Looking back on this it hits me how close I was to figuring out how this all started. I wasn’t near an answer on how to stop it but standing there with those thoughts I was so dangerously close to unlocking a secret that had been hidden from humans for over 650 years. But there’s a process to the story I’m telling, and that portion of the story is for later.
I walked back into my little compound, locked the gate closed, went back into my house and went to bed. That night I think I had perhaps the best night of sleep since all of this had begun. I don’t know if it’s because I had finally fully grieved for the death of Steve or if because I realized that I was always going to be safe where I was, as long as a horde of the dead didn’t come walking through the gate. It was probably a little of both
***
The turbine was finally completed on a day with absolutely no wind, naturally. I mean, even if there had been just the slightest of breezes it should have worked but the weather was absolutely still that day which told me one thing. A very bad storm was coming. I looked to the west as I finished connecting the turbine into the house and saw the line of clouds. They were almost black as night as they were coming in. I knew two things could possibly happen with this storm: the turbine would work and get a great deal of electricity for the house, or the storm would destroy the turbine.
As I waited I just happened to look out over the lake and notice that a horde of the dead were walking across the land bridge of old Highway 64 (I say old because it no longer exists and even if it did it wouldn’t be in use. It was the main thoroughfare for the people who didn’t want to use the interstate before the dead). I could only assume that the majority of the horde were people from Stantonsville and their food source had run out. I was still amazed that the hordes stuck to the highways. If it was an individual dead or a small group that would completely meander from road to grass and back again, but in a horde, they almost behaved as a herd and stayed together.
I quickly realized that this was probably the reason that the major cities fell as fast as they had because most of the millions would have been in hordes. They were, in fact, like locusts devouring everything in their path and moving on.
I heard the first rumble of thunder and realized that the storm was almost on me. I went into the house but instead of focusing on the storm as I had always done when storms came through as I loved storms, I focused on the turbine that was at the side of the house but away from the house so that it could get the maximum amount of wind but still be out of view from the living (during this time my paranoia of the living was extremely high). At this point I wanted no interaction with the living, still of the belief that the humans in the real world would act the same as in the stories.
The wind finally picked up and the turbine begin to vibrate just like it was designed to.
“Well the first test is a success.” I said to no one in particular.
The wind began howling and lightning struck somewhere close as evidenced by the closeness and loudness of the thunder. The first drops of rain began falling.
“Hmmm,” I thought to myself out loud. “We get a fair amount of rain in this area every year, especially around the monsoon season. I need to figure out a way to trap that rain for drinking, bathing, and other needs (I call it the monsoon season, though the amount of rain we received never really rivaled the true monsoon seasons of south Asia).”
Just then I heard pings on the turbine and realized it had begun to hail. Not the small variety pea size hail but the baseball size that causes damage. “Well I had hoped to test whether the turbine would be able to stand up to damage, now I just hope I don’t lose any windows.”
Fortunately, the hail didn’t last long but the wind had really begun to howl and the turbine was vibrating extremely hard and fast. I was afraid that I hadn’t secured the turbine into the ground well enough.
I yawned. Storms always had a way of soothing me and making me tired. I figured a little nap wouldn’t do any harm.
I woke up some time later. The storm had passed and the sun was just setting. I looked out to the turbine and was relieved to see that it was still standing tall. Not only that the wind was still up and the turbine was still vibrating. I didn’t think that there had been enough wind to fully charge the cells and provide me with some electricity. I checked the box and it was reading 75% charged. Better than I had hoped but I had wanted it to be 100% charged before I tested the system.
“It’s either going to work with a charge or not, the percentage doesn’t really matter.” I said as I moved to the light switch for the room.
I couldn’t stop myself from quoting a movie as I was about to turn on the light (because that’s what I had done in my old life), “Hold on to your butts.” I turned the switch to on and was delighted to see the light in the center of the room come on.
I clapped really loud and exclaimed, “Hot damn, it worked.”
I quickly turned off the light and walked back over to the power cells to check to see how much electricity I had used. It read 76%. I was ecstatic. Not only did it not use a lot of energy it actually continues to store with electricity running. I made the decision to only use the electricity during the day to run the A/C. Because I was still more afraid of humans than the dead at that point I decided that it was best never to use any lights at night so that I wouldn’t draw any attention to myself.
I still needed to come up with a plan to catch rain water and store it at the same time. I remembered that in Stantonsville there was a company that delivered fuel and that they always had at least two or three fuel trucks on site. If those trucks were empty I would be able to use the tanker to catch and store water. I just had to get into town, get a truck, and get back to my home without attracting any attention from the dead or the living. I decided that the best opportunity to do this would be the next day. There was no sense in waiting. It had to be mid-September or even early October by then, so the rains would be coming back sooner rather than later. So, the next day I ventured into town with the sincere hope that I made it back in once piece, or even alive (that was much more preferable).
***
The next day I got into Steve’s hybrid that ran on electric and gas. Though there was still a full tank of gas I decided to play it safe and get enough gas that would hopefully last me a good long time. I had decided this the night before to make this run before going after the tanker. I drove up to the gate, got out, unlocked it and opened it. I got back in the car and drove out of the gate and stopped. I got out and did the same with the gate but in reverse. My plan was to simply get on the interstate from where I was and drive the very short distance to the next interstate exit and see which of the gas stations I would be able to get gas from. Naturally I wanted to make sure there were no hordes on the interstate that could stop me and lead to some serious issues.
Before getting back in the car I walked up to the overlook and looked first east towards Little Rock and then west towards Ft. Smith. I didn’t see any of the dead, but I did, for the first-time notice that there were vehicles on the interstate. From my distance they seemed empty, but I had seen enough movies and shows to know that wasn’t always the case. Anyways the path seemed to be mostly clear. I got back in my car and went to the exit nearest me (just a few hundred yards) and got on the interstate headed east. I have to admit, even in the short two-mile drive from one exit to the other I was amazed how peaceful it seemed. I got off on the next exit and pulled up to the very first gas station. It was deserted. There were no cars at all in the lot but then I noticed the sign on the door.
NO GAS!!!!!
“Well, Liam, we hadn’t thought about that first. Damn.” The fact that I had never thought that the gas stations would be out of gas just absolutely pissed me off. How could I miss that simple little detail? I looked across the highway and saw that the gas station also had a similar sign that promised no gas. I quickly drove to the next gas station and saw the same sign.
There was another gas station across the
interstate but before going over there a thought occurred to me that maybe the signs were fake. I didn’t know why they would be fale but I guess sometimes it’s better to have some hope than no hope at all. I went back to the first gas station and pulled up to the pump. It was then, naturally, that I realized that even if there was gas I had two main issues: the pumps run on electricity so how would I get the pump started and the only way to get the pumps running would be inside.
“Jesus, this end of the world shit sucks.” I said aloud to no one in particular, again.
I got out of the car and went up to the door. It was locked. “Of course it is.” I wasn’t really sure how I was going to get in the building but then remembered that Steve had a spare tire in his car so naturally there must be either a car jack or tire iron. I opened the trunk and after digging some I was able to come up with a tire iron. “Good job, Steve. Always kept it as old school as possible.” I chuckled to myself how stupid what I said was. No matter how old school or new school someone was there should always be a tire iron in car. How else would someone remove a flat tire on the road.
I walked to the door apprehensive about busting out the window but then remembered that I could break as many laws as I wanted, no one was going to care. I hit the glass door as hard as I could with the tire iron and the glass disintegrated. The first thing that hit me absolutely surprised me. It was cool air. There was still electricity in the gas station. I didn’t know how or really care but there was. It was then that I looked at the gas pumps and realized that they were on as well. I laughed to myself that I didn’t think to look at them first.
I walked inside and around the counter to the registers. They were still on but there were no cash drawers. “That’s peculiar. Why would they put the drawers away? Cash is no good anymore.” Who was I talking to?
I ignored it and found the screen for the pumps. I hit the pump where my car was parked and nothing happened. “Damn.” I pushed it again. Still nothing. “I guess that really means that there is no gas.”
Defeated, I walked back outside to the car. As I sat down a thought occurred to me. “What if I had to turn the pump on first before the pump can be activated?” It seemed as good an idea as any. I got out of the car and walked up to the pump and pulled the nozzle out of the pump and put it into the gas tank and then selected the correct grade of gas (in case you don’t know what a grade is, at the time there were generally three grades of gas. Most cars used 87 which was the lowest grade possible. I can’t really explain more than that like how a grade was determined but does that really matter?). I immediately heard the cash register inside dinging to signify that the pump needed to be turned on. Before going back inside I activated the nozzle by pulling up the trigger and locking it in place. That way when I pushed the button I would immediately know if there was gas or not, because the pump would either start delivering gas or wouldn’t.
I walked inside back around the counter and in front of the cash register that was dinging. I slowly reached out my hand and hit the button on the screen corresponding to the gas pump. I closed my eyes not really wanting to see if the counter started rolling. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that the counter was indeed rolling. I ran back outside and stopped the pump. I pulled the nozzle out of the car and aimed it behind the car and pulled the trigger. Sure enough, gas flowed out of the nozzle. I released the trigger, put the nozzle back in the gas tank, pulled the trigger, and locked it into place.
I walked into the store and in the back corner was able to locate five 15-gallon gas cans. I grabbed two and took them to the car, went back in and grabbed the other three and also took them to the car. After filling the car and four of the gas cans the gas finally ran out. I looked at the pump and saw that the price for doing all of this was over $200. I chuckled to myself, loaded the full gas cans into the back of the car and got in. Just then another thought occurred to me. While going in and out of the store I had glanced over to the drink coolers. While they weren’t full there were plenty of drinks in them. I took all the drinks I could and loaded them into the back seat of the car nearly filling it. While I was at it I grabbed all the bags of chips that were left and any food that was in the store and filled up the rest of the car other than the driver side.
I couldn’t believe I had been so lucky. Naturally, as soon as that though passed I looked up and saw a horde of the dead had filled the interstate. “Well, shit.” I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. While that wasn’t my only way back to the house it was the quickest. I thought, “to hell with it” and started the car and drove over the bridge that spanned the interstate. My plan was to drive about a quarter mile north where I would then be able to take a road that would lead to the road that went right in front of my gated haven.
As I turned onto the road that would eventually lead me back to my house I encountered another horde forcing me to slam on my breaks. They were walking away from me but a few of the walkers in back did turn their attention toward me but didn’t otherwise move towards me. I noticed that the dead weren’t moving, they were pushing against each other in a general motion away from me but otherwise not really going anywhere. I decided to take a chance and got out of the car. I looked behind me and to the sides to make sure none of the dead could surprise me in those directions. I couldn’t quite see that far ahead of me so I walked to the edge of the road and looked in the direction of the walkers.
“Well, shit. Isn’t that just great!” I said a little louder than I had meant. The bridge ahead was gone. I’m not sure how it happened. The last storm hadn’t seemed that bad and in this area of the lake the only boats that could hit the bridge were small boats that wouldn’t have the ability to destroy the bridge (or so I thought). I walked to the other side of the road and finally saw what had felled the bridge. A boat ramp from the other side of the lake had apparently come loose and drifted under other bridges before striking this one and causing enough damage to bring it down.
“Well I guess I go the other direction.” Just then I looked up and saw that about fifteen of the horde had turned their full attention to me and had started coming towards me. I mumbled to myself, “time to go.” I ran back to the car and got in, put the car in reverse and punched the gas. I went in reverse for a good fifty yards before stopping. I looked back at the dead and was amazed that they had already given up their pursuit and had turned around. I exhaled loudly. “Mental note, Liam. No more talking aloud to yourself when there are fucking dead within earshot!” Despite myself I laughed. I also mentally noted that all my talking in their vicinity had grabbed their attention, but the relative quietness of Steve’s car didn’t seem to keep their attention.
I turned the car around and went back to the highway (old Highway 7) and went south back over the interstate and to the intersection just passed the gas station I had been at and stopped. I laughed at myself as I realized I had stopped at a stoplight that wasn’t even on. There were only two options at the intersection, go straight which would take me into town but away from the house or turn right which would take me across the dike that kept the lake from spilling into town which ended at old Highway 64 but was the long way to the house. I turned right and headed out towards the dike.
As I was driving across the dike that I had driven over many times in my life (it was originally called Dike Road but the city for some reason had changed the name to Lakefront Drive. I had my suspicions that it had to do with homophobia but never had any direct proof) I couldn’t help myself and turned into one of the cutouts that allowed people to both look out over the lake and to fish. I got out of the car and looked out over the lake. Though I had to deal with the unnerving sound of the dead that were on the interstate it was still a very peaceful day. I didn’t want to stay long but I was just lulled into the serenity of the lake, that is until I looked at the land bridge that was old Highway 64 and noticed a completely different horde of the dead walking that road as well.
“What? Is there a parade of walkers today (Okay I realize at the po
int I did talk to myself a lot in the early and also told really bad jokes)?”
I didn’t have much choice. I was cut off from my house. I had to wait them out. I figured it wouldn’t take too long as the hordes on the highway and interstate typically passed along rather quickly. I got back into the car, turned the air on and leaned the seat back, and closed my eyes to relax.
***
As I was waking up I couldn’t help but notice a rather strange noise coming from outside the car. I slowly opened my eyes and realized that it was nighttime. My eyes finally adjusted to the night and I realized what the noise was. A group of around 50 dead had surrounded the car. Another realization I am making as I am writing this down. I never referred to the house as my house or Steve’s car as my car. It had to be a subconscious thing that wouldn’t allow me to call things that I had taken ownership of as mine.
“Well, shit.”
I really didn’t know what to do. They had completely surrounded the car and were in such close proximity at times they were bumping the car. This horde was acting strangely, though. Where all the rest of the dead had generally all been moving in herd mentality, these dead weren’t. The best way I can describe it is that they were mulling around as if they were looking for something.
Terror came over me as I realized that they were looking for me. Maybe not me specifically, but even with the low hum of the electric car when close enough the noise was obviously loud enough for the dead to pay attention. This did however prove my theory about their vision. They could see extremely close up but at a distance their site was not that great. Several of the dead looked at the car but none actually “looked” in.
The Dead Chronicles (Book 1): The Dead Chronicles Page 4