by Gary Chesla
Linda’s eyes shot open as he began to move.
Mike ran his hand through her hair, “It’s just me.”
The startled look in Linda’s eyes, turned to a look of relief, then they seemed to light up as Linda looked up at Mike.
“I’m just going to go take a look outside,” Mike said. “You stay here with Jamie.”
“I thought for a minute I was back in the attic,” Linda smiled. “I’m really happy that we’re all together again.”
Mike leaned over and kissed the top of Linda’s head.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I just need to make sure we don’t have to worry about anything yet,” Mike said.
“Hurry back,” Linda said. “I’d like to enjoy this for a little longer while we can.”
Mike climbed out of the bed and quietly slipped out of the room.
He glanced towards Tony’s room and saw the door was open.
He looked into Tony’s room as he went down the hallway and saw that Tony wasn’t in the room.
“Tony must be up already,” Mike thought.
The bed had been made neatly, with the blanket tightly stretched over the mattress in a military fashion.
Mike was tempted to see if a quarter would bounce on the bed, but decided to just move on.
Mike walked down the stairs quietly, listening for any sounds as he made his way to the first floor.
When he reached the living room, Tony was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper.
Tony looked up when he heard the bottom step creak as Mike put his weight on the step.
“I couldn’t sleep any longer without first coming down to see what it was like outside,” Mike said.
“Neither could I,” Tony replied. “Believe it or not, it looks good outside for a change.”
Mike walked around to the other end of the couch and sat down.
“But I wonder for how long?”
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Tony said. “But something tells me we might have found the perfect hideout here.”
“I hope so. Are you reading the comics?” Mike asked, pointing to the paper Tony was holding.
“No, I found this newspaper in the bathroom and thought I would see if anything had been written about what happened,” Tony replied.
“And?” Mike asked.
“The paper is four days old,” Tony replied. “Nothing really. There was one small article on the back page about some mystery illness spreading across the Midwest. It didn’t say much, except all contact had been lost across most of the country. It confirms what the old man told us in Twin Rocks, but it didn’t have anywhere near the information that the old guy told us. That and the Pirate’s bullpen blew another one in the ninth.”
“Some things never change. On the other hand, we’ll probably will never find out what really happened,” Mike said.
“I’m sure you’re right about that,” Tony replied. “I should probably hang on to this paper, it might be a collector’s item someday. The last known edition of the Johnstown Tribune Review. It could be worth a lot of money.”
“Right,” Mike smiled. “The only problem is you will be the only one left alive to collect them.”
“Hey, you’re still alive,” Tony grinned. “I’ll let you read my paper for fifty bucks.”
“I’ll let you know when I find fifty dollars,” Mike laughed.
Tony laid the paper on the couch next to him.
“I had an idea what we could do today if you’re up to it,” Tony said.
“What’s that,” Mike asked as he laid his head back against the couch.
“Before we found the house, we had talked about getting ourselves organized, maybe finding some weapons,” Tony replied.
“Getting ourselves armed would be a good idea,” Mike said. “I’m tired of running because we don’t have any way to protect ourselves. We also need to find something to eat before we all starve. Being armed would make searching for food a hell of a lot more comfortable. What did you have in mind?”
Tony picked up the paper and handed it to Mike.
“Take a look on page six,” Tony said.
Mike opened the paper to page six.
“Giant Eagle has eggs on sale for seventy-five cents. Great!” Mike said. “I could go for a nice omelet.”
“Look at the half page ad on the bottom of the page,” Tony replied.
Mike looked down at the ad.
“I spotted it when I was looking through the paper earlier,” Tony said. “Then I remembered that was where I bought my new hunting rifle, the one I had at the cabin. They would probably have all kind of shit we need.”
Mike looked at the paper, “Outdoor World. That sounds familiar.”
“It’s only about five miles from here, down over the mountain towards Ligonier on Route 271. They would have camping supplies, outdoor wear, I could use a change of clothes. They also have hunting equipment, guns, ammo, bows, knives. They should also have MREs, campers think that shit tastes good because they never had to live on that crap for months at a time, but it would come in handy until we could find some real food,” Tony said. “Everything we need in one location, we couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”
Mike laughed as he looked at the ad, “This could possibly be the first time I was ever happy to see an ad in the paper. They’ve always been just something I had to tolerate until I found the sports page.”
“So, what do you think?” Tony asked. “You want to drive down and see what we can find?”
“I was planning on resting all day, but I like your idea better,” Mike replied. “It sure would make me feel a hell of a lot better knowing we were prepared, even though I know we can never really be prepared for what’s out there, it would feel good to at least try.”
“Then let’s go,” Tony said. “We can get down there and be back before the girls get up.”
“I can’t leave them here by themselves,” Mike replied. “Not after everything we went through to get back to them.”
“We might run into trouble at the store or along the way,” Tony said. “They would be safer here. At least so far this place seems quiet and off the beaten path.”
“I know what you’re saying, but no,” Mike replied. “If we run into a shit load of zombies and have to go somewhere else to get away from them, I’m not leaving Linda and Jamie. For better or worse, we stay together where I know where they are and I can try to protect them.”
“OK,” Tony said. “I guess I would do the same thing if I were you. We’ll just have to be careful.”
“Where are we going?” Linda asked as she walked down the steps, followed by Jamie and George.
“We were thinking of going to Outdoor World to see if we could find some weapons and supplies. Tony says it’s only a few miles from here,” Mike said.
Linda looked puzzled for a minute and finally said, “We are just going to go in and take what we want, like looters?”
“Sort of,” Mike replied.
“That sounds like fun,” Linda smiled. “When do we leave?”
“You would say that,” Mike laughed. “We can leave as soon as everyone is ready to go.”
“Let me see if we have anything for breakfast first,” Linda replied.
“I already checked,” Tony added. “The place is as bare as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.”
“Then I guess I’m ready,” Linda frowned.
They checked to make sure the house was secure. In case they would not be able to return to the house, they brought the pillows and blankets from the bedroom.
When they were all outside, Tony locked the door to the house and put the key back under the large stone in the flower bed where he had originally found it.
“In case something happens to me,” Tony said. “You know where the key is and you can get back inside.”
“How would we get back here if something happened to you?” Mike asked. “You’re the only one that can drive the Buick.”
“I guess you co
uld walk,” Tony grinned.
They all got in the car and drove back down the dirt road towards the highway.
Mike removed the chain on the posts by the tree line, then put it back in place after Tony moved the car past the posts.
They then drove out to the highway and turned west towards Ligonier.
They reached Outdoor World in ten minutes.
It sat back off the road on the right side of Route 271.
A large gravel parking lot extended from the road to right in front of the store.
Tony pulled off the road and onto the gravel and stopped the car.
They studied the store for a few minutes.
Other than the front door being smashed, the store didn’t look like much had happened here.
“What do you think?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know what to think,” Tony replied. “I was expecting to see a lot more damage.”
“Well, that should be good for us. Right?” Mike asked. “Besides, there weren’t that many people living around here. No people, no zombies.”
“I hope so,” Tony replied.
He restarted the car and pulled closer to the door, swung the car around and backed the car up so the trunk was only five feet from the door.
“Linda, you and Jamie wait here. Mike and I will go inside and look around. If everything is clear, after we come back out, you can go back in with Mike and look for anything you need,” Tony said.
“Keep the doors locked until we come back,” Mike added.
Linda nodded.
Mike and Tony got out of the car and walked over to the smashed front door of the store.
The stood off to one side and looked in.
“Let’s go inside and scout out the store before we try to take anything,” Tony said.
“It doesn’t look like any zombies have been here,” Mike replied.
“No, without many people living up here near the summit, we shouldn’t have to worry too much about zombies, at least I hope not if my theory that zombies don’t like to climb is right,” Tony replied. “This looks more like what the living would do. Up here I think our biggest threat could be some desperate survivors.”
“Do you think that might be what happened here?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know,” Tony replied. “Just stay down and keep your eyes open. Hopefully whatever happened here happened a few days ago. Follow me.”
Tony ducked into the store first.
The shelves in the front of the store were still neatly organized.
The only shelf that appeared to have been disturbed was the candy shelf.
The next few rows were stocked with clothing, handwarmers, waterproof matches and ponchos.
They continued to go further back into the dark store.
The next section they came to was stocked with dehydrated foods for camping.
The section behind that was labeled rifles and ammunition.
Tony pointed to the trashed shelves and smashed displays.
Whoever had been here had been interested in guns and ammo and had cleaned out this section of the store.
Tony signaled Mike to follow him and they went further back into the store.
The next section had been untouched.
Tony smiled as he surveyed the shelves and displays of crossbows, compound bows, targets and arrows.
Mike tapped Tony on the shoulder.
When Tony looked at Mike, he pointed to something behind the display.
Four people laid on the floor face down.
The back of their heads had a single bullet hole in them, their faces, where the bullets had come out, were splattered on the floor in front of the bodies.
“Execution style,” Tony said. “They looked like sales people. They must have been working when the place was robbed.”
“How long ago?” Mike asked as he scanned the store and listened for any sounds.
“By how dry their blood is and the fact there isn’t any smell of decay,” Tony replied. “I’d say this took place almost a week ago.”
“Just about the time this all started,” Mike said. “It didn’t take long for the worst of mankind to come out.”
“It never does,” Tony replied. “Like I said, when I was in Iraq, what I saw everyday was almost as bad as what is going on around here now. Let’s start loading the car.”
“Too bad they took all the damn guns,” Mike said. “I was hoping to pick up another rife, now that I know where to shoot zombies.”
“Not me,” Tony said. “I have my eye of one of these cross bows. They are just as effective as a rifle and better yet, they are as quiet as the wind. Even better than a gun with a silencer. I think they will be perfect for what we need. With a crossbow, we could take out the enemy before they even knew we were there.”
“Have you ever shot a crossbow?” Mike asked.
“Many times,” Tony replied. “I even had one in Iraq. It’s a perfect sniper weapon for quiet night time assaults when you didn’t want the enemy to know you were there. It’s just like shooting a rifle, you’ll catch on real fast. Come on, grab everything you can carry and let’s get this stuff out to the car.”
Mike and Tony made two trips to the car and almost had completely filled the huge trunk of the Buick with bows, arrows, dehydrated camping supplies and a hand crank powered radio.
Linda finished filling the trunk with clothing, shoes, boots and lanterns, a camping stove, utensils and propane tanks.
She partially filled the back seat with a lot of other items that looked interesting and that she figured they could make some use out of them eventually.
One last walk through yielded some beef jerky and a few candy bars that the first looters had missed.
Then everyone happily piled back in the car and ate candy bars as Tony drove the Buick back towards the house.
They were half way back to the house when Mike noticed Tony staring into the rearview mirror.
“What’s are you looking at?” Mike asked. “You’ve been staring in that mirror for the last few minutes.”
“I think we’re being followed,” Tony replied.
“Maybe it’s just someone coming up over the mountain from Ligonier,” Mike replied as he turned and looked out the back window.
“First, when was the last time we’ve seen anyone else out on the highway in the last week?” Tony said. “Second, whoever is back there is being real careful to keep us from seeing them. They are hanging back, staying around the last curve like they don’t want to be seen. Every once in a while, they’ll speed up so they can be sure we haven’t turned off anywhere, then they drop back again.”
“Maybe it’s just someone escaping from Ligonier and they are afraid we’ll see them,” Linda said. “Maybe they’re afraid we’re a car load of thugs and they’re afraid to get too close.”
“Maybe,” Tony replied. “But it just seems like too much of a coincidence and I learned in Iraq that there is no such thing as a coincidence. They might have seen us back at the store. If we keep going and they are following us, we could end up leading them right back to the house.”
“Do you really think they were watching us back at the store?” Linda asked.
“The old man back in Twin Rocks said that he feels the biggest problem we are going to have is not the walkers but the lawless thugs that will be out here taking whatever they want,” Tony replied. “Anyone still alive has to be getting desperate. I’m sure we weren’t the only ones who knew about Outdoor World. Who knows, the people that killed all the employees and took the guns could have decided to come back again.”
“I think you might be over reacting,” Linda said. “We can’t assume the worst about everyone we see. I’m sure there are some good people out there just trying to survive like us.”
“There probably are,” Tony replied as he studied the rearview mirror. “But we have to think of ourselves first or we won’t end up living very long.”
“If we drive a little faster and turn u
p the dirt road to the house, maybe they won’t see us and will just keep on driving,” Linda said.
“They might.” Tony replied. “But again, if they see where we went, they might come back in the middle of the night and kill all of us. Or if they didn’t see us turn off, they might circle back and keep looking for us. I don’t think we can take that chance.”
“I agree,” Mike said. “But how do we find out what their intentions are?”
“We could just pull over and wait for them to come by?” Linda said. “If they stop to see if we need any help then we will know they OK.”
“And if they really are following us, they might just kill us all and take everything we have and maybe even take you and Jamie,” Mike said.
Linda’s eyes got big as she considered what Mike had just said.
Tony thought as he studied the view in the rearview mirror.
The pickup truck following them had just sped around the last curve, then dropped back out of sight.
“I think Linda might have an idea there,” Tony said.
“What?” Mike asked.
“I think if you and Linda wait at the car until they come along,” Tony said. “We can find out what they are up too and end this one way or another.”
“If Linda and I wait at the car?” Mike asked.
Tony hit the gas and sped up around the next bend in the road.
“I’m going to pull over up around the next bend,” Tony said. “You put up the hood up like you are having car trouble. I’m going to grab a crossbow out of the back and run down into the tress on the other side of the road. If they are harmless, good. If not, if they try anything, I’ll be there to stop them.”
“OK,” Mike said nervously. “You weren’t lying when you said you could use that crossbow?”
“I might be a little rusty, but I think I can still do OK,” Tony replied.
“OK,” Mike said. “I guess we need to find out. With everything else we have to deal with, we don’t need to keep looking over our shoulders.”