Flesh Eaters

Gas for the Trucks

Chapter 19 - Gas for the trucks

*Grey's POV*

"If your not back come sundown, I'm comin' ta' look for ya'."

I nod once to him before I turn and start down the road in search of gas. I know he would come for me, no matter how much pain he was in. He'd look for me.

Mercedes walks silently next to me. Her hands rest lightly on her small baby bump. I have to wonder if the baby's alright after what happened.

"Everything okay there?"

Mercedes stays silent for a moment before she says, "I don't know." She looks up at me and says, "it hurt, I mean really hurt when Baird threw me on the ground. I don't know if, if she's alive anymore."

"She? You know the gender? How far along are you?"

"Around seven months."

"What," I say stopping in my tracks. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," she says while looking back down at her stomach. "Foods been hard to get. I haven't been able to gain weight. Baird says all the nutrients I put in goes straight to the baby."

"Damn," I say before I continue walking. "How'd you find out the gender?"

Mercedes bites her lip before she says, "when you found us we had just escaped a safe place that got over run. It was set up in a hospital back by a trailer park. Baird did an ultrasound on me there."

I nod once then stare at my feet as I walk. I have to wonder if me and Murphy drew the hoard to the safe place she talks about.

We walk in silence for hours with the sun slowly rising. When the suns almost directly above us we come to an abandoned gas station.

The windows are grimy and the door sticks when you try and open it. A little bell dings when it's pulled open. At the sound of the bell I pull out the pistol I picked up. Slowly I start move into the building, placing one foot in front of the other.

"Grey," Mercedes whispers.

I freeze in place and look back at her. She nods her head to something outside the gas station.

She pulls a knife out of her belt and says, "I'm gonna check something out alright?"

I nod then continue my slowly descent into the building.

Shelves of untouched food remain. Candy, cereal, jerky, and other snacks. A thin layer of dust coats everything.

The farther I move into the building the stronger the oder of something rotting gets. The sound of millions of buzzing flies echoes from some place in the station.

As I reach the cash register I realize the building appears to empty and eater free. I set the pistol down on the counter and open the register. It snaps open with a ding reviling a tray full of dollars and coins. Useless paper and metal.

I push the drawer shut and head over to the shelves of food. On the way over I grab a red shopping basket to carry the food back in.

I grab a beef link and open it. I chew on one end as I drop chips, candy, and other snacks into the basket. I pause when I hear the stores door ding as it opens.

I swallow the chewed beef link in my mouth the say, "Hey, Mercedes, tons of food over here for you and your growing baby."

I wait for a response but get none.

"Mercedes," I call out wondering if she didn't hear me.

I walk around the shelves and come face-to-face with the snapping jaws of an eater.