The King of Clayfield - 01

by Shane Gregory

  "I think we should try to stick to the list," I said. "I want to be sure we get the necessities first."

  "What if we see a necessity that isn't on the list?" Sara said.

  "I don't know," I said. "Those lists I printed were pretty exhaustive."

  "It doesn't matter," Jen said. "We're not separating, anyway. We can discuss it if it comes up. Now, let’s get some carts and start shopping.”

  "Where do you want to start?"

  "Food first," Jen said. "Then we'll work our way back."

  Charlie had been right; the store was a mess. There were no guns left in the case in sporting goods, and the ammunition was nearly cleaned out. I looked down at the list to make sure I'd put .38 caliber bullets on there. I had--toward the bottom.

  We made our way to the front of the store to get carts just like we would have on a normal shopping day, only this wasn't a normal shopping day, and there were no carts up front. The carts were scattered throughout the store and in the parking lot full of stuff. We couldn't find an empty cart anywhere.

  We were between the checkouts and the greeting card section when I stopped to look at one of the carts. I was curious to see what people were buying just before the end of the world.

  That particular cart had five cases of Diet Coke, several cans of condensed soup, a new computer, and a large bag of rice. The next cart had bottled water, three bags of cat food, and lots of Spam and powdered donuts.

  "We can probably find everything we need by picking through other people's carts," I said.

  "We'll probably have to," Jen said. "Look over at the grocery section."

  The shelves were almost bare. We emptied those two carts of everything except for the water, donuts, rice and soup then proceeded to the bakery. The front doors on the food side of the store were obliterated. Someone had rammed a truck through them, and it was still there halfway in, the tires flat.

  I found a bag of rolls on the floor. They'd been stepped on. I put it in the cart. Jen raised her eyebrows.

  "For the chickens," I said.

  Other than that, there was no bread. There was still the actual bread aisle to check, but I didn't expect much.

  The produce section had been cleaned out, too. There was a lonely bunch of beets and some black bananas left. I was going to miss bananas...and oranges...and avocados. There was so much produce that I loved to eat that didn't grow here.

  "Look," Jen said, putting the beets in the cart, "your favorite."

  I remembered the canned beets from our first day together and smiled. I spied a couple of small sweet potatoes on the floor next to one of the center produce displays. I picked them up and brought them to the cart.

  "These aren't for eating," I said. "I'll use them to start plants for the garden."

  "We have a garden?" Sara said.

  "We will," I said. "We'll have to. I should have put seeds on our list."

  "Won't we be able to collect enough food to eat on for a while?" Sara asked.

  "Maybe, but when that runs out, then what? Even if we don't need it right away, we should at least plant one so we can have seed for when we do."

  "We'll check back in the garden center," Jen said.

  "It's too early in the year," I said. "I doubt they'll have seeds out. We'll probably have to find them in houses. We can go back to my house. I have a few partial packets left from last year, but not enough to feed all of us."

  We opened the freezer cases. They weren't full, but there was considerably more in them than on the other shelves. Nothing was frozen anymore, but it was still cold.

  "We can get some of this stuff," I said, "so long as we eat it today or tomorrow."

  "If we get another cold snap, it might last us longer," Jen said, pulling out a pizza. "I've been jonesing for pizza."

  We got a pizza for each of us, a dessert for each of us, and tub of whipped topping for each of us. We knew this would be the last time we'd have anything like that for a while. I collected a few bags of frozen vegetables (now thawed) for the goat. I noticed Jen standing in front of the juice concentrate.

  "Have you ever made wine?" she asked.

  "No."

  "I had an ex that used to make it out of this juice," she said. "It tasted awful, but it did the job. We're going to need to have alcohol on hand at all times, and there are a few left in here."

  "Do you remember how to do it?"

  "I think so," she said. "It was just juice, sugar, and yeast...I think. One of those containers can make a whole gallon of wine."

  "Get the supplies, and we can give it a try."

  Next was the bread/coffee/tea/peanut butter aisle. There was nothing left except some trampled coffee beans on the floor.

  The canned goods aisles were empty, too. We went to every aisle and found nothing except broken bottles and spills.

  "We'll have to do our grocery shopping out of the other carts or empty houses," I said. "Let's get the other stuff we need. I'm starting to get nervous about how long we've been in here."

  "We're just getting started, hon," Jen said. "No need to be nervous. Mr. Somerville is throwing a party downtown, and we have the place to ourselves."

  We spent the next half hour or so quickly collecting things from the store. Jen seemed comfortable and wanted to take her time, but I felt rushed. We got some batteries of different sizes, including two car batteries. We all got some clothes and boots in our sizes, but we didn't try them on or worry about fashion.

  The pharmacy had been raided, but there were still some things left. We found a couple of bottles of amoxicillin--an antibiotic--but that was just a fluke. I picked up a few bottles of pills at random, but I didn't know what the medications were, and I didn't have time to go through them all. I considered taking all of it anyway, but without proper identification, it would be useless to us.

  We took what was left of the vitamins, protein bars, over-the-counter medications, and first aid supplies--which wasn't much. Then there were things like eye drops, feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, toothbrushes--things we took for granted that just wouldn't be made anymore.

  Jen started tossing boxes of condoms into the cart. I could tell by the look on Sara's face that she was uncomfortable.

  "Sara," I said, "would you mind looking on the next aisle to see if there is any soap left?"

  She nodded and walked around to the other side.

  Jen continued to pull condom boxes off the racks.

  "Jen, don't you think that's enough?"

  "I'm getting them all," she said. "I know they aren't on the list, but this is one of those unlisted necessities, don't you think?"

  "You could be a little more discrete about it," I said.

  "Does this offend you or something?"

  "No, but Sara looked kind of embarrassed."

  "She'll be okay," she said.

  I pushed the cart around and found Sara smelling a bottle of shower gel. She wouldn't look at me. She put some soap and shampoo into the cart and moved to the next aisle.

  We filled three carts and parked them in Automotive. We found four more carts that contained supplies we were looking for anyway, and we just pushed them back without going through them.

  There were no seeds. We found two dead bodies in the garden center, but we didn't know if they were really dead, or if they'd be getting up at some point. We pushed some smaller display shelves on top of them in case they woke up while we were there. We thought it might slow them down.

  The boxes of ammunition that were left were .223 and .30-30. I collected the loose bullets and shells from the floor, too. I found three loose .38 rounds on the floor, and I loaded them into the little revolver I'd found in the parking lot at city hall. They'd have a lot more stopping power than the .22.

  The camping and fishing supplies were all gone. We didn't do nearly as well as Jen had hoped. We didn't even get enough stuff to fill one truck.

  I didn't like how long it was taking us.

  "Let's load this stuff," I said. "Then we'l
l go over to Tractor Supply. They'll have food for the chickens and horses. Maybe they'll have seed there."

  As we started loading the supplies into the truck I noticed the sound of distant gunfire. I went outside. It was coming from the north, same as the siren. There was also smoke that direction, too.

  "Jen! Sara!"

  They came outside. There were a lot of guns going off--more than just one person.

  "Do you think he's in trouble?" I said.

  "Sounds like he has help," Jen said.

  "We should check on him," I said. "That smoke concerns me."

  "Shit," Jen said. "We have a plan, remember? Let's at least load this stuff first."

  "He needs us," Sara said.

  "We're going, Jen," I said. "We'll come back."

  CHAPTER 33

  We drove one of the moving vans and took the bypass again and circled around, coming in on East Broadway. The siren originated at the fire station next to city hall. It was loud, almost disorienting. The smoke billowed up black. The gunfire was steady, and it sounded like there might even be an automatic weapon going off. We couldn't actually make it close to city hall or the court square, because the mass of infected people pressing toward the noise extended out more than two blocks in every direction.

  We stopped on East Broadway between 2nd Street and 5th Street. People were coming in from every direction to join the others. They'd been making their way here for at least an hour by this time, so some of these creatures had probably walked in from outside of town. They stumbled past us, more interested in the siren and guns.

  "Can you tell what is going on?" Sara said.

  "I'm going up to take a look through the scope," I said.

  I took the .30-06 and got out of the truck. A man nearby saw me and came at me. I was able to get around the front of the truck and climb up on the hood before he could get to me. I then crawled onto the top of the cab, then onto the top of the box. The man stared up at me for a few seconds.

  "You want me to shoot him?" Jen called out from below.

  "No," I said. "He can't get me."

  I got down on my belly and looked through the scope.

  The smoke was coming from the street, from the infected. The ones in the middle were on fire. They were walking around, bumping into each other, burning. In the crowd were two fire trucks. People were standing on top of them with hoses, pumping arcs of water against the buildings. Two people--merely silhouettes in the smoke from this distance--were on the roof of the C&S Drugstore. One was lobbing Molotov cocktails down to the street while the other fired into the crowd. Others on the fire trucks were armed and picking off people in the crowd, as well. Bodies lay in the street, being walked on by the others.

  "What the hell?" I said.

  The smell of burning flesh and hair and clothes was sickening. Behind me I could see a vehicle approaching.

  "Jen, you two get down!" I said.

  Not knowing who they were, I didn't want them to see me, and I didn't think they would notice me where I was. I lay still and watched them.

  It was a Ford F-350--one of those large pickups with the diesel engine--pulling a flatbed trailer. It pulled up next to an infected woman who was staggering down the road. The driver let down his window and shot her in the head with a pistol. She dropped to her knees, then to her face. The doors opened on the truck. A man and woman, both wearing masks and rubber gloves, got out. The man shot the dead woman again in the head. Then the masked couple picked the woman up by her wrists and ankles and threw her on the trailer. The trailer already had several bodies on it.

  The man that had been interested in me came out at them before they made it to the truck, and they dispatched him the same way. When they got close to the moving van they stopped. The driver looked up at me. He'd noticed me after all.

  "I just got word the batteries are getting low!" he said, holding up a cell phone. "You might want to take up a new position!"

  He'd mistaken me for someone else.

  I nodded to them. He waved, then backed the trailer around and headed back, taking a right onto 2nd Street.

  I wasn't sure what he meant, but I climbed down, thinking it prudent to obey.

  "What are they doing?" Jen asked as I climbed in.

  "It looks like they're trying to lure them all to one place so they can kill them. They're shooting and burning them. There are a few survivors out there. Somerville must have gotten some help."

  "How many survivors did you see?" Sara asked.

  "Nine--counting the couple in the truck.”

  "This is some major dumbassery," Jen said. "This is what happens when rednecks sit around and brainstorm."

  "Did you see the Somervilles?" Sara asked

  "I couldn't tell," I said. "Everyone was too far away, and they were all wearing masks."

  "What do you want to do?" Jen said. "Do you want to stay and help these morons?"

  "I don't really want any part of this," I said. "I suppose killing the infected is necessary, but I don't know if I can stomach it like this. I don't even know if they're doing any good."

  Then the siren stopped. My ears were ringing a little in the new silence.

  "What are they doing?" Sara said.

  "That must be what he meant about the batteries," I said. "The batteries running the siren have died."

  The infected looked like they'd been awakened from a trance. I could hear the ones on fire screaming. There was movement in the crowd that reminded me of movement in water. The fire and smoke began to drift south. The men on the fire trucks turned their hoses on the burning people now, trying to put them out before they got away from them. The ones with guns focused their attention on the burning ones, too.

  Fire started licking out of the windows of the drugstore. The two people on top of the building ran around on the roof looking for a way of escape.

  "They're going to burn the whole town down," Jen said. "What were they thinking? Stupid--"

  "They were thinking they could contain it," I said.

  Arms reached up to one of the fire trucks. The men on top tried to hold them away with the force of the water, but they couldn't push them all away. The infected started climbing up.

  "This is about to get bad," Jen said, "and there ain't a damn thing we can do about it. Get the hell away from here."

  I couldn't leave.

  "We're going to try to help those people on the roof."

  I could feel Jen looking at me, but she didn't say anything.

  I put the van into drive and pulled up close to the back of the building. Sara wouldn't be able to open her door, but the infected couldn't get at her either.

  "Jen, I'm going to get them on the roof of the truck. When I tell you, pull us out of here."

  I jumped out of the truck again. The creatures were moving around more now, and I had three come at me all at once. I pulled the .38 from my pocket and aimed at the first one. The gun clicked. I pulled the trigger again, and it clicked again. It only had three rounds and evidently they hadn't moved into place as the cylinder rotated. I could have tried one or two more times, and it would have fired, but they were too close. I stopped trying to shoot and just climbed up on the hood, then cab roof, then top of the box. Below, I heard a gunshot and knew that Jen was taking care of business.

  The roof of the drugstore was still a few feet higher than the top of the moving van, but I could see. The two figures were moving around in the smoke. It hadn't gotten too thick on the far side yet, so that's where they were. They were looking over the edge with their backs to me. I could tell they were trying to decide whether they should jump and face the monsters. There was really no choice--they'd eventually have to jump.

  "Over here!"

  They turned in the smoke. Only my head and shoulders were sticking up over the roof but they saw me. They thought I was one of the infected at first, and the one with the rifle pointed it at me. Then they noticed my mask, lowered the gun, and ran to me. When they got to the edge, they sat on the ro
of ledge, and dropped to the top of the truck.

  "Go, Jen!"

  Jen backed the van into the crowd, turned, and then pulled away heading east. The three of us on the roof held on as well as we could, trying to keep our backs to the cold wind. A large group of the creatures chased us, but were soon left behind.

  When she got to the intersection of East Broadway and the bypass, she stopped the truck. This was the outer edge of the east side of Clayfield where the town abruptly turned into farmland. There was no one around except an infected old man shuffling in.

  "You two okay?" I said.

  One of them nodded.

  "What about the others?" said the one with the gun, "We have to go back!"

  "We can't help them," I said.

  Jen got out, shot the old man, and stood in front of the truck facing us with the shotgun in a defensive posture.

  "Come on down," she said.

  We climbed down the front of the truck.

  The two pulled down their masks. It was a boy--15 years old at most--and a woman in her 50s.

  "We have to go back," the woman said again.

  "We were barely able to help you," Jen said.

  "Who are you?" the woman said. "You're not with our group."

  "What the hell were y'all thinking?" Jen said.

  "Excuse me? We were thinking we'd take our town back."

  The boy stepped up.

  "We were doing something about it," he said.

  "Hunter, no," the woman said, grabbing the boy's arm.

  "We ain't going back," Jen said. "Y'all have them all stirred up. We'll never get in there. We even have a bunch coming this way."

  We all looked down East Broadway. They were coming, but they were still far enough away not to worry about just yet.

  "Then let me take the truck, and I'll go in and get them," the boy said.

  "It's too dangerous," I said. "You're safer with us."

  "If we go back, then we'll all get caught," Jen said.

  "If you don't want to go, then don't!" Hunter yelled.

  He ran around to the driver's side of the moving van and started to get in. Jen ran to catch him. She got to him and tried to pull him out. He punched her in the face. I ran to help her.