Chapter 11.2

The women, little girl and dog finally climbed out of the truck and walked to the house. Rosemarie noticed the manicured flower bed near the front porch. Weeds were growing among the irises and daffodils. She reached down to pluck a few.

“Rosemarie, let’s get this over with,” said Georgi from the front door.

She and Alex disappeared into the house. Rosemarie hurriedly followed. The forgotten weeds fell from her hand. The women quickly found the kitchen and took canned and boxed items.

They took all the toilet paper except one roll. Rosemarie felt bad that these people would come back with nothing to use. They didn’t take much in the way of luxury items. Georgi did allow Alex to chose one book from their selection of novels.

Before leaving the house, Rosemarie left the note on the kitchen counter. She looked around for a moment. It was normal here, almost. She shook her head sadly and walked out the front door.

After the first house, taking things they needed and a few luxury items seemed to get easier. With each empty house, the group realized more and more that they were alone. It was as if the people didn’t really own the stuff anymore. Like they had left the stuff for this little group’s survival.

Rosemarie left a note every time and kept a general list of what they took. She doubted that she could ever pay these people back, but she wanted them to know how much she appreciated the items.

Georgi seemed to be on a mission to gather a couple months’ supply. But Rosemarie was pretty sure that they would not be able to find enough toilet paper. Not nearly enough.

Georgi drove from house to house until the trunk and trailer were pretty full. For some reason, they found a lot of cake mixes along with old eggs, bread and milk. They managed to collect a lot of food, but hardly any meat. Meat wasn’t something people liked to buy in cans, except a few cans of potted meat and one can of chicken.  

“I thought we would run into someone,” said Rosemarie as they loaded the last of supplies into the trailer.

“Me too,” said Georgi, looking around. “We may still.”

“Fingers crossed,” said Rosemarie.

“Are you hoping to run into people or not?” asked Neil, hopping into the back of the truck.

“Both,” replied Rosemarie, climbing into the cab.

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