Apocalyptic Empire: The Hatchery Compound

by Chris Blake

  Part Two: Anarchy Reigns

  Chapter Ten

  Survival

  March, 2013

  The last four weeks melted by like the last of the snow in the canyon hatchery.

  Immediately after the nuclear decimation of entire cities, and the broadcasted suicide of the President, the shit hit the fan. People had no direction, no news outlets telling them how to live their lives, and most importantly, no police to enforce the laws. Anarchy ensued in full. People were killing each other for food, water, and supplies. The power grid started failing in many places with nobody to maintain it, fires broke out and with nobody to put them out, entire cities burned to the ground. To make matters worse, gangs of marauders and looters had banded togethe1r and started their own little armies.

  Vintago and his family were left mostly alone due to the remoteness of their hideaway. A few stragglers had found the road leading up to the hatchery, but Vintago had taken to patrolling since the fall of society. He ran into them halfway up the road and chased them off with his rifle. He did not kill them. He just pointed it at them, and they scurried off.

  Vintago one day started calling the plague victims “Charlie” as a joke representing C.Virus infected people. The name stuck and ever since they were always on the lookout for Charlie, like it was Vietnam or something.

  The group had run into more than a few straggler Charlie on a couple occasions down by the highway. They had more than likely been survivors on the run when they succumbed to the virus one way or another and had wandered up towards their little haven. Vintago made a sick game out of trying to shoot them several times before killing them. He would shoot them in the legs to cripple them, and then he would try and take out their arms as they crawled towards him mouths hanging open and teeth showing.

  He would allow them to get close, and then try to kill them with his knife, trying to sharpen his knife skills. Vintago had exactly zero experience in hand to hand combat, and he figured now was time to learn.

  One time, after jamming his knife into the neck of a particularly feisty Charlie, he bent over to pick it up, and the thing actually grabbed onto his leg and bit his foot. Vin about shit his pants and leaped back pulling his Taurus .45. He fired two rounds into the top of its head, blowing its brains all over the concrete.

  Ever since then, Vintago stopped playing his game of close combat with the Charlie.

  For Vin and his band, things have been pretty good, up until now. After a month, they had begun running pretty low on supplies. For the first couple weeks, since they had so much food, they ate three square meals a day and everyone was satisfied. By week three, they realized that they were going to have to start rationing their food if they wanted it to last longer. By week four, they were seeing the impact of all the waste in the first two weeks. Their pantry was half empty, and the freezer was almost empty.

  They also had been running the generators whenever the power kicked off because they wanted to keep their freezer running and all of their electronics. Now, they were almost out of fuel for the generator.

  Vintago decided it was time to take a venture into Payson and see what was left to be salvaged. Ben and Greg did not like the idea of that much, remembering the last time they went into Payson. They still had not gotten totally over the whole event, and still viewed Vin in a strange light.

  “We need to go into town and at the bare minimum fill up the tanks.” Vin tells the group.

  “We have two days of fuel left if we are lucky and if the generator runs out then we lose the freezer and all the food in it.” he explains.

  “I’ll go with you son” his father says.

  “That’s good. Greg, maybe you should stay here, just in case anybody wanders onto our property.” Vin says.

  Vin said, “our” property and he meant it. Jessica had long ago let the group move into the crew quarters and became part of their family. They pulled more than their own weight, and she needed them here for safety and supplies.

  “That’s a good idea” Cindy adds.

  Vin just nods his head. Thinking to himself, “Its, not like he’s good for anything intense anyway.”

  With that settled Vin starts planning for their next outing to Payson. The last one did not go so well, and he does not believe it will be a walk in the park this time. With the whole world going to shit like it has, Vin knows they will have to protect themselves going into Payson.

  Vin explains his plan to his dad standing by the big fish pond outside. He wants take a trip to town in the large flatbed truck stored in the warehouse. The problem is that Vin does not know how to drive a truck with a manual transmission. Vin asks Ben if he minds driving, and Ben says that it is OK, so that decides that. Additionally, this way Vin can ride shotgun and protect their asses.

  Vintago also suggests that they load the gigantic fuel tank for the generator in the truck. Before they shut down the generator, they tell the women not to use the fridge or freezer to let them hold in as much cold air as possible. The quicker they get this trip over with the better.

  They go about shutting down the generator, disconnecting all the fuel leads, and getting it ready to load up. They decide to pick up the fuel tank with the Bobcat bucket and place it on the back of the truck. After getting the tank wrapped in straps for picking it up, Greg operates the bucket on the Bobcat since he has the only significant experience with operating heavy machinery. At first he plays around with the knobs and levers and thinks he has a decent handle on things. Greg starts pulling on the straps and jerks too far lifting the tank off the ground and swinging it towards Vin. Vintago dives out of the way and the tank glides over his head. Vin rolls over and gets up quickly.

  “Watch out!” Ben yells.

  Vintago spins around, and here comes the tank hurtling towards him! Vin ducks down and rolls away once again just in the nick of time.

  “What the fuck Greg! I thought you said you could do this!” Vin screams, over the noise of the Bobcat’s engine.

  “I said I could probably figure it out!” Greg yells back.

  Vin just shakes his head and stands way the hell back so that Greg does not attempt to crush him with the tank again.

  Eventually, Greg does figure it out and successfully gets the tank hovering right over the truck bed. Vin gets up on the truck bed hesitantly and tries to steer the tank down. After a few tense minutes, they are able to guide the tank to the truck bed and tie it down with some straps.

  Next, Vin loads up some of the extra gas canisters they have so that they can collect as much fuel as possible.

  Lastly, the guys say goodbye to everyone else at the hatchery and they load up their weapons and some ammunition in a duffel bag and throw it in the cab of the truck. Vintago throws both his HK and his AK-74 in the cab, and Ben takes an AR-15 and his hunting rifle. Not quite sure what they are going to get into, they think the more firepower the better. As always both men have their sidearms. Vin holsters his .45 on the inside of his waistband, and his 9mm in a holster on his thigh.

  With a final wave out the side windows, father and son back up the truck, and start heading down the road towards the highway. As the guys enter the highway, they see the fallout of the past month. There is litter on the sides of the highway that has been left by travelers on their way north. All sorts of personal belongings, luggage, trash, and an assortment of junk lays in between broken down beater cars. The mountains are particularly unforgiving for vehicles not kept up with regular maintenance. The final push to the hatchery from Payson ascends over a thousand feet in under twenty miles. Being at the high altitude killed some of these vehicles. One car they passed looked like it had overheated, caught on fire and been abandoned to burn. Some of the vehicles they passed, on the other hand, looked brand new. They must have run out of gas, Vintago figures.

  As they enter Payson a short time later, the setting changes. Buildings have been burned to the ground, in some places, their skeletal structures are still standing, and fallen over in others. Parking
lots are full of burned out cars, and everywhere around, there are bullet casings and dead bodies. The dead bodies lying everywhere is what freaks out both men. No stranger to death over the past month, both men are somewhat taken aback at the number of bodies lying in the streets, parking lots, and even inside cars.

  Vintago grabs his AK-74 rifle from the back seat and chambers a round. He sets it next to him with the barrel pointing towards the floorboards. Ben similarly takes out his gun and places it in the cup holder of the truck.

  Vin’s head is spinning back and forth, eyes scanning, looking for signs of trouble. The whole scene is unsettling, and the guys just want to get what they need and get the hell out of here.

  Since the power is out, they need to find a gas station which also has a backup generator. That will be the only way they are going to get enough gas out of the pumps to fill up their tank. Not many of the larger gas stations have the backup generators, due to them not being needed in today’s generation with the largely reliable power grid of Payson. The guys are going to have to find a smaller mom and pop owned gas station that has been around awhile.

  It takes Ben and Vin about an hour to find such a gas station. On the outskirts of town, they find an old station that looks like it has been around for at least forty years. Vin thinks that this might be the place, and has Ben pull into the parking lot.

  “Stay with the truck for a minute, I need to take a look around.” Vin says to his father.

  “Will do.” Ben replies and places his 9mm Kel-tec on his lap.

  Vintago hops out of the truck, wraps his sling over his head and brings up his HK rifle. He first scouts around the outside of the building looking for potential infected, looters, or whatever may be lurking around.

  Seeing nothing creepy crawly or otherwise on the side of the building, Vin proceeds. As he turns around the corner of the building, he sees exactly what they were praying for. The building has a large shed with a sign that reads; keep out high voltage electricity. Vin approaches the shed and taps on the door with the butt of his rifle, taking a listen for any signs of noise. Nothing comes back to his ears, so he quickly swings open the door to the shed and takes a peek inside. It looks to be clear, and the generator stands in front of him, in all its glory.

  Vin taps the tank with his rifle, and it sounds hollow. He keeps tapping it and follows it to the bottom where it sounds a little different, confirming there is some fuel still in the generator. It probably has not been used in forever, Vin figures.

  Not quite sure how long the fuel will last, Vin decides to get everything else done before starting the generator.

  Vin goes around the front and tells his dad to get the truck parked near a pump and get it all ready to pump gas. After a few minutes this is done, the pump is ready, now they just need juice.

  Vin heads around back and hits the button to start the generator. Nothing happens.

  “Shit!” Vin exclaims.

  He takes a quick look at the knobs and levers and finds a lever labeled fuel shutoff, in the off position. Rolling his eyes, he flips the lever back and hits the start button again. The engine cranks over a few times and springs to life.

  With the power turned on suddenly all the lights in the building come on, the freezers, and the pumps in front. Vintago can hear music playing from some device inside. Vin walks around the front and gives his father the thumbs up to begin pumping gas. Ben tries the handle, and nothing comes out. They both freak out a bit, trying to figure out why it is not working. Then they realize they did not pay for it!

  Thinking quickly, with all the noise behind him, Vintago knows they need to get this over with and get out of here.

  There must be a switch on the inside that controls the pump for cash customers!

  Vin sprints to the front doors of the small station and peeks inside. With all of the lights on he can see the entire store. It looks clear, but Vin drops his rifle in his sling and pulls out his 9mm from his tactical holster all the same.

  Vin steps gingerly inside the store avoiding some broken glass and takes a look inside. Last time Vintago was in a store like this it ended with four dead bodies. Hoping not to repeat the same mistakes, he takes a look around the whole store. Seeing nothing, he runs over to the counter and looks behind it. Sure enough there are switches for all the pumps. Vintago flips the switch for pump three, where Ben is parked. He also flips switch four. He figures he can fill the smaller cans while his dad fills the large tank.

  Vintago spins around to go outside, and standing behind him is the last thing he expected to see.

  An extremely tall man hovering over him.

  The man takes a look at Vintago, and his jaws open wide exposing yellowed nasty teeth. He lunges at Vintago and shoves him against the cigarette shelves and pins him. Vintago drops his gun as he reaches up to defend himself, and his gun clatters across the floor.

  Vin has the man’s shoulders in his grip and pushes off with all of his strength, but the tall man is clearly stronger than Vin and his head inches closer to Vintago. Thinking fast, Vin grabs a bottle of vodka off the shelves behind him and hits the man over the head as hard as he can. The sudden impact knocks the man off center slightly, just enough for Vin to escape his grasp and Vin ducks down and slides in between the man's legs. Vin gets up and runs to the other side of the store, pulling his .45 from under his shirt as he goes. With incredible speed, the tall man leaps towards him from the counter and Vin spins and brings up his Taurus. Vin fires, once, twice, three times and the tall man collides into him.

  The impact of the man hitting him and pinning him to the ground knocks the wind out of Vintago. His weapon drops out of his hand again and falls just outside his grip. Vin has one hand keeping the man from biting him, and the other hand inches towards the grip of his .45. In the last moments, just before the man takes a bite out of his neck, Vin feels his gun. He’s never felt something so beautiful in his life.

  He grabs the gun with his left hand, and places it against the temple of the infected man and pulls the trigger one last time. A hollow point crashes into the man’s skull and comes out of the other side with dramatic effect. The left side of the man’s head disappears in a swatch of blood, brain, and bone fragments. Vintago is covered from the waist up in the man’s filth during the process, and the man slumps down on top of Vin.

  Vin quickly scrambles out from underneath the vile putrid body and scurries away from it. He runs over to the counter, grabs his 9mm, holsters it, and gets the hell out of the store.

  Ben, who heard the gunshots runs up with his Kel-tec and sees Vin covered in blood and gore, and stands looking at him with that same look Vin has seen before.

  “Thanks for the backup again Dad! Holy shit!” Vin screams.

  “I grabbed my gun and came as fast as I could!” he pleads.

  “Not fast enough! That thing nearly took out a chunk of my fucking neck!” Vintago yells at his father. “Let’s just get these fucking gas tanks full and get out of here before we get any more company.”

  With that, Vin grabs a rag from the back of the truck and wipes off some of the blood on his clothing. His favorite damn shirt is ruined. His mistake for wearing it, he guesses.

  Ben begins pumping gas into the huge tank in the back of the truck, and Vin grabs some of the smaller cans and fills those.

  After about fifteen minutes of pumping all the small cans are full and the large generator tank is just about full.

  That’s when they hear it.

  A loud growling noise is growing in strength. Vin jogs over to the edge of the gas station and peeks behind the fence. Approaching is a group of about twenty infected, all bundled together in a big swarm. This is the most infected that Vin has seen by far. They must group together like this in urban environments.

  They must have been drawn out by the sound of the gunshots and the generator, Vin guesses.

  “Dad, we need to get out of here. We’ve got company.” Vin explains.

  “The tanks almost full, h
ow long do we have?” Ben replies.

  “I’m not waiting any longer, I am going to go shut the generator down, and we are bugging out.” Vin says.

  With a sigh of acceptance, Ben returns the pump to its proper place and gets ready to leave. Vin runs behind the station and shuts down the generator. He wants to be able to use this facility again in the future.

  The two men pack up their belongings and start the truck. They drive as quickly as possible away from the group of infected and back towards town. With a sigh of relief as they put distance between them and the infected, they both look at each other.

  “We need to see if we can get some supplies to, we are running pretty low” Ben suggests.

  “I understand that, but don’t you think we should get out of here with that pack of Charlie coming?” Vintago asks his father.

  “Yes I do, but we will be coming back in a few days if we don’t do it now. I would rather just get it over with.” Ben reasons.

  Vintago knows he is right and nods his head.

  They decide to stop at one of the smaller local markets instead of a large grocery store. Figuring all the chain grocery stores would be cleaned out by now and hoping the smaller market has not been picked as clean.

  They jump out of the truck, and Vintago takes a look around observing his surroundings. After the last stop, he is not taking any chances. He didn’t even know where the hell that group of Charlie came from, they appeared out of thin air, or so it would seem.

  “Sneaky little bastards.” Vin thinks.

  Father and son enter the store, and do a full recon of it before touching anything. They soon discover that the store has quite a bit of supplies still, the things that people do not think to loot, and they do not see any Charlie lurking around.

  Satisfied that the store is clear, they take two shopping carts and sweep everything off the shelves into the baskets. In a matter of minutes, both carts are filled, and they start with two more. They do this for about twenty five minutes and fill up eight shopping carts. Some of the stuff may have no use to anyone, but who knows.