The Breadwinner Trilogy (Book 1): The Breadwinner (19 page)

“How are you alive?”  She stepped back and shook her head.  She was still in disbelief.  “How did you get here?”

“I had some help.  Good help.”  He turned to the pantry, glaring at Samson who still sat on the floor.  “Who’s your friend?”

“Samson.”  He called out from the pantry, the shotgun still trained on Ben.

“It’s alright Samson, he’s my friend I told you about.  From the city.”  Samson slowly lowered the gun and tried to get up, his equilibrium betrayed him and he fell back down.

“Is he drunk?”  Ben raised an eyebrow at cocked his head.

“Yes.”  Veronica nodded, biting her lip.  “It’s been a long day to say the least.”

Ben shrugged and looked up at the ceiling as Clyde called down through the hole in the roof. “Hey I don’t know what the fuck you’re doin’ down there but more of them fuckin’ things are comin’.”  The eaters began beating on the glass up front.

“Look, I’ve got some friends up there.  One of them knew the owners of this place, says they had a boat.  I’d love to sit and play catch up but there’s a huge problem outside and we need to go, now.” 

“Right, tell them to come down.”  Veronica moved over to Samson and helped him off the floor.

“You guys need to get down here.”  One by one the three of them dropped down into the filthy kitchen. 

“There are other people here?”  Juliette looked at Veronica with wide eyes.

“This your girl?”  Clyde asked.

“No time for introductions.  Where are the keys Andrew?”

“I’ll get them.”  Andrew ran across the rank smelling kitchen and broke down the office door with one kick.  It sounded like he was tearing the place apart.  The light from his flashlight bounced around the room as he frantically searched.  “Yes!  They’re still here!  I got ‘em!”  He called out. 

The eaters seemed entirely concentrated on the front of the restaurant now, maybe because everyone was off the roof and inside the restaurant.  “Any ideas on how to get out of here in one piece?”  Andrew asked as he rejoined the group in the kitchen.

“Whiskey.”  Samson said, holding his near empty bottle up to the group.

“Is he drunk?”  Andrew asked Ben.

“No, no.”  Samson waved a hand at Andrew.  “Well, yes, I am drunk.   But I meant we set this place on fire.  Sneak out the back.  If we really have a boat to leave on, then let’s burn this shit hole to the ground, along with all those things outside.”

“I like the way you think.”  Clyde folded his arms across his chest.

Samson shook the bottle of Jack around and motioned to the door leading to the bar, “There’s plenty of booze out there, we can do this in no time.”

Juliette removed her backpack and unzipped it.  “Will this help?”  She handed Ben the lighter fluid she stashed from the store they visited earlier in the day.

“I knew this stuff would come in handy.  Clyde you still got my extra zippo?”

“Right here.”  He held it up. 

“Then let’s get to work people!” 

The six of them hurriedly moved about the bar, breaking entire bottles of rums and vodkas all over it.  They sent whiskey bottles crashing to the floor and poured gin all over the tables, booths and bar top.  Ben finished everything off with a trail of lighter fluid leading right to the front door.  The glass was not meant to hold the weight of this many ferocious bodies, but he couldn’t help but stop at the door and look one of them right in the face.  It was once a girl, a little older than Veronica.  She was probably very pretty once, but now she pressed her face up against the door, snarling and spitting.  She knocked a tooth out as she was too stupid to realize she couldn’t bite Ben through the glass but she was unfazed and kept snapping at him.  Her light colored hair was stained with dirt and blood and who knew what else.  Ben noticed her name tag said Bethany.  He shook his head at her and thought of all the other Bethany’s that were now a waste to the world.

“Goodnight Bethany.”  He walked toward the back as he heard the glass cracking against the pounding fists and the pushing bodies.  There must have been close to forty of them out there at this point.

“Let’s put that fire exit to use.”  Clyde lit Ben’s extra zippo and set fire to the bar.  It went up in a matter of seconds and they didn’t stick around to watch the place burn.  As Veronica and Samson grabbed their bags they heard the glass finally shatter and screams fill the air.  They could immediately smell the burning flesh and hair of the eaters and felt they had never smelled anything worse.  Pisano’s kitchen, The Dockside’s kitchen; rotting food and human waste were a better alternative to a burning body.  They all ran out the back entrance and Samson slammed it shut with all his weight just as the first of the burning eaters reached the back of the kitchen.  Their violent screams rang through his ears and echoed in his mind. 

“How do we know which boat is ours?”  Veronica called out as they ran toward the boats in the marina, feet pounding on the wooden boards of the dock.

“It says Dockside on it!”  Andrew yelled back to her. 

Samson couldn’t help but wonder who had come up with such an unimaginative name.

Epilogue

The group made it to ‘The Dockside’ in one piece.  The boat, fortunately for them, was gassed up and ready to go, its owners probably ready to take her out on a beautiful Autumn Florida day before the world fell apart and the luxuries in life were reduced to simply breathing.  Despite the few straggling eaters that had noticed the group slip out the back, Clyde and Samson were able to take them out while the rest of them readied the boat for their departure.  The building was now completely engulfed in the flames.  It was an awful and indescribable sight to see the eaters pouring out of the building as the boat started off.  Their bodies burned and their howls continued.  Juliette wept in Andrew’s arms while Clyde lit him and Ben up a cigarette.  Veronica stood between Ben and Samson with a small smile on her lips.  She couldn’t help but feel lucky; it was as if by some miracle she had found some semblance of the family she’d lost through all this tragedy and ugliness.

They watched as the remaining eaters fell into the bay in a failed attempt to follow the boat.  Their fires extinguished and they bobbed to the surface, finally lifeless in the water.

“Where to now?”  Samson asked Veronica. 

She felt his eyes on her but never took hers off the burning building.  “We keep heading west.”