James Axler – Freedom Lost

Krysty spoke up quickly. “Dean’s a growing boy, Doc. He needs more in the way of nightly entertainment than another discussion of the Crusades or the finer points of whether that Poe fella’s poetry was as good as his short stories.”

“They were. Perhaps his verse was even superior to his prose,” Doc said crisply through sips of the brew. “The good Mr. Brody only started Dean’s education. Alas, I fear the majority of the knowledge he needs to be well-rounded must come from within our merry little band of rogues. As the only educator here, I must accept my responsibility for his future development.”

“Wish I had another cup of this coffee,” J.B. said, looking down through his new specs at the bottom of the empty mug. “But I sure as hell don’t feel like getting back in that line for a refill.”

“Me, too. Times like this, I miss having a waitress,” Krysty mused.

“Yeah, like that Sandy girl. The one we ran into back in Florida at that weird-ass Tuckey’s roadhouse,” J.B. said.

“Don’t remind me,” Mildred said with a laugh. “I still carry visions of that horrible orange decor.”

“And of the mysterious pecan-nut log,” Doc said wistfully. “If only I’d been allowed a taste”

“One bite and you’d probably still be back down in Florida, six feet under,” Mildred told him. “I told you those damn things were probably over 150 years old.”

“But preserved, perfectly preserved in their shiny red-and-white-plastic wrappers. I still wonder what treasures were hidden inside.”

“A salty brown lump hard enough to bash a man’s skull inor break out a few pearly white teeth.”

“Good Tuckey’s! Yum! Real stickie meat!” Dean added, getting caught up in the humor. “Visit Our Pettin ZooReal Live Mutents!”

“I see it left an impression on one of us, anyway,” Krysty commented.

Still riding the high after the stress of the pitfight, Ryan gave in to a streak of humor and irony he didn’t often indulge in. “Okay, okay,” he said, raising a hand. “So the place was lacking in some of the refinements. But the food was good and we’d gotten off without any trouble if those four clowns in the fancy Western duds hadn’t come in wanting to pick a fight.”

“Still say you should have let me pet the muties, Dad.”

“Pet a mutie and you come back a few fingers shy of a hand, Dean.”

USING HIS NEWFOUND STATUS as the big winner of the day, Ryan decided to go ahead and stock up on as many supplies as their line of Freedom Mall credit would allow. He imagined it would be some time before they encountered a ville with such a wide variety of choices. At Krysty’s suggestion, after their gut-busting meal, they went in search of some food that was practical to carry around in the less-than-ideal conditions of the Deathlands.

“Save some worry if we buy now,” Krysty said. “And it’s not often we have such choice.”

First off was a stop at one of the numerous markets that lined the interior corridors of the mall in search of supplies that would travel well, like jerky and dried fruit, and Ryan even allowed himself the luxury of buying a box of ribbon-striped stick candy for special occasions. Doc was big on banana chips, and Ryan had to restrain him from stuffing his pockets to bursting with the yellowish crispy treats.

Some potato chips for immediate consumption, a few pull tabs of water, a canvas bag of coffee sub and a box of crackers divided among the group ended the food-shopping spree. All wanted to take along more, but knew overloading themselves with more than they could comfortably carry would prove wasteful in the long run.

Besides Dean’s new shirt, which was an admitted impulse buy, the only clothing any of the group really needed was fresh socks and underwear. A shop called Under the Covers provided long tables stacked high with plastic-wrapped supplies of socks.

“North Carolina used to be big on textiles,” one of the shop clerks explained. “There was a small ville up north from here called Mount Airy. All they did was have factories churning out boxes of socks. I’ll bet there’s more socks in this part of the world than in all of Deathlands. The thing is, you take what sizes are left.”