Day One (Book 1): Alive

by Michael McDonald

  “Antibiotics. As I said, you have an infection due to the injury you sustained. They’ll help you, but only if you take them and trust me. If I wanted you dead, then I would have shot you in your vehicle a few nights back when you were playing on your phone in the front seat.”

  I picked up the pill bottle and opened the lid. The large pills were exactly what the Shadow had said they were. I knew that because I had taken them enough in my life time to spot them a mile away. I looked up at the Shadow. “What the hell is going on?”

  “The end of the world as we know it,” they said and pulled the hood off, revealing a Young Woman that could not have been more than twenty-one years old.

  I already knew that, although I didn’t want to admit that to myself. I knew that the world that everyone had known for so long was gone and would more than likely never return. It was difficult to swallow, even sitting there in front of my supposed attacker, who turned out to be a pretty thing, hearing the truth. It was like a slap to the face. Do you retaliate for such an action or simply deal with it and walk away, accepting what happened?

  “There was supposed to be a containment area set up at the interstate. What happened to that?” I asked, the quickly popped the pill into my mouth and followed it with a long sip of the cold water. It was refreshing and seemed to make me feel younger, rejuvenated in spirit.

  “Oh, they had one set up, but only for a few hours. They were apparently told to pull back and left in a hurry.”

  “How in the hell do they expect to save anyone if they hang around for only a few hours, and then run away? That doesn’t make any damn sense.”

  “They weren’t there to save anyone.”

  “Come again?” I asked, a look of confusion burning across my pale face...

  “They weren’t there to feed and shelter those that showed up. They are the military for God’s sake. They were there to quarantine those that were infected and neutralize those that were too far gone.”

  “Neutralize?” I said ignorantly. “You mean kill?”

  The Young Woman, now coming into the dim light of a nearby candle, looked directly into my eyes and nodded her head. “That’s right. So had you gotten there any earlier, you and your daughter would both be dead right now.”

  “Bullshit! That’s our military… they wouldn’t kill their own people, the same people they swore to protect. Besides, we aren’t infected or sick!”

  “Are you so sure about that – better yet, would you be willing to risk your daughter’s life to prove me wrong?” she asked.

  I took another sip of the water and swallowed. I handed the pill bottle back to the Young Woman, who pushed them back at him. “You hang onto those… you need them more than I do.”

  “Where’s my daughter?” I asked from the floor.

  She stood and held out a hand to me. I reluctantly took it, still not sure if she was really there to help or just making me think she was so it would be easier to rob and then kill me. She pulled me to my feet and we moved together out of the large container into a warm sunlit day. I shielded my eyes from the stinging sun; feeling like a vampire turned back into a human, and was helped along until we came to a small tent.

  The Young Woman, now shown in the full glory of daylight was no longer just that. I looked to see her pointing at the tent. She had long dark hair, which was pulled into a pony-tail, big blue eyes that peered back at me from a slender and beautiful face. Her lips formed a slight smile that moved to one side and she turned and walked away. I watched her leave. She had combat boots on, black pants that fit her well with several cargo pockets up each leg and a black zip up hoodie.

  She headed back into the metal container that I could see now was a truck trailer at one time that had been converted into a shed of some sort. She slipped inside and I quickly turned my attention back to the tent and crawled in to see Kember lying on a sleeping bag playing with a few dolls. She saw me and immediately smiled and came to me, hugging me as she jabbered.

  “Da Da.”

  I pulled her into my weak arms and hugged her tightly. Her hair smelt as though it had been washed clean, she had new clothes on and a dozen baby dolls to choose from. Her sippy cup sat next to the pillow and I could see it was full. Two opened trays of crackers and cheese sat next to it. The Woman had taken her time and great care in watching over my Daughter. I was thankful to her for that and would tell her the next time I saw her.

  For several hours, Kember and I played with her toys, helping her to forget about what we had been through so far, yet deep down I realized I wasn’t fooling her at all. She knew nothing of the world outside of our home. Knew nothing of politics or even that the world revolved around a massive yellow sun. Her perception of the world was true and without limitations. There were no failures or screw ups in her daily life, only eating and playing while being surrounded by an extensive and largely unexplored world that she saw from time-to-time.

  No, my words had not been for her… they had been for me.

  When she had had enough and grew tired, lying done on the sleeping bag, I left the tent and stood just outside scanning the area. It was a completely unfamiliar location to me, but very well hidden and roomy. It made the fear of the unknown even worse. I had no idea which way the interstate was, how close it was or what I would do if any of those things showed up. Yet with the setup the Young Woman had, I did feel a little better about our safety compared to living in the Pathfinder. Plus there was more room.

  I made my way to the container and peered in to see the Young Woman bent over working on something. Curiosity pulled at my shirt tail and I moved in closer to find out what she was up to.

  “Did she finally get tired and go to sleep?” The Young Woman asked.

  Her voice startled me and a thrust my eyes up to meet hers. “How did you know I was coming up behind you?”

  “You spend enough time alone; you acquire certain abilities that aid you when you need them most.”

  “Certain abilities?” I asked, growing closer to her. “And yeah, she fell asleep on me.”

  She smiled. “I could feel a set of eyes looking at me, and since you and I are the only two here… that kind of narrows it down, don’t you think? Not only that, but I could hear your footsteps.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I said and took a look at what she was doing. “So, what are you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  She pulled a Remington 870 shotgun into view that had been cut down in barrel length. “The barrel length was a bit too long on this thing, so I cut the bad boy down and did a few modifications to it.” She let me get a good look at it before placing it back on the work bench.

  “I’m not a gun expert or anything, but isn’t altering a factory weapon against the law… especially when you chop the barrel and make it shorter than a certain length?” I asked, unsure if I was right or wrong.

  “You bet your ass it’s against the law. It’s against the National Firearms Acts, which makes it a major felony with a punishment of twenty-five years in a federal prison.”

  I was shocked at her words. “Then why the hell are you doing it?”

  The Young Woman looked at me and smiled. Apparently I was as clueless as she thought I was. “The world as we know it is no more. You do whatever you have to do to survive and those weapons were too long and bulky to actually be of any real use… besides, who is going to come and arrest me for it? Or try to anyway?” There was a look that formed on her face that told me she was not to be played with. If anyone crossed her or tried to take from her, it would be their last mistake. She was beautiful… but just as dangerous.

  I knew a little about shotguns and reached out for it and she handed it to me. I shouldered the weapon and spun it a few different directions, feeling that most of the weight had been stripped off and that it was far more maneuverable in its current form than it had been. “Feels a lot better like that, but it’s going to knock the hell out of you when you pull the trigger, especially if you’ve got buckshot in it.
”

  She handed me a single round to which I took and looked at carefully. “That’s a law enforcement round. Low recoil for smoking bad guys with great ease, so it’s very manageable.”

  “Fair enough,” I replied and took a quick look at the ghost ring sights. “What about these sight on it though? You don’t really have to aim with a shotgun; just get in the general area and boom.”

  “Actually, you do. Depending upon the distance you are from your target, if your pushing the ranges and you don’t aim, you could easily just wound or simply miss the target altogether,” She stated. “And that has a twelve and a half inch barrel on it, so aiming would be wise unless they are right on top of you.”

  I was impressed with her knowledge of firearms and nodded my head. “I guess you could be right about that.” I handed it back to her.

  “I’m still alive aren’t I?” she commented, as she took the weapon.

  I leaned against the wall and threw my eyes over the other pile of weapons she had nearby. I could see handguns of different sizes and shapes on a small worn out couch, several more shotguns against the wall next to the couch, an open trunk full of what looked like assault rifles and two bolt action rifles with larges scopes were on the table before her.

  “Where did you get all of this stuff?” I asked eagerly.

  “Everywhere,” she replied. “In case you haven’t noticed or heard a word I’ve said, the world has gone to hell on an express elevator. These things are just randomly lying about.”

  I took a moment to think about all those people I’d known and grown up with. I never attempted to call or text any of them about the possible danger. I thought about my wife lying on the kitchen floor and my step-daughter hovered over her, and then coming at me. I thought about how I had watched Mary die and never raised a finger to help her. The cowardly feelings returned. The hate for myself wasn’t far behind.

  “I want to thank you for what you did. There aren’t very many people who would have done what you did for a complete stranger, even with me babbling about killing you,” I said to her, hoping that she would see it that way.

  “A child should never be forced to suffer,” she replied and turned away from me.

  I felt the awkwardness begin to drag and wondered if I should leave her alone. I couldn’t think of anything more to say and standing there looking at her probably wasn’t the greatest idea. The last thing I needed was for her to think I was a weirdo or something.

  She could see I was in deep thought about something. “A penny for your thoughts?”

  “Some things are best left unsaid,” I said.

  “And some aren’t,” she replied.

  “I don’t really know what I’m thinking… why I don’t feel anything when I should or why I should have done that, but did this instead,” I told her.

  “That’s normal. You’re just going through survivor’s guilt, and it will pass in time.”

  I looked at her as though she were crazy. “Normal? This is not normal, by any means! I lost my wife and did nothing to help, watched people I have known my entire life die in front of me, and once again did nothing to help… all I could do was scurry away like some frightened rabbit, worried about my own ass and no one else! There’s nothing normal about that, lady!” I hadn’t meant to be an asshole to her, I just sort of got out of control and the emotion bled through.

  She gave me her full attention by turning toward me and leaning against the opposite wall. “So you are convinced in your mind that you are a coward because you fled instead of risking your life to save these people when you had your daughter with you, right?”

  I simply nodded, as words eluded me.

  “Courage isn’t the actions of someone that isn’t afraid of dying. It’s actually quite the opposite.”

  “Is that so?” I said snidely.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  I shrugged my shoulders at her words.

  “It’s someone who is scared shitless, but still chooses to help another person, which is exactly what you did. So don’t label yourself anything short of that, because it took a lot more than you’re giving yourself credit for, to do the things you had to do to keep your daughter alive.”

  “And let others die in the process.”

  She crossed her arms and shook her head. “You can’t save everyone. The fate of the world and everyone in it is not in your hands. Things happen for a reason, we don’t understand why, but they still happen for a reason.” She pushed away from the wall and stopped in front of me. “You did the very best given the situation you were in. Your daughter still being alive proves that.”

  Her words caressed me; however, I didn’t feel motivated by them. I didn’t feel like a hero of any sort, but more and more like a cowardly failure. “No matter how you wrap it up or the amount of ribbons and bows you put on it. A coward is still a coward.”

  She shifted her position and leaned against the metal wall again. “I can understand that you’re going through something difficult, I get that. But now is not the time to start turning on yourself and those around you, especially those that went out of their way to save your ass, as well as your daughters.” Her tone began to flare.

  “Excuse me because I’m not taking the end of the world as lightly as your gun totting ass is! You probably love this shit, and if so then good for you, but I have people that mean the world to me that I cannot protect, and one I put behind my own needs!” I exclaimed.

  She bit her lip, nodded to the comment and abruptly walked out of the container. I felt the mistake slap me across the face. I had no idea who she was or if she had anyone that meant the world to her that was still alive. I had taken the only person I’d met so far, minus the two assholes in the gas station, and pretty much acted like a spoiled little brat who hadn’t gotten his way.

  “Dammit.” I hit the wall, hurting my hand and went after her.

  Coming out of the container into the bright sunlight, I saw her ten feet away. She was rigid and still, as though in deep thought about something. More than likely about what I had just said to her, which made the feeling she held even more visible. I deserved any amounts of anger she could dish out. Any obscenities she could fire at me without holding anything back… and I expected it.

  “Look I didn’t mean…”

  She hushed me instantly and the feeling of grief I had for her suddenly changed to anger. How dare you get shitty with me! And here I was coming to apologize for being a jerk and now you’re acting like one yourself.

  As if she could hear his thoughts, she pointed toward a small clearing fifty yards away, then with two fingers pointed to her eyes, telling me silently that she saw something. Her hand slowly moved to her right thigh, where she had a thigh holster and a pistol in it. I could tell the situation was spiraling out of control quickly and all I could do was think about Kember, who was in the tent to my right, ten feet away and much closer to whatever she had seen. Whatever it was that she had spotted was closer to my daughter.

  “Stay there,” she whispered, once again hearing his thoughts. The pistol was now out of the holster, yet hung next to it in her hand. She wasn’t sure what she had seen but her gut was telling her that danger was coming. “Catch,” she said and tossed me her pistol, as mine was still inside the container where our heated discussion had been.

  “What about you?” I asked after catching the pistol.

  She opened her jacket and pulled an SBR (short barreled rifle) into view. She grabbed the charging handle and chambered a round. The weapon was evil looking with its black color, long magazine in dull grey and stubby front grip. It was short and she’d been able to conceal it from me during our little conversation. I had never seen anything like it before and it concreted her threat level. She wasn’t someone to be trifled with. She quickly pulled a small round tube from a jacket pocket and fastened it onto the end of the rifle. I thought it was a silencer, although I wasn’t much of a gun nut, so it was simply a guess.

  “Don’t shoot
unless you have too,” she whispered and slowly moved toward the clearing hunched forward and low to the ground. I watched her in aw; amazed at the courage she had in the face of approaching danger like it was nothing. I envied her at that moment, wanted to be just as brave as she was, but knew I never would be. I was a coward after all and my actions ratified that, so as she moved toward the possible threat, I moved away from it and inched toward the tent where my Daughter was.

  The only concern I had, other than my Daughter’s safety, was what I would do if the Young Girl was killed in her brave advance. I didn’t know where I was, didn’t know which direction the interstate was, and would have no real clue which way to run if the shit hit the proverbial fan.

  Movement caught my eyes and I thrust my head in its direction to see two of those things mingling through the trees only twenty or so feet away. They hadn’t noticed me yet and I would do everything within my power to keep it that way. I lowered myself to the ground and pointed the pistol in their direction; remember what she had said to me about not shooting unless I had too. That I could do, however, if they spotted me or went for my Daughter I’d shoot without mercy. I silently prayed that they didn’t see me.

  The Young Woman made her way to the clearing and from several large bushes was able to watch the things move parallel to her position, unaware that she was nearby at first until one of them stopped and began sniffing the air, like an animal would do in search of its next meal. She slowly slid the safety off of the weapon and with it pointed toward the ground, pushed the collapsible stock into her shoulder. If they moved at her she would simply lift the barrel, use the red dot sight and eliminate them with little to no noise. The other three things stopped and also began sniffing the air. The Young Woman brought the weapon up and quickly dispatched them.

  I couldn’t get any lower to the ground without becoming the ground myself. I was frozen with fear that if I moved the things would notice me and immediately attack. The gunshots that followed would no doubt bring more of those things around and the small peaceful place we were enjoying would become a killing ground.