Both trucks entered the yard, and we frantically closed the gate behind them and relocked it.
Our gunfire had only stopped for a minute or so as we rushed inside. That was long enough for the noisy zombies remaining to cover the ground and reach us. They stood outside clawing at the fence; some forced fingers or small hands through the wire links. The breeze shifted direction indiscriminately and the stench of the rotting undead dropped on us like having our heads shoved down a loaded toiler.
We walked along the mesh barrier firing at the deadheads. More undead continued to ramble toward us. Apparently, the steady gunfire drew them like kids to fireworks. We'd learned to prefer the cold weather attacks by zombies simply because it eliminated the huge swarms of flies in warm weather that accompanied the rotting, maggot infested hulks like hovering dark clouds. For some time, we'd watched the original zombies deteriorate to piles of walking bones as the flesh and organs finally rotted completely away. That was good as far as dealing with the smell was concerned, but it eliminated their skunky odor as a warning signal.
We turned away from our enemies and hoped they would wander off if we ignored them and went inside.
Fifty and sixty foot long box trailers were spotted at many of the loading docks or staged in two areas against the perimeter fence. Three yard tractors were parked at the fence line beside the empty trailers, and four newer over-the-road tractors were parked near the warehouse.
Martin worked his magic on an entrance door while I surveyed the yard. More undead lined up at the fence to moan and shriek at us. Standing on top of the catatonic zombies we'd shot didn't faze them one bit. Shane and Vince Gonzales pulled their truck up to an overhead door leading into the warehouse and waited. The six of us turned and marched into the enormous structure, unsure of what we'd find. It could still be empty for all we knew.
We clicked flashlights on as we sniffed the air for the foul odor of zombies and were thankful for the absence of the dreaded smell. A musty odor permeated the air from the building being closed tight for more than three years, but it wasn't sickeningly rotten. Martin and Elsie went to the door where Shane and the truck waited. The other four of us split into two pairs. Kira and I marched down the aisles looking for items we could use in addition to guns and ammo. A loud mechanical ruckus announced the overhead door was being opened manually. Several shots cracked before the throaty growl of the diesel engine indicated Shane had driven in. The door closed noisily behind him to the accompaniment of more shots before silence settled over us again.
I stopped and looked questioningly at Kira. "It's warm in here. It must be forty degrees or more." She took off her thin leather shooting gloves, unzipped her winter jacket, and said, "Could the heating system be running off the solar panels on the roof? There's no other possible explanation, is there?" We went back to the door we'd entered and laid our coats on the floor. The heavy shirts and sweaters we'd worn were adequate in the breezeless enclosure. As we'd walked, I'd noticed the walls and roof panels were insulated. We were in a premier, state of the art warehouse.
We walked to the trailer as Shane and Vince unloaded a small generator with wheels under its chassis. Electric forklifts were lined up several hundred feet from us, and the men headed there to charge the batteries on two units. Shane was with us because, in addition to being my best friend, he's our electrician. Vince is a mechanic training under his father, Albert. Elsie and Martin disappeared to the dark interior down goodies laden aisles.
We stopped Shane and talked about the solar panels and the heat system. I asked, "Do you think there's enough power from the solar panels to flip on some lights in addition to the heat?"
He cocked his jaw and ran his fingers through his short red hair as he thought. "I doubt it as cloudy as the sky has been the last few days." He shook his head. "I don't recommend taking a chance on it. I don't know how the system is set up yet. Best to leave it alone if it's worked on automatic to heat this huge space for the past four years. The building being full of stock helps ease the heat load because it serves as a heat sink to retain the heat and reduce the area to be warmed. I'll check the system before we go, but I'll bet this is a huge geothermal system. Electric heaters would need more current than the panels would generate. It's disheartening to me with my electrical and instrumentation background to know this level of technology will be lost to us in a few short years." He shook his head and frowned. "And worse yet, it won't be rediscovered for hundreds if not thousands of years. We're living at the end of a great technological era."
Kira and I ambled along past pallets of miscellaneous items stacked four high. Ed called on the radio. "You aren't going to believe the amount of ammunition we've found. We're in aisle 23 past cross-aisle P. There's enough guns and ammo here to have won a war in a remote banana republic."
I replied, "I hope it's the same with food supplies. With the temperature held above freezing the food should all be good, and nothing should have frozen and burst like a lot of what we've found so far this year. If we
