Chapter 5

After filling both vehicles with gas, we moved them next to the exit door of the restaurant. The girls quickly heated some Hungry Man Meals and we all sat down to eat. There was little talking as we were hungry. Once everyone had eaten and last calls on the toilets we started toward the vehicles. Laura stopped, held a finger to her mouth signaling quiet and pointed as she was the first to see the mutants. We had overstayed our welcome. There were only three we could see but we did not want to wait around to see if there were more.

Daryl, Tammy and I dropped the mutants as the others opened, entered and started the vehicles. Daryl and Tammy blew the heads off their mutants with the large caliber rounds they were firing. My .223 caliber just went in clean and came out the back leaving a slightly larger exit hole where the spine should have been.

We drove off quickly, four and a half hours later we all needed to stop. We were almost out of fuel and had to use the toilet. Daryl knew we would be able to make it to this small town. He always stopped here when he was heading to his mountain cabin. The town had two gas stations. One was a real full-service gas station where you could get your vehicle worked on. The second gas station was a mom & pop mini mart store type. There was a Wal-Mart and two outfitter/hunting shops. We stopped at the mom & pop station first since it was the first store we drove up to.

Daryl and I pulled security while Tammy watched over the girls using the toilet and Jessica fueled up both vehicles. When the girls were done, they checked the store for anything we could use. Only two cases of bottled water and a couple of six packs of soda were all they came out with.

The girls took over security while Tammy, Jessica, Daryl and I hit the toilets. The next shop we came to was Highland Expert Adventure Treks <HEAT> we found it locked but it had been stripped already, probably the owner. The second outfitter store, ‘JEB’s’ was just down the street and it too was locked. We found Jeb dead in the back of the store. He had written down the location and combinations to both safes for whoever found him. The first safe held the keys to all the locks in the store and the second was a gun safe in the floor.

Daryl just about knocked everyone down when he saw what was in the gun safe. An Armalite AR10 7.62mm with a Remington 870 MCS 12 gauge attached underneath. The paperwork showed the local sheriff had ordered it. We let him have it. There were two other AR15 in 5.56mm and a 7mm hunting rifle with a Burris scope. We took all seven of the handguns two revolvers, a 357 & 44. The other five were automatics, two were 9mm, two were 45 cal, and one was 40 cal. We also took all the ammunition he had and all the camping supplies.

It was almost 10 pm so we decided to pull across the street into the small motel for the night. It was built like a box fort. There was only one way into the middle of the motel, with all eight of the rooms facing the middle. The office was right next to the entrance and Emily and I got out checking for keys. Two room keys were missing and there were two cars in the parking area. Rooms 1 2 3 were on the left 4 & 5 were along the back and 6 7 8 were on the right. 2 and 5 had the cars parked next to them and those keys were missing. We took 6 7 & 8 for all of us. We checked the rooms out and Daryl and Jessica asked to have 8 next to the entrance since his truck and trailer would block most anything from being able to get in once he backed his trailer across the entrance. We agreed and checked out the other two rooms. Looking at the diagram on the back of the door, Amy said that 4 & 5 were the only rooms that joined together. The girls asked if we could move to them so we all could be together. I said we would have to check room 5 out first and see if it was usable. We checked room 4 first and Laura and Emily stayed here to watch the adjoining door while Tammy Tina and I when in room 5. I checked the door and found it unlocked. Tina opened it carefully as I watched Tammy covered us both. The room was empty except for a suitcase and overnight bag. It seemed a couple had checked into the room but were not here. The girls quickly moved both queen beds into room 4 moving everything else out of room 4 into room 5. I was waiting outside when I saw movement in room 2. I tried not to show that I had seen anything and called to the girls that I was going to talk to Daryl.