“Oh, crap! I thought you’d told Granny B on us. Darn, do you mean she was watching before you spoke?”
Tom immediately knew their dilemma. “So, a wild guess is that wasn’t the first time you two love birds had been at that spot?”
Jackie moaned, “When did you fix that camera?”
Tom stifled a laugh and tapped Sam on the back. “Two days ago. Is that a problem?”
Jackie’s head snapped around to Rick. Rick was choked up. “I guess it’s time to announce that I’ve asked Jackie to be my wife.”
“Whoa! Isn’t it a bit too soon. Granny B will blow a cork!”
Tom held back his concern. “What will you two give me to erase the recording of whatever you were doing?”
Jackie said, “I’ll let you give me away at the wedding? Hey, I erased that yesterday.”
Tom looked at Sam. “Yeah, I’ll bet we don’t want to see all that mushy stuff.”
Sam chuckled. “Nope.”
Jackie made a time out sign. “Now, back to scavenging. What do we have to go home with, and what is just nice to have.”
Tom thought for a few seconds before talking. “We have thirty-seven more hidden barrels of survival food, medical supplies, weapons, and ammunition. We only have to bring back some medical supplies, clothes, underwear for you and the other women, plus some feminine hygiene supplies. The rest will keep us from using our safety net supplies.”
Sam grinned. “And some chocolate. I need some chocolate.”
Jackie seconded Sam’s need for chocolate. “I’d kill for some milk chocolate with almonds.”
Rick spoke next. “Chocolate would be nice, but some great bourbon would hit the spot.”
Tom listened patiently. “When we get back, I’m firing up the BBQ and grilling some thick juicy steaks. Baking some potatoes and getting Granny B to fix us one of her famous salads.”
Tom looked down at Sam and then woke the others at one o’clock. Only a couple of people had walked through the area for the past several hours. He had used the night vision scope a dozen times, and nothing but dogs, coyotes, and cats were seen. “Wake up. Time to rise and muddle through the wonderful early morning.”
Sam’s head was on Tom’s lap. She rolled over on her back and looked up at him in the darkness. “Tom, I hope that’s you. Jackie might be mad if she saw my head on Rick’s lap.”
Tom kissed her on the forehead. “It’s me, and you slept like a rock. Stretch and yawn so we can get moving. I haven’t seen anyone for hours. It’s one o’clock, and I hope everyone else is sleeping.”
Jackie and Rick lay in the back together and took longer than Tom wanted. “Come on. Shake the rust off and get those old bones moving.”
Tom carefully opened the sliding door and stepped outside. He then sprinted to the smashed front door and walked inside the lobby. The moon was behind some thick clouds, so it was dark in the store. Tom waited on the others before cautiously stepping into the store. He stumbled and almost fell before turning on his small penlight flashlight. He kept the light close to the floor so they could walk without tripping. “Grab any food or medical supplies if you find any.”
The floor was littered with broken glass and odds and ends that the looters hadn’t thought were valuable. Tom said, “Jackie, watch the front of the building while we scavenge. Sam, go to the women’s hygiene stuff. Rick and I’ll look for food and medicine.”
Tom found the battery display was empty, but the looters hadn’t bothered to pick up the loose batteries strewn around on the floor. He gathered several handfuls of C, D, and AA batteries. He stuffed them in his bag and went back to the pharmacy, which had been ransacked. The glass partitions were broken into pieces and scattered on the floor with hundreds of bottles of various medicine types. Of course, the looters had scooped up all of the narcotics or anything that could make them high.
Tom used a broom to push the medicine bottles into a pile and then began sorting through them. Many were over the counter medicines that would be handy but not what he needed. Then he found several bottles containing Keflex, prescription-strength Tylenol, and Amoxicillin. He added them to his bag.
The office behind the pharmacy had the stench of death. He tried to open the office door and found a woman’s body blocking the door. It was covered in maggots. Tom gagged as he thought about having to walk across the maggots. Tom then searched the room and only found a bag of chocolate-covered peanuts in a desk drawer. He took the bag and slid out of the room as fast as he could move. Tom found Rick in one of the aisles. “Tom, look under the shelves. The creeps were too lazy to look for anything that had been dropped. Hey, what’s that smell? Damn, you smell like roadkill that baked in the sun for several days.”
“You don’t want to know. I’ll move an aisle over and pick that aisle clean.”
Thirty minutes later, they’d picked the store clean and went back to the van to consolidate their booty into one bag. Tom said, “It’s not much but a good start. It looks like Sam hit the jackpot on women’s stuff.”
“I still need some panties and clothes.”
Jackie laughed, “You forgot bras.”
“I never wear them.”
Tom thought, “I know, and you look damned good without one!”
Tom stuttered and changed the subject. “Let’s … uh … go to the animal clinic one block over. I think we’ll have some luck there.”
Sam moved closer so she could whisper. “Is your tongue-tied. Did that
