“Whatcha want?” The woman queried belligerently.
“What happened to you?” Calvin asked first. Dranko drifted around to look inside her van.
The woman’s head spun lazily from side to side, “What hasn’t happened?” Her laugh was as hollow as her eyes. “I was just trying to make my way to my Aunt’s place in Salem. I ran out of gas.”
Cooper jumped when Dranko’s voice thundered from the other side of the minivan, “Your van is full of crap! Toys and knickknacks! Where the hell is your food and water?”
His words roused her and she fired back, “It’s our stuff, mister! Look, it’s only a forty-five drive from here to Salem. How was I to know we’d get stuck in the worst traffic jam of the century?”
“By watching the news maybe,” Dranko said sarcastically.
The woman stood up, unsteady on her feet, “Look, mister, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t want to hear it from you.”
Dranko couldn’t wipe the sneer off his face fast enough and she exploded, “We haven’t eaten in three days. And that was only two cans of soup I got by having sex with some foul-smelling redneck who had less IQ than teeth. I can’t even remember how long we been stuck here.” When she finished, she collapsed onto the pavement and began wailing. Cooper noted how the children didn’t even flinch at their mother’s description of trading sex for food. They either already knew about it. Or, worse, had seen it. He shuddered at the thought.
Cooper began to motion to Calvin to get some food out of the truck for her, but Dranko’s blazing eyes stopped him.
They retreated from the woman, Dranko still fuming, “How could someone be that stupid? Setting out without any thought to food or water? Never mind gas!”
Calvin’s voice was soft, “Look, Dranko, not everyone can adjust as fast as you when the world dramatically changes before their eyes.”
Dranko scoffed.
“She said it all. ‘I had a forty-five minute drive’. She was prepared for that.”
Dranko was undeterred, “That’s just it. You gotta be prepared for when things don’t go as planned. Hell, I had a ‘get home’ bag in my Jeep before Brushfire hit. But, seriously, to set off at the beginning of a crisis with nothing but toys, bobbles, and some clothes? It’s amazingly stupid!”
They walked the rest of the way back to their vehicles in silence. When they drove past them, Cooper winced when one of the children looked up at him with plaintive eyes. He was looking at a little girl, probably eight or nine, with brown, dirty curled hair framing deep green eyes. With a washcloth and some soap, Cooper knew she’d be darling cute. Instead, he felt as if he was looking at a child’s corpse. He damned Dranko and threw a protein bar he had on the truck’s dash to her. The girl fell onto it like a ravenous wolf.
Dranko led them into the parking lot of a looted Home Depot and Cooper followed, wondering. The lot looked like a flea market and a demolition derby had been thrown into a blender, whirled around, and then tossed back out. Shattered cars and a plethora of discarded and broken goods competed for his attention. That’s when he noticed it. The dead lay here, too. A limp arm, hung lazily from a Honda sedan. Crow-pecked. A woman lay sprawled across the black pavement, half her body underneath a minivan. She’d clearly been there for days and flies harried about her. The entrance had been riddled with gunfire and several men lay dead about it.
A whimper from behind made Cooper spin his head around. Jake’s vacant eyes and gaping mouth told him the damage had been done. Damn, how could I’ve forgot!
“Son, lay down in the back seat there, please. You don’t need to see this,” Cooper’s voice was soft, pleading, and miserable.
Trance-like, Jake folded himself into the seat. Julianne started when he placed his head in her lap. She recovered, and began stroking his hair gently. When she saw Cooper’s look of surprise, she shrugged her shoulders to tell him she didn’t know, either. Cooper shuddered to think about where Jake’s mind had gone; that he would overcome his hostility toward Julianne enough to seek her comfort.
Dranko was at his window, rapping knuckles on glass. Cooper yanked his door open, “I’ll be right back.” He stepped out. Calvin joined him.
“Why’ the hell did we stop here?” Cooper asked.
“Supplies.”
“The place has been looted already.”
“You wanna bet there are still good hand tools in there?” Dranko replied. “Electricity’s only been out a few days. I’m guessing…and these bodies likely prove…that the looting happened before that.”
Cooper nodded in understanding.
“So, that looting would have taken the high end stuff that works with electricity, like power tools and such.”
“You got it. We might even get lucky and there might be a generator in there left over.”
Calvin took a step closer, “I will come with you.”
Cooper nodded, “Alright, why don’t you take Calvin and either Angela or Freddie. I gotta stay here. Jake’s on the edge.”
“Right.”
“But, be quick. Ten minutes until I come in after you.”
“You are the optimist, brother. When’s the last time you been in a Home Depot? You can’t even get from the entrance to a freakin’ aisle in ten minutes!”
Cooper chuckled, “That’s true, but only by half. I’ll give you fifteen. Any sign of trouble though, fire a weapon. One shot means come and help. Two shots means get the hell outta here. Got it?”
“I don’t mean to show you up twice in one day, but why don’t you just use this instead?” Dranko asked as he took something off the backside of his belt and tossed it to Cooper. “Channel’s already set.”
Cooper looked admiringly at the walkie talkie. “Nice. I must be slipping because I saw that on the list earlier!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about it,” he smirked.
Dranko walked back toward his vehicle and Calvin followed. Dranko motioned for Angela to get out and Cooper watched as the trio moved towards the entrance, wary eyes on watch and weapons at the ready. Cooper saw Dranko talking to Angela and Calvin on the way, briefing them on his plan.
Cooper poked his head back into his pickup. Jake still laid, eyes closed, with his head in Julianne’s lap. Cooper informed them of what was happening. Julianne’s smile told him she understood, while Jake remained silent.
“I think he’s asleep,” she whispered.
“Probably for the best,” Cooper responded.
Cooper grabbed his rifle from the front seat and cradled it as he stood watch, constantly scanning in all directions. With their force divided, the last thing he wanted was any hostilities now. The FAL, a rifle that fired the robust .308 round, felt reassuring in his hands. Every time he hefted it, he admired the quality design of the rifle and the good workmanship that had gone into it.
The creak of a door opening on Dranko’s Wagoneer told him Freddie was getting out. Freddie paused, lit a cigarette, and came over to join Cooper.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” he commented.
Freddie laughed his infectious laugh, “I didn’t, until all this started. I figure cancer is the least of my worries now!”
“You picked a bad time to start. Those are going to be hard to find mighty soon,” Cooper said, a grin alighting across his face.
Freddie’s cigarette bobbed up and down as he rocked onto his heels, “I suspect you’re right about that!”
At the edge of the lot, Cooper saw him before he heard the rattle of a shopping cart on pavement. A homeless man was ambling in their direction, his cart burdened with goods.