“Yes, I noticed that.”
“I’m kinda nervous though; do you think he likes me?”
“Yes, I think he does.”
Jet smiled softly. “Good… night, Lisa” She watched Lisa climb into bed before she closed her eyes and went to sleep.
Mark took watch and stood in the dark room alone. So much had happened so fast. Less than forty-eight hours ago, he was in his own bed asleep with his parents in the next room. The plans were all laid out and simple, just leave the house and drive. The trip would have only taken about three to four days and they would have been at the cabin.
His grandfather had been an officer in the military during and after World War II. He saw the kind of chemical and biological weapons that were being developed and the atomic ones they already had. He knew they would always strive to make something stronger and deadlier, and eventually, it would come back and bite them in the ass.
Planning ahead for his family, he had built a cabin on top of a bomb shelter way up in the mountains of Washington. Over his life, he had stocked it with an ample amount of weapons and plenty of ammunition for hunting and self-defense. He also had food, water, and later on, power covered. In a worst-case scenario, they could easily hold out for about ten years up there.
Now, his parents were gone and his brother only had a fraction of his memory. He felt an anger growing inside him. These damned rot-bags have taken just about everything away from me . He had no idea how long it would take them to get to the cabin and that they would only be able to travel as fast as the slowest member of the team, but they were a team.
They had saved him and his brother, plus moved them three blocks to their apartment. They had gotten all the bags too, not to mention they had managed to survive the goon squad and zombies for weeks on their own. There was no doubt in his mind they were resourceful and could be depended on.
Mark took another look through the window before going over to their bags. He began going through them and doing an inventory of what they had. Until he had taken out and separated the full magazines from the empties, he didn’t realize just how desperate their situation was becoming.
Besides what their weapons held, they only had two more rifle and five more pistol magazines left. One shotgun had four shells and the other had only three. All it would take is just one medium sized zombie attack and all the ammo would be gone.
They had used almost all of it up and had barely covered 200 of the 1300 miles. He looked around the kitchen as he thought. He went over to the drawers and started pulling them open and rummaging through them. He took out several large wood spoons and set them on the table before returning to the window.
As the sun began to rise, he heard Todd and Jeff moving around in the bedroom before they came out into the living room. He waited another ten minutes then went to the girl’s room and knocked on the door. A moment later, Dedee opened it as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. “Hi, Mark. Is there something wrong?”
“No, I need for you all to get up and meet me in the living room.”
Lisa came to the door and asked, “What’s going on? Are there zombies gathering out front?”
Jet jumped up in a panic and ran over to the door. “There are zombies out front?”
Mark shook his head. “No, there aren’t any zombies out front. We just need to have a meeting.” He glanced at his watch as he said, “Ten minutes, be in the living room.”
IV
Everyone sat down waiting to hear what Mark had to say. “I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but we are running dangerously low on ammunition. Jeff, we have to set the rifles to single shot only. Lisa, Dedee, and Jet. You need to make every shot count and fire only when you absolutely have to. From now on, every shot has to count and be for defense only.”
Mark went into the kitchen while they sat in silence. When he returned,
Catherine Gilbert Murdock