Apocalypse- the Plan

by Gary M. Chesla

  All I could think was that I hoped I would never have to face such a feeling of despair and hopelessness. I knew that everyman has his breaking point no matter how big, tough or smart he may think he is. I can only hope I never have to find out what my breaking point is.

  “I’ll tell you what,” I finally said and smiled at Kelly, “I’ll promise to go on if you also promise to go on in the event that something happens to me.”

  “It’s a deal,” Kelly replied and smiled as she stood on her tip toes and gave me a kiss. “Now say I promise out loud.”

  “OK, I promise,” I laughed. “Now I better get moving before the stores are out of everything I need.”

  “Do you really think that there will be a lot of people out there?” Kelly asked. “I’m not even sure if anywhere will be open.”

  “I don’t know either,” I replied. “But the only way I’m going to find out is to go take a look.”

  “Just be careful,” Kelly said. “I guess I’ve watched too many scary movies, but I’m worried about how some people might start acting after something this big has happened.”

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I replied, “Just keep the girls inside until I get back.”

  We lived on the outskirts of town, the nearest grocery store and gas station was about two miles away.

  I planned on making my first stop Walmart because they would not have exactly what I wanted but they would have a little of everything.

  I figured it would be a good place to start.

  As I drove, I studied the other houses and neighborhoods.

  They looked more or less like my neighborhood, shingles ripped off the roofs, windows broken and all the things that hadn’t been tied down were scattered through the yards and out on the streets.

  I saw one or two people, who quickly ducked out of site when they saw my truck driving down the street, apparently everyone was still too afraid to come out of their homes.

  I thought that was a little odd, I would have thought that I would be seeing more people.

  Human nature dictated that I should have seen people out trying to find out what had happened and to confirm that their neighbors were worse off than they were.

  Misery liked company as the old saying goes.

  That and curiosity, people are naturally curious. After five days I would have thought the curiosity seekers would be out.

  I also forgot to mention the morbid in society that would be out hoping to find dead bodies.

  I wasn’t sure about the ambulance chasing attorneys, I didn’t know if there would still be a need for their services after a nuclear war, but I would have guessed there would have been a few of them too, out trying to drum up a class action suit to blame someone and make them responsible for what had happened.

  “Hi, my name is Edgar Snyder and I can get money for you,” I grinned to myself at the thought of seeing those commercials again. Like cockroaches, those ads would probably be able to survive a nuclear war.

  I guess I was just happy to still be alive to be thinking about crazy things like attorneys and how far civilization had sunk even before the bomb had been dropped.

  I drove the last mile when I spotted the sign for Walmart and prepared to turn left into their parking lot.

  I pulled into the parking lot and parked out next to the road, as far away as I could get from the store.

  I guess that was just a habit of mine because the closer to the store I would park, the more people, cars and activity there always was, and the probability that someone would open their door into my truck increased to almost one hundred percent.

  I got out of my truck and started walking across the parking lot.

  There were cars scattered throughout the lot, but I didn’t see any people.

  I at first felt relieved because I hate crowds, but it also felt strange. Walmart was always packed no matter what time of the day or night it was.

  I know a nuclear war had just occurred, but I expected to see people because like me, there would be a lot they would need.

  But then I thought that Kelly was probably right that it was still too soon for any of the stores to be open and Walmart was closed.

  As she had said, probably all the businesses were still closed. The employees had more to worry about than going to work.

  I had no intention of going back to work until I knew my family was safe and secure, I’m sure that everyone else felt that way too.

  After all the bomb had been dropped, it wasn’t like we just had a flash flood and now it was time to get back to life as usual. In fact I thought I would probably never see life as usual again in my lifetime.

  But just out of curiosity, I continued to walk towards the store.

  The first thing I started to notice was that most of the windows in the front of the store had been broken.

  In a way I wasn’t surprised. If someone needed something for their family and none of the stores were open, I could see them breaking into the store to get what they needed, especially after what had happened.

  People also have a tendency to go out and loot stores during a crisis, I was disappointed that people around here would do something like that but again I wasn’t too surprised to see the store like this.

  When I saw blood in the parking lot and on the broken front windows of the store, I started to become nervous.

  This sort of thing too happens during a crisis, I didn’t like it, but I know it happens, though it usually wasn’t something that happened in North Dakota, but it does happen.

  Then I saw something I didn’t expect to see, no matter what had happened.

  Even the fact that a nuclear war had started, couldn’t explain what I now saw.

  In fact, what I saw made me forget everything that had happened over the last few days.

  Chapter 6

  Wolfe and I had been walking for almost half a day. We occupied most of our time by watching for anything we might be able to have for lunch.

  When it looked like it was going to be a boring uneventful day, Wolfe decided he wanted to chase a stick.

  Yes, even a wolf has a playful side, Wolfe wasn’t always all business. Usually, but not always.

  But after four tosses, he lost interest.

  Maybe it was because he had picked up a scent in the air that made him turn serious, I didn’t know what he was smelling but I knew enough to keep my eyes open when I saw his nose go up in the air and to keep my guard up.

  About an hour later I noticed that Wolfe began to slow down his pace and he began to sniff at the air more frequently.

  That was a sign that he had found whatever it was he had detected before and that I should concentrate a little more too.

  He was about fifty feet in front of me when I saw him stop.

  I also stopped and began to scan the area around us to look for anything that seemed out of place.

  Then Wolfe got down on his stomach and crawled about ten feet and stared at something down over the hillside in front of him.

  I followed his lead and crawled over next to him.

  In front of us, five hundred feet below at the bottom of the hill was a small town of about thirty buildings and houses.

  It didn’t seem to be much of a town, not compared to a lot of towns we had seen, maybe it had been a resort of some sort in the past and wasn’t a regular town. The streets or roads between the buildings were gravel, beyond that it was hard to tell what all had been there. After three years of Mother Nature working to reclaim the land, the buildings were covered in moss, vines and high grass and shrubs had overtaken the streets and sidewalks.

  Remembering that I was now down to my last lighter, I took off my backpack and rummaged through it until I found the old pair of binoculars I had found about a year back. I wanted to get a better look at what was down there to see if this was a place I might want to go into to search for supplies or if it was a place that we should avoid and just quietly go around.

  A few of the buildings had signs h
anging out in front of them but with the vines and ivy that had grown over them, they were almost impossible to read.

  I spotted one sign that I could partially read because only the middle of the sign had been completely overgrown with grapevines.

  However I could read the first few letters, H-U-N-T and the last two letters of the second or third word was L-Y. If I was right it was or had been a hunting supply store.

  I figured it would be worth going down to have a look before we moved on. But of course, we needed to be sure it was safe before deciding to pay a visit.

  Wolfe and I had had a regular routine that we followed when we decided that we wanted to go into a town.

  On some of the larger towns, it could take us a few days to decide ii it was worth the risk of trying to go in, but a small town of this size, it wouldn’t take nearly as long to discover what we needed to know.

  The larger the town, the more unknowns there were to consider, both good and bad. The bigger the town the bigger the potential rewards to be found, but also the potential bigger chances of getting yourself trapped and killed.

  To be honest, I hated the bigger towns. After barely getting out alive from the first big town I had gone into, I have not gone in any town since that I can’t count the number of buildings in the town within thirty seconds.

  To me, unless I’m desperate, it’s just not worth the risk.

  Wolfe and I had adapted to living off the land. I don’t want to brag, but I think we have managed very well without all of the modern conveniences I had relied on in the past. However, until I could figure out how to start a fire without a Bic lighter, we had our limitations.

  Except for special situations, like how we now needed to find lighters, I found it best to just try and avoid most towns.

  As I studied the buildings, I felt something hit and then slide down over my shoulder.

  I looked to see Wolfe pawing at my shoulder.

  His nose was in the air like he had detected a strong presence nearby.

  “What do you smell buddy?” I whispered.

  Wolfe looked at me then he looked back the way we had just come.

  He wasn’t baring his teeth, nor did he look concerned, if I had to guess I would say that Wolfe looked excited.

  Based on the excited state I was observing in Wolfe, I had to assume that we weren’t in any danger, I would say Wolfe had just found supper.

  By the look in his eyes, I also assumed that what he was smelling was something more than just another rabbit.

  I set down my binoculars, grabbed my bow and began to crawl towards the rocks behind us.

  Wolfe eagerly crawled by my side.

  When we reached the rocks, I slowly raised my head above the rocks to see if I could find what had Wolfe so excited.

  I held my head steady and slowly moved my eyes to scan the trees and brush, then I saw it.

  Coming out of the trees about two hundred yards away was a huge buck, even from here I could tell it had a large rack of probably ten points or more.

  I looked at Wolfe and whispered, “I see why you were so excited.”

  We hadn’t seen a buck in over three months.

  As I looked at Wolfe he looked like he was ready to run after the deer, he looked at me as if to say he was waiting to hear me say the word, to say circle and he would be off.

  Instead I whispered, “Stay, we need to wait until he gets closer.”

  Wolfe looked disappointed, but he let his body relax and just laid on the ground next to me and watched the deer’s every movement.

  A wolf pack could run the deer down, but our pack only had one wolf capable of keeping up with a deer, our other member would be of little help in trying to run down a chipmunk let alone a deer, so we patiently waited.

  Well I patiently waited, Wolfe was chomping at the bit to run.

  When the buck was about fifty yards away, I slowly set my best arrow on the bow and lined up my shot.

  Wolfe watched curiously as I readied the bow.

  He was usually out circling the prey and didn’t get to see this part of the hunt very often.

  Having Wolfe try to go out and circle around behind the deer was too risky, the deer’s senses were almost as good as Wolfe’s.

  I was sure the deer would sense that something was up and bolt from the area.

  I watched the deer as I slowly pulled back the bow, when the deer turned to the right and I had a side shot, I let the arrow fly.

  Wolfe and I watched the arrow sail through the air, it struck the deer about six inches behind the front shoulders.

  The deer went down, but then it struggled to its feet and started to move towards the trees behind it.

  “Wolfe,” I said. “Go get him!”

  Wolfe was already ten feet away going at full speed by the time I finished the command.

  The deer had only gone about ten feet from the spot where I had shot it before it had collapsed and died.

  Wolfe was standing guard over the deer’s body by the time I made my way out to where it had fallen.

  “Good Boy,” I said giving Wolfe a pat as I looked over the deer.

  I swear Wolfe studied the bow for five minutes with amazement in his eyes.

  I gutted the deer and dragged it back down to where we had been studying the town below.

  I laid the deer over the rocks to let the blood drain from the body while I gathered some wood, enough for two fires, then started the fires before I began to butcher the deer.

  I cut two large pieces of meat and put them over one fire, then I began to cut thin strips of meat to put over the second fire.

  I would pack the thin dried strips of meat in the backpack when they were done to take with us to eat as we walked.

  The rest we would eat as we watched the town.

  I built the fires where they could be clearly seen from the town below.

  A careless mistake?

  No, the fires fit right in with our strategy, especially for a town as small as the one below.

  Our first objective when we observed a town, deciding if we wanted to check it out or avoid it all together, was to find out how many of the undead were in the town.

  When we were lucky enough to have a hill between us and the town, the best way we found to determine how many were in the town was to create a distraction to get the undeads attention and lure them out into the open.

  The undead were clumsy and they couldn’t climb hills very well, by creating a distraction at the top of the hill, we would be able to see how many were there without having to worry about them swarming all over us like they would if we had just walked into the town.

  If there were a lot of them, the hill would give us plenty of time to pack up and disappear long before they could reach the top of the hill.

  If there were only a few of them, we would be able to go down the hill and easily eliminate them.

  Being this was such a small town, I wasn’t concerned that we would see so many of the undead that we would have to flee.

  If I thought that was even a possibility, I would never had decided to risk having to leave Wolfe’s prize deer behind by building the fires where I did.

  Wolfe and I sat next to the fires and listened to the crackling wood as we watched the town below.

  It didn’t take long before we started to see movement around the buildings below.

  Wolfe began to bare his teeth until I reached over and massaged his neck and said, “Take it easy Wolfe, let’s see how many are there before we get too excited.”

  He looked at me, then went back to his normal calm demeanor.

  At first we only saw three of them come around the buildings and make their way towards us up on the hill, but as those three began to groan, more began to come from the buildings.

  When they were all out on the street, I had counted twenty-two of the undead.

  As I said, the undead did not do well on hills, especially hills covered with rocks and brush.

  It seemed for every ste
p they took forwards, they ended up taking two backwards, that is the ones that managed to stay on their feet.

  The others tripped and fell and rolled backwards down the hill.

  Wolfe let me know when our dinners were ready. I took the large pieces of meat off the fire and hung two more large pieces in their place, then Wolfe and I ate as we watched the undead continue to try to get up the hill.

  You might say how could I just sit there and be able to eat while watching the undead come after me.

  I guess you could say that after living with the undead for three years, I was used to it.

  After some time, seeing them no longer felt all that unusual.

  The undead were everywhere, but the only time that was a problem was when you got careless and let yourself get trapped. They were a fact of life, a very dangerous fact of life, but if you used your head, they were also a manageable fact of life, but only if you respected the danger they presented.

  Twenty-two of the undead on a steep hillside no longer struck me with fear like it had when this all started. But it did make me feel concerned, but not so concerned that I couldn’t enjoy a good meal.

  After we had eaten, I put some more meat on the fire and said to Wolfe, “Heel!”

  He immediately moved to my side.

  I picked up my club and we started down over the hillside to do what we had to do.

  Like I said, we had done this before and didn’t feel what we were doing was anything special or unusual.

  I didn’t look at it like a game, the consequences of such thinking were too great to risk. I looked at it like it was my job and I knew my life depended on how I did my job.

  When we were fifty feet from the first of the undead, I looked at Wolfe.

  He looked at me, giving me all his attention as he waited for the command.