All That I See - 02 by Shane Gregory

still moving) and grin at us with black, dripping mouths. I’d read once that a possible factor in the evolution of a sentient species was a full belly. When a creature was n’t spending every waking hour thinking about finding its next meal, it had time to think on other things, like say, th e meaning of life or something. I thought it was a ridiculous theory and full of holes, but I had been thinking about what would happen when all of the humans were gone; would another species on Earth evolve and take our place?
    Then there were the flies. The y had started buzzing around, too. It had not gotten quite warm enough yet for the insects to be out in full force, but soon….
    Sara pulled the Crown Victoria onto a side road, then into the parking lot of a little gas station/grocery store. There was only one other car parked in front of the store and a pickup truck at a gas pump.
    “I like the looks of this,” Sara said. “If no one has been in here, we could get most of what we need.”
    “That truck at the pump looks good, too,” I said.
    We pulled our masks up, got out and stood next to the car, listening and looking. This had become a habit for us when we were both leaving a vehicle. Sometimes a large group of the things would be hidden from view behind a building, and we found it was always best to stay near the car for a few seconds and listen for any activity.
    We didn’t hear anything except birds, and even they seemed subdued. I was the first to move away from the car. I went over to the pumps and looked into the pickup truck, a late model Toyota Tundra. I cupped my hands around my eyes so I could see.
    “The keys are in it,” I said. “It looks like they filled her up, too. When we leave, I’ll drive it, and we’ll leave the Crown Victoria some place in Clayfield.”
    I turned and looked at Sara. She was standing by the car with the rifle on her shoulder, pointed at the sky. She nodded to let me know she heard me, squinting in the morning sun.
    “Better make sure it starts before we load anything into it,” she said.
    I climbed in. It cranked right up. The radio was on, and static blasted out of the speakers. I turned off the radio, put the truck in reverse and backed it up toward the front doors of the building.
    “Are you ready to go shopping?” I smiled as I climbed out of the truck.
    “Is the twenty-two loaded?”
    “Ready to go,” I said. “How about you?”
    “I’ve got eight bullets left,” she said. “I counted them this morning.”
    “We should come across more guns today,” I assured her.
    The doors to the store were unlocked. We went inside.
    “Wow,” Sara said. “It looks untouched. It sure smells bad, though.”
    “Probably all the bad meat,” I said, nodding toward a sandwich bar.
    She squatted down in front of the counter where they displayed the impulse items and tore open a Hershey’s Special Dark.
    “Want one?” she said, offering me a candy bar.
    I stepped forward to take it from her then noticed a lot of boxes in the floor behind the counter. They were cigarette cartons. They had been walked on. There was a puddle back there, too. There was a doorway in the far wall that was open to a dark room.
    “Someone has been in here,” I said. “I see—“
    Then there was a noise from the room—slow, dragging footsteps. Sara had been stuffing candy bars into her pocket, and she looked up at me. She’d heard it, too. She stood slowly.
    “Hello?” she said loudly, her mouth full of chocolate.
    The thing wasn’t much more than a walking skeleton. Skin hung loose on it s bones, and its ragged clothes looked oily and wet. I think it had been a man once.
    “Do you think it can get to us?” Sara said.
    “I would thi nk that after all this time, if he could have gotten out he would,” I replied.
    “In that case, let’s don’t worry about it,” she said. She pulled some small LED flashlights from the impulse rack. “Let’s take all this stuff.”
    We opened a couple