Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (81 page)

Things like that were always easier said than done.

* * *

The metal door inside creaked again, and Danny heard Alec’s wheels rolling toward them.  He turned to look.

“It’s clear,” Alec whispered, grabbing his pack.  “Come inside, but be careful of the glass.”

Danny let Alice go in first.  She stepped carefully around the glass, looking like she was afraid it would hurt her despite the fact that she was wearing shoes.  Danny scooped Shoes the dog up into his arms and carried him over the glass.  They followed Alec into the garage section.

With both flashlights shining around, Danny could see the inside was full of tools and scrap parts.  Two vehicles appeared to be in for repair.  One sat at the far end with its hood up, and the other was a minivan that was being stripped.  The seats had been taken out and were lying around the space, the engine was out of it, hanging off a large chain, and the tires were nowhere to be seen.  One side of the van was partly smushed in.  It had definitely been hit by another car at some point.

Alec closed the door behind him.  “I want you both to watch this.”

Alice and Danny turned to Alec.  He shone his light on the door so that they could see what he was doing.  He had apparently found a loose piece of chain earlier and now wrapped it around the inside handle of the door and a solid-looking bracket on the wall nearby.  Once done, Alec then showed them how this stopped the door from being opened.

“Get it?”  Alec turned to them.

Both of them nodded.

“Good.”  He then wheeled over to one of the van’s bucket seats and put his pack down next to it.

Danny went and put his bag on the van’s long back seat.  He then untied Shoes’s homemade string leash from his collar and put it on top of his bag.  The dog went off, busily sniffing all the exciting smells of the place.  Danny thought it smelled of rust and oil.

“Don’t sit down yet.”  Alec came over to him.

Danny sighed.  All he wanted to do was sit.  Sit and sleep.

“You and I still have a job to do.”  Alec headed toward the door again.

“What’s that?”  Danny followed him.

“We’re going to break into the gas station and get some food,” he told him.

“What about Alice?”  Danny looked at the girl, who stood watching them.

“It would be better if she stayed here,” Alec said.  “Alice, come over here.”

Alice walked over.

“Do you think you can chain this door closed by yourself?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Alice nodded.

“Okay, well Danny and I are going to go next door and get something for us all to eat tonight and tomorrow morning.  When we go out, I want you to chain the door closed, okay?”

“Okay,” Alice agreed.  “But how will you get back in?”

“We’ll say the password,” Alec said.

“What’s the password?” Alice got excited, like it was a game.

“I don’t know,” Alec shrugged.  “What do you think it should be?”

“Purple monkey dishwasher!”  Alice giggled excitedly.

Danny couldn’t help but laugh.  “All right, purple monkey dishwasher it is.”

Alec started to unwrap the chain.

“I get to keep the flashlight, right?”  Alice held onto the little light around her neck.

“Of course,” Danny comforted her.  “You and Shoes just hang out until we get back.”

“Okay,” Alice nodded.

“And be careful,” Alec warned her.  “Some of the things in here are sharp and dangerous.  Don’t start touching stuff if you don’t know what it is.”

“Okay,” Alice nodded again.

Danny had a bad feeling she would touch at least one thing in here.  He hoped that if she did, it wouldn’t be something that would hurt her.

Alec got the chain off and opened the door.  He handed it to Alice to make sure she could even lift it.  She could.  Alec rolled out through the door, and Danny followed after him.

“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Danny promised her.

Alice then shut the door behind them.  Both Danny and Alec waited until they heard her threading the chain through the door and the bracket, before they headed back outside.

They crossed over to the gas station quickly.  Not at a jog, but it was at least a fast walk.  Well, a fast walk for Danny, a quick roll for Alec.  Alec’s tools were sitting on his lap.  When he had picked up his pack earlier, he hadn’t bothered to put them away.  He must have been planning to head to the shop all along.  He probably had decided it the moment they looked through the shop’s windows.

Alec rolled up to the door and handed Danny the flashlight.  Danny pointed it at the section of the door where the lock was located.  He kept glancing between watching Alec work, and the area around them.  There wasn’t as much to see this time though, because of the pump islands.  The pumps blocked most of the view to the other side of the road.

As Danny watched, Alec used the end of a screwdriver to break out a section of glass.  He did it in such a way so as not to break out the whole window.  Still, breaking glass was noisy.  Once he had a space big enough for his hands, Alec didn’t bother to stop and listen for any noises.  Danny tried to listen but couldn’t hear anything beyond Alec working.  He saw that Alec was now using the screwdriver to take out the screws around the gate’s locking plate.  Danny wondered if all shop security gates were designed this way or if this gas station just had some sort of cheap kind.  Either way, it worked out for them.

Alec separated the gate’s bars from the locking mechanism and shoved them aside.  Once the gate had been moved out of the way, he then had enough space to bend his hand around and unlock the glass door.  Danny held the door open while Alec shoved the gate open the rest of the way.  The gate’s lock was still holding itself in place in the door jam.  Danny made a mental note to see if the other gate had been dismantled that way.

“Try to find some healthy food,” Alec whispered as they went inside,  “stuff that will last for days like the stuff we’ve been carrying with us.”

Danny went to one side of the store while Alec took the other.  Using the flashlight, Danny found mostly bags of chips and salsa.  He did find a fridge, however, and it had milk in it.  He needed something to carry the milk in, though.  He went to the cashier’s counter to grab some bags.

Danny had never stood behind a cash register before.  His initial reaction was that he shouldn’t be there, that it was wrong.  That thought quickly passed though.  He found the bags rather quickly but he took a bit of time to look around.  Behind the counter, he found cigarettes and skin mags.  He debated stealing some, glancing over at Alec.  Danny had stolen a gun already; how bad could stealing them be?  He took a skin mag bearing the image of a large-breasted, topless woman but decided to leave the cigarettes.  Too many things had already tried to kill him today.  He also found some scratch lottery cards.  He took those, too.  Even if the world ended and money became useless, scratching them would give Alice something to do.

After raiding the counter, he crossed the store again, over to the fridges.  He opened one up and was surprised by how warm it was.  It was still cooler in there than in the store, but it was warmer than he expected these kinds of fridges to be.  With the power being out, milk was something that wouldn’t last very long.  Danny wondered if the milk he was stealing would be the last he ever drank.  Since he wasn’t sure the milk would keep till morning, he also swiped a few cans of pop, some energy drinks, three sports drinks, and a few water bottles.  His bags were now heavy, the plastic handles stretching.

Danny walked over to Alec to see if he had found anything.

“I got some bread, some peanut butter, and some jam,” Alec told him.  “I hope you like sandwiches.”

“Sandwiches are good,” Danny shrugged a shoulder.  He was rather indifferent about sandwiches.

“Do you know what this Nutella stuff is?”  Alec picked up a dark jar.

“It’s like peanut butter, but it’s chocolate,” Danny told him, shining the light on it so he could see better.  With only the one light between them, Alec had been searching in darkness.

Alec placed the jar on his lap with the other stuff.  “Anything else good you see around here?”

Danny looked around and shone his light up and down the aisle.  There wasn’t much on this side of the store, mostly just household products.  He did spot some small cheesy toys, though.  He went over to them and looked at the shelves.  There was nothing as grand as a Barbie, but there were some cheap plastic horses.  Danny remembered from the conversation in the car that Alice liked horses.  He grabbed a few and fit them into one of the bags.

“Let’s go.”  Alec took the flashlight from Danny and headed toward the door.

While Alec quickly surveyed the outside for danger, Danny took one last look around.  They crossed quickly to the mechanic’s shop again.  Alec went up to the metal door and knocked.

“What’s the password?”  Alice’s small voice called from inside.

“Purple monkey dishwasher,” Alec answered her.

They listened as Alice giggled before she started to unchain the door again.  As soon as it was open, they went inside and closed the door behind them.  Alec started chaining it up again as Danny went to put his bags down.  He took the skin mag out of the shopping bag and quickly hid it under his backpack.  He then felt something poking at his arm.

“What?”  He turned to see what it was.

Alice stood there with this long, thin, wire-looking thing that waved around in her hand.

“What is that?” Danny wondered.

“I don’t know,” Alice shrugged.  “But look what it can do.”  She pressed a plunger on her end of it and these really thin, slightly claw-shaped wires came out of the end of it.  With her tongue sticking out in concentration, Alice waved the thing about until the claws were over a screw on the floor.  When she released the plunger, the little claws retracted.  After three tries, she managed to get them to pick up the screw.  She looked proudly at Danny.

“Very nice,” Danny applauded her.  “Where did you find that?”

“Over there.”  Alice pointed to one corner of the workshop.

Danny decided not to bother scolding her for touching things she was told not to.  “I have something for you.”

“What?” Alice got very excited.

“I know they’re not Barbie, but I found these.”  Danny took out the horses and handed them to her.

Alice took them with greedy eyes.  “Thank you, Danny.”

She then hurried off to play with them near Shoes, the light around her neck bouncing widely and throwing crazy shadows up and down the walls.  Shoes seemed to have taken up residence on a bucket seat and was sound asleep.  He even snored, somewhat.

Without any of the flashlights near him, Danny could hardly see a thing in the workshop.  He did, however, notice there was a tiny amount of light coming through some windows near the ceiling.  They were very high up though, and very small, and so covered in grime and dirt that you couldn’t see out of them.

Suddenly, there was more light from over where Alec was.  Danny looked over and saw that Alec had found a large, battery-powered something.  Danny didn’t even know what the device was, but part of it was a decent-sized light, which Alec had turned on.  Alec then began heading over to Alice so Danny went the same way.

“Alice, turn off your flashlight to save the batteries,
” Alec told her.  “This light should be good enough for now.”

Alice picked up the light from around her neck and pressed the big button on the back of it.  Her light clicked out.

“How do you feel about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?” Alec asked the little girl.

“Yum!” Alice replied.  Then she saw the Nutella on his lap.  “Nutella!” she squealed.

“I take it you like this stuff?”  Alec held it up.

Alice nodded several times.

“All right, we’ll have Nutella sandwiches then.”  Alec put the bag of bread down on a workbench next to him.  “Everyone will have to make their own though.  I don’t have anything to spread it with, so we’ll have to use our hands.”

Danny was about to ask him about the combat knife he knew he had, but then remembered when he had seen it.  Alec had used it to kill the guy that had been trapped under the garage door and it was probably still covered in infected blood.

Alice didn’t seem to mind the finger idea.  In fact, she didn’t even bother with sandwiches.  She peeled the crust off the bread and then mushed up the remainder into a ball.  She then dipped the bread ball into the chocolate paste and shoved the whole thing into her mouth, chewing in great big, smacking bites.  Shoes had woken up from the smell of food, and Alec handed the dog Alice’s crusts.  He ate them without getting up.

Danny stuck with the peanut butter and jelly.  Mostly the jelly.  Although it was sticky and kind of gross to touch, he found he could kind of pour it onto his bread with only a bit of prodding.  Partway through the meal, Danny remembered the milk and went to get it.  He gave a carton to each of them.

“No chocolate milk?” Alice frowned.

“I didn’t see any,” Danny shrugged a shoulder.  “Besides, don’t you think you have enough chocolate right now?”