D. Walker - The Snacking Dead

Be prepared for morning munchies. Put one of these together and take it with you as you flee for your life.

H e shot bolt after bolt into oncoming walkers.Then he pulled them out and reloaded. The supermarket parking lot was busy this morning.

He stuck his knife to the hilt through the bridge of the last dead thing’s nose. It swooned and fell with an oozy squish. Finally he could shop.

The gleaming supermarket was dark and quiet. He banged the hatchet handle on the window a few times, then waited a few seconds. Nothing came. Let’s do this , he said to himself.

He scanned the produce aisle through his crossbow scope. Among the moldy bins he found the remains of a walker in a stockboy’s apron, his head lopped off and split like a pumpkin. Daryl hadn’t been the first to shop here, then.

He put his head to the floor to look for what others missed. Under the shelves were a can of tuna, a package of Slim Jims, a bottle of beer, some birthday candles, a box of cake mix. There were also some very old peaches and a lot of dead bugs. That stockboy had been out of commission for a long time.

makes 4 sandwiches

2 (6-ounce) cans tuna packed in olive oil, drained

¾ cup mayonnaise

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

2 whole scallions, thinly sliced

2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

¾ teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley

4 slices multigrain or white Pullman bread

4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 cup)

8 tomato slices

1 In a medium bowl, combine the tuna, mayo, celery, scallions, eggs, lemon juice, celery salt, black pepper, and parsley and mix well.

2 Preheat the broiler on low and place a rack on the top shelf of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and lay out the slices of bread. Toast for 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until crisp and golden. Evenly distribute the tuna salad on the pieces of toast and top each with a quarter of the grated cheese. Transfer the baking sheet to the top rack and broil for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown. Transfer to plates, top each with two tomato slices, and serve.

Canned tuna is at peak condition for 3 to 5 years. If the outbreak continues longer than that, tuna salad won’t be much help.

T he winter after his brother had left for the Marines,Daryl’s only friend had told him she was moving away from the mountains with her family. Locust Grove was far. He hadn’t said a thing. He’d probably be better off on his own, anyway. He couldn’t meet her eyes.

Finally she’d handed him one last lunch bag and kissed him on the cheek. He couldn’t say good-bye. He’d just watched her back as she ran off.

In the bag was a grilled cheese, but not just any grilled cheese. It was pimento cheese. Exactly like his mother used to make him before she’d died. He must have told the girl. Now she was gone.

Just the thought of that last kindness was something he kept hallowed in his mind during the worst years of his life. No one had ever cared what he liked except her.

Pam. Her name had been Pam. A ray of light from a vanished world.

And that was why he’d come to this supermarket. Sure enough, he had tracked down what he’d been looking for this whole time.

A couple boxes of Velveeta.

He’d make grilled pimento cheese for them. Yeah, it was just a damn sandwich, but that was the point. It was the tiniest thing, a thing people used to do for each other before the dead rose to screw up everything. It was a taste of home, of family, of the world before it went to shit. He had to share it.

A world with grilled cheese was still a world worth fighting for.

makes 8 sandwiches

PIMENTO CHEESE

8 ounces (2 cups) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

8 ounces (2 cups) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

8 ounces (1 cup) cream cheese, softened

⅔ cup mayonnaise

2 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or more to taste

1 teaspoon dry mustard powder

1 (6-ounce) jar pimientos, drained and finely chopped

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Hot sauce, to taste

Splash of Worcestershire

1 jalapeño, seeded and deveined, if desired, and minced

SANDWICHES

16 slices white or whole-wheat bread

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened, or ¼ cup mayonnaise

1 Mix all the pimento cheese ingredients until smooth.

2 Make sandwiches using ½ cup pimento cheese mixture for each. Spread the butter or mayo on the outsides of all the sandwiches.

3 Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Fry the sandwiches one at a time until the bread is golden and the cheese melted, about 2 minutes per side.

4 Halve the sandwiches and serve.

Be sure to make enough for your whole group. Scarcity of grilled cheese can cause dissention and even mutiny within survivor groups.

“Pam! Oh my God. Pam!”

The voices of her fellow refugees sounded distant. She’d fed and fought beside these people during the year since Earl and Ronnie had turned. She felt them pull the walker off her chest, but she couldn’t move her limbs. A vicious bite on her side burned like she’d been shot with a habanero.

The biter had crept up on her while she was heedlessly making toast by her tent. Rookie mistake. One she’d never have a chance to repeat. She closed her eyes.

She felt the pizza peel underneath her, still strapped to her back. She had tried to keep civilization alive with cooking. But the dead have numbers on their side, and they’re so much hungrier.

“Fast, you have to kill me,” she implored the man in the orange fishing vest as he crouched over her. She shut her eyes. “Please feed my babies. Take care of them like they were your own.”

He glanced nervously in the direction of the two biter children, muzzled and tethered to a tree. Then his eyes grew wide. He had no time to answer.