Title Yet To Be Discovered (Part 8) Poem by Mike Smith

The dinner was an awkward one. Once we were all seated there was a strange silence hanging over the group. The silence wasn't something entirely rare. For most of our time down here the days had been uneventful; one very much the same as the next. Today however was not so. Yet still nobody seemed able to bring up a conversation. For a time, one of the longest sentences spoken was simply, 'Could you pass the carrots please? '
I was grateful. I used the time to collect my thoughts. Come up with a usable version of the story detailing the events that had taken place on my voyage outside the safe-house. By the time I'd finished eating and helped Emily to get cleaned up I felt mostly confident that I'd shored up any plot holes that might arise from leaving out some of the more gruesome aspects of my adventure.
Finally there came a time that the kids were convinced to go along and play while the adults talked. They were usually pretty good about this, and typically didn't need any convincing, but there was a feeling in the air, a heaviness, that even they had caught on to. Something important was happening or had happened, and they could sense it. As such, they were reluctant to leave us to ourselves. A promise from Becca to read two stories tonight instead of one was finally enough to make them comply.
Barry broke the ice, 'So, Ian, tell us what happened already. I can't take any more suspense.'
I started in, 'Well, I guess it kind of starts last night. I was lying in bed, not sleeping just lying, and I kept coming back to a few images in my mind.'
'You've had a rough couple of days.' said Terry. 'It's a wonder you're able to...' I hushed him with a slight raise of my hand.
'One thing that I couldn't stop myself seeing over and over was that damn Baretta. It got me to thinking about the store west of here by the old printing factory. Recreational Goods or something. '
'The ammo and bait shop over on west Elm? ' chimed in Toni C.
'That's the one.' I replied. ' I figured if I was going to be out hunting supplies anyway, I might try my luck there.'
'I don't know Ian, sound like a funny place to look for food and meds to me. I sure as hell ain't gonna eat no worms.' Barry said with a squinted look of confusion.
'He wadn't lookin' for food ya numbskull.' Mick never could resist a chance to point out someone else's ignorance or shortcomings. 'He wanted to find some rounds for that Baretta he took with him.'
'That's right.' I continued on. 'I wanted to see if I could get my hands on some ammo for the pistol. The store had plenty in stock. Looked like it hadn't been looted at all. I took as much as I thought feasible to carry with considering I still had two more stops to make. It's not loaded but be careful.'
With this I opened up the book bag and removed from it the boxes of ammo and the second hand gun that I'd acquired. The others soon began passing them around and inspecting them.
'I also found these.' I said as I tossed out the bags of beef jerky and trail mix coming from the mini carousel on the counter.
This aroused a bit of cheer. Several of the others grabbed at a bag and looked at it close up in awe as if they couldn't truly believe they were real. Barry had three bags of beef jerky in a full on embrace. Hugging them as if some long lost lover while an ear to ear smile dominated his face.
Stacey broke up the miniature moment of celebration. 'I don't know how I feel about having guns in here with the kids always running around getting into things when we're not watching.' Concern showed on her face and she tugged nervously at her shirt sleeve.
I tried to assure her. 'They'll never be loaded Stacey. And we'll keep them up on the shelves where the young-ins can't reach. Always have the clips in a different location than the guns.' This seemed to somewhat satisfy her, but she still eyed the gun as if some foul and foreign monster.
I went back into the telling, 'Satisfied with my haul, I left the ammo shop and began making my way to the grocery. I looked back on the store from some distance off and saw a group of dogs congregating near it. Luckily they didn't seem to interested in pursuing me and were content just to sniff around in the street. Still it made the rest of the walk uncomfortable to say the least.' Why I put that part in I don't know. It was entirely false. Maybe subconsciously I was trying to tell the horror that transpired inside and out of the ammo store. Give some clue that there was more to the story than I was letting on. A quick glance around the group informed me that I had at least partially given myself away. Trina had a puzzled and questioning look on her face. She saw right through the lie. I couldn't read the others quite so well but I felt at least some of them might have suspicions. Regardless no one interrupted to speak their skepticism so I continued on.
'The grocery store was in bad shape when I got there. As much mold and rot as there was anything else. I managed to come up with this.' I said pulling items from the duffel bag: canned fruit, tuna, spam, water chestnuts. These were met with mostly mundanity, the pie fillers and the frostings however seemed to inspire a flicker of happiness almost equal to the jerky and trail mix.
'This was really all that was left in the place that could be salvaged. I know it's not much, but hey, it keeps us eating a little while longer.' A communal nod of agreement and mumble at both parts of the statement. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.
'I had plenty of extra space so I figured I'd stock up some other things that hadn't been looted or ruined.'
I pulled out the paper products I'd grabbed. Somehow these were awarded almost as much appreciation as the food. Kleenex and tp, I suppose, aren't really thought of as luxuries until you begin running danger low.
'It was then, as I was grabbing the toilet paper from the bottom shelf that I saw her.' I made a motion with my eyes back towards where the children were playing.
'At first I thought she was dead. Left there to rot with the rest of the place, but suddenly she stirred. I took my mask off so I could talk to her without looking any more scary than I had to.'
'Which is pretty damn scary for me, let alone a little girl.' Remarked Barry with a smile. This was his typical clowning around. He got a couple of half chuckles from the group.
'Yeah, yeah, ha ha. Anyway I got to talking with her and in just a short amount of time it was pretty apparent she wasn't being cared for. She had someone who was partially looking after her; kept calling her 'New Momma'. But from what I could gather the woman was about halfway wacky and fully insufficient as a care taker. I knew then that I had to bring her with me. I couldn't leave her there in that place all alone, and I surely had no desire to try and track down this 'New Momma' character.'
'You did the right thing.' said Trina from across the table. Several others chimed in with something of the same effect. Mick rolled his eyes and shook his head as he stared at the table. A barely below the surface feeling rose up in me and I wanted more than ever to leap across the table and throttle him for that single inappropriate gesture.
I went on, holding back the urge to pulverize his face like it was so much meat, 'I decided that between the bags and Emily it might not be a bad idea to take a cart with me. Let her and the bags ride in there.'
'I don't think I would have thought of that.' said Oliver. His standard look of contemplation on his face as he pulled on his pointy beard in thought.
'You may well have been better off then.' I replied. 'Because the racket that the blasted thing caused just about cost us both our lives.'
I told them the details of the encounter with the three people and the dogs. Of the long haired woman's whistle and the ensuing chase. Of the explosion caused by the luckily well placed bullet from the Baretta. Of the frantic flee to reach the school. The drawn out scan of the area to ensure we'd not been followed. All of it. I spared no detail. Down to the playing of the 'quiet game' with Emily and how she indignantly refused to give up even after all the chaos in between the onset and the eventual arrival. The others, even Mick, were spellbound, teetering on the edge of their seats.
'And then I knocked on the door. You guys pretty much know the rest from there.'
No one knew what to say. I amongst them. Finally Becca said the only thing that seemed even close to being appropriate, 'Wow.'
Oliver agreed, 'You can say that again.'
Trina was the one to knock us back into a state of practicality and out of story telling mode. 'Well I guess we'd better find a treat for your brave little trooper over there.' she said pointing towards Emily. 'After all, a promise is a promise.'
'Fortunately, ' said Barry rising from his seat and stretching his arms up over his head, 'we've got something for just such an occasion. There's a box of Little Debbie's still in the pantry.... We were trying to save them for munchkins on their birthdays but I think we could make an exception.'

As I watched her eating her treat as if it was the single greatest act of kindness she had ever been shown a feeling of responsibility rose and swelled up in me. 'This must be what parents feel.' I thought to myself. She didn't deserve this world, it was too ugly now. Too unforgiving. Barren. But if on this Earth there existed a way to make her life worth living, I pledged to myself that I would find it, and it would be hers.
She deserved at least that.