As they headed back inside, Dante shook his head. “You know, I'm not a fan of how that thing got underneath the truck like that,” he admitted.
“You and me both,” Tate agreed. “Would be way too easy for one of those things to get tangled up in the axel, or even in the engine.”
Dante sighed. “There goes my big dream of doing donuts to take out big crowds.”
“Nah man, you can dream big,” the redneck assured him. “Just means we gotta find you a monster truck.”
Dante’s eyes widened. “You can find those around here?” he asked.
Tate chuckled. “You ain’t from around here, are you?”
His companion shook his head. “Seattle.”
“Shit man, we’re going to add a trip to the dirt track to our list,” the redneck replied with a grin. “I’m gonna make you a country boy yet.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dante and Tate pulled up to the school gym, seeing one of the sets of doors propped open. Ace emerged from inside, putting his hands to his forehead.
“What happened to my truck, man?!” he cried.
Tate shook his head sadly as they exited the vehicle. “We were fucking surrounded man, zombies everywhere,” he said. “Dante had to punch it or we were done for.”
Ace nodded, though sadness still covered his face. “Well, as long as y’all are safe, man,” he said.
Dante glanced at his partner-in-crime, receiving a wink.
“And don’t worry,” Tate continued, clapping Ace on the back, “we’ll get it fixed up for you.”
Lily came outside, swiping her palms together. “How did the neighborhoods look’ she asked?
“Clear now, so we should be good out here,” Dante replied. “At least from hordes.”
“We should still have someone keep watch for stragglers,” Tate suggested.
Dante motioned to the building. “How are we looking in there?” he asked.
“Henry is still looking around,” Lily replied.
A few moments later, Henry came outside, flanked by Maddox with Teagan hanging off of his arm. She stroked his chest, glaring at Lily.
“So what’s the verdict?” Tate asked.
Henry shrugged. “I can make this work,” he replied, “but we’re going to need lights to make the indoors work.”
“That’s going to take some time to get,” Ace said.
“Time we don’t really have,” Tate added.
Henry nodded. “Which is why our main focus is going to be the football field,” he said, and waved for them to follow him. They headed around the gym to the field, which was overgrown, but had a fence around it. “It’s not too late in the season, so if we can get this cleared and plowed in the next week or so, I can still get some stuff planted.”
“What kind of stuff are we talking?” Maddox asked.
Henry tilted his head back and forth. “Beets, lettuce, maybe some spinach if we can find it.”
“Ugh, that does not sound appetizing,” Teagan whined.
“Sounds better than starving to death,” Lily snapped.
Dante sighed. “How long is that going to take before we can eat it?” he asked.
“Six to eight weeks,” Henry replied, “which is why we’re going to have to stagger everything when we plant it. Doesn’t do us much good to have an entire field’s worth of food ready at the same time when we won’t be able to eat all of it.”
Tate pursed his lips. “No way to store it?” he asked.
“We can try canning, but it’s going to be limited,” Henry said. “Not exactly a huge supply of the raw materials we’d need.”
Dante cocked his head. “Still… if you can make us a list of what to look for, we’ll do our best,” he suggested.
“I can do that,” Henry replied, nodding. “But in the meantime, I think we’ve done all we can do today. The sun is starting to get low, and this place is nowhere near ready to be staying at.”
“Yeah, I’d rather not be out on the road at night, either,” Ace agreed.
Maddox nodded. “So are y’all gonna come back down tomorrow to do some shopping?’ he asked.
Ace glanced at Dante, who nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I think this takes priority over everything else, don’t you?” he asked.
Maddox nodded. “Agreed.”
“You drive safe,” Tate said, and headed over, shaking everyone’s hand. Maddox approached and did the same, but Lily simply glared at him, arms crossed.
“For what it’s worth, you did good today,” he said gently.
She jutted out her chin but nodded in acknowledgement. As they headed off, they heard Teagan laying into him. The words were unintelligible, but they could tell she was pissed.
“Giving praise to an ex in front of your girlfriend,” Ace drawled. “That’s a man sleeping on the couch tonight.”
“Told you he was a dumbass,” Lily muttered.
Dante chuckled. “I can see why you left him.”
They clambered into the truck, and Ace fired it up, rolling down the window to hang his arm out. Dante turned and watched Lily as they drove away, and she was blankly staring ahead, not really looking like she was staring at anything at all.
“You okay?” he asked softly.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m good,” she replied with a smile. “I worked customer service before all of this, so I’m used to dealing with dumbasses.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he replied.
She paused and swallowed hard, staring straight ahead. Her jaw was tight, and it looked like she was fighting tears.
Dante reached out and grabbed her hand, and she squeezed back.
“I’m rattled a bit,” she admitted, “but I’ll be okay.”
They shared a small smile and continued holding hands as they headed for home.
END
Up Next: With zombies on the island still being a major threat, Grace, Troy and the other members of the QXR civilian squad are sent on another dangerous mission in Lowcountry - Pt. 5
Pick up Part 5 here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R6L1Q9C
The main Dead America Series can be found here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWMXVNJ
Follow for new releases! http://www.DeadAmericaBooks.com
