Visit to the Truckstop

Posted on Wed Jul 3rd, 2024 @ 4:50pm by Hale Stratton [Major, United States Army] & Civilian Joshua MacCallan & Lydia Dunham & Kimberley Hathaway

2,857 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Winter is Coming
Location: Revere Truckstop Off I-95
Timeline: September 6, 2010 - 1:00 p.m.

Joshua was leading Lydia's van along the road that ran along side the turnpike, heading slightly west of Boston. The roads around Boston were filled with abandoned cars and several were barricaded so people could not enter. Considering this, he had pulled out a map and was plotting a bypass around the now smouldering Boston. They had seen the firebombing as they had gotten up that morning.

He glanced at his fuel gauge and sighed. They needed to find a place to refuel and maybe even sleep for a few hours. He spotted a truck-stop a mile ahead and considered it. It would do for now. Maybe there would be a way of getting fuel for the Van and the bike.

Using his bikes indicator he led Lydia off the road and onto the small service road that lead to the truck-stop. They drove slowly, carefully looking around for any signs of the walking dead. Pulling up he pulled his helmet off and turned off the engine to listen.

He frowned as he listened.

Dressed in jeans, hiking boots, and long-sleeved soft gray pullover, Lydia was humming a song she half-remembered. Of all the things she missed about this new reality, music was up near the top. She danced to it, sang to it, drove to it, and once upon a time, fell asleep to it. And now, nothing except the sound of her own voice. Driving long-distances was easy, prolonged periods of silence left too much room for thoughts.

The gas cans back in the garage were empty and her tank was down below a quarter. The truck stop seemed like a good idea and she nodded her approval as she pulled in alongside Josh. Her job at this point was to remain in the van with the engine running and wait for the all-clear; that had been an early-on discussion. Josh would check and she would wait.

He could hear hammering. Josh slid off the bike, pulled the bat free of the straps and held it low as he approached the dinner section. "Hello?" he called out. Hammering did not mean survivors necessarily, it could be walkers trying to get out. The hammering stopped.

Inside the diner, Kimberly froze as she had been boarding up a window. The call had her ducking down.

Josh called again. Walkers would not stop. "Hello? Anyone there? We are looking for fuel.."

The voice had Kimberly peaking between the boards and the bottom of the window. She studied the man standing beside the motorbike with a trailer attached and then she spotted the van behind him, a young female at the wheel. No one else.

Slowly she moved to the door, pulling her froe from the belt on her jeans and she opened the door slowly. She stepped into clear view as she wanted it to be clear she was not infected.

Josh studied the older woman who was now appearing. "Hi," He said noting the wicked looking tool in her hand. He knew he was no better, baseball bat in hand.

Kimberly inclined her head. She glanced towards the sky, noting the time to be about midday-ish. "You traveling through?" she asked.

"Looking for fuel." Josh replied. "Then we were planning on heading north."

Kimberly studied him. No tattoos, very clean shaven despite it being several days, she judged since he had bathed. Then again, it was the same with her. And probably the same with the girl in the van.

"There is fuel here, but the pumps are not working." She said "I Arrived here last night, waiting for a clear path west. Then... that happened." She pointed towards the destroyed City.

Josh nodded. "We are from New York." He said. "Just you?"

"Just me" Kimberly replied. "Not much here. Not much killing for anyway."

Josh shook his head. "We are not going to do that." he assured her. "I am Joshua MacCallan, former ADA in NYC, and my travel partner is Lydia, she is an artist in NYC."

"Kimberly Hathaway. Former housewife." Kimberly introduced herself. "Even if we can get you fuel, it will take a while. You can park in the garage. Should be enough room for both your vehicles in there. And I have not barricaded it yet."

"Thank you," Lydia said. Questions bubbled up in her mind such as why would anyone want to introduce themselves by what they used to do, to be. Her fingers itched to draw the expression on her face when she said that, try to capture the unspoken story behind the words. "I'll move the van in."

The garage had two bays and all the tools needed to do simple repairs like changing oil, repairing tires, and the like; off to one side, a truck just big enough to haul a covered trailer, and a fairly new SUV were parked. Lydia ignored them as she entered the garage; it had that embedded dirt and grease feel to it that she remembered from countless appointments to get things checked. Sometimes, the van had needed it but mostly, it was to appease her grandfather's fears back in the days when she traveled occasionally but still lived in the penthouse.

She pulled the van into one of the bays, made sure that everything was closed and locked up, then pocketed the keys as she walked back to where Kimberly Hathaway, former housewife, waited. Hoping for tea and possibly food but unwilling to say anything. Miss Hathaway had assumed 'ownership' of the truck stop, or so it seemed, which meant being polite. She could do that. Those lessons had started when she was still in diapers.

Josh wheeled his bike in and disconnected the trailer to get it to fit in. He closed the doors behind them and followed Lydia into the diner which stood separate from the garage.

Kimberly was standing in the main area of the diner. "There is no power unfortunately." She said as the two entered. "But the water is still flowing for now, not sure how much longer it will. No generator here, and no gas. I built a small fire last night just outside the backdoor to heat some water, and such but I had to cover it. Only seen the odd Walker here and there." She explained, still watching them warily. "I was securing the diner for the night, I was going to give it a couple of days then head west, give anyone else running a chance to get out before I left."

"If the water's running, I can fill the water supply in the van," Lydia said all but bouncing at the idea. She had been cautious with water usage and it had been a couple of days since her last sponge bath. The gray water wasn't a problem, that she dumped when they camped. "You have food here? Maybe energy bars in the convenience store?"

"There maybe some, I have not had a good look in there, I checked out this area, the kitchen behind here has tinned food." Kimberly said softly.

Josh nodded. "You were boarding things up. I can help with that."

Kimberly studied him and then nodded again.

"Just don't block the door," Lydia said. "I'll need to be able to get out to the van later. And now, I"m going shopping." The shop was accessible through the dining room which was less worrisome than it was going to be getting back to her van to go to sleep but still, somethings were necessary. She picked up a couple of plastic bags and then started walking the aisles. Truck stops catered to people on the road which means an array of snacks, drinks, toiletries, reading material and the like.

Lydia cleaned out the supply of energy bars first thing splitting them, two-thirds for her and one-third for Josh, and then went back through the aisles to look, more selectively, for useful things. These were things that went into the communal pile -- two bars of soap. Shampoo and conditioner. Toothpaste. Toothbrushes. Bungee cords. Kitchen matches. Plastic bags. Aluminum foil. Duct tape. Adhesive strips and over the counter pain relievers. And then that pile was divided further into two bags.

Once those bags were sitting by the door, she went and found the storeroom to make sure that there was more of whatever she took -- and there was. Which was good because there was Kimberley to consider and all those other people in need who would come after.

Then it was just a matter of taking everything out to the van. Josh's things she left hanging on the handle of his trailer. For him, she added a razor, razor blades, and shaving cream along with everything else. In hers, she'd added a couple of novels that looked interesting. Once all that was done, she headed back to the diner where they could work on putting some sort of a meal together.

Kimberly and Joshua had finished breaking apart more tables. Joshua began staking them so they could board up the shop door if needed.

Kimberly didn't speak as they worked, and it was fine with Joshua. When Lydia came back in he gave her a small smile. "Find anything interesting?" He asked her.

"A few things," Lydia said. "I hung a bag on the door to your trailer. And don't worry," she added, looking at Kimberley, "there's still plenty in the storeroom. Didn't clean you out. So." She put her hands on her slim hips and looked toward the kitchen. "Any idea what we can scrounge up for a meal?"

"I have yet to clear the cooler, but there is a dry goods store with some still viable vegetables." Kimberly said. "No Walkers in there, I checked." Kimberly went to a window and peeked out. "Still clear out there." She added. "For now."

"I'm happy to go look. Josh, would you mind setting up somewhere protected where we can cook, and Kimberley, want to come with me?"

Josh nodded, already thinking.

Kimberly nodded and headed for the kitchen area. "Its a mess in here." She warned Lydia as she walked. "They left in a hurry."

"We should probably clean up then," Lydia said, "before we go hunting fresh stuff." She shoved her sleeves up over her elbows and went looking for trash bags.

Kimberly found them under a bench and also found rubber gloves. She handed a set of gloves over to Lydia and then pulled a pair onto her hands before opening up the bag. She had been focused on securing the building just in case there was walkers around. She moved to the cooler. “Its still cold in there, but it wont last for long.” She warned as she opened the door.

[Meanwhile, Outside/Back of the Restaurant]

Joshua exited the backdoor of the diner slowly looking around. He studied the small area out the back of the Truckstop. He knew better than to make a fire big enough to be spotted and he found a few turned over barrels and so he moved slowly, carefully and checked for any signs of the undead before he moved them into a semi-circle in a clear area. He then went and borrowed a shovel from the garage section and began to dig a fire pit. He dug it deep so that the fire would be kept contained and low from view.

He was about to lay some firewood when a movement made him freeze. He slowly raised his head, crouched behind the barrels he spotted a walker lurching down the turnpike which was only a short distance from the small service road where they were hiding. He kept low and made his way back to the building and slid back inside, closing the door softly behind himself. He was not sure how strong their hearing was. Sure, the turnpike was a good 300 meters away, but still.

[And ... Inside of the Restaurant]

Commercial kitchen's were different but cleaning was something Lydia understood. Living in the tiny square footage of a van, keeping this clean and organized was pretty much essential. And so, Lydia got to work. She found the oversized (and for that you could also say gargantuan) trash bags and started going through the kitchen. Food that was going bad got dumped first as did all the dishes, with food on them, that were stacked up at the dish washing station.

She kept the contents small enough that she could pick them up and yeah, it did seem strange, throwing away dishes, but then again, they had very little water and plenty of clean dishes. Once all that was done and hauled out to the dumpster, waving at Josh every time she went by.

Feels so normal, she thought. Well except for the whole cleaning a restaurant kitchen. That's new. A bit of searching, okay, more than a bit, uncovered a closet with cleaning products. There was that moment, with her hand on the knob, breathing hard and willing away the panic attack that threatened, before she opened the door because who knew what horror could be lurking in there.

She opened it. She got past it and if she leaned against the wall inside for a moment, slowing her heart rate down, no one was the wiser. She found some cleaning products and started wiping down surfaces ... which were metal. All of them. Must be ... have been ... really noisy, she thought, when the kitchen was busy. Nothing to dampen the sound.

Still, she found herself dancing a bit while she worked and truth be told, it felt good to be working, to be doing something relatively normal. And at the end of it all, there would be some sort of a meal. And that would be very good.

Josh came into the kitchen and looked around. “Walker on the Turnpike” He stated, “Didn’t see any others but where there is one…”

Kimberly froze, “There is often more” she breathed and put down the bag she had been filling with rubbish. She moved past Josh to the front of the diner to peek through the boards.

"If its not on the off ramp, it will have a hard time getting down here," Lydia said. "They have trouble navigating the rails and such." She turned a sympathetic look in Kimberley's direction, well to her back because she was looking out the window. "Is cooking a bad idea then?"

“Lets give it a bit of time to get past us. I do not know how good their sense of smell is or their hearing.” Joshua replied following Kimberly to the window. They could see the long walker shuffling but as the off ramp was now behind it, they were, he figured pretty safe from that one anyway.

He drew back. “I dug a deep fire pit, and put things around it to shelter it. So we can cook, boil water and such but we will need to be very careful.”

"We can use on of those big stock pots, boil water, and clean up a little," Lydia said. She clasped her hands together as she spoke, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "And in the meantime, we'll start figuring out what we can make for dinner. How's that sound?"

Kimberly turned back and nodded. "Sounds good to me." She replied.

Joshua went to get the pots. "Lets get started then. I will fill the first pot then go out and light the fire. You both stay safe."

Lydia nodded, wholly in agreement with Josh, and turned toward Kimberley. "Okay, let's go find those vegetables, shall we?"

Kimberly nodded and with one last glance out the window she followed Lydia into the kitchen area. She went into the store room there and brought out bags of potatoes and onions. "I think I can make a potato soup from these if there is some other ingredient's."

Lydia went digging ... scrounging ... hunting. It was, she thought, something they'd be doing a lot more of for awhile anyways. And just how long would canned goods last? How long before they'd be living off what they could grow and hunt. She shivered at that thought. Undead deer? Racoons shuffling toward her? "Oookay," she muttered as she pushed things aside and crouched down in turn. "Not going to think about that again." Her search was sort of profitable. She found carrots and an industrial sized bag of bacon bits.

Joshua made his way back outside and with the spare wood from the broken tables he set about making a fire in the bottom of the pit. He then placed a grate over the pit and put a large pot filled with water on the growing blaze. He was glad he had dug a big pit so he could still feed the fire without removing the large grate which could hold a couple of pots. He kept an eye out as he worked and was glad that the wind would carry the smoke away from the diner and the turnpike. But he also knew that Walkers could come from any direction.

 

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