CHAPTER 9
We walked to the dock and opened one of the doors slowly before heading to the truck. We caught the end of a news report once the truck and the radio came to life. “We will be getting off the air once we have repeated this announcement. The light that flashed two weeks ago and brought the waterfall is, I repeat IS the cause of this breakout. The last we heard no government body knew why or how it happened, what we are sure about is, it happened simultaneously around the world, and that millions, if not billions of people were caught out in the water. I am now getting off the air. I hope there are people out there surviving and hearing me. God Bless you and may he keep you safe and alive This is Howard Stern stay safe and good luck. May God help us all.”
The radio went dead after that; we sat in silence for about five minutes before I started pulling out.
As I pulled around to the front of the building my jaw dropped as I saw the numbers of Sleepers and Dead in the parking lot. I smiled at Joey and said, “Good thing this thing has a brush guard on it.” The tires chirped as I mashed on the gas pedal.
“Stop fucking hitting me, Joey!” I yelled as I pulled into the parking lot of Big R.
“You’re a moron; you could have screwed up the truck plowing through them. You could have hurt us.” He was mad and without saying it I could tell he was actually scared for once.
“Yeah, but did you die.” I used a line he always used when I bitched about his driving.
“Shut up.”
“Whatever, but I am right,” I said as I laughed. “Okay, what we are going to do is, park in front of the doors. We don’t know how many are in there and we have to shut down the doors, so nothing gets in. Joey and Andrew, once we are in there you two find at least two generators. Make sure they are the silent running ones. Niki and I will head straight to the weapons and ammo and start loading them up in hunting bags.”
As I parked the truck in front of the doors, I noticed the store must not use the same electric pole as Wal-Mart, since the lights were still on. I also noticed that a couple of Sleepers were roaming around in the store. I said a silent prayer that they were the only ones. I stepped out and removed my Eagle and screwed on the suppressor. “Let’s go, we have to get this done.”
Once we entered the store, Andrew walked over to the closest Sleeper and buried his ax into its skull, with a loud popping noise. He never stopped he just pulled the ax out of the skull and walked to the next one. I didn’t say anything because I knew he was working through his things his own way.
As he and Joey walked to the generators Niki and I walked straight back to the weapons and ammo, without running into any sleepers or dead. We grabbed two hunting backpacks that were hanging near the entrance of the hunting section. Niki walked up to the display case and smashed it open with her pickle fork; she quickly started filling her bag and said, “Should we look for the trigger key for these?”
“No, we can drill them out or break them when we get back.” I walked over and starting throwing shotguns and shells into my bag when my eyes caught something above me.
“Holy shit! Look!” I ran to the end of the counter and grabbed the ladder. I put it in place and bolted to the top. “I am so being Daryl Dixon from now on.” I grabbed the high-end crossbow off the top shelf; I also grabbed the case that sat next to it.
“Nice, you’re still a dork. But if you are going to keep it, the bolts are in the next aisle. Don’t forget to get to grab the all the bolts and tips so we don't run out.” She chuckled and shook her head. Her chuckle stopped short and as she let out a scream that got to me a little too late. “John look out!”
I only heard John before the ladder I was standing on disappeared from under my feet. I remember falling and thinking, “Fuck! This is going to hurt.” I hit the ground, hard.
Joey
Andrew and I heard Niki scream; we didn’t make it to them until John was already knocked out on the ground and Niki was swinging her pickle fork at John’s attacker. She never noticed the two guys running up behind her, but we did. I stepped onto a bench that was in between the first attacker and me. I launched myself off and hit the guy in the back while he ran toward Niki. So when I hit him, his momentum took him into a shelving unit. I noticed though that it didn’t knock him out.
He attacked me as I was jumping back up since my momentum took me to the ground. He hit me in a football tackle, low and hard. I was able to get a few punches onto his kidney before we hit the ground. He kneeled above me and was about to rain down punches when a shot rang out that stopped him in his tracks.
“STOP! That is enough.” The yell came from behind me; then I noticed the man who yelled. He was about fourty-five and looked like he was a druggie, rotting teeth, dirty clothes, and unkempt hair. I knew he was going to be trouble.
He walked up to us and talked in a monotone voice and said, “You three will pick up your friend there and put your weapons on the counter. You will then give me the keys to that truck of yours and help us load it up. Then we will leave. So put your weapons on the counter now.”
I stood up and moved to the counter, “We can’t do that these are ours. Get your own.”
The guy stepped closer to me and racked the pump on the shotgun. “They are not yours anymore they are ours now.”
Right before I was about to protest again, I heard a moan come from the other side of the counter, and I realized that John was waking up from his nap.
ME
I knew I was dreaming when the memories played out in my mind. I stood over the bodies of the villagers once again, in a time long ago, in a country I probably shouldn’t have been in. But, I stood there once again and the flood of the day that changed who I was played out in my mind. I knew these villagers should still be alive and that the men I had, had to put down where men that I thought where my brothers, but I knew my brothers would never, or rather wouldn't have to, do something like this.
My memory didn’t play out entirely due to the first shot pulling my attention out of my dream, then I could faintly hear yelling. What snapped me completely out of my memory was the racking of a shotgun. I came fully just in time to hear the guy’s threat. I moaned as I sat up due to a massive headache I now had.
“Hey you, dumb ass on the floor, stand up so I can see you. Don’t try anything stupid or your little friend here dies.” I couldn’t see the man talking, but I could tell he wasn’t playing.
As I slowly stood up, I looked around and caught a scrawny kid laying on the floor knocked out. I saw a guy that was standing at the end of the counter that was about the size of Joey. Then I saw Andrew and Niki standing next to a guy that was bigger than Andrew. Then my eyes fell upon a guy that was older than me but looked like a tweaked out druggie.
“Walk out from behind that counter. Like I told your friends, I want your weapon, your truck, and your help loading all this stuff into it.” He shifted his eyes from me to Niki and after a few seconds his gaze came back to me and he finished, “The girl will go with us as well, don't do anything stupid or you die.”
I know this guy was not lying about killing us and taking Niki with them. So I kept my voice level and soft. “Look, friend, I can’t let you take everything here nor the truck. But, I don’t mind letting you guys take enough weapons and ammo to survive.” I talked as I slowly moved from behind the counter.
“I told you what you were going to do and there is no…” He started to speak, but his words were caught short when a bullet tore through his chest and sprayed blood on the shelves when it exited his back.
I lowered my desert eagle and spoke with a gruff tone. “Now you three can either end up like him, or you can take my offer. It is up to you.” I looked around at the two guys that were standing; they looked scared, the one by Joey just shook his head up and down. The other one, though looking scared, I could see how pissed he was in his eyes.
“He wasn’t my friend, but you didn’t have to kill him. We will take your offer though. And we will stay away from here.”
Once they were loaded up, they left without saying a word. Niki, Joey, nor Andrew said anything to me. I couldn’t take the silence, so I walked over to the shoe section to try and get away from the silence and to see if there was a pair of cowboy boots I liked. I heard Niki walking up before she said anything. “Are you okay John?”
“Yeah I will be fine, he had to be taken care of, or he was going to get even stupider. I couldn’t have that when he had his shotgun on Joey.” I talked as I stared at the boots, seeing nothing I liked.
“You know that isn’t what I meant, you know I was talking about taking another humans life.” She knew most of my secrets and the dreams that still haunt me, so she spoke from a place of knowledge.
I stared at the boots and we just stood there is silence for a minute. Niki knew most the story of what happened on that hellish day, and I knew she felt that those memories plagued me at this moment. I felt her hand touch my shoulder and I turned around and looked down at her. I wrapped my arms around her and said, “Thank you.”
We hugged for a minute or two and then I straightened up, “Okay let’s go help them or they will whine that we didn’t do anything.”
She laughed her cute little laugh, and we walked arm in arm back to Joey and Andrew who were loading bags with the rest of the ammo. “Don’t forget my crossbow.”
“I got your dumb ass crossbow. Now help us bring these bags to the truck. Y’all ain’t done nothing to help us.” Joey whined as we walked up.
All I did was look at Niki, and we both started laughing hysterically. We just grabbed a few bags and walked to the truck without saying anything else. I knew I would be fine with what I did. I also knew that I would have to do it again and that it would trigger the memories once again. I am more than sure it wasn’t going to be the last time either, in the world as we know it now. The day would come when I would tell the story of that mission and of what I did to make myself the way I was, but today was not the day.
The rest of our shopping went off without any more problems. I made a mental note to make sure we either find a way to incorporate Big R into my complete plan early on or get a semi over here and overload it with the things we didn’t grab, but sure would need soon. I couldn’t help but wonder how many more people like these guys, we were going to run into. Little did I know I would find out soon enough.
CHAPTER 10
We backed up to the dock doors and got out of the truck. Andrew kept an eye out as we opened the over head door and jumped in the back, then he joined us. We all started to unload the truck and put the bags on a big flat cart. I made sure I kept the crossbow for me.
As we got the last of the haul onto the cart a loud yell came from behind me, “John-John! I saw you guys pull back here and thought I would come see if I can help.” She approached me embracing me and a big bear hug.
“Hey Kay-Kay,” I said as I hugged her back. “We are already done, but thanks for coming to check.” I backed away and could see the she looked years older than her nineteen years of age. I could see the weight of something on her mind.
I turned toward the other three and said, “Hey how about you guy bring all this into the main part of the store and try getting those trigger guards off, we will be there in a minute”
Joey and Andrew replied together with, “Sure.”
Looking at Niki I could what she was about to say, and she did, “I will chill here with y'all, they don't need me.”
I was about to object when I thought to myself that I may need a woman's help with this. I could only tell Kalie to brush off the dirt and walk it off. Which may working with Joey, but I had always treated Kalie a little softer than I treated Joey. So I said, “I think that is a good idea, thanks”
We walked over to the chairs that were near by as Joey and Andrew pulled the cart with them and talked about which weapons they wanted for themselves.
Once they were gone I turned to Kalie and said, “Alright now tell me what happened? I know it would take a while to get here from Indiana but not two weeks.”
She took a deep breath as she looked at her feet and started, “We were not at home in Indiana, we were at the New Buffalo house for our, Spring Fling party.” She took a deep breath, from the thoughts, I am sure. “It was Zach, Jen, me and about fifteen other friends. We were on the beach and ran out of beer. So Zach, Jen and I went back up to the house to refill the coolers. We where filling them in the garage, then I looked up when I heard everyone else coming back. That is then the lights started.
We all watched, then when I turned around and got back into the garage. That is when the water hit, the second Jen saw it she pulled me quicker to the back of the garage. When it stopped I ran outside to help my friends that were all laying on the ground. Everyone got up and we got the one's that were hurt into the hose to help.
Everyone seemed to get sick so they all decided to all go to our rooms and call it a day.
Zach and I where in the same room as Jen and Mark. Luckily we shut the door all the way because I woke up to Mark walking around the room like he was sleep walking when I asked what he was doing he lunged at me and I was fight with him when Zach put a bullet into his head.
Which started a shit show, from Jen screaming and the other knocking on the door trying to break it down and get in.” She wiped tears from her face as Niki rubbed her back in comfort.
“How long were you stuck in the room and how did you get out?” I nearly whispered, trying to keep my voice soothing, because I knew where this story was going. If it didn't my sister had more than just a little weight on her shoulders, she had a massive boulder sitting there.
She took another deep breath and answered quickly, “Two days and then we tried to sneak out when we realized they slept. But they woke up as we where trying to leave. We had to...”
I raised my hand to stop her and said, “You don't need to relive it, I can see what happened.”
Niki looked at me with a question on her face.
I just shook my head and said, “They had to kill their friends and it took so long to get here because that take a chunk out of your soul and they were not worried about getting here.” I turned to Kalie and finished, “Was it because y'all wanted to join them or was it because you were afraid we would hate you for doing it?”
There was a look of shock on Kalie's face and she just said, “Jen wanted to join Mark, I didn't want to come here because you guys might hate me for doing what I did. Zach was just trying to keep her in the truck as he drove and kept telling me no one would hate me for what we had to do. I don't know how he was okay with what we did.”
I stood up and turned around to face her. “He isn't but he knew he had to get you here for not only a safe place but because he probably realized I would hunt him down and feed his liver to him if he didn't”
This had the reaction I wanted when I heard her laugh and she said, “His liver, really?”
“Hey what can I say, I'm a good big brother.” I laughed as I scooped her up into a huge bear hug again. I whispered “You will be okay, no one here will ever hate you for surviving. You have always been a survivor and mom would be so happy that you were able to protect yourself.”
“If it helps I have to kill my parents to survive to get here. So, you and I are in the same boat.” Kalie and I looked at Niki after she spoke.
“Well I guess we are both fucked up mentally now,” She said with a sly grin as she added, “Not as fucked mentally as John-John, but close.”
They both started cracking up as I said, with fake shock, “What? You mean I am not a blue ribbon holding winner of perfect mental health?”
Niki laughed as she got my joke and Kalie looked confused but laughed anyway. They walked ahead of me as I picked up my new crossbow.
I knew I would need to talk to Zach because I knew he would be mentally dinged by this as well, but I knew two things right now. One, I owed Zach more than I could ever give or do for him, because he got my little sister back to me safely.
Two, if Niki and Kalie became good friends, I was in for a lot of being made fun of. This was definitely turning out to be a bad situation. I just laugh at this thought and shook my head as I followed them.
I was still shaking my head listening to them talk as we made our was into the break room, and I stopped at the door and was truly surprised at how they had turned it into a nice common area for all of us. “I like it.” I said looking around at the futons and tables with real chairs placed around the little area.
As I walked over to a table and put down the crossbow Matthew and Megan, Hammer’s twins ran up to me and grabbed my arms, “John come see what we did.” Matthew said as they pulled me toward the other, much smaller break room.
They had removed the tables and chairs and replaced them with two futons and an air mattress. I chuckled a little and said, “You two did this all by yourselves?”
“We didn’t remove the tables and stuff, but we did put the air mattresses in and blew them up,” Mathew said with a huge grin.
It amazed me that with all that was going on right now in the world, these two could take such joy in the fact that they did the littlest thing. But, this little thing would help us be comfortable and well rested. This little thing, though small and seemingly irrelevant, could help us survive. I knew from that moment on that no matter how little of irrelevant a task might be; it tasks like them that was going to mean the difference between us being human or one of the monsters.
“Good job you two, it looks great. Thank you.” I walked with them back into the new common area. Where Kim and Hammer were packing a few last things into a hiking bag, they grabbed. “Did you guys get everything you need? A few extra gas cans would be a good idea, don’t want to run out and not have any.”
“Yeah we grabbed a few, we also grabbed couple other things. We will make it alright, and I will find a way to get word to you, so you are not worrying too much. You have a lot to take care of here.” Hammer had to lead me over to the far end of the break room and lowered his voice. “Make sure you watch who you allow in here. Also, make sure you keep an eye on Andrew and Guy. They took a big loss, and their heads might not be in the right place, right now.”
“I know Ham; I will make sure they are alright. Make sure when you get down to Florida you keep everyone with you save.” I leaned in gave him a hug, not knowing if I would ever see them again. “Love you, Ham.”
“Love you too.” He hugged me back.
Kim walked up to us, and we could see the tears in her eyes. “I will miss you too John. Now get over here, I have cried on everyone else I am not leaving you out.” She scooped me up in a bear hug.
“I will be fine Kim, so will you.” I hugged her back just as hard. “I have got some things for you guys.”
I walked them over to the spot that our original weapons were and lifter a duffle bag up onto the nearest table. “I have three guns and two shotguns in here. Nine magazines for the guns. They are all the same, so ammo and mags are interchangeable. I also gave you nine hundred rounds for the guns and four hundred for the shotguns. That will get you to Florida for sure.”
“I don’t think we need that many, it is only Hammer and me,” Kim said as she started removing the guns.
“No,” I said placing my hand on her arm to stop her. “I know you don’t think this way, but the kids are going to have to learn to shoot soon. You will need the guns for them. I know you think they are too young, but to survive they have to learn.”
With a huff, she said, “You’re right, I just don’t want anything to change for them. They are too young.” Her eyes started to water again.
“I hate to tell you this Kim, but everything changed the second those lights started flashing,” I said as I picked up the guns and put them back in the bag. I zipped the bag back up and picked it up to take to their Blazer.
“John-John wait,” Kalie yelled as she runs up to me, with my crossbow in one hand a silly looking bat with a duct-taped ball with spikes on the top of it.
“What’s up buttercup?” I said with a sly grin; I knew what was coming next.
“Can I use this crossbow, this bat sucks. It is all I could make fast enough before we left.” She said as her face got beet red with embarrassment.
“I will tell you what Kay-Kay,” I laughed. “You can have it if you can hit a target the size of a watermelon from fifty feet, at least five times in a row.”
She got this hurt little frown on her face and whined, “But I have never used one before, don’t even know if I can do that.”
I laughed harder at this, “Not now, I will give you while to practice. And then I will see how you do. There are targets in the sporting section. Please, don’t hurt or kill anyone that is still alive.”
She grined from ear to ear and squeaked as she took off running to the sports section, yelling over her shoulder to be, “Thank you JohnJohn, and I will make you proud.”
“I know you will Kay.” I yelled back.
The rest of us all headed with Ham and Kim to their Blazer together. As we got to the front doors we saw the whole family standing there talking. We all said our goodbyes one more time and gave hugs all around. There wasn’t a dry eye among us as they pulled away because no one knew what the future held for them nor how far they would make it.
I stood there with a warm feeling, knowing deep down that no matter what, Hammer would get them down to Florida. That warm feeling went away when the realization hit me that I might not see him or Kim or Ashlie or Mathew or Megan ever again, once they made it to Florida. Little did I know ten years from now, I would know what happens to them.
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