Page 44 of The Red Rider
“We’re going to drive back to Florida?”
“Between the three of us, we can carry it back, but you’ll have to ride inside. Is that okay? I suppose you could hop on my back, but you’d be more comfortable sitting inside the RV.”
I placed my finger over his lips because I knew he was about to babble.
“It’s fine. Should we help them clear Costco of Rage Heads?”
“Leonard and Bubba drew them out with those speakers, and now they are all dead. New Jersey was a hot zone for the Rage Mutation. As far as we know, everyone that didn’t turn left the state. Leonard and Bubba didn’t just drive through here because it was on the way. There are no settlements here because everyone is dead, a Rage Head or they fled the state.
“Dice has enough of Leif’s serum to clear what we can, but we need those devices they are working on in Florida to make it a safe place to live. I wouldn’t feel bad about Leonard or that Bubba. Leonard helped do this, and Bubba profited off it in some way, or your father wouldn’t have even known his name.”.
I could see black corpses all over the place, and there were two dead men in the RV. I couldn’t hear any Rage Heads wailing, but I still felt super exposed standing there on top of this RV even if no one was out there with a gun to take a potshot at me.
“Can we go to Costco? I’d feel safer with something to do. It feels weird standing here with all these dead bodies.”
“Do you want to go the angel way or walk through the corpses?”
“Ew. The angel way. This is my only pair of boots.”
“Maybe we can find you some more boots in Costco.”
The apocalypse was so not the time to moan about how Costco probably didn’t carry steel toe, knee-high combat boots, or lacy thongs. I’d be happy if I could grab some seriously expired deodorant, toothpaste, and dental floss. I’d been brushing my teeth with homemade toothpaste when I could get it, but I would watch Aeron kill Bubba again to brush my teeth with something minty with no grit.
Aeron zapped us to Costco, and it was just eerie. It felt like centuries had passed since I was in a ghost town raiding stores for supplies. I had gotten spoiled with the settlements I’d been in so far. Costco was dark. Most of the food had long been rotted, but the smell of it was still in the air.
Not only did angels have those handy angel pockets, but Aeron was his own personal flashlight and could light up the area around him. I poked him in the chest.
“Hey, glow-worm. Can I do that? There are some personal shopping items I’d like to find.”
Aeron cocked an eyebrow at me.
“I know you haven’t gone through that massive box of tampons you shoved in my face like they were solid gold.”
“Tampons arenota luxury item and shouldn’t be taxed as such. No one asked our opinion about having to bleed once a month, and I swear to God if you say anything about Eve and that apple, I’ll castrate you.”
Aeron held up his hands.
“I wasn’t. I can tell you for a fact they consulted no woman on that. If you can make the lights go out, I’m pretty sure you can glow a little to light your way. I just don’t know how to teach you. We’re usually having sex when you cause a power outage, but this place stinks, and there’s dirt everywhere. Maybe we can find the mattress section.”
“We aren’t fucking in Costco, Aeron.”
“Are you sure? It could be kind of kinky.”
“No way. I have to draw the line somewhere, and a stinky Costco isn’t sexy. What do you do when you glow?”
“I channel my rage in my belly and let it out in little pieces unless I need to let it all out and kill people.”
“I have rage.”
“I know. You threaten me with it a lot. You should use it for something other than threatening to cut off my dick or not having orgies.”
“How do you channel your rage like that?”
“I run through everything that has ever pissed me off until I’m in a foul mood. It’s easy because it always hits you right in the gut. You just need to learn how to let it out in bits and pieces after that. I don’t think you can kill anyone like we can, but you can stun and light your way. You could use it against Isaiah instead of just shopping for tampons at Costco.”
I was already running through every grievance I had with my father. I remembered those guys in Mexico that cut me and wanted to rape me. I even managed to remember my rivals on the roller derby circuit and the softball teams we always wanted to beat.
I could feel this intense feeling in my gut that I knew if I let it out, I was going to destroy something. I tried to just let out a little, even if this feeling was totally overwhelming, and I thought I was going to explode and get my insides all over this haunted Costco.
