The Event: The Beginning

by Lee Thomas

  “Not really, but it sounded like that direction. The problem is all these buildings around here can echo it back, so it will be hard to pinpoint. I called it in, told the ship we may have survivors nearby.” I replied. I listened intently as a second shot rang out, followed by a third. With the three shots, we were able to tell that it came from the residential area just to the west of us, slightly south. I could also hear the screeches of some infected, which told me I was guessing in the right direction.

  “If we try to find them, we are going to have be very careful we don’t get shot, thinking we are infected.” Roger stated.

  “I hear that brother. But we can’t leave any potential survivors to face these things alone. That’s my whole reason for being here, for coming to the ship, is to save as many people as possible.” I reminded him. He nodded, and I returned the nod.

  “Follow me, and stay low.” I said. We turned and I darted out into the street, jogging across the street to the next row of buildings. It was local businesses along the waterfront area here, but directly behind them started the residential areas. I didn’t think it could have been coming from any further than a few blocks, but we didn’t need to take any chances either.

  We crept along the buildings, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible. With no way to know where the shooter was, or any infected drawn by the sound, being invisible was a good thing right now. I turned between two offices that had a small alley way separating them and exited into an alley running between the houses and the business fronts. Trash lined the alley from end to end, but there was no movement. I motioned to Roger to hold a trash can steady and I jumped on top of it to look over the fence.

  Poking my head over, it revealed a normal backyard. A small flower garden ran along one fence, a doghouse was in the far corner, a sandbox told of small children, and a treehouse fort said there were older kids here as well. No sign of movement, no broken windows, but nothing boarded up either. I waved my hand and jumped the fence. I crouched as I hit the ground, then moved off to the side so Roger could jump over. Once he hit the ground, we started moving towards the house. I could see the gates were closed on both sides, so I hoped the house was untouched.

  Stepping to the back door, the curtain was only partially drawn, so we had a small crack to peer through. We couldn’t see anything, and tapping on the glass didn’t produce any movement, so we tried it. The door was locked, but just before I decided to break it and enter, Roger grabbed my arm and pointed. There was a window open just off to the side, which apparently led into the kitchen. Roger jimmied the screen off and raised the window the rest of the way open. A quick round of ‘paper, rock, scissors’ meant that I entered first. With a boost from Roger, I wiggled my way through the window as quietly as possible. I stood for a minute, listening to the house. It appeared that no one noticed my entrance, so I crept over to the back door and unlocked it, allowing Roger to enter the easy way. Pointing to myself and then up, Roger nodded his understanding that I would take the upstairs and he would search downstairs.

  Creeping to the bottom of the stairs, Roger then split off to search the rest of the first floor while I crept up slowly stair by stair. Managing to make it without causing the stairs to creak too badly, I stopped at the head of the stairs to listen. No sound whatsoever was in its own way creepy. There was two rooms to my right and three to my left, so I started to the right. I assumed from the layout that either the first door to the left, or this first one to the right, was going to be the bathroom. I put my ear to the door and tapped. No response came, so I turned the handle, and threw the door open. It was the bathroom, small, and nowhere to hide. The shower curtain was open, so I quickly determined there was nothing in there. I closed it back, then turned to the next door. I assumed it would be a bedroom and placed my ear to the door as before. Turning the knob, I threw the door open as well and looked into an office. A desk was against the far wall with a computer on it, filing cabinets lined another wall and even a small couch was in there. Seeing nothing, I crept over to the closet door. It was a folding style door, so it would be difficult to open and jump back.

  I stood off to the side and pulled the door open. Stacks of boxes were the only thing that greeted me in there. A quick look around didn’t show me anything useful, so I headed back to the other three doors. The first one opened into the hallway, so I assumed it to be a closet, and after opening I saw I was right. Nothing but towels, extra linens, toilet paper, things like that were stacked neatly. The next room proved to be a bedroom, most likely a teenagers by the posters and general messy state of it. An open window blew the curtains gently, and probably helped with the smell as rotten food was left on plates in several places.

  The last bedroom was fairly sparse, but well decorated. The bed was not made, and the closet and several dresser drawers were standing open. It was obvious that whoever lived here left in a hurry, probably in response to the infection. If only they knew there wasn’t a safe place to go. Nothing of any useful value was left except the sheets and things like that, but I didn’t want to be burdened down with stuff like that now, so I left it. I headed back towards and down the stairs, meeting Roger at the bottom as he came back out of what appeared to be the dining room.

  “Any luck?” I asked him.

  “Nada. Looks like they left in a hurry though, found a desk with drawers pulled out, couple of kitchen drawers had been rifled, and a closet had some things missing and others laying on the floor. Nothing too useful though.” he responded.

  “Me either, nothing really left. Let’s take a look outside and see where we go from here. I haven’t heard another shot, have you?” I asked him.

  “No, not since that third one.” he answered. We stepped to the front door and he peeked out the peep hole. Shaking his head, he slowly opened the door and stepped out. I followed him out, silently closing the door behind me. Another gunshot finally rang out and it seemed to come from the next block over. Stepping to the edge of the garage, I peered around the corner to see several infected slowly shuffling towards the sound of the shots. They had their backs towards us, but I still didn’t want to take any chances. Looking the other way, there were several more down the street that way as well. I motioned to Roger to stay low and we crept behind the car in the driveway. Moving slowly around the car, keeping it and the shrubbery along the property line between as many of the infected and us as we could, we crept as far as we could without being visible.

  “We are not going to be able to do this without being seen. See that open gate? We make for that, and close it as soon as we are through. If you end up being faster than me, don’t wait on me, just get through. Whoever is last will shut it. Got it?” I told him. He nodded, but looked at me in such a way that showed he disapproved at the same time. I looked back at the infected milling around, picked our moment, counted to three on my fingers, and then took off running. I could hear Roger close behind me, but I also heard the infected screech that said they saw us. I made the gate, then immediately turned off to the side and waited for Roger to clear it. As soon as he was through, I looked at the infected headed our way at a pretty good clip. I grabbed the gate and swung it shut, hearing the latch click solidly. Drawing our swords, we both stood back in case the gate didn’t hold, but after the first two thuds against the wood sounded without even so much as a crack, we assumed it was good.

  Not waiting to find out, we turned and took off for the back fence, intending to jump the fence into the next yard, which should be the street the shots were coming from. Using the horizontal support posts as a boost, we both vaulted over the fence in the next yard. It was arranged as a garden, with the whole yard set up with boxes of various vegetables. Paths ran in between them all in a square pattern.

  “Wonder if these people were doing this before, or after the shit hit the fan?” Roger asked.

  “No idea, but I would probably say before. Some of these boxes look like they have seen some weather. Let’s see if anyone is home.” I answered,
moving along the paths towards the back door. Another shot rang out, quickly followed by three more. We decided to abandon the search of this house, and moved instead towards the side gate. Roger opened it and stepped through slowly. Motioning with his head, he crept to the corner of the house while I followed behind.

  There was a row of chest high shrubs along the property line between this drive and the next which allowed for excellent cover. There was two SUV’s in the drive to our right, so between the cars and the shrubs we could get all the way to the street without being seen, if we wanted to. Crouching low, we made our way as close to the street as we could get. Looking back towards the fence, an idea struck me. I tapped Roger on the shoulder and motioned with my head to follow me back. Once we got beside the house again, I leaned in close to him.

  “Let’s roll these trash cans down to the curb. Between them, the cars, and the shrubs, we should be able to hide nicely.” I whispered. We each grabbed one and rolled it slowly and carefully back down to the curb. Setting them up side by side, they did end up taking up most of the room between the shrubs and the cars. We kneeled behind them and watched the street, trying to size up the situation. Several infected wandered around aimlessly, not seeming to have any direction, just shuffling forward. Another shot rang out, and we determined they were coming from one more block over. For some reason, even though we had seen that noise attracts the infected, these were not responding to the gunfire. I looked at Roger questioningly, and he just shrugged back. This was odd behavior that we would have to try to figure out. If it was just one or two, and they had been elderly, I might have just assumed they were hard of hearing, or plain deaf, but there were about twelve of them on this street, and they all appeared to be between 25 and 50.

  “Why aren’t they headed towards the gunfire? Every other infected we have seen has been attracted by noise. We have even counted on it.” Roger asked. Shaking my head, I looked out and watched them wander aimlessly, ignoring the shots altogether. Glancing around the ground, I found a good sized rock, found a car down the street, and chunked it. It hit the windshield square on, bounced straight up, and came down again on the hood, all of which made a nice bit of noise. That did get their attention as several infected turned and moved that direction, shuffling quickly. Waiting for them to pass us, we crouched low behind the trash cans, and once the last one passed us, we moved out and started across the street.

  We made it to the side of the next house without them seeing us, and we crouched behind the large AC unit to catch our breath and plan our next move. Another shot had rung out while we ran, and it was now obvious it was coming from the next block, and maybe even only another house or two down. Before we could do much of anything other than catch our breath, a knocking just above and beside us drew our attention. Looking up, there was someone knocking on the glass and waving at us. Roger and I looked at each other, shrugged, then nodded at our mystery face. They motioned to the back, so Roger opened the gate and we made our way to the back door. I had made sure the gate was shut and latched then joined Roger, who was already talking to our new friend.

  “Come in, come in. Quick, before any of those things hear us.” he said. We entered into a small open area between the dining room and kitchen. The man shut the door behind us and made sure the curtain was drawn fully. With the shades closed and what were obviously blackout curtains on all the windows, it was really dim inside the house.

  “Let’s have a seat in the living room. Would you guys like a bottle of water?” he asked. When we both nodded, he motioned to the living room and headed back into the kitchen. Roger and I went in and sat, after glancing out the window to see if any of the infected had noticed our run.

  “My name is Damien. I was wondering how many others had survived. Please, sit, make yourselves comfortable.” he said, opening his own bottle of water and sitting in an armchair, after handing us our bottles.

  “I’m Sheldon, this is Roger. Are you alone?” I introduced us as I opened my own bottle.

  “Sadly, yes, I am now. I lost my wife in the first wave. She was a nurse at the hospital, and several people had come in with this infection or whatever it is. Of course, this was before anyone here knew how infectious this was, or how it was spread. After the first few were brought in, the hospital was quarantined, and she stopped replying to texts or calls shortly after. They said the hospital had been overrun with those things, and everyone inside was either dead or “turned”, as they called it. I gathered as many supplies as I could, either looting stores, or scrounging the neighbors houses, if they had left, and holed myself up. That was, what, a little over a month ago.” he told us.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. We actually have a sizable group, and pretty much all of us have lost family, friends. Roger and I are actually out scouting a route for a wall we plan on building and securing a nice chunk of land to grow and survive on. Searching for survivors is also on our agenda. Would you like to come back with us?” I said. I was tired of explaining my plan to any new potential members of the group, so I just left it at that.

  “What’s the catch?” Damian asked.

  “No catch, except we all do our part. I won’t tolerate slackers. If you join, you work. As long as you have no problem with that, we will gladly have you.” I told him.

  “Well, at least you’re honest about it. I have no problems working, and I was a security guard before everything went down. I have some weapons here, and a couple of bullet proof vests. My food supplies are really low, so there’s not much worth taking now. I would appreciate a spot with you guys.” he replied. I reached out and shook his hand, then sat back and took another sip of water.

  “I’m assuming you have heard the gunfire also. Any idea where it might be coming from?” I asked him then.

  “Yeah, I do. There is, or was, I should say, a neighborhood homeowners association here, and I remember that there was this one guy who was always what they call a ‘prepper’. Brandon Lee, I think his name was. He was always a bit crazy, and going on about the apocalypse and having to be ready. If I remember right, he bragged before about having a bunker built under his house, as well as being well armed and supplied. I believe he was also a veteran. If it’s not him, I would bet someone took him out and took over his place.” Damien informed me.

  “Do you know where he lives?” Roger asked.

  “Yeah, next block over. He lives on the corner in a large brick house. It’s the only brick one on the block, should be easy to spot. But if it is him, and he sees you coming, you may not make it to the house. We actually considered removing him from the association because he seemed so unstable.” Damien said.

  “Do you want to take that chance?” Roger asked me. I thought about it a minute, and then shook my head.

  “No, too big a risk. Let’s get back to the cart and then get back to the ship.” I said.

  “Ship?” Damien asked.

  “Yes, ship. I brought a group here and commandeered an aircraft carrier. Let’s get back there so we can plan on how to get into contact with this Brandon. Is there anything you want to take now?” I replied.

  “Let me just suit up, I’ll grab my gun and some ammo. The rest can wait here.” Damien said. He got up and headed to the back to get his things. Roger and I looked out the windows again to see how clear the road was, and saw several infected milling about still

  “I have a car with fuel in it in the garage, if we need transportation.” Damien informed us, stepping back into the living room. He had put on a bullet-proof vest, and had a shotgun in hand with a gun belt on carrying what looked like a Glock nine-millimeter with plenty of spare clips. I assumed that one or more of those pouches carried shotgun shells as well.

  “Well, we have an electric cart a few blocks away we will need to get back to the ship. We can take your car back to where we left it, then take yours to the ship as well. Let’s get going.” I decided. He led the way to his garage, and we loaded up in the truck he had parked there. With no power the garage door li
ft wouldn’t work, so Roger stayed out to raise the door. Damien fired up the truck, Roger raised the door, and waited for him to back out. The noise of the door and the trucks’ engine drew the attention of the infected on the street, so once the truck was clear, Roger let the door drop closed and hurried into the truck. Damien floored it and got us out of there. Turning onto Ocean View Road, we pointed out where the cart was stashed and Damien pulled over to let us out.

  “Follow us, we will lead the way back to the ship.” I ordered Damien. Roger had just pulled the cart back out, so I climbed in beside him and we headed towards the ship once more. I radioed in to the ship to let them know we were headed back, and that we had a new friend. We moved as quickly as the cart would allow, dodging the few infected we saw. Damian stayed right behind us, swerving occasionally to run over an infected. It took about 40 minutes to get back to the gate, and Roger pulled up to a sliding stop. I jumped out, quickly followed by Roger, and we started pushing the car out of the way. Damien had also slid to a stop, however the squeal of the tires got the attention of some of the infected milling nearby.

  “Hurry, get the vehicles on this side. I’ll start pushing it back soon as you’re clear.” I ordered them after we had made enough room. With good tires, the car wasn’t that difficult to push. Roger jumped back in the cart as Damien climbed back in his truck, and both pulled in as quickly as they could. I started pushing as soon a Damien was clear, and Roger had pulled off to the side and also jumped out to help. By the time Damien had stopped and got out, Roger and I already had the car back in place. I waved to him to follow us, and we jumped back on the cart and sped off. The first of the infected had made it to our makeshift gate, but were still not smart enough to climb it.

  As we pulled close to the pier gate, it started opening on its own. Apparently after my radio message the chief had assigned someone to come down and watch for us. We pulled in and I turned to watch the gate closing behind us. Since there was another cart waiting to take the watchmen back to the ship I told Roger to just keep going. Damien followed us to the proper pier and stopped as we pulled up to the storage garage. I waved for him to wait while I opened the garage door and Roger pulled the cart in. we placed all the batteries back on the shelf, and I made a mental note to run some power lines down here to keep them charged. Stepping back out, Roger and I jumped in the back of the truck and I pointed out the right direction. Damien rolled his window down for directions and started rolling slowly down the pier.