Alone (24 page)

“Just take some food and go away!” Trish shouted.

Ken laughed. “What, and leave you here all by yourself. I knew a long time ago that you and I would become real good friends one day. Real close friends!”

Ken studied the filled shelves that lined the warehouse. “I watched and waited for my chance to make my move.

I wanted to take the warehouse myself, but I wanted to find a way to get rid of old Roy in the process. When I saw that bastard run around the corner of the warehouse and start throwing dynamite, I thought he was going to screw up everything. I thought he had lost his mind. He was going to destroy everything. That Roy was always one to cut off his nose to spite his face. I figure the way he was getting his ass kicked by that guy in the warehouse was too much for him and he just went crazy.”

Ken started to laugh like a lunatic. “That guy in here was tougher than old Roy thought. He didn’t give up and he did me a favor the way he let Roy get himself trapped and eaten by the dead. Old Roy cried and screamed when the dead grabbed him, just like the baby I knew he was.”

“I watched as the dead drifted away. I figured I would work my way over and slip through the hole Roy had blown in the door. I couldn’t believe it when that guy, Tony you said his name was, just came strolling out. I waited and watched for my chance. When he turned his back and started to push that door through the hole, well, Pow! No more Tony!”  Ken let out a roaring laugh. “Good things do come to those who wait.”

“You bastard!” Trish cried. “He was my friend.”

Ken grinned. “You got that right. He ‘was’ your friend.”

Ken started to move towards Trish. “Now I’ll be your friend. I can be a very good friend.”

Trish turned and ran.

Ken shouted. “You’re not out in that field anymore. There is nowhere for you to go in here. You might as well face it and start being more friendly.”

Trish ran down the center aisle to the back of the warehouse. Ken walked slowly after her.

“I’m never going to be your friend!” Trish cried as she looked around frantically.

Ken was getting closer. She looked at the rows of shelves. Ken was slow and clumsy, but he was right. She could only run around in here for so long. He would eventually corner her.

“You don’t want to make me run you down. If I have to

chase you, I’m going to have to teach you a lesson about how to be my friend.” Ken threatened.

“Like you taught your wife!” Trish screamed.

“The bitch wasn’t my wife.” Ken growled. “I’m afraid the last lesson I taught her.” Ken stopped and laughed. “Was her last lesson. I guess you could say she was a slow learner.”

Trish ran around the last shelf on the left.

Ken had anticipated her actions and had moved down one of the side aisles to head her off.

Trish started around the corner to run across the warehouse, but as she made the turn around the last shelf, Ken was standing twenty feet in front of her.

Ken stared at her. “I hope you are a fast learner. A little thing like you probably won’t last more than one or two lessons.”

Trish turned to run back the way she had come but she could see him shadowing her every move through the items piled on the shelf between them.

She started to panic. He would have her trapped in the next few minutes if she didn’t think of something.

She remembered seeing Tony climb the shelves to get things from the upper shelves.

She grabbed on to the shelf and pulled herself up.

She was on the second level of the shelf when Ken walked over and looked up at her.

“Now that wasn’t a good move.” He smiled as he reached up and grabbed on to the shelf below her and pulled himself up.

Trish pulled herself up to the next shelf. She watched Ken move closer.

She moved to the next shelf, then to the next shelf. She was now on the top shelf. There was nowhere else to go.

She started to pick up packages and tossed them down on top of Ken.

The towels and blankets didn’t do much to slow him down. The bundles just glanced off of him and fell quietly to the floor below.

Trish ran to the end of the top shelf and stared out over the warehouse. She looked at the floor below. She knew she couldn’t jump that far without breaking her legs.

Ken would just beat the crap out of her as she laid in pain with two broken legs, unable to move. She had seen him slap his girlfriend around. The more pathetic she acted the more he enjoyed it.

The shelf shook as Ken climbed to the top shelf and threw himself over the top, landing on his back. He laid there, breathing heavy from the climb.

He rolled onto his side and began to get to his feet. He started to walk towards Trish. She had nowhere to go.

She began to tremble as the images of Ken beating his girlfriend flashed through her mind. The pain on the girls face as he hit her. She remembered the pain and how it felt when Roy would hit her and slap her around.

Ken was now standing only six feet away from her. He swayed looking unsteady. Being the clumsy jerk he was, the height bothered him.

He grinned at Trish. “It’s not exactly the mile high club, but this will be as close as you will ever get.”

Trish stepped back, but when her foot couldn’t feel anything solid to step on, she knew this was it.

Ken had a nasty grin on his face. His teeth showed through his lips. Trish never realized half his teeth were missing. She had always tried to look away whenever she saw him. He had always stared at her in such a way she could never stand to look at him.

She had no choice but to look at him now. Her skin felt like ants were crawling all over her.

Ken began to raise his arms to reach for her.

He would have her any second.

“Maybe it would better to just step off the top shelf and get it over with.” Trish thought. She didn’t want to live like this again.

Ken reached out his arms. His big hand started to grip her around her elbow.

Trish began to close her eyes, but opened them suddenly as Ken let go and began cursing.

Trish looked at Ken, he had a long cut across his face. It looked like someone had cut him with a knife. Blood ran down his face and down over his filthy blue t-shirt.

Ken was standing there looking unsteady as he stared at the blood on his hands as he ran them over his face.

Trish caught motion out of the corner of her eye, down in the warehouse on the floor below her to the left.

She looked down. Tony staggered as he stood looking up. Blood covered the right side of his head, his right arm and his shirt. He swayed back and forth looking unsteady as he stood holding his bow. Trish watched as Tony dropped to his knees.

She quickly turned to look at Ken. He was still staring in disbelief at the blood on his hands.

Trish put her head down, leaned forward and charged Ken.

She caught him by surprise. He was already unsteady from the height of the shelf and the shock of seeing all that blood. Trish wasn’t very big, but she didn’t need to be. The little push was all that was needed.

Ken’s eyes grew larger as he felt himself begin to lose his balance. His arms waved frantically as he tried to grab anything to steady himself.

There was nothing to grab. He fell headfirst. A loud thud sounded as he hit the floor.

Trish’s heart began to race. She climbed down off the shelf and raced to Tony.

He was sitting on his knees, still wobbly but conscious.

She dropped down in front of him.

He looked at her, he opened and closed his eyes, trying to focus.

Trish hugged him, then ran her hand over the side of his head to see how badly he was hurt.

He winched as she felt the large bump above his ear.

“Ouch!” Tony said. “Don’t do that. I’ll be OK. I have a hard head.”

“Are you OK?” Tony asked as he kept opening and closing his eyes. “I tried to get here as fast as I could. Sorry I didn’t shot him in the head. He wouldn’t hold still.”

Tony smiled weakly.

Tears ran down Trish’s face as she hugged him again. “It was close enough.”

Trish looked at Tony again, then over to her left. She spotted the steel bar that she had tried to use earlier, but was too heavy for her.

“I’ll be right back.” Trish whispered to Tony. She got up and ran over and picked up the bar. She dragged the bar over to when Ken laid on the floor. She raised the bar over her head and brought it down on Ken’s head. The impact gave off a loud sickening thud.

She turned and went back to Tony.

“What was that all about?” He asked trying to smile.

“I wanted to make sure!” Trish said.

Chapter 28

One week later

Tony sat on his lawn chair and looked out the new window in their room. He had used some of the wood from the shelves to redo the window frame. A sheet of thick clear plastic from the hardware shelf covered the opening. Hinges were attached to the right side so the window could be opened and closed.

Tony had a new green and brown lawn chair to replace his old chair that had been mangled. He thought his new chair was even more comfortable than his old chair.

Trish sat beside Tony in her old bright pink and yellow lawn chair. The legs were bent and dented, but Tony had found some tape and braces on the hardware shelf to patch the chair and reinforce the legs. He had tried to convince Trish that there were other chairs that would be much more comfortable, but to no avail.

Trish wanted her old chair, even if it didn’t look that good anymore after having been thrown out through the window when the dynamite exploded outside their room.

Trish explained it was the only chair she ever had that she was allowed to call her own. Tony had given her the chair and she didn’t want to part with it, no matter how bad it looked.

Tony had agreed, it certainly looked bad, but he didn’t mean it looked bad for the same reason Trish did. The explosion had done little to dull the bright pink and yellow. It still hurt his eyes to look at it, but he couldn’t deny Trish her prize possession.

“Let’s finish going over our list, then I’ll go make us dinner.” Trish said as she opened another piece of beef jerky and bit off a big chunk and began to chew.

“OK” Tony said as he laughed to himself as he watched Trish eat while she talked about making them something to eat.

It had only been a week, but Trish had already started to wear clothes that were the next larger size. He had told her when she started to wear larger clothes, he was going to tease her like she tried to tease him. But he didn’t tease her. The extra weight looked good on her. No one would mistake her for a boy any longer.

Trish started to read the checklist.

“So far we have replaced the door knobs and locks on the side doors. We have hung more boards above the doors to drop on intruders.”

“That worked really well. I’m glad we thought of that.” Tony said. “I just hope we don’t ever have to use that again.”

Trish continued. “We put a new door on our room and fixed the deck outside our door. We finished putting those big metal screws in the door to seal that big gash in the left loading bay door.”

Tony smiled. “It feels good to have the warehouse secure again. Knowing the dead might get in through that hole worried me.”

“Too bad we can’t figure some defense against dynamite?” Trish added.

“I don’t even want to think about that.” Tony sighed.

“Let’s see. OK you put a shutter on our window. We have storage boxes in our room for food and clothes.” Trish continued. “And I really like our new bed.”

They had found a full sized air mattress in the houseware shelves. It was the kind of air mattress that had an air pump built in, because of its size. With no electricity Tony and Trish had to blow it up the old fashion way. It had taken them all day, but was worth it. It was the most comfortable thing either of them had slept on in over a year.

“We should enjoy it while we can.” Tony said looking serious. “Once we have to leave the warehouse we probably won’t ever find anything that nice again.”

Trish nodded and her smile was slowly replaced by a serious frown.

After they had secured the warehouse, they did a quick inventory of how much food was on the shelves. They figured they had enough food to live comfortably for a year, if nothing else happened. In their world a year was a long time, it could be a lifetime.

Their estimate was based on “If nothing else happened.”

The chance nothing else would happen, they both knew was slim to none. Even if the next year was quiet and peaceful, the time when they would be forced to go back among the dead each day, just to find something to eat was getting closer with each passing day.

Their lives had both changed so much over the last few days. Thankfully the change had been for the better, but they also had been given a glimpse of how things could have turned out another way.

They knew they were lucky, for now.

The past week they had been happier being together than they had been at any time since this nightmare had all started with a TV broadcast about a virus outbreak somewhere abroad.

They were both grateful that at least for now, they were not alone.

They didn’t know what would happen over the next year, the next month or even what would happen tomorrow. What they did know was they wouldn’t have to face it alone. What they had could all be over tomorrow, So they would enjoy today and hope for tomorrow.

“Tomorrow I think we need to start building a fire pit so we can heat the warehouse this winter.” Trish said.

Tony laughed. “And who is going to chop all the wood we would need to heat this entire place for three months?”

Trish smiled. “You are. But I can help you carry it inside.”

Tony grinned. “On shelf nine I found one of those little ceramic fire pots in with the patio furniture. It’s like a portable fire place. I think if we put that up here in our room we could at least keep this room warm enough so we wouldn’t freeze. I think I could chop enough wood for that.”

Trish laughed. “I guess that would be better.”

“I think tomorrow we need to take a break. You and your list are killing me.” Tony smiled.

Trish laughed and gave him an ornery look. “We’ll see. Let’s go eat. I’m making a surprise for you.”

Trish got up from her chair and gave Tony’s arm a little squeeze. She started to walk over to the storage box on her side of the bed.

Tony watched her walk over to the bed. “I noticed you have been wearing ‘Friday’ the past few days. I thought ‘Wednesday’ was your favorite?”

Trish smiled as she pulled on her pink sweat pants over her new “Friday” underwear and looked at Tony. “It was, but things didn’t go too well when I was wearing ‘Wednesday’. It’s been a lot nicer around here since I started to wear ‘Friday’.”

Tony laughed. “I like Friday. It looks better too. I think the word Wednesday was too big for your butt.”

Trish picked up Tony’s pillow off the bed and threw it at him. She laughed. “Let’s go eat. I’m hungry.”

Tony tossed the pillow back at Trish playfully as he got off his chair and started to follow her.

They started down to the ground floor of the warehouse.

Trish smiled as she watched Tony coming down the ladder. A few weeks ago if anyone had teased her about her underwear, it would have been a comment that was made to embarrass or humiliate her. It would have been her signal to run while she could.

That was all before Tony.

Today she didn’t feel like running.

Today she didn’t seem to mind.

Today, it made her smile.