by Dawn, M. K.
“You’re comin’ back tomorrow, right?” she asked for the tenth time.
“That’s the plan.”
Britney ground her teeth. “No, that’s what will happen. We have no cell phones. If we don’t have a time set when you’re supposed to be back, how are we supposed to know if something bad happened? Or when to send a search party out?”
“Please, no search parties.” Axel placed a firm hand on each of her shoulders. “Relax. We’ll be fine.”
“You have no idea what you’re gettin’ yourselves into.” Britney blew out her cheeks. “What if the infected thrive in snowy weather? What if you skid off the road and land in a ditch somewhere? Without a set time, we would never know.”
“We’ll be back tomorrow evening. I promise.”
Britney sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m sorry. I’m not tryin’ to nag or act like a crazy worryin’ woman, but we need you here. Both you and Gunner.”
“Thanks for that,” Gunner called out from the passenger seat.
“If it’s too dangerous, we’ll turn around and figure out another way to get the supplies we need,” Axel told her.
“You have the list, right?”
“Yes. Everything in Walmart.”
“That’s not funny.” Britney crossed her arms over her chest.
Axel had a sudden urge to pull her into a hug, to comfort her, but he resisted, not sure if their friendship had reached the point of unannounced embraces. “I’ve got the list and the map.”
“Should we go over the route one more time?”
“Are you stalling?” Axel asked.
Britney threw back her head. “Fine. Go. Get on the road. The sooner you leave, the sooner you can get back.”
“You need us to do anything else before we leave?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “Just be careful.”
“We will.” Axel climbed into the driver seat of the beat-up Ford before she changed her mind. “See you tomorrow.”
“Bye.” Britney waved.
Axel watched from the side mirror as she headed back to the house. He hated leaving as much as she hated for him to go.
“That’s cute,” Gunner said.
“What?” Axel stopped at the old gate they had yet to take down. The panels to the new gates were ready, they just needed some big-ass hinges to hang them up.
“I’ll get the gate.” Gunner jumped out of the truck and waited for Axel to drive through before climbing back into the cab. “Ready?”
Axel took a left onto the old county road heading in the opposite direction of Myrefall. Snow covered the roads, but they weren’t bad.
Gunner slumped down. “That’s a damn fine wall, if I say so myself.”
“I have to admit, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to pull it off.”
“But we did.” Gunner smacked Axel on the shoulder. “What’s your girl think about it?”
Axel shot him a sideways glance. “My girl?”
“Don’t play dumb with me.” Gunner furrowed his brow. “Wait. You’re not playing dumb, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Britney. You two have something going on, don’t you?”
Axel’s muscles went rigid. “No. Wait does everyone think there’s something going on between us?”
“I guess we all assumed there was. You two are always talking and laughing. Plus, she’s freaking drop-dead gorgeous. And you’re a good-looking kid. Got the ripped abs and tattoos going for you.”
“Stop.” Sure, Axel found her attractive, but the thought never crossed his mind. Well, it did, but not in any serious way. “She just buried her husband.”
“Two months ago.” Gunner let out a low whistle. “And let me tell you, two months living in the apocalypse is like two years.”
“No.” Axel swallowed hard. “It’s not like that between the two of us. We’re just friends. I doubt she has any feelings about me that go beyond that.”
Gunner slapped his own forehead and shook his head. “Were you and I not just seeing the same thing back there? She nearly had a meltdown before you left.”
“Over both us.”
“No, sir. I was an afterthought. But you? She could barely stand the idea of you going off to war and never coming back.”
Axel glanced at Gunner, unsure if he was being serious or just fucking with him. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
“You’re going to sit there and tell me there ain’t nothing—no spark, nothing—between the two of you?”
“I mean….” Axel kept his focus on the road. This conversation distracted him from the task at hand, but not in a good way. “I don’t know. There hasn’t been much time to worry about stuff like that lately.”
“Mac and Angie made time.”
An opening to change the subject. “About that. How long do you think that’s been going on? Before the trip, maybe? Or is this just a post-apocalypse romance?”
“I see what you’re doing. And if you don’t want to talk about Britney, we won’t. Just keep an eye out for the signs. Don’t want to go pissing off the only woman your age within a hundred-mile radius.”
“Fine.” Axel slowed as they approached a fork in the road. “Now if you don’t mind, tell me which way we're going. I don’t want to be away for any longer than we have to.”
Gunner clicked his tongue. “I know you don’t. You got a lot waiting for you back home.”
***
Axel parked in front of Walmart and left the truck running.
“Guess we aren’t the only ones who thought this would be a good place to rob.” Gunner rubbed his forehead. The glass of the outer doors had been shattered.
“I’m not sure robbing is the right word. Makes us sound like criminals.
Gunner chuckled. “Always the good guy. You like ‘looting’ better?”
“Not really.” Axel leaned against the steering wheel in an attempt to see past the first set of doors. “We should still look inside. Just because someone tried to break in doesn’t mean they made it out.”
“That’s why we’re here.” Gunner swung open the door and got out. Axel shut off the truck and did the same. “Should we lock it?”
The old Ford didn’t have a push-button lock. Axel didn’t much care for the idea of having to stick the key in the lock to get in if being chased, but he also didn’t want to come back and the truck be gone. Not that a locked door would hinder anyone from stealing it, but it might slow them down. “I guess we should. At least if it gets stolen, we can say we did what we could to prevent it from happening.”
Axel checked to make sure he had his gun, the list and extra bullets.
“It’s quiet out here,” Gunner said as Axel rounded the front of the truck. “Do you find that even the least bit strange?”
“By quiet you mean we haven’t seen any infected?”
Gunner maneuvered through the shattered glass door, careful to avoid the shards. Axel, being a lot trimmer than Gunner, didn’t have to be as cautious.
“Damn. These doors aren’t even broken.” Gunner pointed to the inner set of doors. “Someone just left them open.”
“We should grab two baskets each. I say we fill them up, bring them back and get more empty ones. Then we load the supplies at the same time.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Gunner yanked to get them apart from one another. “Son of a bitch. Some things never change.” He rolled two Axel’s way, then got two of his own.
“Should we stick together?” Axel asked as they crept into the store. Like outside, the silence was deafening. He could hear his heartbeat thrashing in his ears. “Keep an eye on each other’s backs?”
“Fuck me.” Gunner had made it farther in than Axel, which gave him a better vantage point to see the rest of the store.
“What’s wrong?” Axel picked up the pace, eager to see what had stopped Gunner dead in his tracks.
“Look at all of them.” Gunner blew out a weighted breath.
Dead bodies lay sc
attered about. Axel didn’t count them, didn’t want to know how many had fallen victim. “Hey, wait a minute.” Axel moved closer to get a better look. “Most of these dead are infected. And they’ve been shot.”
“So there are others survivors out there? Others like us?”
“Looks like it.” Axel didn’t know how he felt about that. On the one hand, other survivors meant potential allies. But it also meant there were people fighting for the same resources they came here to collect.
“How long ago do you think they were here?”
Axel kneeled down next to one of the bodies. “This black goo they have inside of them is dry.”
“Good.” Gunner cracked his neck. “Last thing I want to do is get into some kind of gunfight over what little is left in this store.”
“Let's not be the type of people who start the gunfight, all right?”
Gunner grabbed each of his carts by the front and dragged them behind him. “I’m a lover, not a fighter. Where should we start? Back of the store first?”
“Might as well.” Axel trailed close behind Gunner, keeping an eye out for movement. Whoever had come here before did a number on the store. From what he could see, there wasn’t much left, which was impressive considering the number of infected they’d killed.
“Bastards. They took all the sleeping bags and most of the camping supplies. What else is on your list for this area?”
“Fishing poles. Britney said they have a nice-size pond on their property, and there’s a river not far.”
Gunner picked up a rod. “Got to admit, I don’t know much about fishing.”
“We’ll take these.” Axel grabbed the remaining four that already had reels attached and stuck them in his basket. “Let’s hit hardware next, then the blankets. I don’t see anything else in this section we need.” The others who had come through wiped it clean.
The rest of the store was more of the same. The only thing they found in the hardware section was the hinges they needed. Blankets, towels, and comforters were all gone, and the clothing section was nonexistent. By the time they made it back to the front of the store, only two of the four carts had anything in them. One of them was filled with the last remaining dog food on the shelf. Britney had made it clear that the dogs needed to be fed; they were excellent guards and would bark if anything got near the house.
Gunner dropped to the ground. “What the fuck, man? How did they wipe out an entire Walmart?”
“It’s been months.” Axel took a seat beside him. “Who knows how many trips they’ve made. We should have come here a lot sooner.”
“I don’t want to go back empty-handed.” Gunner kneaded the back of his neck. “What about the warehouse in the back?”
“We can look.” Axel didn’t want to go back with an empty trailer either. “Guess it doesn’t matter if we leave these baskets unattended, does it?”
“You think someone’s going to steal our fishing poles? Maybe the shampoo, bars of soaps and deodorant? Or the paperback books and board games you thought might come in handy?”
“Boredom can be deadly.” Axel forced himself to get up off the floor. “Let’s go check out the back. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
They walked in silence, plucking a few random items off the shelf and throwing them into the empty cart they brought with them.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Gunner tugged at the lock securing a heavy-duty chain through the door handle. “Selfish bastards locked the rest of the stuff up like they own the whole goddamn store. I’m pretty sure I saw some bolt cutters in the hardware section. I’ll grab them and cut this bitch open.”
“Wait.” Axel pressed his ear against the metal door. “I think we need to leave it locked.”
“Why the fuck would we do that?”
Axel kicked the door with his steel-toe boot.
An uproar of growling cut through the silence. The infected on the other side scratched and slammed into the door.
“That’s why. They didn’t lock the doors to keep people out. They locked the doors to keep the infected in.”
“I wonder how many they have trapped in there.”
Axel took a step back as the doors cracked open and a set of clawed fingers pushed through. “Too many. We should go. Maybe they’ll settle down if they can’t hear us anymore.”
Sprinting back to the front of the store, they took turns looking over their shoulders, making sure the infected hadn’t broken free.
“Now what?” Gunner asked, leaning over with his heads on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
“We load what little we have into the trailer and get the hell out of here.” Axel pushed the basket loaded with dog food out of the store.
Gus followed with the other cart. “Should we keep searching? Maybe there are other stores in town that might have some stuff.”
“The Tractor Supply store is down the street.” Axel unlocked the back of the trailer and stacked the dog food bags. “We’ll see if we can find anything in there. But if Walmart is any indication, we won’t find much.”
Gunner pushed his empty cart back on the sidewalk. “I put the rest of the stuff in the back seat. Need any help?”
Axel closed the trailer and locked it. “Nope. Doesn’t take much to load ten bags of dog food.”
They climbed back into the cab, and Axel started the engine. He was pissed. The others were counting on them, and right now they didn’t have jack-shit. What he wouldn’t give to have his cell phone right now to Google the nearest Walmart or any other store that might be useful. He hated driving around blind and without a backup plan.
“Ready?” Gus asked.
Axel put the truck in Drive and headed for the nearest exit.
“What are those?” Gunner pointed out the window as they drove past the edge of the store.
Axel followed Gunner’s finger and slammed on the brakes when he spotted the row of ten cargo containers. “Holy shit. Walmart uses those around the holidays to store overflow.”
“They don’t look like they’ve been opened.”
“Only one way to find out.” God, Axel hoped they’d found something.
He parked in front of the first container and both men got out.
Gunner pointed to the right. “I’ll start at this end if you want to start at the other. We’ll meet back in the middle?”
“Yep.” Axel tugged on each lock but none of them budged. “Still locked. That’s a good sign, right?”
“These are too,” Gunner said when they met back up. “Are there any bolt cutters in the back seat?”
“I’ll check.” Axel ran back to the truck and pulled out a rusty old toolbox. He found the bolt cutters at the bottom and hurried back with them. “Here you go.”
Gunner cocked an eyebrow. “I get to do the honors?”
“I can do it if you think I’m stronger.”
“Always the comedian.” Gunner snatched the tool and cut the first lock. The sound of metal breaking echoed off the snow.
Axel reached for his gun and scanned the area. “That was loud.”
“Do you hear them?” Gunner asked
“No. Keep going. I’ll keep an eye out.”
Three more cuts and Axel still heard nothing, though he did spot some movement off in the distance. He couldn’t be sure what it was, but he wasn’t taking any chances, keeping close to Gunner as he continued to cut each lock.
“That was the last of them.” Gunner threw the bolt cutters into the back seat. “And no infected. That must be some kind of miracle.”
“Speaking of miracles.” Axel opened the first cargo container and nearly cried. “You’ve got to see this.”
Gunner peeked his head inside and screamed, “Son of a bitch! I can’t believe it. That’s fucking food in there. Instant potatoes, canned veggies, and pie fillings.”
And that was just the first row. The container looked to be completely full. “I wonder what’s in the other ones.”
Each container they opened was
more exciting than the next. They found Christmas décor, including bedding, towels and blankets. Ugly sweaters, jackets, kids’ jeans and sweaters. Boxes of warm pajamas. Gift sets including knives and tools and flashlights, half a dozen cases of wine, and a whole container full of toys—Legos, Barbies, baby dolls, Hot Wheels and other brands he didn’t recognize.
They loaded as much as they could, the food, clothing and blankets being on the top of the list. There was no way they could take it all, but what they got would help them make it through the winter.
“Should I find some locks?” Gunner asked. “Seal these suckers back up?”
“No.” Axel didn’t want to be that person. “We could have died if we didn’t find this stuff. I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.”
“Fair enough.” Gunner closed each of the doors. “Ready? We still need to hit up Tractor Supply?”
“I think we’re out of room.” Axel studied his list. “We got most everything we needed except the guns. Oh, and the greenhouses.” It was the last thing on the list. He’d almost forgotten.
“Greenhouses you said?” Gunner jerked his chin to the garden department behind them where several boxes were stacked along the fence. “God must love us today.”
Axel grinned. “It can’t be this easy.”
Gunner lightly punched his arm. “Don’t jinx us. I’ll go grab them if you want to bring the truck around.”
“Will do.” But first Axel needed to load up a few more items.
***
Gunner tilted back and eyed the items Axel had stuffed in the back seat. “Toys, huh? Those a priority?”
“Just do me a favor, okay?” Axel kept his eyes on the road. “Don’t say anything about them. Or the books or the wine.”
“The wine?” Gunner clutched an overly dramatic hand to his chest. “Why on earth are we not telling the others about the wine? We keeping it all for ourselves, like payment for risking our lives?”
“No, I want to save it. Bring out for a special occasion.”
Gunner grinned. “I got you. Saving it for someone special.”
Axel ignored the innuendo behind Gunner’s comment. “Please.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”