Days of Love and Blood

morning. When we were on the road together, he was always with me. Whenever I raided, he was close by in the camper. And now that we were at the farm, I never left him for more than a half-day. This would be the longest separation for us since the Demon Virus began its reign of horror. I was scared. Not only for myself, but thinking about all of the other nightmarish possibilities such as an attack on the farm while we were away.
    It wasn’t until an hour later when Cooper broke the silence. We were on the highway. Johnson and Tasha were behind us in his truck.
    “We’ll be alright, Carson. You’ll be back home soon. Ronan is gonna be fine.”
    I lifted my head from the window and smiled at him. “I know,” I said. “Thanks.”
    “You didn’t have to go, ya know.”
    “I know that, too.”
    “I didn’t mean what I said the other day, when I was mad. You’re a good mom. Ronan’s lucky.” His voice was different. More secure. More comfortable. He meant it.
    A few hours later we came across two tents in the median strip and Cooper slowed down. Black smoke drizzled upward from the embers in a crude fire pit but the camp was deserted. Cooper jumped out to look around with Johnson and after ten minutes we were on our way again.
    “Whoever they are, they prob ably went on a raid or something. They might be there on our way back.”
    “I hope not,” I said. “That didn’t look like the safest area to camp out.”
    “I left them a note. Said we would back this way in a day or two.”
    “Good thinking.”
    We drove through the day and made it to Roanoke just after night fall. We found a quiet road to settle on just outside the city limits and remained vigilant for an hour after parking. When we were confident that we avoided detection from any lurking homicidals, we ate a small dinner and mapped out our plans to find the warehouse in the morning. Johnson and Tasha slept on the pull-out bunks in the main living area of the camper. Cooper slept in the captain’s seat with his feet up on the passenger chair, a gun in his hands. I closed the door to the back bedroom and drifted off into sleep soon after.
    I never heard the door open but felt his hands encircle my waist. I opened my eyes but couldn’t see him; it was still dark. He pulled me close and I lifted my arm around him, placing my head on his shoulder.
    “Is this alright?” he whispered.
    “More than,” I answered. I raised my head and felt his lips against mine - soft, methodical, meaningful. My body ached for him but I pushed it back. He held me for the rest of the night with his cheek nestled against the top of my head.
    When I woke the bed was cold and empty but his voice carried through the thin walls of the R.V. I slipped into my warrior clothes and walked out into the cabin as Tasha and Johnson were eating breakfast. In another half-hour we were on our way again.
    We found a map of Roanoke at a gas station and found the warehouse in less than an hour. It was on the other side of town, just on the outskirts. The old brick building sat alone which made it easy to circle. There was one loading bay in the back and we parked in front of it. The overhead door was locked from the inside so we made our way to the front of the building which we also found to be locked. Johnson broke a low side window with a rock and we all crawled inside.
    “Let’s make this as quick as possible,” Cooper mumbled.
    “There’s a grocery store across the street,” I said.
    “I know,” said Tasha. “That was the first thing I saw. I’ll stay up front and watch through the window.” We all glanced through the front office window at the super-sized threat across the road for a few seconds. No movement.
    Cooper led us down the back hallway and through a marked exit door. Unexpected brightness lit up the hall when he opened it. The room was enormous. Its walls were painted bright white and the top extended for three stories with giant windows on all side. The exposed cathedral roof was supported by old wooden beams stretching across the room. Stacks of white, sealed buckets and canisters lifted from the ground almost to the third floor, stored on layer after layer of shelving.
    “Oh my God,” said Johnson. “I thought it might have been cleaned out. It looks like no one was ever here.”
    “They died too quickly,” said Cooper. “No one had a chance to prepare. No one had a chance to panic or loot.”
    “Even with the camper and the truck,” I noticed,