S
ince I slept through it, I guess I hadn’t considered the sheer magnitude of the Rage Mutation. I’d seen the ghost towns, and zombies had surrounded me, but walking through this Costco just made it real. All the food was rotten, but the shelves were pretty much still stocked.
It was like everyone in New Jersey just turned, died, or left the state in such a hurry, there was an entire Costco full of supplies still left. They had abandoned New Jersey. No one tried to come here to clear out the Rage Heads and forage for supplies either. It was like every single state that surrounded it recognized the Rage Heads now owned this state, and they left them to it, even if there were a ton of supplies in just this store alone.
I ran into Leif at the pharmacy. That was where I went first because the rest of the shelves seemed full on my way back. I seriously thought I was going to start openly weeping when I saw tubes of toothpaste, mouthwash, and toothbrushes. I didn’t care how expired they were, I grabbed a four-pack of deodorant, ripped it open, and applied it.
I had running water at the hotel and handmade soap, but most of the deodorant in Florida was gone, and I felt ripe by the time we went home, and I had to take another shower. I was hugging the deodorant display when Leif came running out of the pharmacy like a kid in a candy store.
“Can you believe this shit? This pharmacy still has all the good stuff.”
“Leif, it’s seriously shitty that all this is still here. That means everyone is dead and couldn’t get this stuff. But everything here could seriously help the people in Florida, and it’s not going to fit in that RV. I want things so I can brush my teeth and not stink, but there are medication, shelf-stable foods, and clothes in here that people could use.”
Leif just pulled me into a hug.
“Our horses can carry a lot, and what do you like to call it? Angel pockets? Aeron will have to do most of the work since Dice and I are working on vaccines and the Rage Head problem, but all of this will get brought back to Florida.”
“If I’m glowing, can I do the whole angel pocket thing?”
“I have no idea, Ariel. You’re more angel than any Nephilim that came before you. None of us know exactly what you can and can’t do.”
“If I get fucked out of angel pockets like I did pockets in women’s clothes, I’m going to get upset, Leif.”
Leif squeezed me and kissed the top of my head.
“I do love you, Speedy. Even if you don’t end up having angel pockets. I’ve already started moving some of the pharmacy back to an empty room at the hotel. I’d move it to my lab, but people should still be there working, and they’ll freak out if opiates start randomly appearing.”
“Some bad shit must have gone down in New Jersey if no one took the opiates. I know if I wasn’t in a coma and my neighbors started eating people, I’d want to get a little high before I properly dealt with that shit.”
“Um, these are for pain, not recreational purposes, Speedy.”
“I don’t mess with opiates, but I sure do miss Miss Mabel’s weed stash. She always managed to find the good stuff.”
Leif just laughed.
“Ask Dice. He probably knows who is growing in Florida, but seeing as how no one has offered at any of the gatherings, they might not share their stash.”
I threw up my hands.
“That’s the whole point of having a stash! It’s just sad smoking up alone. Everyone knows it’s puff, puff, give. What kind of apocalypse is this that people are hoarding weed? It’s not like the cops are going to bust you because it’s illegal in your state anymore. Can we do that when we rebuild the world? Can we make pot legal everywhere?”
“Baby steps, Ariel. We need to get everything out of this Costco before we worry about you being a pothead.”
“Can I help? How do I figure out if I got angel pockets?”
I really wanted the angel pockets. I looked everywhere for uniform pants with pockets for my softball team, so I could pop a stick of gum when an inning started getting long. Newsflash, I couldn’t find them anywhere. If I wanted pockets I could actually put things in, I had to buy men’s pants. Angel pockets could solve everything when it came to storing shit I didn’t want to carry.
“It’s…I’m not sure how to teach this. You picture a space, then you just reach into it and move something in or out. It’s all about intent. You have to have a firm picture in your head. Can you move your haul back to Dice’s room?”
The angels looked so much cooler when they did this. I’m sure I looked constipated as I focused on the hotel room. The picture was about as straightforward as it was going to get. I grabbed as many tubes of deodorant as I could and thrust my hands out. And…nothing.
“Do I need to say a magic word? I’ve read all the Harry Potter books, and I self-identify as a mage in Dungeons and Dragons.”
“I play as a cleric. If I knew you were into it, I would have searched a house and brought it back to my lab. Dice and Aeron think it’s a nerd game. I think it’s the only game Asher will actually participate in. He’s an assassin.”
“An angel is playing Dungeons and Dragons as an assassin?”
“Asher is a complicated guy. You don’t need a magic word unless it helps you focus. It couldn’t hurt. We all have unique powers, Ariel. I know you are watching us and wondering if you can do everything we can do, but no other angel can do some of the things we can do because they weren’t created like us. Seeing the future is pretty fucking nifty, and none of us can do that. I’d give my left nut to be able to draw the future. Even if you can’t do angel pockets, you’re still pretty fucking powerful.”
“Yeah, but I can’t seem to get some fucking pockets no matter what I do,” I moaned.
Leif gently took the deodorant from me and disappeared it into the hotel.
“You can use ours. What else do you want here?”
“Leif, the medication. That pharmacy is way more important than toiletries.”
“Go grab a shopping cart from up front and load it up with what you want. I’ll move the whole thing to the hotel room.”
“Do you want me to grab you anything?”
“Clean boxers, and if they have any Twizzlers in here, I want some.”
The Horseman of Pestilence created a vaccine and a kill serum. If he wanted clean underwear and some candy, I’d glow my way through this entire store until I found it. It bummed me I didn’t have the whole angel pocket thing, but fuck. We killed Leonard, an extra Bubba, New Jersey had a lot fewer zombies, and we had an entire Costco to bring back to Florida.
Maybe I could make pockets happen in women’s clothing when we rebuilt the world.