Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies (30 page)

Juan went down, clean and easy at the tip of Amanda’s knife, and Ms. Garcia was quick to follow when Sam smacked her harder than usual. She explained to Amanda afterward that she only wanted to have to hit her once, so she made sure that she did it right the first time.

“I understand,” Amanda said, looking down at the fallen boy.

“We should at least put them together,” Sam said, looking at their graceless positions.

“Okay,” Amanda said, knowing that she would do whatever it took to make this go easier on Sam.

No other creepers had come out of the house. Perhaps, Amanda thought, they had lived alone.

Chapter 51

T
ogether, the women moved Juan and his mother, the math teacher, to where they looked like they were resting on the porch. Ms. Garcia’s body was sitting, propped up against the house, with her son in her lap. Juan’s head looked like it was lying on his mother’s shoulder. Sam gently put the mother’s arms around the boy.

“There,” the girl said. “If we can’t bury them, at least they have each other.”

Amanda didn’t remind Sam that the fire would be here soon to burn up the bodies in whatever position they were in.
This
, she decided,
was Sam’s process, and I’ll give her
that
.

“She would have liked this, sitting here with her son,” Sam said, standing up.

As Amanda watched Sam closely, it occurred to her that the girl now looked much older than her fifteen years. In fact, the girl looked much older than she had when they had left camp this morning. She couldn’t be sure when exactly cold, hard experience had aged her while on this trip, but what had occurred at this house had certainly been a culminating factor.

They didn’t speak as they entered the house. They were solemn. The house was tidy, except for a lamp that had been knocked off of an end table by one of the creepers. It was hot and stuffy with the pungent smell of creeper lingering in every room.

They moved to the kitchen. Once-shiny appliances, now covered in dust, rested on the counter that had once been used by the beloved math teacher.

Amanda could see that the girl’s eyes were full to the brim with tears that looked like they would spill over at any moment. She said nothing and worked quietly, giving the girl the time and space that she needed to grieve.

This kitchen was laid out a little differently than the other two houses that they had been in, but there was a pantry with two long doors, and they were not disappointed with its contents. Sam collected three cans of ravioli, two boxes of macaroni and cheese, a bag of melted chocolate chips, flour and sugar, seven cans of various types of vegetables, and two of baked beans, two cans of chicken noodle soup, and one of minestrone. There were juice boxes and a big plastic bottle of pineapple juice that Sam imagined would taste heavenly once it was chilled in their new fridge. Lastly, she tucked a bottle of wine under her arm. It took both of their backpacks to carry the contents of the pantry alone.

Amanda had her hands full with boxes of cereal, crackers, a grape jelly, two boxes of Spanish rice mix, and three cans of condensed milk as they made their way back out to the vehicles.

“Thank you, Ms. Garcia,” Sam said as she walked by the two corpses.

Amanda felt at that moment that her heart would break. But it didn’t, and they made it to the truck.

“Do you want to go upstairs, or should we call it a day and head for the river to fill the tanks?” Amanda asked.

“Let’s go,” Sam said, being uncharacteristically sedate in her affect.

“I’m sure if this is like the other houses, then there’s a big propane tank out back. I’ll go fill our two bottles, and we’ll head out,” Amanda said, dumping off the food items in the back of the moving truck.

There was no real organization to the jumble of goods in the truck, and Amanda realized that they would want to protect the food from any sloshing water that might occur after the tanks were full. It was a long, bumpy ride home on those dirt roads, and she would be very upset if any of this food was damaged.

“Why don’t you let Red out to stay with you while I go fill the tanks? I need you to organize this food in such a way that any water that comes out of these tanks on the trip home doesn’t damage the food,” Amanda said.

“What happened to us always sticking together?”

“I think Red will watch your back just fine,” Amanda said.

“Well, who’s got your back then?” Sam said, sounding a little flustered.

“I do, and I’ll be fine,” Amanda said, going to the back of her truck to pull out the two empty tanks and the regulator that Roy had given her to fill them off of.

“If you find yourself with some extra time on your hands, then maybe you want to dig out the aloe vera plant in the front yard. Your mother will want to thank Ms. Garcia for that,” Amanda said, grabbing each tank.

“Okay, I can do that, if I ever finish organizing my truck. Do you know what a mess it is in there?”

“Yep, I have a pretty good idea,” Amanda said, carrying the tanks off toward the side of the house.

This backyard was neat and tidy, except for a few articles of trash that had blown up against the fence. There were no creepers in the yard, and Amanda plopped the two smaller tanks down beside the one large one and got to work. The regulator had no gauge, so Roy had taught her how to feel the tank to know how it was filling. The extreme pressure from the large tank pumping into the smaller one caused the air to grow cold, and by feeling the tank, it was easy to tell how far up the propane pressure had reached on the tank. Just in case, the tank also had a pressure release plug that, should the tank become too full, rather than exploding, the plug would blow out like a bullet and pressure would stream from the hole it created in the valve. But she didn’t want that to happen because it would prevent her from being able to use this tank again.

She took her gloves off to be able to feel the tank better. The extreme heat of the outdoors made it much easier to tell where the cold parts were on the tank. It didn’t take much time to fill the first one before she was ready to repeat the process for the second one.

Meanwhile, Sam was fussing and sputtering to herself inside the hot, enclosed portion of the moving truck. She had to toss things over the big water tanks and then crawl over the tanks in order to stack them in the back. Surprisingly, once she began the process of organizing their load, there was a considerable amount of room left in the truck that had looked to be filling up fast when everything had been in a jumbled mess.

She was beginning to second-guess her decision to leave the area. With so much room now in the truck, it seemed a shame to leave without gathering as much as they could, especially considering that whatever was left here would surely be consumed by the fire. And that, she thought, is a terrible waste.

By the time she made it back out and onto the quiet, wind-blown street, her clothes were soaked with sweat, wet and clinging to her skin. She suddenly felt itchy too, all over her body, but that she figured was the combination of grime and ash that had coated her skin, irritating it. The ash would invariably contain all types of chemicals and carcinogenic materials from the structures that it had been consuming all day.

She couldn’t imagine what her mother would say when she finally arrived back at camp looking like a refugee from some war zone, and she hoped that her parents would give Amanda a break and not lay into her too much for all the adventures that they had experienced today. It really wasn’t Amanda’s fault that there was a fire in town and that they needed to collect as much of everything as they possibly could.
And besides
, she thought,
I’ve had a good day, learned a lot, and will be better at all the LAZ stuff
. But then she remembered the bite that Amanda had received earlier and frowned.
It hasn’t been such a good day after all
, she thought. She wished that she could take that scene in the girl’s bedroom back, take it all back, and have her Amanda back safe, not contaminated.

Sam eyed the aloe vera plant and issued a groan. She wished that she had thought to grab one of the shovels when she had been in the back of the truck. But then she remembered that there was a shovel in the back of Amanda’s truck, so she opted to grab that one instead of climbing back into that oven of a truck to dig out one of the shovels from the very back.

Amanda had filled both of the tanks and detached the regulator. As she stood, she thought that it was a shame that they didn’t continue to collect as much as they could before leaving here. But it had been a long day on Sam emotionally and an especially long day for Amanda’s body, and they were both tired. “It’s just as well that we’re leaving,” Amanda said, stifling a yawn and trying not to think about all the supplies that within a couple hours’ time would be of no help to them ever again.

The backyard had a child’s swing that swayed in the wind, making a squeaking sound each time it moved forward and back. The sound was rather mesmerizing, she thought, noticing the small gardening shed up against the opposite fence. She decided that while she was back here, she might as well check out the shed.

Amanda slipped back into her gloves, not wanting to touch any of the hot metal with her bare hands. She walked to the shed and slid open the door. It shimmied and jerked on the rails it rested in but opened.

While her eyes adjusted to the dark of the shed, she tried to place the buzzing sound that was in her ears. The sound was familiar to her, and she knew that she must know what it was, but because she was tired, she was nearly too late in identifying it.

A medium-sized rattlesnake was coiled up on the other side of a bag of potting soil. She noticed the snake just in time, before she stepped into the shed.

“Damn,” she said, jumping back a solid five feet in one swift movement, “that was close.”

That’s all I need, is to add a rattlesnake bite to my already bad day
, she thought, moving to the side and sliding the door shut again. Whatever was in the shed would need to stay there because she didn’t feel like fighting the snake for it.

“You might want to get out of there,” she said, feeling pity for the snake when she knew the fire was coming.

Feeling disappointed about not taking anything from the shed, she went back and grabbed the propane tanks.

Sam was digging out the aloe vera plant, and because of the hard ground, it looked like a bigger job than Amanda had anticipated it would be. But the girl was undeterred and determined to get the plant, working away at getting underneath its roots. The plant was full and healthy despite the obvious lack of care lately, and Amanda knew that Maryanne would be thrilled to have it to add to her small medicinal arsenal.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Sam when she looked up to see Amanda moving toward the truck with the heavy tanks. “It’s a shame to leave now when there’s probably some more stuff around here. I was just sad about Ms. Garcia and her son.”

“Oh, really,” Amanda said, realizing that she would need to make a place for the tanks again, because when she had pulled them out, other things had spilled down like an avalanche.

“Yeah, I mean, if you’re up to it and all,” Sam said, triumphantly pulling the plant out of the ground.

“It’ll be dark before we know it, and it’s a ways to the river and then a long way home. Are you sure?” Amanda asked, and now she had mixed feelings about the venture, having finally settled on the fact that they would be leaving.

“Yes, I’m sure. When we run out of food or toilet paper or something, I don’t want to be thinking that I could have done better,” said Sam, grabbing the plant with one gloved hand.

“Now you know how I have felt all these months,” Amanda said.

“You can put that plant back here. I don’t think it’ll like riding in the back of that hot truck with no air circulating,” Amanda said, indicating a spot up near the front of the cab.

Chapter 52

“
I
’m sure that Ms. Garcia left us a few things upstairs,” Sam said after she had carefully placed the plant in the truck and returned the shovel.

“Do you really want to do that?” Amanda asked, eyeing the girl reflectively.

“Yeah, she wouldn’t have wanted all her good stuff to go to waste, and since she was my favorite teacher and all, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” Sam said, looking toward the corpses.

“Well, all right then, I’ll lead the way,” Amanda said, trying to dig deep in order to find a second wind that would give her the energy she needed to finish out the day.

Amanda pulled her knife out, wanting to be ready in case there was another one upstairs that hadn’t shown itself yet. She was feeling like her reflexes were slower than normal and didn’t want to take any chances.

Upstairs were photographs on the wall, similar to the previous families’ house that they had been in. Amanda wondered how this would affect Sam, when she saw the girl reaching out for one of the smaller framed ones and pulling it off of the wall.

Sam looked at the picture a few seconds before turning it over and removing the back portion from the frame. She slipped the picture out and slid it into her pocket.

“This is how I want to remember them, not like that,” she said, nodding down the stairs.

Amanda nodded, feeling relieved that the girl did have this soft side to her too.

The doors to all the rooms were open, and Amanda shut them all except for the first room on the left and the bathroom. She would check out the other rooms but didn’t want to be surprised if there were another creeper hiding out up here.

The first room on the left looked to be a library and office, probably the place where the teacher had graded papers late into the night after putting her son to bed. The room was neatly organized and filled with books of all types. The teacher’s interests had stretched beyond math into all areas of fiction and nonfiction.

“I wanted to read this one,” Sam said, pulling a book off of the shelf. “And look, she has all five in the series. I want to take these,” she said, looking to Amanda for approval.

“Sure,” Amanda said, opening drawers in the desk.

Aside from the books, there was nothing else in the room that looked like anything they really needed, but Amanda did grab an empty notebook and a couple of pens.

The hall closet had rolls of toilet paper and nose tissues and paper towels, which Amanda piled on the top of the landing. The bathroom had another two-and-a-half rolls, plus some shampoo and bar soap and two new toothbrushes shaped in the form of super heroes, reminding them both of the boy that was downstairs, lying in his mother’s arms.

The next room that they entered had been Juan’s room. It looked like a boy’s room, filled with RC cars and helicopters, a television with a gaming console sat on the side opposite the bed. He had sheets with a matching comforter from a popular cartoon movie that had come out. The room was messy and looked like it had been well lived in.

Amanda grabbed a jacket that Tammy could grow into from the closet, along with two pair of jeans and a couple of T-shirts. Tammy was growing fast, despite their forced fasting, and it would be difficult to clothe her soon once she outgrew what she had. The girl would probably never even realize that these had been boy’s clothes.

Amanda shut the door to the room on the way out, and that only left the master bedroom and bath to check out. She stacked the items in her arms on the landing with the other supplies and then they moved on to the last room of the house. She would be glad to get back down and out of the house because it was hot and stuffy up here, and she was sure that she had not been drinking enough water to replace all the sweat that she had been so profusely losing through her pores.

“Do you want me to take this room?” Amanda asked, kindly thinking of the girl’s feelings.

“No, I’m fine. I’ve dealt with it, and I have the picture,” Sam said, following Amanda into the room.

Amanda was sure that she had not entirely dealt with it, but that was a struggle that they all lived with these days, and sometimes emotions would erupt at odd times when memories stirred, needing to be dealt with all over again. And that didn’t even take into account the nightmares that were so prevalent these days.

The master bedroom was adorned rather stoically, lacking much for furniture or knickknacks. It appeared that Ms. Garcia had preferred spending her time in her office and spending her money on her son.

The room was clear, and Sam went to the closet while Amanda checked the master bathroom.

In the bathroom, Amanda found two new adult toothbrushes, more shampoo, conditioner, a bottle of pain reliever over the counter pills of an off-brand, some leftover antibiotics that would certainly come in handy, and some first-aid supplies.

When she exited, Sam had picked out several pairs of jeans and some tops that were spread across the bed.

“We wore the same size,” Sam said. “Who knew?”

“That’s good,” Amanda said. “Those jeans that you’re in now are probably ruined for good.”

“Yeah, I wish I could find some clothes to take home to Mom. But she has kind of a fuller type of figure, these wouldn’t work,” Sam said, shrugging her shoulders and then gathering up the items.

“I hear you, just don’t say that to her. You know, she’s still kind of sensitive about that,” Amanda said, leading the way out.

“I know,” said Sam. “It’s like Mom’s all skinny now and everything compared to before, and she still thinks that she’s fat.”

“Welcome to womanhood, Sam. I would have loved to have your mom’s great set of boobs, and she looks at me like I’m the ideal body type.”

Sam laughed and gathered up the items on the landing until her arms could carry no more. Amanda grabbed what was left.

Back at the truck, Sam climbed over the water tanks, and Amanda tossed her the items, so that they could try to keep things somewhat organized.

“It is so hot back here,” Sam complained while Amanda peeked around the truck to see where the fire had reached while they were in the house.

The fire had not yet reached the veteran’s house, but it was getting close—close enough that Amanda wondered if she should move the trucks farther down the street, but there wasn’t much street left before the housing complex ended and a field that used to grow melons began.

“Let’s pull down a couple more houses before we start scrounging again,” Amanda said once Sam had jumped out of the truck. “We did find some more toilet paper, and everyone will have you to thank for that when we start getting down to it.”

“I know, right,” the girl said, brushing sweat from her brow with the back of her dirty-gloved hand. “I hate it when we run out of toilet paper. I think I’d rather skip a day of food.”

“You say that now, but wait until you’re hungry,” Amanda said.

“We forgot the garage again,” said Sam.

“Oh, yeah, let’s go check it out.”

It wasn’t like her to forget things like that, but the fatigue that seemed to be creeping over her body, along with the aches and pains that made it feel like she was coming down with the flu, had been affecting her decision-making process. She cringed as she followed Sam around to the back. She knew that it wasn’t the flu that she was coming down with.

“Don’t open the shed,” Amanda said when she caught Sam looking at it. “There’s a rattlesnake in there, and I’d prefer not to disturb him.”

Red had already alerted to that fact and had trotted to the shed, sniffing around.

“I bet he thinks that he’ll catch us some dinner,” Sam said, adding a chuckle.

Amanda pried open the garage door and shone the light in to a very organized room that had nothing to do with fixing cars or storing tools.

The room was dedicated to an obvious obsession with archery. Bows of various types and sizes lined the walls. Arrows were stacked neatly and were laid out on a worktable. There were paper targets and extra bowstrings. Amanda imagined, judging from the various sizes of bows, that they had both been into the sport.

“Too cool, Ms. Garcia!” Sam exclaimed, going over right away to put her hands on a bow.

“What do you think, Sam? Do you want to learn to shoot a bow?”

“Absolutely!” the girl exclaimed. “They are quick, quiet, and deadly, like me.”

“Go ahead, and pick out some of these bows and lots of the arrows, some bow strings, and we’ll take it all with us. It’s a pretty cool gift from your teacher if you ask me. I’m sure that you can learn to shoot with them.”

Sam was all smiles as she left the garage with her arms loaded. Amanda was carrying all she could too. She knew nothing about the sport. But with all this stuff, Sam was sure to find something that suited her, especially with Ms. Garcia being the same size as her.

When they exited the garage, the smell of smoke was pungently strong, but Amanda figured that it was because the garage had been a relatively smoke-free zone.

Red was frantically digging into the dirt to try to gain entry into the shed to go after the snake, but the ground was so hard that he had merely scratched the surface. He noticed them, turned back to the shed, as if he was being forced to make a difficult decision. In the end, he turned away from the shed and followed them around the house, back out toward the trucks.

When they rounded the corner of the house into the front yard, Amanda realized why she had thought that she had smelled more smoke. The winds had picked up and were now blowing directly toward them, sending big wafting black waves of air at them. The fire was already jumping houses, propelled by the strong winds and as much as Amanda would have liked to stick around, this was their cue to leave. She didn’t want to live through a repeat of the home improvement store fiasco.