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

by Jo Lee Auburne

  Amanda rolled the three-foot-wide ramp down for ease of loading, and they began hustling the batteries, tires, and spare parts into the back of the moving truck. It took both of them to load the large floor jack. Even though the jack boasted wheels that rolled, they did not roll easily. With one pulling and one pushing and a whole lot of grunting, they managed to load the jack, and she hoped that Roy would in fact be able to use it and that this had not just been a colossal waste of time and energy.

  She liked the idea of having this moving truck, not only for the volume of storage that it would provide, but it could also easily fit every member of their party should push come to shove and they needed to leave camp in a hurry. It would not get good gas mileage, but it could hold a lot of water if she were to grab more of the large tin drums. Additionally, if they had to go farther out to another city to scavenge, it would make it a lot more worth their while.

  “Grabbed a bunch of tools for Roy,” Sam said, carrying a medium-sized red toolbox that looked heavy. “I don’t know what most of this stuff does, but I hope he likes it.”

  “Excellent,” Amanda answered, going back into the shop to look around.

  The first time she had been here, she had cleared this place out of creepers and taken some gasoline. But the more she had thought about it, the more solidified this plan of hers to take the moving truck had become. Once Sam rolled out of here, it would feel like a significant accomplishment, considering all the careful planning that had gone into it. She would also be able to stop worrying about whether someone was going to cut her lock off and steal her idea and the supplies.

  Once back in the shop, she noticed several more items that she wouldn’t have wanted to leave behind. There was a handheld blowtorch, several pairs of clean overalls, some gloves that looked to be a man’s size, and two more empty five-gallon gas cans. The overalls were both large and would fit nicely over a man’s clothes to add an additional layer this winter when the winds would become cold and biting. That is, she thought, if they survived into the winter.

  “Found a couple five-gallon containers of water in the sales room,” Sam said. “They fit into the water dispenser. Can we take the dispenser too?”

  “No, leave it,” Amanda said, thinking of all they still had to get done today and how unnecessary a water dispenser was to them.

  The sun was directly overhead, and that meant that it was noon already. They needed to move on.

  “I’ll grab the other bottle of water. Why don’t you go use your trick to fill these gas cans? I’ll pour a couple of them into my truck and fill it up. That’ll leave you with more cans to fill. We might as well drain all these trucks dry today.”

  “Roger,” Sam said, walking up the ramp, carrying one of the five-gallon bottles of water.

  Chapter 42

  It seemed to Amanda to take an extraordinary amount of time to wrap things up at the truck rental yard, but the sun was still high overhead as they were rolling out. Amanda took the lead with Sam following close behind. It was still in the forefront of her mind that she was dealing with an inexperienced driver, and she hoped that the girl would brake in plenty of time not to run into the back of her truck. But so far so good, she thought as they carefully drove down the streets and back to the veteran’s house where she was looking forward to getting those solar panels loaded up and being able to cross that off of her long list of things that she wanted to accomplish today.

  The streets were quiet again. Those fast-moving vehicles had sounded to be headed out of town. It would be a bonus if the raiders had already evacuated, but she couldn’t count on that.

  She glanced at the trucks gauges and smiled. Her truck had a full tank of gas. That was a scene that she hadn’t seen in a long time, and it gave her a good feeling, like some of the worry had just been lifted from her shoulders. It was a little silly to feel so relieved by such a small thing, she realized, especially considering the distances that they drove. She could easily burn through this amount by making another round trip, but it still felt good. And now, they had enough gas to also fill the Jeep, and that is something that had not been done in a while. That Jeep was more accustomed to running around the desert on fumes these days than it was to having any amount of gas in it.

  When they arrived at the former veteran’s house, it became obvious that there was no way that the rental truck was going to fit down the side path and into the backyard, not without taking out that entire side of fencing and damaging the truck. Amanda instructed Sam to park the big truck in the front yard, and then all of them piled into her truck, and she drove around back. She did not expect the backyard to still be creeper-free, but it was.

  The ash was continuing to rain here, and now they could hear the fire and the damage it was causing as things in its path were being consumed, collapsing and exploding. Amanda didn’t bother to take the time to look through the binoculars again to see where it was at and what it was doing. If she wanted her ideal plan for their day to work, then they had to finish up here as fast as possible and try to make it over to some of the parts of town that would be hit soon by the raging blaze. She worried that some of the places on her agenda might already be engulfed, but there was no way to be sure of that.

  Due to their time constraints, Amanda suggested that they both carry the panels out to the front and then get them loaded. Red was with them, and she trusted that he would alert them with enough time to get their weapons ready should a creeper be in their vicinity.

  Amanda’s injured arm was exposed to the rays of the sun, and the burn that it had received from the lighter pulsated with pain. She knew that she would be returning to camp in bad shape, with possibly nothing to be done about it. But as she watched Sam work, seeing how strong and capable the girl was, she took solace in the fact that at least one of them would be coming back more capable than when they had left.

  “Thanks for the truck,” Sam said as they both worked to slide the ramp down. “I know you put a lot of work into getting it ready for me ahead of time and then in pushing Mom, Dad, and Roy into letting me come. I appreciate it, and you’re right, it rides nice. I like being up so high above everything.”

  “You’re welcome,” Amanda said, feeling stunned that the girl would be so outwardly thankful.

  She wondered if it was because of the bite and if Sam thought she might not have much longer? But no matter what the motivation for it was, she was pleased to hear the compliment.

  By the time the last of the panels was loaded, Amanda knew that she had some decisions to make about how she timed everything and that it was entirely possible that they might not be able to procure all the items that she had been hoping for today. She worked to not let disappointment slip into her mental outlook because that would only slow her down.

  By hopping atop the moving truck, she could tell that the fire was already nearing some of the places that she had wanted to gather from. It was difficult to pass up on the possibility of obtaining more food here from some of these houses in order to proceed with their plans to be self-sustaining out there. The question that she was wrestling with as the climbed down was, Would she go after completing their short-term goals, or opt to try and make a future for them? If she didn’t succeed with finding all the necessary items to accomplish their long-term goals, then they would be simply out of luck and without a very large supply of food for their long term needs.

  Making sacrifices was nothing new to her, but it was tough when she felt that here in this moment, she was making decisions that would affect everybody without being able to consult them about it. And she thought, she might not even be around to deal with the ramifications of those decisions; somehow it didn’t seem fair to put her little group in that position, yet here they were.

  “What’s it look like from up there?” Sam asked, sounding both worried and curious.

  “About what you would expect,” Amanda said. “The fire is taking the town, and the creepers have flocked to the fire. It’s going to be incredibly dan
gerous if we decide to head that way, and I’m not sure that I should be putting you in that position.”

  Amanda’s boots tapped down on the dirt, and she tried without success to rub the soot from her hands that she had collected from her climb onto the truck. The palms of her hands were black, and now there were dark streaks on her pants where she had unsuccessfully tried to rub the soot off of them.

  She had decided that there was at least one representative from their party here beside herself. As far as Amanda was concerned, Sam had earned her stripes the hard way out in this harsh landscape, and as such, she deserved to have a say in the matter.

  “There are things we need from over there, isn’t there?” Sam asked pensively.

  “The things we can get from over there will help us in the long run and make life easier for us, possibly set us up to be self-sustaining back at camp with a whole lot of effort. Or we can just count ourselves lucky to find some more food and gas or whatever is simple and head on back without going into the thick of things,” Amanda said, trying to make sure that she outlined the situation enough that the girl could make a more well-informed decision.

  By the way she presented it, it became clear to Sam right away that Amanda was expecting an answer from her. Amanda found it necessary to completely block out any thoughts of Jason or Maryanne in this matter because she already knew that they would be dead set against allowing Sam to make such a decision at her age. But the truth of the matter was that they had not been here to see their daughter in action, to see how responsible she had become. And they had not been here to see how well she could defend herself.

  It was difficult for Amanda to watch Sam wrestle with the question, as the black ash filtered down, settling on the girl’s body. Sam noticed it and brushed some of it off of her forearm. It smeared and made an ugly black streak on her skin. Amanda could only imagine what she must look like right now.

  The wind howled, rocking the moving truck gently from side to side, and Amanda waited patiently while she allowed Sam to think about the decision, expecting there to be some questions from the girl.

  “I’m in,” Sam said, having made up her mind.

  It seemed to Amanda that she was both confident and resolute in her choice, and that would help things to go better for them.

  “You do understand that you need to make this decision with your brain and not some need for the thrill of it?” Amanda asked, wanting to know what the girl’s motivations were.

  If they went, Sam needed to have a very sober frame of mind and not be coming from some kamikaze place that could easily get her killed.

  “I realize that,” Sam said, solemnly, “but I heard you when you were talking about us not making it that far out, unless we changed how we do things. I like our home out there where it’s safer. I’m in.”

  “Well then, I guess it’s settled, we head farther into town for what we need. Be smart, be resourceful, and be careful,” Amanda said. “It is going to be tough there, and I haven’t a clue what we are going to run into, but I’ll keep you safe to the best of my abilities.”

  “That’s good enough for me,” Sam said, moving to slide the ramp back in place.

  As Amanda began to walk back to the truck, she could hear Sam sliding the rolling door back down on the moving truck, and she felt goose bumps breaking out down her back and across her shoulders at the thought of what she had just committed them to. And even the powerful, pounding rays of the sun couldn’t dissuade the chills from traveling down her spine as she walked the length of the path that would lead to the backyard.

  The veteran hung there still, dead, half out of the window, and she wondered if he had experienced the same feeling as he had headed into battle so many years before. But she doubted that he could have felt as much dread as she was feeling at the moment. They were about to enter a battlefield that didn’t have the support from large amounts of troops or massive pieces of war machinery. They would be ill equipped and outnumbered for what they planned to do. The thought that she might have actually gone insane somewhere along the way today did cross her mind, but as she reached her truck and slid into the driver’s seat, it all seemed to make so much sense and become so very clear to her. She knew what they had to do, and she would make it happen or die trying, because in her mind, they were all dead sooner or later if this didn’t work.

  Chapter 43

  Amanda was experiencing a surreal type of feeling by the time that she met up with Sam out on the quiet street of the housing community that still most likely contained valuable supplies to scavenge. But instead, they were going to be heading into the thick of things in order to be able to prioritize according to what the fire was threatening first.

  When she had originally headed for town, she had had a particular agenda for today, and the fire had threatened that agenda, but she wasn’t going to give it up without a fight, especially since Sam was in agreement with her.

  It wasn’t until they turned onto the main street through town that they could see flames and instead of turning away, as those vehicles that had sped out of town had done earlier, they turned into it. Like soldiers determined to land upon a hostile beach, they did not look back.

  Sam, being seated higher up, had the best view of the situation. She could feel the cool air hitting her, could see Red seated in the passenger seat out of her periphery vision, and could feel the soft vinyl grip of the steering wheel. She could see Amanda’s white ash-covered truck ahead of her—glimpses of flames beyond that.

  The engine hummed, vibrating her seat and up into her legs from the floorboard. She felt alert and observant in all the parts of her body and of her surroundings. She was experiencing an awareness of life that she had never felt before, all her senses heightened to an extreme.

  The fire was, as Amanda had seen atop the truck through the binoculars, about ready to consume the large home improvement warehouse that had serviced this town for many years.

  Flames were licking the rooftop of the grocery store directly beside it. The grocery store had been raided until it had nothing to offer anybody anymore, but Amanda knew that it was different with the warehouse. Aside from the lumber that people were using early on to blockade their homes, this store had been forgotten. The answer to that was simple; people just weren’t interested anymore in improving their homes.

  On a couple of her previous trips into town, she had attempted to scavenge from here, but the enormous amount of creepers that were roaming around inside of it had caused her pause. The creepers had clustered primarily around the center part of the town for some reason, and this store was about exactly in the center of town. On her previous attempts, she had slunk away, not wanting to be noticed and had given it up for lost. But perhaps the fire had drawn them out and away, she considered, as she rolled closer with Sam following.

  She knew that Sam must be very wide-eyed right about now as she rolled slowly into the vast parking lot. A few cars and trucks remained, abandoned. There were some mangled bodies that had been creeper lunch, but she didn’t see any immediate threats. Trash and ash was swirling around in little eddies, reminding Amanda that the fire was creating its own weather system within the bounds of its reach.

  The big bay doors to the store were open. She slowly rolled inside the store, noticing two creepers right away. The creepers were moving toward the front of her truck and she gunned the gas, crunching them beneath the truck. The truck rocked with several thuds until she slowed and rolled a little farther in before stopping. This opening was plenty wide and tall enough for Sam to fit the moving truck in, and Amanda looked in the rearview to see that she had done just that.

  Seeing no other immediate threats, Amanda exited the vehicle, slamming the door behind her, and Sam did the same, having sense enough to leave Red inside with the engine running.

  “Well, we’re here,” said Sam, as if their arrival signified something monumental besides their potential deaths.

  Amanda could hear but not see an approaching creepe
r, its footfalls shuffling along the floor. That was the problem with entering these stores without electricity; the lighting was weak, and there were many aisles that offered poor visibility from incoming threats. But in this store, between the big bay doors and the front-glassed portion, there was enough light to see by. Also, the temperature was a little better in here than it was outside because of the shade and the wind that was blowing in. They did have a better-than-good chance of taking out whatever they needed to in order to grab what they were after.

  “I’m ready,” Sam said, holding the baseball bat in a batter’s stance.

  “Good,” Amanda commented. “Keep the truck running, and we’ll wait to open up the back of the truck until we have some things to load. If this goes south, run for the truck, and get the hell out of here, running over whatever gets in your way, got it?”

  “Got it,” Sam said as the creeper rounded the corner.

  Amanda wanted to laugh even though it would be wildly inappropriate to do so. The creeper had once worked here and still wore the tattered remains of the store uniform. In the moment, it seemed that there was something positively hilarious about that. It was like she was coming to say, “Can I help you with anything?”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” was what Amanda did say.

  “I know, right?” Sam answered, before lounging forward and taking her out. “Five,” Sam whispered, determined to keep count of her kills.

  To her right, Amanda could see an empty flat cart that could carry some weight on it as a customer pushed it around the store and loaded up their purchases. She couldn’t see any reason why that wouldn’t work for them, but she planned to modify the technique a little in order to fit in with the new LAZ standards.

  “Sam, hop on the cart and be ready to swing.”