"I doubt it's a store anyone has tried to raid," Riley said. "Circle around to the back, there's probably another door there."
Nancy sat up with Al to peer over Xander's shoulder as they drove around to the back of the building. Xander parked next to a set of two concrete steps that led to a closed, metal blue door. "I'll check it," Riley volunteered.
"Wait!" Xander grabbed hold of Riley's arm before she could jump out of the car. "You're not going alone, just slow down."
Something flickered through Riley's eyes, she glanced at the building before focusing on Xander again and nodding. "Stay with the car, I'll go with her," Al offered and opened the backdoor. Riley climbed out beside him. "Are you doing alright?" he asked her.
She glanced inside at Xander before closing her door and stepping away from the vehicle. "Did you ever get the feeling that your time is running out?" she inquired in a voice so low it barely carried to him.
"I'm seventy-two years old, of course I have."
Riley released a small chuckle. "Yeah, I guess you have."
Al grabbed hold of her arm when she went to turn away from him. Her eyes were troubled; her amusement had vanished when she looked at him again. "It's not running out for you Riley. We've made it this far, we'll make it to the end. You're not Bobby."
"I think Bobby knew," she whispered.
Al released her arm. "Maybe he did. Is that what's bothering you? Do you believe that you know?"
She bit into her bottom lip, her forehead furrowed. "No, I don't," she finally said. "But I'm not going to stand by and watch someone else die, not again. I will not lose another one of my friends. Not if there's something I can do to stop it."
Al felt like he'd been punched in the gut as she uttered those words. He grabbed hold of her arm with a lot more urgency when she went to turn away from him again. "Take it from me; there are plenty of things in this life that you're not going to want to see or do. No one wants to be the one left behind, or to be the one wondering why not them, or why did they survive? Believe me when I tell you that there is no answer to the question. There is only a black hole of despair and a heavy burden that will swallow you whole if you let it. I understand your desire to make sure the others stay safe, but if you die because you rush into something you shouldn't have, you will only shift that burden onto someone else." He glanced pointedly toward Xander.
"I'm not going to be careless or reckless." When he continued to stare at her, she wrapped her hand around his. "I'm really not Al. I'm just going to do everything I can to make sure that everyone stays alive."
He wanted to question her further but she released his hand and stepped away from him. Al watched her as she walked over to join John by Carl's window. He believed her words, but he also wasn't willing to see her get killed because she was bound and determined not to lose any more people. She was too young to understand that life would continue to be a series of losses if she continued to outlive her friends and family.
Al joined them as Xander stepped out of the driver's side of the car and Donald appeared. "John, would you mind staying with the car?" Xander inquired.
John frowned at him before shrugging and walking over to the car. "Everything ok?"
"Fine," Xander replied though Al didn't miss his glance at Riley.
"Let's check this place out," Donald said.
Al walked with the others toward the narrow back stairs. Xander was almost to the backdoor when it swung open and bounced against the wall of the building. Al had a brief glimpse of a man before a shotgun was pointed directly at Xander's chest. "Xander!" Riley cried.
Donald lurched forward and grabbed hold of her arm when she made a move to bolt toward the door. Donald jerked her back as Al swung his arm up to point his gun at the burly man standing in the doorway. When he heard the word flower shop, this man was the farthest thing from his mind. His shoulders took up the entire doorway, his head almost touched the top of the frame, and his gut hung so far over his waistband that the suspenders holding up his pants were stretched to capacity. No, this man most certainly was not some delicate flower, but more like a prickly cactus with one extremely deadly spine.
"What do you want?" the man demanded in a slightly slurred voice. It wasn't until he spit something on the ground that Al realized he was chewing dip.
Xander held his hands up as he took a small step back. "We were just looking for a place to rest for the night," Xander said.
"Stop moving!" the man barked.
Riley had been struggling against Donald's hold but she went completely still at the man's command. "How many people are with you?" he demanded.
"Eleven."
The man's gaze ran over the vehicles before focusing on Xander again. "Do you have food?"
Al stepped forward when Xander glanced questioningly back at him. He understood Xander's hesitancy to answer but they had to say something. Making a split-second decision, Al decided to go with the truth. This man couldn't take them all down and they needed a place to stay. "We do," Al answered. "How many people are inside with you?"
The man glanced behind him. "Two."
Al didn't know if the man was lying or not but he doubted there were many more than two people inside. If there were a lot of people in there, they could have already come out to try and overpower them. Al glanced at both sides of the building to make sure no one had slipped out the front, but he didn't see any movement.
The man was going on trust with them, they were going to have to do the same in order to get out of the open before more sick humans found them, or the ones from the bridge made their way here. This wasn't the ideal situation but he didn't see what other choice they had. They'd only make it so far before their headlights drew a swarm, they got stuck somewhere, or they hit something. He glanced at the woods surrounding them, he saw nothing moving through the trees but those sick people were out there somewhere.
"We can share some food." Al hadn't heard Carl's approach until he spoke the words from just behind him. "If you'll give us a place to stay for the night." The man spit on the ground again as he surveyed them. Carl took a couple of steps closer. "It will only be for tonight and then we'll be on our way."
"Let me see the food," the man said.
"John get a day's worth of food out for three people." Carl kept his gaze leveled on the man but when he said three people, the man didn't argue with him. A sense of relief filled him; someone could still get hurt, but it would be a lot easier to subdue three people rather than four or five. "And water."
From the corner of his eye, Al saw Peter open the door of the Caddy and climb out of the vehicle. A sinking sensation filled his stomach as Peter approached John at the back of the truck. He heard hissed words exchanged before Peter turned toward them. "I'll gag that man if I have to," Carl muttered.
"I'll go talk to him," Al volunteered.
"He could shoot Xander if you move," Riley said in a rushed whisper out of the side of her mouth. "I'll kill Peter myself if he causes something to go wrong."
Al quirked an eyebrow at that, apparently Riley's intention of making sure everyone stayed alive didn't extend to Peter. "What's going on back there?" the man in the doorway inquired.
"I'm sure it's fine," Carl placated. Even as he was speaking the words, Peter was turning toward them.
Josh stepped out of the car and hurried to the back of the truck. "Hey now," the man in the doorway said around his mouthful of dip. He swung the gun toward Carl when he took another step forward. "Stop, stop or I'll shoot."
"No!" Riley cried. She jerked her arm free of Donald's hold and tossed her gun aside. Al winced as the weapon clattered on the pavement but he kept his attention focused on the man in the doorway. Riley put her hands in the air as she stepped closer. "Don't shoot him! Peter probably doesn't like the idea of giving up the supplies but it's not up to him. This is our choice and I'm telling you that my friends and I are not a threat to you. I'll walk in there right now if that will help prove it to you."
"
Riley," Xander hissed.
"Please sir," Riley pleaded. "We simply need a place to stay for the night. A place where those things can't find us."
The man studied her before glancing at the others by the truck. "I'll come with her," Xander offered.
"As will I," Donald volunteered.
Al's heart lumbered in his chest as he glanced over at the woods again. Heaving a deep breath, the man spit another wad of chew on the ground before finally lowering his shotgun. "Just bring the food in," he ordered.
"Thank you," Riley breathed as her hands dropped to her sides.
Xander pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "You might want to retrieve your gun," the man told Riley as she approached. "You never know when there might be trouble."
Al bent to retrieve it from the ground. He tried to hand the gun to her but instead of taking the gun back she moved closer to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. "It's not a burden to be left behind, to wonder why," she whispered. "That's just the way things are. It's a gift to still be here, no matter how awful it is."
She was his height, and yet she felt small and childlike within his arms as he hugged her back. "Yes, sometimes it is," he agreed.
Riley stepped away from him and took back her gun as John approached with the bag of supplies. "How much of a problem is Peter going to be?" Al inquired.
John shrugged and shifted the bag in his hand. "Not much of one. Josh got him to agree that finding shelter was more important than food right now."
"Well that's a relief," Riley said.
Riley turned and followed Xander and Donald into the floral store. Al waited for Nancy to gather Spooky from the car before following behind them.
CHAPTER 6
Xander,
Xander took hold of Riley's hand as she stepped into the shadowed interior of the store. The heady scent of the flowers caused his nose to wrinkle as he took in the dead and wilted bouquets still gathered on the counter, the walk-in coolers, and hanging in the front windows. Stalks drooped, brown petals littered the floor, and in the other room he could see large plants that had fallen over and were lying on the ground.
Beneath the counter was a single flashlight that was pointing up at the underside of the shelf. Its dim beam barely illuminated the woman, and a boy about Rochelle's age, that were standing behind the counter. A rifle sat on the counter, the woman's hand rested upon the barrel but she made no move to lift it. The woman had a rounded figure with ample breasts. Her graying dark brown hair had been pulled into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Her hazel eyes were troubled as she watched them filter into the room. She kept her arm locked around the slender boy's chest. The boy's hazel eyes were nearly the same color as the woman's, his brown hair was a shaggy mop that curled at the nape of his neck.
The large man remained in the doorway until Mary Ellen stepped inside with Rochelle. He quietly closed and locked the door behind them. The man's gaze ran over all of them before settling on the bag in John's hand. John held the bag out to him and the man snatched it away. He opened the bag to peer peered inside before giving it to the woman.
"I'm Jim," he introduced. "That's my wife, Claire and our son, Freddie."
Carl extended his hand to the man and shook it before introducing all of them. Xander watched Freddie as the boy tore into a granola bar from the bag. Claire and Jim had to be hungry too, but neither of them touched the food, they simply watched their son eat. "Do you own this store?" Al inquired.
Jim shook his head as he glanced around the florist shop. "No. Our home was about a mile down the road but it went up in flames during the quakes. We came to this area in search of help, or some answers. In the beginning there was rescue personnel that helped to keep everyone organized and under control. We were staying in the motel with a bunch of other survivors, but then the sickness began to spread and all control was lost."
"When the ones with the sickness started to turn on us, we fled, but this was as far as we got. There were so many of them and just the three of us. We hid in the first place we could find. In the beginning we had some supplies, but we ran out yesterday. Jim was going to go out tomorrow to try and find something but…" Claire's words trailed off as her gaze went past them to the backdoor.
"We hear them out there," Jim said. "Moving around at night, hunting."
"Killing," Freddie whispered.
Claire took hold of the bag. She removed a couple more granola bars and two bottles of water before placing the bag under the counter. "We don't know what's going on out there anymore." Jim's voice was hushed as his gaze turned to the glass front windows with the curtains pulled over them. "We haven't seen anyone that wasn't sick in a couple of weeks. I'd begun to think that maybe we were the last ones left."
Riley shuddered beside him; wrapping her hand around his arm, she took a step closer to him. Xander couldn't imagine the loneliness and confusion these three people had to have been going through while hiding in here. "What is it like out there now?" Claire asked.
"Better than the area that we came from," John answered. "But those sick ones, they're getting more aggressive."
"And there seems to be more of them," Josh said.
"The destruction here isn't as bad as it was in Mass and Rhode Island," Al said.
"Is that where you're from?" Jim inquired.
"Most of us."
Nancy remained hovering nervously by the doorway, her head bent, and her hands folded before her. She acted calmer than when they'd first encountered her but an almost feral air still surrounded her. Xander watched her before turning back to the couple and child. Jim pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at the sweat lining his forehead and upper lip.
"I always wanted to see the ocean," Claire murmured.
"Believe me, you don't want to see it when it's chasing you down the highway," John muttered. Carl shot him a look but John's face remained impassive as he stared at his friend. "Well it's true."
Carl turned back to Claire. "It was beautiful," he told them. "But I'd suggest staying away for awhile."
"I don't think we'll be taking any trips anytime soon," Jim said.
Carl gave a small snort before lifting his hat and pushing his hair back. "We should probably move the vehicles before they're noticed."
"I don't think those things are coherent enough to realize that the vehicles are even out there much less being driven around," Jim said.
"They're a lot smarter than you would think," Xander told him as he fished the keys for the Ford out of his pocket. "Don't ever discredit them; it will only get you killed."
Jim's eyes shot toward his family before going back to the door. "Are we in danger because we let you in here?"
"You've been in danger this whole time," Peter said bluntly. "You didn't have much of a choice about letting us in."
"Peter!" Riley hissed.
Xander grabbed hold of her arm and shook his head when she shifted her gun before her. Peter didn't even look at her. His jaw remained locked; his eyes were focused on the family gathered by the cash register. "It will be fine," Carl assured them but his eyes remained on Peter. "We just have to get the vehicles out of view."
Jim nodded but he didn't look overly convinced. "There's plenty of woods around here but I'm not sure you're going to be able to put a car in them."
Carl glanced around the room. "Xander, Donald, and John, why don't you guys get the vehicles somewhere safe?"
Xander nodded and squeezed Riley's hand. "I'm coming with you," she said.
"No, stay here." He pressed his lips against her ear so that no one else would hear what he said to her. "There's a reason Carl is staying in here. He might need your help with Peter or with Jim later."
She looked torn as she glanced between Jim, Peter, and then him. He thought she might fight him but she gave a brief bow of her head instead. "Be careful," she whispered.
"Always." He kissed her before joining John and Donald by the door.
"Should we bring the s
upplies in?" John asked Carl.
Carl frowned but he shook his head no. "No, it will take too long. Just get the vehicles out of sight and get back here as soon as possible."
"Ok." Xander turned back to Donald and nodded to him. Donald unlocked the door, pushed it open and stepped into the peaceful night. Nothing moved, not even a breeze stirred the trees, but he knew how much looks could be deceiving.
"Can we hide them in the woods?" John asked.
Xander had no idea where they were going to put the truck as he searched the trees surrounding the back of the store. They could probably maneuver the cars in between some of those trees, but the truck would be a lot more difficult. Xander glanced at the parking lot of the building next door and then at the department store across the street from them.
"We might have to put them across the street," he answered.
"I think we should," Donald said. "I don't know how we're going to get any of them into the trees, and even if we could there's still no guarantee that hiding the cars will throw the sick ones off of our trail. There's enough vehicles across the street that they might not be noticed, and if they are…"
"The sick ones will probably go for the department store first," John finished when Donald's voice trailed off.
"Yeah," Donald said as his gaze continued to search the night. "I just hate being so far away from the truck and cars."
"I don't think we have a choice. Let's go," Xander said.
He hurried to the car and slid inside. He couldn't see the ignition well, and it took him a couple of tries, but he finally slid the key into it. John was already driving out of the parking lot when he turned the ignition over. The sound of the car firing up set his teeth on edge but he shifted it into drive and searched the night as he cautiously drove it forward.
He didn't dare turn the lights on, but the other vehicles headlights had come to life automatically. The automatic headlights were a feature he was beginning to despise as he followed the others onto the road, and into the vast parking lot across the street. There were about thirty other vehicles in the parking lot. He slid the car in between two others and turned it off.