Free Solstice: A Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse by Donna Burgess

Okay.” Stu nodded. “How?”
    “My husband brought some back when he came home from Iraq. They found them in those palaces they ransacked, and instead of turning them in, they kept them.” She spoke rapidly, as if in a hurry to convince him.
    “Do you have ammo?”
    “Of course. Boxes of it, but I don’t know what’s what. Larry wanted me to sell the stuff if I ever needed the money while he was deployed.” She laughed softly. “How do you go about selling stolen guns?”
    Stu shrugged. “I have no idea.”
    Tana glanced back toward the front of the store. “Those Dockers. Something’s going to go down, and you feel it, too. You’ve already mentioned how uncomfortable you are with how they look at Ashley and Portia.”
    “You’re right. So why don’t we just shoot them?” He laughed.
    “Stu, c’mon. We can’t hide in here forever. Can we?”
    “It’s not going to be forever, Tana. Someone’s going to come. The military—”
    Tana threw up her hands. “What if there’s nobody to come? No military. No government. No bloody BBC news! You’ve seen what’s going on out there. In case you haven’t noticed, the sun hasn’t come up in over a week. There’s no sun , Stu. We’re drowning in darkness, just like in your dream. The dead get up and traipse around like they’ve woken from a catnap.” She began to cry, wiping hard at her tears as if her eyes had betrayed her. “This isn’t fixable. What we know is gone.”
    Stu grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. She struggled against him, then relented and allowed him to hold her. “Things will be fine, Tana. You need to have faith.”
    She pressed her face against the side of his neck. “Look what’s happened to me. My youngest child turned into a monster and fled into the darkness. What should I have faith in?”
    Stu sighed. “God? Mankind, maybe.” “Have faith in me, if those two don’t do it for you. I’ll take care of you and Davis. And my students. That’s not much. I know—”
    “No. That’s something. You are something.” She looked up at him, tears still threatening. Stu blushed and dropped his gaze. “I’m just an English teacher, four thousand miles from home.”
     
    ***
     
    Reluctantly, Stu ventured out of the market through the back warehouse entrance. Tana, Josh, and Brett followed close behind. George had discreetly passed over the keys to a decade-old Volvo, careful not to draw attention from the drunken Dockers, who lounged at the far side of warehouse. The Dockers stayed wrapped in down comforters, drinking cheap lager from tall cans and looking especially surly in the red candlelight. The old man assured Stu and Tana all would be well with Davis and the remaining students while they were gone. To make his point, he waggled a cricket bat.
    They bundled up in what Stu and his kids had packed in the bags they had managed to carry with them and a few cold weather items liberated from the lockers of employees who would likely not be returning to work. The market had no clothing on the floor; otherwise, Tana would’ve helped herself. She’d discarded the nightwear she’d shown up in, and Portia had given her a pair of extra jeans from her bag. They were roughly the same size in the waist, but Portia was at least five inches taller. She found a pair of galoshes in one of the lockers. Those would definitely work better than pink bedroom slippers.
    They crossed the parking area, moving in an almost comical huddle that Stu was positive resembled a scene from an old Scooby-Doo cartoon. He was much more afraid than Shaggy, however.
    Each of them held a flashlight in one fist and a makeshift weapon in the other. Stu had opted for a cricket bat after seeing the damage George had inflicted on the infected man. Tana followed suit with a bat, but the two younger men chose gardening tools. Josh carried a set of wicked-looking hedge trimmers, while Brett had a long-handled axe. Stu wanted to ask how many times they had seen