Chapter 4: Everything Must Go
The ride to the pharmacy was relatively quick and alien-free. Hal and Maggie led the way with Casey and Pope trailing right behind them. Casey had been on a total of zero motorbikes in her life. Her time travelling with the 2nd Mass had mostly been in trucks or on foot. But she suppressed the desire to scream and thus calling attention to the fact she was a biking and scouting novice, and just clung to Pope until they finally stopped.
The street was black and empty aside from a couple of abandoned cars hunched against the gutter. The group pulled their bikes to a stop right out the front of the pharmacy. The windows were smashed and glass littered the sidewalk making it difficult to approach without making a noise.
Maggie lead the way inside the pharmacy first with her rifle poised, Casey followed right behind her armed with only a flashlight and the empty satchel bag Anne had given her. From what Casey could see from the front of the store, the pharmacy had been pretty well scoured since the invasion, but it seemed as though drugs and food had been the main target for looters. The candy bars and snacks at the counter were gone, too, and the cash register had been smashed on the ground with nothing left in it but a few pennies. The shelves of bandages and Aspirin were bare, but a lot of the other, non-medicinal shelved stock had been left behind. Knocked about and scattered on the ground, but left behind.
"This place isn't as ransacked as I thought it'd be," Hal noted as he and Pope came inside.
"Guess when aliens invade no one thinks to steal a box of tissues," Maggie lowered her weapon and started inspecting items on the shelves. "Grab everything you can," she picked up a discarded backpack off the ground and started loading it up. "Who knows when we'll be able to do this again?"
"I'll check the back," Hal volunteered and made his way around the counter to where the stronger medicines were stored.
Casey followed Maggie to the nursery aisle and began to stuff her satchel bag with cartons labelled Newborn, like Anne had suggested. Casey filled her bag with bottles, rubber nipples, bibs, tubes of cream, bottles of lotion, pacifiers, flannel jumpsuits, baby socks and even something called a receiving blanket. She also picked up a teething ring, sippy cup, and some stuff labelled Toddler figuring it just made sense to take what they could, while they could.
"You know she won't have teeth for like six months, right?" Pope said from beside Casey as she grabbed the teething ring. Instead of helping gather items, Pope was leaning against the shelf and watching the others work.
"Yeah, and where will we be in six months?" Casey replied. She managed to force the zip of her overloaded bag closed and looped it over her shoulder. The strap cut into her neck the bag was so heavy.
"This is all the formula on the shelf," Maggie held out two metal cans with smiling babies on the label. "I'll check out the back." She passed the cans to Casey and followed the path Hal had taken behind the counter.
Casey searched the ground and found another empty backpack from a tipped over display of Back To School supplies. "So, you have kids?" Casey asked Pope as she packed the cans into the new bag.
Pope gave her a lingering look; as if her question was completely bizarre. "Two. Boy and a girl."
"What are their names?"
Pope shifted on the spot and turned his back to her. "None-Of and Your-Business."
Casey gave him a very forced smile. "Nice." Back to searching the shelves, Casey's eyes fell upon a selection of stuffed toys clipped together on a hook. One of them appeared to be a purple and blue alien. "Huh," Casey unhooked the alien toy. It was giving her a big goofy smile and made a squeak when she squeezed its middle. "Shame they aren't this cute in reality."
"Jackpot!" Maggie announced from the front of the store.
Casey pocketed the purple alien and joined Hal and Maggie at the front counter. They each carried a cardboard box full of formula cans.
"Any medicine?" Casey asked as she and Maggie began stocking up the formula into each of their bags. It was all labelled Newborn.
"Some antibiotics," Hal said. "Anne could used whatever we can get."
"Can we go now?" Pope asked.
"You could help and carry a bag," Hal pointed out as he took the bag of baby formula cans from Maggie and loaded it onto his back. "I'd like to think even you would want to help a baby."
"Why, because I think your half-breed of a brother-"
HRRRRMMMMMMMmmmmm
Clunk-clunk-clunk!
hhhhrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm
"Mechs! Get down!" Pope grabbed the back of Casey's collar and yanked her to the floor behind the counter.
Casey pressed her bag against the counter as hard as she could. Through the storefront window, she could see the blue lights from the Mech's coming down the street towards the pharmacy. The groaning hum they emitted made Casey's bones vibrate and her heart hammer. The last time she'd seen a Mech it had blown a hole in Sarah and left her baby an orphan.
"Think they followed us?" Casey whispered to Pope who was pressed back against the counter in the same way she was. Casey was relieved that, at least in the face of death, Pope's snarky demeanour seemed to disappear.
"Nah, they're coming from the other direction," Pope replied under his breath. "Maybe they're just doing rounds, scoping out the area."
Then suddenly the noise stopped. It didn't fade away, it didn't drown out. It just stopped. Like the Mechs had been turned off. Everyone was silent. Through the glass counter, Casey could see Hal and Maggie huddled down but she couldn't hear anything over the thumping of her heart in her eardrums.
HRRRRMMMMMMMmmmmm
Clunk-clunk-clunk!
hhhhrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm
The sound of the Mech's starting up again broke through Casey's eardrums, and thankfully the aliens kept on moving. Their metal footsteps slowly disappeared down the street, but even when she couldn't hear them anymore Casey didn't want to get up. It was only when Maggie pulled her to her feet that she moved.
"I say we roll the bikes for a couple of streets before we start up the engines," Hal suggested. "They hear us, they'll tail us right back to the gym."
"Might be better if we take a long way back," Maggie added.
"Forget about the starving baby, Maggie May?" Pope said to her. "No hold-ups."
"Why don't we talk more about it instead of getting out of here?" Casey interjected, double checking that her overstuffed satchel bag hadn't split open in the scuffling to hide from the Mechs.
"Wait here," Hal readied his rifle and edged towards the front of the store, then jogged into the shadows. He came back a minute later gesturing at the others to follow. "Let's go."
Maggie waited for Casey to go in front of her before she headed for the door. Outside, Hal started securing the bags to the back of the bikes. Casey looked back inside the store to make sure they hadn't forgotten a bag, and then she saw that goofy smiling alien toy staring at her from the floor. It must have fallen out of her pocket when Pope had yanked her down.
"Crap." Casey dropped her bag in Pope's hands and hurried back inside despite Maggie's hisses that she stay put. Casey scooped up the toy and reached up to the counter to pull herself to her feet. Her hand rested on something cold and slimy. By the time she looked to see what it was, the scaly skitter claw was already reaching out for Casey's face.
Casey shouted out in surprise and swiped the claw away, but it lunged for her shoulder with its other claw. A wave of bullets rang out behind Casey and sank right into the skitter's body. It lost its grip on her and stumbled back. Maggie appeared over Casey's shoulder, pointed her rifle right at the skitter's head and fired. It made a final groan, and fell still.
"You okay?" Maggie asked Casey, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
Casey held up the alien toy in response, hoping that no skitter muck had splashed on it.
Maggie raised one eyebrow at her. "You almost got killed by an alien, for an alien?"
Casey smirked nervously and held the toy over her heart. "I like this one."
"Chat later, ladies," Pope called from the doorway where he and Hal were standing with their weapons drawn. "There'll be more of them comin'."
Casey could hear Charlotte crying before the bikes pulled to a stop outside the gym. They had did as Hal suggested and walked - well, ran - the bikes for a couple of blocks, then circled the neighbourhood to make sure they weren't being followed. Casey knew the others would have preferred waiting longer to be positive, but that wasn't an option. The baby was hungry.
Sliding off Pope's bike, Casey grabbed the bag of formula tins along with her overstuffed satchel and jogged through the front entrance of the gym. All she had to do was follow the wails to the triage centre where Lourdes was rocking a screaming Charlotte back and forth and patting her backside to try and soothe her.
An exasperated Lourdes looked positively thrilled to see Casey. "She hasn't quieted down since you left," Lourdes swapped Charlotte into Casey's arms and took her bags.
"Casey, thank God!" Anne appeared looked extremely relieved to see her. She was sweating and looked exhausted. "Lourdes, can you watch Frank for me, please?"
Lourdes nodded and fled behind the curtain. Anne unpacked a bottle and a formula tin from the backpack. She spooned some formula into the bottle, then added water from her own canteen, capped on the top of the bottle and shook it until it combined. "Here," She presented the bottle to Casey. "Hold her up a little and try to keep air out of the bottle," Anne instructed. "Or she'll get gassy."
"You know what to do," Casey pointed out as Charlotte hungrily took the bottle and began sucking down the formula. "You should feed her."
"I can't, I have five critical burn victims. Here, take a seat," Anne directed Casey to a chair and sat her down. "After she eats, she'll need to be burped." Anne laid a cloth over Casey's shoulder. "Just hold her up and pat her back. After that she'll probably just sleep."
Casey just nodded and tilted the bottle so no air would go into Charlotte's mouth. Already the baby's eyes were closing, but she continued to suck on her bottle. Her cheeks flushed pink and she made sweet little gulping sounds.
"This formula should last at least a couple of months," Anne said looking over the tins. "It's easy to mix up, two scoops in the bottle and fill it up with water. Shake it 'til it's combined, and voila. Oh, good," Anne found a pacifier in Casey's bag. "Give her this when she finishes eating."
"Anne?" Lourdes stuck her head around the curtain. "Frank's stitches just burst."
"I'll be right there." Anne gave Casey a reassuring smile. "You're doing fine. When she sleeps, get some rest yourself. You look like hell."
When Charlotte finished her bottle, she started whimpering so immediately gave her the pacifier. Charlotte went right back to dozing. Casey wanted to get her to her bed as soon as possible so she could get some sleep herself. She tried to repack her bag one-handed but it was tricky, her broken wrist kept seizing.
"Lemme help," Maggie appeared at the door, repacked the bags and lifted them both onto her back.
"Thanks," Casey rearranged her grip on Charlotte without waking her and followed Maggie to the office. Matt wasn't there. "Did you see Matt anywhere?" Casey asked Maggie.
"I was with you," Maggie reminded her as she stashed the bags in a corner. She smiled when she saw the bed made out of a basket. "Matt make that?"
"Yeah, sweet, right?" Casey knelt down and rested Charlotte on the towels. She kept her eyes closed and continued sucking rhythmically on her pacifier. "I was gonna put her back in the sink." Maggie chuckled, and Casey didn't have the energy to tell her it hadn't been a joke.
"Get some sleep," Maggie told her. "You did a good thing today. Rest."
Casey gave her a meek smile and nodded. "Thanks, Maggie May."
Maggie's face grew stern. "Don't you start that."
Casey smirked at her as she stalked out of the room. She liked Maggie, she wasn't anything but Maggie. No more, no less. What you saw was what you go; no tricks. Casey liked people like that, uncomplicated.
Charlotte made a little whine and opened her eyes. "Oh, no, don't cry," Casey begged. "Please, sleep. Sleep is good. Here look," Casey took the alien toy from her pocket and waved it in front of Charlotte's face. "I stole this for you. Maybe it's weird that it's an alien... next time I see one I'll get a puppy or something. But look," Casey clipped the toy through one of the holes in the washing basket so it hung just by Charlotte's head. "You won't lose it."
The office door creaked open and Matt walked in. "You're back!" He grinned.
"Ssh!" Casey hissed, gesturing at the baby.
"She started crying while you were away," Matt said in a quiet voice. "I got Lourdes to help. Sorry I couldn't take care of her the right way."
"You did just what I would have done," Casey shrugged. "Don't be sorry." She noticed the notebook under Matt's arm. "What's that?"
"My journal," Matt whispered and sat beside Casey. "My dad told me to write everything that happens." He flipped open the journal to the most recent entry. "Can you tell me if I spelled your name right?"
Casey leant over Matt's shoulder and read the first sentence on the page. Hal went with KC to get food for Etta. Casey smiled, she didn't have the heart to tell him he had her name wrong. Instead, she focused on the third name he'd written. "Etta?"
Matt shrugged. "I wasn't sure how to spell Charlotte. I thought Etta was a good nickname."
"Etta," Casey looked down at the sleeping baby in the washing basket. "I like it."
Matt smiled. "Me too."
Casey leant over the basket and tucked the blanket around the baby's feet so they wouldn't get cold. "Goodnight, Etta."
xxx