"Is there a problem here?" Katie strode up to the man, hands on her hips, head tilted to one side and gave him her most direct look.
The man was in his early to mid-thirties, dark hair, blue eyes, cleanshaven in that almost too clean look. He was holding his phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
"Yes, I can barely get into the store because of some hick truck pulled up to the door. I get inside and this retard spills coffee on my shirt and trousers, and now I have a blond bitch giving me lip."
Katie motioned to his phone. "Does that work?"
He blinked, not expecting that response. "No, because we are in hicksville and there is no signal."
Katie slightly nodded. "Or the world has gone to hell and the city is in ruins. Doesn't anyone listen to their radio anymore?"
"Look, bitch, I make a six figure salary. I don't have time for radio or TV.
I dictate letters that will bring in millions of dollars a year when I'm on the road. I work constantly. I am a busy man. My time is money. I am money. I have a meeting in one hour in the city and I'm running late thanks to your stupid friend here and that damn truck."
Katie laughed in his face. "Well, buddy, hate to tell you this, but the world is over. The city is in ruins and you aren't going to make that meeting and you're not going to get a signal. Your six figures means nothing now."
The businessman moved toward her and towered over her obviously trying to intimidate her.
Katie looked up at him, her eyes cool, her jaw set.
"I don't deal with crazy people. And no one talks to me like that," he hissed.
"She does." There was an audible cha-chung! as Jenni raised the shotgun and cocked it. Her eyes were dangerous.
The businessman stumbled backwards. "You people are crazy."
"If you go into the city, you're the crazy one. You'll die. Something has gone wrong. People have gone insane and are killing each other. We barely escaped."
The man shook his head at Katie's words and backed up to the door. His eyes were wide and unbelieving.
"You're crazy psycho redneck bitches!"
Katie looked at Jenni and they both started laughing.
That was enough. The businessman ran out, narrowly avoided the back end of the truck pulled up to the doors, and ran to his Mercedes. Katie noticed he held onto his coffee and that made her laugh all the more.
"You really need to put that gun away or I will call the police!" The teenager finished bagging the latest batch of food and supplies and slid it across the counter.
"Will you really?" Katie arched an eyebrow.
The boy ducked his head and mumbled.
"Thought so."
She grabbed up several bags and headed out the door. They needed to load up the truck and head out as soon as possible. She felt too exposed and too vulnerable. Jack gazed at her solemnly through the back window and let out a tiny woof.
"We're hurrying," she assured him.
Jenni slung some bags in and ran back into the store. Katie followed and grabbed more bags. A few more trips and their stockpile looked pretty healthy in the back of the truck bed. Jenni huffed past her lugging several gallons of water and Katie walked back into the store as her gaze flicked briefly toward the road.
Still empty.
"You need to sign your receipt."
Would he never stop being annoying? Katie sighed and walked over and signed the receipt. It had to be at least three feet long.
"I will never pay this. The bill will never arrive. You need to understand this," she said to him.
"Look, I just want you to leave before my manager gets here, okay?"
There was a loud squealing noise outside and Jack began to bark fiercely. Katie whirled around to see a car nearly clip the truck and slam into the side of the building. The walls shuddered and the glass windows cracked.
From the steaming wreckage, a young woman, in the same color smock as the irritating cashier, stumbled out gripping an older man about the waist.
He was barely on his feet and it took all her strength to carry him. He was covered in blood.
"Mr. Carver! Rachel," the boy ran past Katie and out the door to meet them.
Jenni looked at Katie and their eyes met.
Jack's barking was frantic now.
"We're out of here!"
Katie ran after Jenni and they both swung open the doors to the truck cab.
There was a scream of agonizing pain, then the boy's voice said, "Mr.Carver! Mr. Carver! Get off of her!"
Katie slammed her door shut and started the truck. Jenni was still standing outside the truck, watching, transfixed as Mr. Carver took another large bite out of Rachel's spurting throat.
"Just run!" Katie shouted at the boy as loud as she could to be heard over the dog's barking.
The boy finally listened to her and ran for his car. He fumbled with his pocket to get out his keys.
Mr. Carver now had Rachel down on the ground and was biting at her savagely as her body convulsed.
Jenni slid into the cab and shut the door, locked it, and looked at Katie.
Katie shifted gears and drove. She glanced into the rear view mirror to see a bloodied, resurrected-Rachel and Mr. Carver now in pursuit of the boy whose name tag she never noticed. He ran as fast as he could away from the gas station down into the valley behind the building.
"You did tell him," Jenni said finally.
Katie turned onto the highway.
"Yeah, I did."
"Coffee?" Jenni motioned to the cup holder fastened to the dashboard.
Two cups of steaming coffee sat there.
"Yeah, sounds good."
They drove on.
2. A Taste of the Dead World
Sometimes the world changes and you don't even notice. One day slips into the next and subtly the world around you transforms. A new building goes up. A tree is cut down. Your neighbors move out. The potholes in your street are repaired. A new elected official takes office. You gain five pounds.
Your friend loses ten.
And then there are the stark changes that upturn your world and leave you in shock, breathless, and lost.
Like hearing your baby scream out and chewing noises.
Or leaving your home after kissing your pretty wife and wondering if you should be wearing your new high heels today and then finding yourself fifteen minutes later running for your life in shoes that pinch your feet and almost make you stumble.
Or how at eight-thirty this morning you didn't even know your traveling companion and now, at nearly eleven in the morning, you're both eating beef jerky and donuts with a stiff chaser of cold coffee.
"I think if we keep to back roads, we'll be safer. We can keep avoiding the bigger towns if we keep turning off on these roads," Katie said to Jenni.
Jenni peered down at the map she had found in the glove compartment.
"Okay, I think I can figure it out." It felt good for Katie to be making choices.
It felt good to have a role to play again. Mother and wife were gone, but she could be Katie's helper.
Katie sat in the driver's seat, arm propped on the edge of the door, her head resting on her hand, driving along as the dog they had discovered in the back of a truck slept halfway on her lap. Jenni could tell that Katie was struggling not to let her emotions get the best of her. A few times Katie had touched the cell phone beside her and Jenni could see the internal struggle not to flip the phone open to look at the photo.
Jenni sighed. She didn't even have photos. She had nothing. Nothing at all.
Except for Katie, the dog, the truck and the winding road.
Along the way they had seen other vehicles, driving fast down the road, usually toward the city, the panicked people inside barely glancing at them as they flashed by. In one small town they had seen no signs of life at all. At one point, a farmhouse on a hill was being boarded up in the distance by tiny moving figures as they passed.
But yet, they felt very alone.
"We can't drive forever. We'll have to stop eventually and get more gas.
More supplies." Katie sighed. "But heading into a highly populated area will do us no favors. Back roads are the way to go."
Jenni pursed her lips and carefully ran her finger along the lines on the map. Slowly, her eyes strayed up to the national park. She shivered slightly, her head swimming…
How could she be such a bad mother?
Jason, her stepson, was still up there camping out with the freshmen high school class of his private school. Far away from the city, his dead father and half-brothers…
How could she have forgotten him?
Tiny fingers straining under the front door rose menacingly in her mind and she felt herself shudder. Her stomach coiled and she reached out a hand to brace herself against the dashboard.
"Hey, are you okay?" Katie's gentle hand stroked her hair. "Hey, Jenni?"
Jenni looked up at her, shaken. "I…uh…forgot my son."
Katie flicked her gaze toward Jenni, then back at the road. "No, hon, we couldn't bring him…he…" Her voice faltered.
Jenni shook her head. "No, not Mikey…not him. Jason. My stepson…I forgot about him until just now…I…how could I…I'm…"