R. Allinson: The Long Road Home

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the automatic doors didn’t open. Lisa leaned up to the tinted glass doors and peered in.

“I don’t see anyone,” she muttered. Claire tried prying the doors open, but they didn’t budge.

“What do we do?” Claire asked nervously. Lisa looked around and pointed. Claire turned to where she was pointing. A tall wire fence was between them and the gardening area.

“I think… if we can manage to get over there, we might have a better chance of getting in with no one disturbing us,” Lisa said. “Look, if we pull those crates over there, we can climb up on them, and then climb down that racking on the other side,” Lisa pointed to a spot where a large shelf full of large ceramic pots reached almost to the top of the fence.

Claire looked between the crates and the fence rather dubiously, and then shrugged.

“May as well have a go.” She trudged over to the crates, and the two women started piling them up against the fence. Once they’d piled up what they thought was enough crates, Claire started to climb. She took her gloves off to get a better grip and flinched. The metal was bitingly cold. It was fairly easy to get over the fence in the end. Perhaps she’d missed her calling in life… to be a thief.

“That was too easy,” Claire proclaimed once they were both down safely on the other side, and her hands were safely back in their warm gloves.

“Speak for yourself,” Lisa muttered, rubbing her arm. “I think I pulled something.”

Claire winced in sympathy.

“All right. What do we need?” Lisa asked.

Claire pulled out the list she’d printed off and handed it to Lisa. She scanned the piece of paper and then looked around.

“I think most of the stuff we want will be inside,” Claire said, after walking around the outdoor area for a couple of minutes.

They approached the doors. Like the outside doors, these were locked. Claire glanced at Lisa, but she was sizing up two nearby statues.

“I have a sneaking suspicion we won’t have a raging need for ornamental pots or sculptures,” Claire said dryly.

Lisa snorted, and then bent over and picked up the larger statue. With a grunt, she threw the naked fairy at the glass door. Claire jumped back when the glass shattered and started falling down on the concrete floor. It was startlingly loud. Claire looked around nervously, wondering if anyone was close enough to hear.

Lisa grinned at Claire, slightly maniacally.

“I’ve always wondered what that would be like,” she said, and reached in through the broken glass and unlocked the doors. Claire helped her push them open.

It was eerily strange, standing in the large, deserted warehouse. Flashes of that busy summer day imposed themselves over what Claire was seeing now.

She let out a deep breath and strode over to where some shopping carts were haphazardly piled. She wondered if anyone had been here since the news broke.

Lisa and Claire bent over the list. They wandered the aisles, plucking what they thought they needed from the shelves.

“I’m surprised that no one else has been here,” Claire said, after they’d shopped in silence for a few minutes. She stopped in front of the seed display, trying to decide what exactly they would need in case they actually survived the next few months. They ended up taking nearly all the seeds.

“It’s not like they take up a lot of room,” Claire reasoned. “And they should keep all right.”

Gradually they crossed the items that Bill had recommended off the list.

“What now?” Claire asked once they’d got everything they’d come for.

“Let’s go.”

“It still feels a bit wrong, doesn’t it? Stealing all this stuff…”

Lisa huffed. “We will return it if the asteroid is diverted, I promise.” Claire nodded, and looked once more around the warehouse. She wished desperately for a moment that it was lively and full of people going about their weekend business. And that she had no need for a diesel generator or a lifetime’s worth of seeds, spades, and grow lights.

Claire started heading back the way they came, wondering how they were going to get all of their loot over the fence.

“Oi, Claire. Let’s go out the front door, shall we?”

Claire obediently turned the cart around and followed Lisa, shaking her head. She liked to think of herself as an intelligent person, but sometimes common sense wasn’t her strong point.

Lisa let them towards the emergency exit, and peeked out before opening the door wide and gesturing for Claire to follow her.

They loaded up the car as quickly as possible. For a moment Claire wondered how they would get all of this, and all of the food they’d stockpiled up to Uncle Jim’s. She shook her head. That was a problem for another day. One that Tom could help with.

Claire examined the list again. They still needed to stock up on medical supplies. What she had at home wasn’t enough.

There was a drug store on the other side of the complex. They carefully drove the car closer and stopped, engine idling. Unlike the hardware store, the drugstore had not escaped unscathed. Broken shards of glass littered the pavement, from the smashed front doors and windows. A discarded box of make-up sat lonely out the front.

“What do you think?” Claire asked quietly.

Lisa bit her lip. “Let’s go. Just be careful, all right?”

Claire nodded and climbed out of the car.

The two women peered cautiously in through the broken doors. It was dark inside the shop, with the only light coming from the doors and a few small windows, high up in the walls. Claire rummaged through her bag for the flashlight. She flicked it on and let it shine over the aisles. Someone had knocked over the candy display stand, and the packets had rolled all over the place.

They paused and listened. Claire couldn’t hear anyone. She glanced at Lisa, who nodded. Claire stuck close to Lisa’s side.

They quickly and furtively grabbed what they needed. Bandages. Ointments and antiseptics. More tampons than Claire could ever imagine using. Painkillers, aspirin, vitamins, Claire went down the list, grabbing as much as she could carry. Antihistamines, iodine, a couple of thermometers. She wondered what they’d do once they run out in the future. Well, that was something they’d have to figure out later, if they survived. Lisa paused in front of the perfume display.

“Molly’s been bugging me to buy her some perfume, but I told her she wasn’t old enough yet.” Lisa grabbed a couple of the bottles. “I think this was the one she wanted.” She put the boxes of perfume in the bag with the rest of their loot. On a whim, Claire snatched a couple of books she’d been meaning to buy off the shelves on the way out as well.

They lugged their haul outside and jammed it in the car. They’d need to get a trailer or something for the drive out of the city, Claire realised.

Claire started to drive towards home. Both women were silent. Lisa stared out the window, while Claire concentrated on the road in front of her. It was starting to get icy and slippery. There was something up ahead. Claire squinted and then gasped. She slammed on the breaks and swore when the car started to skid, but they came to a stop. The small blue vehicle wrapped around the tree was almost unrecognisable as a car. The wreckage was smoking slightly, but there was no movement.

“Oh shit.” Lisa followed Claire out of the car. “Is there anyone?”

Claire stumbled towards the wreck, pulling out her phone to call 911. There was a woman in the driver’s seat. Her eyes were closed. Claire blinked rapidly and felt her breakfast almost come back up. A young child had been sitting in the passenger seat. His dead eyes stared out at Claire.