Deadfall: Survivors

by Richard Flunker

  “That’s the old TV tower on Mt. Pisgah. It also used to broadcast an FM station, if I remember right. Do you think that’s it?”

  Tague “Are there any other towers that you might know of?”

  “None that I can think of, not close to here.”

  Tague “Then that must be it. Ideally, we can tie into that tower from here to broadcast what we wish.”

  Heather “Like a rescue signal?”

  “Anything, I guess. Is that something we want to do?”

  Dawn “Of course it is, we have to let anyone know that we are here, and that we can help them.”

  Tague “And risk letting people we might not want here know that we’re here?”

  Dawn “Zombies can’t listen to radio.”

  Tague “I meant living people.”

  Aaron “That’s a good point. Dawn, there are probably survivors out there who are turning this chaos into their own personal playpen. People with shady pasts who have nothing to run from now, or people who simply want to build their own kingdoms out of this mess.”

  “Can it be used to communicate with anyone?”

  Tague “It’s just a tower, only to send out a signal. I think the satellite uplink is what would be used to communicate with, whoever is out there. But without knowing which area in the sky to point our dish to, I have no way of doing it. Also, as far as the tower, its offline.”

  “It’s not working?”

  Tague “I’m not sure. Perhaps I could travel over there and check it out.”

  “That’s a good day hike all the way over there.”

  Tague “Nothing I can’t handle. I’ll take a few things with me, and make it a three or four day trip. You mentioned an inn nearby?”

  “Yeah, Pisgah Inn. Right down from the peak.”

  Tague “Then that will be where I can stay at night. Or at the tower itself, if there’s any kind of building attached to it. Maybe I can take the young man, Chris. He needs to do something.”

  Heather (Agitated) “Why? He’s doing his share. Why would you need to take him?”

  Tague (Surprised) “I meant nothing by it. It might do him well if he did something other than fill out lists.”

  Heather “Chris? Where did he go?”

  Dawn “Sweetie, I think he just went to the bathroom.”

  Aaron “We found a room stacked high with those batteries from the power room down below. Spares probably.”

  “That would make sense. I don’t know if those batteries were anything special, but if the plan was to hang out here for a very long time, those would definitely need to be replaced from time to time.”

  Aaron “Well, there’s a ton of them, that’s for sure.”

  Lucy “How do we get water here?”

  (Short pause)

  “I think, wells, and rain runoff too, I believe. There are a lot of springs around here.”

  Lucy “Well, I think we found a room that stores the water. Cisterns, I think that’s the correct word. Pipes running in and out with shutoff knobs.”

  Aaron “Knobs?”

  Lucy “Valves, whatever. Stop smiling.”

  Tague “The hot water ones are right above the battery rooms. Saw that on one of the computers. The water cycled to keep the batteries cooled is taken into the insulated tanks and the heat is exchanged there.”

  “I, was not aware of that.”

  “I guess I really don’t know much about this place.”

  Aaron “Also, I think one of the rooms is a metal machining room, and next to that is the metal that I suppose would be used there.”

  Evan “Machining room?”

  Tague “Machines that can cut and carve metal to make replacement pieces. Very precise equipment. Something I don’t know how to use.”

  “Probably none of us do.”

  Aaron “Tague, anything on any of the other rooms? We’ve found rooms with spare computer parts, wiring, and just many more things that I simply don’t know, well, we don’t know what they are.”

  Tague “No, but, I wasn’t really looking. Perhaps, when I come back, I’ll try to see if there is any mention of the rooms. I would suggest looking at the manuals.”

  Lucy “I was thinking about that. I just wrote down names of things I saw labeled in those rooms.”

  “Makes sense. The computers must have some kind of search mechanism built into the software, right? Tague?”

  Tague “Again, I'm no computer expert, no more than any of you. But that would make sense.”

  Lucy “Well, I have pages and pages of names. There are three computers. Anyone can help.”

  Dawn “I can do that.”

  “That’s good. We can all do something.”

  (Mental note. Heather just gave me a terrified look. Not sure why.)

  Heather “I’ll help, of course.”

  Evan “Hey, I can go with Tague, if Chris doesn’t want to.”

  “Hey, did you dig through the weapon room?”

  Evan “Weapon locker I think is the better word. Yeah. I'm still counting shit, but you’re loaded. Guns, rifles, spare parts for both, and tons of ammo. What was your dad getting ready for?”

  “Anything, I think.”

  (A shout, or a scream)

  Heather “What was that?”

  (Noise of chairs moving)

  Heather (Shouting) “Chris?”

  (End audio)

  We all went rushing off into the hallway, where Chris was screaming from the bathroom. We tried to enter, but he had locked the door. We tried repeatedly to bust the door down, while Heather was in tears, crying frantically for us to do something. Among all the frustration and the loud shouts, it took me a bit to hear what Chris was actually shouting about. I had to shout out for everyone to be quiet before we all heard what was going on. I even had to put my hand over Heather’s mouth, just to get her to quiet down for a moment, although I quickly removed it when I realized what I had done.

  When we took a moment to listen, Chris was shouting, but not for his life, but rather, for his ass. Our bathrooms had no toilet paper, and apparently, this was the first time he had had to make use of toilet paper. For a moment, Heather looked at me, almost in disbelief, a few smiles appeared, and Evan broke out in laughter.

  I hollered back into the bathroom that we had no toilet paper, and never would. Instead, we had a bidet. Of course, I had to explain the function, all the while not trying to laugh, especially at the groans and moans coming from the bathroom, most likely from the young man who was going to have to spray water at his rear for the first time in his life. I think the terms “are you serious?” and “are you kidding me?” were used more than once each. Heather shouted, asking why he had locked the door, and the obvious response was that he had to go. The quick moment of terror had quickly been replaced with a moment of levity, although Chris was probably still terrorized. His shouts from the bathroom had been shouts for toilet paper, and when we had not heard him above our conversation, he had begun shouting even louder.

  Heather was not amused. She actually stayed close to me, visibly shaking. She took it upon herself to be her brother’s keeper, and that brief moment, where she might have thought she had lost him, had brought her to shake, in weakness or fear. I can only fathom just how many times she might have thought she had lost him, or thought she had lost herself as well. She still had yet to open up at all about how she had survived, and I was afraid to ask. I am, by far, no counselor or psychologist, and I was simply too afraid to open that box and not be able to contend with what might pour out of it.

  After Chris had come out, Evan cheered him, leading him to smile smugly. He led him by the shoulder over back to the table, laughing loudly the whole time, joking about the freshness of his ass, or if he had used hot or cold water. Meanwhile, I walked the visibly shaken Heather over to one of the couches and sat her down. Her eyes were wet with tears and she was still shaking, even if just slightly. I knelt down in front of her and I asked her if she needed anything, again, trying not to di
g up anything, and she nodded her head no.

  Maybe it would be good for Chris to go with Tague. It would be a bit traumatic , maybe, at first, but it would allow Heather to get her mind off having to take care and be on watch over her brother, and maybe relax for the first time in a long time. Maybe I would see if she wanted to go out and shoot some of the guns with me tomorrow. Maybe shooting a gun could raise her confidence, or self esteem. I know that it did that to me. I could only hope that it had the same effect on her.

  She held my hand for a moment when I stood up, looked at me, and said thanks. I almost shrugged my shoulders, not sure what to say. Then I walked over and got a drink for her. Watching back on the rest of the group, most of them back to eating or still making fun of Chris, I noticed that we were all still holding in what had become of us. Most of them had dealt with it all in their own way. Evan kept to his bravado, guns and jokes to hide the fact he had killed his father, even if he was a zombie. Aaron and Lucy hid within each other, seeking to hide the fact that each had lost their own spouses and children. Dawn kept trying to be a caretaker, to quell the guilt she carried. Tague tried to remain quiet and non-emotional, just to hide the fact that he had been ready to die when the comet hit, and was now alive, and surviving. Chris, well, who knows what he has seen, and what he is hiding.

  Me? I'm hiding the fact that I didn’t suffer. I'm hiding the fact that I simply don’t understand what everyone has lost, or how they are dealing with it. I lost my dad, but it wasn’t traumatic. We weren’t even that close to begin with, despite what I tell everyone else. I hadn’t gone hungry or thirsty. I hadn’t seen people mauled around me. I had hot showers. Deep down, I wish I had suffered the same as all of them. In that way, I would feel equal, instead of guilty.

  It’s really a horrible thing to think. I remember being a kid, and being into my swords and shields phase. I always thought how cool it would have been to be alive during the medieval ages. The truth of it is, was, people in those times didn’t live long, were wracked with disease, and most people never left the place where they were born. Freedom was almost non-existent, and war plagued most of the kingdoms. It actually was a horrible time to be alive, unless you were the king.

  I really was lucky, and I knew it. There is no way I would have survived as they had. Instead, I was the king, sitting on my throne in the mountains; the sole person living in luxury. I felt shame, but I’d rather feel ashamed, than feel death.

  Heather - Entry 1

  My brother and I are from a small town outside of Jacksonville, Florida, called Callahan. My entire family is actually from Savannah, Georgia, but my father was down working in Jacksonville, contracting for the military. He did research for the Navy, a lot of which took place off shore. At the time that the zombies came, I was going to school at the University of North Florida. They had suspended classes because the comet was about to hit Earth, so I had been staying with my parents. When the comet had been destroyed, I had returned to the school, which was going to be restarting classes that fall. The night before my parents were attacked, I had actually gone out with some friends drinking and having fun. Everyone was so relieved, that even if it had been almost a month already, many of us routinely went out a lot. It had been a long year; most of us were so sure the world was nearly done with, there was still so much relief in the air.

  That next morning, I drove home to what would be the beginning of the end. Already, everything seemed different. I was listening to the radio station, the one that only ever played music, and even those guys were talking about riots or something going on in the streets. I almost ran over a few guys when going back through Jacksonville, but I didn’t think much about it. Something like that just didn’t register in my mind. To me, people were just people.

  When I pulled into our small neighborhood, there was this large fire truck parked right over a curb on the street that turns in, and I thought something was going on. And then when I pulled into the driveway, I noticed there were a few firemen at the door of the house, and that they seemed agitated, and there was a commotion at the door. As I got out of the car, my mother’s screams reached my ears right away, and my heart started racing. I kept hearing my father yelling to run away, and my brain just couldn’t figure out what was going on. As I started walking towards the door, one of the firemen turned and looked at me, and that’s when death stared right at me. His face was torn off; no skin, just the meat and blood underneath with two pale and distorted eyes, looking in my direction. I screamed and froze.

  Behind him, two more firemen were destroying my mother. That’s the only way I can describe it. They were tearing her limb from limb, biting her. I had never heard screams of pain like that ever in my life. It was a sight of blood and grime. It was like a movie, yet, it was real, and it was my mother. My father was behind her, something in his hands, trying to beat the firemen as hard as he could, but they simply weren’t flinching at any pain. Instead, they just kept flailing at my mother. I know that she died in a lot of pain. I hope she’s at peace.

  One of the firemen reached out and grabbed my father, and it was like they had super strength, because they just pulled him over my mother with ease. He fought, and I kept hearing him scream my name, and yelling at me to get my brother. The whole time, I was frozen. I couldn’t react. I was so afraid. The one that was looking at me, I don’t think could see me. He stood there, mostly turning around in circles, never really focusing on me. That’s when I saw Chris. I could see him through the living room window with what I'm sure was the same face that I had, if not even more terrorized. He was just feet from dad, who was trying his hardest to block the doorway entrance with his body, and was paying for it with his life.

  I yelled at Chris, telling him to go out the side door, into the garage. He came flying out, and that noise was enough to get the attention of the blind zombie, so much so that he came stumbling over some of the bushes as he fell over, just a few feet from where Chris came out of the garage. I screamed for him to get into the car, and we sat there for a second before I began fumbling for my keys to start the car. As I was driving down the road, I felt so ashamed that I was leaving my parents behind, ashamed that my fear had not allowed me to do anything for them, even if there was nothing I could have done.

  We began driving north, out of town, without a clue of what to do or where to go. We began to see evidence of the zombies, with those “rioters” out on the streets that I could now see clearly as to what they were. Most simply avoided the car, or just ran into the side of it. There was such a panic in the air. At one point, two young women tried to get me to stop to get into the car, but when I stopped, one of the zombies was right there on one of the women and drug her down, just as the other woman was getting into the back seat of the car. From that point on, I refused to stop the car for even a red light, which seemed kind of pointless.

  The other woman’s name was Megan. She was a bit younger than me, worked at some store in town. She was hysterical for a few minutes, before settling into a horrified silence. We just kept driving north until we got a little ways out of town. I then pulled over and stopped the car, but Chris told me not to and to just keep driving. I had been so worried about how terrified I was, that I had forgotten my brother had been there with me, and was probably just as scared as I was.

  I told him to grab my cell phone out of my purse, and I called about the only person I could think of. My on and off boyfriend, Cal. He was a soldier stationed at Fort Benning up in Georgia. At one point, we had been engaged, but then I had broken it off for my own reasons. Now, I selfishly called him up, hoping he could answer my fears. It took a few calls, but he answered. There was a lot of commotion on that end. He said that the base had come under attack, but that they had repelled the attack. I told him what had happened, and he told me exactly what I wanted to hear. He told me to go there, that we could be safe there until they found out what was happening.

  I remember trying to ask him how to get there, but the call was dropped. In
hindsight, I think I was really lucky I got through that one time. That was also the last time I ever heard his voice. Chris suggested I use my phone for directions. The young woman, Megan, while still in shock, just shook her head when I suggested the army base. We were Americans, the idea of hiding out a catastrophe at an Army base seemed like a very logical thing to do.

  The drive there was only a few hours. I had a full tank of gas, so I never had to stop, and we never wanted to. I remember there was a huge accident near an interstate overpass, and the traffic there was completely backed up. I was glad I wasn’t going on there. We didn’t have to go through any big cities on the way there, and the few zombies we saw, we simply avoided. We drove past a school bus and I remember feeling so terrified, but, it had been empty. School still hadn’t started up.

  At some point in the early afternoon, we got to the southern entrance to the base, after a small town that appeared to have been taken over by the army. They had roadblocks everywhere, and we were forced to get out and walk the rest of the way to the gates. I kept trying to tell people that I knew Cal, a sergeant, but we were mostly ignored. They took our names and where we were from, and then we were boarded into buses. They were going to take us further into the base, where camps had been set up for refugees. That’s what they called us, and I asked them if there was a war, but I could never get a right answer. I guess they really didn’t know either.

  Right before we got into the bus, we heard the crashing sounds of gunfire coming from behind us, and then shouting. We were pushed into the bus, and the bus spun about as quickly as a large bus could, and we were headed back into the base. But we weren’t taken to any fort. Apparently, I had a completely wrong idea of what an army base was. There is a base part, with housing and barracks and military type buildings, but the rest of it is just wilderness. They brought us out to this place in the middle of nowhere, where they had set up this tent camp. They dumped us off there, and the bus turned right around and left. Soldiers there gave us a bag with some food and a sleeping bag, and told us to find a place to sleep. I asked about Cal, but the one soldier I talked to said he didn’t know him, and told us to get a tent, because it was supposed to rain that night.