The Event: The Beginning

by Lee Thomas

  Several of the windows had been busted out of the businesses, so it would be difficult for anything or anyone to be hiding in them without us seeing them, or so I hoped. As I watched, the only movement was trash in the wind, or banners or broken lights hanging down blown by the wind. It was difficult to hear anything over the sound of the compressor, so our eyes were the only sense available to us right now. We watched, and tried to listen, each of us glancing left to right, and back again, slowly searching for any sign of anything moving towards us.

  Thirty minutes in and nothing had been seen yet. I glanced back off and on and saw that Jeff had the old tire off now and was in the process of getting the new one on the rim. A regular tire was difficult enough, I did not envy him the task of those large semi tires. I waved to Dave when I saw him walking around the back of the rig, and he waved back, then flashed me a thumbs up. I took that to mean he had checked with the rooftop guards and all was well on their side.

  Feeling a tap on my shoulder, I turned and found one of the guards next to me, pointing across the road towards the corner of the strip mall were facing. I looked, and there was the first infected drawn by the sound. I knew it was only a matter of time before they found us. I told the guard to run back and tell Jeff to hurry as fast as he could, then drew my swords. The others had seen it as well and started raising their weapons. They knew my rule of not firing if possible, so several looked back to me first and I just shook my head. Lowering their guns, they stayed on alert and watched.

  The infected seemed to see us, but it was like it wasn't paying us any attention at first. Stumbling towards us, I didn't hear it give the usual screech they had, or start running. I walked forward a few paces, wanting to meet it, but not wanting to get too far away from backup either. As it shuffled forward a few more steps, another came around the corner, followed quickly by three more. I pulled back towards our line again and waited. Two of them opened their mouths, but if they screeched, I couldn't hear it over the compressor. As we waited for them to get close to us, another three came around the corner, this time they were running, fast. I signaled to the other guards, and they raised their weapons and fired. One of the fast ones and two of the shamblers fell immediately. More gunshots, three more fell. The last two were of the slower variety, and a guard and I calmly walked up to them. I swung my sword cleanly through its neck, he used his bayonet to spear it through the forehead. Both infected dropped and we wiped our respective blades on what was left of their clothing.

  As we headed back the short distance to the line, I stopped cold when I heard, clearly, over the compressor, the screech of many, many infected. I glanced behind me and saw movement in the buildings, lots of it. It appeared that they were all full of infected, they just didn’t take notice of us at first.

  "Move! Back in the vehicles! Protect Jeff until he gets that tire done!" I yelled as I motioned to tighten up the line. I really didn't like this, but we had no choice; we couldn’t move the rig, and I would be damned before I left Jeff to fend for himself. More men ran to me as others threw games and tables back into the storage areas and children were hustled inside. Several men were securing their last bits of armor, and just as I wished I had time to run back and get mine, Michelle dropped mine at my feet. I nodded to her in thanks, then she ran back to the RV with the girls. As I threw my armor on, I heard doors slamming shut and men yelling as we arranged ourselves. Looking back, I saw snipers settling themselves on the vehicle rooftops and the first shots rang out as I turned back to face front.

  Just as I finished adjusting my last strap, the first infected started pouring from the destroyed buildings. Crap, these were the fast kind mostly, it seemed. As they got close, I prepared myself and waited for the wave to hit us. Gunshots rang out from every direction as the men beside me and snipers behind us fired as fast as they could. Infected dropped, one after the other. Some were head shots that killed them, others were only wounded. Like before, I noticed they didn't really seem to feel pain, but a leg wound would slow them down noticeably. I swung my sword as the first one got close enough to reach for me, removing its fingers cleanly with one swipe. I ducked as I let momentum continue my swing and brought my other blade up behind me, sinking it into the creature’s neck at an upward angle. I felt the sword bite into the jawbone, and as I yanked down to remove it, the things head followed it. I brought my knee up into its chin and the differing force snapped its head back, my sword out, and left me just far enough away to bury my first blade in the top of its head.

  Kicking it to the ground, I had to immediately bring my blades up point first to avoid the one jumping at me. It speared itself square in the chest with both swords. I yelled as I held both arms straight out while the thing tried to scratch and bit me, even though it was firmly stuck. It slowly lost its fight, and I realized it was because it was bleeding out. Interesting.

  I saw one man go down under a double attack, but another guard was right there and stabbed one of the infected in the head while a third guard put a nice punt squarely into the second infected's nose. That would have been a nice field goal had it been a football. The second guard; Tim, I think was his name, bent down and checked the first guy. I could see the bite in his throat from here, so I knew even if he was still alive he would bleed out and die, then more than likely turn. Tim looked up and shook his head, and I turned my attention back to the infected rushing us. I could still see them pouring out of the buildings. I risked a glance back and saw Jeff had the tire on and was airing it up now. He glanced my way and showed me three fingers. I nodded to show I understood three minutes. The men helping him had already thrown the tools back in the trailer, I assumed, and had grabbed weapons to help in the defense.

  Chopping another infected in the head, I noticed several small, metallic objects flying through the air away from us, and had just enough time to register what they were when I saw them fall just outside the buildings and heard someone yell "Fire in the hole!"

  Four different blasts, almost simultaneously, seriously stemmed the tide of infected pouring out of the buildings by not only killing most of them caught in the blast radius, but also collapsing the walls. I didn’t even know we had grenades. I needed to speak with someone apparently about our ammo inventory. Bits of infected, plaster, and concrete rained down near us as we cleared up the last bit of infected that had already cleared the blast zone. The snipers were good, downing a good percentage of them before they even got close. The gunfire died off as the last infected dropped, and I heard the air compressor kick off shortly after that. I glanced back and Jeff gave me a thumbs up as he wrapped the air hose up.

  "Bite check!" I yelled, wanting to make sure no one was bitten and was let back on one of the vehicles. Men started checking each other over, hands, arms, necks, even legs. Anything that wasn’t covered in something bite proof. I wiped my blades on clothing from the infected, then on a rag from the RV which I threw on the ground. I wasn’t taking it if it had infected blood on it.

  "All clear" Roger told me as he walked up to me, wiping his own katana clean. He always preferred slightly longer swords. I didn’t mind them, but my Florentine style demanded shorter, more lightweight blades.

  "Yeah. I just wonder why they didn’t rush out of those buildings when the compressor came on. I figured that would have drawn them, not waiting until the gunfire started.” I thought out loud. Shrugging his shoulders, he just looked at me. It didn’t make sense to me either.

  "We got more company!" yelled one of the snipers on the roof. I looked up and saw him pointing the other direction. I moved to where I could see past the RV's and sure enough, here came more infected from the other side of the street.

  "Jeff! You good?" I yelled at him. Receiving a nod and a thumbs up as he secured the door, I hurried over towards my vehicle. "Everyone down, let's move."

  Climbing back in, I noticed Aaron was already in the drivers' seat and turned the key as I shut the door. I sat in the passenger seat which had become the navigator/radioman sea
t on this trip. I radioed Jeff to take off as soon as he could and told Aaron to go ahead and move. I knew it would take Jeff a few minutes to get the rig moving, so I figured the rest of us could start. I told the other drivers to move as soon as the snipers were inside and the doors closed. I looked out of the window as I finished my instructions and saw the first of the infected were at the far side of the highway. With only a short concrete divider between, they would be on us in no time. The radio lit up with the other drivers reporting they were ready, and I heard Jeff fire the rig up. As he started pulling away I glanced through the mirror again. The infected had hit the divider and seemed confused about how to get over it. A few had hit it with their knees hard enough to fall over it and were starting to stand up and shuffle towards us once more.

  We started moving as they got close, but since they couldn't get a grip on the vehicles, we quickly left them behind. Continuing east, we followed highway 70 so we could hit I-40 once more. Shortly after passing the 440 loop, we passed the sign for Vanderbilt University. I knew we were close to I-40 again, according to the map. It was now pushing five o'clock and it was obvious we were not going to make it to Virginia by nightfall like I had hoped. More abandoned cars and trash littered the roadway, but nothing we had to get out to maneuver around. Glancing around, I noticed several bodies lying around as well. The further we got, the more destruction we saw, and the less comfortable I felt about my plan. All I knew was we needed to get there so we could have a modicum of safety, more so than what we had now, that's for sure.

  After we made it back onto I-40, I changed places with Kevin so I could look the map over again. I wanted to find a place to stay for the night that was as close to Virginia as we could get with the remaining daylight.

  Michelle sat next to me and the girls were across the table from us as I spread the map out and started running my finger along the highway. Taking a quick glance at the legend on the map, I realized there was an RV park and campground not too far from the border. That would be perfect, as we could empty the RV waste tanks, and hopefully refill the water tanks. It should also be out of the way enough that infected hadn't swarmed the area yet, so it should be relatively safe, or so I hoped. I radioed the info to Jeff to look for exit 63 and the park. I wished the atlas told me if there was a gas station there as well or not, but I hoped there would be so we wouldn’t have to make another stop for fuel.

  There were no roadblocks for the next several miles, but we did see an infected or two every so often. Animals also were running wild, deer darting across the road, raccoons, and several packs of dogs. None of them came close to us though, so we didn’t have to worry too much about hitting them. Seeing them however struck a thought with me, however. Food supplies were getting fairly low, and while we had been able to find canned food quite easily so far, and we had found a few houses that had gardens for vegetables, we were woefully short on fresh food or meat. I made a note to myself on my little notepad I kept with me to talk to the group and find out who were good hunters and organize a hunting party when we got settled.

  Around six Jeff radioed that we were close to the exit, and I was glad. It was getting dark and I knew most people wouldn’t want to spend the night in the already cramped RV's, or the cars. About that time I saw a sign for the park, as well as one that advertised gas. Thank goodness, I thought, hopefully there was enough left to fill up all the vehicles and the spare cans in the rig. The rig would be an issue if there was no diesel though, but if there wasn't, I hoped he had enough to keep going for a while.

  Following Jeff down the off ramp, we all started following in single file to the left, as indicated by the signage. Jeff pulled over to the left as we approached a Citgo station. There was also a Shell station on the other side of the interstate, according to the signs. I was sure one of them had to have diesel. As we pulled in, I saw the Citgo had diesel pumps, and Jeff pulled up to one. I told the rest of the drivers to pull the RV's into the pumps as if they worked and started getting my gear gathered as we all got settled into place.

  Stepping out as the last of the vehicles got parked, I started looking around as people started filing out. There was the expected trash blowing around, but no signs of any people right now. I just hoped we didn’t see any signs of any infected. The last fight was still fresh on my mind, especially the lost man. I glanced over and saw Dave already gathering a small group up, no doubt to go on a gas search. He nodded at me once he saw me looking that way, and I nodded back with a thumbs up signal. Roger was headed my way, suited up with his swords. Looking over at Jeff, he was checking the rig over, I assume to make sure the tire blowing out didn’t do any additional damage since he couldn’t take the time to examine it at the time. Michelle had walked over to check on the kids, and most everybody was just getting out to stretch their legs and get what little sunlight remained of the day. We were starting to come into the mountains so the sun was already behind them.

  "Is this going to just be a gas and go again?" Roger asked as walked up to me.

  "No. There is a RV park and campground here that I want to see if it's safe enough. It would be nice if there were cabins or something so we wouldn’t have to sleep in the RV's tonight. Maybe a conference center, something. If nothing else, there is a hotel on the other side of the highway." I told him, adjusting my sword belt to a more comfortable position.

  "So what do you want us to do now?" he asked, looking out over parking lot, away from the group. The wind was the only thing making noise, and even that was minimal.

  "Dave is gathering men, I assume to siphon what gas is left or go on a food run. I'll find out soon. Jeff is checking the rig out. Michelle is checking in with the kids. I don't want anyone to go too far right now, it's too wooded around here. I would love a peaceful, restful night tonight for everyone. I plan on getting to the ship by tomorrow night."

  "You're so sure one is there?" Roger asked.

  "I have to assume there is. I can't think right now about what will happen if there isn't." I told him. I really couldn’t. If there wasn’t a carrier in port I didn’t know what I do with the group. I wasn’t even sure if they would follow me anymore if that was the case.

  We walked as we talked, and I led us back over to the vehicles. I motioned for Roger to help me unhook my car, which we did. I then ducked back into the RV and grabbed my keys. I walked back to the car and began unloading everything.

  "Just what do you think you're doing now?" Michelle asked, walking up behind us. Roger just smiled and scooted away with the last of the things in the car. I mumbled ‘chicken shit’ to his back and turned towards Michelle.

  "I'm going to go check out this RV Park and campground over here, see if there is a safe area for us to stay tonight. I'm sure most everybody would appreciate not sleeping in the vehicles tonight.” I told her. I knew she worried about everything, she had always been like that.

  "Does Jeff know? You know if he won't want you to go alone." She said. I knew she was also worried about how it would affect the girls if something happened to me.

  "No, he doesn’t. I don’t tell him everything. And I'm not going alone, Roger is going with me.” I replied. I knew she would go tell Jeff immediately, but like I told her, I wasn’t going to run everything past him.

  She just stood there with her hands on her hips, head cocked to the side, with that expression she always gave me when she wasn’t happy with my decision. I stopped, took a breath, and just looked at her.

  "Look, I'll be fine. We won't be gone more than an hour. I need to know if we have a place at the campground, or if we need to head over to and clear that hotel. Go spend some time with the girls, keep them calm, and we will be right back." I assured her, taking her by the arm and turning her. I held my hand on her back as I walked her towards the RV. She huffed, and sighed, but I knew she listened to me and wouldn’t give me any more grief over it. Once I got her back to the RV, I went in search of Dave. Hopefully I was right in that he had men already going for gas and food.
>
  "Dave, what's up man?" I asked him as I walked up to where he was standing.

  "Not much. I knew you were going to ask for a gas run, and probably a food run, so I sent one team to siphon gas, and another to search the immediate buildings for food and supplies.

  "Excellent, that was exactly what I was going to ask you.” I said as I laughed. Dave was getting really good at reading my mind when we stopped, and taking charge to get things done. Thinking about that, I realized that meant I had Jeff, Val, and Dave that I could count on like that. I knew Michelle would always be there for me to talk to, and help me sort things out, and Roger would always have my back in a fight. It made this seem easier to handle knowing there were people I could count on.

  "I see you're planning on going out again. Does Michelle know? She freaked out the last time." He asked me. He had his own family to watch out for, but he was one of those guys that watched out for everybody.

  "Yeah, she already jumped my ass about it." I replied. I simply shook his hand, we nodded goodbye, and I went in search of Roger. I figured he would be finding someone else to go with us, and apparently I was right as he was standing near the car with Alan, one of the other guys we had found early on that was very good with a sword also. Alan also had a pistol strapped to his thigh, and a shotgun handle sticking above his shoulder. I couldn’t blame him as I also had grabbed a pistol and several clips to take with me. No matter how fast I was with a sword, a Glock nine millimeter made a difference sometimes.

  "Let's load up.” I said as I got close. Roger called shotgun and headed for the front seat, while Alan opened the back door and climbed in. I wanted to get moving before Jeff had a chance to come over and gripe me out or butt in again. I walked around the front of the car and hoped in the front seat, adjusting my swords as I got in. I handed Roger the map and he opened it to the marked page as I started the car and put it in gear.