“I got some major shrinkage going on over here.” Johnny shouted out of the closet as he posed as Captain Morgan in the mirror. Shaking his head, he called himself a moron and started thumbing through the clothes. One side of the closet held petite women’s clothes and the other held large men’s clothes, both not the right size to fit either men.
“We’re just going to have to make fat boys clothes work.” Johnny said, pulling out a massive pair of worn denim overalls. He browsed through the clothes until he reached the back and found several more worn out pairs of smaller overalls no doubt worn by the fat man much earlier in his life when he was a lot smaller.
“These might actually fit you, Rosie.” Johnny said over his shoulder. Roosevelt stepped inside and Johnny tossed him the overalls. Roosevelt held them up to his body and shrugged.
“Not quite but they’ll work. There's a pretty little dress out here that should fit your skinny little ass.” Roosevelt chuckled. Johnny flipped him the bird and pulled another smaller pair of the denim overalls off the hanger for himself.
“Found some basketball shorts and socks out here.” Roosevelt said as he backed out into the room and started getting dressed. Johnny followed and grabbed a red pair of shorts from the bed. They each slid into the oversized clothes and then slid the socks on.
“Feels kind of gross wearing some dead fat bastards’ clothes but it sure as hell beats freezing to death.” Roosevelt said.
“These old boots might fit us as well. Size 12.” Johnny said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.
“These people didn’t throw anything away.” Roosevelt said, pulling a tattered pair of underwear from the drawer. Johnny stepped back into the closet and grabbed the two best looking pairs of mud caked boots. He returned to the bed and took a seat and started lacing them up. He stood up and tapped his foot and then glanced over at Roosevelt who was now lacing up his own boots.
“These ain’t half bad.” Johnny said, rocking back and forth in the old boots. Roosevelt stood a second later and agreed.
“Now let’s go see what they have to eat. I’m famished.” Roosevelt stated as he walked out of the room and headed back down the stairs.
Chapter Eight
2:59 p.m. January 2, 2049
Inside the old farmhouse
Tennessee
“So now what the hell do we do? We can't just go back and get more from Rick's ‘cause we took damn near everything worth a shit the first time.” Johnny stated as he tore open a packet of saltines to go with his can of tuna. Roosevelt munched on a homemade pickle he had gotten from a large jar in the pantry. He didn’t reply right away as he was thinking through their options. After popping the last hunk of pickle in his mouth, he looked at Johnny.
“Way I see it is we have a couple of different options. We stay here and wait for that fat shit to ride by and then try to follow him or we get what supplies we can from here and take off on foot. They have a basement we haven't checked yet. Could be full of supplies we’ll need,” Roosevelt said. Johnny considered this as he spooned a portion of the tuna onto a white cracker.
“Definitely not voting to stay here and wait on the thieving fat bastard. No telling when he’ll ever come by here if he does at all.” Johnny said.
“We could go find him. I’d bet he's somewhere around that crazy dancin’ bitch from the apartments.” Roosevelt replied. Johnny shook his head.
“No. We don’t need to back track. Let’s just take what we can from here and get the hell out of here.” Johnny said as he finished the can of tuna.
Roosevelt reached into the jar and grabbed another pickle. He took a bite, the crunch audible in the room before pointing the pickle at his friend and saying,
“You know I bet you big boy in there has some guns around here. They were rednecks and I’d bet there's at least a couple of shottys in this house somewhere.”
“You know I bet you’re right. We’ll comb through this place after we eat. Hell, they might even have some wheels.” Johnny added. They finished eating and started going through the closets and pantries throughout the home. After piling what food they found on the main floor, they headed for the basement door. Johnny pushed open the door and flipped the lights on. Yellow light flooded the room below as they each walked down the stairs. Steel shelves lined the wall directly in front of the stairs. The shelves were packed with glass jars full of vegetables and jellies. To the right was a work bench full of tools and a massive Liberty gun safe. Johnny moved toward the safe and cracked down on the handle to no effect.
“Shit, it’s locked.” He said before grabbing a hammer from the tool bench. He reared back, ready to beat the safe open but Roosevelt stopped him.
“Don’t do that! That isn’t going to work. All you’re going to do is make sure we can’t open it if we find the combination.” He said, moving in to take the hammer.
“Where the hell are we going to find the combination?” Johnny asked.
“That old man probably has it written down somewhere I bet. We just have to find it.” Roosevelt said as he took the hammer from his friend. Johnny started searching the work bench for the combination while Roosevelt headed toward the opposite side of the room. A hot water heater sat in the corner next to a wooden set of shelves that looked to have been built long ago. Cans of paint and boxes labeled with different holidays sat
