by Ron Foster
“Folks have figured out this place got a back door.” Ezra declared
“Ah hell, see I told you! Give me one of those starched store shirts you got with the logo. Everyone have their name tag on? Ok when the cops come in a few they will leave you alone because you work here and you tell them grab what they need for supplies but leave some for the civilians.” Zack said before it looked like the Swat team landed with several cars in the parking lot.
“Ok, shopping carts!” Zack said as he happily started grabbing 50 pounds or less weighty bags of rice, half the ham and , instant soup mixes and other sundries as Ezra figured he couldn’t keep up with the fool and instead had a bag boy do his bidding and choose his selections of items he figured Zack was forgetting like soy sauce for all that damn rice he was loading his cart up with cart with!
“Hey your meats going to go bad quick with no refrigeration, I can’t give you an official receipt for it, but you know how it is, it’s hard to justify a piece of steak when you are supposed to be getting supplies for FEMA, but would you mind much if we grab us some? I will be sure to give you lots of credit and recommendations when I write my report.” Zack said studying the butcher and manager.
“Sure, can you get what you want out of the case?” Vern asked indicating the retail display rack.
“No problem!” Zack said grabbing a hand truck and just grabbing a few boxes,
“Cover us!” Ezra declared pushing the ice truck driver along as Zack zipped by with a hand truck and two bag boys pushing overloaded shopping carts by.
A bevy of guns and stern faces opened the backdoor and the would-be looters backed up in fear as the ice truck was loaded and Zack and Ezra made their getaway past the cops and bullshit going on in the front parking lot.
“You boys ain’t for real government men are ya?” The ice truck driver said smirking about them being most likely being imposters
‘What clued you in?” Ezra said casually waving his pistol dismissively like he didn’t care if he just got caught or not.
“You looked like you were having entirely way too much fun and that old man sitting next to you was smiling like a Cheshire cat at times.” The driver said pointing one stubby finger in Zack’s direction.
“You aren’t thinking of telling on us, are you?” Zack asked arching one eyebrow.
“Oh, hell no! No Way! That was the most fun I think I ever had watching a robbery in a long time! Better than the Tv or movies I mean! Tell you what though, I think you all owe me a taste of your loot for staying quiet and helping you out though.” The man said with a conspiratorial grin.
“You got it! We got no problem sharing some food with you.” Zack replied.
“Where are we going to anyway “Ramus asked
“Spectre Island!” they both chimed simultaneously.
“So, you weren’t bullshitting or are you still bull shitting me? I got to say you got me pretty well confused now.” Ramus said.
“Not BS’ing you at all, we do need the stuff and I am what I am. First off you got to stop off at the car dealership up the road and meet some friends that should be waiting on us.” Zack said advising him that was their chosen rally point for everyone else that went on this emergency food buying mission to meet up at.
“My momma warned me about folks like you, but I never expected to meet one. I have never seen one lie and the other swear to it better than you all.” The ice truck driver declared.
“I guess maybe when I get back with these cases of steaks there is going to be a lot of people that owe me a big apology for not furnishing them with a free fish fry!” Zack said as he and Ezra laughed uproariously about something he didn’t understand.
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5
Rendezvous
Meantime on the other side of town the other cash paying Island survivor scavengers were trying their luck after finally being let in the stores a few at a time to fill a shopping cart and pay what cash they were allowed to spend for the products.
I don’t know what Bobby was thinking as he wiped out the beanie weenie aisle and put a serious dent in the corn bread fixings but he got himself a pretty good haul. Pedro and Jose who spoke perfect English acted like they couldn’t even understand each other’s excited Spanish as they managed to fit the contents of the Tex-Mex small display rack into both their shopping carts and added some Asian cuisine to the underside of their carts whether they knew what it was they were going to be eating or not.
Rachel and Donna wanted to appear to be not together and a separate household so they didn’t get to hit the place at the same time and both got warned not to think about it so much and grab what they could and get out of there so other folks could do the same.
Donna made the camp Nutella rich and managed to find tortillas on another aisle Jose and Pedro didn’t get to. I don’t know why but Rachel spent about half her money on One a day vitamins and grits which she wasn’t familiar with but they sounded good after listening to Zack previously yakking about southern stick to your ribs kind of comfort food. Bobbi’s wife seeing no beans, and no rice etc. left on the shelves, decided gravy and flour worked for him for biscuits later and his wife scored big time with the Sweet Sue Chicken and dumplings canned food as well as enough hot sauce to eat your own shoes if you had to and enough cans of sardines to bait the Atlantic fishing fleet.
Little did they know before showing their hard earned well thought out wonders of an already depleted grocery store just what Zack and Ezra had managed to come up with and evidently for free or for very little!
“Can I go now mister; I need to be getting home and see about my old lady and youngins’.” Their ice truck driver said.
“It probably ain’t worth a damn and will melt in value about as fast as that ice you still got on that truck in a day or two but here’s a $50 bill for your trouble and silence if the cops talk you anything about us.” Zack said also patting a big bag of rice and a small pile of other foodstuffs along with some fresh meat that the man would benefit receiving for being a big part of their grocery store robbery ruse and they all said their goodbyes and swore they had never seen one another.
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6
OF OLD RAMS AND ROGUES
“So, what’s next on the agenda now?” Ezra asked ready to start a new project.
“I guess we will load up the dingy and take part of the supplies over to the island. Bobby says historically speaking the ebb and flow of the river during flood season puts a lot of the island under water but plenty of people have been stuck on it and camped out for a few weeks until the causeway was usable again. We will see what the consensus of the folks on the island say about if they want off now or not. We can move people over to this side of the shore but not with all the camping equipment and crap they got with them. I can’t see any sense of breaking camp unless it’s an absolute emergency because they would in my way of thinking actually be better off, marooned or not staying with their gear.” Zack said.
“Yea Bobby over there said he takes his Jon boat over every day when that happens to see if folks need supplies or want off the island. Uh, Zack are you suggesting to leave the rest of the supplies on my truck? I will at least need a tarp to cover that stuff and some of my camping stuff. I need to ask Bobby where to camp on his land over here also, What about the ladies?” Ezra asked seeing Donna and Rachel evidently doing some haggling with Bobby and his wife as they balanced out menus and supplies by trading a can of this for that etc.
“They are stuck over here now, so as far as I am concerned, they may as well stay over here. I will bring their tent and bug out bags back when I come back this evening. I need to bring Rod back over here now and get his car and do some talking about sharing some gear. This is one screwed up situation we got here that needs sorting out and I want to see where his head is at in regards to helping out some lost souls. He just lives right down the street from here and even though his truck is stuck on the Island, he has his wife’s car and that slick looking old style muscle
car of his parked back in his garage.” Zack said.
“You might want to think about leaving his ass over there for the night to wrangle all those local preppers he brought to the meet. You know that they are all going to disappear to the four winds as quick as you let them off the island or the water goes down and they can drive their own vehicles out.” Ezra said thinking they should at least offer to bring back some extra gear for those not having anywhere else to go.
“You got a pretty good point there, but I ain’t really in any kind of a position to be trying to hold them hostage to get a promise to help out those folks that traveled long distances to get all the way down here. We don’t even know how many of the ones that drove 10 hours or more like you did are fixed for gas and thinking about trying to go home.” Zack said contemplating how many people or preppers would be willing to share any extra supplies or preps they had put back. I the grand scheme of disasters this was the “Big One” and folks likely would be thinking every man and women for themselves. Any kind of charity they gave up now would be sorely missed later most would realize.
“Well as for me, I got better sense than try to attempt to drive it all the way back to Oklahoma. The roads will be messed up already and there is no telling what’s going to be going on or how bad it will be in two weeks or so when that water recedes enough to get the vehicles off the island. I plan on staying until we get the last man or woman off the island and kind of hoped that you could see your way clear to letting me tribe up with you some kind of way to see this apocalypse through.” Ezra asked studying his friend that he barely knew out of social media circles, but had come to be Zack’s right hand man to help him out over the last few days seeing about the other camper’s welfare.
“I was wondering about your plans and I am glad you are deciding to stick around. I saw you talking to Bobby and asking him about those gas pumps that he has by the barn for fueling his heavy equipment and lawn maintenance mowers. Was he willing to sell you some fuel?” Zack asked.
“Well he sorts of gave me some fuel already or he has added it to my bill at an unspecified rate, yet to be determined price. I ain’t sure which yet which. I see what you mean about trying to dicker with a politician that likes to count his own money, it’s danged hard to get a price or a discount out of him and seems things tend to get left for later or adjusted to the economic winds of change or his feelings about something.” Ezra said looking over at the ladies evidently getting a dose of their own backwoods political wheeling and dealing in that food exchange with him and his wife they were attempting.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he ain’t going to try to charge them campsite rent over here.” Zack said laughing.
“He is a sharp operator no doubt, but he is a good old boy at heart and a shrewd and practical man about most things. Anyway, at the moment, he won’t sell me a few extra gallons of gas to get home on and besides I don’t have any containers to put it in anyway. Put that on your scavenging list Zack, we need us some 5-gallon jerry cans if you can figure out some way to trade or BS somebody out of some. You think you can pull your CERT team vest or Emergency manager crap on the National Guard unit or a Lowes store or something?” Ezra asked.
“Well that’s one reason I want to leave Rod’s happy ass over on the island as long as I can. You see he is going to go to this towns EOC (Emergency Operation Center) just as quick as he possibly can and try to help them establish communications with the HAM operators. Now normally that’s a good thing but like I told you when we were trying to get radio reception in your truck we got some kind of geomagnetic storm going on I don’t know the meaning of yet and the talk in that blockhouse when they can’t connect will turn to local news and the cops probably wondering who the hell the two old bastards supposedly from the government that raided the supermarket are. They always get advisory’s about people dressing like cops or fake government officials and unscrupulous contractors trying to take advantage of disaster and I just soon not be on anyone’s radar at the moment. Matter of fact it would be better if Donna and Rachel go back with Bobby to try to get your truck and you hide out here in case one of those employees spot you returning for it.” Zack declared.
“Good thinking, when do you reckon it might be safe to go back after it?” Ezra asked.
“Now that’s a million-dollar question! More folks will be trying to get to the grocery stores now as we speak and I imagine the cops have got their hands pretty full trying to make order out of chaos all around that town. At least it ain’t too big of a city and country folks got some sense about being courteous or trying to work together when the traffic lights go out, but a lot of strangers will be coming in off the interstate hunting gas or directions. Those out of town folks are going to monkey wrench things up a mite. Hey Bobby! Come here and chat for a second please.” Zack said as Bobby hesitated not wanting to leave the food exchange barter that was in full swing and tentatively head their way.
“What do you need Zack? I am kind of busy at the moment.” Bobby said impatiently wanting to get back to the animated conversation and try to get the better end of a deal that hadn’t even included Ezra and Zacks’s objections or ideas as of yet.
“You can go back to finishing your conversation in a minute. We need you to take the girls back to get Ezra’s truck as quick as you can.” Zack began before Bobby cut him off.
“I ain’t going back to that crazy shit. I will get him down there in a day or two when the smoke clears.” Bobby said adamantly.
“Sorry Bobby, it kind of needs to be now.” Zack began again before the camp owner objected once again.
“Why the hell do we have to do it now? You saw how bad it was back there at the stores and all the traffic getting out on the road now. It’s safe here and you all can get around to retrieving his vehicle later.” Bobby said angrily.
“Well lots going on as you know and that’s the only vehicle, we got this side of the river for camp and don’t want nothing happening to it. I am guessing that parking lot will be full of cops or National Guard soon or the stupid crazy folks begin thinking vandalizing crap because they can’t get what they want etc.” Zack explained.
“Could be somebody tonight might think of siphoning the gas out of it also.” Ezra said with a bit of sharpness in his voice because of not willing to leave it in the parking lot any longer than what seemed prudent.
“Well Jose can drive his car and carry you or one of the girls to get it.” Bobby started saying before Zack said he didn’t think it was such a great idea for him and Ezra to be seen around that place so soon.
“I can’t believe you two fools tried that bit of lying subterfuge just to steal you some free food!” Bobby said momentarily perturbed by what shenanigans the two had managed to pull off.
“Hey now! Those damned so-called shoppers weren’t having none of they couldn’t come in the store yet and turning violent! I figured that was our one and only chance for us to get something to eat and took it. What are you complaining about? I looked out for the island group as well as you and your workers. I had no idea how you were doing making out buying stuff on your own food runs and had no idea if it was as bad where you were at as where we were…” Zack said fiercely.
“Hey now back to you boy, what you did was illegal and don’t forget this is my island! If that damned sheriff comes looking for you, I am sorry son but I am going to point you out to him!” Bobby said as Jose and Pedro came over to see what the shouting was about and protect their boss man.