Getting Home

6

“I don’t know if we should do this, Max,” said Mandy.

“What choice do we have? We’re going to need food. We simply can’t make it back without anything.”

“But there will be something else. Somewhere else to get food.”

“We don’t know that,” said Max.

“But we don’t know there will be any food in here ether,” said Mandy.

“Exactly,” said Max. “To maximize our chances of finding food, we’re going to have to hit every place we see. It’s just simple statistics.”

They were standing outside the highway rest stop. It was a large one, as they go. Probably run by the state and populated by small chain restaurants. From the looks of it, there was also a convenience store inside, the kind that you might find attached to a gas station.

There were no cars in the parking spots, or by the dozen or so gas pumps. No cars trailed down the highway. There was no one in sight, and the breeze blew against Mandy’s face and hair, taking individual strands and pushing them around in a chaotic way.

“There’s no sign of anyone inside,” said Max. He had his face pressed up against the glass of the door to see into the darkened interior.

“That doesn’t mean anything, and you know it. Plus, can you really see anything in there anyway?”

“There are some skylights,” said Max. “It’s not that badly lit.”

Mandy didn’t know why, but she had a horrible feeling in her gut about this, about going inside. Maybe it was her body trying to tell her something, or maybe it was just regular nervousness.

Max was pulling his Glock from its holster, getting ready to go through the doors.

It must just be regular nerves. Mandy needed to calm down. There wasn’t any reason this situation would be any more dangerous than any of the countless others they’d been through. And it wasn’t like there was any reason that her gut feeling would be real. There wasn’t any reason to pay attention to it. She needed to be logical about this.

“OK,” said Mandy. “I’m ready.”

She already had her handgun in hand. Her rifle was slung over her shoulder. She reached down and felt the handle of her knife, just for reassurance, and to make sure that it was within reach if she needed it, rather than tangled up in her shirt or belt.

“We’ve got to keep quiet when we’re in there,” said Max.

“Got it,” said Mandy. “All right, enough waiting around. Let’s do this.”

Max went first. The door was unlocked and opened silently. Mandy followed through the vestibule and the next set of doors.

Max paused there, probably waiting for their eyes to adjust to the dimmer light.

He was right, there were skylights, but they didn’t seem to let in as much light as they should, and without artificial lighting, the interior of the rest stop was quite dark compared to being outside.

They stood there for a couple long minutes. Mandy heard nothing except the pounding of her own heart. Neither one of them moved except to turn their heads to scan their surroundings.

They’d entered through a side entrance, near the restrooms. From where they stood, they could see the main seating area. All the tables and chairs were exactly where they should be, upright rather than tipped over.

There wasn’t anything, really, that looked out of place or unusual. The storefronts of the chain restaurants had been shut with their metal grates. It was as if the employees had simply locked up like on any normal day and gone home.

That was a good sign. Maybe there was some food still left there, provided she and Max could get into the fast food restaurants.

Of course, most of the food would be rotten. But there’d have to be something that wasn’t perishable, that would have lasted these long weeks and months since the EMP.

If Mandy had come here after closing time before the EMP, everything would have looked mostly the same. The only difference she could sense was the overwhelming stench of rotten food. Probably coming from the trash cans that hadn’t been taken outside.

Mandy glanced at Max, but she didn’t dare speak. And neither did he.

Mandy’s own eyes were now getting more adjusted to the semi-darkness. She could see as well as she could outside.

Max held up his hand, signaling that they were going to move out. He pointed to indicate the direction, then moved his hand in a way that indicated that he wanted Mandy to follow at a short distance.

Max went first. He didn’t go for the big seating area with tables. Instead, he went right to the closed bathroom doors. He put his ear against the door to the women’s restroom, then the men’s. He shook his head, letting Mandy know that he didn’t hear anything.

Max pushed open the door, and Mandy waited for a moment before following him.

The strong smell of urine met her as soon as she stepped across the threshold. But it wasn’t as bad as the smell of rotting food. It was just from some urine collected in the urinals that hadn’t been flushed away.

Max checked each stall, leading with his Glock, pushing open the stall doors carefully and slowly.

Why was he bothering to check each stall? It didn’t seem likely that someone would be hiding in there.

But Mandy knew better than to speak. If someone was there, it would give away their presence.

And Mandy trusted Max. He seemed to have an instinct for these sorts of things.

So she followed him into the women’s restroom, where, again, there was no one.

Max led her back out into the main area, and together they checked everywhere they could.

There was no sign of anyone.

Finally, Max spoke.

“Looks like we’re clear,” he said.

“You really wanted to be sure,” said Mandy.

Max just nodded. He was looking off in the direction of the convenience store, which, like the restaurants, had a metal grate closed down over the entrance.

“It looks like they just shut everything down for the day normally,” said Max. “Our best bet is the convenience store there.”

When they got up to the entrance, they could see clearly into the store.

“It’s not fully stocked,” said Mandy.

“No,” said Max, who hadn’t reholstered his Glock. “No, it’s not.”

Some of the refrigerator doors were open. Some were partially open.

The soda section was more than half-empty. There was a collection of empty soda bottles, some of them crumpled, on the floor nearby.

The candy sections were completely depleted, with candy wrappers littering the floor.

“I can’t see the other aisles,” said Mandy. “But there are plenty of wrappers there on the floor. Looks like someone’s already taken everything.”

“Maybe not everything,” said Max. “But what’s strange is that they didn’t just take it. They ate it there.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, considering that the grate here is locked…” Max tugged on the grate to demonstrate that it was locked in place. “I’d guess that someone’s been coming here periodically, unlocking this grate, having a small meal, and then re-locking the grate behind them.”

“So it’d have to be an employee.”

“Or someone with the key.”

“You think they’re here now?”

Max had already turned around, his eyes scanning the big wide open space before them. But there was nothing but the empty tables and chairs, the stinking trash cans, and the large fake potted plants.

“Doesn’t seem like it,” said Max. “No signs of anyone living here. That’s why I wanted to check the bathrooms first.”

Mandy nodded, not wanting to admit that she hadn’t known why Max was checking the bathrooms.

“So what are we going to do? Get going?”

“The food’s right there,” said Max. “All we need is a bag of beef jerky or some chips, a couple sodas, and it should be enough to get us back to the farm, so long as we’re careful with it.”

“But how are we going to open the gate?”

“I’m going to shoot it,” said Max.

“Shoot it? I thought that was just something people did in movies.”

“Supposedly it works,” said Max. “I’ve never tried it, but I saw it on one of those real-or-fake TV shows once. Someone was watching it at work in the breakroom.”

Max hardly ever talked about his pre-EMP life, let alone work, and she was surprised to even hear him mention it.

“You’d better stand back,” said Max.

Mandy got herself a good distance from the lock, as did Max himself. He took careful aim, and with a single shot, shot right through the lock.

The gunshot rang out through the entire interior. Mandy’s ears were ringing.

“We’re in luck,” said Max, yanking on the grate and pulling it up and out of the floor.

Mandy’s stomach was already rumbling, excited about the possibility of beef jerky, soda, and candy. But before Max even had the gate all the way up, Mandy spotted something off at the far end of the room.

It was a man, tall and lean, standing there. His hair was long and a wild-looking beard covered his face, seeming to meld seamlessly with his hair. His clothes were filthy. They were all black. Standard black work pants. His shirt had a collar and some logo printed above the breast pocket. It was an employee’s shirt, a uniform.

The man held no weapon. He just stood there, with a blank look on his face, and a blank look in his eyes.