Alone (6 page)

Hopefully Trish would tell him more if he could make her feel comfortable with him.  He needed to get a better understanding of what was waiting for him when he left the warehouse.

He needed to use his head and be realistic. He had a good thing here at the warehouse. Even if he decided not to go out to look for other living people, the time would come where he would have no choice but to leave. The food here would not last forever.

It would be better if he could find out as much as he could from Trish. It didn’t sound like just going out and running up to the first person he saw to say “Hi!” was a good thing to do.

Tony thought. “Why did Trish leave so suddenly?”

If he was hungry and searching for food and had just found a friendly person that was willing to give him food, why would I all of a sudden say I had to leave? Where did she go? That was strange, but a lot seemed strange about this girl.

Tony smiled as he thought. “A girl all on her own amongst the dead for a year, what else could I expect?”

Then Tony’s smile faded. He had assumed she was on her own. What if there was more going on here than he assumed.

Tony took a long breath and tried to relax. Maybe he was just being paranoid. After what he had lived through the last year, who could blame him.  But one thought remained in the back of his mind. “Be Careful!”

Today Tony decided to use three boxes of pellets. He was going to increase his pace to try and eliminate the dead around the warehouse as soon as possible. He wanted to talk with Trish face to face. Looking into a person’s eyes often told you much more than their words. The eyes also most always told the truth, even when the person wasn’t.

He wanted to talk with Trish, but something told him it was more important that he find out from her what the world had become.

Tony laughed. He had never considered the little towns around Uniontown as being out in the world before. What went on in Dawson, Vanderbilt, Perryopolis and Whitset never had any resemblance to what was going on in the real world. They were little backward country towns. Places that the world had left behind fifty years ago.

Thup! Thup! Thup!

Chapter 7

Trish slipped out through the brush and stayed low in the grass as she ran down over the embankment that followed along Route 119. She would follow Route 119 back to where it intersected with Route 51, to where their camp was located. Roy and Tom was taking them to Perryopolis about twenty miles north on Route 51. They had drifted from place to place over the last year. They had moved because Roy had said there were too many of the dead or there wasn’t enough food so they had to move on.

Trish had never seen any difference where they had ended up from where they had been. It always seemed to be the same where ever they went.

She thought Roy just liked to act like the boss and make the others do what he wanted to do.

Her sister Debbie did whatever Roy wanted to do. She always did anything Roy and Tom told her to do. Trish cringed at the thought of some of the things she had seen her sister do, because Roy or Tom wanted her to do it.

Debbie was about three years older than Trish. Trish had been a freshman in high school and Debbie had been a senior. Everyone had said her sister was a slut. Trish really wasn’t sure what they had meant by that. Her sister usually went out on dates three or four times a week. Trish had just thought her sister was very popular.

After being dragged along with her sister in their little group the last year, Trish now understood what they had meant.

Roy and Tom were bastards. They treated Trish like crap, often slapping her around when she didn’t move fast enough for them. Her sister had become just like them, but thanks to her sister, the guys had pretty much left Trish alone.

Trish was small for her age. The last year of having so little to eat did little to change her appearance. Except for her long black hair, she could easily be mistaken for a boy.

There was no mistaking Debbie for a boy. Even with food being hard to come by, Debbie looked well feed and very healthy. Trish supposed that was because all the guys kept giving Debbie food, because Debbie was so grateful. They liked how grateful Debbie was, all the time.

Debbie had asked Trish one time if she didn’t like boys.

Trish had a crush on one of the boys in her class, but that had come to a sudden end when the dead destroyed everything. In fact she had never even kissed a boy.

She didn’t count the times Roy and Tom had grabbed her and kissed her against her will.

She hated them. She was grateful her sister always seemed to be around before they had made her do other disgusting things.

Her sister would always suggest they leave the little girl alone and spend some time with a woman. Her sister didn’t mind being disgusting.

Her sister treated her as bad as the others, but at least because of her they left her alone. She was grateful to her sister at least for that.

Dunbar was a small town located between Connellsville and Uniontown. In the late 1800’s Dunbar was a booming industrial town. The area had been rich in iron ore. During the late 1800’s there had been over 19,000 coke ovens in the area. The iron industry made Dunbar a wealthy town. The area was rich in iron and coal and played a large role in making Fayette County the wealthiest county in the nation. Along with the coal and iron industry, many other industries had also sprung up. Glass plants, clothing, banking, steel works and much more thrived in Dunbar.

They had a growing population of well over three thousand in the town that was built on a half square mile of land. Many thousands more lived in the surrounding areas.

When the U.S. Steel industry died, so did Dunbar. All the industries in Dunbar shriveled up and died or moved elsewhere.  The population of the town had dropped every year since 1920. All that was left by the year 2000 was less than a thousand people, most who had managed to get by on below poverty incomes.

Dunbar had become a small dying town. A railroad track ran through the middle of the town. Trains seldom went through Dunbar anymore.

To make things even worse, Dunbar sat on the banks of the Dunbar Creek. The creek flooded the town at least two or three times each spring. Anyone with marketable skills had long since moved away.

After the virus had come through the area a year back, Dunbar’s population was down to about three hundred. Of the three hundred, only about fifteen were still alive.

In order to survive, Trish and her sister Debbie had joined up with Roy, Tom and two others. Roy and Tom had been kicked out of school two years ago. The Pennsylvania State Police were usually in Dunbar every few weeks to pick up Roy and Tom for something. They had a reputation as being the local bad asses.

If any motorcycle gangs had been desperate enough to hang around Dunbar, Roy and Tom would probably have joined up.

The other members of Trish’s group was some loud mouth guy and his wife or girlfriend.  She didn’t talk much and just did what she was told. In the last year, Trish had only seen her one time without a black eye or a bloody lip.

The guy followed whatever Roy and Tom wanted to do. Again because Debbie kept Roy and Tom happy, the guy didn’t mess with Trish because she was Debbie’s little sister. Even though he didn’t bother Trish, she would often catch him staring at her.

Trish was careful not to be anywhere near him by herself.

The first month after the virus ravaged Dunbar, it was hell. Trish and Debbie had lived in the basement of their house after their parents had been killed. They managed to sneak into the neighbors houses every few days to search for food.  When they had been out of food for a few days, Debbie spotted Roy and Tom looting the house across the street. She called out to them and convinced them to take her and Trish with them. They had known Debbie from school and were all too happy to take them along.

When they found food, Debbie ate first. Roy and Tom insisted.  Roy and Tom ate with Debbie. Trish was given only enough to keep her from starving. Just enough to keep Debbie happy and grateful.

Trish didn’t have a very nice life. No one had a very nice life since the dead over ran all the towns, but Trish felt like she was in the way.

Her sister was the reason she was still alive or hadn’t been abused too badly by Roy, Tom and that other asshole. But Trish wished her sister wouldn’t let them smack her around so much.

They had left Dunbar and had been wandering around searching for food. They had been staying at old busted up houses along the way.

Roy had suggested they try going down towards Perryopolis, a small town about twenty miles north of Uniontown. He said he had known a few guys out that way that had worked at a grocery store and was sure they would have plenty of food.

They had stopped at an old bed and breakfast near the intersection of Route 119 and Route 51 outside of Uniontown.

The place was clean and had a pantry full of food that no one had looted, so Roy decided they should stay there for a few days.

Again, Trish wasn’t given much to eat.

She was hungry, especially watching Roy and Tom cram their faces, so she decided to get in the pantry and help herself. Roy almost broke her arm when he caught her.

When Debbie suggested Trish go out and go find her own food, while She, Roy and Tom stayed and rested at the bed and breakfast, Roy quickly agreed.

Roy got off of her and almost threw her out the door.

Debbie just told her to be careful. Roy was happy to get rid of her since he didn’t consider her good for anything else.

She didn’t think her presence interfered with what they wanted to do. They had never let her being around stop them from doing whatever they had wanted to do before. She thought they had even got some sick enjoyment out of making her watch.

She was told to go and she could eat anything she found, but she also had to bring them back something or she would be disciplined when she got home.

She didn’t like the way they laughed as they said it.

Trish didn’t know if they were hoping she would leave and not come back or if they were getting bolder and didn’t think Debbie cared any longer what they would do to her.

They had been at the bed and breakfast for three days now. As long as the food held out, Roy no longer seemed in any hurry to go find his friend who he claimed would have food. Trish really didn’t think his friend had any food. She doubted the friend even existed. Roy was bored staying around Dunbar and was looking for another way to show everyone he was the boss.

Of course, Trish was happy to get out of Dunbar. It was a nightmare living there with all the dead that constantly roamed the streets.

It wasn’t as bad once they got out of town and into the country side. The dead were still roaming around, they were everywhere, but there wasn’t so many here. There were also a lot more places to hide out in the country side.

Since being kicked out of the bed and breakfast during the day, things had actually gotten better for her. She liked getting out in the sunshine and away from Roy. It wasn’t as scary out here as it was in town. In town she wouldn’t have lasted a day if they would have tossed her out there.

She had even found things to eat as she roamed the fields. She had eaten her fill of wild raspberries, wild onions and walnuts.

She had to be careful. It was still very dangerous out here. The first thing she had to be careful of was old loud mouth. She thought his name was Ken, but she just referred to him as loud mouth. The last two days he had tried to follow her out of the house.  She had to double back and crawl through the drain pipe under Route 119 to lose him.

Yesterday when she left the house she made a dash around the house to get away from him when he came running out after her, trying to catch her before she could get too far ahead of him.

She didn’t like the dead, but they were dead and probably couldn’t help doing what they did.

But she hated Roy, Tom and loud mouth, they knew what they were doing and just didn’t care. They were evil. Instead of helping others, they were out only for themselves. Of course there wasn’t anyone else for them to help, other than her and Debbie. But that also meant there was no one else out there to stop them from doing whatever they felt like doing.

So they didn’t worry about anyone else, they just helped themselves to whatever and whoever they wanted.

She knew her time was running out.

Soon, one way or another they would deal with her.

Trish started walking in the field making her way back towards the bed and breakfast. Today she had three pieces of beef jerky to take back and give them.

She had four pieces, but she had eaten one, along with the two granola bars that guy had given her. It was the best tasting thing she had eaten in months.

She had wanted to eat the other three pieces of beef jerky, but was afraid if she didn’t take them back for Roy and his buddy, they would really hurt her today.

Yesterday she had taken them back a handful of black raspberries. Trish thought they were good, but Roy wasn’t impressed. He and Tom ate the berries, then took turns pushing her around. They had threatened that she would be really sorry if she didn’t bring them back something better today.

Her raggedy shirt and jeans weren’t much, but it would be really bad searching for food without them.

She wished she could find something really sweet and delicious and poisonous to take back to those bastards.

Trish looked down at the beef jerky she held in her hands. The sight of them made her mouth water.

Why had that boy at the warehouse given them to her? Was he like Roy, Tom and old loud mouth?

Was he trying to lure her in closer to the warehouse where he could catch her?

Roy gave Debbie all kind of things.

Was this boy expecting her to express her gratitude like Debbie?

Or was he like loud mouth, just looking for someone he could smack around?

He sounded nice, but he was probably lying to her. He wanted something from her.

No one did anything for someone else without expecting something in return.

She was afraid to think what the guy at the warehouse wanted.

He said he wanted her to come inside and visit. She was sure he did. Once he got her inside the warehouse and closed the doors, she would be trapped with nowhere to run. She didn’t know what it was like inside the warehouse.

Maybe she could run and keep him away for a while, but probably not for very long. She wasn’t going to go in there.

She knew she probably didn’t have much time before something happened to her.

Maybe she should just go off somewhere on her own.

She didn’t know what to do.

Out in the world on her own among the dead, they would eventually find her and kill her.

If not the dead, another of the living would find her. There weren’t many of the living left. She had only seen maybe fifteen living people in the last year, but in many ways she had learned to fear the living more than she did the dead.

She had thought school was bad. She had hated school. The snobby kids form Connellsville had looked down on the Dunbar kids. But at least there were rules that had to be followed. There had been teachers to keep things from getting out of hand.