Decay: The City of Hope Read online

  Now that she was here, might as well see what they had to work with. She looked over and saw her new partner clutching the door still, his arms shaking. He was really weak from malnourishment. Grabbing one of the tow straps from the floor, she quickly latched it in place to the other door. If he was a danger, Allie was confident she could beat him.

  The man slipped back and nodded his thanks to her. Slowly, he stretched out, using the boxes as a makeshift chair.

  “So,” she whispered. “Who are you?”

  He shook his head, looking at her. “You said no talking.”

  “Just whisper,” Allie told him, trying to come across as firm.

  “Ben,” he said slowly, looking at her. “You?”

  “Allie.”

  “Nice to meet you.” He said.

  She shrugged. She couldn’t return the gesture. He had brought a small horde upon her and forced her to hole up in a busted up Walmart trailer with no exit strategy save for the one that was blocked by the dead. This whole situation was anything but nice. “Where’s your group?” she asked.

  “Don’t have one.”

  She pursed her lips in the same way her mother used to when she detected a lie. “Bullshit.”

  “No,” he said. “I don’t have one.”

  “I don’t believe you. Nobody can survive this long without help.”

  “I move from place to place, I try not to make a lot of noise. I’d say that luck has—”

  There was a loud slam from the side of the trailer. The two froze, listening. The moans remained unchanged. A zombie probably fell down or randomly hit the trailer.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked, motioning to his arm.

  The trailer was either pitch black or completely over saturated from the bright light from the flash light. She hadn’t noticed it at first but when her eyes focused, she could just see a mark on his forearm in the shape of…

  Her gun was drawn quickly, pointed right at him. He remained still, staring at her, though she could see a nervousness spread across him. “You were bit. You’re infected.”

  She motioned to his arm. He glanced at it and then smiled at her, shaking his head. “You’re half right.”

  He pulled up his sleeve to show off his arm. It used to be muscled judging by the look of it, but it was much thinner now. She looked at his forearm and could see the distinct marks of human teeth on it and yet… it was faded. Old. A scar.

  “How did you—” she asked, confused. The bites were always fatal. There was no cure. No natural immunity. Everyone died from it.

  “Got into a fight with a marauder.” He said simply.

  “A what?”

  “It’s what I call the bad people. The survivors who like this world the way it is…” he said.

  Allie nodded. “That’s a good word for it. We just called them bad people. What’d you do with him?”

  Ben frowned. “I killed him.” He said without any regret. “He was dangerous to me, and to anyone else he ran into.”

  She nodded. She’d had to kill two humans since the plague had started. It was never easy killing the living.

  The somber question had left them both quiet. Allie wanted to press him and ask for more information but she thought better of it. If he truly had been alone, he wouldn’t give up anything quite yet. She’d have to build trust and a relationship before he’d talk more. And she wanted to. There was something different about this Ben person that she couldn’t put her finger on.

  Maybe it was because he wasn’t like most survivors. They were either overly quiet and introverted that they just up and left without a word, never to be seen again or they were so far gone mentally that they were better off dead. Then there was the third kind…

  He’s not one of those. You’d be dead already.

  Despite his weakened state, a gun or a knife would have evened those odds immediately. Allie knew that he wasn’t a bad guy… a marauder. That was reassuring.

  “Here,” she said, tossing him a couple of granola bars.

  Ben’s eyes lit up and he hastily wolfed the first one down despite the staleness. After swallowing the last of it, he started on the second. This time, he took it slowly, savoring each bite and the flavor. After a few minutes, he nodded to her with tears in his eyes. “Thank you,” he rasped, his throat dry.

  Allie handed him a water bottle and watched him guzzle half of it down before stopping to breathe. “Thank you.” He said again.

  “No problem,” she said, going back to looking around the box trailer. Most of the boxes had been overturned when the trailer flipped. A few of them were smashed or broken but it looked like most had survived the crash. What was better was the lack of a smell. If it had been any kind of produce or food, the tell-tale stench of rot and mouse droppings would have come with it. That meant it was either not food or it was fully sealed still.

  She heard a noise and turned. Ben had leaned over and was opening one of the boxes near him to search it. She shrugged it off. It wasn’t like she owned the entire trailer and it’s contents.

  “Hey… hey wait a second,” Ben whispered. His voice was shaking with excitement. “Allie. Hey Allie. Shine your light here.”

  She did as she was bid and her heart skipped a beat. Batteries. The box was completely full of batteries. AA, AAA, D, C, rechargeable; all of them. All fully sealed and none of them showed corrosion. The two exchanged smiles and went back to digging through the next box, finding more. In the current world, the only things more valuable than batteries were water, food and medicine. Batteries were like gold.

  This trailer was like god damned Fort Knox.

  “What are the chances,” Ben said, pocketing some of the packs.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted as she started to empty the content of the box quietly. “I’ve gone by this trailer so many times… to think it’s been here the whole time.”

  “Doesn’t hurt to get lucky I guess,” he said. “Here. I only need four or five packs of each. You can take the rest with you.”

  “You sure?” she asked.

  “You have a group right? You’ll need more of them.”

  “But we found this together…”

  “You only found it because I forced you inside when the zombies were chasing me.”

  Allie wanted to take it but she felt bad about it. “I’ve walked by this so many times and never searched it. It doesn’t feel right.”

  “Its fine, I promise.” He said.

  She shrugged and grabbed her pack, opening it up. Most of this would have to wait until she could come back with a vehicle and a group but the double A and triple A batteries would have to go back now. Those were priority. She grabbed what she could and soon her bag was thoroughly bursting at the seams. She still had two thirds of the box left.

  “Here,” Ben leaned forward to help zip up the pack all the way.

  She stared at him in the dim light. His face was… kind. That was it. He was a genuine kind person. Despite this world and what it had done, despite being along, he was still a kind human being. It took her half a minute to make up her mind. “Ben, do you like being alone?”

  He hesitated, staring at her. “It’s gotten me this far… why?”

  “But doesn’t it get lonely?” she pressed.

  “Well yeah…” his voice trailed off and he stared emptily at the wall.

  She wasn’t sure why she was making him the offer. “Ben, I live in an outpost with a group of twenty survivors. We have some food, water, and fences. If you’re wanting a group and a place you to stay, you can come with me, I’ll show it to you.”

  Ben hesitated, confused. “You just met me.”

  “In this world, we don’t exactly have time to stop and chit chat. It’s pretty much a right now sort of thing.”

  “I’ve done okay on my own.” He said, suddenly closed off.

  “Okay? So come back for a bit to get your strength up and then go.”

  “I… I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “I just can’t.”

  She frowned. “You’re not a… what did you call them? A marauder? Are you?”

  “Me? No!”

  “Well then why don’t you want to come back with me? It wouldn’t hurt to meet our group, would it?” He didn’t answer. “Okay, look at it this way. I can’t take back all those batteries on my own. I need help, especially if we find more stuff here. We only looked in the two boxes, remember?” She reasoned more with herself than with him. “Help me bring it back, we’ll feed you, shelter you, let you get back to a hundred percent. If you want to leave after, anything you help bring back you get a part of. Deal?”

  He frowned, clearly unsure of what to do. As soon as he had hesitated, Allie knew she had him. “Just help me bring it back. That’s all. Bring back the stuff, get a safe place to sleep and get some strength back. No harm in that, is there?”

  She could read his face as he processed the information, slowly leading to the inevitable conclusion that she had been steering him to. Finally, his lips thinned and he gave her a small nod. She wasn’t sure why he was so hesitant to coming back with her. This long without a group, a family, he had to be alone.

  “Now,” she added, looking through a box near her. “Since they’re still out there, I’m going to try and get some sleep. Wake me in an hour or two and you can sleep.”

  By the time the moans and sounds of footsteps faded away, it was well after three in the morning. Ben had been asleep for maybe an hour and a half when Allie gently nudged him to wake him. He jumped, reaching for his hip when reason took over. Allie didn’t show any concern to it. Morning terror was an unfortunate but common side-effect in the zombie apocalypse. Though she was concerned when he had placed his handgun out of arms reach as a precaution before he wen
t to sleep. It wasn’t something solo survivors did.

  They had each taken turns searching the boxes while the other was asleep and found it contained a plethora of supplies. On top of the box of batteries, Ben had found a box of rope, bungee cords and other tie downs for vehicles, whereas Allie had found a box of flashlights as well as a load of sleeping mats and sleeping bags. They both had gleefully whispered that this was destined for the outdoors and camping section of the local Walmart. While the store itself had been picked clean in that particular area, nobody had known that the jackpot was really here the whole time.

  The two had spent the last ten minutes loading up their bags with what they could. Ben crammed the rest of the batteries all into one box while Allie was carrying a box of miniature propane tanks and a small propane stove in her arms. They would have to be cautious. The first sight of trouble, they’d have to ditch their loads and come back later.

  It was dark out now, but the sky was clear and everything was awash in the pale blue light of the moon. Without the lights of the city, the moon was plenty bright enough to guide them. They walked quietly with Ben following Allie, having to shuffle the box of batteries every ten minutes or so to prevent his muscles from fatiguing.

  “What kind of shelter do you have?” Ben asked, his voice still a whisper.

  “It’s a truck stop,” she began. “We have two buildings though it was three technically; the truck stop and the Carl’s Jr are connected at an angle, then there’s a small convenience store. It’s hard to explain, you’ll have to see it. We put up fences and reinforced them with broke down vehicles. It’s not the most secure thing in the world, we have to do sweeps once or twice a week but it’s better than nothing.”

  Ben nodded. “It sure beats sleeping in broom closets… or flipped Walmart trailers.”

  She laughed, shoving him playfully. “Hey, I’m the best roommate you’ve had for some time.” Ben grimaced and stared ahead. Allie sensed she had touched a nerve and elected to lighten the mood. “So, when we get there, you’ll be given a meal and a shower.”

  “A… a… shower?” he said, stopping. “Did you… did you say shower?”

  “Yeah, the water is cold but you get used to it. Wakes you up nicely too.”

  “How’s that possible?”

  “It’s got something to do with the water lines or water access or something. And a water pump and a couple of gas generators. We still have access to the water lines and every few days we just have to put gas in the generators to keep it going. It’s the only thing we use the generators for so it works.” She explained. “I’m sure there’s more to it but I’m not a plumber. That’s Ryan and Jake’s area of expertise. Hell, I don’t question it. I just get a place to shower.”

  The two continued walking for some time until they were well outside of town. Ben could just make out a dark blur three miles in the distance that seemed unnatural. Allie confirmed it was their shelter and he nodded to her. “What’s your food situation like?”

  “Decent,” she admitted. “We don’t have a way to freeze anything. We have no electricity obviously. At first we hoped to use the generators for the walk-in freezer at Carl’s Jr but it took too much gas. Mainly, what food we have is the stuff that lasts, canned goods and whatever we can find.”

  Ben frowned. “Don’t you have any solar panels? It’s Arizona. Almost everywhere has them.”

  “We have a few but we don’t know how the hell to work them.” She admitted. “They just sit up on the roof. I think at this point they’re useless from how much dirt they’ve got on em anyways. We don’t even bother cleaning them anymore.”

  “Okay, what about running water?”

  “Like I said, not sure how it works. Something about an aquifer or a well or something? I don’t think it’s connected to the water lines—not this far out here. I don’t know. Regardless, we have water to drink and water to shower and that’s all that counts for me. We boil the water to be safe though. Sewage works too for now. Course all that really needs is running water I guess. We just have to monitor how many times we flush.” She said in an embarrassed way.

  “Hey, it’s a five star hotel in my book.”

  When the sun had dipped just above the horizon casting a red glow on the distant hills, they finally arrived at the gate. As they approached, a man called through the bars to them. Ben observed a rifle in his hand but relaxed. It wasn’t pointed at anything in particular. On closer inspection, the man didn’t appear dangerous—just tired.

  “Allie. Bout time you showed up, what took you? Who’s this?”

  The black man was very tall and gangling, wearing clothes that may have fit him once but now hung from his frame. He spoke with a lisp and had the slightest stutter. “Ran into some dead, had to lay low for a while,” she explained.

  “You? You never have issues,” D said.

  “First time for everything,” Allie yawned. Ben was happy that she wasn’t outing him as the source of her ire. Had it not been for him, she’d have kept her unblemished record. She motioned to him. “This is Ben, he helped me get away from them. Ben, this is Drake. We call him D.”

  “Hi,” Ben said. He stared at the man for half a second before holding his hand out—a gesture he hadn’t done in quite some time. D gave him a firm handshake before pulling the gate open for them. He never once pressed or asked about the boxes in their hands until after they were safely inside and the gate had been closed and secured once more. “So, whatcha find this time?”

  “You wanna show him?” Allie asked.

  Ben let him peek inside the box. D leapt box, stunned. “No shit? Real batteries? Fresh never been opened batteries? Those are legit?” They both nodded and he took a step back to shake his head in awe. “Fuck man, that’s the score of the century.”

  “You haven’t seen the half of it. Take a peek,” Allie laughed, handing her box to D. He opened the lid and stared at the miniature propane tanks in surprise.

  “No shit!?”

  “Yeah, we got lucky. You know that big trailer on its side on Main Street?”

  “The Walmart one? Front’s all burnt to shit. Some dumbass stole it from Walmart and crashed it there.”

  “That’s what happened? Oh, well it’s never been looted. It’s all camping and outdoor survival gear.”

  “Wow. That fucker woulda been a king had he got away.” D sounded in awe. “This whole time, we just left it there.”

  “We always thought a zombie was inside, remember?”

  “I’d have gone through a dozen of them if I had known about this shit…”

  She laughed and took the box from him, walking towards the old truck stop. Ben watched her for a few moments before looking to D. “So Mr. Ben,” D said with a smile. “Welcome to our sanctuary.”

  Chapter 2

  Although he was initially nervous to be led around by the second new person he’d met in the last twelve hours, D turned out to be a great tour guide. Granted, the outpost wasn’t overly large so it didn’t take long but he added his own personal flair to it as they walked. Within ten minutes, he had a good idea of where everything was and what changes had been made since the survivors had settled there.

  In the early days of the plague, the truck stop and convenience store were picked clean; first by travelers, then by looters and finally by survivors. By the time the group had arrived there, the buildings were just ransacked and empty of anything of value. But now, the shelves were up righted and stocked once more. This time with scavenged items; food, batteries, medicine, water, clothes, blankets—really anything of value seemed to be taken here for storage purposes.

  The attached Carl’s Jr restaurant had been turned into a bunkhouse of sorts, if you could call it that. The tables that once attached to the middle of the space had been removed and most of the floor was covered in a random assortment of blankets and pillows. The far corner had what appeared to be a wood stove sitting on cinder blocks with the smoke pipe going up to the ceiling and disappearing into a crudely cut hole. From Ben’s perspective, there was no rhyme or reason to the sleeping arrangement though he imagined people would crowd around the heater in the cooler months. Even in Arizona, winters at night were cold.