My Say

5

Our luck held, we were able to catch up to Greg and the guys rather quickly seeing as how they had found Mr.Quigley's Zippy Mart and proceeded to have a feast.

"Where the hell have you been? Man you should have picked us up at the road. That logging road was a joke, it was overgrown..." Greg's complaint fest was cut off by Charles.

"Where's the car?" It was as if everyone had missed the fact that we had indeed walked up.

"We need to get up to Dyarl's dad's place." Craig headed back out the door.

"Who the hell do you..." Greg's hostile attitude was on full blast.

"Have you seen anyone?" Craig said as he continued to scope out the area.

"No but we figured whatever happened that people had hunkered down in their homes. Everyone is fine and in town." Greg had toned down the attitude as he remembered who he spoke to still.

"The people back at the ranger station were torn apart. The men who took the car said that wolves and men came into town and took some people and killed others. That a 22 did nothin' but piss them off it took a double barrel to the head or heart to put one down permanent. A 44 would do it too but still, it had to be the head or heart, anything else and they'd get back up."

"Bull Shit! Ain't no way." Andrew was the first to react. The rest of us were stunned.

"I don't know what is going on but I'd feel safer up at D's old man's place than here out in the open," Nell said.

I had to agree. I had loaded my pack down with granola bars and high calorie/energy snacks. Then I went to the back and grabbed another bag shoving in water.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked, looking at me as if I'd lost my mind.

"Street rat, remember. I'm making sure I have what is needed to survive." I went back to my packing as Nell, Nan, and Monica began to follow my lead.

"We need to hurry, I don't want to spend another night out in the open."

Everyone agreed that we needed to get somewhere safe but that is where the agreement ended. Greg, Andrew, Charles, wanted us to head to town. While Craig, Nan, Nell, Monica, and myself wanted to go to D's dad's cabin. Nick didn't care where we went as long as we got moving he said he had a bad feeling something was coming. Mark would follow Monica anywhere.

It was finally decided that Greg would go his way with his group and the rest of us would go to the cabin. If things were safe then Greg would come get us. Monica would stay with us, her decision pissed Greg off but I think she was beginning to see Greg as the ass he was. Nick was coming with us, he said his stomach hurt less when he was walking away from town.

After Greg's group left Craig took us behind the building, "If I remember correctly". He mutters as he moves around some of the trash in front of the old garage door. "I was right", he holds up a key triumphantly.

"Congrats you have a key, what does it go to?" And Nan is back.

"This is our get of walking card." We all stood up and leaned in for this, "Mr.Quigley loved dirt bikes. As a kid I'd come out here and work on them with him." Following him around back to a hidden door, as he turned the key and pulled open the door my breath caught. Inside were four powerful dirt bikes.

"How did you know they'd still be here?" Mark asked as he stroked the red monster, I knew it was love at first sight.

"Nobody would suspect this old garage would hold a treasure like this. The old man was really particular about who he let around these babies."

"What's he gonna say about you taking them." Monica asked as she stared at the bikes.

"I don't think he'd mind since he isn't here." My head snapped up, he knows more than he's saying. When we got up to that cabin Craig was going to spill his secrets.

"Less talking and more moving. Nell grab the saddle bags, Nan see if we have fuel carriers, Monica gather all the first aid stuff. Craig check and see if Mr.Quigley left any tools that we may need. I don't want to have to come back to town. Everyone else check to make sure we don't forget or miss anything" Everyone gets moving.

"What are you going to do?" Craig said as I left the garage with Monica.

"I'm gonna feed us." Moving back into the store I begin grabbing more food rather than just snacks. I had a feeling the flour and sugar were going to be more necessary than the ho-ho's or ding-dongs. Nick seemed to agree as he helped me clear the shelves of all the essentials.

It took several hours of hard riding to get up to the cabin, the fact that we had to double up didn't help the situation. We had seen several bodies, a few were people we had known. Vehicles had been destroyed, some appeared to have been shredded. Several times we had heard fighting or the howl of wolves. We didn't stop for any reason, leaving our friends and neighbors without a proper burial rubbed us all the wrong way. But whatever was out there was doing this scared us more.