“They should work like the rubber bullets the police use against disorderly crowds. It won’t injure them but it stings like crazy.” Tony said. “You want to watch. Come here and stand behind me back in this shadow. You can see out, but no one can see you.”
Trish nervously stood and walked around behind Tony. She could see Debbie lying on the grass.
Tony turned and pointed the pellet gun out towards Debbie. He kept the barrel of the gun inside the window so the guy in the woods wouldn’t see it.
Thup!
Tony watched and saw the grass move where the pellet had hit the ground about six feet to the left of Debbie.
He adjusted his aim. He raised the gun higher about ten degrees and a little to the right.
Thup!
He watched and saw Debbie flinch.
“There it is. I think I have it zoned in now. She is right at the limit of the pellets range.” Tony said.
Thup!
This time he could hear Debbie yell out as she rolled on her side and swatted at her leg.
Thup! Thup!
Debbie yelled again as she reached for her butt. Tony couldn’t hear what she said, but he could imagine.
Debbie was now on her hands and knees.
Thup! Thup!
She made it to her feet and began to run for the trees. Tony fired off a few more shots but he was pretty sure she was now out of range.
Tony turned to Trish. “Was that OK?”
Trish actually giggled. “That was funny.”
Tony smiled. It made him feel good to see Trish smile. That was only the second time he had seen her smile.
“Why don’t you go back over away from the window now?” Tony said. “You know I don’t want to hurt anyone, but it could come down to where I will have to actually shoot someone for real?”
Trish nodded.
Tony looked seriously at her. “If they try to get in here to hurt us, I’ll do what I have to do to protect us. I won’t let them get in to hurt you. If I have to, I will hurt them. But you don’t have to worry. I would never hurt you. Do you understand?”
“I understand.” Trish said softly. Then in a clear loud voice she said. “It’s OK with me if you have to shoot them all for real!”
Tony looked surprised to hear her say something like that. “I just didn’t want you to think I’m a bad person.” He said.
Trish looked at Tony. “I don’t think you are a bad person. Buy I know they are. All of them.”
Tony turned and scanned the tree line with the binoculars. All looked still. The guy he had seen in the woods was now gone. He hoped they were all gone.
He didn’t try to lie to himself. He knew they would be back.
Tony clearly understood their intentions.
From what Trish had said about that guy Roy, Tony knew he would be trouble. Roy would not have any hesitation about using force and violence. Roy wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Tony or Trish.
When they came back the next time, Tony didn’t think they would try to trick him again. The next time they would try to force their way in.
Things could get ugly.
He had to think. “If I was Roy, what would be my next move?”
Roy, Debbie and Tom walked back towards the bed and breakfast.
“What the hell was wrong with you?” Roy shouted at Debbie. “I’m sure he would have come out any minute.”
“I would have liked to have seen how long you could have stayed out there with bees stinging you in the ass!” Debbie yelled back.
“Shit!” Roy swore.
“Are we going to try this again tomorrow?” Tom asked as he hurried to keep up to Roy.
“If you plan on using me as bait again you had better find me some heavy pants to cover my ass!” Debbie yelled.
“No. He would have come out today if he was going to take that bait. I think he was expecting a trap and decided he wasn’t coming out no matter what.” Roy replied.
“Then how are we going to lure him out?” Tom asked.
“I don’t think we can lure him out. He’s too suspicious now, especially if he saw Debbie get up and run into the woods.” Roy answered shooting Debbie a disgusted look.
“What are we going to do next?” Tom said.
“We have to make him want to come out?” Roy said.
“How do we make him want to come out?” Tom asked.
“We could throw a big hornet’s nest through that window. When those damn bees start biting him in the ass, I guarantee you he will come out running for the woods.” Debbie said as she rubbed her butt.
Roy smiled.
Debbie’s rant had just given him an idea. He must be getting soft. A year with few people to harass and not having to look over his shoulders for the cops had made him lose his edge.
In the day, the time before the dead, he wouldn’t have been playing with this guy. He definitely would not have been running third rate swindles to get what he wanted from the warehouse.
He would have given the guy an hour to get out of the warehouse. When he came back in an hour he would have expected the warehouse to be vacated and the doors standing open for him. People knew better than to defy him.
Some people had challenged him and they had paid the price. He had never killed anyone, he hadn’t wanted to be sent away for life. The cops watched him like a hawk. They had tried to pin every crime that took place in Fayette County on him. Mostly for good reason, because one way or another he had been behind what had gone down. He always figured he could handle being locked up for a few years every here and there, but he never wanted to do anything that could get him a life sentence.
He had always had a lot of friends that were more than willing to handle those kinds of things for him.
He was sure some of those that had crossed him, in the end probably would have preferred a clean and fast ending.
He must be losing his edge.
The dead couldn’t be intimidated. He had killed plenty of the dead. They still kept coming.
After a while he had stopped going out of his way to confront the dead. There seemed to be no purpose to it. Besides, messing with them was dangerous. He had laughed when he watched guys punch and play games with the dead. He then watched as they had become infected and died. Soon there was no one left, just the dead. He learned that it was best to just avoid the dead.
With the cops out of the way and with nothing being against the law, there were no more laws, things had become boring.
He had spent most of the last year roaming around looking for some excitement, but there was nothing where ever he went. He had grown tired of tormenting the little bitch, now she was gone too.
Debbie was still entertaining. For lack of variety and other options, he had kept her around. He had never kept any of his old ladies around for more than a few months. If he ever ran into any more women, he was ready for a change. He had often thought how much fun it would be tormenting Debbie for a while before getting rid of her. He had even gone out of his way to be ruff with her at times but she seemed to like it. If and when he had a replacement, he would have some real fun with Debbie.
Playing with the guy at the warehouse had been amusing. It had been the most fun he had had in a very long time. But playing kid’s games was starting to bore him. In fact it was becoming annoying. If the warehouse contained what he thought was in there, he wanted it. If he couldn’t party and raise hell and have fun, he would at least be well feed and comfortable. It would be like having his own little kingdom in that warehouse.
They were just coming out of the woods and into the field where they had run into all of those dead freaks yesterday.
Tom yelled to Roy interrupting his thoughts. “Those dead bastards must have really done a job on that little bitch, they ripped the rope clean off the tree getting at her.”
Roy stopped and looked around. He wanted to see the blood and uneaten body parts left behind by the dead. They always made quite a scene when they caught a living person. Roy hadn’t seen any good gory feeding frenzies in a long time. He was curious to see what was left. He wished he could have hung around and watched yesterday, but it was becoming too dangerous and he decided to get back to the bed and breakfast.
Roy started to look around under the tree where he had tied the girl. He was disappointed that there wasn’t any blood. That was strange. In fact all that was here, besides the black crud covering the grass, was a half dozen of the dead lying motionless on the ground.
Then Roy noticed the arrows sticking out of the heads of dead zombies.
“That son of a bitch!” Roy growled.
“What?” Tom asked looking at Roy.
Roy walked over to Debbie and swung her around and examined the red spots on her butt and legs. “These aren’t bee stings, they’re welts.” Roy boomed. “That bastard is really pissing me off!”
“What are you talking about?” Debbie asked.
“The dead didn’t eat your little sis after all.” Roy looked angry. “That bastard must have followed us yesterday. After we left he ran over here and saved her ass.”
“You shitting me?” Tom said looking surprised.
“Didn’t you see these damn arrows when you came out to get the rest of the food?” Roy asked angrily.
Tom stood looking dumbfounded as he saw the arrows. “Damn. I was too focused on the food. When I saw the rope was gone, I just figured they got her and I grabbed the food.”
“Asshole!” Roy shouted. “She was in the warehouse with him. She probably told him about our plans. That’s why he didn’t come out. The bastard probably watched and laughed at you lying out in that field. When he got tired watching, he shot you in the ass with a BB gun!”
Debbie looked confused as she examined the red welts on her butt.
“He probably laughed his ass off watching you dance around and run for the woods.” Roy spit out the words. “We’ll see how much he is laughing when I’m done with him!”
The smile faded from Tom’s face. Roy was pissed. You didn’t walk around with a smile on your face when Roy was pissed. It would only piss him off more.
Roy started to walk off quickly in the direction of the bed and breakfast. Debbie and Tom ran to catch up with him.
Roy looked over at them as they ran up next to him. “We’re going to make a little trip out to US Steel Shaft number two.”
Shaft number two was about two miles out on Route 51. It had employed three hundred men to supply the mills with coal to make steel before the virus hit. It had sat abandoned for the last year, as did everything else.
“Why are we going out there?” Tom asked.
Roy didn’t answer. He just walked faster.
Chapter 22
Tony had been working in the warehouse all morning. He had been trying to think about what Roy would do next, so he could be ready for them when they came back.
He expected their next visit could be an all-out assault on the warehouse. Tony now knew there were five of them, three guys and two girls. That made it five against two. Well actually five against one, with what Trish had gone through he couldn’t expect her to do much. She would probably be too afraid to help and he couldn’t blame her.
Trish was following him around, helping where she could.
“Trish. What kind of trouble did that Roy and Tom get into?” Tony asked.
Trish thought. “They tossed him out of Shooter’s Bar one night. The owner called the police. We only had one policeman in Dunbar. The cop came and locked Roy up for the night to sleep it off. The next day Shooter’s Bar burnt down. The town’s police car burnt up later that night.”
Tony nodded.
“The State Police were always coming to Dunbar looking for Roy and Tom.” Trish continued. “They were always questioning them about burglaries, fires and people getting beat up. Roy spent six months in jail a couple of times, but mostly there never seemed to be any witnesses that were willing to talk.”
“How long did you know Roy and Tom?” Tony asked as he rummaged through some items on one of the shelves.
“I’ve only really known him for the last year, but I knew about them ever since I was little.” Trish replied. “He was in reform school when I was in elementary school. The rumor was he had killed the neighbor’s dog. The neighbor got upset and yelled at him. Later that day they caught Roy with a can of lighter fluid trying to set their little daughter on fire.”
“He sounds like a real mental case.” Tony said.
“He finally came back to school, but was gone when I went to the high school. I think they threw him out of school the year before I got there.” Trish added.
“I think they probably just expelled him to get rid of him.” Trish said.
“You’re probably right.” Tony smiled. “They figured he wasn’t going to learn a thing at school and they just wanted to get him away from the normal kids before anyone got hurt.”
“Or before the school burnt down!” Trish added.
“So he likes to burn things down.” Tony said quietly as he looked around the warehouse.
Trish’s eyes looked worried. “You don’t think he will try to burn down the warehouse?”
“I don’t know?” Tony answered. “We would probably be OK in that area as long as we keep him outside. The warehouse is made mostly of concrete blocks, steel beams and sheet metal. The doors are all metal doors, except for the inside door to our room.”
Tony walked back to the hardware shelves. Trish followed behind him. He started to pull boxes containing home fire extinguishers off the shelf. He took them out of their boxes and lined up eight units on the floor. “Just to be safe, let’s put a fire extinguisher by each door and take two up to the room in case we need them.”
He handed one to Trish and asked her to put it by the door they had used to come into the warehouse. He picked up two more and took them to the other doors and then set two at the bottom of the ladder. They would take these up to their room later.
Tony looked around and thought some more. “Since the only window in this place is up in our room, the only other way to get in here is through the doors. I need to make the doors more secure.”
“You could put more locks on the doors.” Trish said trying to sound helpful.
“It could help, but I don’t have the tools I would need to drill into metal and concrete. It could be done, but it would take me days to do it. We need something today.” Tony answered as he looked around the warehouse.
Trish followed Tony to the area where the fork lifts were parked as he looked for ideas.
“Do these work? We could park one in front of the doors.” She asked.
“No. I tried to start them when I first came here. I think all the batteries are dead.” Tony replied and smiled as he looked at Trish. “And unless you’re a whole lot stronger than you look, we won’t be pushing them over to block the doors.”
Trish grinned shyly. “Sorry. That one fire extinguisher you gave me to carry just about did me in!”
Tony laughed.
Trish followed him as he walked down between the rows of shelves. Tony noticed the boards that rested across the metal frame on one empty shelf. He slid his finger between the boards and pried one up off the shelf. The board was two inches thick and six inches wide. It was about six feet long. These boards made up the surface of each shelf. They made a sturdy support where the items stored here sat.
“Can you carry one of these?” He asked Trish.
Trish shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll try.”
Trish held out her arms and Tony gently laid a board across them. Tony picked up two more boards in his arms.
He walked to the closest door and watched as Trish struggled with her board, but she didn’t complain.
When they reached the door, Tony took one board and placed one end against the shelf by the door. He lowered the other end of the board until it came to rest firmly against the door.
Tony stepped back and smiled. “If we put two boards against each door, I think that will keep them from breaking the doors down.”
“I’ll go get another board.” Trish said as she turned. Tony noticed the look of satisfaction on her face.
Together they braced the three doors that workers had used to come and go at the warehouse.
Tony couldn’t figure out how to secure the big front rolling doors to the loading docks, so he just hoped they were strong enough to keep anyone out and he moved on.
“Are you hungry yet?” Tony asked.
“Yes.” Trish answered but didn’t say anything else.
“Would you like to eat now?” Tony asked. He laughed to himself. Until Trish was more comfortable with him and began to feel free to express herself, he had to be more specific with his questions.
“Yes.” Trish replied and looked hopefully at him.
“What would you like to eat? Do you like oatmeal? Is there something else you would like?” Tony asked.
Trish just shrugged her shoulders.
Tony laughed. “I know you aren’t used to asking for something to eat. But I’m not trying to trick you. If you could have anything you wanted to eat, what would you ask for?”
“May I have more Spaghetti-O’s?” Trish asked quietly.
“Of course you can.” Tony smiled. “I also have macaroni and cheese. It’s the boxed kind, but it is good too.”
Tony looked at her and raised his eye brows and smiled.
“If it’s OK with you, I would still like to have Spaghetti-O’s if I’m allowed. Please.” Trish asked, her eyes looking down at the ground.
“Trish?” Tony said.
“Yes.” She replied still looking down.
“Trish, I’m your friend. I’ll let you have whatever you want. All you need to do is ask.” Tony said.
“Thank You.” Trish said looking up then added. “They would always ask me if I was hungry. It was always a trick. They always wanted me to do something. When I wouldn’t do it, they would throw me outside and tell me to go find something to eat somewhere else.”
“No Tricks.” Tony said reassuringly. “Let’s go eat.”
They sat near the back of the warehouse and ate. Trish was on her second helping of Spaghetti-O’s. Tony had two more cans setting by the stove to reassure her that she could eat as much as she wanted.
“I think you can eat more than I can.” Tony said as he set his empty plate on the floor beside him.
“I’m sorry.” Trish said as she put her half empty plate on the floor by Tony.
Tony laughed. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. Finish your Spaghetti-O’s. I was just joking. I’m sure you need it more than I do right now. You have to be starving. I was starving too when I found this place. I ate so much I had to start wearing bigger clothes.”
“You were lucky there were more clothes here.” Trish said.
“Yes I was.” Tony laughed. “So eat all you want. We have bigger clothes here for you too.”
Trish blushed. Then she looked at Tony. “Do you think I look like a boy?”
Tony almost choked on his drink of cherry juice. “No you don’t look like a boy. Why did you ask me that?”
“Roy and Debbie always said I looked like a boy. They even teased me about it. They said girls were supposed to look like Debbie and that boys looked like me. When they cut all my hair off they said they were going to start calling me Todd.” Trish looked embarrassed as she looked at Tony.
“Trust me, you don’t look like a boy. You’re too cute to be a boy. Besides, your panties say Wednesday. I’ve never seen a boy with Wednesday on his underwear.” Tony smiled.
Trish blushed again. First because Tony said she was cute. No one had ever told her before that she was cute. Secondly, because Tony had seen her in her old holy underwear. She had always tried to keep anyone from seeing her when she was only wearing her underwear, that hadn’t worked out too well around Roy and Tom. Of course Tony knew she was a girl. But she was mostly embarrassed because Tony had said she was cute.
She took another bite of her Spaghetti-O’s and hoped Tony hadn’t noticed that she was blushing.
When Trish finished the last of the Spaghetti-O’s she put down her plate. Tony looked over at her. When she noticed he was looking at her again she started to blush.
Tony leaned back and looked serious. “I’ve tried to think of every way someone could get in the warehouse but I’m sure I’ve overlooked a lot of things. If you wanted to get in, what would you do?”
Trish thought for a few minutes. She started to feel less self-conscious as she thought about Tony’s question. “I would lay a branch against the side of the building and try to climb up to the window, but it would have to be at night so you wouldn’t shoot me.”
“Have you been going out at night?” Tony asked.
“No. It is too dangerous. The dead can sneak right up on you in the dark.” Trish replied.
“That’s what I was thinking. We probably don’t have to worry about Roy and his friends coming at night, but I forgot about the window. I should think about making a shutter to cover the window so they can’t throw anything in through the window.”
Trish followed Tony around. She reminded him of a little lost puppy following someone in the hopes that it would find a home and someone to love and feed it.
Tony guessed he and Trish were both like lost little puppies.
Unlike Trish, Tony hadn’t been mistreated, kicked and starved. He hadn’t been left for dead. But they were both still alike in one way. They were both looking for someplace to call home, someplace safe and someone to love them. It was a hostile world and there were very few of their kind left.
Tony didn’t want to be alone, but since the dead over ran everyone and everything, it seemed that was how he always ended up. Alone.
He liked Trish and knew she needed someone to help her. Tony hoped that things worked out differently for him this time, so neither of them would have to be alone.
But he knew how things could change in an instant.
Everything could depend on what he did the next few days.
Hopefully it came down to what he did, He felt confident in his ability to handle himself.
This guy Roy was the unknown factor. Was he as bad as Trish made him out to be?
“Come on Trish. I think we have done what we can do for today. I want to show you a few things I did before you came here.” Tony smiled.
“What kind of things?” Trish asked.
“Well, if someone gets in the warehouse, I have food and weapons hidden so we have places to run and things to help us fight back. Worst case, if we have to run, I’ll show you how we can get out of the warehouse.” Tony smiled. “That’s only if we have to get out. I don’t plan on leaving.”
Trish gave him a weak smile.
“Do you think you can help me if I need some help?” Tony looked at Trish.
“Can you show me how to shoot that pellet gun?” Trish looked up. Her eyes looked surprisingly clear and determined.
“After I show you around, we can have some target practice.” Tony smiled.
Roy led Tom and Debbie back to the bed and breakfast. The three of them were filthy from rummaging through all the tools at the mine. Everything had been covered in a thick black coal dust. Everything they had touched added to the sweaty black muddy layer of slime that covered their skin and clothes.
Tom and Roy carried a wooden box between them, holding onto the rope handle on each side of the box. The ropes had worn blisters on their hands during the trip back. In their free hand Roy carried an axe, Tom held a pick he had found in one of the coal cars.
Debbie followed them. She struggled with the heavy back pack Roy made her wear. She was sweaty and her hair, that was black with coal dust and matched her face, hung limp down over her face. Roy had stuffed her back pack with hammers and other heavy things. Things she had no idea what he was going to do with them, other than use them to make her pack unbearably heavy.