He saw two people that answered the why of that. Bright glimpses of metal showed between the bloated skin of their wrists. Handcuffed… His mind had supplied tied, but it was not tied, it was handcuffed. And handcuffed was not a mistake. Handcuffed could not shoot back at all. They had been herded in here, for whatever reason, handcuffed and shot… Murdered, his mind supplied.
“Come on,” he said quietly to Kate. “We don’t need to see any more of this do we?”
She shook her head, turned back towards him, and then suddenly found herself running around the side of the building the same way that Ronnie had. A few minutes later, she came back out and joined the others. Everyone was silent. The morning had moved on and the afternoon was bright sunshine and warmth on the cracked sidewalk, but none of that warmth seemed able to touch her.
“Probably never know why,” Ronnie said after a long silence. He spun the cap off a bottle of water, took a deep drink, rinsed his mouth, spat and then drank again. They were all gathered around the trucks.
Mike stared off down what was left of State Street. The street itself was more dirt and sand than pavement. The buildings that were left tilted crazily. Some looked almost untouched until you got close to them. From here they looked fine, just like from the sidewalk the steel door hadn’t seemed to be hiding anything special, his mind jabbered.
“There’s another drug store up the street,” he said, just to be talking. “I didn’t check it. I wasn’t thinking about it. It’s an actual drug store… So I was thinking what could there be there that I would need. But drugstores sell all sorts of things. We could go see.”
“Let’s go see,” Patty said.
They all piled into the trucks like they had only been looking for an excuse to go. As they drove away, Mike knew he would never come back to the supermarket for anything. Silence held as they maneuvered their way over the shattered pavement and made their way down the street.
~ More Trouble ~
Tom and Bob were loading up the last of the space that was left in one of the pickup trucks when Tim came running in their direction.
“People,” he gasped, pointing to the side of the building. “People with guns and stuff!”
Bob and Tom both reached inside the truck and grabbed their rifles. Bob reached out and snagged Tim by the wrist before he could tear off around the side of the building again.
“Calm down. Take a deep breath,” Bob said in a calming voice. “Where are they?”
“Coming into the parking lot. They’re on foot,” Tim said. Both Nell and Lilly stepped out of the shattered back door that lead into the department store, their arms loaded down with clothes in various sizes.
Tom sighed in relief, reached down and unsnapped the strap that held his gun in its holster. Checked the safety on the rifle, flicked it to off and turned to Nell and Lilly. “We have visitors,” he turned to Tim “Did they see you?”
“I don’t know… I don’t… I don’t think so, but I’m not sure,” he answered, still breathless.
A frightened look came into Lilly’s eyes. “How many? Are they armed? When?” she asked.
“Two guys… A couple ladies and some kids… Little kids… And a dog too,” Tim said. Thinking as he went along.
“Okay,” Tom said. “We’ll all walk out. Have your safeties off. You may really have to shoot. For Christ’s sake don’t shoot yourself… Or me... Or one of us. Point at who you want to hit, and shoot, like Kate showed you. But don’t shoot unless you have to. Maybe these people are okay.” He waited until everyone had nodded.
Nell and Lilly took the safeties off their guns, held them briefly and then returned them to their holsters. Nell kept touching the curved metal butt of her pistol nervously.
“Bob, you’re up front with me. You guys in back of us. If you have to shoot, shoot,” he told them again. “Just make sure we’re not in your way… Jesus… I hate this,” Tom finished. He took a deep breath “Everybody ready?” he asked. No one answered except Bob who nodded quickly before his eyes darted back to the corner of the building and the bright sunshine beyond.
Tom stepped around the edge of the building, his rifle aimed at the ground, his finger resting on the trigger guard.
~
The drug store and a small convenience store took up the space in the small strip mall building. An auto garage occupied the building next door. Both buildings were damaged. They walked around the exterior of the store building and looked it over.
The large front windows were spider webbed with stress fractures but were still intact. The front door to the convenience store was bent outward at an odd angle, the top of the door actually out of the frame, the bottom still jammed tightly in it. The brick wall that fronted the building was warped but still upright. The frame had apparently twisted as the wall had warped.
It was difficult to see into the darkened interiors through the spider webbed glass, but both stores appeared to be uninhabited. They chose the convenience store first. A few well placed blows from the sledgehammer and crowbar combination popped the twisted door from the frame. It sprang inward and caught on the floor, screeching to a stop.
Mike put one booted foot against the warped wall and pushed experimentally. The wall didn’t budge. It didn’t even creak or groan like he expected that a wall about to fall down might do. He looked around at everyone, shrugged and stepped inside, snapping on the big flashlight as he did.
The interior seemed in remarkably good shape. Some of the metal shelving units that had served as dividers had toppled their merchandise to the floor, but it was much better than the supermarket had been, or most other places he had wandered into.
“Looks safe,” He said, and the others stepped inside.
Case upon case of bottled water, soda and sports drinks found their way into the trucks in the parking lot. Boxes of crackers, candy bars and other snacks went in as well. In a short period of time, the remaining space in the trucks was filled up.
“Well,” Mike checked his watch. The sun was not yet overhead. The watch was really no indicator of actual passing daylight, only elapsed time. Looking into the sky and judging the position of the sun was probably a better indicator of relative daylight left than looking at a watch was. “Probably better than half again as much daylight left.”
“You sound so sure of yourself,” Kate teased.
Mike smiled. “We could go unload this and probably come back for another load.” Everyone agreed. Mike and Ronnie muscled the door back into its frame away from where it had wedged into the floor. Then they started the vehicles and drove slowly down lower State Street towards the Old River Road and the cave.
~ Death And Sin ~
Tom took the corner wide, allowing Bob to emerge at nearly the same time as he did. The others were right behind them, spread out slightly. He spotted the small group immediately: Two men; three women, and two small kids walking warily across the cracked parking lot towards the store they were in. All five adults were heavily armed.
The dark skinned young man in the lead wore military fatigues and carried what looked to Tom to be a military issue rifle of some sort he was not familiar with. The next man back was dressed in jeans and a lightweight jacket, but he also seemed to be carrying a military weapon. Both men had their weapons in their hands like they were on patrol, Tom thought.
The women came next, the first one carrying a lightweight pistol, small, possibly a three eighty, Tom thought. The other two women carried the same sort of small light duty pistols, Tom saw. He tried to get a better view of the pistols. They could be Nine Millimeters, he told himself. It was hard to tell, and he was no judge of weapons like Kate was. It was about then that the dark skinned man stopped. His eyes were fixed on Tom. Tom took a deep breath and waited.
The two men swiveled their rifles around quickly pointing them at Tom and Bob. Tom and Bob already had their weapons up. Suddenly there was a stand off. Silence descended and held. Tom could hear every little noise clearly: sand and small pebbles gri
tting beneath his boot as he shifted position, birds calling from the tops of nearby buildings and the occasional tree, even the far off sound of the river which was still running higher than normal.
The young man in the lead wore reflective sunglasses; the sun
shot darts of light off the lenses hiding his eyes.
“We aren’t looking for a fight,” a tall, light haired woman in back of the two men said. She stepped out away from the other two women and the children when she finished speaking. The lead man said nothing; only stood allowing the light to arrow from his glasses, reflecting the strong afternoon light.
“We aren’t either,” Bob said. He kept his rifle barrel pointed in their direction, his finger still resting on the edge of the trigger guard, his voice strong and steady.
The time played out for a few seconds, both sides waiting for the other side to lower their weapons first. Finally the young woman stepped forward, past the two men, holstered her own weapon, and then turned to face the young man in the military fatigues.
“We aren’t looking for any trouble,” she said.
It seemed unclear to Bob who she was talking to, them or the guy with the reflective glasses.
“They aren’t either,” she continued, and it became clear she was talking to the young man and not them.
Bob’s finger slid a little closer to the trigger. He waited.
The man tilted his head toward the woman who stood before him. It was impossible to see what his eyes were saying. He didn’t speak aloud, and for all Bob knew he may not actually have even been looking at the woman at all. He may have never taken his eyes off them, only tilted his head to make them think he had.
The face moved slightly again, as if he was looking back toward Tom and the others: Moved again as though he were
looking back at the woman once more.
“Jesus,” Bob said under his breath. “It’s like he doesn’t want to.”
“Tim, Nell, Lilly… Get back to the edge of the building… Now,” Tom whispered loudly. “Stay there. If anything happens, hit those trucks and light out.”
The head moved slightly once more. Coming back in their direction again. Maybe he’d seen the movements behind them as the three moved back around the building as Tom had told them to, Bob thought.
“Sin,” the woman said.
Sin, Bob thought. What…? Was that a name, he wondered to himself. The man's name?
“They said they don’t want any trouble,” The woman repeated.
“I fucking heard them,” the military man growled softly.
He seemed to deliberate. His head turned back towards them and he spoke. “Where’d the others go?”
“Back around the corner. You look a little shaky to me,” Tom said truthfully. “I sent them out of it. We don’t want any trouble… Seems like you don’t want to believe that.”
“Didn’t say I did, didn’t say I didn’t,” The young man said. His rifle stayed steady, which forced Tom and Bob to hold their own weapons steady.
“Jesus,” the woman said. “Nobody wants trouble. Nobody…”
The young man's face shifted slightly back toward the woman once more. The nose of his rifle jerked.
“Jesus, Bob,” Tom started.
The young man's rifle swung quickly and Tom saw the young woman’s jacket puff outwards from her back and watched a hole appear just below her shoulder before he actually heard the shot. A split second later the young man spun hard to his left stumbled backwards, and then collapsed to the pavement. Bob stepped forward, his rifle still tightly held against his shoulder, walking forward, and sighting on the other young man as he walked.
“Drop it, Son, or I’ll put you down the same way I put down your friend there,” Bob told him in a deep, authoritative voice.
Tom stepped away from Bob, his own rifle up and aiming at the young man. The woman who had been shot slumped to the ground. One hand clutching at the hole in her upper chest. A low moan of pain escaped her mouth.
The second young man looked as though he might do anything.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Son. There isn’t a reason to get yourself hurt. After all this, there’s been enough hurt,” Bob said reasonably.
“I didn’t know he was going to do that,” the young man said. He looked down at the crumpled body. “I didn’t know.”
“Nobody’s saying you did,” Bob said calmly. “Isn’t your fault. Just point that gun at the ground… Set it down. Don’t need anybody else to get hurt, right Son?”
The guy nodded slightly, looked around like he was surprised to see that both of the women behind him were still holding their weapons, although they were both pointed at the ground. He finally realized how it might look to the man with the rifle. Sin was crazy, he told himself... Had been crazy. Sin was dead now. Crazy didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that Sin was dead. He was laid out on the ground, blood leaking from his mouth. His breath caught in his throat, a sob tearing from his mouth.
“He was nuts. They’ll tell you that,” he told Bob. He reached forward, leaned over and laid his rifle out carefully on the ground before him. “Nuts,” he said once more. He raised his hands over his head into the air, then thought about it and lowered them to his sides, finally clasping them in front of himself, unsure what to do.
~
When Mike turned into the asphalt area that fronted the cave, he knew that something was wrong. Sandy had one of the two way radios on and was listening intently. Mike reached for his own where it sat on the dashboard, mentally berated himself for not having checked in on it, although there had been no plans to do so, turned it on and listened.
Tom was talking calmly.
“…can’t reach them… Already tried.”
Mike keyed the button, “Tom, it’s Mike, what’s going on?”
“Jesus, Mike. I couldn’t reach you… We got ambushed. None of us got hurt, but we got one guy dead on the other side. A woman they shot looks awfully bad… And I got a guy I don’t trust and don’t know what to do with.”
“You want us there?” Mike asked.
“Yeah… And, hey, Sandy’s a nurse, right?”
“Yeah,” Sandy herself answered.
Mike got out of the truck. Behind him Ronnie, Kate and Patty had switched the other radio on and were listening in.
“Maybe Sandy, you, Kate and Ronnie,” Tom said.
“That’s all of our shooters, Tom…”
“Ah… Yeah…” Tom seemed unsure of what to say.
“Tom, I’ll send Kate, Sandy and Ronnie. That’s our best shooter. I can’t leave this place alone,” Mike told him. Kate nodded at him, he turned and caught Ronnie’s eye who nodded. Patty looked worried, and her eyes slid away from his when he tried to make contact. Sandy was already nodding when he looked her way. “They’re on the way, Tom,” he finished.
He handed Kate the rifle he had been carrying. She hurried into the cave and came back out with her pair of Forty Five caliber pistols. She also came back with something that was advertised as a hunting rifle but looked more like an assault rifle and took a clip. She holstered both of the Forty Fives, tossed Ronnie the assault rifle and set Mike's rifle between the seats in the truck.
Sandy climbed into the back as Ronnie took the front passenger's seat. Tom was speaking on the radio, giving Ronnie directions. Kate was nodding, “I know where that is,” she said. She started the truck, dropped it into reverse and began to back away from the cave.
“Kate,” Mike called. He ran to catch up to her. She leaned partway out the window and he kissed her quickly. “I love you. Be careful,” he told her.
“I love you too,” she told him. “I will.” She took her foot off the brake, backed around in a tight circle and drove quickly away.
Mike and Patty walked to the fire where Jan still stood, radio in her hand, and began to wait.
~
The radio hissed silence for so long that Mike was convinced that they were probably trying to call and somethi
ng was wrong with the radio. Maybe the batteries were dead… Something… Maybe…
“It hasn’t been that long, Mike,” Patty told him “It just seems that way.”
Mike smiled nervously, “Shows, huh?”
Patty shrugged. “All of us.” She looked over at Jan who continued to reposition slices of Venison on the drying racks. Her mouth was set in a tight grimace as if she was in pain. She looked up as though she had felt Patty’s eyes upon her and nodded. Patty smiled at her and Jan answered it with a smile
of her own.
The radio crackled…
“Got them,” Ronnie’s voice called over the radio as the static smoothed out. “Give us a minute or two.”
“Read you,” Patty told him.
“Okay,” Ronnie’s voice came back. “All of our people are fine. The guy that started the whole thing is dead. You could say he’s not fine at all. There was another guy, but he took off. There are two women and two kids here… Oh, another woman took off… We’re coming back… The one woman’s been shot… Hang on a minute…” The radio switched back to choppy static then came back.
“Okay… We’ll talk about the rest when we get there… Uh, those other two aren’t armed… We don’t know where they went…”
The radio switched back to static.
“Be careful,” Mike told him.
“Oh yeah,” Ronnie came back. “Oh yeah.” He clicked off.
~
The three waited silently by the smoky fire. None seemed able to meet the others' eyes. They were all worried about the same thing. Where were those other two? Those trucks could be sitting ducks if they were out waiting to shoot them up on their way back, running loose and still wanting a fight. But each of them knew there was nothing they could do but wait.
A half hour later, the lead Suburban pulled onto the pavement in front of the cave, cut a wide circle and parked nose out. The other vehicles pulled in and parked to one side of each other. Everyone climbed out of the trucks and gathered in front of the cave.
The Rising of the Dead Page 13