Chapter III
Running to Hide
At Williston, North Dakota, JR pulled into the parking lot of Carrol's Motel. Sam woke as the truck lurched across the rain gutter before it stopped, then the engine shut off. She stretched and said, "We're about ten miles from Montana. We passed several major chain motels on the way. As small as this place is, it might still take paper money and the sign say’s it has vacancies indicating they’re open. If you'll go across the street to the Williston Diner and buy our breakfasts, I'll take the bathroom first."
"This place looks okay, but next time go for the high dollar places. I still have a wad of money, and if I'm right, it's going to be useless very soon. People will surely realize the dollar has no value because there's no longer a Federal government in control to back it up."
JR. replied indignantly, "The two big chains we passed didn’t appear to be open. Their head office management probably shut the entire chain down because they knew currency and credit cards were worthless. They have scads of accountants who do nothing but sit and worry about such things.”
He slapped his face in feigned remorse, then smiled. “Good thinking. I like that.”
Sam strode to the office. JR stood waiting by the truck with clean clothes and her toiletry bag until he returned and opened the door to room 9. Smokey beat her inside. The room was medium size with two standard beds, a desk, chest of drawers, a dresser, two chairs at a small table, a microwave, and a small refrigerator. The walls were papered in pleasant tan and green tones with the end wall painted medium green. JR was satisfied with her choice after seeing the bathroom was clean and well appointed.
She went straight to the bathroom, pushed Smokey out, and closed the door.
He yelled, "Before I go, I'll try the TV and see if there's any news about conditions across the country." He flipped through all the channels and found nothing but snow and static. He left Smokey inside as he closed the door. Before crossing the street, he searched behind the truck seat and found his laptop computer.
At the diner, seven other customers sat at tables and two men were on stools at the counter. He ordered two large three meat breakfast specials, milk, orange juice, and two large coffees to go. Then he ordered ham and scrambled eggs for Smokey. While taking his order, the owner looked at the laptop in his hand and shook her head. "The internet went down early yesterday and hasn't come back since then. When my son got up an hour ago, he came here for breakfast and said it's still down at home; TV’s out too."
"I checked in at the motel across the street this morning. Their TVs are down too."
A man wearing Carhart’s sat at the counter; he looked up and spoke, “Seems the whole damn world has shut down. You’d think the government would have this under control by now. What the hell are they doing, just spinning their wheels?”
The waitress nodded and frowned. "Yeah. Don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. Seems like a bad omen when everything we communicate with stops working. The phones don’t work either. Not even the cellphones. It's all because of those damn zombies. But we're stuck here. My family doesn't have anywhere to go or the money to walk away. I guess we’ll ride it out and hope for the best."
The man at the counter said, “Me too. Ain’t got nowhere to go or the money to get there. Guess I’ll just wait for the zombies to get here and blow their brains out one at a time. At least I got plenty of ammo and a freezer full of food.”
Sam decided to not add to their fear by telling them about the zombie attacks he and J.R. encountered, or that the Canadian border was closed because of the undead invasion. The freezer full of food would begin to thaw and rot when the power went off, which was imminent. From the woman’s words it sounded as if her family had no options and would likely become zombies in the coming weeks. Another man seated next to him frowned and nodded to everything that was said. Several others at the tables shrugged and went back to talking among themselves.
As he silently waited, he thought of all the people he’d known in Oklahoma and those he’d met in the past five days; how many of them would survive the zombie apocalypse surrounding them? And what of Charlie and Ilene? He suspected they were likely dead or zombies. And what of Ari. She was in New York near the east coast. It was one of the major areas where the invasion started. Even though their parting had been bitter, he wished her well and hoped she would survive. After paying and leaving a generous tip, he said, “Good luck and take care.”
Back at the motel, he discovered his room key was missing. Then he remembered laying it on a table when he checked the TV. He hammered on the door several times, heard Smokey bark, then waited in front of the peep hole. J.R. cracked the door open with the security chain engaged. The door closed, the chain slid, and the door reopened. J.R. stood in her panties and bra with a towel in one hand and a Glock in the other.
"Am I allowed to say you've got a great body?"
She raised the handgun to point beside him with her index finger beside the frame. "You can look but don't touch."
He smirked. "Like I told you before, I won't make a move on you until you beg me to." He grinned and she made a disparaging kiss
