Those Who Remain

Chapter 19

"Y'all ready?" Lee asked as he walked through the front door of the house, and it made me jump since I was not expecting him to enter without knocking first.

"You're lucky I wasn't holding a knife," I said with a light tone and playful glare, "I would have cut you."

"Ya, ya whatever," he said with an eye role, "Is Ridge ready too? We like to get going early in the morning in case we run into problems along the way."

Today was the day that the scavenging group was planning to hit up a local pharmacy and immediate care to get more medical supplies for Dr. Lowes. He asked both Ridge and I to go along with them to see if we would be able to track down a few specific things along with Lila.

"Ridge is ready," said Ridge in the third person as he appeared at the bottom of the stairs, "Just trying to decide which pair of shoes I should wear."

The smirk on his face was obviously directed at me because I wasn't sure whether to wear the heavy duty running shoes I have or the lightweight ones. I went with the lightweight ones in case I needed to make a quick get away.

"Whatever," I said with an eye roll, "Let's go."

"You're dad is already with the others gassing up the trucks," Lee said as he held the door open for us, "We should head up to the front gate. We decided to meet at the shed there to talk strategy."

"Alright," Ridge said rubbing his hands together, walking out the door, "Let's do this."

I rolled my eyes at him again as I walked alongside him and Lee towards the front gate. "So Lee," I said with a teasing smile, "When did you get all that grey hair? You aren't that old yet."

He let out a snort while Ridge tried to hide a smile behind his hand, "Girl, I would love to see you try to run this place. We haven't even been here for a month, and I want to rip my hair out."

"And why is that?" I asked light heartedly as I smiled at a group of children playing in a front yard.

"Well," he started shaking his head, "Since we have around three hundred people here, I need to make sure I have enough medical supplies, food, and guardes to keep it going. I'm glad we are able to have all these people here, but the larger we grow, the harder it gets to collect enough supplies."

"Well," I said, "have you thought about trying to start a garden? I'm sure the Lowes near here has plenty of seed considering it's still summer, and I'm not sure many people around here keep large gardens."

"It's not a bad idea," Ridge piped up as we continued to walk, the truck coming into view around the bend, "I used to keep a garden with my family, so I'd love to help out."

"It's not a bad idea," Lee said after some thought, "I'll put seeds on our list to pick up. We'll see if we have enough time to run by Lowes, and if not, I'll make it a point to get there on the next run."

Our conversation came to an abrupt end as we reached the truck because we heard some heated arguing that Lee immediately went to investigate.

"There is no way that we will make it that far! Do you see how much gas we have left?" a man growled at my father.

"Think about it Reece," my dad snapped back, "Our community is growing by the day, and we need those supplies. We don't have enough."

"Alright, alright guys," Lee said, pushing his way into the conversation, "What's going on. What's happening with the gas?"

"We don't have enough gas to make it to both the immediate care and pharmacy. We could make it to the pharmacy since it's relatively close, but the immediate care is just too far away," Reece explained, keeping his glare on my father.