The Dead Lands Diary (Book 1)

by Staggs, S. David

  Stepping out of the area and heading right we entered the electronics section. We discovered there were quite a few packages of batteries left, which we took. We also took some flashlights.

  There was only a small aisle with food to check and when we did it was down to its bare minimum. We found two cans of corn, three cans of beans, one can of peas, box of crackers and a box of peanut butter protein bars.

  Reggie gave us a "HEY!" from the front and we hurried to the front of the store. He looked a little spooked.

  ME: What is it?

  REGGIE: Saw a truck, man. Red pickup...came from that way out of town...donno how many in the cab, but two guys were in the back with rifles.

  JIM: Did they look this way?

  REGGIE: Nah...not at all.

  KELLY: That's a relief. If they come through a lot they'd know a car isn't parked here.

  REGGIE: What's in that direction?

  ME: Couple miles that way is Mantua Corners.

  JIM: What's that?

  ME: A few businesses down there...Bar and Grille, a Dollar Store, some gas stations. Maybe they came from a run to the Dollar Store.

  JIM: This is the first time we've seen other people. There's survivors set up somewhere nearby.

  REGGIE: I donno if that's a comfort or a bad thing.

  ME: Could be either one...depends of who they are. What'd they look like, could you tell?

  REGGIE: The driver, not at all. Donno if there was a passenger either. Guys in back were average looking, I guess? One had on a hat, short beard. Other a skinny fella with shaggy ass hair.

  ME: We gotta be smarter than leaving our car so noticeable. Start parking out of view.

  REGGIE: Just another lesson learned. Thankfully this one without consequence.

  JIM: Don't speak too soon, they could come back. If they were here I'm surprised they didn't take everything.

  KELLY: Maybe they weren't here.

  ME: I find that hard to believe. They're most likely from around here..maybe used to live here...they'd have come here for sure.

  KELLY: Maybe they were just coming through from somewhere further, heading who knows where. Nomads so to speak.

  ME: Never know. Could be. Reggie and me are gonna go move the car behind the caboose in case they come back...you guys stay here.

  JIM: Be careful.

  After hiding the vehicle behind the caboose and making sure the coast was clear, we trotted back to the doors and made our way inside. Just to be safe we were gonna have to sit this one out for a little while.

  ***

  Once 6:00 rolled around, without a sighting of anything or anyone, we decided to head back out, going the same route we'd came. It was clear and hopefully stayed that way. No need taking a route that the truck maybe took regularly. Sure, they may be good...but we thus far hadn't the ability to watch them and observe them.

  Tim and Ben were sitting in the kitchen when we went inside. When asked why they weren't on the porch or in the windows when we pulled up they shrugged...they knew it was us, they said. And if it hadn't been I had asked? To which they shockingly had no answer.

  We cannot become complacent. That could be a fatal mistake.

  ***

  We waited an extra day before we decided to go back. We discussed the truck and people around the area. Granted, the people that lived around here were good folk, but that didn't mean other people escaping cities hadn't wandered out here, ones that perhaps weren't good folk.

  After some thought I had pondered the idea of snooping around some roads, seeing what we could find. Eventually we needed more people...we'd discussed that before. But it was voted out for now. Only one that voted in my favor was Ben. The adventurous boy.

  We'd been stuck together for so long now, aside from Ben, that again it was total complacency. It was also the feeling of tight knit safety. The world was dark now. It was cold and brutal. Encountering other people felt just as scary as encountering the infected now.

  Eventually, we'd have to face that fact of safety in numbers. As safe as we felt I knew we were vulnerable. I know they knew it, too. They just wanted to prolong what we were used to for a little while longer.

  I conceded to us waiting the winter though as it was now. I was reluctant, but they were likely right. We'd have less threats in the winter. Other survivors would scavenge from stores or homes near them. We'd do the same with the stores and hopefully not cross paths. We'd search every nearby house first.

  The winters here are brutal; blistering cold and often a ton of snow fall throughout the season. People don't want to be outside. It'll be hard enough staying warm even indoors.

  As for the infected, well, this is the first winter in the post world. We don't know what effect the cold will have on them. That should be interesting to see.

  Maybe they freeze solid. At least when it's freezing temperatures. Surely they'd have to. Maybe moderate cold didn't bother them at all. Maybe it would slow the Bolters down. Here's to hoping. Or maybe they even migrate. Here's to hoping more!

  We were entering into the third week of August. It wouldn't be long before we found out.

  ***

  When the four of us went back, Tim and Ben again remaining behind, it was starting to rain.

  This time when we arrived at the intersection by the post office we turned left on Main Street. A gas station and then a bank on the right, K & K Meat Shoppe. A family owned business dating back quite awhile. It was a town favorite. Hams, pork, poultry, beef...a deli. When it comes to meat, they had what you were looking for.

  A little further down was the Village Tavern. A quaint little bar that also dated back awhile.

  Across the street, however, is what I had driven down there for. An old store...long closed down. In my youth and young adulthood it was a family owned convenient store. If you lived right in town or nearby, they had whatever you needed.

  Now the front door and large store front windows were completely boarded up and had been before the fall. This would be a good safe house. The boards were still intact. No one had tried to get in, at least from this side, and no one would have a reason. It's empty.

  I remembered the back door had been a think metal. It wouldn't be boarded. I turned right up the hilled street to where its old back parking lot was.

  Now the store was below us a little ways. A cement staircase led the way down to a small walkway where the door was. This was the first door that I knew would be locked for sure. We'd have to pry it and once inside we'd find no keys like we had at the Hutt, so our only way inside would always remain unsecured. That was the only downfall but it was the best place.

  After waiting a bit I moved the vehicle further down inside the parking lot as far out of sight as possible, then we made our way to the staircase.

  We descended down quickly and scurried to the door. Just to be one hundred percent before wasting time, I pulled the handle. Locked...I went to work with the crowbar while they watched in every direction and listened for the faintest sounds over the grinding of the door.

  It popped open loudly and we hurried inside hoping nothing heard that. We quickly equipped flashlights and whirled them around us.

  It was musty inside. The dust was thick. No one had obviously stepped foot inside since it closed. To the right was a doorway. It was where they cut the deli meats.

  We moved forward to a small steep set of stairs that led down into the main store. It was of course bare and empty but I could visualize what it once was. At my right below me is where the deli display had been. Way over on the other side was where the register was. Between had been small rows of assorted items. Snacks down there mostly. At the bottom was another ramp on the left and further down was yet another. The far one went up into what was once the liquor and wine section.

  The close one that we went up led to coolers with milk and pop and the like. Across had been a few aisles of canned goods, boxes of pasta, yada yada. Dish soap and detergent. Further back still were rows of movies to rent. Well, th
e boxes to VHS tapes. I don't recall them ever updating to DVDs. Either they stopped renting at that time or they closed shop before DVDs were the next big thing.

  Plenty of memories. Now just dusty empty spaces. I looked down at our foot prints. That was one way to know if anyone came in after us. We needed to trace back our same path. There was nowhere to hide our goods in here. We'd only leave a little and we'd put it up here in the back. The odds of anyone snooping here were low.

  Before we left we'd put some jugs of water in here and a few cans of stuff. Sure as hell weren't going to leave a lot when we couldn't secure the place or even hide the stuff properly.

  It was as good a place as any. Wasn't as perfect as the Hutt but it'd have to do. Hopefully we'd never need to use it but nice to know these places would be there in case we did.

  A sudden thundering sound rumbling all above us gave us a startle for a second and then we realized it was a total down pour outside.

  It was then I realized a real shitty disadvantage to the place. We had no line of sight. No windows and not even a door with a small window. We'd never know when it was clear unless we just chanced it. I looked around on the ceiling throughout the main area and up the ramps and finally up the stairs toward the deli area. There I found an access point to the roof. At the very least we could climb up there and take a look around. We just needed to bring a latter to store here.

  ***

  After some debate we decided to leave the car where it was and walk around to the front of the store. Once we were sure it was clear we jogged across the street and up a few stairs to the sidewalk in front of the Village Tavern.

  The door was open.

  Inside there was the smell of grease from the kitchen and spilled liquor...a few broken bottles littered the floor. Straight ahead of us led to the kitchen area and the back door to a porch. To the left running down the same direction was the bar, its shelves stocked with maybe twenty or thirty remaining bottles.

  To our left was a pool table and some tables and chairs. Directly across from the bar were restrooms. By the table area against the wall were a couple lean windows that were a ways up. They gave a clear view of the street.

  As we looked around it occurred to me that this would make a better safe house. It should be the primary safe house in town...we'd still have the store across the street as well. The more the merrier. Reggie said the same of the place moments later.

  Due to the store being unsecured we didn't leave all we had in there....before we left town we'd put the rest of the supplies in here somewhere.

  The backdoor was unlocked. I glanced outside at the quiet parking lot. A Roamer was wandering down the street in the direction of Headwaters Trail.

  I closed the door and locked it and headed back into the bar area. I walked behind the bar to look around. A few bottles. Some broken. This place hadn't been touched since the first days of it all.

  On the wall were hanging a set of keys. I grabbed them hoping they were for the door. The ring consisted of three keys. I called to Jim and tossed them his way. He went to check.

  I glanced across to the wall and noticed written with a black marker, "We're all fucked."

  Simply put.

  ***

  It started to rain again. We made our way back across the street and around the store and up the stairs where we stopped when we saw a Roamer standing in the middle of the parking lot.

  We caught each other by surprise. We naturally froze for a moment whereas the Roamer instantly lumbered toward us; it's face contorting into mindless rage. Before I even realized it was her bumping us all aside, Kelly took large strides directly at the creature and was out of reach before Jim could grab her arm.

  She raised the hammer up, with confidence, and swung it fast downward, hitting the Roamer atop it's forehead at its blonde hairline. Blackish blood seeped from the wound and down its face as it stumbled backwards. It regained footing and started toward her again, a little faster now, clearly angered further.

  She swung again, this time a side swing, and caught it directly in the eye socket. It again stumbled back, now growling, blood and puss oozing from where the eye had been. It raised its head, its good eye locked on her.

  Kelly didn't wait this time for it to advance. She rushed herself forward and cracked it in the skull, again by the hairline. This time the creature fell completely backwards and landed on its back. It started to lean up but she sprang forward and uppercutted it with the hammer, splitting its chin, sending it back to the ground. She knelt and struck the creature four or five more times in the head. It quit trying to attack. Its skull was busted open.

  She stood. I saw an accomplished smirk on her face. She deserved to have it. She was more capable than I ever imagined. The smile I saw told me she was happy to prove to herself just how capable she was. That she could handle herself and now she knew it without any doubt. Her smile started to fade as she looked at the bashed creature. She was wondering who he may have been before. You could read it like a book.

  Personally, I was proud. Reggie had his jaw hanging down in either shock or amazement. Jim...he was harder to read at first. He was somewhere between wowed and pissed off and scared.

  She turned to us. Her smile returning, not as big though. "Let's go home..."

  ***

  As we drove toward the parking lot exit, I drove around the dead Roamer, whose dark blood was flowing out and mixing with the rain water and puddles. We stopped very briefly to store some supplies in the Tavern and thankfully lock it up. The keys were a success. Then we headed back in the direction of the park and on further to home. During the drive we talked.

  REGGIE: I gotta just say...damn! You can handle yourself!

  KELLY: That's right I can...

  JIM: That's great, I'm glad...but you could have given a heads up about it. You scared the fuck out of me!

  KELLY: Calm down...it was just...the opportunity was there...it was a Roamer and just one. I needed to prove to myself I could and to you guys, too!

  JIM: You don't have to prove by throwing yourself in harms way.

  KELLY: Excuse me? Even if I had just stood there, one of you would have "thrown yourself" in harms way to do the same fuckin' thing, so don't patronize me. At least now you won't be as touchy or extra alert thinking you have to keep an extra eye on me to defend me. Now you know I can defend myself just as well as you can.

  JIM: I didn't say-

  KELLY: Shut it. Your argument is invalid.

  REGGIE: I haven't seen a beat down like that since....fuck, I ain't ever seen a beat down like that!

  ME: You should be proud, Jim. I get why you were scared and pissed, but you gotta admit....

  JIM: Yeah, yeah. I know. And I am. But she scared the shit out of me, that's all.

  KELLY: But I'm fine. We're all fine. And now you can rest a little easy knowing just how fine I am.

  JIM: I know....I know. I'm still shaken up, but it's good to know you can manage so well, you're right.

  REGGIE: You ought to be careful now when y'all argue, Jim, she just showed how easily she could fuck your life up.

  [light laughter]

  KELLY: So what's next? More of this town?

  ME: Eventually. I wanted to check out the corners and the Dollar Store but I also don't want to risk running into that truck on that stretch of road. There's not too much else to scavenge in town. I was thinking of checking out the houses around the country side where we live and seeing what we can find.

  REGGIE: I like that. Seems less risky. Some lower risk jobs would be nice for a bit. The last few weeks in two towns have been a little scary. A slow in pace for awhile will be welcomed.

  ME: We haven't seen any traffic around us whatsoever, so we shouldn't have any issues...aside from infected of course.

  JIM: You think Tim is any better? I think he's been better last couple days.

  ME: He's better, but I still want him to take it easy for the time being. I see him zone out a lot and he can't do that when w
e're out.

  REGGIE: True...but Ben is gonna get restless here real damn soon. I think he should do some of the house runs while we rotate staying with Tim.

  KELLY: By rotate you mean you, right?

  REGGIE: Hell yeah! But not just me...we could all use some breaks.

  ME: You guys can rotate some off days. I'm going everyday.

  JIM: You sure?

  ME: Yeah. I don't feel burned out. If I ever do, I'll speak up and willingly take a day or two. But for now, I'm good.

  KELLY: Start tomorrow?