Survival Paranoia (Survival series) (9 page)

The high school was stiflingly hot, even with the large industrial fans blowing. One of the citizens of New Delaware, as the residents called themselves, was an electrician, and his first act upon joining the people there was to get the electricity running again. A group of scavengers went out and raided a large supply store for the fans. Another group raided a feed and seed store and a rotation schedule was set up to tend the garden. There were fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, and rather tasteless yet filling bread with each meal. It was a little slice of Heaven found in this new Hell.

Lorna, Todd and Max had fit right in almost from the start. There was a two-day imprisonment set up in a room that looked like it had once been a science lab, but that was merely a formality. They were checked for
thoroughly for bite marks before being locked up for the safety of the other residents. When they were deemed ‘clean’ they were taken to the locker room where they indulged in long showers, enjoying the feeling of being clean after so long on the road. One woman there had been a hair dresser and the three of them received a quick trim before being guided to the gym to pick from the tables along the wall lined with an assortment of clothing in differing styles and sizes.

They were stripped of their weapons, but neither of them minded as they weren’t taken away permanently but put in a ro
om with a stockpile of others. There were machetes, butcher knives, hunting rifles, shotguns, more ammunition than either of them had ever seen outside a specialty store, and even a few swords that people had once collected but now had been honed to a razor’s edge and actually put to use.

There were a handful of teachers, and a school of sorts was assembled. Children, from the smallest of babies to those nearing graduation, were a large part of the population of New Delaware, and everyone had a job to do. For the youngest that meant attending school. No homework was assigned as
the adults usually didn’t have time enough to help with it, but they were encouraged to read age-appropriate books when not in class. The adults were on a rotation schedule… scavengers, security, kitchen duty, and daycare workers were the largest portion of the workers, but there were other specialty professions that weren’t rotated. These included teachers, doctors, nurses and medics.

Lorna quickly signed up for a position on the scavenger list. She had nothi
ng against children, and was fond of Max, especially, but some of the children unnerved her, especially Tori. Victoria, known to all of New Delaware as Tori, was the little girl who was having a tea party on the lawn that day. She had no family left. One of the men who helped settle New Delaware had found her living happily in a toy store, playing with the dolls and stuffed animals. She was malnourished and dehydrated, on the verge of death when he scooped her up and ‘adopted’ her much as Lorna had done with Max. But whereas Max was a normal, well-adjusted child, Tori was creepy. She lost a few marbles out there on her own and was often found standing in the corners of the school, humming absently as she tugged her pigtails and sobbed. She frequently wet herself and wandered around that way, refusing to change clothes. As she had no family, she belonged to the daycare- and Lorna had no desire to mother that nightmare of a child.

Todd, however, seemed most content with kitchen duty, which surprised Lorna immensely. He preferred staying close to Max, and she in turn had adopted Tori as a kind of sister
. Lorna would often come ‘home’- the classrooms were divided up into little private areas by sheets and tarps, and each family was assigned one- to find the little girl that left her cold was playing with Max, humming her little tunes and tugging on her hair while they played with the stuffed animals and dolls Tori wouldn’t leave that toy store without.

Lorna and Todd grew closer during their time in new Delaware. Although they never kissed, and never really touched, they were inseparable and most people just looked at the three of them
as a family. It was unnerving to Lorna how quickly she’d come to depend on him. She couldn’t imagine going back to her lonely life. She was afraid she might even be in love with him, but she quickly told herself that couldn’t be possible. Really, they hardly knew one another. It couldn’t be love just because they were always together… could it? And yet each night she dreamed, and those dreams were of the three of them, and Todd was truly hers. She no longer had nightmares… but those dreams of love were somehow worse. They made her long for things she never thought she’d have.

It was with a heavy heart that she set out on her next run. She wa
s with a mixed group. There were two girls in their twenties with she’d secretly dubbed ‘The Bobbleheads’- they finished each other’s sentences and looked like the centerfold of a skin mag. She couldn’t stand them, but she’d been out before with them and they were almost eerily fast. Plus they’d both been gymnasts, and they were able to accomplish a lot of things most everyone else couldn’t, Lorna included. There was also a dark-skinned man in his fifties named Tito. His face was lined with scars and dotted with pockmarks, but his smile was genuine, and he never failed to cheer Lorna up. And last but not least was Dorian. There was something distinctly untrustworthy about him. He’d been a prisoner when everything went to Hell, locked up for murder during an armed robbery. Some idiotic guard decided to open the cell doors before he ran for the hills, and somehow he’d made his way to the high school. Lorna prayed for his death, even knowing it was wrong. But he’d screw them over somehow, all of them, if he didn’t die on one of these runs.

Lorna kissed Max goodbye, but bypassed the kitchen. She didn’t like the look of despair on Todd’s f
ace each time she left on a run. It was hard enough seeing the terrified relief on his face upon her return. She vowed to slip out without his knowledge from that point forward, and so far she’d managed to do so. There was no set rotation schedule. They just went when they were needed. They left at different times of the day each time, on different days of the week, and there was a wide variety of runners who chose to go out, so no same group went out. One person was in charge of the schedule, and no one really knew who was behind it all. It ensured their safety, as The Bobbleheads told Lorna when she asked. There was a janitor’s closet in the basement, and the schedule was posted there. They weren’t allowed to share with anyone where the schedule was posted, and they weren’t to talk about who slipped out to go on those runs, either.

Lorna was filled with a sense of foreboding. There were a lot of secrets in New Delaware, and she wasn’t sure she liked being a part of them. The only thing she knew for sure was she’d rather
know than be in the dark. But if there were so many secrets, how many was she unaware of? And how long before they reared up and bit them all in the ass?

She knew the run was a mistake when they were less than two miles from the school. Something set her teeth on edge, warning her of bad things to come if she didn’t change. She wanted to go back, but the group voted against her. The Bobbleheads, in particular, wanted to keep moving forward. They enjoyed the accolades heaped upon them when they brought back a good haul, even if no one knew exactly where the bounty came from. Of course, they didn’t do a very good job of keeping their mouths shut. Even if the names of most the runners was still a mystery, almost everyone knew the Bobbleheads were involved.

So against Lorna’s better judgment, she kept moving forward
. That was the only logical choice. Going back, head bowed in shame, was not in her nature. So she took her usual position, guarding the rear of their group, and tried to tune out the inane chatter coming from the girls. Besides, maybe she was just being paranoid. After all, they’d made it to the nearby superstore without any issues. They didn’t even see a single zombie on their travels.

Until now, they’d left the large store alone when they went on runs.
It was dangerous, and had most likely been picked clean of anything useful early on in the apocalypse. But they’d cleared all the local stores, and no one else was insane enough to try for it at this point. They’d used a local map, marking circles outward from the school, and this was the last stop inside the first circle. Once they were done here, the next group would go out and work within the next circle, and so on until they either had all they needed or the world had returned to some semblance of normalcy. Lorna wasn’t betting on the second option within
her
lifetime.

Sometimes they found survivors who sought shelter and brought them back with them. Most of the time they returned with a few more supplies and less people than they’d left with.
That was their reality now. Death wasn’t even mourned any longer, because if they took time to grieve for all they lost they would never stop. Anyone who died outside the perimeter was left there, and those who died inside were dragged out and disposed of. Harsh, but it was all they had time for now. Life was for the living, and the living were an endangered species these days. Lorna sometimes worried they were all destined to go the way of dinosaurs, and a million years from now only the undead would walk the earth.

It had taken all her effort to shake off those musings and focus on the job at hand. Dorian took no caution as he opened the door to the super store and strode in as though he owned the place. She sneered in disgust but made no comment, willing to let him have the lead and risk his neck rather than the rest of them who had more brains than bravado. There was something dangerously wrong inside there, she just knew it, but there was no choice
but to go on. A place like this should be a locked-down fortress, home to a group of survivors, and yet the store was eerily quiet.

Lorna’s guard went up instantly. They shouldn’t be here, and she tried to warn them all away. Dorian ignored her, Tito didn’t hear her, and the Bobbleheads just laughed at her paranoia, moving forward like they owned the place. There was nothing to do but follow helplessly, praying she could keep them safe.

It didn’t take long for everything to go to shit. The place smelled awful. The power had been gone for quite some time, and the rankness of rotted food was beyond description. It was the only obvious explanation for how they’d missed the stench of the zombies who’d made the place their home.

Dorian turned the corner of the sporting goods department and directly into the waiting arms of the undead. His screams drew a crowd within moments, and the small group was quickly overrun. They fell upon his bleeding, ravaged body like vultures, and the sounds of tearing flesh were lost to the screams and gurgles he made.

In a panic, Lorna used the machete she’d claimed as her own from the cache of weapons to mercilessly take out the zombies who were edging too close. She forced down the nausea overwhelming her and ignored the undead feasting on Dorian. He was beyond help now, and had finally gone blessedly silent. She left them to feed, concentrating on those still coming her way while the others were distracted. The Bobbleheads were one aisle over near the fishing gear, but Lorna was closest to the hunting supplies. She filled her bag quickly with blades from a smashed display case and ran for the food section. Tito had gone that way, and she hoped to make it to him as he was on his own.
Let the airheads defend themselves
, she thought bitterly.

The food aisles seemed empty, which surprised her until she remembered
they
preferred their food bleeding and screaming. She filled two backpacks with canned goods and some boxed foods that were still in date before running to the front of the store, beheading a zombie on the way past the registers. She stifled a sob at the money littering the floor. Talk about a relic of the
old
days. She was relieved to see Tito waiting there with wild eyes, but the Bobbleheads were nowhere to be found. A sliver of guilt made itself known at the way she'd thoughtlessly left them to fend off the undead army alone. 

The pair slipped silently out the doors to wait in the parking lot. An RV was there and they climbed the ladder to keep watc
h on the doors. They had a rule. They’d save others if they could, but if they could escape they’d wait within 1000 feet of the doors for one hour. After that time passed they would leave the others to their fates. It was coldly practical, and Lorna hated it, even as she knew it was the only smart thing to do.

Three hours later, Lorna made it back to the school wit
h Tito and Jennifer at her side. The other Bobblehead, Tina, didn’t survive. They headed off to disinfection with heavy backpacks bulging with supplies, and heavier hearts loaded down with grief. The mission had been a success, but the cost had been a lot higher than any payoff. Something needed to change, or there would be no one left to make these runs.

Lorna sat down on the floor of the shower, Jennifer on the other side of her. They didn’t speak, merely pulled their knees to their chests and cried while the water washed away the blood, tears and grime
from their aching bodies. As Lorna looked at the bedraggled blond beside her she made a vow. She’d continue going on these missions. They needed this, all of them, if they were to survive and thrive. But before she went out with any crew there would be guidelines set in place. Either they went in with an actual plan or she’d go by herself. She didn’t want to come back with less people again… not if there were any way to prevent it.

The best laid plans
, Lorna sighed as she looked at the team she’d assembled. She’d wanted Jennifer to go along, but the blond had refused to go on any more runs since losing Tina. She was able to get Tito and a guy named Davis who had quick hands and a sharp mind, but no one else was willing to go with the conditions she’d laid down.

She’d left a note the night after getting out of the shower, hoping whoever put the list together would see it, stating her requirements for future runs. A penned note was there the next morning with a single word: AGREED. But no
one liked her rules, apparently… or maybe they didn’t like the idea of a young girl being in charge of them. For whatever the reasons, it was the three of them now.

Her rules were simple: they worked as a team, making a list of what they intended to get on each run. They’
d get those items and clear out. No extras, no taking more time to browse, and definitely no splitting up. They’d work aisle by aisle and guard each other’s backs. Anyone who broke those rules would never work at her side again. She thought that was reasonable, but she didn’t really care if they agreed with her or not. She’d rather have two people she could count on than five she couldn’t trust.

Their first goal was to return to the super store where they’d lost two members. She thought Tito might balk at that, but he nodded in agreement and went to gather his empty backpacks for the trip. Davis was skeptical, but he kept his objections to himself.

It was a test of sorts. She’d admitted that to herself if not to them, to make sure they would listen to her, even if they were going somewhere that had been a failure previously. But she also knew that there was no choice. The place was a gold mine, and they needed medical supplies urgently. There were three wounded waiting for them and even a couple of pregnant women. That surprised her. Being willing to bring a baby into this new world was insanity as far as Lorna could tell, but it wasn’t her body so she kept her mouth shut on the matter and added prenatal vitamins to the list of supplies they’d search for.

As they’d
travelled to the store, they passed around the list of supplies they were searching for. They were all familiar with the basic layout, and they plotted the best path from the entrance to the rear of the store before winding their way to the medical supplies and back out again. Some things were par for the course, like canned goods, feminine hygiene supplies, and powdered milk. Still other things were specifically requested on this trip, such as reward stickers for the classrooms, books and magazines for teaching the little ones to read and entertain the adults, and even a few special food items for the people with allergies. It was a large list, but with three of them, and four packs to be filled apiece, it was manageable.

The final rule was simple.
Communication by hand signals only while in high-plague zones. Unfamiliar sounds, like a human voice, drew them in droves to investigate. They weren’t a chatty bunch so this wasn’t a problem, and she felt less apprehensive about going inside. It
wouldn’t
be like last time.

It was eerily similar, with the store being crowded with the undead. Their first nasty surprise was standing at the ent
rance like a greeter. Tina was barely recognizable with half her pretty face missing, and Lorna was surprised by the pity that hit her at the sight of someone she knew. Tito decapitated her with a single blow, following through by impaling her through one large, dead eye to kill the brain. From there it was a simple matter to veer right and head to the food section.

Lorna took first watch while Tito held open one pack and Davis added the items from the list. They moved quickly, filling two packs before heading to the sporting goods department where things had gone so badly for them on the last run. Tito covered them while Lorna filled a third bag with all the knives in the display case. She wished for a wider variety of blades, but contented herself with a
large knife that slid effortlessly into her boot, and made a mental note to practice drawing it when she returned to the school until it became a habit.

The last of the bags were saved for the pharmacy section. They split up there as the space behind the counter was limited, and she took a pack for herself, leaving the others for the two men to fill from the aisles. She jumped the counter and landed softly on the balls of her feet, wincing at the thud from the impact. Tensing, machete held at the ready, she stayed quiet and listened intently. The only sound came from rear of the pharmacy, and she found the remains of a pharmacist who’d obviously been lunch for someone. She decapitated him quickly before testing her new knife
, pleased when it went through the eyeball and into the brain with little resistance. Wiping it casually on his smock, she replaced it before turning her attention to the shelves.

Lorna understood
why no one had raided the place. It was an undead haven, after all. She was thankful that the supplies were still on hand for her large community. She found eight bottles of antibiotics, six bottles of various painkillers the doctor at New Delaware requested, and a few other items on her list she didn’t recognize. The bag was bulging when she finished, and she felt uneasy at the rattling of pills against plastic, but still satisfied with the haul.

She went through the door and back to where she’d last seen the men, but they’d moved on to the baby supplies. She found
them, heads together, filling the pack with the vitamins they were asked to pick up as well as some rattles and teething tablets that
hadn’t
been on the list.

Lorna frowned. They’d been told the rules about items not on the list. Their hearts were in the right place, but they had a job to do and were supposed to stick to it. Let the next team to go out waste their time on needless distractions.

She tapped Tito first and then Davis, gesturing angrily towards the exit. With guilty grins, the men nodded and followed her lead. They made it all the way to the doors before Tito began screaming.