Thanks so much for the comments, so nice to know there are people liking the story so far.
Let's keep going...
Chapter 20 - The gas station
Without warning, they appeared by the roadside again, and Daryl forced his head back in the game, forced himself to be on high alert for their safety. He motioned for Tahlia to stay hidden in the trees until he'd scoped the area out. Several minutes later, he let out a low whistle to signal her to join him.
"Here! We can try these cars." called Daryl as he jogged towards two cars abandoned by the side of the road. Even from this distance, Tahlia could see a walker pawing at the back window from inside one of them, and she picked up her pace to be ready to back up Daryl up if he needed it. By the time she got there, he'd already killed and dragged two walkers from one car and was trying the engine with no success.
"No good." he said, heading straight to the other vehicle.
This station wagon was free of the undead, but the doors were locked. Not much of an issue for Daryl, who used the butt of his crossbow to smash through the back passenger window as Tahlia sifted around the first car, looking for anything of use. Daryl disappeared in the footwell of the front seat and tinkered with the wires. Within two minutes, Tahlia heard the welcome sound of the car's engine revving.
"Music to my ears!" she called, as he beckoned her over.
"We got half a tank! Might even be enough to get us home again too. Let's go."
With that, they were off speeding down the highway again, heading for their original destination.
"Shit, here's the turn!" Daryl realised, slamming the car into the left turn, wheels screeching. After only a few more minutes of driving, he slowed the car down.
"'Kay, here we go, this is the place."
Up ahead there was a big gas station with a rest stop area and three dusty looking shops in a strip, attached to three warehouses behind them.
"There's nothing else around here. It's pretty well off the beaten track. How'd you find this place?"
Daryl shrugged. "Came by here on my bike a week back, only stopped to check a couple of the cars' gas tanks, saw they hadn't all been tapped out, but didn't have any way to carry much back with me, so thought I'd just add this place to the run list and see what we can see."
He slowed the station wagon down, and drove into the large carpark adjacent to the forecourt, peppered with abandoned cars. It looked like a lot of people had come to try and get gas or supplies, and then given up, leaving their vehicles behind.
"Better not get too close, gotta have a clear getaway." He parked by the concrete wall not too far from the exit, well away from the other cars.
There were pockets of walkers rasping and shuffling around in the carpark, but they were far enough away that the pair felt comfortable to get out and explore.
"Let's check these cars for gas." suggested Daryl, indicating the closest line of cars to them. "Check the trunks for containers, see if we can find some and fill 'em."
Tahlia jogged a little further into the forecourt, investigating the cars located there.
"Whoa, shit." she murmured as she spotted a large rickety old bus parked up near a fuel pump, rocking with the movement of dozens of walkers inside, pushing and pawing against the old windows and doors, increasing in vigour as they hungrily eyed her up.
Finding two 10-gallon fuel containers, she jogged back across to Daryl who'd found a couple of containers of his own and was efficiently filling them with what gas he could extract from the vehicles in the carpark.
When all those containers were filled and safely loaded in their car, Daryl pointed to the stores.
"Wanna check those out?"
Tahlia nodded. "Might as well do it while we're here."
"Stick close, girl. Don't know what we'll find in there."
"Yeah. You'd better stick close to me so I can protect your ass." sassed Tahlia with a cheeky grin over her shoulder as she strode towards the gas station convenience store, Daryl grunting in indignation as he jogged to catch up.
As they neared the entrance to the store, they could see that the adjacent two shopfronts looked to be auto repair shops, and that the third shop in line was heaving with walkers trapped inside, banging against the glass.
"Guess we'll be avoiding that one." muttered Tahlia.
At the gas station convenience store, Daryl rapped on the door to rouse any walkers inside. They could see three through the window, and he nodded at her.
"Ready?" Kicking the door open he barreled inside, shooting the first walker through the forehead with a bolt, as Tahlia sliced through the second and third.
Covering each other, they quickly skimmed the aisles, bagging anything that could be of use. Daryl motioned to a door in the back, and they pushed on through, opening up into one of the large warehouses. The place looked to be the storeroom of the shop, and despite a lot of it being an upended mess, some of the shelves still held a few boxes, so they quickly rifled through them.
"Bandages and shit!" called Tahlia, dragging a box from the shelf and leaving it next to the door to pick up on the way back.
"Motor oil! And batteries!" Daryl added, topping up the box Tahlia had found.
They quickly scouted the rest of the building, before heading across to the side door, which linked the room up with the adjoining warehouse. Tentatively, Daryl unbolted the door and pushed through. This next warehouse must have been a vehicle workshop as dusty cars in varying degrees of repair covered most of the floor.
On edge and alert, Tahlia crept through the abandoned vehicles in the gloom, when all of a sudden, a peeling hand reached up from the pit under a hatchback, and grabbed her ankle, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin as the sound of rasping and snapping teeth echoed eerily.
"Fuck!" she cursed, quickly slicing through the hand.
"Y'ok?" questioned Daryl, two cars away, easily disposing of two walkers advancing on him.
"All good." She peered under the car, noting three of the undead scraping at the pit walls, unable to get out. She shivered and stood up, eager to get the hell out of there.
"Ugh. This place gives me the creeps."
Daryl had reached the far side of the warehouse where it joined to the next one. "Why don't ya head back out?" he called. "These doors are chained shut. Can't get through any further anyways. Take our box back to the car. I'll just quickly check up there by them offices."
More than happy to get back into the daylight, Tahlia jogged back through to the adjoining warehouse, picked up the box, and headed back through the store. As she neared the front door, she stopped short. "Oh shit."
Outside, the rickety doors on the old bus had finally given way under the pressure of the walkers, and there was now a horde of about 20 heading for the store, the noise of which was drawing the other pockets of walkers around the area to join them.
She ran back to the warehouse door. "Daryl! Daryl, get outta there now!" she screamed. "We got walkers coming, headed right for the store!"
"Comin'!" she heard his faint shout. "Buy me a couple minutes!"
"Fuck!" swore Tahlia again and ran out into the carpark. "Where the hell did all of these bastards come from?"
Walkers were coming at her thick and fast. She jogged in the direction of their car, and dropped the box down, then looped around, hoping to head some of them off before they reached the store front.
Slicing down a few in her way, Tahlia knew that they were going to be in trouble if they didn't get out of there soon.
Where the hell was Daryl? Why was he still in there?
She swallowed hard, trying to decide if she should go back in to find him, make sure he wasn't in trouble – but risk getting trapped in the warehouse; or if should she stay out here and try to keep a path clear for him. They hadn't seen much activity inside, so it was unlikely that he was in trouble. But he sure would be if the walkers made their way into the narrow store.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Over here, you rotting assholes!"
She bashed the handle of her katana against a car bonnet, trying to draw the attention of the large group shuffling towards the store. Suddenly there was a loud crunching noise from inside one of the warehouses, like metal on metal, and the screeching caused most of the walkers to push forward towards the store, ignoring Tahlia.
"What the hell was that?!" she exclaimed, starting to get seriously worried about Daryl. She needed a distraction, and fast.
Fire.
That was always a good way to draw the ugly bastards.
But how?
"Think, you idiot!" she hissed at herself. "You're at a fucking gas station! Just set something on fire!"
Ooh. Yes. Gas.
Just next to the bus, an RV was parked up, and she had an idea.
Racing the short distance to the vehicle, she yanked the outside storage locker door open.
"If this is anything like my uncle's... yes!"
Two propane tanks were inside the storage compartment, one hooked up to the internal heating system, and the other resting precariously on top of a Weber Baby Q barbecue. She gave them each a little jiggle and could feel that there was a decent amount of gas still inside them. Whipping out her knife, she checked the valves were closed then cut through the hose on the first tank, and then cut through the hose on the bbq before attaching the nozzle end to the grill tank service valve.
"Fuck me, these are heavy." Tahlia grunted as she dragged them out of the storage compartment and to the side door of the RV. As she opened the door, a walker immediately fell out, and with a squeal, she only just managed to jump back from it just in time.
"Shit!" Preoccupied with her diversion, she'd forgotten to check for the undead. Quickly unsheathing her knife, she drove the blade into the walker's skull as it grabbed at her legs, then booted it out of the way.
"Ok! Any more of you assholes in here?" she called as she peered inside. Only one more, and it was strapped into the passenger seat up front, so she just left it secured there. Quickly heaving the propane tanks inside, she opened the valves fully, a sharp hiss as each one started to release its contents into the air, the smell of rotten eggs swirling around her.
Just before she made a hasty exit, she saw the kitchen hob, and flicked the protective glass lid open, turning on the four knobs there as well for good measure.
As she went to jump back out of the RV, a walker slammed into her from the side, knocking her down, crawling on top of her and snapping at her face.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed in disgust as she reached for her knife again and sunk the blade into the walker's soft skull just before its teeth ripped at her cheek. Its dead hand was still clasped onto her forearm, and in her attempt to dislodge it, she ended up tearing the whole rotting arm right off.
"Yuck!" Rolling out from under the body, she banged into a fuel container lying on its side, most of the contents having spilled long ago. She quickly ripped the shirt from the walkers back and wound it round the rotting flesh of the dismembered arm and shoved it through the opening of the container, tipping the last dribbles of fuel onto the shirt. Flipping out her Zippo, she set fire to the walker arm and flung it into the open door of the RV as she turned to run.
BOOM!
A huge hot blast propelled Tahlia forward and she stumbled and skidded along the concrete, and ignoring her skinned palms, she covered her head, then rolling over, she turned to admire the fireball powering into the sky. The heat was intense on her face, and she was hoping she still had eyebrows.
Well, that had been a little bigger than she'd been expecting.
Jumping to her feet, she looked for Daryl – still no sign! - but what she did see was that she now had the walkers' attention. The whole lot had shifted focus and were steadily heading towards the fire – and to her. The explosion had also blown out all the glass from the shop fronts, and scores of walkers were pouring through the massive (and now windowless) window panes in the third store where they'd previously been trapped.
Walkers closing in on all sides.
Goddammit. She was really in the shit now.