Eric woke up seven hours later from his ‘short nap’. He checked his watch twice to verify how long he’d been asleep. He really needed to start labeling the pills he collected in his special pain pill bottle. Groaning he sat up in bed and carefully swung his legs out over the side. His wrist burned like his bones had hot lava running through them. His mouth tasted like a Zombie had snuck in the house and took a dump in it while he was sleeping. He imagined his breath would peel wallpaper.
“What’s up sleeping ugly?” Cailyn asked with a smile as she came into the room with Myriah and Zoey tagging along. Zoey was holding tight to Caitlyn’s leg. Not for the first time Eric wondered how screwed up these little girls were going to turn out. They were seeing more death before their tenth birthdays than the most hardened World War II solider had walked through.
“Very funny. Why didn’t you wake me up?” Eric asked.
“You needed the rest. What with the massive infection from the bullet wound and all. Besides, we wanted to make sure if we found anything good in the house, we got first dibs on it.” Caitlyn answered.
“Did you?” Eric asked.
“Oreos and pepper spray. Some garden tools we can use as weapons and there’s a car in the garage, but I know we shouldn’t even think about taking it if we want to keep this house safe.” Myriah answered.
“A decent amount of food and two of those big jugs of water like you put in the water machine dispenser things. We should be good for a week or two at least without having to scavenge too much. If you want to drag some stuff back from the drug store, I don’t think anyone will complain.” Caitlyn paused and looked at him a little closer. “You sure you should be going? You’re covered in sweat.”
“I always sweat after sleeping an entire day in a house with no AC. I’m good to go. No choice really. You ready Myriah?”
Myriah nodded and Zoey spent a few minutes begging them both not to go. Zoey was having a lot of attachment type issues lately. Eric couldn’t blame her. Not much they could do about it right now though. Maybe once they got all setup on some island down in the Keys in a big house by the ocean with lobster pots and a fresh water stream they could find a book on child psychology and help her work it all out.
Once the sun went down Myriah and Eric went out the back door. Eric was carrying a shovel and had a couple of extra kitchen knives shoved in his belt next to his usual assortment of hand weapons. Myriah was carrying a hammer that she definitely didn’t want to have to use. You had to get in real close to use it and no one wanted to be that close to one of the infected. Take away the fear and the fact they were trying to bite you they still just looked gnarly. Snot dripping out of their noses, drool running down their chins, all kinds of weird stains on their faces and clothes and the massive clusters of sores on their foreheads topping it all off. Add in the insane eyes and lust to rip you apart and the best weapon to take them out with in Eric’s opinion was shooting at them with nukes from a base on the moon.
Eric and Myriah let themselves out the gate in the backyard and traipsed through the adjacent yard to get out to the road. Their plan was to duck into the woods once they got to the main road. For right now both sides of the small road they were on were lined with houses. Rather than try to jump fences and risk waking up any Zombies who may be nesting in the abandoned houses Eric thought it was worth the risk to just stick to the street and stay quiet. There was barely any light being given off by the sliver of a moon barely visible over the tree line.
The short walk to the main road left Eric fatigued. That worried him since he knew that meant the infection must be getting worse. He saw Myriah looking at him with worry in her eyes as he stropped to take a couple of deep breaths and try to pull himself together. Once he felt a little more like himself, he led the way across the street and into the woods. The woods along this road were mostly just a buffer between the street and yet another subdivision. They were thick and filled with weeds, but the hassle of beating their way through the underbrush was better than the risk of staying on the exposed street the whole way to the pharmacy.
They made it up the street and to the pharmacy without hitting any snags. Eric felt like he’d just run the Boston marathon while carrying an overweight, angry dwarf. He had scratches all over himself from the briars and his reserve of energy from sleeping all day had tapped out about halfway to the pharmacy. He was running on pure will power now. He needed to get antibiotics into his system soon or he may not have to worry about Zombies or heavily armed redneck militias.
The door to the pharmacy was shattered open. Myriah lay on top of the Redbox machine someone had dragged in front of the door after shattering the glass to get inside. That meant the store had previously been looted which was no surprise. It’d be pretty hard to find a pharmacy anywhere that hadn’t been looted by this point. Eric wondered how many people had survived the Zombies only to die from not having their heart medicine. He was sure plenty more had died from not having access to the same antibiotics he was trying to find now. He also knew the antibiotics would’ve been one of those drugs everyone would’ve stocked up on if they were on a looting run. Antibiotics for survival and then a few bottles of Oxy for the post poc party crowd.
“I can probably wedge myself in, but I don’t think we’re getting you in the store unless you want to try and crawl up here?” Myriah asked in a whisper looking down at Eric. Eric wasn’t sure he was going to be able to summon up the energy for the walk back to the lake house.
“Why don’t you go take a look first. You’re looking for any kind of antibiotics. Like a Z-Pac or amoxicillin or penicillin. Basically, anything ending in -iclliin.” Eric realized that he didn’t have the slightest clue what kind of medicine he needed other than it needing to be a strong antibiotic.
Myriah gave Eric a concerned look then whispered she’d be right back. She wormed her way feet first down the other side of the red box machine and walked into the store through the smashed in door. She glanced back at the door wondering if she was going to be able to get back out or not. Deciding to worry about that later she began moving through the rows of the pharmacy. She knew the first thing she needed to do was make sure there were no Zombies hanging out in here who were going to sneak up and bite her in the butt while she was trying to read medicine bottle labels.
She broke open one of the chem lights she’d brought with her and used it to provide a little bit of light as she carefully made her way through the store. The place was one huge mess. Most of the contents of the shelves had been knocked onto the floors. She saw a lot of canned food they could come back for later. There was also a whole section of drinks that were still up on the shelf. Whoever had put the Redbox machine in front of the door had done a lot to discourage looters. Myriah moved across the store as quietly as she could holding her hammer in her sweaty palm. She was so nervous about being stuck in here with a Zombie that she was sweating profusely. She got even more nervous when she realized with her palm that wet if she swung the hammer it may just fly out of her grip entirely.
She made it back to the pharmacy without any issues. The pharmacy was locked up tight. The metal roll down security screen was rolled down and locked in place. The doors leading into the pharmacy were all locked. She tried screwing around with the doors and the metal screen that was rolled down but couldn’t figure out a way to get in. The only thing she could think of was to whack away at the door knob with her hammer. She wasn’t sure if that would work or not, but she was pretty sure it’d make a lot of noise. It wasn’t like they had much choice at this point though. She thought about going back and warning Eric, but it was a pretty long walk, so she decided to just go ahead and try out her idea.
She was poised to take her first swing when her mind flashed back to all the HGTV shows she’d watched with her mom. She’d liked the ones where they buy the ‘fixer upper’ and tear it apart then make a huge profit every time by putting in a fancy backsplash. What’d just occurred to her was that when they did the demo work on tho
se shows, they normally beat the drywall to pieces first leaving the framing exposed. Myriah reared back and swung at the wall instead of the door. The head of the hammer buried itself in the drywall. Thrilled to see the drywall coming out as she plied at it with her hammer. Convinced this was the best way to get in the pharmacy she got down to some serious demo work.
It took her an hour to beat a hole through the drywall big enough for her to squeeze through. Luckily, she’d always been super skinny. She’d been a very picky eater back before the apocalypse, so she’d started off skinny. The constant running, sweating and lack of food was a great diet plan that allowed her to slip between the framing of the wall now to finally get to the pharmacy side. Once on the pharmacy side she searched the dispensers for anything that looked like an antibiotic. By the light of her glow stick she found several different ‘-icillins’ and a dispenser labeled Keflex. She vaguely remembered that one from an infection Zoey had gotten the summer before.
She loaded the pills into the medicine bottles and looked around for a way to label the bottles. Not finding anything useful she settled for just shoving all the unlabeled bottles into her bag. She felt like she should be grabbing more stuff, but she had no idea what else they might need. She also had no way to use the label maker so that she’d be able to identify whatever random pills she dumped in each bottle. Deciding they’d need to be happy with antibiotics for now Myriah worked her way out through the hole she’d made in the drywall. Once she’d squeezed back through, she went in search of the first aid aisle she’d spotted on her earlier rounds.
She grabbed a couple boxes of sterile wraps and shoved them in her bag. Seeing a box of princess covered band aids she grabbed those as well. The kids would love them, they managed to get scraped up enough they’d probably go through a couple boxes of these in a week. Satisfied she’d gotten the supplies she’d been sent in for she grabbed some extra supplies off the feminine hygiene aisle to top off her bag and headed for the door. She made it over to the shattered front door and stage whispered towards the top of the red box machine.
“I’m back. Sorry it took so long.”
“No worries. Hurry and get out so we can get the hell out of here.” Myriah heard Eric’s voice coming from the bottom of the red box machine. He must be lying on the ground. It made sense considering how sick he was and how long he’d been waiting. Realizing she couldn’t actually get out from this side she went looking for a step stool she’d seen. When she’d gotten into the building, she’d been able to climb up the concrete ledge on the outside to get on top of the machine. Getting on the top of the Red Box machine from the inside was going to be more of a challenge.
She found a step ladder by the cashier station and used it to get on top of the machine. She made more noise than she would’ve liked clambering over to the other side. She hoped that noise was ok since they’d be on their way out in a few seconds anyway. By the light of her glow stick she spotted Eric lying on the ground by the machine. She dropped down beside him as he worked his way slowly to his feet.
“What took you so long?” He asked her in a quiet whisper.
“I like shopping.” She said back to him with a smile.
“You look like Casper. Ok. Let’s get out of here.”
Myriah reached up and rubbed her face to get rid of the white drywall dust she was covered in from head to toe. That explained the Casper comment. She shoved the glow stick in her bag so it wouldn’t give away their position. She went ahead and handed the sweaty, sick looking Eric one of the bottles of pills along with the bottle of water she’d snagged for him out of the drink cooler by the cash register. Eric looked at her blankly and she mimed him taking a couple of pills and washing them down with the water. As bad as he looked, she figured he should start medicating right away.
Chapter 5: Sort of Volunteering
Kyler opened his eyes with one hand on his pistol and the other reaching out to grab whoever or whatever was poking him. He’d fallen asleep late after standing watch for a couple of hours. He’d woken Sean up to relieve him when he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. He’d actually caught himself falling asleep standing up leaning against a door frame. No one else from their patrol had shown up. It looked like him and Sean were the only two to meet the chief at the rendezvous point. Kyler’s eyes focused now realizing it was the chief who was currently poking him awake. The man was standing back a few feet and warily eyeing Kyler’s grip on his pistol.
“Five more minutes mom.” Kyler said and faked rolling over to go back to sleep. He’d meant it as a joke but as soon as the words left his lips, he realized what poor taste they were. He had no idea if the chief or Sean had lost their moms, but it was very probable. Kyler had last seen his own mom when he was kicking her face away from his ankle trying to escape being bitten by her. He shuddered at the memory. Then he remembered the men he was with. They all put on a hard façade. Just the day before he’d been trading yo’ mama jokes with a man he’d made quick friends with in the patrol. A man who was now decaying in a ditch missing the top half of his skull.
“Wake up moron. It’s time to roll out. Get up and get your shit together. We’re out of here in ten. Me and Sean are ready to go so actually let’s make it five. Get a move on. We got places to go and things to kill.”
Kyler bounced to his feet. Once up he regretted the quick movement as he realized his whole body was feeling pretty beat down from the previous day’s operations. He went to the bathroom in the house to see if he might get lucky with a full bowl of water and some toilet paper but almost retched instead. He heard Sean laughing from down the hall which told him which one of his travelling companions had beat him to the bathroom. Deciding he could live with just a whiz instead he held his breath and took care of that. Then he walked back out to the living room and put on his pack. Putting on his pack was pretty much the only step in getting ready. It’s not like they changed into their pajamas before going to sleep.
“I didn’t hear the water running. Did you not wash your hands?” Sean asked. He was still laughing to himself over the state he’d left the bathroom in. Kyler was noticing the juvenile humor they all shared seemed to get worse the more stressful the situation got. He started to say something about Sean’s mom, but Chief Presley shut him up by talking first.
“Alright. We’re heading back to base. I want to get you guys checked in at central command. Once we get there, they’ll want to pull you aside and quiz you on what’s happened to you so far and your background and so on. They’re also going to ask if you want to make your commitment more official. That means joining up more formally than you are right now. You’ll find out more when we get there. Now, I’m not supposed to tell you this but in case we step outside and that sniper we were running from yesterday blows my head off you’ll want to head to the mouth of the Connecticut river. There’s an island about a mile up river which is where we’re going to try and get today. You just tell them you were with me and looking to sign up and they should take care of you. Any questions?” The chief looked at both of them with a look that dared them to ask him a question.
“You really think that sniper is out there still?” Kyler asked.
“No clue. If it’s like every other time those assholes have hit one of our settlements, he’s long gone so I wouldn’t be too worried. If we make it to the vehicle and start driving without our heads getting blown off, we’re probably good. Anything else?”
“Why are there snipers shooting at settlements?” Sean asked. Kyler thought that was an extremely fair question. They’d all talked about the dangers posed by rogue groups out there trying to take over but talking and getting shot at were two very different things.
“Who knows. Central command may have a clue but as far as I can tell it’s just some freaks out there who’re too damned lazy to salvage their own food and protect their own people. So, they swoop in and try to take women and food. Maybe they have a leader trying to keep us from expanding and restoring order. No clue. I
just know when we figure out where they’re based out of, we’ll be paying them a visit to return all the favors.”
“When we get to the base should we volunteer?” Kyler asked.
“If we ever get there. You two are asking too many questions. It’ll be up to you if you want to or not. I can tell you the commander is a good guy. His focus is restoring the US to as close to what it was before the virus as possible. That’s what all of us want. He’s also practical and he’s smart enough to admit mistakes and learn from them. Now. No more questions. Once we go out this door, we go low and fast to the blue minivan by exit seventy. Let’s do it by the numbers and get there alive. I don’t want to have to report any more casualties from this sweep. There’s a war on and we can’t afford to keep losing soldiers. Not even piss poor soldiers like you two.”
With those encouraging words the chief swung the back door to the house open and ran for the gate in the fence on the side of the house. Sean followed right after and Kyler counted off to five in his head then followed suit. They played this game of follow the leader by moonlight as they slowly made their way towards the interstate and exit seventy. They moved well together. People who were loud had been thinned out by the Zombies early on. Also, the people who normally lost foot races weren’t around too much anymore either. If you wanted to survive out in the open in the apocalypse you needed to be able to run fast and keep it up for as long as you had to. There were no participation awards handed out after a Zombie race.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 5