She pointed to the space between the back and the bay. Sure enough, there was enough room so that we could see into the warehouse. It was dark for the most part.
“Shit, we don’t have any flashlights,” Rose said.
“I brought one,” I said.
I turned around and Rose reached into my backpack. She clicked on the large flashlight and pointed it inside the warehouse.
“I don’t see—” Rose flew backwards into us, knocking an unprepared Leo onto the asphalt.
Chapter 23
My ears picked up on the rasping of an infected before I saw it. It sounded like it was trying to clear out a hairball. A handless stump was pushed through the opening, then the head followed. The infected was wearing a crossing-guard style vest which had gotten snagged on the outside of the truck. It was stuck half inside, half outside of the warehouse, continually reaching for us with its ghosted hand.
“Damn thing scared the shit outta me!” Rose growled with a hand over her heart.
I guess she didn’t like things jumping out at her. She would have been terrible to go to a Halloween haunted house with. Rose lifted the flashlight to bash the infected’s head in but I grabbed her wrist.
“You’ll wreck our only light source,” I hissed.
I pushed her aside and removed the hunting knife from the sheath on my belt. It couldn’t do much with its handless arm, so I easily dodged the stump and brought my knife down on its head. It went limp, still hanging in the spot we needed to go through. Together the three of us tugged at the body. The sound of the vest ripping urged us on until we cleared the infected completely. We dropped it to the ground and Rose pushed the flashlight at me.
“You first.”
“How brave of you.”
We glared at each other until Leo grabbed the flashlight from Rose. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
Rose glared at me like it was my fault before turning to watch Leo investigate. He shone the light inside, his shoulders rigid. I think he expected more infected to pop out. When none did, he tested the waters by squeezing through the tight spot and hoisted himself up into the bay. From the outside I could see the beam of the flashlight cross back and forth. After a few seconds, he stuck his head back outside.
“All clear.”
“Chickens first,” I said motioning to the opening.
Rose flipped me off and easily slunk through the opening. She was pretty tiny in that regard. I went next and Leo helped me up into the dark warehouse. A sliver of light came from the opening we had just come through, but most of what we could see was a result of the lonely flashlight. I looked back to see the door on the back of the truck open. It looked like they had started loading pallets, but gave up halfway through. There was still a dolly inside with a single box left to unload.
“Stay close,” Leo instructed.
My lips quirked at the authoritative tone of his voice. It sounded like a kid trying to play grown up. We followed right behind him as we ventured further into the warehouse. The beam showed us the rows and rows of wrapped pallets, and then, in the distance, some metal shelves stacked as high as the ceiling. Well, I hope nothing good is on the high shelves. There was no way we could reach that stuff without some sort of jack.
“Shine the light over here,” I said.
Using the beam of light to see what I was doing, I cut open the shrink wrap on the pallet with my hunting knife. The plastic squeaked as I sawed. I unwrapped the pallet: a hundred boxes of instant oatmeal stared back at us.
“Nice,” Leo said.
“How we going to cook ‘em?” Rose asked.
“This is one of those grocery stores that sells everything,” Leo said. “We should be able to find a kettle.”
“And plug it into what?” I asked.
He made a face. “They probably carry emergency batteries too.”
I wasn’t familiar with this store, as it wasn’t one we had in Canada, so I took Leo’s word for it.
“How are we supposed to carry it all back?” Rose asked.
“I’ll carry the battery,” Leo said.
“If we find one,” I added.
“How ‘bout we stick to immediately edible foods? We can come back for the rest after,” Rose said.
“So basically that leaves us granola bars and salad dressing,” I groused. I was so sick and tired of eating granola bars.
“We could try and take one of those trucks outside,” Leo suggested.
“I thought the whole point of this trip was to try and make as little noise as possible as we grabbed enough food for the next few days?” I asked. “Isn’t that why only we went?” I motioned between the three of us.
“We can turn on the mower when we leave,” Leo said.
“I’m pretty sure the noise from a big rig trumps a little mower engine,” I said.
“We’ll come back after for the truck and supplies,” Rose said. “Today is not for the big shoppin’ haul, just a small one. Now let’s stop debatin’ this and get a move on.”
We agreed to put a hold on our conversation as we continued through the valley of pallets. I cut a few here and there, most filled with dried goods. We’d found one full of cereal. Froot Loops for me tonight! The next one I tried was of course full of granola bars. I made a face as I pictured me eating another one of those dry lumps. I was even growing to hate the ones filled with chocolate chips.
“Shit!” Leo tripped and fell to the ground, the flashlight bouncing off a pallet.
Everything went dark. Rose stumbled to help Leo up as I went in search of the flashlight, praying it wasn’t broken. I sheathed my knife, then got down on my hands and knees to feel for our fallen torch. My fingers hit the metal tube, rolling it further away from me. I swore and went after it. As I was feeling around, my hand landed on something far more substantial than the flashlight. It was a leg.
I jerked my hand away, desperately reaching for my knife. By the time I had gotten the knife free, my brain registered that the leg hadn’t moved, nor was there any sound of an infected. I swallowed and crawled back over to the leg. Grimacing, I continued to pat the ground. The flashlight had rolled right up against the appendage. I grabbed it and turned the switch on and off. Nothing. I knocked it gently against the palm of my hand and the light flickered, then went off again. I tried it again and the beam finally came back on. I pointed it toward the leg.
It was wearing a beige work boot. I moved the ray of light up the leg to find that there was no body attached to it—it was just a severed leg. I shot to my feet and backed away from the limb. Keeping my eyes on the severed limb, I slowly walked backwards toward Leo and Rose. When I reached then, I turned to shine the light on them.
“You okay?” I asked like I hadn’t just, you know, seen a single human leg.
“He tripped over an arm,” Rose said pointing to the ground.
Indeed, there was a severed arm on the ground. The bloody stump stuck out the end of the ripped shirt.
“I think I found his leg over there.” I hefted my thumb back the way I came. “Careful you don’t trip on it.” I carefully slid the knife back into its sheath.
“Why the hell are there body parts lying around?” Leo asked angrily as he rubbed the back of his neck. Poor guy must’ve been embarrassed that he’d tripped over it.
I held the flashlight out for him; he eyed it, then looked at me. With a nod, he took it back and resumed his spot in the lead. Thankfully there were no more random body parts lying around. We got past all the pallets and hit the shelved goods. Our heads craned to look up to the top.
Rose let out a low whistle. “No way we can reach those.”
“Can you not whistle?” I asked.
So she whistled again with a smirk on her face, which was actually kind of impressive because that was a hard thing to manage.
“Get attacked then,” I said.
I pushed past them and wandered down the first aisle. Leo positioned the flashlight on one of the pallets so the beam illuminated the aisle.
It wasn’t that bright, but it was enough that I could squint and read the products on the shelves. Most of the boxes on the lower shelves were unwrapped; the higher shelves had the rest of the shrink wrapped pallets. We got to work looking for any food that required very little prep. My eyes landed on a box of condensed milk and I smiled. Milk to go with my cereal tonight. I pulled off my backpack and loaded in half a dozen of the small cans. When I put it back on I realized how heavy they were. Maybe I could goad Leo into carrying my bag back.
Leo and Rose were still at the front of the aisle so I opted to move further down to cover more ground. They were slow. The boxes at the end were filled with trail mix. Somehow that was still better than granola bars. I cracked open a box and pulled out all the bags of mixed nuts that I could. I added them to my already heavy backpack, hoping that it didn’t rip. Leaving my backpack on the ground, I reached for another box to open.
I heard slow footsteps come from around the aisle corner. I yanked myself from the boxes to see an infected wearing the full warehouse uniform—he even still had a hardhat on. I fumbled for my sheathed knife, but the infected didn’t give me time. It came at me so I backed up. My foot connected with my massive backpack and I fell backwards, off balance. My arms flailed as I hit the ground. The thing wasted no time in diving at me. In the back of my mind, my brain was telling me to stay still. In the lizard part of my brain, it was telling me to fight. The latter won.
As the infected fell upon me, I struggled to reach for my knife. I had only managed to get it halfway out before I fell. Using one hand to hold off the infected, I wiggled the knife free, instantly bringing it down on the infected’s head. The knife bounced uselessly off of the hardhat, slipping from my grip as it veered off to the side. I heard it clang to the ground. Where the hell are the others? I didn’t dare scream for fear of calling the rest of the infected right to us.
The infected tore at the stomach area of my shirt. It managed to get a mouthful of fabric, ripping it away like a shark would a fish. I used both arms to try and push it off, but it had me in a terrible position for deadlifting something. I should start doing reps if we ever found a gym.
I pushed again and the thing was flung back. For a brief second, I thought I had obtained superpowers. Then I saw Lucas bashing the infected with his crowbar like a certain super villain. When he was done, Lucas turned back to me and offered a hand. I took it and he helped me to my feet. He winced as he helped me up. I wasn’t that heavy! I reached back down for my hunting knife, ignoring my wounded ego.
“Thank you,” I said.
Lucas just grunted. Me cave man.
I looked down at myself to survey the damage. The infected had ripped away most of the bottom of my shirt. Never in my life had I worn a belly shirt before. Now that I had lost weight, it looked rather good.
“It only get your shirt?” Lucas asked, bringing me out of my self-absorbed thoughts.
“Yeah,” I said. “I hope they sell shirts here too.”
Despite my vain thoughts, I was still not wanting to go around wearing half a shirt. And this was the only shirt I currently owned.
“They sell everythin’,” Lucas said.
I finally noticed that there was more light. Lucas had picked up a lantern from the floor and was holding it up. His eyes dropped down to my bare skin and I barely resisted the urge to cross my arms over my torso. It reminded me of the time he’d looked me over in the hospital when I first met him. Like hell I was going to run away with my tail between my legs this time.
“Like what you see?” I asked.
Lucas’s eyes popped up to my face with a hint of a smile—or a smirk. It was hard to tell with him. I was starting to sound like Zoe. Zoe. At the thought of her name my heart sank with guilt. We were wasting precious time foraging for food, but we needed food to have the strength to do what was coming next.
“There’s an aisle of clothin’ two down from here,” Lucas said. “And a pallet of battery powered lanterns by the door I came through.” He held up the one in his hand as if I had no idea what a lantern was. I wasn’t that young.
“What happened?” Leo asked, suddenly right beside us. How convenient.
“You didn’t hear me getting attacked?” I asked with venom in my voice.
“Didn’t hear nothin’,” Rose said, then looked at Lucas. “Until you started hittin’ the ground with your crowbar.”
I picked up my backpack without a word, then stormed away from them, trying to control my anger. “Show me where the clothes are,” I commanded Lucas.
He didn’t even hesitate as he followed after me with the camping lantern. “You’re goin’ the wrong way.”
I stopped and swiveled on my heel, then stormed in the other direction. Stupid Rose and Leo. Like hell they hadn’t heard anything. I was pissed. Lucas took the lead and turned two aisles down from where we were. The sign tacked onto the metal shelf said that clothes were indeed down here. Lucas held the lantern in front of him, and it swayed back and forth as we walked through the aisle. It added an extra layer of creepy, like we were in a horror movie walking through a graveyard. I scanned the aisle, my eyes not really reading anything because I was so angry at the other two. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was fine; that was all that mattered. And it was thanks to Lucas. How did he get in here?
I turned to Lucas. “How did you get inside?”
“There’s an employee side door that was unlocked,” he said.
“What about the infected that were chasing you?”
“I took ‘em out.”
I looked at his clothes. They were stained with brownish blood and skin. His shirt held a rather large pool of blood around the shoulder area.
“Looks like you could use some new clothes as well.”
He nodded and placed the lantern down. “Start lookin’ at the closest boxes. Don’t wander off.”
I couldn’t tell if that was a jab at me or not. I decided to let it pass—I already had enough to be mad about. Starting with the nearest pallet on the ground, I opened a large box. It was the size of the cardboard boxes grocery stores used for large amounts of produce. Inside was a bunch of plain white shirts. I rifled through, looking for something in my size. I found a tank top that would fit. I looked over my shoulder to see that Lucas was currently engrossed in sorting through a box on the other side of the aisle. Quickly, I set down my backpack and tossed off the ripped shirt, then yanked the clean tank top on. It was a spandex blend, but didn’t cling too tight.
“You always undress in front of people you barely know?” Lucas asked.
I could feel a tinge of red spread across my cheeks. Damn, I had thought he was looking the other way.
“Common courtesy dictates that you look away when someone changes,” I said, proud that my embarrassment didn’t leak into my voice.
“I heard the cans clang in your backpack. Thought you hit the ground again.” There was definitely a smirk on his face this time.
You’re an adult, Bailey. Not a teen anymore. I shrugged indifferently. “Nothing I’m sure you haven’t seen before—unless you’re not into girls.”
Instead of wiping the smirk off of his face, my comment made him grin wider. “If that’s what you gotta tell yourself.”
I narrowed my eyes; I was pretty sure he’d won this round. With a huff, I returned to my big box of shirts and grabbed a few more in my size. I tended to go through a lot of clothes. As I rolled up the shirts and shoved them into the last remaining space in my backpack, I heard Lucas disrobing and putting on something new. I resisted the urge to turn around and get my revenge, lest he misinterpret my intention.
I skimmed the rest of the boxes. There were tons of generic clothing, enough for everyone back at the motel, but there was no way we would be able to carry it all. Unless we listened to Leo and brought back one of those big trucks with us.
“Come on,” Lucas said.
He was wearing a completely clean new outfit. We walked down the rest of the aisle an
d spotted Leo and Rose sitting on a pallet.
“Ya done?” she asked.
“Are you?” I countered.
“Our bags are full,” Leo said. “But I still think we should take back a truck.”
“Too much noise,” Rose reiterated.
“I spotted a smaller delivery van ‘round the side,” Lucas said.
“How big?” Leo asked.
“’Bout the size of a small cube van,” Lucas said. “I have no idea if it works or not.”
We looked at one another as we felt the idea out. The point of this trip had been to stay on foot and grab what we could. But this might also be our only chance to get such a large haul. We wouldn’t have to worry about doing another run for a long time if we did bring back a van full.
“Fine,” Rose spoke first. “Show us.”
Lucas led the way to the side of the warehouse. We passed by two fallen infected with their heads bashed in. Lucas’s work, I presumed.
“There are the lanterns.” Lucas pointed to a stack of them, then opened the side door a sliver. He opened it further and snuck outside with us quick on his heels.
The daylight assaulted my eyes, forcing me to look down until my eyes adjusted. Damn, that warehouse had been dark. As I was looking at the ground, my eyes moved along the trail of dead infected that led to the front of the yard. How had Lucas taken out that many and been okay? I voiced my question out loud.
Lucas shrugged. “Got a little bite or two. Surprised you didn’t see when I changed.”
If this were a teen drama, this was the part where the onlookers would be on their phones, immediately posting this on social media and blowing everything out of proportion. Instead, Rose just smirked and Leo looked horrified. He was no fan of Ethan, but he was even less a fan of Lucas.
I shot Lucas a glare for purposely stirring up shit. I was really regretting coming on this run.
“I’m sorry I bothered to ask. Just show us the damn van,” I gritted.
We walked to the van in absolute silence. It was unnerving. The van was blocked the rest of the way to the back of the warehouse, like they had parked there in a rush. Lucas tried the door handle and it opened.
This Would Be Paradise (Book 3) Page 16