After 30 Days

Thirty-Two- Day 56

Opening the door had drawn the attention of the others. They all crowded around the slice of sunlight with me, interested in seeing what was out there.

"Everything ok?" Shawn asked as he came over.

I nodded, "Yeah. There's a vet clinic next door." When it became obvious that no one else was following where I was going with that, I elaborated. "We should check it out. See what medical stuff might still be in there."

I turned to look at Shawn and did a double take. Of all things, he had an old baseball bat slung over one shoulder. He saw where I was looking and grinned. "I found it on one of the shelves over there. It just felt right, so I picked it up."

The first time I'd ever laid eyes on him, he'd been uncomfortably close to bashing me over the head with a similar bat. He'd lost the old thing somewhere along the way, and I wasn't entirely sure I was happy to see another one. It was giving me flashbacks. Trying to put those thoughts out of my mind, I gestured toward the pet clinic. "Are we all going, or..." I let the thought trail off.

"Yeah, I think we should all stay together," Maya offered.

When everyone had agreed I said," Ok then," and pushed the door open all of the way. There was no time like the present.

We skirted around the overgrown lot next door, keeping to the road. It was a short walk to get to the next building. Buzzing insects called from the tall grass and birds flitted around us. The sky was a brilliant blue. Weeds were starting to encroach on the pavement. The highway behind us was silent.

Nature was starting her inevitable takeover of the places that humans had once claimed.

The front door of the vet clinic was standing wide open. Three concrete steps led up to a small landing. Rex ran ahead and stopped on the landing, sniffing furiously all around himself. He looked back at us as our group made it to the bottom of the steps, and cocked his head to one side.

Taking the lead up the steps, I joined the dog. I reached down and patted him lightly on the top of the head as I cautiously peered through the open door. He wagged his tail lightly and trotted inside the building.

"Rex," I hissed at him lowly. The big dog stopped and turned to look at me. There was enough light making it inside through windows and the open door that I could clearly see inside. Nothing moved in there except the dog.

I was fairly sure that Rex would have let us know if any zombies lurked inside the clinic, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. We had to check. Shawn had come up next to me at the door and he rapped the bat hard against the door frame.

The dull thunks seemed louder than normal in the quiet air. After a few seconds of silently listening, I relaxed a fraction. It was still all clear. Rex was now sniffing around the chairs in the waiting room. Shawn looked at me and then back to the others who were still a few steps back from the stairs, giving themselves room to fight if need be. "Seems ok," he told them.

Bill nodded and was the next to climb the stairs. The others followed behind him. Wincing when my broken toe decided to give me a particularly nasty throb, I slipped through the door.

It looked like any typical small vet clinic inside. A waiting room just inside the door had chairs lined up against the walls. A giant fish tank that was now only half full and giving off a smell like sewer water stood in one corner. Pamphlets advertising flea and tick prevention hung from a wall. A small display of cat toys and dog treats was lined up on top of the tall counter.

The place had been left in order. Still moving cautiously despite Rex's apparent lack of concern about the place, I moved towards the open door that led deeper into the building.

It was a little darker through the next door. The dog darted into the gloom and continued his olfactory exploration. Inside, I found a long hallway with three doors to the right and one near me to the left. A glance through the left door showed a small space with a computer and rows of color coded files on shelves stacked floor to ceiling. The cash drawer was open and someone had taken all of the money.

I snorted. What good was money any more?

The other side of the tall counter was in this small room. I could look over it and see the rest of my group still out in the waiting area. There was nothing of obvious value, or danger, in this space and I turned to go back out into the hallway. As I did a black shadow darted out from behind a trash can in the corner.

"Oh!" The small sound escaped me before I could stop myself. The shadow ran a frantic circuit of the room before jumping up onto the counter and leaping off of the other side. The others must have been as startled as I was. Several of them also made small noises and I could see them jumping back.

The black cat hit the floor of the waiting room at a dead run and disappeared out the front door.

Laughing nervously, I went back into the hall. The scare had rattled my nerves and had my heart thumping. If a cat was the worst thing waiting for us inside then we should count ourselves lucky.

We split up to search the three open doors to the right in pairs. Shawn and I took the last door. It led to a very dark patient room that had a stainless steel table, a cabinet that was full of cotton balls and boxes of the flea medications that were advertised out front. The room was barely big enough for three steps from side to side, and there wasn't much in it. Yet another door led out the other side and into a slightly better lit, second hallway.

I followed Shawn through the door and we met up with the others who were also walking through darkened doorways into the dubious light. It was obvious with a glance around that we were finally getting to the useful area of the clinic.

The walls were lined with shelves stacked high with bottles and boxes of every size and shape. Taking note of the names on the medications as we followed this hall, I recognized several names from my time working with a vet. It was a goldmine of painkillers and antibiotics, and supplies to treat wounds.

Eager to get back to the shelves full of useful things, I pushed forward down the hall and into the room at the end. It was an open space with steel cages stacked along the walls, and more medical equipment scattered around the room. To my relief, all of the cages were empty. Several had doors that stood open. Someone had let the pets locked inside out.

I realized then that I'd been dreading finding dead dogs and cats locked up in the vet clinic since the moment I first saw the place. It felt like a weight lifted from my shoulders to find that that fear was not going to come true, this time.

Exhaling loudly, I patted Rex again, he'd followed me into the room, and turned back to the rest of the group.

They were all gathered out in the hallway, looking over the supplies on the shelves. "That's the last room, and it's all clear," I told them as I rejoined the group.

Maya nodded and gestured to the shelves. "This was a really good idea, Bri. Do you have any idea what's safe to use?"

"Yeah. Actually, a lot of people and pet meds are the same thing, the dose is just different. There's a lot of stuff here that we can take." I started directing the others on what to look for. We got to work clearing the shelves of all of the medications that we were sure we could use.

Sam found an unused plastic garbage bag and filled it nearly full with bandages, gauze, ointments, and everything else he could find to clean and treat wounds. When I looked over to where Shawn was busy at the end of the hall, I saw him piling cans of dog and cat food into a box that he'd found somewhere. The rest of us stuffed the backpacks with bottles of pills. In a matter of minutes we'd cleaned out the vet clinic and were loaded down with more medical supplies than anyone had seen since before this all started.

I even grabbed a couple of boxes of the flea prevention for Rex. It was there and while the meds were available, it made no sense to let the dog suffer.

Feeling more optimistic that I'd been in a while, I felt a small smile tug at the corners of my mouth as we made our way back through the dark building.

- - -

Alright guys, question for you.

One readers has requested a Facebook based "book club" where we can all chat about chapters of the book. Me included. Who would be interested in participating in something like this?