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She giggled, and he turned to grin at her before selecting a different tool.
Within moments, the lock clicked, and he pushed the door open with caution. “Stay out here for a minute,” Justin said, and she certainly wasn’t going to argue. He slipped inside, and she saw his flashlight beam bounce around through the window beside the door.
“Come on in.”
Carly pushed her cart to the side and parked it next to Justin’s. She and Sam walked inside in a pool of light from her flashlight. She flashed it around the room and gave an impressed hum to see almost all of the stock intact. The store was overcrowded with merchandise. Racks of hunting clothing took up most of the floor space. Carly wove her way between them to the back where Justin was selecting guns from the wall behind the counter.
“Yeah, I know. No looting.”
“This shop is—was— owned by John Drake. Knowing him, he probably sat outside the door with a loaded shotgun and dared people to try it.”
“Have you ever fired a gun, Carly?”
“My dad took me to the shooting range once.”
“Just once?” Justin seemed surprised. “I would have thought... Well, never mind. Do you remember how it’s done?”
“Just point and pull the trigger.” Carly shuffled her feet. He seemed to be indicating he wanted her to have a gun, and she was a little uncomfortable with the idea. Why did he want her to have it, anyway? So he’d be more comfortable with leaving her behind when he moved on?
“It’s a tad more complicated, but that’s a good start, at least.” Justin smashed the butt of his flashlight into the top of a glass case containing pistols and plucked one off the velvet liner. “Hold this one and tell me how it feels.”
Carly took it. She rotated her wrist and looked down at it. “It feels like a gun.”
“Silly girl, hold it like you’re going to shoot it.”
She slipped her finger through the trigger guard and gripped the butt with her palm. “It’s awkward. It makes my hand hurt to stretch that much.”
“Try this one.” Justin handed her a smaller gun, and this one fit into her hand perfectly.
“It’s a twenty-two, so it’s not going to have a lot of power or range, but it will work well on close targets.” Justin hopped over the counter and began to fill one of the store’s shopping bags with small boxes of ammunition. “Give me your tote. We need to take as much of this as we can.”
“What kind?”
“Any of it. If it won’t work in our guns, it will be excellent for trading.”
“You keep talking about trading. With whom?”
“We’re sure to meet other people on the road.”
What road? And then she remembered what he had said about leaving. Going to... Where was it? Florida, or something like that? And then she realized he’d said we as though he assumed she would be going along. She felt her temper flare but another idea occurred to her. She forgot about her anger as her eyes widened and her heart sped up. “Do you think there are places where the Infection didn’t reach? Places that are still normal?”
Justin stopped taking boxes from the shelf and turned to her, his dark eyes full of sorrow. “No, Carly. There aren’t any places that weren’t hit by the Infection. I had contacts in other countries, all around the world. No place was left unscathed. There isn’t any ‘normal’ anymore.”
Carly blinked hard, trying to force back her tears. She didn’t want to accept it. She didn’t want to believe it. But she couldn’t hide from the truth any longer. She saw the gun lying on the counter, and for just a moment, she considered—
Justin put his hand over it and said her name, his voice low and soft. Carly shook her head and turned back to the ammunition, raking boxes into her tote bag.
He selected a few more guns, placing them inside a long tote case he found in the accessories section. Carly winced a little when she saw some of those evil-looking rifles. She was relatively uncomfortable with a handgun. She hoped he didn’t expect her to use one of those black machine guns.
Justin selected a folding crossbow and took all of the arrows in stock.
“What’s that for?”
“It’s silent.”
Carly didn’t want to think about scenarios where that would be important. She helped him load the guns and ammo into their carts without comment.
They walked back across the bridge. Carly kept her eyes glued to the sidewalk this time and didn’t look up until they reached the other side. She trudged behind Justin, leaning on her cart handle as she went.
