He followed Brian to the ingress of the hall. Brian stopped and whistled. Muffled sounds could be heard behind the last door on the right past two restroom entrances and another door identified as Manager. At the end of the hall, a sign identified the door at the end of the hall as an Exit.
“Billy, clear the woman’s,” Brian ordered as he snapped on his flashlight. “I’ll get the men’s.”
Brian eased around the opening of the doorway, flicked on a flashlight and crossed to the opposite wall. He pressed his back against the cold tire and side stepped to the corner. He leaned around the edge of the wall and fanned the light across the dark recesses. He saw a row of sinks on the left and half a dozen stalls on the right. Most of the stall doors were open. He moved into the gloom and quickly walked past each doorway shining the light inside.
He backtracked to the entrance just in time to see Billy appear with a quick shake of his head. “Clean in here.”
“My six, Billy.”
Brian took a dozen steps to the Manager’s office door and tapped twice. The commotion inside the room startled both Brian and Billy. Billy forced a laugh.
“Guess we know where the company is. You think one or two…or more?”
Brian stepped back to the door. He knocked again, and a body slammed against the door then scratched against the wood. “One, I think.”
“At least the door opens inward,” Billy announced.
“Alright. We do it like this. You turn the knob then I kick in the door on three.”
Billy gave him a thumbs-up, and from the side of the door, he reached over to lightly check the door knob. He gave a twist and the knob only move a quarter inch then stopped. He turned back to announced. “Locked.”
Brian nodded, and Billy pulled a short metal pry bar from his belt. He slipped the forked end into the crack between the door facing and door. With a nod from Brian, he pulled back. Hard. With a swift kick at the side of the knob, Brian shattered the door facing, and the door slammed back into the room. It hit something solid and bounced back toward the opening.
Billy caught the door with the toe of his boot and gave it a nudge back while he stepped into the room and sidestepped to the left. Just as Billy disappeared into the room, Brian reached out and pushed against the door until it stopped moving. Billy sidestepped deeper into the room and nudged a chair away.
“On the floor.”
Brian followed Billy’s blade to see a man in khakis and a golf shirt with the truck stop logo on the front. “He came in here and died.” He stepped up just as the infected man got to his feet. “Sorry man.” Brian drove his knife blade into the man’s eye. The infected slumped to the ground. “Let’s get the back cleared then drag the bodies out back.”
“We can go through the vehicles and see if there is anything we can use. I’d like to check out some of those trucks.” Billy said.
“It’s getting dark. Let’s get moving. We need to secure the building.” Brian agreed as he headed back to the front of the store.
Together the four men cleared the parking lot, piled bodies in the back after searching for keys on each. They found half a dozen sets of keys in pockets and purses but were less than excited. The keys belonged to a big rig, two real junkers, a truck, a sedan and a Suburban.
“We could always hot wire one of the other vehicles.” Billy volunteered.
“”I think we’ve all established the fact none of us have that skill set.” Brian laughed.
Leon walked up to the pair. “Looks like the Suburban is in pretty good shape. The pickup is an option for a second vehicle. I found hoses and a small hand pump so I can fill gas tanks and the three five gallon gas cans we found. If we take two vehicles, it’s more fuel but also gives us options if we run into trouble.”
Juan joined the trio. “We found a few supplies in the back room. Not much but extra cases of water, some packaged foods, and some Zombie t-shirts.” He grinned. “We at least get to change clothes.”
“Throw those fucking shirts on that pile of bodies!” Brian ordered.
Juan shrugged. “If you want, but I kinda like the green ones with all the blood.” He chuckled as he walked away.
“Fucktard.” Billy laughed.
Charlotte Hoaks. . . .(C. A. Hoaks) 