Chapter 29
Jared and Stephani were out in the wild now. The shopping center was on Story Road not more than two miles from where Solar Green stood, but two miles now had nothing in common with two miles before the event. Jared plodded along in silence, only looking back when he didn’t hear Stephani, who was right behind him in her bare and nearly noiseless feet. The thought occurred to him that if he ever had to sneak somewhere, he just might take his shoes off to do it.
Jared reminded Stephani to keep a good watch to their rear as they walked, while he continued to scan their front and both flanks. The city appeared abandoned, causing Jared to remember what Dwight had told them about people fleeing for the coast in hopes of finding crops and bountiful fishing. Jared made a mental note to stay away from the ocean for the foreseeable future.
Jared was not an environmentalist, but he was fairly certain one or two million people standing on the beaches of Northern California, fishing, could only turn out bad. Firstly, there would not be millions of fishing poles, so from what Jared had already seen, there would be bloodshed. Once the fishing pole situation was sorted out through violence, Jared doubted there were many city folks who really knew how to fish the ocean from shore. Jared personally had not the slightest clue how to set up a fishing pole for anything like that. What bait would they use, and where in the hell would they get it?
One thing Jared was sure of was the people who left the city were likely all or mostly dead by now. They were all well into the third month and closing on the fourth fast. No one could survive without life’s essentials for much longer than a single month, much less four months. The thought of the majority of the Bay Area’s population being dead should have scared the hair straight on the back of his neck, but it did the opposite. He was glad there weren’t as many people around as there had been when he left Belmont. It was dangerous enough back then, but now with food and other supplies essentially gone, people were more desperate. Jared learned that desperate people were dangerous people, so while he wasn’t happy millions of dead bodies lay scattered from the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, he was relieved.
Although there weren’t the number of people as in past scavenging operations, Jared stuck to his old tried-and-true method of searching an area with his binoculars before passing through it. The streets were eerily void of people; however, there were wild animals everywhere. The first time Jared spotted a herd of five deer, his heart nearly stopped. His eyes registered the movement first, activating an initial surge of adrenaline before he realized they were harmless herbivores.
Jared and Stephani saw three coyotes and a dozen more deer as they moved in the direction of the shopping center on Story Road. Jared was thankful for the landscaping architects of times past. He used all of it to mask their movement, staying away from as many open areas as he could. Jared finished one of his frequent stop-and-scan details and was stowing his binoculars when Stephani’s feet caught his eye. They were black, the nails in need of a bath and a pedicure.
Jared studied her feet and then her dirty leggings and finally up to her eyes, which were staring at him. He gulped.
“You need shoes,” he stammered in a feeble preemptive strike.
“No shit. You aren’t one of those foot guys, are you?” Stephani whispered.
“No, no, no, not a foot guy.” Jared stammered. “Fuck, Stephani, your feet are filthy, you need shoes, and it made me think maybe I need to shave. Maybe we all need to focus on some hygiene, I don’t know. Why do you always have to be so damn defensive?” Jared wasn’t a foot guy, as Stephani had so blatantly put it; he just sometimes had these moments where his present life was so far removed from his former life, it staggered him. He’d never seen women’s feet as dirty as Stephani’s were, and, well, they were kind of like a train wreck he couldn’t not look at.
Stephani dropped her shoulders and bit her lower lip. She had been a ballbuster recently to these guys who so far had only been a little insensitive, but not abusive by any definition. She realized she was angry at the world for falling apart. She continued to remember being scared nearly to death for the entire time she was chained to the wall in the bikers’ clubhouse. Now these men were actually nice guys, which made them easy targets for her to lash out at without fear of retribution.
Jared and John made her feel like she was back in times before the event, and here she was abusing them. Sure, John possessed absolutely no situational awareness when it came to dealing with a woman, but at least he remained a perfect gentleman in many ways others had not. Admitting she was wrong had always been a personality flaw that haunted Stephani. Being an attorney had helped in that she was never wrong, and if she was, she’d argue to the contrary.
“You guys are so sensitive,” she said, immediately regretting her words.
Jared blew out through his nostrils. “You shouldn’t take advantage of people’s kindness; it shouldn’t have happened before the event and sure as hell shouldn’t happen now,” Jared fired back.
The strong proud attorney inside Stephani wanted to argue her point, which was she was reacting because she’d been through hellish experiences and they’d made her sensitive to certain things. When those things were infringed on, she reacted negatively. The litigator inside her thankfully saw the big picture, staying her sharp tongue. Conversely, Stephani sat and stewed in silence.
Jared saw she wanted to argue, but had gained some manner of control over her emotional impulse to bring it strong and hard. “I’ve probably said this before—every one of us has had a real bad time since all this started. John lost, like, four of five of his friends in a helicopter crash. I almost got killed within the first week, and my best friend, a man named Bart, died less than two weeks ago, so we all have a sad tale to tell. My self-help opinion is we have to all look at the cup as half full. I didn’t die; you didn’t get raped; John’s friends died, but he lived. Bart died, but I met John, Barry and now you ladies. It’s all in how you look at it. I’m no Dr. Phil, but I think we can agree that people who only see the bad in the world are much less happy people than people who find good everywhere they go.”
Stephani’s eyes welled up with tears. “What happened? How did it all just go away so fast?” she demanded, her words tumbling out between a couple of sniffles.
“I don’t know, it just did,” Jared rasped as he glanced over his shoulder, ensuring no one was sneaking up on them while they had their silver-lining talk.
The coast was clear, and soon, Stephani had dried her tears, wiping her face with the front of her filthy T-shirt, which made her look worse. Jared wisely held his tongue, not wanting to take a step backward in their healing process. Stephani smiled at him, knowing full well by the look on his face what he saw and how he’d chosen to keep it to himself. She really was past caring about how she looked or smelled, but she also appreciated Jared’s kind gesture.
When Stephani appeared ready, Jared moved out, picking his way closer to the shopping center. Jared was still acclimating to the post-event time perception. Before, he could plan out his day based on the speeds at which he could travel about the campus or the Bay Area, with traffic being the only major factor. Now he was trying to calculate travel times that were all on foot with the amount of delays he would experience contingent on security halts or hostile encounters. This was almost incalculable due to all the unforeseen factors. There could be other humans who could cause delays for hours. There were open areas and gut feelings that held Jared up longer than he would have liked.
One thing he was sure of was they couldn’t sleep outside Solar Green; that was not an option he wanted to explore. If they were caught in the dark, he would keep moving until they got back to the rest of their party. They hadn’t brought sleeping bags, and the two of them were ill suited to keeping a security detail awake throughout the night after moving all day. They’d both be exhausted, and the likelihood of someone falling asleep while on watch was high.
Jared pushed forward, knowing they were
running out of daylight. They’d left Solar Green sometime after 0900 hours, and it was now close to 1500 hours, yet still they hadn’t reached the shopping center. Jared knew the sun would be down shortly after 1900 hours, almost guaranteeing at least some nighttime walking. As this inevitability became more of a reality, Jared began game-planning in his head.
Thirty minutes later, he saw the large red sign and pointed Stephani toward it. Wordlessly they crept along, making their way through the landscaping not more than ten feet off the sidewalk, but still better than walking out in the open and attracting unwanted attention. Jared considered anyone out and about three months after the event to be extremely hungry, which translated to extremely dangerous.
Once Jared and Stephani reached a position directly across the street from the shopping center, Jared guided Stephani into a large bush, where he dropped his pack and pulled out the binoculars. Stephani was learning and remained quietly by his side, waiting for Jared to finish so they could go shopping. She also watched down the street in the direction they’d passed through, searching for any sign of being followed.
Shadows were beginning to creep across the sides of buildings, letting Stephani know they would be losing the luxury of light in a couple of hours. The thought of being out at night gripped her with fear. Stephani shivered involuntarily, shifting an inch closer to Jared, who continued his methodical dissection of the parking lot through his binoculars, oblivious to the woman’s angst.
It bothered Jared that he was unable to see into the front of a single store across the street, but then he remembered something Bart once told him. At some point no matter how you feel about a certain task, you just have to go get it done. His gut was telling him to stay put and not cross the street, while his brain told him to move out and finish the mission.
“Fuck it,” he murmured under his breath as he turned, seeing Stephani’s pale face. Jared leaned in close to the woman. “You okay?” he asked, wishing he hadn’t voiced his earlier expletive.
Stephani seesawed her head up and down as she clutched her weapon so tight, Jared double-checked to ensure she didn’t have her finger on the trigger. The last thing they needed was an accidental discharge letting anyone in the area know they were here.
“Keep your finger off that trigger unless you want to kill something,” Jared reminded Stephani, smiling in an effort to reassure the woman. With pursed lips and a knitted brow, Stephani seemed to steel herself as she rolled her shoulders as if readying herself for some athletic endeavor.
“Let’s go shopping. My feet need a break,” she quipped, a slight grin appearing at the corners of her pretty mouth.
Chapter 30
Jared stowed the binoculars and pulled on his pack. He felt better when he didn’t have to worry about the mental well-being of his charges. This thought almost caused him to laugh out loud, thinking had he dared refer to Stephani as his charge, he was sure to have received either a kick or punch from the woman. Truth be told, in the new world order there was a pecking order that actually mattered.
Jared was sure John considered Jared his charge since Jared was far less capable of taking care of himself than John was, and in turn, Stephani was less able than Jared. Prior to the event, not many people cared about such matters. The wealthy paid people to protect them and their families while the rest of society relied on the police to be the barrier between themselves and the underlying criminal element of society.
Jared guessed there was a certain number of Americans in more rural areas who were fine taking care of themselves without the assistance of local or federal aid. He wondered how the uber wealthy were faring after the event. It was true they had small armies of people working to protect them, but the people they paid were not loyal to their employer, they were only loyal to their monthly paycheck. Jared imagined it hadn’t taken long for the wealthy to be abandoned by their bodyguards, who had their own families to provide for.
Jared was convinced the wealthy were either dead or in the same predicament he faced. The thought of a billionaire scavenging the aisles of Target caused a small smile to crease Jared’s face.
“What?” Stephani asked with a mischievous grin of her own.
Jared shook his head. “Nothing, just so weird—all of this is so weird.” The smile waned as he got to his feet. “Let’s get this over with,” Jared announced tiredly.
Jared and Stephani reached the front of the store without trouble. Jared was about to ensure no one was lurking inside, when he realized standing out front might be worse than walking straight in and getting out of plain view. Once they were inside, Stephani took point, knowing the inside layout of the store better than Jared would have. Women were like that; they could walk into a shopping mall or large store and navigate it like a seasoned mariner on the high seas.
Stephani nearly ran to the middle of the store, where she began stuffing socks into her pack. Once she was finished, she sat and was about to pull on a pair of socks when Jared intervened.
“Here, wash ’em before you ruin a brand-new pair of socks,” he said with a grin, holding out a shirt he’d pulled off a rack along with one of his water bottles.
Stephani hesitated, but only for a second before taking the items and scrubbing weeks’ worth of grime from her feet. When she finished, she sat for thirty seconds and pulled a pair of white athletic socks over her semi-clean feet, stretched her legs out, wiggled her toes, then leaped to her feet, moving to the shoes section. Stephani found a pair of workout sneakers she quickly pulled on.
“Grab another pair,” Jared said in a hushed tone.
Stephani stared at him in the low light before grabbing another pair and stuffing them into her pack. Jared placed a hand on her arm, stopping her. He pulled out a small D ring and clipped it to the outside of her pack, then secured the extra pair of shoes to the D ring by their laces.
“This will leave you more room inside the pack.”
Stephani pulled out a list she’d made before leaving Solar Green. She’d written down Claire’s shoe size and now went about finding them. When she was finished, Stephani had three pairs of shoes hanging from her pack. Next, she grabbed several pairs of pants along with a dozen tops. Jared was relieved to see the woman was shopping for clothing that was more practical than fashionable as he watched her grabbing T-shirts, sweat tops and a couple of hoodies.
Stephani’s pack was full as she guided Jared into the bra and panty section. He turned, deciding to keep a lookout while she did her female base-layer shopping. Stephani grabbed panties and bras, then shoved them into Jared’s chest so he could drop them into his still-empty pack. She didn’t know why, but she enjoyed his unease when handling her undergarments. She didn’t enjoy it in a malicious manner, but more just found his boyish discomfort amusing and maybe a little endearing.
When Jared hefted his backpack onto his shoulders, Stephani gave him a shrug indicating she was finished. Jared turned and moved off toward a sign indicating toiletries. He was relieved to find these shelves fairly untouched, and set about filling his pack with soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes and other items the group sorely needed. Jared stopped at the cologne section, then grabbed a small bottle of Old Spice cologne called Red Swagger. He stuffed the smallish bottle in his cargo pocket and chuckled to himself. He planned on giving it to John as a joke.
While he was toothpaste shopping, Stephani moved to a nearby aisle and returned with her arms full of feminine hygiene products. They were in boxes, which Jared and Stephani opened, removed the contents, then tossed the bulky cardboard packaging. Both Jared and Stephani stuffed the items into Jared’s pack, using the outside pockets as well as the main body of the pack. When Stephani was satisfied with the haul, Jared went back to foraging.
Once he’d gathered as many items as he could think the group needed, without overdoing it, Jared moved back toward the front doors of the store. Jared had nearly reached the front of the store when Stephani tugged on his shirtsleeve, bringing Jared to a halt.
“
Shouldn’t we check the food section?” she whispered urgently.
“Sure,” Jared whispered back, adjusting his course away from the front of the store and off to the right side, where he could see signs indicating dairy and meats.
When they arrived in the section for food, they found what Jared figured they would find—nothing. The shelves were stripped clean like the bleached bones of a dead animal in the desert. They walked all six aisles and found not one single edible morsel anywhere. The fact that he was in the store looking for toothpaste and socks gave Jared a sense of accomplishment. The people who stripped these shelves were almost certainly dead, while he was alive and doing rather well considering what he had to work with.
Jared’s analytical mind projected the future as a much safer place than the present time. Once the human population stabilized, the only people left would be those who were not foraging and killing for food, but rather those who were thriving and providing for themselves. They would be the people he and John would seek to form relationships with for trading and security purposes. Now, however, Jared must tread carefully with the foragers and killers still alive and preying on the weak.
After their fruitless effort in the grocery section, Jared and Stephani exited the Target, making their way along the front of the store. Jared stopped in front of a Walgreens, then motioned for Stephani to follow him inside. The interior was a disaster, the aisles cluttered with items from the shelves as if someone had purposely gone through clearing the shelves for fun. Jared made his way up and down the passageways until he stopped in front of an empty shelf that read First Aid.
Jared exhaled in disappointment, pivoted, and strode for the door. Once outside, he and Stephani made their way back toward Solar Green just as the sun began to drop below the distant California Coastal range. As they crossed the alley leading to the rear of the shopping center, Jared stopped and stared at a San Jose police car in the alley. The vehicle had either caught or had been set on fire, with the entire front and most of the back-seat area burned. For whatever reason, the fire hadn’t reached the rear third of the stricken patrol vehicle.
The Jared Chronicles | Book 2 | Tears of Chaos Page 23