Page 2 of Purgatory (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse #1)

Cole

“Ibuprofen, gauze, soap, granola bars, bottled water, canned food, jerky.”

I repeat the list to myself on my way to town so that I don’t forget what we need to look for.

Not that I’d have to worry about that. Hawk’s mind is like a steel trap.

The man once recited the entire script to The Goonie s while on fire-watch during one of our overseas tours.

Verbatim. Dude’s insane but he does know how to keep you entertained.

“We should check out the pharmacy. See if there are any antibiotics left.” Hawk says. The thought crossed my mind but I wasn’t sure if we were going to be headed that way today or not. Might as well. It’s not as if we'd be interrupting anything important.

I wipe the sweat from my forehead. “Yea, we could probably use some just in case.”

Damn, it’s hot out today. We’ve just started our scouting trip and I'm already sweating bullets. I shouldn’t complain, it could always be worse. At least no one is shooting at us today.

The three of us know about that all too well.

We’ve, certainly, been on enough deployments to hostile territories together.

We all first met while stationed at Camp Lejeune-Hawk, Jax and me.

Brothers in arms, through and through. We all worked together in the same battalion.

Jax and Hawk were Marines. I was their corpsman.

We’d do anything for each other. Apparently, even surviving the end of the world together.

“Let’s just hurry up, get the supplies and get back to the estate. It’s hot as balls out today and I just want to swim in the lake.” I pick up the pace as I chug down some more of my water and we make our way further into town.

We lucked out with the estate at the edge of the town.

Jax bought it as a vacation place with his reenlistment bonus years ago and we had made it a point to visit each other here, every summer, for years after getting out.

This year, however, was more about necessity than a vacation.

I’m just grateful the three of us actually made it, all things considered.

The house is huge, although not exactly a mansion, secluded, and has a lake connecting to the property. But it’s the extra features that blow me away.

Jax was always intrigued by living “off the grid.” As a result, this lake house was a doomsday believer’s dream.

Solar powered, propane tank, well water, garden.

Shit, the guy even has chickens. Plus, it’s completely surrounded by a perimeter fence which helps keep us safe from everyone and everything that may want to intrude.

We still don’t like to take chances, though.

That’s why Jax is currently posting security around the property in the shade while we’re out here sweating buckets.

Hawk’s face shifts from passively content to energetically excited at my suggestion.

“Fuck, yes... Ok, let’s get on with it.” Hawk says while opening the map. “Which road did we stop at last time?” I ask him.

The grocery store had already been cleaned out, for the most part, when we arrived.

So, we’ve had to resort to raiding vacant homes for supplies.

We don’t, necessarily need the supplies right this second, but with the town completely deserted, we thought it best to acquire any resources we could, just in case.

If we see anything outside of our immediate “wants” list, we grab it or make a note so we can come back and get it later.

Hawk takes a look at our makeshift map of properties we’ve already searched and crossed off.

“Kasson Street. Here.” He points to the 4 th one up from the bottom. I lift my finger to the next road. “So, Claremont Drive it is.”

Hawk nods and stashes away the map in his cargo pocket as we heft our, mostly, empty packs up higher on our backs before walking down the road a few more blocks. We see the street we need and turn onto it, eager to end the day early.