Deadland Rising (part 3 of the Deadland Saga)

Prudence (Chapter 11)

The steel door to the back entrance opened a crack, and Griz's face appeared. "Pull up as close as you can to this door," he said. "That way, you can get inside without getting pounced."

Jase reversed and pulled the truck up to the entrance, leaving only a few feet in between the driver's side of the truck and the steel door. He cut the engine and grabbed the keys. I grabbed my bag.

Griz threw open the door, and it dinged into the truck. "Careful," Jase said as he opened his door and jumped inside. Tom slid across the seat, followed last by me. I heard movement behind me, and I shoved forward, falling into Tom and onto the floor of the store as the door slammed shut.

I looked up to see a hand reaching out. I grabbed it, and Griz tugged me to my feet and into a hard embrace. "It's good to see some friendly faces around here," he said.

"Now, we can get out of here and back home," Marco said.

"Hey, Marco." I gave him a hug.

Jase waved. "Polo!" Marco waved back.

"What happened here?" I asked. "Where are your trucks?"

"That's the question of the day," Griz replied. "We just about had them loaded, and then some asshats blocked the door and took off with our trucks, like we were a drive-through window."

"We tried to reach you by radio," Jase said. "You guys had us worried."

"Batteries are dead," Griz said. "Hard to believe, but there's nothing to recharge them in here. You'd think a giant store like this would have generators, but not a single one left on the shelves, and the store's backup generators were bone-dry."

Solar stake lights were lying down all the aisles, bringing light to the shadows. Three men came around a corner, and I ran toward them. Clutch barely had time to stop before I jumped into his arms. He lifted me, and I hugged him. When I pulled away, I gave him a halfhearted glare. "You see? I told you I'd come after you."

He smiled. "I figured as much." Then, his smile faded. "But, you shouldn't have come. It's dangerous out there."

I shot him a hard look, and he lowered me to my feet. "Which is exactly why we came for you. You don't think we'd leave you guys out here to die, do you?"

Jase came up and slapped Clutch's shoulder. "It's good to see you, man. What do you think of my new truck?"

Clutch's brow rose. "A 1957 Chevy? She's a beaut. How'd you come across her?"

"Long story," I said. "Jase can fill you in on the drive back. Speaking of which, what needs done so we can hit the road?"

"We've been waiting out the hungry mouths outside," Clutch replied. "Once we knew the bandits weren't coming back, we switched gears to finding new vehicles. Unfortunately, that turned out to be much easier said than done."

"That's an understatement," Griz said. "We didn't get more than five feet out the back door before a pack of mangy dogs came at us. Within an hour, there were probably two hundred of the buggers out there. Although, a city the size of this, there's bound to be thousands of dogs that managed to get free and survive. Anyway, we moved to the front of the store and cut through the back of the big rig. The bandits left it running when they used it to block the doors. But, by the time we cut through the box to get to the cab, its fuel tanks were dry. We'd already burned our ammo to clear the store, so we've been waiting for the dogs to find something more interesting. But, they're persistent and ornery little bastards."

"Why'd you have to kill the zeds inside?" Tom asked. "They should've been frozen through and through."

Clutch chuckled drily. "The ones outside may be frozen, but the ones inside still had plenty of life left in them. The building's insulation must buffer enough of the cold, and they must still generate enough body heat that the temps need to drop more to stiffen them up."