Free New Title 3 by Michael Poeltl Page B

couldn’t salvage anything.”
    “ Yeah, well, I wish my house had burned to the ground too. Would have saved me from seeing what I saw.” Sid swallowed hard and continued. “So, we were having a rough time with the bodies and all that on the street and in the store, but I was keeping it all down right? Tom couldn’t, he kept on puking ‘til all he had left were the dry heaves. So he’s off puking for the tenth time as I was working the canned goods aisle, hoping to bring back some food for the house. Next thing I know, Tom’s running out the far door, yelling for me to follow. Naturally, I high-tailed it out of there. When he finally stopped and I caught up, I asked why we were running. He tells me he’d seen the bodies of dead people get up and lash out at him. He said they were grabbing for him. I just chalked it up to paranoia in the face of all that was happening; I think I might have even laughed. That’s when he really froze, and I took a look around me. We were being swarmed.”
    “ So what next? You both ran in opposite directions, and that’s the last time you saw him?” Sonny asked, his voice tight.
    “ Hey, I reasoned with them best I could.” Sid looked offended. “When they got close enough I saw that I recognized two of them. I’m sure one of them was my 3 rd year soccer coach from years ago. I pleaded with him to back off. Used his name and everything. Then I saw Mrs. Klein, from the library. She was spouting some biblical bullshit. So we’re getting backed into a corner, right. I finally got through to Mr. Banks, the soccer coach. He explained they only wanted what I had, the box of food. I told him to go get blown. There was plenty to go around. He grabbed for it and I hoofed him in the nuts. What I hadn’t counted on was Tom bailing on me.”
    “ You know he can’t stand conflict, he probably just ran for cover...”
    Sid cut Sonny off. “Don’t you turn this on me, Sonny. I looked for him. I thought maybe he went back to your house, so I started for there. Then the pricks rushed me! I ran north, leaving the car behind and dropped the box of food. Shit, I felt bad about it, but Tom was gone, man.” Sidney was losing his composure. “Then a shot rang past my ear and they ordered me to stop. So I did.” He rubbed furiously at his eyes. “Before they could do their worst, the group who brought me here came and saved me. They told me where they were going and invited me to come along. I asked them to take me here instead. Shit, Sonny, we fired at you thinking you were one of the assholes who attacked me and Tom. You almost ran us down.”
    Sonny shook his head. “Sorry Sid, I couldn’t see shit.”
    Sid plowed his fingers through his hair. Wet ash made for one hell of a mess, especially in Sid’s short dreadlocks. “Listen Sonny, Tom’ll show up… He just got scared and ran.” He pushed his chair back and stood. “All my stuff is still in my car in town. I’d really like to get it back. Are there any plans to go soon?”
    “ We were planning on going there tomorrow morning,” Connor replied, “but with all these freaks running around, I guess we’d better be armed.”
    I agreed. “Five of us can go to town and the rest can stay here to protect the house. Sound good?”
    “ Perfect,” Earl approved. “I volunteer for the trip. Who else wants to go to town?”
    “ I’ll hang back,” I said. “Get some work done here.” I didn’t know if I was ready to stomach the reality of the situation yet.
    “ I’ll stay here too,” Connor decided. “It’s important that nothing happens to this house.”
    John, Sid, Sonny and Seth all volunteered to return to town, leaving the defence of the house to the rest of us. We did a time check after the meeting was considered over, and I suggested that we start taking showers one at a time being as many of us were covered in the filmy black soot.
    “ No longer than three minutes each. That way water won’t be wasted. We’re on a