Chapter 64 The First Encounter
1750words
It feels as if he is on another planet!
All the way from the smallholding he hasn't seen any moving vehicle. The dirt road now becomes a tar road and he drives in between the first houses in town and still he sees no sign of life. He drives to the main road. His priority will be a butcher. Maybe he can find preserved meat in a freezer. Perishable products, for now, will be the priority. If he finds such a freezer or cold storage he will fill his 4x4 and deliver it to the smallholding. He and Robert built their own freezer and made sure that the battery bank, solar panels and wind turbine they erected, will keep it frozen. In their freezer, there are still a few carcasses but when they are consumed, meat will be as scarce as feathers on a fish and the freezer will be redundant. Luckily, Lyle provided him with a few hens and cocks and they are raising chicken. It will probably be the only protein in the future except for tinned meat from the town's shops which haven't been looted. Maybe he will have to drive out in the country and look for cattle, sheep and game farms and shoot some animals and bring their meat. This idea comforts him a little.
Hunter is now driving along the main road and begins to wonder whether there really are sick people who survived. Or had they, as predicted, turned into man-eating monsters because there is no soul in sight? In front of him now is his favorite, Victor's Butchery, on the corner and he drives up to the middle of the intersection. He now decides it is time to leave his hide-out behind his 4x4's tinted windows. He takes his binoculars and climbs out so that he can stand and scrutinize the windows of the buildings one by one and all around the intersection. He takes his time because there are four streets to inspect and his eyes focus on every window time and again to see if he can detect even the smallest movement.
Finding everything desolate, he begins to wonder. There are no corpses in the streets and no cars are blocking the streets. It is as if everyone had vanished and no one stayed behind. It is like the ascension in the Bible but in this case, all the people have ascended. Maybe they fled the spiders out of town to the countryside and became ill there. No, it can't be. Some of them surely would have remained behind. He doesn't understand why there are so few cars in town and those that are still here, are parked orderly and neatly along the street. Where are their owners? Maybe he will find out what happened when he enters the buildings. Maybe he will find corpses all over on the inside. What if the all have succumbed before they could flee out of their homes and now all the businesses are locked and empty.
The only way in which he will find out is to enter one of these buildings and the butcher is the best option. The cars parked here probably belong to the people living in the flats above the stores. But where are the owners?
Hunter finally checks everything through his binoculars but seeing nothing he puts the binoculars in the cab. He walks around to the passenger side and loads his weapons, puts his pistol and knives in their holsters and slings the sword over his shoulder. For now, he leaves the gun and the bow and arrow and conceals it in the cab. The tinted windows will, in any case, hide it from outside. The short distance weapons now on him will work well inside. He has quite a few magazines for his pistol if he is taken by surprise and entrapped by a gang, but he doesn't want to wake sleeping monsters. He will refrain from shooting and only pull the trigger as the last option. The knives and the sword, for now, will be the first option. He takes the bolt cutter and tommy bar and closes the door and locks it just in case there are robbers who quietly could have watched him and plan to hijack it when it is out of his sight. The cab, luckily, isn't far from the butchery. He can easily take someone out with his pistol from the butchery.
Ready to roll, he walks straight towards the butchery's front door. The security gate is still locked and secured with an extra chain and lock. He easily cuts the lock with the bolt cutter, pulls the chain loose and let it fall down with the bolt cutter. He wedges the tommy bar and pulls it to and fro and bends the security gate until the lock gives and he opens the gate. The front door is still closed and locked and he uses the tommy bar again and pushes it past the lock and then uses leverage to force it open. Falling slightly forward into the butchery, he sees immediately there is no one inside. There is a good chance the place is devoid of people because the lock was still in place but he must make sure of this. Someone could have broken in from the backside. He will only be sure when he has rounded the counter and has gone through the door that leads to the rest of the butchery. Well, it looks definitely if no man-eating monsters entered the businesses. However, then there must be people in the flats above the stores?
Hunter walks out and steps forward as to scrutinize all the streets again. After a while he is satisfied. He doesn't see anything suspicious and goes in again, picks up the cutter and the chain and throws it inside the butchery. He closes the security gate and the front door just in case before he takes out his pistol and moves around the counter towards the door that leads to the rest of the butchery. He switches on his headlamp and carefully approaches the door, turns the knob and pushes it open until it stops against the wall of a short dark corridor leading to the processing room at the back. Carefully he moves forward while keeping his pistol ready in front of him. On his right side, he sees the cold storage room's door and in front of him is the open door leading to the room where they cut and process the meat. The cold storage room's door is locked with a lever and he can move past it safely and he enters the empty processing room. Inside he finds the toilets and washing room empty. Relieved and excited he quickly walks back to the cold storage, opens it and smiles happily. The place is still cool and no strange smell can be detected and here are four carcasses. What luck! Free meat! The rest of the place is truly empty.
Hunter immediately starts to carry the heavy carcasses with much effort and puts it on the counter in front. Looking around, he finds plastic bags and then he walks to the freezers, fridges, and racks and inspects the contents. He immediately gets a faint smell when he opens one freezer but realize that the meat is still fine for the dogs. Hunter begins to organize himself to get the most out of the visit and he puts meat products in some bags and tins of cool drinks in others. There are cheese and butter looking good and a lot of biltong still hanging and he puts it in the rest of the bags. He now feels thankful for his decision to come into town. It definitely is worthwhile. He only wishes he had some young lads who could help him carry the load to his 4x4.
After having packed everything in plastic bags, he opens the front door and once again examines the vicinity. Satisfied he starts to carry the provisions to his cab. He fills the cab to the utmost and locks it before he walks back into the butchery and closes the door behind him. The surplus bags he carries to the cold storage where he stores it to be fetched on his next visit. Eventually, he pulls the front door shut and puts on the chain as if it is locked. He gets into his cab in high spirits and starts the engine, relieved that he struck such luck without any distraction. But where are all the people? He will have to get the answer the next time he comes in. He must now get this profit run's supplies at the smallholding as soon as possible.
A movement catches his eye! He freezes just before he drives off!
A black vehicle is turning in at the far end on the street he wants to take out of town. It is so far ahead of him he nearly missed it. At a snail's pace, he reverses his cab to the opposite of the street. He disguises his movement by moving at a clock's pace backward until he parks between two cars. Frequently he looks in the direction of the oncoming vehicle far off and only hopes the driver hasn't seen him. Another vehicle rounds the corner and comes into sight and afterward another one and later on, he counts six vehicles following one another and approaching him. He is thankful for his tinted windows while he waits for the procession to pass him if they don't turn beforehand. He hopes they haven't seen him.
It must be normal people driving the vehicles. It surely can't be insane man-eating monsters? It must be some of the survivors who visit the town, just like him, for supplies. Although it could be advantageous if more people would join them on the smallholding, the risk is too high. If he encounters a group like this, he would like to spy on them from a distance before he would venture to trust them. Maybe they are from the Eastwood Estate? No, he doubts it because for safety they would use the army.
The vehicles haven't turned off and he sees they are six identical double cab Rangers with tinted windows approaching very slowly. The first one stops right in front of him between him and the butchery.
Damn, he wishes he was the only one with tinted windows!
