Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series) (6 page)

Relocating the capitol?
Steve suddenly felt the need to sit down, but it passed quickly. This was way worse than anyone was saying.

"What about around here?" He asked.

"Nothing in Tampa or St. Pete yet. They've got the airport locked down and they're watching the Port of Tampa closely."

"Those are only a few of the ways into the
city," Steve pointed out.

"We know it's just a stop gap measure
so that's why we're going around as a precaution and asking people to go home and stay there. They put out the request earlier on the local news along with the usual bullshit about locking your doors and windows, looking both ways before crossing the street and not talking to strangers with candy." Heather laughed grimly.

"I missed the news tonight," Steve said. "I didn't know any of this was going on." Steve thought about it and asked, "Will staying indoors help?"

"Not if we have an outbreak," she replied. Looking around to see if anyone was nearby before continuing in a voice so low that Steve had to strain to hear her, she said, "One of our deputies worked in Little Rock a few years back so she called a bud of hers who's still on the force up there. This guy told her that things are bad, really bad. Once you get infected then that's it, you're through. The sickness is passed through bites or contact with infected body fluid on an open wound."

"Is there a cure?'' Steve asked.

"The feds say they're working on one but the virus is moving too fast." Heather licked her lips nervously before continuing. "The Little Rock cop told our person about the cure that they're using. They say you have to destroy the brain or the nervous system. A bullet in the head or at the top of the spine will do it, or if you hit them with a taser it disrupts the central nervous system and puts them out for good."

For a second
, Steve felt a feeling of vertigo wash over him at the unreality of what Heather just told him. Then he thought that maybe she was putting him on and looked at her as if he didn't get the joke. Seeing the steely way she stared back at him told him everything he needed to know. This was no joke.

"You okay?" She asked. "I thought I lost you there for a second."

"I thought I lost me there for a second too, but I'm fine." Steve replied.

Heather studied him for a moment and then asked, "Do you have a gun?"

Steve felt his suspicions rise, as it was someone in law enforcement asking this question. Although it wasn't illegal for him to own a firearm, his paranoia stemmed from an incident in his past when he’d used one. Heather must have seen his discomfort at the question because she added, "If you don't, you should get one. I might be able to help you there too."

"Yeah, I've got a pistol," Steve said, then asked, "Do you really think I'll need it?"

"I’d rather you had one and didn't need it, then need one and not have it. The HWNW is spreading fast and from what we can see it's not stopping anytime soon. You'll have to make do with whatever ammunition you have on hand because we're locking down all the gun dealers and pawn shops starting tomorrow morning. Liquor stores will be closed too until further notice. The Sheriff doesn't want Pinellas County to turn into a drunken war zone. We'll have enough on our hands as it is. Another thing, if you can, stock up on supplies like you’re getting ready for a hurricane. A long-ass hurricane. You might have to look around for a grocery store that's open because they're all shutting down early tonight to get ready for the rush tomorrow when people start getting the word that Clearwater is next on the list of cities to be visited by the virus."

Steve digested this as he mentally calculated how much ammunition he had back at his apartment. Enough
, he decided. Not so much that he was ready for all out war but enough to protect himself and - Steve's train of thought was interrupted as an image of Ginny flashed in his head. Feeling an overwhelming urge to call her and make sure she was all right, he asked Heather, "Anything else I need to know?"

Looking slightly uneasy
, she said, "There's a couple rumors going around but I don't know how much truth there is behind them."

She stayed silent after saying this
, so Steve prompted her by saying, "You started this, so tell me."

"
They say that the people who are infected are dead and that they're not just biting their victims, they're eating them."

Steve was so numb from all the information thrown at him in such a short time that he let these last little tidbits
roll right over him. He had read similar stories on the Internet and didn't put much stock in them. At Heathers request they exchanged phone numbers, with her promising that she would keep him apprised of any new developments.

Before leaving, Heather impulsively hugged him and told him to be careful. Adding that
, just because there were no reported outbreaks in Pinellas County, it didn't mean that there weren't any infected individuals running around.

The physical contact with Heather had an effect on Steve, making him wonder if it had been a
friendly, ‘Take care of yourself hug’ or an, ‘I’m interested in you’ hug. Curious to see if she would send any signals his way, he watched her walk down to the scattered groups of customers in the bowling alley. She didn't even glance in his direction so he started watching how the customers reacted to the request that they go home and hunker down. He noticed some laugh at what she asked of them and return to their game, but a few others took the request to heart and packed quickly to go, one couple leaving in such a hurry they still had their bowling shoes on.

Heather
disappeared into the office with Jax and a moment later the lights dimmed in the bar and snack bar area. Shortly after that, she came out and saw Steve looking in her direction so gave him a friendly wave before going out the door at the far end of the building.  Taking this as his cue to leave, Steve gathered his things and went up to the counter to pay. As he pulled out his wallet, Jax told him there was no charge.

"Heather took care of it
," he explained.  As an afterthought, he added, "She really likes you, you know. She talks about you a lot. About how you make her laugh and stuff."

Guess that answers the question about the hug, Steve thought. Thanking Jax, he told him to be safe.

Jax smiled and said, "Going to a zombie party man. You wanna come?''

Preoccupied, Steve declined the invitation and left. As he got into his Jeep
though, it suddenly occurred to him what Jax had said. He had invited him to a 'zombie' party. Thinking about what Heather had told him about the dead coming back to life and eating the living, he suddenly worried for her safety. Being a cop, she would be right in the middle of things.

Pulling out his cell phone,
he felt a twinge of guilt for calling Ginny while his thoughts were on Heather.

When Ginny answered, Steve told her he wanted to come by and pick her up
, but she insisted on meeting him at his place on Indian Rocks Beach. She wanted to stop by a friend's house and pick up a DVD that she wanted to watch that night. He gave in easily as this dovetailed with his own plans. Since he had been looking for a reason to stay at home tonight without scaring the hell out of Ginny with stories about the dead coming to life and eating human flesh, this worked out to the good. From the sound of things, there would be plenty of time to be scared shitless in the next couple days. They finally decided to get together in an hour, which gave him enough time to stop by the grocery store on the way home.

The fog had lifted as Steve pulled out of the bowling
alley’s parking lot but he noticed there were no other vehicles on the streets.  He thought to himself that if traffic had been sparse before, it was now non-existent. In the fifteen minutes it took him to drive to the grocery store, he only saw one other car.

When he pulled into the parking lot,
he was initially surprised to see that the Publix supermarket was dark and completely deserted.  Confused, he checked his watch and saw that it was barely nine o'clock. The store was supposed to be open until eleven.  Remembering what Heather had said about the stores closing early so they could stock their shelves, he decided to try anyway. He had money in his bank account and a driving will to get set up for the coming emergency, so if he had to he would bribe, borrow or steal to get what he needed to prepare for the coming shit storm.

Parking in the fire lane, Steve saw the faint glow of light from inside the store.
After climbing out of the Jeep, he walked to the door and tried to open it. Finding it locked, he leaned close to the glass so that he could see inside better. Steve spotted an employee pushing a cart loaded with bottled water past the cash registers, and pounded on the glass to get his attention. The stock boy, who to Steve appeared barely old enough to get into a PG-13 rated movie unaccompanied, waved him away and shouted, "We're closed. Come back tomorrow."

Steve pointed to the sign on the door and yelled back, "It says you're open until midnight."

The kid shrugged and turned to start stacking cases of water onto a shelf.

Reaching for his wallet, Steve found he only had two twenties and a ten.
An ATM was set into the wall next to the door, so he used his debit card to withdraw the maximum from his account, five hundred dollars. Returning to the door he knocked again, and when stock boy looked up at him in irritation, Steve slapped a fifty against the glass. This got enough of the kid’s attention to draw him over to the door.

"Whadda you want?" He asked.

"I need to buy a few things."

The kid eyed the fifty pressed against the glass and said with reluctance, "You have to come back tomorrow, we're stocking up tonight. There's gonna be a big run on food,
water and batteries tomorrow so we have to get the store ready."

Stock boy was about to turn and walk off
so Steve slapped another fifty against the glass with his other hand.

The kid
’s eyes got wide and he said, "I don’t have a key for the front. Go around back to the loading dock."

Steve walked to his Jeep wondering if he
might be over reacting, but then remembered the intense look on Heather's face while she filled him in on what was really going on in the world and decided he wasn't. And while he didn't know Heather as well as he would have liked, he knew her well enough to trust her. Pulling into the narrow delivery lane behind the store, he saw stock boy standing on a loading platform smoking a cigarette and pulled in next to him.

Getting out of his Jeep, Steve said, "Thanks a lot. I appreciate this."

The kid didn't reply, just held his hand out for the money. After Steve paid him, the junior extortionist finally spoke. "The night manager is gone. He got a bunch of water and food and shit, loaded up his truck and said he'd be back in a while. That was two hours ago and no one's seen him since. I told the other guys working tonight that you're my uncle and that's why I'm hooking you up." He flicked his cigarette butt into the darkness before saying, "C'mon, you have to hurry. None of the cash registers are working, but you've already paid." He laughed at this before leading Steve through the door into the storage area at the back of the building.

Pointing toward a long
, flat cart he said, "Use that. Grab what you need but don't go too crazy."

Steve started loading cases of gallon jugs of water as stock boy told him his personal tale of woe. "I had a date tonight with this primo babe. All of the sudden she calls up and breaks it off. Says her parents are worried about this disease thing on the news and won't let her go anywhere. Shit, who cares what's happening in Kansas? It's business as usual in sunny Florida. Can you believe that shit?"

Steve pushed the cart through the stacked boxes at the back of the store with stock boy following close behind. At first he thought the kid was following him to keep an eye on him, but it soon became apparent that he just wanted to talk. Finding the canned goods, he rapidly loaded up on beef stew and chili as his new best friend droned on.

"So I figure
, screw it. I'll go hang with my bros. You know, hit the mall or something. Or head down to the beach. I'm getting ready to skate when my dad yells for me and says work's on the phone, and they want to talk to me. I get on the line and it's my boss. That asshole tells me he needs me to come in right away to help stock up for the big run they're expecting Manana. Can you believe that shit?"

Stock boy stopped his narrative to ask, "Is there a hurricane or something heading our way? I
didn't hear anything about it."

Steve was tempted to tell the kid everything that he knew but held back. "I think it's because of the munchin' madness thing. It's got a lot of people scared."

"Like you," the kid pointed out and laughed.

Steve smiled
grimly. "Yeah, like me," he agreed as he dropped a case of instant coffee onto the cart.

"So anyway," The kid continued. "I tell my boss it's my night off, you know. So then the punk ass bitch says that if I don't come in I can kiss my job goodbye. I need to make my car payment
s and insurance, man. As much as it sucks, I need this job. Can you believe that shit?"