Jack and I found our truck sitting in Dawn’s garage looking flawless. It was even freshly washed, though I could have done it and forgotten. We also found the doors locked.
Dawn appeared, rattling the keys in one hand, and pointing at me with the other. She stepped closer until her finder was an inch from my nose.
“Not a scratch. Not a dent. Not a drop of blood,” she said.
“Yeah, yeah. Got it.”
“Promise.”
“I promise. I promise.”
She handed me the keys and then a folded up piece of paper.
“My list. You still owe me preferential on this run.”
“Kelly has preferential on this one,” Jack said.
I turned to Jack and shook my head, hoping he’d take the cue to stop talking until we were gone.
Once we were in the truck with the engine running, Dawn walked up beside the driver’s side door.
“Last night…” She seemed to be searching for words that weren’t coming.
“It was fun. Right?”
She smiled and nodded. “It was. Get on out of here.”
I returned her smile and pulled out of the garage.
It wasn’t until we were through both gates before Jack asked about Dawn’s preferential.
“I had to give it to her to fix the truck. She practically demanded it.”
“What about Kelly’s list?”
“We’ll get both lists.”
“Are you sweet on her?”
“Kelly? She’s okay, I guess.”
“Don’t try to confuse me. I’m smarter than you. You’re sweet on Dawn.”
“Nah. She’s a little rough around the edges, right? Bossy. Always yelling at me.”
“That’s how some people show affection. She’s ten times harder on you than anyone else. You don’t think that means something?”
Ten times? Did that mean anything? And if it did, how could it mean something good? Never been good with this stuff.
“How’s the search for materials going?” I asked. “Still think you can have it done for Friday?”
“I’ve got everything within the walls that they’ll let me have, but it’s not enough.”
“No big deal. We just keep an eye out for stuff we can use.”
“Yeah, right. We already have two preferential lists to deal with on top of the regular stuff. Now you think we’re also going to get a load of plywood in the back of the truck?”
As I pulled into the Megastore’s parking lot, passing rows and rows of parking, still half occupied by vehicles. Was the store a dumping ground? Or were there that many people shopping when they died?
A few stray zombies roamed the parking lot between us and the front door. I rolled my window down and stuck my arm out, machete in hand. I got close to first zombie and took a swing as we drove by.
“Damn!”
Complete miss.
“Just run them down,” Jack said. “Isn’t that your thing now?”
“You know why. And running them down is not my thing.” I took another swing, lopping the top of a zombie’s skull off. “Killing them in any way is my thing.”
The next closest zombie fell before I got close to it. I rolled my tire over its head and felt the skull give way.
The rest of the dead in the parking lot were too away from the store.
“I’ll get the rest of you later,” I vowed putting the truck into park right in front of the Megastore entrance.
“There’s probably going to be a lot in there. Too many to kill for just the two of us.”
“Thought about that before we left, and I’ve got an idea.”
I pulled a long plank from the back of the truck and crept to the front doors. Figures shuffled among the aisles. It didn’t look much different from the way it did before the world ended.
I set my eyes on an aisle that was clear of zombies. “Follow me.”
I scurried through the doors heading straight for my target, plank in one hand, machete in the other. We reached the aisle quickly and quietly and I threw my plank down, one end on the floor, the other on the top shelf. Then bounded up the plank and stood on top of the shelf and motioned for Jack to follow.
He was up just as fast and I pulled the plank up on top of the shelves with us. By then we had attracted a little attention. A group of dead was forming around us. Moaning and reaching up toward us.
It wasn’t even noon, but inside the store it was as dark as night, we were surrounded, and essentially trapped. It probably would have seemed pretty bad to anyone who didn’t know what I had planned.
“This seems pretty bad,” Jack said. “What now?”
