The King of Clayfield - 01 (33 page)

I stepped behind the counter. Under the register was a row of hooks. The keys were there.

"Found them!" I said.

Jen came out of the back.
 

The hooks were labeled:
24'
,
 
17'
and
10'
.

The
10'
hook
 
had
 
two sets of keys on it.

"These are the truck sizes," I said. "I think we should use one of the
 
ten-footers."

"We can't get much stuff in there," Jen said.

"We're not hauling furniture," I said. "We're talking about food and clothes. I think it will be plenty big for that but small enough to get through tight places."

"I really wanted to get as much as we could," she said, hesitant. "What about the seventeen-footer?"

"How about both of the ten-footers?" I
 
offered.

"I like that better," she said. "I like having a backup."

"I don't see a need in keeping the car," I said. "Is Sara with you or me?"

I knew she wouldn't like either option.

"Sara can ride with me," she said. "It'll give us time to talk."

"I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing," I said.

"I'll be nice," Jen said. "I promise."

"Good," I said.

Jen rolled her eyes, "You heard what she said to me at Charlie's. I'm not threatened by her."

"There's no need for you to be, but--"
 

"So you're going to take her side again?"

"No, Jen, there
 
are no sides here. We're all in this together, remember?
 
Why are we having this conversation again? Sara has done nothing to you. She's a good kid who has the
 
terrible
 
misfortune of being
 
physically
 
attractive. That's not something she can help, so why don't you
 
give her a break?"

"Why don't you give
me
a break?" Jen scoffed.

"Would you be putting her through
 
the same kind of hell if she
 
weren't so good looking?"

"Would you be defending her if she weren't?"

"I have been purposefully avoiding talking to her and
 
looking at her just so you wouldn't feel uncomfortable. Can you imagine how she must feel to be ignored like that? She's alone just like us. She's got nobody.
 
She doesn't even have us, really. I feel bad about that."

"So it's my fault that she's not fitting in?”

"Jen," I said, frustrated, "I...I don't know what
 
to do here. I suppose I should feel flattered that you'd be so jealous, but--"

"Oh yeah," she
 
said sarcastically, "it's
all
about you."

I don't know why, but it suddenly hit me as being incredibly humorous. It was like
 
I'd traveled back in time, and I was arguing with my ex wife again....and every other woman with which I'd had a relationship. Even
 
during the apocalypse, I was attracting the same kind of woman.
 
So far as I knew,
all
women were the same kind. There was absolutely no way I
 
could win in these arguments.

I laughed.

I would have never done that in the past. In the past, I would have acquiesced and apologized just so I wouldn't have to talk anymore.

But
 
I was a
 
different man since the
 
world ended.
 

"Don't laugh at me!"
 
Jen said. "What's so funny?"

"I should have traded you for that Porsche."

She stared at me over her mask. I'd thrown her for a loop, and I was pleased.

"So this is a big joke? Why didn't you? Huh? Why didn't you trade me?"

I shrugged and said the first thing that popped in my head.

"I don't know how to drive a stick." I
 
said it
 
dryly as I could, but I couldn't hold back the grin.

I could see her eyes soften a little. I started laughing again.

She stepped up to me and cupped my crotch. I gasped and froze. I expected her to
 
squeeze and hurt me, but she didn't. Something like a
 
jolt of electricity shot up my spine. She
 
came
 
in close, her eyes narrowing.

"I
 
can drive a stick, funny man," she
 
whispered. "I
 
can
 
drive
 
it
 
real
good."

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. Every muscle in my body was tense.

She removed her hand.
 

"Sara is riding with me," she said, grabbing a set of keys and
 
acting as if nothing had happened. "We'll work things out. It's none of your business."

She went to the door.

"You coming or what?" she said and walked out into the sunlight.
 
She looked around then headed toward the trucks.

I was still standing in the same spot, watching
 
her through the large windows in the front of the store. I realized I'd been holding my breath. I exhaled.

Holy moly.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The trucks had CB radios, so we were able to communicate with each other.
 
None of us had used one before, so it took a
 
few minutes to get all of the particulars worked out, like setting the channels and not holding down the mike button when
 
we were
 
trying to listen.
 
After playing with them for a couple of minutes we realized why people in the movies
 
say, "Over" when they are done talking on them.

Once we
 
figured out the radios, we got on the road. We knew that since the siren was going off, there would be no way to get through town, so we got
 
back on the bypass to take
 
us around.

"Where to first?" I said.

I waited but Jen didn't reply. I realized I was still holding the button.

I said, "Over," in the mike then released the button.

The radio hissed static then Jen came on.

"That was quite a broadcast you
 
made
 
there, Bandit," she said. "Let's go to Wal-Mart. If we can't get everything there, then we'll go other places."

Static as she released her mike button. Then—

"Over."

I led the way, backtracking past Grub to the bypass. I looked in the side mirror. The women
 
had their masks down, and they were talking.

I was
 
uneasy with this jealous side of Jen.
 
Part of me
 
was saying I
 
should get out of this while it was still early. If I waited until after this thing was consummated, it would be a lot more difficult for both of us.
 

And she
 
was more than just jealous; she was also a tad unstable and unpredictable. All three traits could be dangerous.

The other part of me--the part that usually did my thinking for me when it came to women--kind of liked that about her.
 
Besides, did I really have the luxury of
 
being picky? The phrase "there are a lot of fish in the sea" didn't apply anymore.
 
Shouldn't I get an ego boost that
 
a
 
sexy woman like Jen
 
would be so territorial over me? Maybe...but I didn't.

I got to thinking about how things would be if Sara were
 
replaced by a
 
good-looking young man. Would Jen be
 
acting the same way over me? Would I feel threatened in that situation?
 
We were together out of necessity. But were we staying together for the same reason, or for something more? Had Sara's presence caused Jen to accelerate our relationship out of fear, and was I accepting that because I feared she'd leave and I'd be alone?

My ex wife always accused me of over-thinking things.
 
Of all the times to be over-thinking a thing like this....

Maybe I should accept Jen's assessment of the world, and just be a damn caveman.

We had
 
to access the Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot
 
the same way we had to access Lowes' lot--through the back. We pulled past the entrance to the automotive section
 
around the front of the building by the garden center. The main parking lot was crazy. Cars were everywhere. It looked
 
kind of like it did the day after Thanksgiving except there was no order to the parking. I was beginning to doubt we'd find anything
 
left in there with all the people.
 
Then again, all
 
those people never made it outside with their purchases.

I couldn't get the van to the front door.

"Jen,
 
we'll go in through the garden center here. The gate is
 
shut, but maybe I can push it open with the van...Over."
 

The garden center was enclosed in a tall chain link fence. I pulled around and backed into it. Rather than the gate opening, the fence began to buckle.

"Stop," Jen said. "You're making it worse. Let's just go in through Automotive. Surely we can open one of those garage doors."

Static.

"Over."

They waited in their truck while I tried the doors on the garage. The siren was still howling to the north, and there were infected headed toward it. I could see them here and there,
 
weaving their way
 
through the cars in the streets.

I got both doors up. In one of the bays, a car was up on the lift.

I directed Jen as she backed the truck up to the opening. Then she directed me while I filled the other.

When I came around, the two of them were smiling.

"What?" I said.

"Sara was just saying that it feels kind of like Christmas and the store is like one big present."

The power was out in the store, but it was lit by the skylights. Sporting goods was to our right; automotive products were to our left.

"Should we stick to the list, or can we get extra stuff?" Sara asked.

"I think we should try to stick to the list," I said. "I want to be sure we get the necessities first."

"What if we see a necessity that isn't on the list?" Sara said.

"I don't know," I said. "Those lists I printed were pretty exhaustive."

"It doesn't matter," Jen said. "We're not separating, anyway. We can discuss it if it comes up. Now, let’s get some carts and start shopping.”

"Where do you want to start?"

"Food first," Jen said. "Then we'll work our way back."

Charlie had been right; the store was a mess. There were no guns left in the case in sporting goods, and the ammunition was nearly cleaned out. I looked down at the list to make sure I'd put .38 caliber
 
bullets on there. I had--toward the bottom.

We made our way to the front of the store to get carts
 
just like
 
we would have on a normal shopping day, only this wasn't a normal shopping day, and there were no carts up front. The carts were scattered throughout the store and in the parking lot full of stuff. We couldn't find an empty cart anywhere.

We were
 
between the checkouts and the greeting card section when I stopped to look at one of the carts. I was curious to see what people were buying just before the end of the world.