As the silence settled over the group, Jacks mind started to speed up again.
His curiousity was peaked, what on earth brought them back up here? He realized were his gaze had settled and he quickly moved his eyes, drifting away from Sara and towards where Jimmy had run off to before he was caught staring.
Cautiously Jack approached the bags the thugs had left behind. But upon reaching them he realized what the thugs were doing.
Looting.
Jack could help but chuckle at the idea that Jimmy thought of something he had not. They are idiots, that was well established. It just so happens they are resourceful idiots.
Jack's chuckles had caught the others attention again, "It looks like baldy and the twins have someone in the group with a brain." Jack looked around the cars and he couldn't help feel how lucky they were. They were in a mine field of possible resources. They just had to be quick in case Jimmy and his posy come back with reinforments.
Bryan seemed to notice as well, "alright let's comb through these cars and see what we can find. There may be food, water and all sorts of stuff just laying around."
Rachel's face grew red with indognation. "That is stealing!"
Bryan could only roll his eyes. "Really? We really are having this argument?"
Rachel's cool glare only exacerbated Bryans sign.
"Think about why all these cars are here. Why no one has come to get their stuff. The meteor has changed everything and left a lot of people dead for it. We need to think of our survival if we are going to make it to your parents. All this belongs to no one now. So now we will use everything we can to make sure we stay alive."
Rachel face fell like a scolded child. You could tell she understood but was still refusing to accept it.
Jack was left speechless for a second as his brother had just showed far more patience then Jack thought he was capable of.
Sara seemed to be mulling it over with a sense of resolution on her face.
"Well no time to waste!" Jack tried to get everyone moving. Splitting up seemed the obvious this to do so Jack took Sara by the hand and they left Bryan to consol and explore with Rachel.
-------------------
Bryan and Rachel where already back when Jack and Sara arrived.
Sara had had some trouble carrying all the plunder and they had to stop twice to rearrange the load for Jack to carry.
Finally setting it all down, he felt like he had run a marathon.
I’ve gotta get used to all this physical activity, the sooner the better.
“Well let’s get sorting!”
Jack plopped on the ground against the tire he had perched against over breakfast, while Sara pulled a bag over and set herself down next to him.
Rachel and Bryan had taken up their own road seats, kneeling on towels to be in a better position to sort through the pile. They all were surprised at how much stuff they had found. It easily looked like they were preparing for a yard sale.
Sorting it took quite a while. There were back packs, chips, Granola bars, cloths for the girls that were more suited to hiking then party cloths. The later that they had actually grabbed out of Jimmy’s truck.
The amount of food they actually found was staggering. Sara had even managed to find maps in the glove box of a Volvo. There was a large one of the whole US that wasn’t easy to read, but there was also a laminated one that was bound with a spiral of plastic that covered the entire south west in its many pages.
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The treasure trove was a cooler that had not been dragged up to the look out that appeared to have been saved for the morning after, filled with bottled water and gator aid.
To try to organize, Sara had them start separate piles. One for food and drinks, one for helpful items they want to take with them, and the Junk pile. It gave them hope that the food pile was a good size but the pile of actually useful items was severely lacking in comparison. Besides the maps, there were a handful of different style back packs. Each had to be gone through. But besides matches, a few lighters, and a pocket knife there really wasn’t much of any use in them other than some more snack food.
They had found a compass but it was spinning wildly no matter what they did. It promptly got added to the growing trash pile.
Other than the bags, there were some blankets with a various degree of smell to each of them. These they each sniffed gently and picked some of the heavier ones with the least stink to sleep on and a lighter one for a cover for each of them.
After an hour or so with the sorting just about finished the only other useful items found where road flares and a hunting Bowie knife that Jack satisfyingly remembered taking out of Jimmy’s truck.
When Bryan saw the knife he immediately went for it. “I’ll take that, you can have your toy back,” he excitedly announced as he tossed Jack the black and red dagger from the conference.
“I wasn’t the one brandishing it like a butter knife as if to scare jimmy off,” Jack mockingly scoffed. “I’ll take it though!” Latching it to his belt while sitting down was a challenge that made Sara giggle thinking of how he was sprawled when they had met. But to Jack, it just felt right once it was there.
“What about those bags?” Sara asked as she tossed a text book onto the now heaped pile of junk they weren’t going to take with them, pointing at the bag that jimmy and his cronies had carried.
Bryan laughed, having totally forgotten about the spoils of there early morning conflict. There were two black trash bags, stretched from being slung over a shoulder half full.
Quickly he tossed one to Jack to go through as well, he was the one who chased them off after all.
Bryan sat back down closer to Rachel so she could help and they started pulling things out one by one. More lighters, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, bottles of booze, it was soon apparent that the groups where each looking for very different items.
Jack on the other hand, was pragmatic about it. Taking the bag and gently dumped it out on the ground. This person appeared to have a bit more sense. The first thing that caught Jack’s eye was a zippo which he pocketed immediately, not wanting to have to give it up to Bryan. There were cigarettes and other drug paraphernalia as well but after setting that all aside Sara reached down and grabbed what looked like a high end multi-tool.
“This one’s for me!” She happily said.
She went to the pile of trash and found a belt she had discarded earlier and laced it about her with the multi-tool in its carrying case securely attached. She looked quite pleased with herself knowing it was probably the most useful item on the day other than the maps. “Here take this Rachel!” she said as she tossed her a Swiss army knife that had been under her multi-tool.
Taking it, it was very obvious Rachel wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Her lack of experience in camping was already showing through. “I guess,” she mumbled, placing the knife in her back pocket.
With the temperature on the rise, they all decided to start packing up. Each of the boys picked up a new back pack. Jack had picked out a black Oakley bag that looked like it was much better suited to traveling then the school bag he had. It was littered with different pockets and places to attach things if needed. Bryan on the other hand took what looked to be a person from the military’s bag. It originally held a lot of the snacks they now where going to take with them, as well as fifty feet of paracord. The girls each picked as well, Sara a dark blue backpack that fit her well with a few pockets and some old patches sewn into the outside. Rachel picked a pink one that fit her well, but also was going to hold as much as she could carry.
They divided up the food as equally as they could, the boys took more of the water and Gatorade to help the girls manage the weight. The girls in turn rolled up the bedding they all had selected and helped the boys secure it to their bags also.
Jack had an idea and made sure to pack as much of the Tabaco products he could, knowing from his books they would come in handy if they ever had the need to barter.
The extra pocket knife went to Jack so he had something more practical then the Black and red lick of flame at his side, and the maps stayed in hand.
All packed up they looked around to make sure they weren’t missing anything they had intended to take with them. There was still some candy bars and other foods they couldn’t fit that offered the least nutrition they decided to leave, along with almost a twelve pack of soda.
Each with a fresh bottle of water in hand, they started down the hill. The girls showed Bryan where on the map their parents should be and they headed out.
By the scale of the map, it’s about 30 miles trip through a lot of half destroyed city scape. Silently they all hoped that not everyone that survived had become as... uncivilized as Jimmy.