It was at that point when Wolfe and I became a team, I found something to care about again.
So now you know a little about my past and how Wolfe and I ended up where we are.
There are just a few more things you need to know before I finish my story, so let me continue.
Chapter 11
When the rays of the sun shined in my eyes, I realized that I must have fallen asleep during the night.
I quickly sat up to look around to make sure nothing had happened after I fell asleep, I had intended to keep watch during the night, but that didn’t go as planned.
I raised my hand and wiped at my eyes to clear my vision when I noticed everything was blurry, it was then as I pulled my wet hand away from my face and realized that tears had been running down my cheeks.
I remembered my dreams from last night, that explained the tears, I had just relived the worst day of my life. The day my world had ended.
I quickly began to look around again.
I found Wolfe sitting in front of me, watching me.
I looked down and saw he had removed the bandage I had put on his leg last night.
“We’ll I see you decided that you didn’t need that bandage any longer,” I said to Wolfe. He wagged his tail briefly and walked over and licked my face.
“Yeah, I had a rough night,” I said as I scratched his head and looked over his injured leg. “But it looks like you are feeling back to your old self this morning.”
I got up and examined Wolfe’s leg. The leg looked sore, but I could see it had already started to heal.
Wolfe was favoring the leg a little, but otherwise he looked ready to run.
I guess it was in Wolfe’s genes to be a fast healer, a wolf in the wild either healed quickly or it didn’t live long.
Even though Wolfe looked like he was ready to travel, I decided we should take an extra day and just take it easy.
I got up and started a fire and put on some deer meat for breakfast.
Wolfe and I would eat dried meat when we were traveling, but we both looked forward to hot meals in the morning and before turning in each night.
I sat back down on my blanket and Wolfe took up his position to watch the meat to be sure it didn’t get over cooked.
It looked like it was going to be a nice day.
I studied the area to the right of us where I had spotted a small creek that ran along the bottom of the hill. After breakfast I would need to go down and bring up some fresh water.
I also scanned the area looking for something I could use as a target to try out my new arrows to get a feel for them before I would need to use them for something important. Shooting at targets to test the arrows would be a useful way to relax this afternoon.
After I finished looking over the area, I laid back to relax a little until our breakfast was ready.
As I laid back against my backpack, I noticed Wolfe begin to sniff the air, then he got up and walked over to the ledge and looked down at the resort below.
I could see the hair on his neck begin to rise.
He seemed to study something for a few seconds, then he turned and looked at me.
He looked down over the hill and then back at me again.
Wolfe was telling me that I should come over and look
at what he saw.
He didn’t show his teeth, so I figured whatever he saw, it probably wasn’t one of the undead.
The hair standing up on his neck puzzled me, if I was reading him right, he was concerned about something.
He wouldn’t be concerned about a rabbit or a deer, something like that would make him excited.
I got up and retrieved my bow, figuring that maybe there were some animals below that had him worried.
If Wolfe was worried, then I was worried.
I walked over next to Wolfe and looked down over the hill to evaluate the situation and was shocked by what I saw.
It had been almost three years since I had seen another living human, but below me on the hill was a man slowly walking up the hill towards me.
I watched him for a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t one of the undead, but he was walking like a normal person and he was walking up hill.
Wolfe looked at me, waiting for to see what I would do and what my instructions would be.
I just stood and stared at the sight in front of me, not sure what I should do. So I waited and watched to see if I could determine what he was up to.
As I stared down at the man, he noticed me staring down at him and he quickly raised his hands and began waving.
In his right hand he waved a white cloth.
“Hello,” he shouted. “May I come up and talk with you?”
I quickly scanned the area behind him, the little resort, and looked for signs that he wasn’t alone.
I was suspicious that it could be a trap and I watched for any signs of movement or anything that appeared out of place.
“Wolfe, stay,” I said, then I added, “Watch.”
I then looked down at the man and waved for him to come up to our camp.
I watched as he worked his way up the hill, he moved slowly and as he approached the top of the hill, I saw he was an older man who was breathing hard after making the climb.
He was wearing a light jacket and was carrying a bag over his shoulder. The bag probably contained all of his worldly possessions. He wore an old ballcap with a large visor to keep the sun out of his eyes. He appeared to be harmless, but I watched him closely to be sure.
I kept an eye on the resort below, but I didn’t see any signs of anything unusual.
I watched until the elderly man reached the top of the hill in front of me where he dropped his bag and smiled.
He took off his hat revealing a thick crop of gray hair and wiped his brow with the sleeve of his jacket.
Wolfe walked over to him and started smelling his pant legs.
“I hope your dog doesn’t bite,” the man said nervously.
“He’s a wolf and he does bite at times,” I replied.
The man looked nervous but didn’t move.
Finally I said, “Wolfe, sit.”
Wolfe sat down but kept his eyes on the man.
“Would you care to join us for breakfast?” I asked.
“I would,” the man replied and smiled but then his look turned serious. “But only if you still want me to join you after I tell you why I am here.”
“Why are you here?” I asked cautiously.
“Because I wanted to see how your dog was doing and to tell you I’m sorry he got caught in one of my traps,” he replied.
“You set that trap?” I asked.
“Yes Sir,” he replied. “I see that you are a hunter. Unfortunately, I have never been any good at that sort of thing. I have been traveling for a very long time, I stopped here and set my traps hoping to catch enough food to last me a few days before I moved on again. I’m sorry your friend got hurt, I never expected that something like that would happen. I’ve been watching you from the hillside over there and decided that you seemed like a civilized man, so I wanted to come up and talk.”
“Wolfe seems fine this morning and I understand that you didn’t have any hostile intent, so if Wolfe isn’t holding a grudge, I guess I can let it slide,” I said.
“How do I know if he is holding a grudge?” the man asked.
“Do you still have all your arms and legs?” I asked.
“So far,” the man replied warily.
“Then Wolfe isn’t holding a grudge,” I smiled. “Have a seat.”
The old man sat down in front of the fire, Wolfe came over and sat down next to him, ignoring the man, Wolfe concentrated his attention on the deer meat.
I divided the meat three ways, then tossed more meat over the fire.
The man began eating like he hadn’t eaten in a week. I guess he wasn’t having much luck trapping anything that he could actually eat.
“How long have you been here old timer?” I asked. “By the
way, my name is Charlie.”
“I’ve been at this place for about five days I believe,” the man replied then held out his hand. “I’m Ben.”
Ben and I talked until late afternoon.
It was amazing to have another human being to talk with after all this time.
We talked about what all we’ve seen since the first day.
Ben was especially interested in my story about how Wolfe and I came to be together and how we have worked as a team ever since.
Then Ben shocked the hell out of me.
He knew why the undead were here and why they did what they did, why they attacked the living.
He knew because he said he was partly responsible for the reason they existed.
Like the traps he used to catch food to survive, his intentions had been noble, only the results had been unintentional.
I had finally found the answer I had been hoping to find.
Late afternoon, Ben got up and looked towards the east.
“I appreciate your hospitality, but I must be on my way,” he said. “I am an old man and I don’t have much time left. I hope to reach my home before I die. I know my family is dead, but I just want to visit them one more time,”
“Do you have a long way to go?” I asked.
“Maybe another few weeks,” he replied. “And where are you headed?”
“No where in particular, just west,” I replied.
“Might I make a suggestion?” he asked.
“Why not,” I smiled.
“Two days west of here you will find a lake. In the hills on the east side of the lake are some cottages,” he replied. “I think you and your friend would like it there. It is very peaceful there and you might just decide to stay for a while.”
I said it sounded nice and would look it up when we found the lake.
I asked him if he would like to stay the night with us before he continued his journey and told him we would be having hot deer meat again for dinner.
He laughed again at the idea of Wolfe eating his food prepared medium rare but declined the offer and thanked me for my hospitality.
Unlike Wolfe and I who had no place in particular to go, he seemed like a man on a mission and was on a schedule that only he knew about.
So I shook his hand and gave him a small bag of dried deer meat to take with him to eat as he traveled.
He was very appreciative of the gift and thanked me over and over.
He had one request before leaving.
He asked if he could pet Wolfe.
I agreed but only hoped that Wolfe didn’t mind, besides me Wolfe had never met another human and I wasn’t sure what he thought about humans.
But I also knew Wolfe followed instructions to the letter, so I said, “Wolfe, Come.”
Wolfe trotted over and sat in front of me.
I reached out my hand and scratched the top of his head and looked at Ben, “Now’s your chance.”
Ben reached out and ran his hand down over Wolfe’s neck.
Ben smiled, “Thank You, that was exciting.”
I laughed. “Wolfe, give paw.”
Wolfe held out his right paw.
Ben smiled reached out and shook Wolfe’s large paw.
Wolfe’s paw was as large as Ben’s entire hand.
Wolfe looked at me and I swear he was sending me a telepathic message that said something like, “OK, Can I bite him now?”
“Thank You,” Ben said.
“Good Luck Ben, I hate to see you leave so soon,” I said, “But if you have to go, I hope all goes well.”
The old man picked up his bag and started walking to the east.
I watched until he disappeared into the trees, then
I sat down, overwhelmed by seeing my first living person since I started my travels and by what I had learned today.
I know you have been probably thinking as you’ve read my story, that you knew where it was leading.
I’m sure you felt it would end with me telling you that the nuclear war and the radiation caused people to turn into zombies. That the radiation somehow affected people’s DNA or something like that resulting in people becoming zombies.
To tell you the truth, Kelly and I both thought the same thing when we first realized that the grotesque mob outside our house was actually a mob of the undead.
But as I traveled across the country and dealt with more of the undead, I began to feel that something else was responsible for the appearance of the undead.
After my conversation with Ben, my suspicions were confirmed.
Ben had worked for the U.S. Government at the National Research Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
He was in charge of a top-secret project for the military, the project was called “The Ultimate soldier”.
The mission was to develop ways to enhance a man’s natural assets and abilities to make them stronger, smarter, to have greater endurance, have a greater ability to survive battlefield injuries and to make their systems resistant to chemical weapons that could be used against them on the battlefield.
With today’s advanced weapons and weapon systems, the weakest link on the battlefield was the human soldier behind the weapons.
The Laboratory was also working on applications to use robots and artificial intelligence on the battlefield, but they were still a long way off before becoming practical.
The idea of finding a way to enhance a man’s abilities as opposed to replacing the human element all together had been in the works for years and had made great strides towards its goal in the last few years.
Ben’s group had created a drug that could alter the human mind to make it more aggressive, and smarter. They had also been able to identify the areas of the brain that controlled different parts of the body and give the brain the ability to shut down the nerves to each area. That meant that if a soldier had been shot in the arm, the brain could shut down the nerves to the arm so that the injured arm would not interfere with the functions of the rest of the body.
Ben also said the brains ability to shut down different parts and functions of the body had also made the body resistant to various forms or chemicals and radiation. He said they had just started to observe these abilities and hadn’t been able to fully study this effect, but they were extremely excited about the possibilities they suggested.
The goal was to create the ultimate soldier, an army of soldiers that would be almost impossible to defeat.
They had made a great deal of progress over the last year. They had even tested the project in small units that were sent to Afghanistan and Syria with very encouraging results.
The increased intelligence coupled with a more aggressive personality saw the special test units accomplish unbelievable objectives.
The men’s ability to fight on after sustaining major injuries that stopped the normal soldier dead in their tracks also started to attract the attention of other men in the units that weren’t aware of project.
But according to Ben there was one problem that his team hadn’t been able to solve.
It seemed that after a short time, the ultimate soldier become too aggressive and soon became out of control.
The test subjects could only be tested using the drug for a few days at a time and then only by giving them a very low dose of the drug.
But Ben was sure that given another year of research, they would have been able to overcome the problem and produce the results the military wanted.
But before the project could be completed, the war started.
When the nuclear bombs began to fall, the U.S. Government was afraid that the country had suffered so much damage that the war had been lost.
As a last-ditch effort to survive, the laboratory at Los Alamos was ordered to disperse the drug over the population areas that had suffered the least amount of damage in the hopes it would create a resilient core group of survivors that would be able to save the country and ultimately win the war.
Ben said he had protested the use of
the drug because of the problems that hadn’t been resolved.
The government just said we didn’t have a choice, that it would be now or never.
The drug was dispersed across the country by using a fleet of unmanned drones.
The green mist that I had seen being dropped over Bismarck was from one of the drones sent out from Los Alamos.
Unfortunately, what resulted was not what they had hoped to achieve.
Instead of transforming the survivors into a race of ultimate survivors, the green mist created an army of zombies that ended up destroying the country. An army of aggressive zombies with the engrained mental instructions to destroy everything that moved. The mental ability to control the body long after the body had died.
I had asked Ben how long he thought the undead would continue to roam the country.
He said he had no idea since the radiation and the nuclear explosions had altered the conditions and environment the undead were existing in, it was impossible for him to say.
Ben and I had talked and we both believed that if they hadn’t been ordered to release the drug, chances were the country would have survived.
The dreaded nuclear winter that had been predicted to happen after a nuclear war had never materialized. The radiation was concentrated near the site of the detonations and had little effect on the countryside beyond one hundred miles from the explosion.
Most of the country remained livable a week after the missiles had hit their targets.
But in the attempt to save the country, they had ended up destroying it.
I now knew what had caused the Zombie Apocalypse, we did it to ourselves.
The undead were ruthless killers, but the people that became the undead, were victims of all of this along with the rest of us. They weren’t responsible for what they became, they lost as much as the rest of us and were condemned to walk the earth for who knows how long.
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