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I rolled my eyes at him and decided to answer Boone’s original question. “The dog came out of the woods to suck Ethan’s dick. It ate our food because it’s an ungrateful witch. By the way, that’s her name now, Witch, and apparently, we’re keeping her, but she isn’t allowed inside. Oh, and she doesn’t like me.”
“Bailey might be a little jealous of her,” Pike stage whispered.
“I’m not jealous of a dog,” I snapped.
“Ok…” Boone said. “Why don’t we load up and head to the home improvement store? We can load up, then stay there overnight and head back in the morning,” he suggested. The boys loaded the duffel bags into the trailer, and we climbed in. With Witch in tow, Ethan climbed into the moving truck with Boone. Pike climbed into the back of the truck cab while I rode shotgun. On the short drive over, we filled Caleb in on the school.
“I agree. It’s something we will need to take care of, but we should wait until we talk to Henry and come up with a battle plan. Maybe we could even devise a plan to manipulate them into a choke point using cattle gates, who knows,” Caleb said. We pulled up to the large warehouse store, and Caleb, Pike, and Ethan jumped out to raise the large rolling door so we could pull the vehicles in as I slid across the seat to the driver's seat.
This was my first time behind the wheel of a car, and I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. I would have told Caleb that, but he didn’t ask, so I didn’t offer. Driving a car wasn’t a relevant skill of the apocalypse. I understood the basic driving mechanics, so when Caleb began to wave me forward, I got the truck into gear and slowly eased my foot down on the gas pedal. The truck moved forward faster than I expected, so I slammed on the brakes. The guys were all giving me weird looks, so I quickly pressed my foot back to the gas pedal, and the truck lurched forward and then slammed to a stop as I moved back to the brake pedal. I felt my face turn red as I did this start/stop a few more times, with the guys leaning against the building, watching me with amusement. Even Boone had exited his truck and lit a cigarette to watch me. I guess they went on their own mini-supply run.
Finally, I put the truck in park and rolled down the window. “You better come do this before I break something,” I shouted to Caleb. He pushed off the building and sauntered to me while shaking his head. I thought it might be in disappointment until he jumped up on the running board and held on to the door to steady himself as he leaned in through the window a little.
“You can do this, baby. Take your foot off the brake and ease it down slowly on the gas,” he instructed.
“With you just hanging off the truck like that? I don’t think so. I’ll end up killing you!” Was he fucking crazy?
“Baby, that opening is about three of these trucks. I promise you aren’t going to kill me. Now come on, hit the gas.” I sighed deeply but did as he said. The truck began to roll forward again, and just as I was about to panic and hit the brake again, he reached across me and grabbed my knee to keep my foot on the gas. “Don’t brake; you’re doing fine. Just steer her in until I tell you to stop.”
My heart raced as the truck passed through the door and into the building. “That’s it, turn to the right just a little, your other right, there you go. A little more, a little more, and stop.” I eased my foot onto the brake and put the truck in park when it came to a stop. I slumped over the steering wheel in relief. “Good job, Baby, you did it.” He patted me on the back, then hopped down from the truck as Boone drove his vehicle inside. I heard the large door drop closed and decided it was time to move.
I climbed out of the truck, still feeling a little embarrassed as we stood in a circle. Witch growled at me as I approached, so I hissed back at her—hateful animal. “For your first time driving, that wasn’t all that bad,” Pike assured me.
“It was embarrassing, is what it was,” I grumbled.
Ethan grabbed me and pulled me into his arms, “You did just fine. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“Ok! I think it is safe to say that with all the racket we just made, this place is deserted. Everyone has their marching orders. This place looks pretty untouched, and we have plenty of space to fill, so let’s get as much as possible. I don’t know when we can return or if the vehicles will even make it back. Let’s make this trip count,” Caleb said to us. I half expected us to put our hands in the middle of the circle and yell, ‘Break,’ he was so peppy about it.
The guys went their separate ways with these weird-looking metal things on wheels. I grabbed my own and followed the signs to the home and garden department. I combed through the department aisle by aisle, grabbing various tools and informational books. I even found materials and kits to build your own greenhouse! I went to the outdoor section and found bags of dirt. I wasn’t entirely sure why people would have bought dirt, but one of the greenhouse books I browsed showed these elevated planting boxes, so I assumed that’s what the dirt was for.
Flat carts were out here, so I started loading them with the bags. Sure, we had plenty of dirt at home, but why dig it up when you could get it prepackaged like this? I had two whole carts filled with bags of dirt and was filling plastic bags I’d found near a cash register with packets of seeds when the guys found me.
“Found her,” Boone called to the others. “You look like a kid in a candy store, Honey Bee,” he laughed.
“I’m not sure which I’m most excited about, the pharmacy or the home and garden department. They have bags of dirt, and look at all these seeds!” I exclaimed excitedly.
“We found everything we needed for the improvements around the farm, too,” he told me.
“That’s great!”
“They have appliances, too, so we loaded up a new fridge and a freezer for the basement. Did you want a new washer and dryer?”
“Mine still work just fine. I hate to take up needed space with unnecessary luxuries. They aren’t going anywhere.”
“That’s true enough,” Boone said. I finished grabbing all the seeds, and as I walked by to put the bag on one of the carts, he pulled me against him. “I like seeing you happy and relaxed,” he said as he nuzzled my neck.
“Of course I’m happy, this trip has been fantastic, and we’re getting so many things we need to make life easier. If you guys build my greenhouse before the weather gets bad, I can have food growing for winter.”
“If that’s what you want, we’ll get it done,” he assured me. The others came over and joined us, eyeing the carts I had filled.
“Do you think you got enough stuff?” Ethan joked.
“No, I could have gotten more, but I didn’t think we would have the room,” I said honestly. “Did you get enough wood to build the greenhouse and these planting box things?”
“We have all the wood you could need,” he said with a wink. The others snickered, but I didn’t get the joke, so I ignored it.
“Why don’t we load up one more cart of soil to ensure you have enough?” Pike suggested.
