After they finished up their meal, they popped the locks of the other storage units, just out of curiosity. Amanda was pretty sure that Tejada just wanted to make sure that there weren't any RPG rockets stashed in one of the other units. When Gregg asked if they wanted to search the upstairs units, Tejada shot down the idea, saying that there were windows upstairs, and they would just draw more of the dead.
With their bellies full and their backpacks full of ammunition, they all chose a storage unit to sleep in, pulling the rolling doors down behind them for some privacy, a rarity in a world where survival meant sticking together and watching each other's backs. Rudy and Amanda shared a unit together, unfurling their sleeping bags on the cold concrete floor. They huddled together, trying to keep warm.
****
"Do you think they made it to the beach?" Rudy asked.
"I don't know," Amanda said. He asked this question at least once every other day. She lapsed into silence for a brief moment and then said, "It was probably easier for them. Cars still worked, and the world wasn't covered in snow. They probably had a better time of it than we're having."
"But do you think they made it?"
Amanda was silent. "I don't know. I hope so."
"What do you think the beach is like? Do you think there are people there?"
"Well, there's people here, so there must be people there."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Rudy tried to think of something else to say, but the thoughts wouldn't come. Amanda rolled over and kissed him on the lips, and for a while, he didn't need to think of anything to say. When they finished, Amanda rolled over, and before he could think of something else to ask, her breathing became deep and regular, and he knew that she had nodded off.
Rudy lay with his eyes open, trying to see anything in the darkness of the storage unit. Usually, after he had sex with Amanda, he would fall asleep immediately, but tonight was different. He couldn't stop replaying his whole adventure over and over in his mind, walking over each individual moment that had brought him to be sleeping on a concrete floor in a storage unit next to the love of his life.
He was happy, perhaps for the first time in his pitiful existence. But he couldn't get over the feeling that it could all go away. He had seen how fast life could end. All it took was one bite, one slip, one broken leg. That had never been more apparent than when he and Amanda had been forced to carry Sergeant Tejada after he had injured his hip. If a man like Tejada could basically become an invalid because of a slip in some snow, what chance did he and Amanda have?
He chewed on the inside of his lip, trying to find some way free from the vicious circle of his thoughts. But none would come. In the end, he focused on the deep breathing of Amanda, listening to her soft breath as she inhaled and exhaled. He timed his breathing up with hers, and for a few minutes, they breathed as one.
His eyes finally drifted shut, and he fell into a dream of the old world, the world where he had been afraid of being alone for every day of his life. It seemed like he had only been asleep for a few minutes when he was awakened by the sound of gunshots.
Chapter 9: Raw Nerves and Meat
Mort startled awake. He sat up, his eyes going big in his face. There was movement and sound. He had been alone so long that these two things were enough to put him in a full panic. His heart thumped in his chest as it dawned on him that he had no cause for alarm.
The voices he heard belonged to Joan and Katie. The movement came from Katie as she walked around the room. She looked better now, her eyes not so hollowed out. Her complexion looked healthier—as if she hadn't been lying on the bed unconscious the evening before.
He smiled and sat up. "You're awake," he said gleefully.
Katie turned and smiled at him. "How could I sleep with all that snoring?" she joked.
A joke? When was the last time he had heard Katie make a joke? Maybe never.
He stood, groaning as his overtaxed muscles screeched in pain. His shoulder felt like it wasn't even there. He tried to loosen it, ignoring the waves of pain that washed over him.
"It's good to see you," he said to Katie.
She nodded at him and gave him the barest glimpse of a smile.
He looked at the corner of the room where he had bundled up his weapons and his backpack. "They want me to go get some meat," he said.
"Who does?" Joan asked.
"Them other ones. The ones out front. They wasn't gonna let me in unless I promised to go get them some meat. I shot a bear out in the woods. It should still be good."
"You can't go out there. You just got here," Joan said.
Mort shrugged his shoulders. "I gave 'em my word, and I think we could probably use the food."
"Screw those bitches," Katie said, and Mort smiled to hear the old Katie come back. She was the one that he knew, not the other one, the one that had mumbled through the night about kids and soccer practice.
"Listen. I know I don't have to. I know that if we wanted to, we could go out there and kill those ladies and probably have enough food to last the winter out here, but everyone here is pregnant. Now I don't know much about that,
