by Daniel Smith
“First off I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Dan,” he said calmly. This jarred Margaret back to reality as she turned to face him.
“Samuel here knows. The same as I what you're offering at best is only worth an eighth of the medicine I have,” Dan continued calmly as he watch. Margaret tense slightly and a slightly confused look crossed Samuel's face as he nodded his head slightly over his massive folded arms. Dan continued.
“I understand what it's like to come from a community that needs your help. So I'm willing to make the trade all the medicine for what you're offering,” Dan said calmly looking at them.
Margaret looked stunned and Samuel only nodded his head agreeing, as he reached out with one massive hand.
“You have a deal,” he said with a white tooth smile breaking through his black beard. Dan picked up the items offered depositing them into the saddlebag zipping it shut. He turned to see Margaret finishing putting the medicine into their satchel.
“You will have to forgive Margaret she's been through some hard times and seen some bad stuff,” Samuel said calmly as Margaret looked up with a flash of anger crossing her face. Dan cocked his head to one side.
“At this point hasn’t all of us,” he said calmly. Margaret spoke up now.
“How did you know we would not have just taken the medicine,” she asked. Dan used his hand and made a motion with his thumb pointing behind him for an answer.
“I didn't, but you can't live in fear,” Dan said as a reply. Samuel said smiling.
“Listen, we have sick people waiting. We are down around Beagle Street you let anyone you see know that you know me personally. I will let them know to bring you in safely,” Samuel started.
“Thank you,” Dan started, but Samuel cut him off.
“There is some information you need to know, since you're new to Memphis,” Samuel started to explain. “Memphis is divided, there are several groups in the city fighting for control of it. Most fighting is over the bridge crossing the river you will find fighting everywhere. All of them claim to be the official government of the town, They divided along long religious, political and racial lines.” Dan nodded his head at that. “Some glad to see you. Some might welcome you as long as you conform to their beliefs and some will try to shoot you on-site. And let's not forget about all the damn zombies,” his deep voice finished. Dan smiled.
“The damn zombies are the least of my problems,” he chuckled. Margaret and Samuel started heading off when he called out.
“Before you go,” he saw both of them turned to look at him. “I'm not from Vicksburg,” he saw the beginnings of a smile form on Samuel's face. Margaret's remained blank.
“Little town slightly south of there between Vicksburg and Natchez they call it Hope.” Dan saw Margaret rolled her eyes and Samuel nod his head. “Don't know what the name was before I have no idea why they named it Hope. But if you're down that way stop by let them know you know me they will welcome you,” Dan said calmly nodding his head in good-bye.
Samuel returned the nod before him and Margaret turned and walked off. Dan started walking his bike back to where Manny stood with the rifle held loosely but ready in his hands.
“Well that was interesting. I thought it might get bad for a moment,” Manny said calmly looking at. Dan.
“Could've but I think I made an acquaintance today,” he said smiling. Manny nodded his head at that.
“You can tell me tonight after we get back to camp,” Manny said moving off towards the hardware store with Dan following slightly behind him.
They had finished dinner sitting down on the roof of the small industrial complex. In front of the unit with the rollup door were they hid the truck in a couple of plastic chairs they found inside a small office building looking up at the starry night sky.
“Something on your mind,” Manny stated. Dan turned to look at him and wondered when he said something like that. Always sounding like a statement then a question. He turned back to look at the stars before answering.
“People do not make sense,” he said in the way of an answer. Manny sigh looking up at the night sky also before answering calmly.
“How so,” he stated more than questioned Dan thought.
“Take the people I met today. I thought there was going to be trouble. Had all the signs of going bad however, they turned out to be good people just trying to do the right thing. And some of the people we met thinking they were going to do the right thing were nothing but trouble,” Dan said thoughtfully. Manny just murmured agreeing with him.
“The biggest tricks of life is deciding which one is which,” Manny said thoughtfully. Dan kept looking at the stars as he rolled his blue eyes.
Manny served the truck around the milling mass of fifty zombies in the parking lot moving as if they were there for an early morning sale managing only to run one over. They had been driving on Whitten Road for a short time before pulling into an abandoned gas station. Manny stopping the truck telling Dan as he got out.
“Keep watch I will check the tanks for any fuel.”
Dan getting out keeping watch in the late afternoon as the sun starting going down.
“Good news, there’s fuel in the tanks. I will get the pump,” Manny said going to the back of the truck to remove a small electric pump and hose. Manny set to filling the trucks empty tank and top off the drums of gas in the back. Dan kept scanning the area but his attention always going back to one area that appeared brighter than the rest of the dark sky. Dan’s gaze returned to the lighter spot in the night sky.
“What are you looking at,” Manny’s calm voice asked. Dan pointed to the spot he had been looking at in the lowlight saw the puzzled look on Manny’s face.
“Let’s check it out,” Manny said moving for the truck.
Dan tore his gaze away from the area and moved for the passenger door of the truck. Manny started the truck but did not turn on the headlights as he slowly drove out of the gas station making a turn onto a side road where the gas station stood. Manny maneuvered the truck onto the road in the dark lined by gently sloping hills covered by long green grass with strands of trees on top of them. The road divided by a small overgrown tree line medium, on either side of the road they could just barely make out through the opening in the trees the dark shape of large buildings. Dan leaned forward in his seat and pointed out the windshield.
“Look that’s light” he told Manny as two side streets came into their view after coming around a gentle curve in the roadway. Manny stopped the truck.
“Let’s check it out on foot,” Manny said getting out of the truck.
They moved slowly in the darkness to turn down a street past the grove of trees they had parked by using them for cover. After a short walk, they stopped looking in wonder. At the lit vision of a modern wonder of a building with dark tinted black glass windows set into brown concrete walls with tan trim three stories tall. Dan looked in wonder the only building he knew with lights on where in Hope and Baton Rouge but in this abandoned city. He corrected himself almost abandoned city here was a building with lights.
“What do you think,” Dan asked in wonder.
“I think we will wait till tomorrow to see what’s up. And we will spend the night in the truck,” Manny said calmly seeming unimpressed about the building.
Dan spent a restless night trying to sleep in the uncomfortable seat between his watches he was always looking towards the light of the building glowing slightly off to one side. In the morning after a quick breakfast, Manny started the truck. Pulling it into the parking lot of the building with several abounded cars, and trucks some with flat tires other with trash and debris piled up next to them. Manny pulled the truck up to the first building stopping in front of the lobby doors. Set under a small covered walkway, slightly in front of them they could see a large broken plastic sign with the only words.
“A biomedical company,” still readable in black letters on the white broken plastic.
Dan got out of t
he truck and stretched he looked at a thick light gray metal fence about ten feet tall running from the buildings around the perimeter of the property. To see about two hundred yards away a second building identical with the first. Separating the two was a concrete walkway set behind the large fence that spanned the distance between them. Dan watched Manny walk towards the front doors then away looking on the grass with muddy patches and near some overgrown bushes and shrubs that lined one side of the building.
“What are you looking for,” Dan asked as he watched Manny knelt looking at something in the mud. He walked over to see an odd-looking track in the mud.
“What made those,” Dan asked Manny.
“Not sure it is one of the strangest tracks I have ever seen,” he stated calmly as he stood.
“Let’s see if anyone is home,” Manny said pulling his tomahawk from his belt and position the black pistol grip of the shotgun on the sling for easy access moving for the glass door.
Dan took his queue, pulled his sword from his back, and followed. They entered the lobby of the building ready for anything. Only finding a plain rectangular room with light gray walls which general generic artwork hung from over a stark white speckled linoleum floor lit by florescent lights in the ceiling. Comfortable cloth chairs lined the walls between them set small tables. A low security desk flanked on either side by revolving doors with a plastic box on them about chest height. Dan went to the revolving door trying them.
“Locked,” Dan said as he shook the door and turned to see Manny looking at the lights that were on.
“No matter,” Manny said as he sat down on the security desk and spun his legs over to the other side before he stood up. He stopped to look at the desk with computer monitors and keyboards as Dan followed suit.
“I don’t like this, the lights are on and no one is home. Be careful,” Manny said as he stopped behind the revolving doors to stand at a hallway entrance.
Dan nodded as they moved into the hall that led off from the lobby. Manny stopped at the wall behind the security area. Stopping at a row of folding doors set into the wall with a sign saying.
“Command center.” Manny tried to open the doors but found them locked.
“Pays to come prepared,” Manny, said as he removed the small black metal pry bar from his belt inserting it into the gap between the doors near the lock. With a quick tug on the bar the doors came open with the sound of splintering wood as the lock broke free. Revealing several large maps of the building and grounds with a bank of radios set into chargers.
“Jackpot,” Manny said happily, as he lifted a radio from the Base unit and tried it before putting it back. Turning his attention to study the map of the building that was hanging there.
“There is a nurses station down that way,” Manny said pointing down one hallway. “And a storage room that way,” he said pointing in the opposite direction. Manny handed Dan the black pry bar and lifted his tomahawk. “I can use this,” he said calmly as he walked down towards the nurse’s station.
Dan moved off down the generic light gray hallway with white linoleum floors. Passing by light blue doors that had small rectangular windows in them. Lit by fluorescent lights set into the white panels of the acoustic ceiling with one of those black translucent plastic domes set in intervals in it. To stop in front of a door marked storage Dan tried the doorknob and found it locked and applied the pry bar to it. The loud splintering of wood made Dan look up and down the sterile hallway the knot of tension in his stomach getting tighter at seeing or hearing nothing. He pushed the door aside looking into the room as the lights automatically came on. Spotting a red metal two wheeled hand truck and twenty cases of toilet paper, a smile crossing his face.
“Score,” Dan said as he grabbed the hand truck and went to the first stack of toilet paper. He was just returning to the lobby with the second stack of toilet paper when Manny came down the hall pulling a gurney loaded with medical supplies. Manny stopped to look at the cases of toilet paper and nodded his head in approval.
“Let’s grab the radios and chargers and load the truck before we continue,” Manny stated as he moved towards the command center.
“What else was in that storeroom,” Manny asked as they finish loading the truck with the first load of stuff Dan thought for a moment before answering.
“Some boxes marked tape, lightbulbs, and cleaning supplies,” Dan said. Manny nodded his head.
“Okay we get that first. Then we'll see what else we can find,” Manny said as he pulled the roll up door down is secure the latch before starting to walk towards the building.
Manny stopped at the grass near the plants looking down at the slightly muddy patch there kneeling to examine it. Dan looked puzzled. They saw the strange track there, why he would he stop again he thought walking over to see what he was looking at. He looked down into the muddy dirt with a puzzled expression. The old track gone replaced by a different one.
“That's not the track we saw earlier,” Dan said puzzled. Manny slowly stood before he spoke.
“No, it's not I have never seen anything like it either. I am beginning to dislike this place. Let's grab what we can and get out of here,” Manny said, looking unhappy. “Something's seriously wrong here.”
Dan followed Manny back into the building and led him over while pushing a hand truck to the supply closet. They managed to empty it in several trips to the truck.
“Why the cleaning supplies none of its bleach,” Dan asked as they loaded the hand truck.
“To the right person they can make it into other compounds like explosives,” Manny replied as he placed another box on the cart.
“You are kidding,” Dan asked surprised. Manny nodded.
“Yes it can I even heard you can make gunpowder from a dead cat,” Manny said calmly. Dan looked at him before blurting out.
“Bullshit.” Manny looked at him and smiled.
“No dead cat. I wish I knew how but I don’t,” Manny said as they finished loading the hand truck.
They did not stray far into the building only opening a few doors here and there. Finding empty conference rooms with empty tables and chairs. Dan opening one door, looked in, pausing for a moment. Sitting on the conference table was two laptop computers with power supplies plugged into the power center on the table and the small box attached by a black cable plug into them. Sitting next to them was a coffee cup. Dan walked into the room with Manny following him.
“What do we have here,” Manny said, studying the still powered on laptops. “These were high-end before the plague,” Manny said, studying them. “Those are external hard drives,” Manny said, pointing to the black boxes.
Dan was listening to what he said while he had been looking at the coffee cup picking it up and slowly turning. Watching the liquid in the half-filled cup slosh about before showing it to Manny. He took the coffee cup and looked at the black liquid inside.
“Grab that laptop and let's go,” Manny said, shutting the cover of his laptop and unplugging it he grabbed the power supply and external hard drive.
Dan followed suit, and was following Manny out the door to van the anxiety in his stomach growing at seeing the coffee in the cup. Plus like Manny he felt this place was unnerving. They passed by the small pile of debris that was by the storage room door and went out the front door of the building to enter the truck. Putting the laptops between the driver and passenger seat Manny started the truck and started to pull through the parking lot. Avoiding a few abandoned cars sitting there as Dan looked out the window of the truck towards the building. He was unsure perhaps it was just a trick of the light or his imagination but for a split-second, he thought he saw someone standing in the second floor window, watching the truck leave.
Manny pulled the truck out onto the street heading back down the road they had come in on earlier before making a few turns bypassing several intersections that had car wrecks in them. Doing his best to navigate the clogged roadways as he slowly maneuvered the truck out of Memphis.<
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“Are we leaving already we only have the truck about three quarters full,” Dan asked puzzled as he noticed the direction they were going.
Manny was silent for a moment before slowing the truck. Stopping in the intersection, to turn and face him.
“There's a time to know when to stop. There is something seriously wrong with the place we just left and we have a good score right now. I don't think the risk to find more is worth it,” Manny said rather seriously looking at him.
“But your opinion matters what do you think,” Manny asked.
Dan sat there for several seconds, thinking before nodding his head in silent agreement.
“We can always come back another time,” Dan said. Manny nodded his head in approval starting up the truck and driving out of Memphis.
12 NEW ORLEANS
The slow pace of the last couple of months since getting back from Memphis felt good. They had gotten a good price for all the stuff they had brought back. New video games and movies for Luke. The first three books of some supernatural romantic series Sara and her friends had heard of. With only two important events occurring. The first returning from a road trip to the farm Dan felt no surprise to see nothing had changed since the last time. When they got back to town Manny sold the U-Haul truck they had found. The idea making sense to him at the cost for maintenance and gas.
The second was when Dan was in the kitchen at the butcher-block table just finishing the last of his lunch when Sandra came into the room.
“I need you to come with me,” she said urgently. Dan and Manny looked up from their plates.
“What's going on,” Manny said calmly starting to stand. Sandra looked at Dan.
“A group of about ten people showed up at the gate on the main road coming into town. They say they are from Memphis and they know you,” Sandra stated.
Dan looked over to Manny who for a reply raised his eyebrows. Dan turned to Sandra.
“Is one of them names Samuel,” Dan asked moving for the door. Sandra shook her head negatively.