I clapped him on the back as he levered the doors open for Charlene and me.
We stepped off the bus and looked around. The area appeared vacant and silent. I didn’t like it. The bathroom seemed to be inside the mini-mart. I saw Kia, Gene and Michelle inside. Dave, by the pumps filling the tank, leaned his back against the bus with one hand stuffed into his pocket.
“I see you’re awake,” he said.
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “I can’t believe I slept that long.”
“You must have needed it. I slept some too, we all did. Those beds aren’t bad.”
“You all took turns while I hogged a mattress all to myself,” I said, and laughed.
“I’ll fight you for it when we get back on the road,” he said.
“You can have it. I’m going to take a turn at the wheel,” I said.
“Sounds good,” he said. He pushed his back off the bus, and stood with his weight on one foot. “I’m actually feeling just a bit sleepy.”
Charlene and I walked to the entrance, and went into the store. We stood in line for a turn in the restrooms.
“Bed ain’t bad, is it?” Gene said. “Not top of the line or nothing, but I think for a mattress inside a bus, they work.”
“They work, alright. I’d have believed it was a Sealy,” I said. “I didn’t mean to sleep so much. There was no trouble on the road?”
“Nothing, really. We knocked four-hundred plus miles out in eight hours. Not too shabby.”
“Not too shabby at all.”
“We limit stops like this, who knows, we could be at the border in twenty-two hours,” Gene said. “I have some empty jugs on board. Offered them to people. Figured we could have avoided this whole stop, if you know what I mean? Yeah, no one was real comfortable with using them.”
“I think an occasional bathroom stop isn’t asking too much,” I said. No way was I peeing in a jug on a bus full of people. Be one thing if there was a bathroom inside the bus, like on the tour buses, but there was nothing like that on this one.
Melissa came out of the men’s room, and Megan went in. When Michelle came out of the women’s room, Kia went in. I didn’t realize how badly I needed to urinate until I knew I wasn’t even next. Gene and Charlene were ahead of me. I bounced my weight from foot to foot, and was a movement away from covering my crotch and crossing my legs at the ankles.
To distract myself, I looked around. I knew Dave and Andy were outside watching the place. The idea of just being inside a store like this made me a little apprehensive. We were all well-armed.
“Still a few supplies we could scrounge up from here before we get rolling,” I said. The shelves were mostly picked bare. “Anything edible that isn’t open we should take. Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“I agree with that,” Gene said.
Once pee breaks ended, we walked back to the bus as a group. We each carried a hand basket filled with whatever else was left on the store shelves. There were a few tins of sardines, motor oil, baby wipes, plastic ware, and toothpaste, a jar of green olives, magazines, and boxes and boxes of Wheat Thins.
“Let me go quick,” Andy said. He seemed nearly as impatient as I had been, like he felt his eyeballs about to float inside his skull if he didn’t drain his bladder.
“I better, too,” Dave said.
I climbed onto the bus, and got behind the wheel. “Everyone on,” I said. I watched Dave and Andy cut across the parking lot to the mini-mart. The others took seats behind me.
“I’m gonna get some rest,” Gene said. Melissa agreed, suggesting they’d share a bed.
I missed Allison.
Looking around, yet again, I let out a sigh. I’d been waiting for the worst. Expecting the worst, but nothing had happened. The entire ten minute stop was uneventful, and that, for the first time in a long time, felt encouraging.
“Notice the difference in temperature,” Charlene said. She sat in the closest seat across from me.
“It sure is considerably warmer, isn’t it?”
“Ah, yeah, like twenty degrees, almost.”
“It’s about fifty-five out,” Kia said. She was in the seat behind Charlene. “I’m from Atlanta, originally. Winters were great. The fall and spring, too, but summer was brutal. The humidity alone was relentless. I’m probably the only black woman to move north for a chance at escaping the heat.” She tossed her head back a little and laughed.
“I’m not a big fan of humidity either,” I said. I eyed the door. The gate was down and secured. I could drive a stick, but was thankful it was an automatic. ”Okay, where am I headed?”
Charlene held up a folded map. “I’m your co-pilot,” she said. “I helped Andy, too. We are looking for I-65 South. To get there, we need to get back on I-264 West. Make a right out of here, go a few more miles, and we should hit sixty-five.”
“Gotcha,” I said. “Not a bad co-pil--”
A gunshot.
The steel-covered windows might prevent someone or something from getting at us, but they also kept us from seeing everything around us. I shouldn’t have been inside the bus, anyway. Not with Andy and Dave inside the store. I should have grabbed a gun and stood guard. “Where did the shot come from?” I said.
Gene was out of bed and ran to the front of the bus. “The store, I think.”
I craned my neck and twisted my head. I couldn’t see either Dave or Andy. “Stay here,” I said, Charlene nodded. “Kia, take the wheel!”
I scrambled down the three steps, off the bus, and freed my sword from its scabbard. Holding the hilt in both hands I spun around, but saw nothing. “You see anything?” I said.
Gene held a Glock in each hand. He shook his head. His eyes were open wide, searching the pumps, the parking lot, and like mine -- staring desperately into the darkness that enveloped the store. “Let’s get inside and make sure the guys are okay.”
We ran from the pumps to the front door. The store was encased in glass. It was easy to see inside, except for the rows of empty shelves making up the mart’s four aisles. “Both bathroom doors are closed.”
Another gunshot. Glass around the door into the mini-mart exploded. It did not come from inside the store. “Get back to the bus,” I told Gene. “Lock it down. We’ve got visitors coming.”
I heard car engines. More than one.
“Chase?” It was Dave.
I ran in through the missing glass, and sprinted for the bathroom doors. I slid on the linoleum to a stop. The guys were on the floor, backs to the empty shelves.
“What the fuck is going on out there?” Dave said.
“Company,” I said. I heard the bus horn honk. And honk. “I think we’re in trouble.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I watched two sets of headlights come at the mini-mart, one pair from the west and the other from the east. I could see them clearly from where we were inside the rear of the store, the last aisle by the bathroom doors.
“We’re trapped in here,” Andy said. “Aren’t we? We’re trapped.”
The bus rolled out of its spot by the pumps. It would never be able to turn on a dime and get close enough to the building for us to make a break for it safely. It would need to maneuver around some, and…
“Where are they going?” Dave said. It pulled up toward the main road. We all watched it from where we knelt behind the shelving. “Where the fuck is our bus going?”
“It’ll be back,” I said. “That’s what they should do. Take off.”
“The fuck they should,” Andy said. He stood up. “Thing’s like a tank!”
I grabbed his shirt and yanked him back down. “You want to get your head shot off?”
I heard tires screech. The cars must have stopped right up front, both with high-beams on and aimed directly into the store. The back wall was lit like it was ablaze with halogen fire. I heard car doors open, and saw giant shadows play across the wall.