Surviving Day by Day (Book 3): Still They Come (15 page)

Ceara grabbed several packages of paint brushes with wooden handles, “Too bad we aren't fighting vampires.”

She smiled at her own joke then saw something she thought would be a very good grab. Ceara filled her arms with cans of paint thinner. She thought back to what Colt said in the truck. She realized that if anything were to happen, her arms were full. Setting everything at the end of the aisle, Ceara searched for some sort of bag, silently berating herself for forgetting her own backpack in the Rover.

One aisle over, at the very end, was a holder for recycle bags, Ceara grabbed a few as she made her way back to her first aisle.

Colt went down his first aisle looking around; he thought somehow Tabitha knew she sent him in the trinkets area. He ran his hands through bins of beads and thought if nothing else it might trip them up, but he had his doubts. How good they would work on the desert floor? In the end he left them where they were. The next aisle was frames; here he thought were a few things they could use. The pieces to make your own frames already had sharp points they could set traps with. Just as he got an arm full, he felt a blade on his throat, “You yell and I will drop you where you stand.”

Colt just stood frozen, trying to figure out how he would get out of this, “Look man, we are only getting a few supplies. Didn’t mean no harm.”

“Shut up and walk, no one takes my stuff and lives to tell others.”

Colt started walking and felt the blade cut a little into his throat. The man was in his ear, “Not so fast, you ain’t getting away.”

Colt was wondering why the man even bothered walking him out, why not just kill him. “Where are we going?”

The man laughed a sick laugh, “You’re going to be bait, junior. I still got a few of those things around and I am going to let you bring them to me, so I can handle my little problem.”

Ceara heard Colt talking and wondered if he and Tabitha already met back up. Had it already been ten minutes? She started making her way over to him but just as she got to the end of the aisle, she saw Tabitha.

Tabitha held a finger to her lips and Ceara glanced around and gave Tabitha a confused look. Tabitha waved her over, “Put your shit down, we got a problem.”

“What’s going on? Did you see wanderers?”

Tabitha shook her head, “I told you already, it’s the living we had to worry about. There is an old guy that has a knife to Colt’s throat.”

Ceara eyes got wide, “What are we going to do?”

Tabitha smiled and cocked an eyebrow, “We take him out before he takes Colt out, what did you think we would do?”

Tabitha waved at Ceara to follow her. Tabitha worked her way around to get in front of Colt, “Ok Red, I need you to trust me a minute, are you ok with that?”

Ceara looked nervous but nodded, “What do you need me to do?”

“I want you to just walk out like you have no idea he is there, and do not act like you know Colt at all. We need the guy distracted, do whatever you need to.”

Ceara took a deep breath, and then walked to the front door calling out as if she just walked in, “HELLO...ANYONE HERE??”

It worked great, the man jerked Colt to a stop, “Shut up, you stupid bitch! You’re gonna draw all them damn things!”

Ceara looked to the man and then to Colt, “Is he a bad guy? Did you just catch him? I’ll help you if you want?”

The man smiled at Ceara, looking her up and down, “I may just take you up on that offer, haven’t had no females around in a long time.”

Ceara smiled, “Good, I sure do hate being all alone in this mess!” She began walking over just as the man gagged and reached for his throat dropping his knife. Tabitha had slit the man’s throat ear to ear. The man dropped to his knees, then just as Colt stepped away, the man fell face first dead.

Colt was pale, holding a hand to his throat, “Thanks,” was the only word he could say.

Tabitha kicked the guy and smiled at Colt, “Go get the supplies and let’s get out of here.”

All three were back in the Rover within five minutes. Ceara looked at Colt, “You going to be ok in the ammo store or do you want me and Tabitha to do it?”

Colt swallowed hard, “I’ll go, let’s just get this done, ok?”

The sign above the door read ‘Poor Richards Sporting Goods.’ The owner, Richard Crossley was sitting inside. He was a 50 year old small businessman who had opened his shop on a year before the country went to hell. The front door of his shop had an iron outside gate. The windows also had iron bars on them. He watched as the three young people had gone into the local Ben Franklin store across the street. He shook his head. He had seen many go in, but few come out alive. Those that did were fed to the zombies. He also wondered about the women. He had seen a few of them go in too, but they never came out. Well almost never, the two that did escape, had rope around their wrists and were naked and had bruises and welts on their bodies. They came running into the streets screaming for help, which always attracted the unwanted attention of the zombies. Richard shot both of them. As the second one lay in the street, Richard watched the owners of the hobby store, Bartholomew Adams, give him the finger. As Bartholomew turned, Richard could see the tattoo on the man’s arm a capital B and A, over a devils head. Richard had asked one of the other store owners a year ago about it, they said Bart was a real douche and he said the BA was for Badass, not his initials.

As the three young people walked out, Richard sat up, “I’ll be damned, they killed the old bastard. Good for them.” He watched as they went to their car and placed the stuff in the back. Richard looked down at his cat, “Well Simon, put on your bells, we’re going to have company. As the three strangers approached the store, Richard slowly opened the inner door. “That’s far enough,” He said only loud enough for them to hear. “State your business.”

Colt stopped short and put his hands up. Tabitha froze so fast, Ceara bumped into her. “What the fuck, Tabitha?” Ceara looked at the man behind the iron bars. He was holding a combat style shotgun with a barrel magazine. “Holy shit,” she said quietly. “That’s like the one Alden has in his truck.”

Colt didn’t turn away from the man, he simply mumbled, “No shit, and I fired that bad boy once. It scared the hell out me.”

Ceara watched as Tabitha started to move her head slightly, looking around for someplace to run. Before she could, Ceara touched her hand, “Don’t… Don’t move, he’s not like the other.”

Tabitha looked at her, “How the hell do we know that?”

Ceara shook her head, “It sounds silly, but his voice seems nice.”

Colt and Tabitha turned and looked at her. As they did, Ceara pushed between them and walked a few feet away from the door.

Ceara’s eyes looked at the sign, then she smiled weakly, “Mr. Richard.. Sir. We were just trying to find some supplies. We need ammunition and some stuff to help make our little camp secure. We don’t want any trouble.”

Richard looked at pretty little redhead, “Well now missy, I’ve heard that a lot over the last few months. Some were telling the truth. Some weren't. Fact that I’m standing here, should be proof to you as to what happens to the ones that lied.”

Ceara shifted her feet a little, and looked down, then back at him. “Mr. Richard. May I come closer, please?”

Richard looked at her, then the other two, “Sure come up on the porch, your friends can come up a little closer, but only you at the door.”

Ceara walked up to the Iron Gate, “My Name is Ceara; they call me Red.” Richard smiled, “Really?”

Ceara gave a small giggle, “Yeah, well anyway, me and my friends, we need some supplies. We’ve been battling the wanderers and some bad people too.”

Richard looked at her and frowned, “Them hoodlums and whores from up the road?” Ceara looked at him, “Yes Sir, but they’re all dead now.”

Richard looked off towards the distance, “I saw the explosions, what’d you do hit them with, tanks?”

Ceara shook her head, “I don’t know, we were at the ranch.”

Richard raised an eyebrow, “And which ranch would that be, and don’t lie to me.” Ceara suddenly got nervous, she was in a bad spot, she didn’t want to tell him but he would know if she lied. She thought for a moment and Alden’s voiced popped into her head, “When in doubt tell the truth, we’ll worry about the rest later.” Looking up, “I don’t know the name, but it was owned by a man named Larry.”

Richard looked at her showing no emotion on his face, “Did you know this Larry?”

Ceara shook her head, “I never met him, but our leader did. That’s how we got here.”

Richard sighed, “Okay little lady, who is your leader?”

Ceara thought for a moment, and then remembered the Indians knew who Alden was and they liked him, he had a good name. Squaring her shoulders and standing straight as she could, she looked the man in his eyes, “His name is Sergeant Alden Godfrey.”

Richard looked at her then out to the others. He lowered his shotgun and pulled his keys out. Unlocking the Iron Gate; “You kids come on in. You said the magic words.”

Charlie had left Niz and Alden at the table. He headed to the barn to find some wood he could make stakes with. Finding a stack of poles, he grabbed several and headed back to the table. As he got to the table, he saw Niz busy working on cleaning a rifle. Alden had the radio up and running, scanning channels with a set of old headphone over his ears.

Charlie laid his stack of poles at the end of the table. Grabbing one, he set it down on the other end of the table then pulled his knife out. Sitting down, he began to whittle on the round end, slowly turning the pole as he went. It took only a few minutes and he was starting to see the results as the tip began to come to a point. He watched as Beth walked out the door with a tray of glasses filled with a red liquid, “Oh Holy shit, Beth’s gone Vampire on us.”

Hearing Charlie’s comment caused Beth to think of the vampire movies she had seen all of her life, which caused her to chuckle. Then just like that, she stopped chuckling and raised her brow. While making her way over to set the tray down on the table, “Charlie, you are the one making stakes out here, as for the liquid that I have here.... well I am a doctor, so you may be right on that one,” Beth said.

Quietly she sat down by herself, making sure that she did not take a glass with her. A few moments went by and then she reached for a glass, “It’s cherry Kool-Aid, Charlie. The sweet tea was kind of burning me out, so I thought about changing it up a tad.”

Niz started laughing but reached for a glass with the wrong arm and winced. Pulling back, she reached out with the good arm. “Beth, how long do you think this arm will be so damn useless?”

Beth sat for a second thinking, “It’s hard to say really. Colt’s was broke and his took about six weeks.” Beth saw the look of horror mixed with frustration, she held up her hand, “Honey, yours was a simple nick, the thing that will take the longest will be wound itself, not the bone.”

Niz breathed a sigh of relief, “Hell, you could have started with that part first!”

Charlie was taking a drink and as he set it back down, he looked off in the distance, “How long has it been? How long should it take them to get back? How far is the town?”

Alden eased the headphones off, “Boy, it has been little over an hour. If you are going to get all nervous nelly on me, I can find you more appropriate chores to work off that energy?”

Niz started laughing and looked at Beth, “I swear to God, I only thought my father said shit like that!”

Alden slipped the headphones on quickly. He heard voices and began to take notes. He was writing fast, then stopped suddenly and turned the radio off.

“Well I got good news and bad news.”

Niz looked up at the others then spoke up, “Okay I’ll say it. What’s the bad news?”

Alden was looking at his notes, “Well, it’s not just us. The herds are forming everywhere. They said some scientists and anthropologists are saying this is basic pack behavior.”

Charlie looked at him, “Are you telling me these things can think?”

Alden shook his head, “No, not think, simply banning together as a pack of the same type of animals. You know, deer get with deer, rabbits with rabbits, dogs with dogs.”

Niz looked at him, “What scientists, what anthor… whateverists; Are you telling me there’s still some of those nerds around?” She stopped and looked at Beth, “No offense.”

Beth smiled, “None taken.”

Beth looked at Alden, “So like Niz said, there are more of us nerds out there?”

Alden grinned, “Seems so. From what I can tell, I identified about nine other groups that are still out there. They’re sharing general info but no locations. Seeing as how this is a Ham radio, they could be within fifty miles or as far away as say five hundred miles. I just can’t tell. I would also guess that if I’m listening, you can bet your ass there’s probably a lot more out there listening in too.”

Charlie took a sip of Kool-Aid, “So is that the good news?”

Alden shook his head as he took a sip, and then looked at Beth, “Next run into town, I want you to see if you can find me some sloe gin. If I got to drink red, sweet, shit, I want it to have a kick.”

Beth smiled, “You got it, Alden.”

He nodded then went on, “The good news is when the herds get close they are usually preceded by a swarm of flies. Not just a few either there will be clouds of them. We simply watch the clouds of flies and we can tell which way the herd is moving.”

Beth sat there and looked out over the land. “Another word for this would be migrating. Just like animals that in some ways, hold a sense of purpose, they find that as a group they feel safer, but that would say that the infected have some sort of organization skill. I like how Alden put it. We all have seen how stragglers get when there are only a few out and about. Together they can wipe out an entire population and that is what they are trying to do. The funny thing about this is that there is no purpose for them doing this, with the exception for their need to feed.”

Beth took a long drink then placed her glass back on the table, “This is the nerd in me talking,” she chuckled while looking at Niz, but then got serious. “If I had a lab, I would love to get one of these specimens on a table to get a better understanding of it. From just pure observations, they appear to be almost brain dead. There is no human quality, and they possess no other physical need, except to keep going, even after trauma has been done to their bodies. Alden, you mentioned the flies and this is where my thought process goes. Flies breed in dead bodies and feces. That would be the ultimate key. To get a look at the insides of a whole body to see what is working and what’s not. From the smells emanating from their bodies, I would believe it’s safe to say that they are dead. Now I have seen flies around, but not too many clouds. I will keep my eyes open for that...”

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Richard locked the Iron Gate behind them as they entered the store. As he did, Ceara, Tabitha and Colt looked around. The walls were bare. They could see a long rack behind a counter that had once held at least fifty rifles. The only ammunition in sight was boxes and boxes of 12 gauge shotgun shells, mostly target loads.

Colt turned and watched the owner limp over to a big chair in the corner. Setting his rifle down, he picked up a large grey cat, turned and sat down holding it in his lap.

“This here is Simon; he is part owner of the store.” Richard petted the cat gently, “Why don’t you all find a seat and we can talk about what you need as oppose to what I have, then we’ll try to work out a deal.”

Ceara walked over with him, glancing back to Tabitha and Colt, trying to ask where they were supposed to sit. All that was there was the chair Richard himself was sitting in. She was shuffling her feet and what she was hoping would happen, did, Tabitha spoke up and made Ceara smile.

“And where would you like us to sit? You counting on me sitting in your lap... you better start counting on something else.” She said it with a smile that made Richard smile too.

“Well, young lady, it doesn’t seem Alden has taught you all a lot yet. You should be paying attention to everything around you.” He waved to a corner, “There are folding chairs over there or just pop a squat on the floor, up to you.”

Colt got three of the chairs and they all sat, Ceara cleared her throat, “Ummm Alden gave me a list but he told me to look for anything we could use.”

Richard nodded, “So what’s on this list?”

Ceara pulled a paper out of her back pocket, “Gunpowder, brass cartridges, bullets, and a press. Plus I was thinking that maybe you might have fishing lures?”

Richard looked to Tabitha, “You got a list too?”

Tabitha smiled and handed over her list to Richard, “We have a doc back at our camp that needs some medical supplies... that is, if you have any to spare? Right before we came here, our group took one hell of a hit. Alden was hurt, he will be alright, but Beth, our doc, has had to do a few field surgeries, as she referred to it. She is kind of running low.”

Tabitha turned the folding chair around so the back of it was facing her. She straddled it, then continued, “It’s just we don’t know who to trust and who not to. I sometimes come off wrong at first to many, but I am really a pretty ok person.”

Richard returned the smile while looking over her list, “I got a lot of this kind of stuff here. I also have a few other things that I know will come in handy, since you have a doctor in your group. I will get this stuff in a bit, but I would like to get to know each other a little first and by checking your lists, I am getting to know ya’ll pretty well. You; umm Colt right?”

Colt nodded, “Yes, Sir.”

Richard chuckled then continued, “Don’t need to be calling me Sir, alright? I do work for a living. Do you have a list of things?”

Colt sat there, “Richard, to be honest with you, I don’t have a list and didn’t have time to make one. I just wanted to get what we needed and get back. As Tabitha said, we took a direct hit over the past forty eight hours and Beth, the doctor, Tabitha referred to, she is very tired and I am just trying to help our group out as best as I can. I can tell you that our supplies are kind of low but not too bad. The things that we need are things that we can set up as boobie traps to keep the wanderers out. Not to mention, we want make sure that no humans out there will want to break in trying to rape our women and kill us.”

Richard nodded his head while petting his cat, “The world hasn’t changed much except for the fact that there is no judicial system or police out there to enforce the laws now. As for the things you need, I can help you out, but Colt, I need you to hear me out on this ok?”

Colt leaned forward paying close attention. The look that Richard had given, when he asked Colt the question, was one that his own dad had given him one time when he had asked to marry Jessica.

“Colt the most powerful weapon that you have is that old man back at your camp. Larry brought him by a couple of years back and introduced him to me. Funny thing, they came in to buy fishing supplies and we ended up sitting at a bar down the street.” Richard raised his left pant leg. There, where his leg should have been, was a titanium one with a shoe on it. “I know just a bit about you, now I will tell you just a bit about me. I lost my leg in Iraq. After a couple of years of rehab I was medically discharged and returned here to my home town. My dad ran a barber shop a couple of blocks over. I stayed with him drinking and feeling sorry for myself till he introduced me to Mr. Byler. Larry talked to me off and on for a few months and convinced me to open up a fishing and bait shop.”

Ceara smiled, “Richards Sporting Goods.”

Richard smiled, “Yeah, Larry was my first customer. He bought close to five hundred dollars in fishing stuff. Then he turned around and donated it all to the local Boy Scouts. When Alden came in one day with him, I closed shop and we went to the bar. We talked for hours. Mostly about how many changes had happened since they had been in. When the bar closed, we came back here and Alden did the same thing as Larry.”

Richard paused as he saw the looks in their eyes, “Yeah he bought five hundred dollars worth of fishing shit and only walked out with a pole, a tackle box, and some lures. He told me to give the rest to kids who needed it.”

Standing up, the cat hopped down. Richard grabbed his cane, “I guess it’s payback time, so let’s see what we can do.”

Ceara leaned over to Tabitha, “You know I am going to use this info, right?”

Tabitha laughed, “Yeah, you have fun with that.”

The four went to the back and Richard started stacking things. Both Colt and Ceara kept asking what things were. After several times of this, Richard laid his hand on the cabinet and shook his head, “Ok, look kids, if you keep asking all kinds of questions, we will be here all day. I don’t feel like going that long and I am sure you have to get back before they send out a search party. So let’s just trust I know what you can use and you start loading up the car.”

Tabitha nodded, “Agreed, Red, go grab the bags out of the car.”

Ceara took off as Richard called out, “Pay attention, there are still dead out there!”

Ceara slid to a walk and pulled out her knife, soon she was back with the others filling the bags.

Richard was looking around, grabbing a few more things. “I do have a bit of a price for this, but only if you can afford it. I’m running low on food supplies and with this leg, I can’t get out to make runs too often. If you have a bit you can spare, I would really appreciate it.”

Colt swung one of the backpacks over his shoulder, “Sir, we will be happy to share what we have. Not sure when we can make it back, but don’t worry we will make sure someone comes back. I would almost bet it will be Alden that makes the return trip.”

Ceara frowned, “But do you have enough to last till then?” She looked to Tabitha and Colt, “Maybe we can go out to that truck stop and see if there is anything left there?”

Richard shook his head, “Ceara, if there was still stuff there, I would have already gotten it. Those assholes from the ghost town cleaned it out and trashed what they didn’t need.”

Ceara rolled her eyes, “I am learning to hate most of the survivors we have found.”

Within the next half hour, the Rover was loaded and they were waving goodbye while saying their thanks to Richard as he was locking his gate back...