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

by Jo Lee Auburne

  Amanda dropped off the shotgun and the shells that she had found, and Sam stacked her items neatly in the back of the truck, except for the guitar that she put in the extra cab by Red, asking him to watch it for her. They headed back into the store. Amanda found it curious that this whole time now, they had been able to scavenge in the shop uninterrupted by anything or anyone. Even though it was a good thing for now, she took it as an ill harbinger of the fire that was wreaking havoc on the other side of town.

  Both of the women were dripping sweat and red in the face already and their day had just begun. Amanda reminded herself that they would need to hydrate after this on their way to the housing complex that needed to be checked out.

  “There, grab that,” Amanda said, pointing to a sports drink that was lying on its side on the slab floor in the back of the store.

  “Awesome,” Sam said, picking it up. “It’s fruit punch flavor.”

  “Make sure that the seal isn’t broken, and stash it in your pack,” she said, her eyes already combing the store.

  “Seal’s intact,” Sam said with a note of happiness.

  It was interesting these days, Amanda considered, that the simplest of discoveries could make your whole day brighter, like finding an unopened bottle of what had once been a prevalent commodity.

  Amanda busied herself with unplugging a mini refrigerator from a circuit bar, before daring to look inside of it.

  “Whew, yuck,” Sam said after Amanda had opened the door.

  The mini fridge had rotten food that Amanda spilled out onto the floor, and the stench was horrible, but the fridge could possibly be run by the solar system that Roy wanted to connect for them, and it could be cleaned.

  “It’s heavy, I’ve got it,” Amanda said, wrapping her arms around it.

  “Look, I found a half case of those sports drinks,” Sam said, grabbing the cardboard beneath them and hefting.

  “If your arms are going to be full too, then be prepared to drop that if necessary,” Amanda said as they made their way back out to the truck.

  “I hope I don’t have to drop this,” Sam said. “It’s a variety pack with lemon lime and fruit punch,” she said, excitedly dodging some of the debris on the floor.

  “If you’re not alive, you can’t drink it, so just remember that, okay?” Amanda said, leading the way out, hoping that she didn’t need to toss the fridge if there was trouble.

  Chapter 31

  Once outside the shop again, all was quiet; not a single creeper had noticed them, and indeed, there appeared to be none around, but Amanda knew that to be untrue because the town was filled with them. The noise of the fire and perhaps the bright visual effects had drawn them away toward the other side of town, so right now that was the most dangerous place to be. She made a mental note to stay far enough away from it so as to avoid getting caught up in a horde of them, and that meant checking in on the fire now and then.

  The mini fridge squeezed in nicely to the last empty slot in the back of the truck. Until they went to collect the other truck that Amanda hoped was still gassed up and waiting for her, they would have to put whatever they collected in the extra cab. This had long been a problem on the runs—not having enough room to put things—thus cutting the run short when they could have brought back more. She would remedy this problem today by adding the additional truck and having Sam drive it. With as fast as the town was going up in flames, they would need the additional storage space to scavenge as much as possible on this run.

  She grabbed the binoculars from the truck, noticing that in just the fifteen minutes that the truck’s engine and air conditioning had been off, it was already heating up inside. She apologized to Red for this, but they should have another ten minutes or so before they had to worry about it becoming dangerously hot for him in there. At least the wind was blowing, and though the air was hot, it was still better than when the desert became still in the summertime. The high winds were feeding the fire and driving it faster, but she supposed that high winds or not, the fire would burn through most of the town, it would just happen faster on a day like today.

  They could smell the acrid scent of smoke, and as she looked in the binoculars, all she could make out was the roiling mass of black and gray smoke ascending heavenward. From here, she could spy no flames, and that was a cause for relief. She sighed and stashed the binoculars back inside the truck.

  “Oh, I wanted to look,” Sam said, sounding disappointed.

  “There’s nothing to see but smoke,” Amanda said, issuing a dismissive shrug of her shoulders. “Let’s go back in and finish up so we can get on to that housing community I wanted to check out.”

  “Okay,” Sam answered. Seeming satisfied, she followed Amanda back inside the shop, being sure to turn her flashlight back on.

  “I think I saw more batteries in the back,” Sam said when Amanda suddenly halted in the front part of the shop. “What gives?” Sam said, nearly running into her.

  “Call me crazy, but grab that little flat screen television, will you,” Amanda said, pointing to a twenty-two-inch screen TV.

  “Really, tre cool, but what are we going to watch, it’s not like there’s cable television anymore,” Sam said, wasting no time grabbing it. “Hey, look,” she said, rotating it so that Amanda could see the backside of it. “It even has a remote. How styling is that?” The remote to the television had been taped to the back of it by some conscientious person.

  Amanda had been spending a fair amount of time thinking about Maryanne’s breakdown that she had had the other night. She wanted to do some things to institute some normalcy to their lives, things that would provide a chance to unwind and entertain, like the guitar that Sam had picked out. But chances were good that should Roy be able to hook them up with some power, they could have a couple of family movie nights a week. She was hoping that doing this would help to boost morale and lower tempers amongst the group.

  She scooped up a DVD player and made sure that the connections and power cord were there before she loaded up all the DVDs that she could carry.

  “Oh, I see,” said Sam, watching Amanda grab the movies.

  Amanda was careful to place the screen side of the television up against the clothe of the backseat so as to help protect it, whereas the DVDs needed no such protection, and those she dumped on the floorboard of the extra cab. Red watched her, serious. Somehow it seemed that he knew how important this trip was to them, maybe sensing it because of the threat in the smell of the air or picking it up from them. It was impossible to know how he knew. Amanda rubbed him behind the ears to reassure him that he was doing a good job, before once again locking him inside.

  “This time we go straight to the back of the store,” Amanda said, wiping the sweat from her brow. “Grab those batteries that you saw and anything that you think we can use,” she said, moving her way back into the store with Sam following.

  Amanda knew that she needed to stay sharp even though the town appeared to be deserted, because letting her guard down could get them both killed if she became too complacent about trusting that nothing was coming for them. Hell, she thought, we have a raging out-of-control fire coming our way with all the town’s creepers. Also, somewhere out there would be a fair amount of displaced raiders too. And that was enough to put a little spring to her step, sending a small course of adrenaline through her body that heightened her senses. That was better than complacency; she was satisfied.

  Once in the back of the store, Amanda grabbed a two-gallon mop bucket by the handle that was already loaded with spray bottles of cleaning supplies. This she knew would help with getting that disgusting mini fridge cleaned up. She also tossed a medium-sized box marked as a first-aid kit. She didn’t want to take the time to look inside the box, but she presumed that it still had medical supplies because when she shook it, some items thumped around inside.

  “I loaded us up on batteries,” Sam said, indicating that her pockets were stuffed with them.

  “Good, now check
those upper cabinets and see if there’s anything useful,” Amanda said as she rummaged around in the lower ones.

  Amanda pulled out two one-gallon jugs of water that had the seal intact, a one-gallon bottle of bleach that was half full, and an unused bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

  “Score,” Sam said, dropping several cups of instant Ramen noodles in her pack, along with three candy bars, two cans of soda, an unopened bag of barbecue chips, and two small packets of cookies that boasted a vanilla crème filling.

  “Do me a favor,” Amanda said. “My hands are full, and I really wanted to grab that metal tool box behind you. I think Roy will be happy to have that. Maybe there are some tools in there that he doesn’t already have.”

  “Will do,” Sam said, happily hefting the box by the handle. “It’s heavy,” she exclaimed, letting it pull her right arm down lower than her left.

  “I think that we can officially say that breaking in here was a big success,” Amanda said, pleased with the amazing haul of goodies that they had found.

  “Maybe there could be some other things,” Sam said, panning the light around slowly.

  “There might be if we really make a long and thorough search, but then again, we might have already found everything, and I don’t want to waste any time. There’s still a lot to be done, and we’ve barely begun our day, so I vote that we move out. Besides, the trucks been heating up on Red,” she answered, already beginning to move back out, fully laden.

  “Good idea,” Sam said, following.

  She was eager to see what more of the town that she had left looked like and what other exciting things they could find. To her now, this was an amazing adventure, one that she had been waiting months for. With every time that two of them would head out on a run, she would spend the time imagining how awesome that would be and longing for the day when she could go too. In her opinion, it was definitely the coolest career that had been created by this new world.

  “Same rules apply, kid,” Amanda said, walking carefully and trying not to drop any of the items that she was barely managing to hang on too. “Any trouble, and you drop that toolbox.”

  Sam had managed to keep the bat in at least one of her hands the whole time; now she grasped it easily in her left palm. She was secretly longing for another chance to kill a creeper because that would bring her count to two kills, and that, she regarded, was infinitely better than saying she had killed one of them. The girl didn’t tell Amanda this for fear of what her friend might say about it.

  O

  “Please, honey, will you stop checking,” Jason said, sounding tired as he watched his wife step onto a boulder to survey the canyon entrance, looking for the return of the vehicle.

  “There’s no way that they would be back yet, even on the best of days,” Roy said as he sharpened his machete. “Hell, they’ve barely made it to town by now, let alone been able to gather up anything,” Roy continued, knowing that that was a bit of an exaggeration.

  “Yeah, Roy’s right,” Jason said. “Loading up the water alone takes half an hour, and that doesn’t include the searching for supplies or the driving time around town or the time it takes to drive back here.”

  Maryanne sighed and climbed back down the boulder. Today, since she had awoken too late to see them off, had already been a long day.

  “I just don’t know what I should be doing with myself,” she said, nervously wringing her hands together. “I just feel so ooky inside.”

  “Is ooky a real word, Mom?” Tammy asked with a giggle.

  “Sure, honey,” Maryanne said absently, not paying too much attention to her.

  “Ooky, ooky, ooky,” Tammy said, laughing and running around in a circle, kicking up dust.

  Maryanne finally turned her eyes to her youngest child, and it was impossible not to notice how filthy the girl had become in just a few short days. Dirt was streaked across her face in patches and had stuck to the leftover chocolate that she had eaten two nights before. Suddenly, she felt like a bad mother—not only for allowing her oldest daughter to go into that zombie-infested town that they had had to escape from, but for allowing her youngest daughter to look like she did. The good news was that now she knew what she could do to keep herself occupied for a little while, anyway, but it was going to seem like a much longer day than she had imagined even.

  “It might help if you try sticking to your routine, honey,” Jason said, kindly trying to help her through the situation.

  “You’re right, Jason, but first I have something else to do,” she said with determination. “Tammy, come here my love, we’re going to get you cleaned up.”

  Chapter 32

  Amanda made sure to tuck the bucket that contained the cleaning solutions and the bleach bottle into a spot where they would not become tipped over. She did not need to be riding around in a vehicle filled with the smell of noxious and possibly toxic chemicals. But just in case, she had Sam pack the food items next to Red in the other opposite seat so that they couldn’t possibly become damaged if any of the chemicals did spill. Food had become a valuable and rare commodity, and she couldn’t risk losing any of it that they could find, especially not now.

  The truck started up with the engine making a gentle purr. The wind was buffeting the truck, rocking it gently back and forth, and Amanda was impatient for the air conditioning to kick in. It had become almost as hot in the truck as it was outside. The sun glistened through the windshield glass, making her think of ants underneath a magnifying glass, frying on a hot day.

  She undid her bandana from around her neck and soaked it with water, instructing Sam to do the same. It would be of the utmost importance today that they didn’t allow themselves to become overheated, what with all the physical demands the day was going to be putting upon their bodies. They both ran their wet bandanas over their face and neck, and it offered a large measure of relief, especially because the air from the vents had begun to cool. This made the sensation of the air hitting the moisture on their skin feel heavenly.

  “Let’s give Red some water, and we’ll each get our own sports drink, thanks to those poor guys from the pawnshop that don’t need it anymore,” Amanda said, searching around the messy truck for something to put water in for the dog.

  She finally settled on cutting an empty two-liter plastic bottle down near the last quarter of it and filling it with warm water.

  “Sorry that we don’t have anything colder,” she said, apologizing to Red.

  He didn’t seem to mind and greedily lapped up the water but refused more when it was offered to him. Amanda could hear him panting in her ear as he sat behind her. She could relate, as she felt like panting herself sometimes out in the heat of the desert. She looked in the rearview mirror and could see that he seemed content, with water dripping down from his tongue.

  She downed her drink as she drove, feeling like there was no time to waste. They needed to move on the next item on their agenda if they had any prayer of making what she knew needed to happen today a reality.

  “It’s so weird around here,” Amanda said as the truck rolled over trash that was blowing down the streets. “I’ve never seen it so quiet here. It feels a little eerie.”

  “We’ve already killed three creepers today, and I got one of them,” Sam said, sounding excited about it.

  “You’re kidding, right?” she answered, looking to the girl with amusement. “Do you remember what it was like here the day that Roy and I got your family out of here?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said, and this time she sounded more sedate, probably from the memory of that terrifying episode.

  “Well, nothing much has changed around here since then, except that people have become less panicked and more ruthless because they’ve decided to fight, and they’re more desperate now for food and supplies, as things are getting used up. So normally, this town is a much more dangerous place than what you’ve seen already,” Amanda said, trying to help Sam understand how remarkable a day like today was.

  “So
I guess that you picked a good day to break into that pawnshop then, didn’t you?” Sam said, looking around at the quiet neighborhood that they had just entered.

  “Yep,” was all Amanda said as she slowly cruised down the street, carefully surveying the surrounding area.

  She was sure that they had not explored this area yet because it had been a part of the grid search pattern that would have been hit by them last. But that meant that there was a possibility that she would be able to find something useful here. But it was equally possible that some other teams of people had already scoured the neighborhood, stripping it of anything that they would need. That was the thing about scavenging; one never knew exactly where to look or what they might find. She hoped that a band of raiders had not settled in here because the last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves around the wrong type of people, especially not today on Sam’s first run.

  Amanda watched both sides of the street, not only looking for creepers but looking for possible hiding places that people might have set up camp at. By all intents and purposes, the neighborhood looked deserted, void of movement of any kind, save for the trash blowing around in the wind.

  “There’s some dead creepers on that lawn over there,” Sam said, making an observation. “It looks like they’ve been dead for a while.”

  “Yep,” Amanda answered, still concentrating on her search.

  “No wonder the world smells so bad these days,” Sam said absently. “Should we be burying them or something?”

  “Nope, we’d waste all our energy and not even come close to getting half of them in the ground, though I did consider piling them up and setting them on fire to help sanitize things a little.”

  “Well, the good news is that after this fire rolls through here, things ought to smell a lot better,” Sam said.