the lock open?”

             
“For the gate?” she said. “There’s no lock.”

             
She was right. The gate was down but the lock was empty.

             
Dave lifted it up.

             
The store had newspapers covering the window that were dated last April, the headline reading:

             
H311 Flu on the rise, President urges sick people to stay home.

A headline underneath read:

Rioting in Dayton, Ohio, National Guard called in.

My family didn’t live near Dayton and I hope their being in a small town saved them from the flu and zombies. I didn’t bother reading anything beyond the headlines. Newspapers stopped printing about a month later, not that they gave much news at the end. Beyond the newspapers I could see wood. The windows were boarded up as was the door. Dave knocked. He tried the door then looked at Tanya.

             
“This one’s locked,” he said.

             
Tanya smiled and went to work. She used her body to block the view probably out of habit. I figured it might be a good idea if she taught us that skill. I reminded myself to mention it when we got back to CostKing.

             
Before she finished, the door swung open and slammed hard against the display window.

             
“Fuck,” she said taking a step back.

             
On the other side was a man, in his forties, white, lightly bearded with messy short black hair and had a rifle aimed straight at Tanya’s face.
             

“What do you want?” he asked, slowly. Tanya didn’t back away from the gun or looked fazed.

I held up my hands as did Dave. “We aren’t here for trouble.”

“So answer my question.”

“We’re looking for firearms and ammo,” I said. “We currently don’t have anything to trade except for a little food and medical supplies or something.” I sounded like an idiot but there was a gun pointed at us.

             
The man laughed. “I got all I need. You think I’d trade for nothing? Do you think I’m stupid?”

“We can do a favor or something,” I said, trying to think of what possible thing we could do for him. Shine his shoes, polish his guns, count his bullets.

“I’ll do a bj but that’s it,” Tanya said.

The man was caught off guard by her comment. I could tell because his face turned bright red and it gave me a hint, he wasn’t a monster but I understood why he wouldn’t trust us.

“Jesus,” he said. “If you don’t have any supplies I can use, there’s nothing I can do--” Then he added “Sorry.”

He backed into the store then slammed the door shut. I heard him begin locking the door. It must have a million locks on it. I doubt Tanya would have able to get it open. This place was fortified.

“Let’s find a place to stay,” I said. I began walking away, looking around for a secure location, when I heard the locks again and door opening.

The man stood there with the door ajar. He still had the rifle but pointed it down. “You stay in the upstairs apartment next door tonight and tomorrow you run some errands. I’ll give you a list of supplies I need. There’s a couple of places around town to get them. You bring most of my list I’ll give you something fair.”  We walked back to the store but gave the man enough space. He didn’t let us in.

             
“That seems easy,” I said. “Why can’t get the supplies yourself?”

             
“We regularly go out for supplies. One time we did, the zombs got my boy. You get me the stuff I need that means my family is out of danger for this supply run.”
             

“Can Ashley stay with you?” I said motioning to her. Ashley put her hand up but didn’t say anything. “She’s not any trouble and I rather she be with people while we’re out.”

“I can come—“ she said.

“No,” he said, but not to Ashley. “But she can stay next door while you’re out tomorrow. It’s pretty secure.”

I wasn’t sure I could trust him, but next door was a good a place as any to stay. Besides if there are some guns and ammo at the end of this, we had to try.

             
The man was right about it being secure. The place next door had two apartments, both upstairs. One was boarded up, so we went to the other with the unlocked door. The apartment was small. The door opened to a dusty bathroom directly in front, the kitchen to the left and a smallish living room to the right. When we were inside, Dave locked the door’s two locks.

The living room had a musty sofa that was once cream color with a matching love seat. I didn’t smell death only mold. No zombies or dead people. Tanya led the way and went into the living room. Next to the living room were two rooms next to each other. Both had open doors. The bigger one had a bed, the other had chairs by the window.

The living room had a window but it led to an alcove which had access to the windows of three other apartments.

“We could find something better,” Dave said as he looked at the bedroom with one bed.

“Nah,” I said. “This place looks okay. Zombies have trouble with stairs and they have to get through two doors and we can escape out another apartment.”

“Jim, I can come with you all tomorrow,” Ashley said. “I’m not completely useless.”

“If we’re running around outside, I rather you stay here. Besides you can keep an eye on things.”

“He’s right.” Dave said. I was surprised he agreed with me.

“I’ll be on my own soon enough.”

“But not yet.”

I looked through the alcove. The window to the apartment next door was dark. The window in the back apartment was smashed. The one next to ours was shaded.

That shade went up and I saw the man in the window. Behind him, it looked like a kitchen. I waved, he didn’t wave back. He opened the window, and then climbed to our side. I opened the window for him. He still had the rifle with him but now it was strapped to his back. I guess that meant he trusted us more. He climbed over the couch and planted his feet on the floor before he said anything.

             
“You see, nice and secure. Any of them come in you go out the window, but not to my place. I keep it locked and alarmed. Go out that way,” he said, pointing to broken window.

             
“By the way,” I said. “We didn’t introduce ourselves. I’m Jim, this is Dave, Tanya and you already know Ashley.” I pointed each of them out.

             
“I’m Mike,” he said. He didn’t put out his hand to shake.

             
“Good to meet you.”

             
“Where you all from?”

             
I didn’t want to mention CostKing, not yet. “We’re from around the island.”
             

             
Mike seemed to accept my vague answer. “And where you folks headed?”

             
“Manhattan.”

             
Mike looked like we had kicked him in the face. “You can’t go.”

             
“Why?”

             
“Ain’t no way into Manhattan. The government tore down any way to get into it more than a year ago. Knocked over bridges and collapsed tunnels. They even closed off parts of Queens. Blockaded high population areas, everything west of the Van Wyck. It’s a mess, not to mention the high numbers of dead bodies and zombies.”

             
“Someone I love is in New York—I have to see if I can find him.”

             
“I’m sorry, but there ain’t no way anyone is alive,” his voice rose, not in anger but concerned. “Couple of million people there, either dead of the flu or a zombie. New York is a city of the dead, son. You don’t want to even think about going there. You won’t survive.”
             

             
“My daughter’s in the Bronx,” Dave said.

             
“You might have a chance. I think the Throgs Neck Bridge is still there. Haven’t heard it was down. I know they left it up because they wanted to give people an escaped route. The RFK is gone for sure and I heard the Whitestone collapsed from too many cars.”

             
“These are all rumors,” I said. I wasn’t going to be convinced so easily. If Ashley could go to California, I could go into Manhattan.

             
“Not rumors, son, facts. I got a ham radio and a guy in Queens broadcasts on it and a low FM frequency, you can pick him up if you’re close enough. He puts out news reports. He goes to look himself. Says every way in is gone. They wanted to keep the zombies in.” He looked at me and I guess he saw my determination.

             
“The only way into Manhattan might be by boat. It’s a long shot though. First you gotta find a boat. Do you any of you know how to sail?”

             
No one answered his question.

             
“You know,” Dave said. “I’m thinking this is not a good idea.”

             
“I know,” I said. “But I’m doing it anyway. If you don’t want to come, that’s fine. You can take Ashley to Albany. We’ll meet back at home.”

             
“Jim,” Ashley said. “Don’t be stupid.”

             
“As stupid as you?” I said with ire in my voice.

             
Ashley didn’t respond. I guess it was one of the few times I got angry.