“Probably,” she shrugged. “I can give myself fewer shots if I use the longer-term insulin.”
“How much of that do you have?”
“Two bottles,” she answered.
I felt better now. We had plenty of time. Still, it was far from a perfect situation. “Keep using the stuff that will expire first,” I told her. “We’ll save the longer-lasting insulin for emergency use.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she nodded.
She got back to untying the rope from around the tree and I just shook my head. I guessed that Claire tended to rely upon me since I was so good at organizing. She would likely pay more attention to managing her diabetic supplies if I wasn’t around. All I could do was hope so since there was no guarantee that I’d always be there for her in this crazy new world of ours.
Half an hour later, we were on our way, hiking down the country road where we’d abandoned our vehicles. Everyone but Jason was loaded down with packs and other supplies. He toddled along, happy the rain had stopped and enjoying the warmth of the sun. I was just glad he was able to carry his own weight…at least for a little while until those tiny little legs of his gave out.
We used the clothes line that Claire and I had detached from the trees back at camp to tether Cashmere to Jason. She acted as a sort of dangled carrot to motivate him when he got tired or bored as she would scamper ahead and Jason would laugh and give chase.
The other kids got lighter stuff to carry like blankets, clothing, and the tent. Even little Shane had a small backpack of stuff – mostly his extra clothes. Adults got things like the guns, ammo, medical supplies, water, what little food we had left, a few pieces of cookware, and other necessities. Things like the spare gas tanks, extra water containers, cook stove, and other nonessentials we’d been able to bring along when we had our vehicles, were left behind at camp.
“It’s like being back in the army again,” said Ray
Ray and I each carried a pack of our own, plus Emily on her stretcher. It was slow going, but we didn’t have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Pam said she was feeling better, but also mentioned that she was hungry as heck after purging herself of her venison breakfast. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything we could do but offer her more such meat, which was met with a quick refusal and a bout of gagging by the poor woman.
I said a quick goodbye to our SUV as we passed by. It was sad. I still remembered bringing Jason home from the hospital as a newborn in the vehicle, him asleep in his carrier in the back seat, Claire asleep beside me in the passenger seat. But I was getting better at leaving physical possessions behind.
Family was all that mattered now.
CHAPTER 13
Luckily, the strip mall in which the coin shop sat wasn’t far from the warehouse where they’d holed up since the most recent vehicle Jake had stolen was a real pile of shit. You could hear the thing coming a mile away, so stealth was out of the question. And in the post-flu world, being able to get from place to place quietly and with the element of surprise was of extreme value.
This however, meant that they had to walk, and that Jake had to carry his supplies, which didn’t make him happy, not that it took much to piss Jake off. Ava gritted her teeth and bore his bitching, listening to him complain the whole way about how they shouldn’t arrive on foot since it would look bad to his contacts.
She wasn’t worried about looking bad. She had other things on her mind, and so she let Jake continue his tirade, almost knowing verbatim what would come out of his mouth. She’d heard it all so many times before.
They approached the strip mall, where the coin shop was located, from the rear. The mall had employee parking spots that faced out across a wooded area behind it. Jake finally stopped his complaining as they neared the building and began preparing for business. A large pickup truck sat parked askew in the spots directly behind the former coin shop. Two men appeared from the nearby woods, guns trained on Jake and Ava as they approached. Seeing that it was their business partners, the men lowered their weapons.
One man was tall and thin. He wore a leather jacket that helped bulk his frame, but not enough to make him seem big. The other man was shorter and stocky. He wore a heavily-padded nylon coated that made him look like an overstuffed marshmallow. They both eyed Ava hungrily.
“You bring the stuff?” the fat man asked, still taking his fill of Ava.
“Yeah,” Jake came back gruffly. “You sure about this place?”
The fat man just nodded, finally glancing away from Ava and over at Jake. Then he turned and walked over to his pickup. “Watch it,” he said as he climbed inside and fired up the engine.
The thin man just stood wordlessly beside Jake and Ava and stared onward, eyes half closed, mouth slightly open. If it were warmer out, a fly could have zipped right in and he’d probably never have noticed it.
Seconds later, the fat man put the pickup into drive and gunned it forward through the parking area. A heavy chain affixed to the bumper jerked tight and then wrenched the coin shop’s back door noisily off its hinges. It clattered behind the pickup for a few feet before the fat man stopped, backup up, and killed the engine. The thin man moved to unhook the chain and hefted it up into the pickup’s bed.
The fat man was back out of the truck and carrying a black 18-inch steel security flashlight in one hand and a portable battery-powered spotlight with collapsible stand in the other. He handed the spotlight to the thin man.
Jake and Ava each took smaller flashlights of their own out of their packs.
“Come on,” the fat man said as he led Jake and Ava, followed by the thin man, inside the back entrance of the darkened store.
They followed him down a half flight of stairs and across a small storage room half full of cardboard boxes. On the far side of the room was a door. It was locked, but after a booted kick from the fat man, the frame splintered and the door gave way.
The next room looked much the same as the first. There were more cardboard boxes, some of which were open and appeared to be full of paperwork.
“Where’s this safe,” Jake looked around, half believing there was nothing more than worthless paper-filled boxes in the basement.
The fat man walked to the far side of the room and shoved several tall stacks of boxes aside. In the process, he revealed a large safe door built into the wall. The door reached nearly floor to ceiling and was about four feet wide. It was a formidable looking opponent, and Jake began to wonder whether he’d brought the necessary goods to do the job, but he wasn’t about to let on that his confidence was shaken.
“No problem,” he said, as though he’d done this a million times. In fact, he’d never done it once, and he’d definitely never used plastic explosives. It was purely by chance he’d stumbled across them in the first place back in Chicago. He’d brought the stuff along simply as a bartering tool or in the off chance he recruited someone who knew how to use the stuff. Fortunately, Ava had the brains to stop at a Memphis area library – one of the few places people hadn’t looted after the flu struck – and pick up a book on explosives. She’d read the applicable parts to Jake so that he felt reasonably confident in trying this sort of job. As he set to work though, she quietly excused herself to have a cigarette outside, just in case Jake hadn’t been paying attention during her lesson.
Ten minutes later, the two accomplices hustled outside behind her followed a minute later by Jake. His forehead was covered in sweat and he looked nervous.
The group took shelter, crouching behind the pickup truck, and 30 seconds later there was a tremendous blast that shattered the barred basement window and sent dust and debris rolling out into the parking area.
The group waited silently until things cleared out.
“Wooo-weeee!” the fat man said as the effects of the blast subsided. “Ho-ly shit!”
The thin man just laughed goofily, enjoying the destruction they’d wrought.
Jake was the first to stand and strut back to the store entrance. “Ought to do i
t,” he said smugly.
The rest of them followed him back inside the store and down the stairs to the basement. Boxes and paperwork had been blasted into disarray. Jake kicked them aside almost angrily as he walked.
A haze of dust and smoke clung thick in the air, but as they made their way through the mess of debris and up to the vault, there was no disguising the fact that the safe door was still set firmly in place. As the fat man played his light across it, there appeared to be little more than some blackening of the gray metal around the dial and handle as a result of the massive explosion.
Jake tugged on the door handle without result. “Shit!” he spat at it, kicking it with a dull thud.
“Great work,” the fat man said to him, frowning.
“Hey, fuck you!” Jake spun around angrily. “I don’t see you doing shit.”
“Well I’m about to,” the fat man said. “Unlike you, I know how to get shit done.” And with that, he wheeled around and strode back outside.
The others waited, wondering what the hell he was doing. Jake fingered the pistol he carried in his jacket pocket nervously, expecting the fat man to come back blasting any second. Instead, after the sound of heavy metal dragging against the floor in the room next door, the fat man came back with the same chain they’d used to pull the back door off its hinges.
“I’m gonna yank this fucker right off,” he said, taking the chain and looping it under and around the safe door handle. “You sacks a shit better get the hell outta the way.”
Jake, Ava, and the thin man didn’t wait around. They followed the fat man back outside where they could see the chain running out through the basement window and up to the trailer hitch on the back of his pickup.
The fat man jumped back inside the cab of the idling pickup and revved the engine.
“Better stand back,” the thin man said. “That chain breaks and it could cut you in half.”
Everyone took several steps back as the fat man threw the truck into drive and floored it out across the parking lot. The chain rapidly grew taught, jerked hard, and in an instant ripped the trailer hitch off the back of the truck.
Ava took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, shaking her head. Jake and the thin man just stood watching, mouths open.
The fat man jumped out of the truck and stormed around to the back. Seeing the trailer hitch laying there and his bumper askew, he looked pissed but undeterred. “Fuck!” was all he said as he unhooked the chain from around the broken hitch and then kicked the hitch off to the side. A minute later, he was back in the truck, tires squealing as he threw it into reverse and backed up close to where the chain lay. Another minute later he had the chain around the truck’s back axle, and several seconds after that he was back inside the cab and on the gas. The tires spun and then the truck lurched forward, again yanking the chain taut, only this time the truck came to an abrupt halt, then bounced and jumped while the tires squealed and smoked as they searched for traction, and then lurched forward again, dropping its ass to the ground as the rear axle snapped. The pickup skittered and slid along for a few more feet like a dog dragging its ass across the carpet before coming to a stop.
This time Ava couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. Jake glared at her and she quickly put a hand over her mouth, but she continued to giggle and shudder at watching these three stooges compete for position of head moron.
The fat man got out of the truck hot as hell and cursing. He kicked the side of the truck with the heel of his boot, leaving a big dent. “Piece a shit!” he yelled.
As the stooges congregated to contemplate their next move, Ava quietly left them, walking over to the store beside the coin shop. The back door was ajar and she quietly slipped inside unnoticed. The business had been a woman’s boutique that appeared to hold nothing of any value, although some lingerie and a nice pair of boots did catch Ava’s eye. Unlike Jake though, Ava understood that not everything of value revolved around guns, booze and cigarettes.
Outside, several minutes later, after things had quieted down and the stooges had finished their squabbling and sat smoking cigarettes, the fat man asked Jake, “Where’s your bitch?”
Jake looked around. “Goddamn it,” he said. He’d been well aware that Ava hadn’t been happy these past few weeks, but he hadn’t expected her to give him the slip…at least not yet; and certainly not now.
“That goddamn whore…” he started, but before he could finish, Ava reappeared.
“You want to come over here?” she motioned to where she was standing by the boutique’s back entrance.
Jake shut up and then stood up. The other men followed warily, wondering just what this beautiful woman was up to and why exactly she was with a guy like Jake.
Muttering to themselves, they followed her inside and down a half flight of stairs similar to those inside the coin shop. The store’s basement was also laid out just like the coin shop except with far fewer boxes scattered about.
The men followed Ava all the way to the back of the basement space where the vault would have been in the coin shop next door. In this store though, there was nothing but empty space. There the group stopped.
“Yeah…so?” Jake shrugged, gesturing around him. “Great…empty space…now what?”
He watched as Ava went over and knocked on the wall that separated them from the coin shop. Again, Jake just shrugged, “Aaaand,” he drawled, staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at her.”
She let out a heavy sigh, “Jesus,” she muttered. “Do I have to draw you a fucking picture?”
Jake burned with rage at the comment, but he kept silent. He watched as Ava looked around her for something. Not finding what she was looking for, she pocketed her own small flashlight. “Mind if I use that for a minute?” she asked the fat man, gesturing to his longer and much larger security-style flashlight.
“Sure,” he shrugged, handing it to her.
She took it, turned it off, and held it so that the back end faced forward. She rammed it end-first into the drywall at about eye level. The drywall dented inward but didn’t break. She hit it again, and then again, and finally the end of the flashlight broke through. She then did the same thing several inches to the left, and then did it one more time, making a total of three holes several inches wide. Then she turned the flashlight on and held it up to one hole while looking through the other two. Finally, she stepped aside for Jake to see, keeping the flashlight in place.
“I’ll be goddamned,” he breathed as he looked through the holes. Then he stepped aside for the fat man and then the thin man to see.
The flashlight’s beam illuminated the inside of the vault next door. Cans of ammo were stacked around the floor and racks of guns lined the walls.
“Hot damn!” the thin man drawled. “Your girl’s worth somethin’ after all!”
“Ha!” the fat man laughed. “All that bullshit, for nothing. We could have just kicked our way right through. All that protection in the front, but hardly anything on the sides. Guess they weren’t too worried about the broads shopping for shoes over here stealing their guns. Who woulda thought?”
“I woulda,” Ava wanted to say, but she just stepped back and kept her mouth shut. This wasn’t the time or the place.
A minute later, they’d broken a big enough hole in the wall to enter the vault. The thin man set up his spotlight in one corner to illuminate the room and suddenly it was like kids in a candy store as they gawked about at all the goodies.
There were assault rifles, hunting rifles, shoguns, handguns, and even a couple crossbows. There were cans of ammo stacked around the room, piles of extra magazines, and racks of hunting knifes.
They’d hit the jackpot.
Ava stood watching the men wander about in a daze, inspecting their booty instead of hers. Jake was so enamored with the treasure that he failed to take notice of what was happening around him.
He looked up just in time to see Ava raise her handgun and take aim at his head. His face fell as his emotional high was
shattered and he realized that his intuition regarding Ava and the feelings of distrust he’d been sensing lately were all too real and that her loyalty to him had finally faltered.
CHAPTER 14
My back ached from carrying Emily’s stretcher. Ray wasn’t doing much better. Claire and I had both picked up hitchhikers too as Jason had given up about an hour earlier, opting for a piggyback ride on Mommy instead. Meanwhile, Cashmere had been unleashed and had quickly jumped up onto Emily’s stretcher for a ride-along of her own. Emily enjoyed the company, but even just the couple additional pounds Cashmere added to our load, wasn’t helping things.
It was slow going to say the least. Dad and poor little Paul were hacking away, their coughs seeming to grow worse by the hour. Pam had barfed again about half a mile back but seemed okay to continue on our trek. Ray and I struggled to bring up the rear. We had started our journey off strong but now had to set Emily and her stretcher down every hundred yards or so to take a breather. Will hobbled along on his crutches in front of us. There wasn’t much talking among the group. Everyone was just putting one foot in front of the other at this point.
“Just think, it could be worse, Paul,” I called ahead of us, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. “You could be in school right now.”
It didn’t work.
“I wish I was in school right now,” he said moodily, and then started coughing again.
“Time check,” I called to anyone who cared to answer.
There was a pause, “About a quarter to eleven,” Pam called back.
“How far you think we’ve gone?” Ray asked behind me.
“Mile and a half…maybe two,” I breathed tiredly.
“Arms are freaking killing me,” he huffed back.
With the sun out and the weight of the stretcher, I was sweating pretty good.
“My back is about shot,” Ray went on. “I can’t believe we haven’t seen any houses yet besides that one pile of junk we passed about a mile ago and that I wouldn’t dare set foot in,” he said. “We must be in the most remote part of Georgia. Just our luck.”
The Systemic Series - Box Set Page 53