A Dead Man's Tale

Chapter 5 (Howard)

Things have been going good for me at the gas station. These past fourteen days, I've lost track of the dates so I just count off days mostly, I've found some more cans of food and random supplies from the two grocery stores. A list of my supplies as of today include:

- 1 Ruger 10\22 rifle (semi-automatic, 10 round magazine)

- Approximately 100 rounds of .22 caliber ammo

- 10 cans of food; soups, stews, vegetables etc.

- 25 snack cakes from vending machine

- 5 bottles of water

- 3 packs of batteries

- Flashlight

- Solar powered lantern

- Medium, adult sized tent

- Portable emergency radio

- The car

- Local map

As I wrote before, I crammed most of the supplies into the car but now I'm forced to sleep in the driver seat. At least I'm able to adjust it back and lay down almost flat. While searching through the remains of one store I managed to get as far as the massive freezer used to store all the meat and dairy products. Written on the fridge doors in faded blue marker was 'Dead inside! Open at own risk!' I didn't risk it. The door was sealed shut and thick chains were wrapped around the pull handles. I tapped at the metal doors and an echo sounded from within. The moans followed the echoes, reverberating on the metal walls, and something was knocking on the door.

I left the container and returned to my gas station. I've been thinking that if I find some lumber and proper tools I could fortify the building in some way but the open lot would let any number of corpses too close to the building. I've had to reduce my use of the radio for listening to the other survivor groups. They are still there and I have to start conserving the batteries. I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon. The gas station is a rather decent place to set up since I'm out of the way from any place and most of the roads have to be blocked.

                                                                                                ***

I had a scare this morning, when I woke up the first thing I saw was a pair of female corpses clawing at the driver's window. Acting franticly I turned the keys in the ignition and drove further down the parking lot. The corpses followed the car, so I shifted into reverse. I had to run over them three times before the pair of them stopped moaning. I spent another hour driving some of the surrounding roads making sure that no other groups of corpses had heard the noise from the pair. Now that I think of it, they looked similar, maybe they were sisters.

Now that I'm calmer I've been thinking clearly on other ways to survive and things I need. There's an empty metal waste basket in the gas station that I think I can modify into a make shift stove. There were two guns shops not even five minutes from here in both directions, I plan on visiting there to see if there's anything worth taking. A vet clinic and doctor's office are another stop on my list.

I'm beginning to wonder about moving on to the survivor colony in the quarry, I can make this place safe enough and I'm getting more adjusted to scavenging runs. If I leave then who knows what I might or might not find. The people I meet might not even want me join them. I am getting lonely though, if I had Janice and the kids it would be so much better, at least we would be together. If Janice was here she would find some way to make the food taste better, she is... or was a fantastic chef after years of working at a bistro in Middlesburg. James always had something extra to say, always had a joke to make, after seeing these corpses I wonder if he would make a joke about them to settle everyone's nerves. Emily is a bit of a loner, she gets it from me and she would probably find someplace high up and watch over the roads to be alone with her thoughts.