Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies

by Jo Lee Auburne

  “This is crazy,” Sam said, hanging onto the “Oh, crap!” handle above her door. “Do you always drive like this?”

  “Only when I’m trying to beat a fire to get supplies,” Amanda said loudly because between the noises the truck was making and the radio, she could hardly hear herself think.

  The acrid smell of smoke had reached them, some of it making its way through the trucks air vents. She briefly thought about trying to make sure to find a new air filter for it but dismissed it when the truck fishtailed again.

  “It is kind of fun,” Sam said, “like a ride at an amusement park or something.” Sam was nearly yelling too to be heard over all the other noises.

  “Do me a favor and look in the center compartment, will you?” Amanda said. “There should be some bandanas in there. That’ll help with the smoke, I hope.”

  “The smoke’s not that bad,” Sam said, opening up the center compartment and digging around in it until she found them.

  “It’s not too bad in here, but wait till we get out,” Amanda said.

  “Good point,” Sam said, trying to hand a purple one to Amanda while she clutched a blue one.

  “Not now, hold on to it for me. I need both of my hands to drive,” she answered, barely giving the girl a glance.

  Sam tied her bandana on around her neck, being sure to adjust the triangle to fit over her nose.

  And then, just like that, the shimmying and the rattling noise stopped so suddenly that it made their ears hurt for a second while they each adjusted. They had made it to the pavement about two miles from town.

  “Finally, we’re here,” Sam said, too loudly. “I thought we weren’t ever going to make it.”

  Amanda switched the music off, and then the only thing they could hear was the howling of the wind and the sound of the tires on the pavement. Sand was blowing across the road, along with trash and debris, giving Amanda a surreal feeling of entering a ghost town.

  “Keep your eyes peeled from here on out,” she said, being sure to scan the distance and their periphery, but she could see nothing to cause alarm.

  “I don’t see anything, not even a stray creeper,” Sam said as Amanda slowed the truck to a crawl.

  Amanda had to agree that it was eerily quiet and highly unusual not to have come across a single creeper yet because the town was filled with them.

  She pulled the truck into a right turn and then a left, stopping in front of the pawnshop. A sign was swinging in the wind, boasting that they had once bought and sold gold.

  “This is the place?” Sam asked, sounding excited to finally begin the run.

  “Yep,” Amanda said, pulling a hard turn in the street, sending Sam careening into the passenger door. She slammed the truck into reverse and backed up until she had jumped up the curb and was nearly touching the metal bars that covered the front entrance.

  “Whoa, you’re not kidding that we’re in a hurry, huh?” Sam said, righting herself in the seat.

  Somehow Red had managed to stay in his sentry position throughout all the jostling.

  “We’re in a big fat hurry, Sam, but we aren’t going to sacrifice safety,” Amanda said, putting the truck in park. “We’ll leave it running for a minute while we hook up.”

  Amanda put a hand on Sam’s arm, causing her to halt her egress from the truck.

  “Wait,” was all she said as she turned to rummage in the extra cab portion of the truck.

  “What?” Sam asked, looking back to see what she was looking for.

  “Here, put this on,” Amanda said, bringing up a thin cotton long-sleeved shirt, “and slip your gloves on.”

  “It’s so hot,” Sam said with an exasperated tone.

  “It’ll offer a small amount of protection against them,” Amanda said, bringing up a second shirt for herself.

  “Can we switch, I like the color of yours better?” Sam asked, handing the shirt back.

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Amanda asked, sounding exasperated too, but she switched shirts with the girl.

  “Well, this ones like a faded pink color, and I like it better than that yucky green one,” Sam said by way of an explanation.

  “Good,” Amanda said after Sam had slipped the shirt on. “Now put your backpack on and grab the baseball bat. Anytime that you get out of this truck while we’re here in town, I want you to have that bat with you.”

  “Ooh, I can see one of them inside the store walking around,” Sam said excitedly, speaking of a creeper.

  “Try not to sound too happy about it, okay, that’s even creepier than they are,” Amanda said, eyeing Sam.

  “Sure thing,” Sam said, but with the same tone of excitement.

  “I sure hope that bringing you along isn’t going to be a big mistake,” Amanda said, opening her door and sliding out of the truck.

  The wind blew the truck door shut before she could reach back for it.

  “You can count on me,” Sam said, hefting the bat and cautiously walking around to meet Amanda at the rear of the vehicle where she was already in the process of hooking a chain up to the trailer hitch that was attached to the truck.

  “So what’s the plan?” asked Sam, sounding excited and a little breathless as she surveyed the area.

  Amanda could understand that because this was her first trip into town since that day over six months ago when they had run for their lives. Additionally, this was also the first time that she had had permission to leave camp to go more than a couple of miles away for a length of time, without her parents, and for a teenager, that was a big deal.

  “I need you to keep a lookout for anything suspicious, any movement, noise, anything, while I hook this chain up. Once it’s hooked up, I’m going to drive forward and pull this grate off. As you can see, we have at least a couple of creepers inside that we’ll need to take care of. Hopefully, you can just leave that to me,” she said, running the thick metal chain through the bars of the grate and attaching the hook back to itself. “Once the creepers are dispatched, we move fast, one of us on the lookout and the other loading supplies. We’ll also listen for Red because he’s got a nose for trouble, and he’ll warn us if he sees or smells any.”

  “Got it,” said Sam, already taking her job as the lookout seriously, which offered Amanda some relief. “Hope whatever’s inside is worth it because this seems like an awful lot of work if there isn’t anything we need.”

  “We won’t know till we break in, and one break-in is coming up,” Amanda said, motioning that they should get back in the truck.

  Chapter 30

  Once in the truck, Amanda wasted no time putting it in drive and punching the truck forward. The grate pulled out of the wall and clattered to the concrete and then slid across the asphalt as the truck drove out into the center of the street and halted.

  “That was noisy,” Sam said, sticking her finger to one ear and wiggling it around.

  “Sorry, but it couldn’t be helped,” Amanda said, preparing to jump from the truck. “Why don’t you stay here while I take care of them?”

  “No way, man,” Sam said. “I’ve got your back, remember? I’m ready for this.”

  “Suit yourself. You were probably the kid that wanted to be thrown into the deep end of the pool to learn to swim, huh?”

  “Something like that,” Sam said, jumping out and slamming the truck door.

  Two creepers were already slowly making their way out of the shop, tripping over the debris, looking pathetic.

  “Are they always this slow?” Sam asked, almost as if seeing them was a letdown.

  “Just the ones that have been turned for a while, the newly turned are fast,” Amanda said, answering her question.

  Amanda had left the truck running with the air conditioning blasting, and as she had figured, Red was alert and attentive to the goings-on outside. It was almost as if there were a third person in their party now to help with the runs.

  “The noise could have drawn some more, so keep a watch, down both sides of the stre
et,” Amanda said, feeling a blast of hot air blow into her, bringing with it some sand that made her eyes water. She reminded herself to grab her shades from the truck when they had finished here.

  Amanda waited until the creepers had crept closer, before she sprung. She moved forward quickly without hesitating, kicking the one closest to her to the ground. This left the other one easy to dispatch on its own. Before the one on the ground could get up, she plunged her knife into its temple, calming it immediately.

  “Look out!” Sam said, running to Amanda’s side and cold-cocking a third one in the head with a devastating blow that nearly dislocated its head.

  The creeper’s legs slipped out from under it with a soft thud, like a marionette whose strings had been cut, officially dead.

  “Well, that’s one,” Sam said, apparently serious about wanting to keep a count of her creeper kills.

  “Thanks, kid, that’s what a good lookout does,” Amanda said, a little breathlessly.

  Chances were good that had she been alone, she could have handled that one too, but she didn’t like to take unnecessary chances and was glad for the help because the alternative was unthinkable.

  “Ready?” Sam asked, surveying the area one more time before nodding toward the shop.

  “Is it still all clear?” Amanda asked, taking the time to look around herself. She hoped that she could be forgiven for not entirely trusting a first-timer with the job.

  “All clear,” Sam said, not seeming to notice that she had been checking up on her work.

  “That’s surprising. This much noise should have drawn a lot of them down on us. That fire must be creating a much bigger distraction than I had thought,” Amanda said, looking puzzled as she looked over the deserted street and then back into the shop.

  The shop was lighted only by the sunlight; therefore she could only see a little of the way inside, but all was quiet. She didn’t want to assume that there would be no more creepers hiding out in there, but the chances were good that unless they were stuck behind a closed door somewhere inside, there wouldn’t be any more of them. The noise would have drawn any of them out that were able to move toward them.

  “Ready?” she asked Sam as she began making her way inside.

  Amanda knew that she was running a risk of getting the truck stolen, should she remained parked there with the doors unlocked and the engine running too long. Hopefully, Red would help to guard it. She decided that working quickly provided their best opportunity to keep the truck safe, and she wasted no time entering the shop and taking her first really good glance around inside.

  “Rockin’ cool,” Sam said. “Let’s do it.” And she followed her mentor inside.

  Inside, the shop was hotter than it was outside, and it smelled bad. The smell got worse the farther they ventured, until they were standing at the counter.

  “I see what you mean about a lot of musical equipment,” Sam said, scanning the walls where the instruments were neatly displayed.

  Amanda didn’t answer. She was taking a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the dimmer light. She listened, and there wasn’t a sound aside from the howling of the wind and the distant sounds of the destruction that was being caused by the fire.

  “Can I have a guitar?” Sam asked, looking at a wooden one that was hanging on the wall, complete with a shoulder strap.

  “Sure,” Amanda said, thinking that it might become a constructive hobby that would have some practical entertainment value for the group, if she were able to teach herself how to play it.

  “Really?” Sam said, apparently expecting a different answer from Amanda.

  The girl gently pulled the guitar down from the wall and slung it over her shoulder, careful to double-check the area after she had finished. Still nothing.

  “What are you waiting for?” Sam asked, looking to Amanda curiously.

  “I’m carefully scanning the shelves, making sure I don’t miss anything useful, like that power drill and bits over there,” she said, pointing to a cordless drill that had a black plastic case filled with fittings and bits. “There, can you grab that?”

  “What for? It’s electric,” Sam said, as if Amanda had lost her mind.

  “We do have a generator, and we may need it to help with construction, so grab it, along with that circular saw that’s sitting next to it,” Amanda said, sounding impatient.

  “Okay, but why aren’t you grabbing anything?” the girl asked, more out of curiosity than disrespect.

  “One of us needs to stay lookout and be ready to fight. We can’t both of us have our hands full,” she said, patiently.

  “Oh, that makes sense,” Sam said, and by now she had loaded up her arms with the prizes.

  “Good, Sam. Now follow me back out to the truck, and we’ll load this up and check on things out there. I’m a little nervous to have left the truck running and unlocked,” she said, leading the way past the aisles and back out into the street.

  A piece of old-yellowed newspaper blew quickly, smacking her in the face, and she shook it off hurriedly, so as to take a good look around. Still there was nothing in the street—no creeper, no raider—nothing. It was giving her an unsettled feeling, seeing the town like this. It was like she and Sam had become the last two people on the planet. She shook off the feeling and went to the truck. She shut the truck off after cracking the windows for Red, apologizing to him as she did so.

  Next, she went to the back of the truck and unhooked the chains from the metal grate and freeing them from the hitch. The chain made a rattling noise as she fed it back into the bed of the truck. She made a mental note that if there was time, once they had finished with the really important items that they needed and had procured the second vehicle, to come back and see about loading up the metal grate. It was possible that either this or the material from it would come in handy during their construction efforts.

  “What are you thinking about?” Sam asked, having off-loaded merchandise. “I locked my side too.”

  “Good, and I was just thinking is all,” Amanda said, releasing the end of the chain.

  Without a word, the two women moved back into the store, careful to check that there were no surprises. All was quiet, and Amanda moved around to behind the counter.

  “Look at all this cash,” Sam said, incredulously while staring at a rubber banded stack of bills under the cash register.

  “A lot of good that’s going to do us now,” Amanda said with a huff.

  “Right,” Sam said, looking at the other items under the counter. “What about this?” she asked, holding up an unopened can of beer.

  “That’s a keeper. Now you’re getting the idea,” Amanda said, grabbing the double-barreled shotgun that the owner must have kept here in case of trouble.

  Checking the shotgun, she found that it was loaded with two shots, and she began rummaging around the shelves looking for more ammunition.

  Sam stuffed the can in her pack and grabbed a screwdriver, also shoving it into the pack, along with a flashlight and some D batteries.

  “This is fun,” she said. “And it’s better than a scavenger hunt. I did one of those one time, and it definitely wasn’t as much fun as this.”

  The girl was aglow with excitement, and Amanda was happy to discover that it looked like the girl would be a natural on the runs, and that would be very helpful, if the entire town didn’t burn and leave them nothing to run for. She frowned at this but dismissed it in favor of moving on with the search.

  “Hey, I found a half pack of gum,” Sam said, holding it up. “I think its cinnamon flavor. Right on.”

  She crammed this into her pocket and continued sifting through the piles of stuff under the counter. There were a lot of loose papers, office supply stuff, and wads of trash that someone had tossed back here. After a while, she was satisfied that she could discover no more and poked her head up.

  Amanda had been keeping a watch and held the shotgun, knowing that it would make a great addition to their small collection
of weapons back at camp.

  “Ready to move on to the back of the store?” Amanda asked, peeking over an open counter that had a view of the back of the store.

  She could see no movement, but it was considerably darker back there. They could either slide over the counter, or they could go through the door to the side of them. Both options had their own set of risks, so she chose to slide over the counter.

  “Wait for me, I found a flashlight,” Sam said, turning the light on and slipping over the counter after Amanda.

  Amanda had her own flashlight that she kept clipped to her pack, but now they had two lights shining around the back of the store.

  “There’s a lot of laptops back here, drums, electric pianos, and look, a tuba,” Sam said, excitedly pointing to the big shiny instrument.

  “Don’t tell me that you want to learn to play the tuba?” Amanda asked, not able to prevent a chuckle from escaping at the thought of Sam marching around camp huffing into the instrument.

  “No way, but I used to watch them march with the tuba’s at football games, I’m just saying,” Sam said, and then she became suddenly quiet.

  “Well, we have to finish up,” Amanda said after giving her a moment.

  “Yeah, sure,” Sam said, lacking a little of her previous luster.

  It was easy at times these days to grow sullen, remembering how things used to be, and this was one of those times.

  “Over there,” Amanda said, pointing to a stack of three solar panels. “Grab those. I knew I had seen panels for sale once in a while here. I even bought one once and used it to charge a spare battery.”

  At the panels, they could see that there was a card attached by a string with an item number, phone number, and name. It was sad to think that whoever John Summerset had been, he would not be coming back for these ever. Sam grasped the panels, and they weaved their way back outside into fresher air with the girl’s arms loaded.