Prologue

 Sean could feel the sweat dripping off the end of his nose as he jammed the tire iron by where the lock was in the door frame. Taking a deep breath he pressed all his weight against the tire iron. He heard the wood around the lock snap and break with what seemed like a lot more noise than he was expecting. He hesitatingly pulled open the door and listened. Not hearing anything he took a few tentative steps inside and pulled the door shut behind him as well as the broken door frame would allow.

As he waited for a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the warehouse Sean wondered how his life had come down to this. Breaking into a warehouse to steal food and fuel from a gang of thieves that had refused to sell him any of their stockpile just an hour before because apparently the only thing he had that was of value to them was his wife, Danielle. Sean had been aghast when the leader of the gang had suggested that they might be able to part with the food and fuel they needed if Dani would spend a few hours with them. Furiously Sean had refused and then found himself being hustled out of the warehouse complex at gunpoint by the other members of the gang after hearing the leader calmly announce: “I guess we don’t have a deal then, goodbye.”

Sean and Dani had gotten in their car and driven off. After going just a couple of blocks Sean, still seething with anger, made a left turn and then another.

“Where are you going,” asked Dani

“To the back of that warehouse to see if there is another way in,” said Sean in a sharper tone than he had intended. “Those bastards have the nerve to ask for you in exchange for some food and fuel that they stole anyway. We will just see about that.”

“Sean, lets just go,” said Dani with a nervous quiver in her voice.

“Where? We are almost out of gas,” Sean said.

“I don’t know. This just seems crazy.”

“Ever since the virus hit the whole world has gone crazy. Especially here in Dallas. This whole city has just gone insane. We have to get out of this city Dani. And the only way to do that is to get this gas tank full and get some food. No restaurants or stores remember? No gas stations either. You heard those people who told us about the warehouse. This gang controls all of the supplies in the area extending out fifty miles. We will run out of gas in about twenty miles Dani. We have to do this,” said Sean as he reached over and wiped the tear streaming down her cheek.

The back door to the warehouse was where Sean was now and with his eyes adjusted to the gloom inside the warehouse he started to examine the crates that were piled around him. The first crate he opened contained a variety of guns with the ammo clips for each pistol or rifle stacked next to the appropriate weapon. Not being what Sean was looking for he left the crate open and went down a little aisle between crates until he got to the next stack that was at a level where he could open the crate sitting on top. Using the tire iron he pried the lid up and was once again disappointed to find lawn chairs in this crate.

It wasn’t until he got to the twenty-second crate that Sean almost shouted with glee as he saw this one contained military MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat). He started to stuff them into the knapsack that he had brought along when suddenly:

“CLICK.” The noise was so loud that Sean felt like he jumped two feet into the air.

“Hey asshole,” said the leader of the gang that Sean had talked to about an hour before. “I thought I told you that we had no deal,” he calmly stated. Sean looked up at him and saw that he held a huge shotgun that was pointed directly at him.

“Listen man. We just need a little food and gas and we’ll be on our way. You won’t even miss the little bit that we take out of all the stuff that you have in here,” Sean said as he waved his arm gesturing into the vastness of the warehouse they were standing in the middle of.

“Sorry dickweed. I told you no pussy then no goods. Now I have to kill you,” he said as he raised the rifle and:

“BANG.” Sean saw a flash come from his right and then almost instantly saw the gang leaders face explode as a bullet struck him right between the eyes. As the body crumpled to the floor Sean turned to his right to see Dani standing there holding some type of handgun with both hands. Hands that began to shake uncontrollably.

“Thanks Dani,” said Sean as he quickly started stuffing the food into the knapsack again.

“Oh my God, what have I done,” screamed Dani as her whole body seemed to convulse and she quickly leaned over and threw up.

“Come on,” said Sean as he slung the now full knapsack over his shoulder. He headed towards Dani who had dropped to her knees as her body convulsed in something that resembled a seizure.

“It’s okay baby,” said Sean as he reached her. “But you have got to pull yourself together because we need to get out of here now before the rest of them find us.”

As Sean was speaking they could hear doors opening and loud voices yelling out and seemingly starting to move closer to where they were.

“C’mon Dani,” Sean whispered loudly while pointing to a spot right on the path they would take to get out. “And grab a couple of those gas cans while I carry this food. Hurry”

Dani seemed to snap out of whatever was happening to her and got up and after grabbing the gun started toward the gas cans. Sean went back to the knapsack and struggled to pick it up with all the MRE’s that he had crammed inside of it. Dani had reached the gas cans and somehow managed to latch onto three of the five gallon cans and started heading toward the door they had come in. Sean felt some of the MRE’s falling out of the bag but he wasn’t about to stop moving. He quickly followed behind his wife as they made their way out of the warehouse and back to their car. They threw their loot into the back seat and quickly sped off. No one had seen them yet or come out the back door of the warehouse.

After driving for about a mile Sean pulled the car over to the curb. He pulled the now crying and screaming Dani into his arms.

“It’s okay honey. You saved my life,” he told her as he held her close and stroked her golden blonde hair.

“I killed someone,” sobbed Dani. “After all the death we have seen from the virus and I just kill. . .kill. . .killed someone,” she stuttered out. Her whole body began to shake from the sobbing and despair that she was feeling at the moment.

Sean started to cry along with his wife. It was all just to much to handle. Their lives had been turned upside down by the virus that as of the last report that they heard was killing ten million people a day across the country. It had turned the city of Dallas into nothing short of a desolate war zone. A killing field for those who were not succumbing to the virus. It was evident to both Sean and Dani that over half of the population of Dallas was dead from the virus and that if they wanted to live they needed to get out. But with no businesses in operation anymore this had proved more difficult then they could have ever imagined. And now this.

He didn’t know how Dani would be after this. As he looked at the eyes of the woman he loved Sean noticed that those playful sparkling blue eyes looked different now. As Dani started to get control of herself and wiped the tears away Sean now saw a certain coldness creeping into those beautiful eyes. At the same moment Sean could feel a change within himself. His wife had just killed a man in cold blood. He could feel a certain emptiness and that weird feeling that one gets in the pit of the stomach when suffering a true scare. Sean knew that he was really frightened but not just for their lives. Rather, Sean realized that he was frightened for their relationship. Could anything be the same again after this?

Sean watched in stunned silence as Dani broke away from his embrace, wiped away a final tear, and grabbed one of the gas cans out of the back seat. She got out of the car with the gas can and went around the back of their Toyota Corolla, undid the gas cap and started to pour the gas in. Sean just watched her in the side mirror until she was done. Dani threw the gas can off to the side of the road as she got back in the car. Sean looked at her still unable to speak.

“Lets go Sean. I want to get the hell out of this city.”

Sean just nodded dumbly as he turned the key in the ignition and put the car in drive and started down the road out of the city.