Out of Chelsea’s bag fell three cans of chicken noodle soup, five cans of beef barely soup, two bags of pretzels, six cans of carrots, and two cans of corn. Zach’s bag contained bags of beef jerky, turkey jerky, and more beef jerky. I imagine that there would be no shortage of a protein in our diet anytime soon. There must have been thirty bags or more of the stuff. That would easily last us the trip and more. Besides, if we somehow did run out of food, we could always stop in powered zones on the way to resupply.
“Not too bad,” Zach said with a grin, his teeth mostly straight and mostly white. “Look!” He held up a bag of jerky. “There’s even teriyaki flavored jerky! I’m in heaven!” He said, smelling a bag by practically rubbing it all over his face. “I am so excited for this trip.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said with a large amount of sarcasm in my voice. “This looks to be a good haul though.”
“Oh, forgot something,” Chelsea said. She ran out the door and into the backyard. A few seconds later, I heard the distant sound of a car door closing followed by the tarp being moved over the vehicle. She returned with a pumping device with a tube in the center and two hoses on opposite ends, “I figured that we can use this to siphon gas if we can’t find anywhere to pump gas. Can’t hurt to have it with us anyways,” Chelsea said, obviously proud of her find.
“Oh,” Zach piped in. “Here are the talkies,” He said, holding up four black and oval shaped talkies, each with a three inch long antennae topping them off. He tossed one to me, “They have a three mile range, so distance shouldn’t be a problem as long as we pay some attention to our position. They’re also water resistant, but I wouldn’t test that feature. On top of that, we even have an extra talkie, just in case one breaks.”
“This is excellent,” I said to their delight. “But we still have quite a bit to do. There is only one more day to prepare since we will be leaving on the third day. Zach,” I said looking at him. “We literally need to become gun experts overnight. If we are going to be on the road, there is the potential that we get swarmed. I think that our best shot out of that is the weapons that you brought with you from Buffalo. Can you teach us?”
He was deep in thought for a minute before replying, “I can teach you how to use them, but the accuracy and overall ability that you will need is something developed over time. But I do have a few of the twenty two’s in the car. They’re not as strong, but the kick shouldn’t throw you off nearly as bad as a forty-four. They will be a lot easier to handle for practice.” He had a smug look on his face. Now he was the teacher, and I was the learner. I had a feeling that he was going to love this, “Maybe if you impress me, I’ll allow you to use something with a little more bang behind it.”
“Well I hope that you are prepared to be blown away,” I countered. We all laughed a little bit with that, though I did not think that the joke was particularly funny. “In all seriousness,” my voice deepened. “We absolutely have to learn. I figure that we can practice shooting off some rounds near the superstore. There is a drop off right next to it which will give us some range. We can use basic cups for targets and what not. If we get lucky, some contaminated should show up too. Live targets are the best, or so I would imagine.”
Zach shook his head, “As the gun expert, I would have to agree with that. Live targets are the best, and that location sounds solid enough. At the very worst, we can escape through the highway. Any following contaminated will not be able to follow us there once we’re in the car.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I replied.
“Well what time is it?” Chelsea asked. I looked at my watch. It was only three thirty, though it looked darker because of the clouds above. I showed her the watch, “Well why don’t we go now? If there are any cars in the lot we can siphon that gas too. There are two gas cans in the shed which can be filled. They are only a gallon, but it will help anyways.”
“I don’t know. It’ll be getting dark in an hour or so,” I said, though the thought at getting some gun practice in while possibly getting gas was tempting. “What does our gun expert think?”
“Well, we were just there,” Zach had his hand on his chin as if he was thinking very hard. “There was only one contaminated there, and we cleared it out. If you guys are in, I’m in.”
“Let’s go!” Chelsea exclaimed and ran out the door. I swear, I would have yelled at her for her recklessness if she wasn’t so damn cute.
The superstore was empty, so was the parking lot. The only vehicle in the area was a parking lot patrol car that was parked at the back of the store. Zach began to set up with the guns on the far side of the lot with us.
“Now see this part?” He pointed to the underside of the handgun.
