by A. American
After they departed, we took inventory of our remaining supplies. We needed more. That meant another trip to Publix. But with the sounds coming from down the street, it looked like Publix’s official advertising motto, “Where Shopping is a Pleasure,” might not bear out.
Dr. Kramer stood on the front stoop of the building, looking down toward the grocery store, growing more concerned as groups of people were walking and trotting down the road towards what was sounding more and more like a riot in the making.
“We need to go now,” Dr. Kramer said. “And I need to go with you.”
Janice, Dr. Kramer and I went back into the office and informed the remaining patients that we were going on a shopping trip. The remaining five patients were almost too old to walk to their cars, let alone strong enough to walk two long blocks. Dr. Kramer left Peg in charge, making sure they locked the doors.
Before we left, he took Janice and me into the break room. He opened a drawer, and digging deep behind the plastic utensil tray, he pulled out two large steak knives, handing one to each of us.
“Take these!” He said as he handed one knife to each of us. Each knife still had its cardboard protector covering the edge and tip.
“I can’t use this!” Janice stated.
“Take it,” he stated again. “You may be glad you have it.”
“Do you really think we’ll need this,” I stated. “Just to go to the grocery store?”
“It’s no longer a store,” he replied. “It’s a war zone.”
And with that, he spun on his heels and marched out the front. I heard Peg lock the door behind us, an unmistakable click that could be heard above the growing din coming from down the street. Janice looked at me and shivered. She buttoned up her lab coat all the way to the top. It wasn’t nearly cold enough to need to do that, but I felt the same sense of vulnerability and buttoned my coat as well. Had it not been for Dr. Kramer’s unwavering strides, I might never have been able to begin our journey. But seeing him walking with a purpose towards the gathering mob, put some spine in me; and we quickly caught up with him.
I placed my hand in my lab coat pocket and fondled the handle of the knife. As if he had some extra-sensory perception, Dr. Kramer craned his neck towards us.
“Don’t forget to take the sheath off the knife if you need it,” he said.
Fortunately, our visit went without a hitch but I just knew things were moving quickly in a bad direction.
Chapter 14
Day 5
Charlie
Publix Grocery Store, Kirkman Road
A couple more days went by and Dr. Kramer strode down the sidewalk and stopped short of the shopping plaza parking lot. Hundreds of people were clustered around the front entrance to the grocery store. The doors had been closed and metal storm shutters covered the windows while a retractable metal gate was in place over the front door. People were pounding on the metal gate, demanding to be let in.
We tentatively worked our way to the side of the building, standing next to the windows by the front entrance. The storm shutters covered all of the window except for the very outside edge. We were standing there, trying to decide what to do next, when I heard a tapping from the inside of the store. Someone was rapping their keys or some other metal object on the window from the inside.
I pressed my face against the window and peered into the dark slit where the shutter failed to cover the edge of the glass. Suddenly, a flashlight shone from within, illuminating someone’s face in front of me. It was the boy that Janice had talked into letting us into the store. He backed up from the window a bit and I could see him shining his flashlight on his hand. It was pointing back to the right where we had gone the last time to get in the back door.
I grabbed Janice and she peered into the window as well, confirming the boy’s intention to let us in the back once again. Janice told Dr. Kramer what had just happened and we proceeded around back where we found the young man waiting. Janice roughed up his hair as we walked passed him and into the darkened store.
“Hi, my name is Garrett,” he said as he closed the door. We could see a battery-powered lantern sitting in the front of the store. Garrett led us to the lighted spot where Mr. Wayneright and two other employees were seated.
“Hello, Dan.” Dr. Kramer said to the store manager.
“Dr. Kramer,” he replied. “I wish I could give you a better welcome.”
They shook hands warmly.
“How’s you dad doing?” the doctor asked.
“Alive!” the manager replied. “Thanks to you.”
“It was nothing,” he responded to the compliment. They both knew that was a lie.
“Doc!” Mr. Wayneright said. “I hope you can tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Let’s go to your office, so we can talk a bit,” he replied.
Dr. Kramer turned to Janice and me and pointed to the aisles of food behind us.
“You two ladies,” he commanded. “Get your list and see if your friend can help you gather what we need.”
Janice hooked her arm around Garrett’s and we stalked off to gather what we could.
“What’s going on?” Garrett asked after we left the other two. “Why is this happening?”
I glanced at Janice and she gave me a nod. So I explained, the best I could, what Dr. Kramer had told me.
After we had gathered about half of what we needed, I had finished telling him what was causing the power loss and what we had done the last three days.
“Wow,” he sighed. “And I thought we had it bad.”
“What about you,” I asked. “Where do you live?”
“I’m a student at Valencia State College,” he replied. “Been working here while I take classes. My apartment is only about a mile from here, but my family lives near Ocala.”
“Why here? I mean, why not another state College near you?”
“Computers,” he replied. He reached onto one of the shelves and shoveled a dozen cans of spam into our cart. “I want to get a computer degree from U.C.F., and I am guaranteed entry if I finish my second year here at Valencia.”
U.C.F. had a premier computer department. Their ties with the military in computer simulation were known throughout the country with multiple startup simulator companies springing up in the metro Orlando area. It was very difficult department to get in, but Garrett had found a backdoor to the competitive program. Very smart.
We finished our list and made our way back to the other two employees that had stayed with the store. We spent the next few minutes waiting for the doctor, learning that the others simply lived too far to make the walk. Both were over 60 years old and decided they couldn’t make the journey. All were afraid of what was happening and both were desperate to get home.
Just then, Mr. Wayneright and Dr. Kramer returned from the manager’s office.
“Garrett, Carla and Ed,” he started. “I want you to make up four carts with these items and take them to the loading dock.” He handed a list to the three employees. Their questioning looks prompted him to continue his instructions.
“If Dr. Kramer is correct, and I have never had cause to doubt him,” he stated. “We’re not going to have control of the situation for much longer. Apparently, an EMP has taken out all electronics…”
Mr. Wayneright droned on to the three people, repeating Dr. Kramer’s theory. Janice and I tuned it all out, having heard it all before and uncomfortable with the thought that he was correct. Nothing like bad news repeated to shut a brain down.
When he was finished, Dr. Kramer excused us and we left out the back once again.
“What are they going to do?” I asked.
“They’re making up their own survival package. He’s going to stash it all in one of the dumpsters out back when they need to abandon the st
ore. I just hope they have the time to clear out before it gets too violent.”
Suddenly, Janice stopped.
“I’ll be right back,” she said. “Give me a minute.”
She sprinted back to the lighted area where the Publix employees were gathered. After a minute or so, she returned and we left the building pushing our cart down the long backside of the plaza, out the rear delivery entrance and onto Kirkman road about two hundred yards from the grocery store’s front door. Not an hour had passed since we first arrived and the mob that was waiting to get fed was easily double the size. At least five hundred people were pressed against the metal shutters. A steady hammering of fists was starting to come from the ones in front as they screamed, demanding to be let in.
“Why did you go back into the store when we were leaving?” I asked Janice.
“I told Garrett to come find us when it hits the fan,” she said.
At first, I thought she was playing games with the poor kid. But the look in her eyes told me otherwise. There was real concern in them, and as she looked passed me to the growing crowd, I could tell it was only going to get worse.
Chapter 15
Day 5-6
Charlie
Kirkman Specialty Clinic
Evening had come, and the sound of gunfire had begun in earnest. We kept the lights off, for fear of giving away our location, and that there was power to the building. Dr. Kramer had created piles of food and medicine, one for each of the remaining patients as well one for himself. Janice and I were set with our backpacks that were nicely tucked in the closet.
“Charlie,” he said. “My office, please.”
I followed him back, the way lit by a small flashlight he produced from his pocket. We sat in the break room and he grabbed a couple of Cokes from the refrigerator. We popped them and each took a sip.
“At some point,” he said. “You two need to leave. It’s dangerous, and only going to get more so over the next week. And before you say anything,” he continued. “Realize that by next week, two women walking with supplies won’t last a day out there. You’ll be dead, or worse, when people get truly hungry.”
“Doc,” I replied. “I can’t. I can’t leave you like this. It isn’t fair.”
“Never said it was. But like triage, I have to pick who is worth fighting for, and who is not. Those patients out there,” he said. “They aren’t going to make it. Even if I could get them home, they have no chance. Who’s going to fend for them when their food runs out? The best I can hope for is that they can spend their last days with family or friends.”
“But you two,” he continued. “You two do have a chance and you need to take it now.”
Just then, we heard something that we hadn’t heard in days. The sound of a truck, and by the deep growling of its engine and pitch of the noise, it sounded like something big.
We both sprinted to the front door and out onto Kirkman road. Looking down the six-lane street, we could see a dump truck rumbling up from the interstate, knocking aside any stalled car that happened to get in the way. From the sound of the giant beast, and the rough way the gears were being shifted, it seemed that the driver didn’t have too much time behind its wheel.
“I thought you said nothing was working.” I said. “Does this mean it’s over?”
Dr. Kramer said nothing, but continued to stare at the truck as it turned into the grocery store parking lot and aimed itself directly at the front door. The horror of what was coming mesmerized me and kept me from turning away as it smashed through dozens of people that simply didn’t move fast enough to get out of the way. Bodies were flattened, crushed or dismembered as it plowed into the front of the store and blasted a hole in the building.
The hundreds of the remaining uninjured people flooded through the breach, trampling the already fallen and smashing those that were too slow. Janice screamed and dropped to her knees as I finally turned away from a sight I knew would haunt me for many nights to come.
I joined Janice, squatting next to her, holding her as she sobbed. The terror and uncertainty of the past few days finally bursting forth through her tears and wails. Just what had people become in a few short days?
“Come on girls,” he said. “Back in the building.”
“We have to…” Janice choked. “We have to ggggo and help.”
“No,” Dr. Kramer gently replied. “No we don’t. There is nothing you can do for any of them now. They are all too far gone. Only more death waits for you down there.”
He guided us back to the office where we told the others what we had seen. I followed Dr. Kramer back to the break room and confronted him. He told me that vehicles wouldn’t work, and I just witnessed a dump truck smash over a dozen people to death.
“I though you said nothing was working!” I shouted.
“Nothing with computers,” he calmly replied. “A lot of heavy equipment and older cars have a good chance of being in working order since they don’t rely on computers to run. But just about any car less than 30 years old is out for the count.”
I briefly stared as his dark silhouette, then went back to the waiting room where Janice sat in the corner, a blanket wrapped around her as she scrunched up in one of the reception room chairs. Her sobbing had subsided, but she didn’t respond when I sat down next to her. I couldn’t see much in the dark, but I could tell she was almost in shock. Her breathing was quick and shallow, and I could feel her tremble as I gently checked her pulse. It was rapid and her skin was a bit clammy. I got Dr. Kramer, who guided her back to the first surgical suite and laid her down on the padded table. I got some additional blankets to make a pillow. I retrieved a chair from the reception area and sat next to her, holding her hand under the covers, whispering that everything was going to turn out just fine.
After a while, I must have dozed off. I was jolted to my feet, when more gunfire erupted outside. This time, however, it was close! I jumped up, my neck sore from leaning against the back of the chair, and quickly moved to the reception area. Dr. Kramer was already there, standing in the front door staring down the street toward the Publix. I was shocked as I heard the sound of several cars racing about the parking lot down the street. Several old sedans were chasing down stragglers as they sprinted out of the grocery store. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the back window of a large four door Chevy, and two looters dropped to the ground, shot as they ran. A total of three old vehicles circled the pavement, like an old-style wagon train spinning about, only this circle spat death at anyone who exited the store. Whooping came from the attackers and cries from the victims as everyone in the store scattered to the wind, hoping to avoid the gunfire.
We watched as the cars finally stopped in front of the Publix, and almost a dozen men dashed into the store, illuminated by the high beam headlights from the cars. More gunfire exploded and after a minute or two, things settled down. Suddenly, another flurry of gunshots bellowed forth from the store and all went quiet. We peered down the road and watched as food and other items were brought out and piled into the cars’ massive trunks. A half an hour went by before two of the cars turned back and went south, away from our clinic.
The third car remained, its lights beaming into the hole left by the dump truck earlier that day. After a few more minutes, we could see the three remaining men loading prescription bottles into the back seat of the car.
“Druggies,” Dr. Kramer said. “We better get inside now.”
We shut the glass front door and he locked it.
“Everyone,” he said. “Get to the back of the building. I need you to clear the reception room.”
We all made our way to the back, where all were deposited in the last of four surgical rooms. As Dr. Kramer and I went back to the reception area, he told me of his concerns that the looters would find this office and come looking for drugs.
We moved enough waiting room chairs to the back to handle all the remaining patients. I made my way into the first surgery room to be with Janice as she shakily came out of her stupor. I filled her in on what was happening, when we heard the sound of a car speed into our parking lot and abruptly stop, its headlights shining into the waiting room.
“Quick!” Dr. Kramer hissed. “Find a place to hide, and for God’s sake, get out your knife!”
I reached into my pocket and felt the cardboard cover, slipping it off after removing the knife from my jacket. My hands trembled as I pressed against Janice. We cowered in the corner of the room, trying to hide behind a crash cart. It wouldn’t do us much good if the druggies had a flashlight.
Dr. Kramer shut the door as he left the room and we both smashed our bodies together, two shivering girls getting ready to face people that had just run over, shot or beat to death any number of folks. Just to get a pill. Just to stay high. Civilization was falling around us. I was not prepared.
A minute passed, when we heard the crash of broken glass. A moment later, the front door clicked open. The looters must have reached through the smashed door and twisted open the dead bolt. They were in! I could hear them as they excitedly talked, doors being kicked open as they marched down the hall. Tables were being overturned and chairs and Lord knows what else were being thrown against the walls. More shattered glass when the break room right next door was feeling the brunt of the lunatics as they moved inexorably towards our room. Janice muffled a cry as the refrigerator was slammed to the ground in the next room. I held her with my left arm, my right arm holding the pitifully small knife. I had decided that I was not going to be taken without a fight. Damn them, I thought. I will die before I’d let them take me, or Janice, or the patients. I knew death was waiting, but at least, I had a chance if I stuck. I wasn’t going to let the bastards get me without a price. Anyway, that is what I told myself.