Stunned, Emilio didn't have a response to such an offer. He was surprised by her generosity. It also brought on a loss for words, reflecting on what happened when he ransacked their little haven. Did they not find out there was nothing much left of the place? Emilio felt confused, wondering how anyone was so optimistic in a world full of treason and death.
The world now was hard. Killian liked to say that only the strong carried on. That is why the weak must serve him and Emilio. The weak have no other worth. If mankind is to survive, it will be on the backs of the strongest and toughest of them left.
Yet she talked about a place where they had worked together and accomplished just as much, if not more, than Killian had so far. Emilio had lived out here, on the streets, had seen shit go down with the zombies. He saw group after group fall after they survived the initial Outbreak. It was as real as real got. Was he wrong? Did those people he helped kidnapp have so much going on by working together? Nothing in the reports from his gang suggested the town was a serious, established base. He sent in some of Killan's best to get the people in town after discovering the place, thinking he found another soft group that survived only by pure luck.
The troublesome thoughts were dropped when he spotted the Albertson's sign.
"JT," he said, keeping his voice neutral. "We're here."
SUPERMARKET
The lot was full of the usual wreckage Hannah was used to seeing anytime at a big store in a big city. In the darkness, it was hard to tell how bad this one was. In the beams though, it looked insurmountable.
"Guess we're walking from here," JT said. He parked beside a wall of vans, SUVs, and pickup trucks tangled together like lovers. "Let's break out the lights."
Hannah stepped down from the cab, holding her stomach. Again it had the flitters, as if something inside came back to life and attempted an escape. She hoped it would go away, and it did for a few days at a time. In the past two weeks it always returned, day after day. She was guessing all the anxiety and stress from the past few days got her stomach all knotted up.
She ignored it as best she could as she met JT at the back of the truck. Right now she had more important things to concentrate on than a flip-flop tummy. While inside, she figured she's find something over the counter to help.
JT dropped the tailgate and pulled the tote they had transferred from the RV to the edge. She got a tie, pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and slipped on her headlamp. She offered a small flashlight to Dodge. At the bottom of the tote, hidden in a plain looking box, was a backup pistol. She struggled if they should give it to Dodge. She had a strong, positive vibe about Dodge at first, but something about his reaction to her offer caused her to have new reservations. If she didn't know better, he was hiding something. As he took the flashlight from her, he seemed more guarded than when they had first met. She had become pretty good at reading altered body language.
She gave JT arched eyebrows as she reached towards the pistol box. His pinched face gave her pause. Instead of the gun, she moved her hand to the left and brought out a whistle on a black cord. She handed both to Dodge.
"Here, in case we split up and get into trouble. I'm not too worried about you Dodge, you've lived this long and you have the survival skills."
His lips grew thin as he put the cord around his neck. He pushed the button on the flashlight. JT and her did the same. "Maybe we won't find anything here," Dodge said.
"I hope we do. We need our friends back, more than you can know."
A warmer gust of air met Hannah as she stepped around the truck. In the distance, behind the building, she saw flashes of lightning that lit up stacks of clouds. Above her the sky still sparkled like a black curtain strung with diamonds. She hoped the spring storm would hold off until they got to some shelter.
The three squeezed through the wall of wreckage. She took the lead, JT watched her back. Ahead, the parking lot broke up between multi car collisions and big empty spots. She panned across the entire way forward, her light tracked the movement of her head. No undead yet, which she was sure would stir from the sound of the truck's engine. She edged forward with care, anyway.
Minutes later they were at the double set of glass doors that led into the store. Someone broke one set out. Now the holes were boarded over. Evidence someone had been here. She looked on the ground around the doors, for a clue or a sign that Gus or any of the others were the culprits. She found nothing.
"This seems like a good spot to scavenge. Maybe your friends came through here," Dodge said. He put his hands up to the glass, holding his flashlight overhead to gaze inside.
"Remember, our friends didn't come down here on vacation," JT said, a rough edge to his voice. "We think someone kidnapped them. The ones that didn't get killed, anyway."
The fun they had chatting on the way here was over. JT's tone said it all. It was time to focus on the reason they were here.
Hannah put her hands beside her head, touched the cool glass to her forehead, and peered inside the store. Her beam didn't go much farther than to the other set of double doors on the other side of where they stored the carts. Sweeping the floor, she didn't see any signs of recent passage.
Hannah turned around to find JT bent over, going back and forth over the concrete walkway around the front doors. "Looking for any signs or clues," he said, when he looked up.
"You find any? To me it doesn't look like anyone has gone inside for a while."
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary. You know I'm no tracker though."
Gus, he was decent at tracking. Clever, too. And Alan. Too bad he wasn't here now. On the one hand, it seemed they had all met up months ago. On the other, it was hard to believe that wasn't a lifetime ago. So many lost along the way, now up in Heaven together...
"I know I heard fighting from this general direction," Dodge said, coming away from the door. "This seemed like a good place to start. Why don't we go in, just to make sure? The worst thing that can happen is, we get something to eat."
"I can't imagine we'll find anything worthwhile in here by now," JT said.
Dodge ignored him. He searched around until he found a decent sized piece of metal and pried the intact glass door open.
Hannah looked to JT and shrugged. She thought it couldn't hurt, since they were already here. "Let's search around. Like you said, neither one of us are trackers."
"I've got a real bad feeling about this," JT said. He tightened his grasp on his handy metal pipe.
The stench of decay hit Hannah like a physical blow when she entered the store. Some of it was strangely sweet, which did nothing to help her twitchy belly. She slung her rifle over her shoulder so she could cover her mouth and nose.
To the right sat the floral section, where large dust particles and empty pots were the only signs left of the plants it once held. Ahead was the produce section. It looked as if a black cloud danced over the containers. Once Hannah realized it was flies, she didn't want to take a step closer. Instead she went left, to the row of checkout registers.
So far she had seen no dead bodies. That was good. She didn't think her stomach could take it. She passed under a hanging sign that said Restrooms. She stopped, thinking she may go into the women's room to get some paper towels to wrap around her mouth and nose. She turned to say so when she thought she picked up a sound.
Another sound echoed through the building, the clunk of a metal can hitting the floor somewhere in the deep darkness of the store. The ominous noise froze them all.
Hannah thumbed over her shoulder to the front door. They needed to leave. She didn't believe there was anything in here for them. She agreed with JT at that moment. Something didn't feel right.
Before she could turn movement caught her attention. After flicking her eyes to the spot, she wanted to rub them in disbelief. Perched on top of an end cap at the edge of her vision sat a person. She couldn't make out more than a shape in the dark, but she knew it wasn't an animal.
They can do that now? She wonder
ed from time to time if some zombies were Runner's because the virus was mutating or something. Now for the second time there was a new behavior. She was no doctor, of course, far from it, and now wasn't the time for a diagnosis.
She didn't know what to do. Her eyes moved across her field of vision. She didn't see any other zombies at the moment. It was rare though to encounter a single one. If they were quiet and careful, they could get back out without an incident. They had gotten inside without being attacked.
Hannah had only taken one step back when JT appeared in front of her, blocking off her view of the shape. JT's boots clomped on the flooring. There was a huge crashing sound in front of JT. She looked for Dodge and didn't see any sign of him.
The next moment, JT fell back into her. She stumbled and hit her hip on the checkout stand.
JT wrestled with the zombie, two shapes in the flashing lights.
In her headlamp Hannah could make out a still well preserved younger man, no more than eighteen. It had clumps of long hair that swayed around its shoulders when JT shoved it away. It hit the checkout stand, climbed onto it like a clumsy toddler and opened its mouth as if it were hissing, though no sound came out.
JT raised his pipe. "Come at me, you son of a bitch." He bared his teeth.
The teenage zombie leapt and JT swatted it down with a sick clonk on its head. The thing twitched a few times in the light. Once it fell still, JT kicked it. It moved with the impact but didn't get back up.
"Let's get the hell out of here, I don't like this." JT wasn't asking.
Hannah whirled at the sudden sound of something else approaching. Two Runners turned the corner from the checkout stand at the end. She had a sudden flash of two attack dogs running up on a victim as one bumped the other when it made the turn.
The time for stealth over, she felt a peace wash over her as she raised her rifle and squeezed the trigger once, twice. Both zombies skidded across the floor and came to a stop by her feet. The shots broke the silence like thunder rumbling through a still day.
More crashing sounds came out of the darkness. A scream also came from somewhere off to Hannah's left. It had to be Dodge.
"We have to go get him," Hannah said in a monotone. "I have a gut feeling he knows something more about Gus."
JT didn't look happy in the slightest. "Okay. You take the far aisle and I'll take the one next to it. Stay alert, stay alive!" Hannah about laughed, he sounded like Dusty for a moment.
Hannah didn't waste any time acknowledging JT. She swung the rifle over her shoulder and drew her pistol. It would be better for close quarters. She took off at a sprint towards the sound of the scream.
"Dodge?" She hollered out as she entered the aisle of bread. The aroma of rotten bakery goods made her gag. Bile sizzled the back of her throat. She ignored it as much as she could, her belly back to doing a gymnastics routine.
"I'm back here," a faint, panicked voice cried out ahead. She wondered what the hell the man was doing and how he had ended up all the way in the back.
She had to cut short the time for confusion. The aisle next to her rocked back and forth. Another figure jumped onto the top of it. Hannah only got to take one step back before the section collapsed down on her.
Packages, chewed up and moldy, tumbled down. She had almost cleared the falling shelves when the figure knocked her down. The shelving unit pinned her right leg to the floor, just below her ankle. She screamed out in pain and frustration.
The zombie landed and rolled next to her. It got back up fast. Hannah stared for a second at a face that wasn't blank and lifeless, like all the zombies before. This one wore an expression of rage.
She dipped her hand up, reaching for the pistol knocked out of her hands. The zombie charged her. Her fingers gripped the pistol. She got off a shot just as it clawed at her. The thing collapsed on her chest with a gaping hole in its head. Its pockmarked grey hand slapped her on the cheek.
In vile disgust Hannah pushed the body off hers. She braced herself by sitting up and putting her arms on the floor. With her free foot she kicked at the shelf, wincing in pain as it moved little by little. Where was JT at? She thought about calling for him, but if he wasn't beside her by now, that meant his hands were full too.
Hannah let out another involuntary scream as the weight of the shelf on her foot intensified. A zombie, whose lower half looked ripped away, crawled on top of the shelving unit. Hand over hand it used each shelf like a ladder to make its way closer to her.
"God, what have I done?" She said, exasperated.
Before she could get into a firing position, JT appeared. He slammed his metal pipe hard onto the zombies head, making a visible dent in its skull. Hannah let out her biggest scream yet.
"Shit," JT said, looking mortified. "Sorry. I'm such a dummy sometimes."
Hannah controlled herself so she didn't roll her eyes. "Just get this thing off of me, will you?"
With a sheepish grin JT came over to her side in one giant, awkward step. He bent down and lifted the shelving long enough for Hannah to pull her foot out.
Hannah held out her empty hand. "Help me up." JT did, and she held the hurt foot up off the ground and leaned on him. "I hope to God it's not broken."
"We'll find some ibuprofen before we leave. I wish we could get some ice too."
"And a wrap," Hannah added. "For now, I'd settle for getting out of here. This was a big mistake."
"Where the hell is Dodge?" JT held on to her tight as he looked around.
Hannah coughed hard. All the mold and bits and pieces left of the bread swirled around in the light of her headlamp. I'd pay real money for a drink of water right now. Her voice was still scratchy when she answered.
"I heard him call out. It sounded like he was at the end of this aisle."
"The dude's survived this long. He will get out of this one by himself."
JT tried to pull her along, but she stood firm. "No, he's the only lead we have to Gus and Linda. We can't lose him."
"You're hurt. I won't let you risk your life."
Hannah gave him an arched eyebrow and put her gun hand on her hip.
"I mean, you can. I don't want you to though, babe."
"Help," Dodge cried out again somewhere from within the darkness. He sounded closer.
Hannah let go of JT and limped towards the source. "Come on, I can handle this."
"Geez, when did you become so stubborn," JT muttered under his breath.
Hannah gave a small smile. Even in times like these, she was head over heels in love with him.
EXPRESS LANE
Hannah rounded the corner and used the end cap for support. Her lamp penetrated the darkness only so far. She couldn't see Dodge or any more zombies at the moment either.
Was the Walmart we passed worse than this place?
The stench back here intensified. To her right was the reason. The meat and fish counters. She breathed through her mouth as much as possible.
Right beside her stood JT. He gave her a grumpy look. He wasn't happy with her decision. He'd get over it.
"What a wonderful smell you've discovered," he said. Hannah gave him a smirk.
"Dodge! Where are you?" She called out sounding nasally as she plugged her nose.
"Hannah, we have no idea how many more deadheads are around, let's not get too carried away or make any more noise than we need to."
As if to answer JT's question, two more appeared. They stumbled into the light, looking like the regular zombies they'd encountered since The Outbreak started. She took the left one in the head and let JT finish off the other one hand to hand. She wanted to save her bullets.
"This way." The voice was somewhere straight ahead.
"Let me at least go first," said JT. He sounded annoyed with everything. She'd have to make it up to him later.
They passed three more aisles without incident and without finding Dodge. The sound carried funny in the empty store.
Two more aisles and their lights landed on the backs of fou
r zombies. Behind them, Hannah caught glimpses of Dodge as they swayed towards the man. His back was up to some fridge doors. He swung a broom handle in front of him like a wildman.
"Damn." Hannah jammed her gun into her holster and pulled out a knife. It was too risky to start shooting. At least they had the element of surprise.
The zombies were so intent on their prey and the noise he made that JT and her took two of them out before they even realized an attack started.
One remaining turned, a big burly lumberjack of a man, and lunged at Hannah. She hopped back on her good foot and raised her knife. JT swung hard and missed its head, hitting the zombie's shoulder instead.
The big man lurched into her. With her bad foot, it knocked her down with ease. The zombie kept going and tripped over Hannah's outstretched leg. It went headfirst into another glass door and shattered it. Its body quaked as it struggled to get free, gouging slices into its skin on the glass shards.
From her position on the floor, she watched JT take care of the last zombie. He had no more turned his attention to the one in the glass case when Dodge dropped his stick and turned to run. Hannah yelled after him. He ignored her.
Dodge entered the aisle and passed out of sight. In the next second he skidded back into view on his back, bowled over by two Runners. Their momentum carried them past Dodge and into arms reach of JT, who slammed on the back of the lumberjack zombie, trying to impale it on the glass.
"JT, more," Hannah alerted him.
One of the Runners slid to a stop and turned back to Dodge. The other made a beeline to JT, who wasn't facing the new threat yet. He shifted sideways, holding onto the back of the big zombie, and used it as leverage to kick at the Runner. He connected right in the zombie's stomach.
Hannah heard the pop of something from where she laid, but didn't know if it was JT or the zombie who got hurt. The zombie staggered backwards. JT let out a string of curses, and with his free hand grabbed his knee. Hannah understood what the sound was.
The Outbreak Series (Book 4): Deadlocked Page 11