The Last Days (20 page)

Chapter 19

John was lying awake, cuddled up next to Barb and Cindy.

When he first woke up, it had taken him a few panicked seconds to remember where he was. The sight of Barb and Cindy sleeping peacefully next to him had eased his panic as everything that had happened flooded back into his mind.

The cold hard floor was uncomfortable, but not nearly as uncomfortable as the dusty uneven floor in his attic where they had slept the night before.

They had been exhausted when they stumbled into the office on the second level of the abandoned building that had at one time been the home to the local Chevy dealer.

The office had also been a lot quieter than his attic where the dead, knowing his family was only a few feet away, moaned and shuffled below them all night long.

The absence of the nauseating smell of the dead had also helped them sleep.

The nightmares about the dead hadn’t bothered him last night. The welcome quiet last night and the exhaustion from yesterday’s escape from the dead left John and his family get some desperately needed sleep.

John’s thoughts began to turn to the new day. The peace and quiet in the back upstairs office was a welcome break, but he knew it wouldn’t last. As much as John would have liked to stay and enjoy the momentary absence of the dead, they couldn’t stay here. They had to move on. At the moment John didn’t know where they would go next. He would really like to go home, but knew that wasn’t going to happen. Besides, even if the dead had miraculously disappeared, the smell and condition of his house the last time he saw it would discourage any living creature from wanting to live there for years to come.

John wasn’t sure where they would go or what they would do once they got there, but they needed to find help. Maybe they could stay at a hotel until they decided what to do about the house. With the thousands of the dead he had seen the last few days, the condition of his house could be the least of his problems.

The short text he received from Mike yesterday seemed to indicate what was happening in Ligonier was happening in other areas too. There could be a lot more going on out in the world than he realized. He had suspected this was the case. Being attacked by the dead wasn’t a case of him being at the wrong place at the wrong time. This was more like Mother Nature going horribly wrong, but had hoped he was wrong. If he was right, life would never be the same.

From what he had experienced the last two days, describing it as life or living was not accurate. A better description was that it was a nightmare. He didn’t think they would be able to survive in a world of the dead for very long. He didn’t know if he would really want to.

John chased the random thoughts out of his mind. After the last few days, he could easily see his imagination getting carried away. But he didn’t think anything his imagination conjured up could be half as bad as what they had lived through.

All he knew was that something was horribly wrong. His immediate concern was, when would it end?  Even more terrifying was the idea that it wouldn’t end.

His eyes moved around the room until they settled on the vending machine in the corner of the room.

He was hungry. His first challenge of the day would be to find something for his family to eat.

He had selected this room for two reasons. The first reason was it didn’t have any large windows that would make it easy for the dead to break and get inside.

The second reason was the vending machine. It was old and had been in the abandoned building for a few years, but it held the only potential for finding something to eat that he could see as they entered the building last evening.

John slid his arm out from around Barb and Cindy, being careful not to wake them. Today promised to be another tense day, just because he couldn’t sleep any longer, he wanted them to get as much rest as they could. They would probably need it.

He sat up and slowly stood.  It took longer to work out the kinks in his muscles than it used to. The hard floor hadn’t made it any easier. “Oh to be young again, like Cindy. Nothing seemed to slow her down!”

The thought of Cindy made him feel good inside and also sad. If what he suspected was happening, what kind of life would Cindy have to look forward to? Worse yet, would she have a life at all to look forward to? Would any of them?

John reached out and put his hands on the corners of the vending machine and quietly shook it.

The sound of something moving around inside made him smile. “Maybe today is going to be my lucky day?”

He looked around to see if there was anything lying around, left behind, that he could use to pry open the machine.

He spotted a ball point pen in the corner, but writing a note wouldn’t help him now. He walked over and picked up the pen and put it in his pocket. Maybe writing a note would come in handy later.

John walked over to the door, opened it slowly and listened. The silence outside the room was welcome.

He walked out, closing the door softly behind him. He walked to the balcony that over looked the service bays below. The room on the end of the hallway had a large window. This was probably the supervisor’s office where he could do his paperwork and keep an eye on the activity below. The layout of this building was pretty standard for a dealership. It was almost identical to the set up where he worked at Latrobe Chevrolet. It allowed his supervisor to do his work and make sure no one was goofing off. It made sense, car jockeys had a tendency to not work any faster than they had to. He had to constantly get after his assistants when he wanted to get anything done.

John leaned on the railing and scanned the empty bays below.

The sunshine made the white frosted windows of the service area glow brightly. The white painted walls reflected the bright light throughout the building. It made John almost feel like he was at work. He was sure that the service bays at his place of employment were also quiet and empty today. Only at Latrobe Chevrolet, the walls would be lined with the mechanic’s tool boxes.

He looked along the walls, hoping to find that someone had dropped one of their tools and hadn’t noticed. That or they were too upset at the dealership being closed resulting in them losing their jobs that they just said to hell with it and walked away for the last time.

No luck on seeing any mechanics tools, but he spotted what was even better. On the far window, John spotted a crow bar.

John ran down into the service area and grabbed the small crowbar. He was grateful to the absent minded maintenance man that had been working on the window. The scrape marks on the window seal told John the window must have been stuck. The maintenance man had been sent out to open the window and for whatever reason left his crowbar behind.

Whatever the reason, the crowbar was now John’s. After using it to pry open the vending machine, it would make a good weapon. It was the closest thing John had to a weapon. John had two rifles and three hand guns at home. He believed he should always be prepared to defend his home and family. Unfortunately, the dead didn’t cooperate and give him advanced warning that they were going to overrun Ligonier so he could have been armed and waiting.

Being prepared doesn’t always work out. You are really only prepared if you know in advance what you are preparing for. Then being “prepared” still only helps if you know when you need to be prepared.

Never in a million years would John have thought to prepare for an attack by the dead. If he would have told his neighbors that he was preparing for an attack by the dead, he probably wouldn’t be running for his life right now.

He had heard rubber rooms were pretty secure.

If he knew the dead would be attacking, he wouldn’t have been eating out in the yard at his picnic table when they attacked, taking him by surprise and unarmed.

John wondered how all the diehard survivalist had come through the last few days.

He hadn’t heard any sounds of guns being fired. The survivalists were probably out having a picnic too and were also taken by surprise. That or they woke up in the middle of the night to see who was hogging all the covers only to find the figures taking their covers liked to bite.

He couldn’t see how anyone could be prepared for something that no sane person would ever believe could actually happen. Even as he stood here, hiding in an old abandoned car dealership, he couldn’t believe the reason he was here. It was all insane.

John looked at the crowbar and listened to his stomach growl. He could believe he was hungry. That was definitely real.

He turned and started up the steps to go back to the room where Barb, Cindy and the vending machine waited.

Once back in the room, he studied the vending machine. It was a large metal box that stood six feet tall and three feet wide and deep. Pictures of candy bars and crackers decorated the front of the machine. The front opened like a door if you had the key. The crowbar was his key. But the crowbar wouldn’t open the machine near as quietly as the real key.

John decided he better wake Barb. Better that he wake her than having the screeching noise of him prying open the front of the machine scare her half to death.

He knelt next to Barb and gently shook her shoulder. “Barb, wake up.”

Barb’s eyes shot open.  Her body tensed, griped with fear, before she saw John smiling down at her.

His smile relaxed her. It was the first time she had seen a smile on his face in days. “Something wrong?”

“No. I was just going to pry open the vending machine to see if there was anything we could eat.” John replied. “I didn’t want the noise to scare you.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. “I would have probably screamed.” Her smiled faded. “Are we OK here?”

“So far.” John answered. “I went down to the service area to find this crowbar. It’s still quiet in the building.”

“What about outside?” Barb asked looking worried.

“I don’t know about outside. I didn’t try to look outside. I guess I didn’t want to know what is out there yet!” John said.

Barb reached out and squeezed his arm. “I’ll wake Cindy, go open the vending machine. I’m starving.”

John got up and moved over to the machine. He jammed the crowbar into the seal behind the lock. He strained as he pushed against the crowbar, pushing towards the back of the machine. Sweat was pouring down his forehead by the time he heard a loud snap.

The front of the vending machine swung open.

John smiled as he saw a dozen items sitting in the groves waiting to be dropped into the tray on the front door when the correct change was deposited into the slot.

He quickly started pulling the packets from the machine, filling his arms.

He took them over where Barb and Cindy sat on the floor. He sat down and spread them out on the floor in front of them.

“Breakfast is served!” he smiled.

Barb picked up a packet of peanut butter filled crackers. She held it up and looked at the expiration date on the wrapper. “It’s so fresh too.” She smiled. “It only expired two years ago!”

John unwrapped a pack of peanut butter cookies. “You know those dates are just guidelines.” He smiled as he shoved a cookie in his mouth.

Barb put a cracker in her mouth. “I think the date on mine was pretty accurate.” She smiled but kept chewing.

Cindy rummaged through the remaining items until she found the only Snickers Bar. She wasn’t interested in what the expiration date was. It was chocolate, chocolate never expired. She quickly ripped off the wrapper and took a large bite. By the smile on her face they knew it was good.

“Why don’t we each take one more pack and put it in our pocket. We can eat it as a snack later.” John said.

“What about the other things?” Cindy asked, forcing out the words through her chocolate filled mouth.

“We’ll eat the rest now!” John said.

He laughed as Cindy pushed the last of the Snickers bar in her mouth and began looking at the items on the floor, trying to find another candy bar.

All that was left was peanut butter and cheese filled orange crackers. Despite being stale, they soon all disappeared.

It wasn’t the best breakfast they had ever had, but no one

complained.  Stale crackers were better than nothing.

They sat back to take the opportunity to relax for a bit more before going outside, while Cindy picked up the snack wrappers and put them in an old dented green metal garbage can that had also been left behind.

“Did you check your phone to see if Mike sent you another text yet?” Barb asked.

“No. In fact I turned off the phone yesterday so it wouldn’t beep when we were crawling under the bridge and give us away.” John said. “I hope it still works. It got wet crossing the creek.”

John pulled the phone from his front pants pocket. He hit the power button and was happy to see the screen blink on as the startup music played.

No sooner than the phone had finished powering on, it beeped.

“You have a text.” Barb said looking at John.