“I’ve got a couple of headlamps in the glove box,” I said to Jackie. “We’ll go in here and see what we find.”
“Do you think anyone’s alive?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “If they are, there are worse places for someone to hole up. Thing is, we’ll need to be careful. If someone’s in there, they’re probably scared and armed. That’s a dangerous combination.”
“They also might not be friendly,” she finished my unspoken thought.
It was hard to imagine, with so much death all around, a person willing to kill another human survivor, but people could be unpredictable, even compared to wild animals.
“Bring your shotgun,” I said quietly. “Just in case.”
Jackie nodded, and we went back to the truck to get our headlamps and her weapon. She’d never questioned me carrying my particular pistol, and she didn’t argue when I told her to bring her own firearm.
Thus fortified, with both headlamps and the maglight I kept behind my seat, we entered the dark, foreboding interior of the Tiger Town mall. As I expected, the employees only door that we slipped through led into back halls, offices, storage, and infrastructure, all of the things that kept a place like this running. This had a couple of major benefits for us, as it gave us access to everything.
First off, we quickly found the security offices. The lights were out, the monitors dark, as expected. A fat ring of keys sat on one desk, next to the facedown and very dead body of an overweight, middle-aged man in a once-impeccable guard uniform.
Jackie sighed and looked away while I retrieved the keys.
“Does it get easier?” she asked.
“Honestly?” I said. “Not so much. I mean, you get used to it, but it doesn’t really get easier.”
“I think I might understand that,” she mused. “What now?”
I looked around the security office, shining my light here and there. It was a fairly spartan part of the mall, with off-white cinderblock walls and a concrete floor. A bank of security monitors dominated one wall, with a server rack beside it. The desk was a steel and bakelite affair, with three drawers. For a moment, I considered rifling through it, then decided against it. What would it really accomplish, I wondered. I’d have to move the corpse, and frankly, I was tired of doing that sort of thing.
“Now, we go shopping,” I said as brightly as I could before I turned for the door.
“That,” Jackie observed, “is the best thing I’ve heard today.”
We moved on, slipping like ghosts through the back halls of the mall. The doors were all labeled with the name of the store beyond, so we skipped everything that didn’t look interesting. Of course, the definition of interesting was rather different between a thirty-year-old army vet farm boy, and a twenty-something college girl.
So we hit clothing and jewelry stores, though she picked out surprisingly few things. At the Books-A-Million, she paused and frowned, then let out a sigh and turned to me.
“Can we come back here later?” she wanted to know. “And hit some of the college bookstores closer to campus?”
Books were a great idea, especially since we lacked the internet. I nodded and grinned.
“Hell, yeah,” I said. “We’ll need references and entertainment.”
“Cool,” she said. “What do you like?”
“All sorts of things,” I said as we moved on. “Lots of nerd stuff, too, like sci-fi and fantasy.”
“Well, damn, Henry Forrest,” Jackie said with a laugh. “I never would have figured you for much of a geek type.”
“I even made it to SDCC one year when I was on leave, and Dragon Con when I could,” I said with a shrug. “It was fun stuff. Lots of my friends were into that shit, too. We even had a D&D game going over in the motor pool in Bagram.”
“Cool,” she looked off into the darkness for a moment. “I was part of a group in college. It was fun.”
“Maybe we should get some books and stuff. Hit the comic and game stores and set up a campaign,” I said with a chuckle. It wasn’t a joke, either. Roleplaying games would be a good way to pass the time, along with reading and anything else we could do without power.
“I’m game,” she said with a laugh. “What’s next on our hit list?”
“Sporting goods. Outdoor clothes and maybe camping gear, plus survival stuff,” I replied. “Then ammunition and a gun or three.”
“Bows, crossbows, slingshots maybe,” she suggested.
“Good idea. This is probably where we’ll load up the truck.”
“You know,” she mused. “You still haven’t picked anything out for me.”
I grinned at her in the darkness. “I haven’t seen anything I wanted to get you, yet.”
“Oh really,” she said, her voice was almost a purr.
Yeah, she was definitely flirting.
“Really,” I replied. “Though I’m country enough to think a pair of overalls.”
“Really?” she laughed. “The world is your oyster, and you think overalls?”
“I’m a simple man,” I replied.
“I don’t really believe that, you know.”
“I’m not sure if you should or not,” I admitted. We stopped at the back door of Dick’s Sporting goods.
“I don’t plan to,” she told me while I went through the keys. “I like what I’ve heard so far. You’re quite an interesting guy, Henry.”
“You’re just saying that because I might be the last man on Earth,” I snorted and grinned sidelong at her, making sure she could see my face in the light of her headlamp.
“I’m not,” she protested and punched me lightly in the shoulder. “I’m being serious.”
“That makes me happy,” I said with a nod and smile as I unlocked the door and swung it open. “After you, Miss Purcell.”
“Thank you, Mister Forrest,” she said and slipped by me into the dark interior of the Dick’s offices.
I followed, chewing over a lot of different thoughts and scenarios in my head. Maybe I was just inclined to overcomplicate everything. I’d had a relationship or three in my time; two or three in high school, several during my time in the service that mostly just amounted to flings, and then a couple in college. None of them had lasted more than six months, really. The types of women I’d gravitated to had been the pretty, shallow types. Mostly we’d just been footnotes in each other’s lives.
Jackie, though, was a lot more than any of those. It just felt weird to me that we were stuck together for survival, and I didn’t want to make her feel like she had to get with me to have my help. I liked her. Hell, I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers, either.
I chuckled to myself as I followed her through the office and into the storage rooms and employee area. We gave this area a cursory search to make sure there was no sign of additional survivors. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, there was nothing. The break room area, though, already had a few enterprising rats that fled from our lights.
“Ugh,” Jackie muttered as she watched them scuttle away. “I didn’t expect rats so soon.”
“It’s been, what,” I mused. “Five or so days since the last human activity? I’m surprised we haven’t seen more bugs, really.”
“Ew,” she shuddered. “I didn’t need that image, but you’re right, it is kind of weird.”
“Maybe things are going bad slower than we expected, or maybe it’s some component of what killed everyone. Nobody seems to decompose as fast as I expected, either.” I moved on past her and into the large open area of the store, holding the door open as she followed right behind. It was eerily silent, but for the two of us.
“Wow,” she whispered. “This is creepy. The other places were, too, but as big as this store is, it’s like, a million times worse.”
I nodded silently and started off down the aisles. This was one of the few major box stores that I shopped at, other than hardware stores and Walmart, of course. There were other gun shops in the Opelika region, and I m
eant to raid them for ammunition and maybe some higher-end hunting rifles. For now, though, Dick’s and Walmart were a good start. Unless I missed my guess, we’d start seeing more feral animals in a couple of weeks, and it would only get worse.
Before then, Jackie and I had to fortify the farm, but we needed to get to the supplies while we could. We’d gotten a lot of food and dry goods already, but we should probably store even more.
“Oh!” Jackie exclaimed, her voice echoing madly through the empty store, and darted off into the shoe section.
I followed and found her gushing over some boots that she quickly sized. She paused, grinned at me, and said, “Let’s get some carts.”
“How about this,” I told her. “Go wait by the doors, and I’ll bring the truck around. This is probably going to be our big shopping spot.”
“You’re right about that,” she said and winked. “They’ve got some cute activewear, too.”
“Cool,” I said with a playful smirk. “Back in a few.”
With that, I hurried back out through the access and maintenance corridors. By myself and moving quietly, my sharp ears picked out the noises of more rats and possibly other things moving here and there, especially around the area of the food court. I doubted that anything big had gotten into the mall yet, but it was only a matter of time. Wildlife and vermin were going to overrun the world a lot sooner than later, and we needed to be ready.
Fortunately, I didn’t run into any problems on the way out, although a glance in at the poor Paul Blart behind the security desk caught a glitter of rodent eyes before I was past and heading to the exit. Maybe the noise of Jackie and I moving around had stirred up the local rats. It was a surprise that we’d seen any, considering how religious most malls were about exterminating their vermin. But then, humans were only nine meals from anarchy, so maybe this was just to be expected.
Whatever the case, I wanted to get things wrapped up sooner, now. I couldn’t imagine the sheer volume of work needed to do to ensure that Jackie and I would be safe and comfortable moving forward. It’d have to be done, and we’d have to be careful to avoid hurting ourselves, too.
Nothing was ever easy.
I emerged into the light and squinted out into the mostly empty parking lot. Each day, we’d have to set objectives for each of us to accomplish. For now, I was thinking a few more days of scavenging and gathering resources, then consolidation. Going to Montgomery would have to be a part of that, too. It was only about sixty or seventy miles from here, and once we got there, we could scrounge up a phone book, hopefully.
The internet was a liability for the survivor. It was useless without power or cellphones, so we were back to maps and phone books to figure out where a solar supply shop might be. Some hardware stores carried small-scale panels that would easy to wire up for limited use, but I wanted to get a lot of them, and batteries.
We’d have power for as goddamn long as I could wrangle it.
I started up the Dodge and pulled back into the parking lot before heading off around the mall to the Dick’s. Not only was Jackie waiting for me with a cart full of clothes and camping gear, but she had the big sliding glass doors open.
“Hey,” she said with a wave as I pulled up. “I figured I’d do something useful while I waited.”
“Good,” I smiled back at her. “Let’s load her up.”
12
When you embrace rural living, there are many benefits to owning an oversized, overpowered pickup truck, especially if it’s four-wheel-drive. Admittedly, you get less use out of that last feature than you might think, especially if you aren’t really the “muddin’” type. My Dodge was great around the farm, pulled trailers without complaint, carried whatever I needed, and wasn’t even too terrible on mileage.
What Jackie and I made the most use of during this particular foraging expedition was the sheer capacity of the extended bed option. Our entire haul of camping and survival gear, including tents, propane tanks, cookware, a couple of kayaks (you gotta plan for at least SOME fun), and outdoor clothes and shoes took less than a quarter of the space in the back of my big truck.
While she went through the bows and crossbows, I loaded carts with fishing gear and ammunition for the guns I had back at the farm. I also picked out a few new arms, specifically a pair of old-school AR-7 survival rifles, a Bergara B14 in 6.5 Creedmoor, and a Remington 870 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. That meant I had to load up on 6.5 ammunition, but I was okay with that.
Next were optics. I picked out the last pair of Steiner Military-Marine 10x50 Binoculars they had, and a couple of Leupold BX-2 Tiogas in 8x42 and 10x50. Unfortunately, stock was limited.
While I was going through scopes, Jackie wheeled her own cart over and leaned on it, watching. She had a couple of bows, a crossbow, bolts and arrows, a slingshot, and probably at least one each of all the necessary accessories for bow hunting and equipment maintenance. If she was familiar with that particular mode, great. It was actually one thing I didn’t know a hell of a lot about, but I’d pick her brain once we had time.
I settled on the three Vortex Strike Eagle 3-18X44mm Rifle Scopes they had. We’d have to sight them in for the guns we had, but I did know how to do that, and I had a mounting bench that I could drag out. I didn’t see much point in any of the laser or reflex sights, not without power.
“Keeping it simple?” Jackie asked. Her voice carried through the empty, quiet store, and we both winced.
“Yeah,” I replied after a moment. “I’m thinking about space and usage considerations. Ammunition is going to be a lot more useful than the world’s largest collection of firearms.”
“I didn’t see the point in going overboard for the sake of variety, either,” she said. “I can only shoot one bow or whatever at a time.”
“True,” I laughed and studied her in the light of my headlamp. “Anything else you need or want?”
Jackie furrowed her brow for a moment and stared off into the dark, then shook her head.
“I think I’m good,” she replied. “You grabbed fishing gear, hunting gear, and accessories. What’s next?”
“I was thinking we grab another load of ammo, cans, and dry goods at Walmart. We can make a book run tomorrow after we have all of this put away,” I replied. “Sound good?” There were two or three other gun stores that I wanted to hit in the coming days, but I wasn’t in a terrible rush. We already had several years worth of target shooting and hunting accounted for, more if we were careful.
“Works for me,” she answered with a smile. “When do you want to go to Montgomery to look for solar panels and stuff?”
“Hrm,” I grunted and started pushing my cart towards the entrance. “Day after, I reckon. We’ll want maps and a phone book. Hopefully, nothing bad has happened.”
“There is that,” she said, falling in behind me. “I don’t even know what could happen without people around.”
“Fires, gas leaks,” I mused. “Zoo animals may have escaped, too. We’ll want to be really careful.”
“There might be other survivors, too,” she added. “Maybe we should look.”
“Good idea,” I said. “We can’t spend too long since we have to make sure the animals are cared for, but we can make several forays if we need to.”
We passed the darkened registers and customer service kiosk, pushed open the sliding doors, and made our way out into the light. After the persistent darkness in the store, I had to squint against the bright sunlight. Overhead, the clouds had drifted and made a clearing for the noonday sun.
“Damn, but it’s bright,” Jackie shaded her eyes with her hand, then closed them and fished a pair of sunglasses out of her jacket and put them on.
I smirked, put the cart near the side of the truck, and detoured to get my own sunglasses out of the cab. That helped a lot.
Between the two of us, it didn’t take long to unload this round of our shopping trip and arrange it securely in the truck bed. After that, we moved on to the next target.
The Walmart Supercenter on Pepperell Parkway in Opelika sat back from the road in a massive parking lot with a couple of small shopping centers flanking it. Also nearby was a good-sized Tractor Supply Company, someplace we’d need to raid for parts.
Maybe I should get a new tractor or two, despite how easy the old one was to work on.
Jackie watched the road and places we passed like a hawk, searching for survivors, I guessed. She was quiet until we pulled to a stop in front of the entry closest to the grocery store. This was usually the door that was always open, no matter what time it was.
“I really guess we’ve given up on any sort of government or police response, haven’t we?” she asked quietly.
As if the looting and prepping wasn’t a clue, I thought, but I kept that to myself.
“We apologize later if we’re wrong,” I said. “But with,” I paused and waved a hand vaguely out at the world beyond the truck. “That, I think it’s safe to say we’re on our own, along with anyone else that might have survived.”
Yeah, I held onto a slim thread of hope that there might be more people out there, but it was just that, very slim.
Jackie sighed, looked over at me, then pushed her shades up so I could see her lovely blue eyes. “We make do, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “We make do.”
She gave me a faint smile and slipped out of the truck to head to the big glass doors a little ahead of me. Past the entry, the store was dark, but we still had our headlamps and flashlights.
Thanks to company standards, we didn’t have to break in. Some manager or another had decided to keep the big box store open, no matter if people were dying on their feet. Each of us grabbed one edge of the sliding door, and we hauled it all the way open.
The first waft of stench struck us like a physical wall. Jackie gagged and turned away, coughing. I swallowed hard and covered my face with my sleeve. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Back to the truck,” I said. “I’ve got some Vick’s and allergy masks.”
After The Virus (Book 1): After The Virus Page 8