AN
Hey Guys,
Just wanted to celebrate 50 reviews by posting chapter 10. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to leave a little note for me, each and every review is appreciated and received with thanks. I love reading your thoughts... and an especial thank you to those giving Axel some love, trust me when I tell you he is a pampered pooch who gets a snuggle everytime someone mentions him lol.
Now, I have pulled another all nighter... bad night with pain... so I have managed to get some more written, its been a hard slog and I have spent about 5 hours on 1 chapter. It really is a labour of love writing, it takes a lot of time, energy and effort. So if you can, please show some love and drop a review to us writers.
Anyways, back to Judy Justice and writing... what an exciting life I lead haha.
Thanks for reading
AL xx
-oOo-
Two hours later and Callie was wandering up and down the road inspecting the odd vehicle that was left on the main road and trying to think what the best course of action was for them. She didn't need anymore cars at the wall unless she was going to start stacking the cars on top of each other, something she didn't have the ability to do right now so that ruled that out.
As she looped back towards the wall of cars she glanced up at the open road ahead of her, the road which had brought her new companions and sighed deeply, she was lucky that they were good people. If they had been bad people with a sinister plan, she would have been screwed. Her gaze fell to the school encased by the six foot tall chicken wire fence and she had a thought about running the cars through to the fence so if there was ever any issues they at least had something to hide behind instead of being caught out in the open. She wanted to dig the field up and plant some fruit trees and vegetables in the vast space which meant being out in the exposed open for long periods of time, lining the cars up along the fence was the perfect idea.
But that was a tomorrow job, for now she needed to focus on keeping Jim and Arizona safe as they unwired the batteries and removed them from their cubby holes under the car bonnets. What made things even more difficult was that the cars were parked nose to tail, so getting access was made from either standing at the side of the vehicle or if possible, climbing on the trunk of the next car where your legs couldn't exactly get a purchase. It was a battle either way.
But in the two hours that the two had been at it, they had already dismantled nine batteries from the left hand row of cars and had made a start on the right hand row of cars. They obviously would be leaving batteries in the two four-by-fours that were being used as a gate. Trying to push either of those vehicles would be a challenge, they were heavy and huge and it would not only be illogical but could be dangerous if they needed to move them with haste for any reason.
In total there were seventeen vehicles to dismantle so they were just over half way finished when the skies opened and rained them off. Throwing the batteries they had already gathered into the wheelbarrow they had with them, they called Callie and Axel in, Arizona smiling dreamily as she watched long caramel legs jump over the wall of cars smoothly, Axel only a second behind.
They made quick work of walking back to the house, walking past Mark and Derek depositing another infected body onto the ever growing pile,
It seemed that a fair few people had taken the presidents advice of 'if your bitten or scratched lock yourself away so you cant be a danger to the rest of the public' they had amassed quite a large amount of bodies so far, they threw a tarpaulin sheet over the pile of bodies and weighted it down with some large rocks they found at the edges of the makeshift carpark before following the trio back to Callie's house.
Once there, Mark and Derek made their way for showers to get rid of any infected gloop still on them whilst Callie helped Arizona and Jim stack the batteries they had into the side of the garage of the corner house.
Once done, Callie glanced at her watch and smiled when she saw it was a little after twelve, perfect time to stop for some lunch and hopefully wait for the weather to blow over.
Whilst Callie and Arizona cleaned up in the kitchen and began preparing food, Derek and Mark appeared, freshly showered and sat at the bar stools on the breakfast bar discussing long term plans. The two men were bouncing idea's off of one another for things that needed to be done, Mark was writing a list as they went, but the one thing they both came back to was the lack of weapons they had.
"Do we really need guns?" Addison asked as she appeared with Ben and Millie and overheard their conversation.
"Addie, Callie here was lucky we were innocent people looking for refuge. If we had been anything else she would have had no way to defend herself, Sorry Callie but its true. We need to be prepared" Derek offered, and Callie shrugged, on one hand she completely agreed with them, they needed a way to protect themselves, the problem was she didn't have any idea how to operate a gun and she doubted many of the others did either.
"Who here knows how to fire a gun?" Addie said raising her eyebrows questioningly.
"You do, and that's all we need. One person can teach the rest of us" Derek said as if it were obvious and Addie blushed as several sets of eyes fell on her questioningly.
"Its been a long time since I fired anything Derek, this isn't some kind of posh gun club that Daddy used to take me too either. This is serious. If we go and get weapons and arm people with them who don't know how to use them, anything could happen" Addie warned.
"Thats why they are for emergencies only... and you can teach us how to use them and how to shoot safety. Addie we need to prepare for the worst. You saw what it was like out there. Anyone who finds this place is going to want to be a part of it even if it's by force, we need to prepare for that" Derek tried to placate her.
"And what about the noise that gun training will have, that could bring a horde of infected down on us" Addie pointed out which caused Derek to falter, he glanced to Mark to see if he had any ideas.
"We will work something out, but first we need weapons for that to be a problem" Mark summarised and Addie sighed knowing she had lost this argument. "Callie, you know the area better than the rest of us, where can we get guns from locally?"
"Well there is a police station not far down the road, its probably about a mile and a half away. There's the gun shop in the mall which is about four miles down the road you came in on, you probably drove past it? Or there is a sporting shop that I think sells guns probably ten miles the opposite way" Callie said after thinking.
She made her way to her office and grabbed a map book from a drawer and found the pages which contained her estate. She traced the streets finding the police station and circled it, then traced the roads to the mall and circled it, then finally traced the roads to the little industrial estate where the sporting gun shop was and circled it. "While we are out there is a small garden centre just here" Callie marked the map with an 'x' "I would like to grab whatever seeds and fruit growing plants they have, the sooner we start the planting the better stead we will be in for the future"
Mark added Callie's request to his list and began chewing the pen thoughtfully. "This mall, we passed it on the way in, I remember thinking we might have to turn back and find refuge there... how big is it, you could only see a portion of it from the road"
"Its big, biggest one of miles... it could be really dangerous going there" Callie surmised.
"It could, however... we need weapons, we need food, we could find other survivors... I think we need to take the risk" Mark sighed, he knew it was his idea so he would be going and he didn't really like the idea of going into a hostile environment with just an axe for protection
"Ok so how do we do this, who stays and who goes?" Callie asked as she began passing around bowls of vegetable curry and rice that she had knocked up with Arizona's help. They had worked seamlessly in the kitchen together, Arizona prepping the vegetables whilst Callie made the rice and curry sauce.
"I just want it on the record that I think this is a bad idea" Addie added in as she blew on her fork full of curry.
"Noted" Derek said before turning away from his ex-wife and focussing his attention on Mark. "I think it should be the two of us that go"
"I think one of the two of you should stay here and I will go instead" Callie interjected.
"Why on Earth would you want to go" Arizona asked worriedly.
"I know the area better, I know the mall better, I can handle myself and it will be quicker and easier if I go with one of them" Callie pointed out.
"This is ridiculous, we don't need these things that much that its worth risking your lives" Arizona sighed loudly.
"Every day is a risk in this new world Arizona, if we want to build a life here, somewhere safe for the children, for us... hell for other survivors then we need to take some risks. If it looks too dangerous we will come back, we aren't going to do anything stupid" Callie offered with a solemn smile.
"I say me and Callie go, Derek you can stay here with the others, if we need to break in then I'm better at picking locks than you are" Mark said with his own frown.
"You'll be ok?" Derek asked cautiously.
"I can't promise that, but we will be careful" Mark sighed.
-oOo-
After finishing their lunch, Callie and Mark set to getting ready, Mark putting on the clothes he had arrived in that were stained with gore despite being washed, and Callie donning her cat burglar outfit, all black. They reconvened in the garage and Mark approached the Latina while she was sharpening her axe.
"I've already sharpened yours" Callie advised as she pointed with her head towards Mark's axe which lay on the floor.
"Thanks... you know it's not too late to pull out, no one is going to think any less of you" Mark offered one last time.
"We're doing this. You and me and we are both coming back to a warm meal and a few beers" Callie ordered, raising her eyebrow challengingly, Mark raised his hands in defence before reaching for his axe, running his finger carefully over the blade and nodding approvingly at the good job Callie had done with it.
"Are we both going in my car or do you want to take your van?" Callie asked.
"I don't think there is enough fuel in the van to get there, never mind get back" Mark groused.
"My car it is then... you ready?" Callie said as she rose us from the stool and put the axe in the holder attached to her belt.
"As I will ever be... We're going to be ok Torres" Mark forced a smile on his face.
"Damn right we will" Callie smiled back.
After rounding up the rest of the group and bidding their farewells, Mark jumped in the passenger seat and wound the window down, resting his arm on the window sill.
"Callie wait..." Arizona called as the brunette rounded the car the get in the drivers side. Callie stopped dead and awaited the blonde to plead with her one last time not to risk it and go.
"Please be careful" Arizona said instead, Callie turned to look at the blonde in surprise, only to find her stood a foot away, the blonde raised her hands to cup Callie's face, her pale fingers stroking the tanned skin as they stared into each others eyes. "Please come back"
"I will do everything in my power to come back" Callie practically whispered, scared that her voice would break.
Arizona leaned up on her tip toes, her face coming closer to Callie's. Callie closed her eyes on instinct as Arizona placed a tender kiss on her cheek. "Come back because I think that I'm not the only one who wanted that kiss to be more" Arizona admitted bravely. Callie couldn't find her voice so she nodded, she took Arizona's hand in her own and squeezed it tenderly.
"I will be back, and we will talk about this" Callie finally mumbled after a few seconds of intense silence.
"I will look forward to it" Arizona smiled before releasing Callie from her hold on her.
-oOo-
"So you and Robbins hey" Mark said after ten minutes of silence, they had departed the estate safely and were now navigating around stranded cars on the way to the mall.
"I don't know you well enough to discuss her with you" Callie said, throwing a side glance at the salt and pepper haired man.
"We have a bond now you and I, doing this together, surviving this together..." Mark mused.
"There is a long way to go before we can say we survived this together, but for now. I don't know you well enough"
"Thats fine... for what it's worth though, I have known Robbins about two years and she is really cool... she has to be to be a paediatric surgeon, they are made of tough stuff seeing kids die under their care every day... I just want you to know, you've picked well" Mark said as he watched Callie pull into an expansive and relatively empty carpark.
"Thanks Sloan, now get your head in the game" Callie smiled softly at her companion before returning her attention to her surroundings, she was currently in the west part of the mall carpark and the gun store was on the east side, which meant she needed to get to the other side of the mall as quietly as possible without gaining the attention of any infected,
"It's sure quiet out here" Mark mused as they travelled through parking bays dodging the odd car that was still parked, indicating that there could be infected or survivors in the proximity. It was now in the third week since the fall of humanity, so chances were that the abandoned vehicles belonged to infected who would either be trapped inside the mall, or had migrated further afield during that time.
"Jesus Mark, don't say the Q word, you will jinx us" Callie admonished seriously as she threw a glare to her travel companion who scoffed softly at the silliness of jinxes. "What, you aren't superstitious? don't use a special scrub cap when you operate, or sing a specific song when you scrub in? No magic words you say at the beginning of each surgery or a special playlist you have played when you operate?"
"Derek... he used to say 'It's a beautiful day to save lives' never really got it but it was his thing and made him feel more confident so..." Mark trailed off thoughtfully.
"What's the story between you two, Derek introduced you as best friends but there's more to the story" Callie asked as she approached the entrance they would need for the gun store and parked in front of it so they could see inside the windows for movement.
"We go way back. My mom died when I was seven, my dad was a deadbeat and took off not long before. I think the reality of having a sick wife and a young kid hit him so he packed his shit and never looked back. I went to school with the Shepherds, Derek and all of his sisters... his Mom and Dad took me in and fostered me, we were practically brothers. Things were fine until he came home one day and found me in bed with his wife... a drunken moment of madness nearly cost me my best friend and only brother" Mark admitted.
"Wait, I thought Derek said he was married to Addie?" Callie asked connecting the pieces of the puzzle, the awkwardness when the three of them were together, how the three of them were never alone, the looks Derek would give Mark.
"The one and only" Mark grimaced.
"Wow, that's... full on" Callie commented quietly. Her eyes were trained on the glass doors to the mall the entire time they had been talking and she hadn't seen a single movement. "We should probably head inside" Callie offered after a tense silence, Mark clearly wasn't proud of his actions but she appreciated his honesty.
"Turn the cab around and reverse it up to the doors so we can make a quick get away if needed" Mark ordered softly and Callie complied, her heart in her mouth all of a sudden this had just gotten real, the prospect of what she was about to do... this was dangerous and potentially stupid and she couldn't help but say a silent prayer that things worked out ok so she could get back to Arizona and see what that kiss meant.
Once the crew-cab was in position. Callie opened and closed her door quietly as she exited the vehicle. She grabbed the axe from its pouch on her belt and hefted it in her hand until she had a comfortable grip on it, she motioned silently with her head for Mark to follow her lead, impressed with the quietness he exited the vehicle with.
They made their way towards the doors and pushed against them lightly.
"Looks like they should be auto openers" Mark offered in a soft voice "We will have to wedge them open, do you have anything in the back of the cab to keep them open?"
"Just the spare tyre and the stuff needed to change it. I wanted an empty cab for all that we would be bringing back with us" Callie shrugged
"Grab the spare tyre, its not perfect but it will do" Mark ordered again, his voice soft and calm so it wouldn't carry.
The entire time Callie was behind him removing the tyre his ears were pricked, listening for any sound that may be foreign, anything that may give away that they weren't alone but all he could hear was the soft grunts from behind him as Callie struggled with the tyre. He spun around and helped her lift it to the door before he grabbed his axe, wedged it between the two sliding doors and began to crank them open. It slid open almost noiselessly, but in the silence of the mall even the tiniest sounds carried and so once the doors were open and the spare tyre was laid in the middle of them in case they shut he stood for several more long minutes, finally he nodded his head in resolution that the coast, as much as he could tell, was clear.
The two of them, axes in hands, walked into the mall entrance and the silence of it all felt eerily calm. Callie led the way towards the gun store and when they arrived she wasn't surprised to find the shutter down and a padlock securing it to the floor. She threw a look over her shoulder to find Mark glancing around at their surroundings, watching for any sign of movement or any sound that shouldn't be there.
Callie nudged him and pointed to the padlock, with a frown he nodded, reached into his pocket and brought out a tin full of bobby pins which chinked against the tin softly but the noise was enough to echo around the mall. Mark motioned for Callie to take over watching his back whilst he worked, which she did happily. She scanned the single story mall for any sign of movement or sound but found nothing which relaxed her slightly.
"Got it" Mark announced quietly as he unhooked the padlock and moved it to the side. "Give me a hand lift this thing, its probably going to make a hell of a racket so be on the watch out" Mark warned and Callie nodded her understanding.
They moved to either side of the roller panel and began to lift it, groaning in frustration at the screeching sound it made as it raised up. Finally with it almost at the top, they released their grip on it and watched as it rolled three inches back towards the floor.
Mark was the first to enter the gun store his eyes lighting up at what was in front of him.
"Hey Cal, I think were going to need a couple of trolleys to shift this lot" Mark murmured.
"Uh Mark" Callie said in a voice that was a little more high pitched than usual. Mark spun around to find his friend with a knife against her throat, a drip of blood rolling down her neck as the body holding the knife hid behind her tall frame.