The Dead Lands Diary [Vol. III]

by S. David Staggs

  ME: I’m appreciative of you telling me your story. I’m really sorry about the friends you lost.

  OLIVER: Anytime and thank you. I appreciate it.

  **

  Back in Haven I sat down with newcomer Albert Lawson, who had just arrived with us a few months prior. He is a stocky man with a stern kind of attitude. The very no nonsense type. He is professional and reserved.

  ALBERT: So, you wanna know my story, huh?

  ME: Did someone tell you that?

  ALBERT: Warned is more like it [deep laugh]. Word gets around fast. I knew you were wanting to document people’s experiences and keep a record. I can really appreciate such a thing.

  ME: Well, I’m glad for that! Most aren’t eager to tell me what they’ve been through.

  ALBERT: Shit, I didn’t say I was eager to talk about it all. I simply meant I understand what you’re doing and it’s a good thing. I can tell you’re very sincere, too. I’m a good judge of character. I’ve had to be around a ton of people, so I can get a sense real quick.

  ME: A lot of people? You mean in your former line of work?

  ALBERT: I sure do.

  ME: And what was that?

  ALBERT: I was a gym teacher and coach.

  ME: I can definitely picture that. Fits your demeanor.

  ALBERT: Yeah. I liked it…overall. Wasn’t glamorous, that’s for sure. Only thing I hated was the punk kids. The ones that wanted to mouth off and just be a pain in the ass. Just wanted to walk up and backhand the hell right out of them, but of course, couldn’t do that [laughs].

  ME: Right [laughs]. What junior high or high?

  ALBERT: High school.

  ME: Teach alone?

  ALBERT: No. We had a female gym teacher, which is the norm.

  ME: Right. Of course. I’ve been out of school a long time.

  ALBERT: Apparently.

  ME: What did you coach?

  ALBERT: Football.

  ME: Can’t say I’m surprised.

  ALBERT: I miss football. Maybe we can set up a team. One at The Retreat too. Why didn’t I think of that?

  ME: That’d be a great pass time.

  ALBERT: Raise morale. We’ll get to that later. What do you want to know? Where was I when everything went to total shit?

  ME: Yes, please.

  ALBERT: I was in a relatively small community. About three or four thousand people or something like that. Had some neighboring towns.

  ME: I completely forgot to ask…where are you from?

  ALBERT: Ha! Yeah, that’d be helpful wouldn’t it now? Pennsylvania. West PA. Anyway, school let out for summer at the first week of June. Then July came and we all know what happened. Wasn’t long before the school was full again long before it was supposed to be.

  ME: Shelter?

  ALBERT: Yeah, FEMA set up in there and started sending people there. They asked any staff that wanted to volunteer to help to come. Help maintain order and take care of folks. I volunteered right away. Felt like a duty. Besides, I lived alone. No wife. No kids. Most of the teachers took their families and took off out of town. Patricia stayed…algebra teacher. She had a son there. A sophomore I believe. The police chief stayed to help. Chief Hafen. He was a great guy, he was. Some paramedics remained and the rest was mostly FEMA people. Oh, and Dick the superintendent. And his named suited him, trust me. Wish he had been one of the ones to split but he decided to stay and help. More like bitch and try to give orders. That’s what he loved to do. His job was just a power trip to him. Eventually, after acting like a know it all and giving people instructions, some government worker told him to shut the fuck up and sit down. He started to retort but then did as he was told. He sat around and fumed. He wasn’t used to being bossed around. Can’t deny, I was amused to see him put in check. If the situation wasn’t so dire I may have burst into laughter.

  ME: I could imagine so…I probably would have. Couldn’t be fired for it anymore.

  ALBERT: That is so so true. I had my hands full though with trying to keep people calm. We had the gym filled with cots and water and rations along the bleachers. Porta Potties were set up in a courtyard. Chief Hafen had passed around guns to people he knew had experience. His whole damn apartment took the hell off. Not that I could blame them. They knew it was game over. I think many of us did. They had people that depended on them and they didn’t feel it was safe there. So, they took their kids or wives or both and headed elsewhere. I would have too, but since that wasn’t my situation I stayed behind to help people I knew that needed help. Know one thing I remember most? How damn hot it was in that gym. There were a good hundred people in the school. We had cots in the halls too and a few classrooms. It was intense. Ha, know what else I remember? Those smart ass punks with the attitudes? They didn’t think they were badasses anymore.

  ME: I’d think not.

  ALBERT: That amused me too a little bit. [Sigh]. But of course you know it was inevitable, right? Same thing happened there that happened everywhere.

  ME: Infected got through?

  ALBERT: You got it. Came in some kinda swarm I guess you’d say. Bunch of running ones. Gunshots started going off out front and people started to panic. I rushed to the front and they were getting overwhelmed by them. Least a dozen of’em. The gunshots just attracted more. Must have been quite a few in the general area, I donno. Minutes later there was about two dozen of them and slower ones were approaching in the back.

  ME: Two dozen. Gives me horrible flashbacks. Me and mine…got attacked by a horde of at least fifty.

  ALBERT: All runners?

  ME: Yeah. Bolters we call them.

  ALBERT: Fitting.

  ME: Sorry. What happened?

  ALBERT: Well, I watched Chief Hafen get torn to shreds. He didn’t deserve that…to go out that way. None of them did. Some people came down the halls and out of them gym and saw what was happening. Some started to yell out and I told them to shut the hell up and get into the gym. Course, some of them outside heard and started beating on the glass doors. That wasn’t gonna hold. A few folks remained in the halls. Deer in headlights going on, ya know? I ushered them back into the gym and closed the doors. Relatively thick wooden doors. I motioned for everyone to be quiet. FEMA folks were doing the exact same thing. Dick was too, as expected. Though now he was pale as a paper plate. I heard the glass doors give way out in the hall. Some people started to get loud and I waved my hands down frantically. I mean…you’d think it would be common damn sense to shut the fuck up and be quiet, right? I guess panic makes you stupid. Now I understood the dumbass people in horror movies. All hiding and hear a noise and then they scream and give away their position. [Shakes head]. Stupid. Soon they were clawing at the doors. Panic swept and people got noisy and then the clawing and pounding on the doors. People got frantic. Some FEMA folks and myself opened the storage room and dragged out some tables and chairs and anything to put against the doors. I caught a glimpse of Dick. He was just backing up in shock, power trip long gone. The doors started to break and people fled to the back of the gym. There was a back door but now there was pounding at it, too. I knew it was over. The doors were coming down and we were trapped. I filed through people as fast as I could to the back left section of the gym. People were running around in every direction. Some were pushing the tables against the doors. I felt like an asshole for what I was about to do, but it’s not like there was anything I could do. I managed to spot Patricia and her son first though and called them over. They were straight up terrified. That should go without saying. I pulled some keys out. I told them to block the sight of me while I unlocked the door to the locker room. I turned back and waited. Waited to make sure no one was watching and waited for the right moment. The front doors broke inward and some infected started crawling over the tables and chairs and the screaming filled the gymnasium. All focus was there and I pushed the door open with my back and grabbed them and pulled them in and closed the door. I shut it and locked it as quickly as I could. No one saw us…otherwise
there would have been pounding on the door. The knob wiggled a few times and people tried to get in and there were some kicks and shoulder hits. There was no group effort to get in. Too much panic for that and I could tell the infected were everywhere out there. That door was thick steel and would hold. As long as we didn’t attract all those things. Above the door was a window but I wasn’t about to grab a chair and look out. For one, I didn’t want spotted and second I didn’t want to see the massacre unfolding. I wish I could have helped more. But if I had tried to grab more, then others would have noticed and everyone would have tried to pile in and the door never would have shut and we’d have all died. I know it sounds like an asshole thing, but-

  ME: No, believe me. I get it. You’d be dead if you hadn’t and so would your teacher friend and her son.

  ALBERT: Saving them at least brought me a little comfort. The screams went on for…I donno how long. Felt like hours but it couldn’t have been. Inside the locker room I had an enclosed office. We went in there and stayed on the floor and just sat there. Sat there all night just listening to the sounds of the gym filled with infected. Patricia and Kyle, her son, passed out eventually. Despite the fear they were exhausted. I heard them jump awake a few times. I was so scared they’d accidentally yell out when they jumped awake or let out a loud snore. Granted we were inside a room inside a bigger room, but it was a little quiet in the gym now and I didn’t know how well those bastards could hear. I dozed off for a few eventually. I woke up terrified when one of those fuckers let out one of their shrieks. Patricia and Kyle were looking at me all wide eyed and shit. I got up and opened the office door slowly. I took my chair from behind my desk and took it over to the door of the locker room. I carefully stood on it and glanced back at them. Kyle just stared and Patricia was shaking her head. I raised my head slowly up to the window and peered out. It was a bloodbath, man. There were about thirty-six I counted if I recall right. All runners with the exception of a couple slow ones. You can tell the runners even when they’re standing still. They can be still and they’re alert. Besides them, there was just blood. Everywhere. Mixed with body parts. An arm here...a leg there. Some guts scattered. Bloody bones, where some were totally devoured. I felt sick and I knew the other two would be once they saw it. I mean, we had to go out there eventually. Not until those things cleared out though. I hopped down and quietly went through some lockers. Thought maybe some stuff got left behind the month before. I hadn’t gone through it all yet. Found a few half filled bottles of water, some small bags of chips and a packaged brownie. I tossed that to Kyle and we sat with some chips and water. Patricia asked me how it looked out there and I told her not to look right now or she’d lose what little food she was having.

  ME: How long were you trapped in there?

  ALBERT: Well, a few hours later I looked through the window again. Some had wandered into the hallway but the gym still had maybe fifteen inside. Then I suddenly remembered something! I hadn’t cleared my desk yet after school ended. I grabbed my keys and went over to my desk and unlocked my top drawer. I grabbed my little snub nose .38 I kept in there. Patricia, the look on her face. But hey, I explained my logic. Not like she had much of an argument against it and sure wasn’t gonna argue against it now under the circumstances.

  ME: You had a gun inside the school?

  ALBERT: Illegal, I know. But what if there was a fuckin’ school shooter? Gotta wait for the police to get there and I could maybe end it faster. I thought it was smart regardless. I’d be in trouble, sure, but saving lives would probably give me a pass.

  ME: Yeah, maybe. I’d like to think.

  ALBERT: Likewise. So I stuck that in my pocket and sat back down. We stayed all day and another night. It was sometime in the morning when I was waking up and sat up, then came screams. Their screams I mean. Then it sounded like a stampede. Patricia and Kyle were now up and I ran to the chair and looked out the window. They were all rushing out and toward the front. They all scurried out the front doors of the school. I don’t know who or what got their attention, but they were in full pursuit. Hopefully it was an animal and not a person. Never heard any screaming so I figured it was an animal. Something that gave them a run for their money, cause they were gone. So, now was the time to get, while the getting was good! When I said that, they froze like a couple of statues. I told them both to brace themselves for what we had to walk through. I knew they weren’t ready for it. Hell, I wasn’t either and I’d already saw it. I unlocked the door and pulled it open. I stepped out, they stepped out behind me. Kyle raised his hands to his nose and mouth. Patricia turned and vomited. Honestly, I figured both of them would but Kyle managed not to somehow. Once Patricia composed herself, we started walking through the gym, stepping over bodies and body parts. Our shoes were sticking to the bloody floor. I walked over and grabbed some small packs of water and snacks off the bleachers. I handed it all to them and then held my gun. I didn’t want to use it but if need be then so be it. Fire and run like hell before others find you. The main hall was no better. Blood everywhere, but the door was right up ahead and we got outside. I can’t express how wonderful it was to be outside and smell fresh air. Something I didn’t know if I’d ever have again. I looked around. We stood and looked around for a couple minutes. My car was only a few yards away and we went for it. Nothing was around. Got in and sat there in relief.

  ME: So now your journey began?

  ALBERT: That’s right. I was kinda just like…what now? Where the hell do we go? I wasn’t going anywhere near some other safe zone. Probably wasn’t any left anyway at that point but even if there was, no thanks. Barely survived the one we had. She said Ohio. I was like, okay? Her brother lived in some town called Burton. So, that’s what we did. Good a plan as any I supposed. Didn’t take long crossing over the Ohio state line. Had to make plenty of detours getting this way though. Burton was a bust though. Found her brothers house but it was empty. Essentials were gone too. So seems her brother and girlfriend up and split. She was a little distraught for about an hour. I just drove us around. We had no clue what we were going to do or what the best idea was. Then, we saw the Haven signs and found you guys. That was that.

  ME: You guys are lucky to be alive. I haven’t spoken to Patricia or Kyle. Should I?

  ALBERT: That is up to you. I don’t think Patricia is ready to talk. Kyle might be. Won’t learn anything new though.

  ME: Right, I’m just always curious to hear other peoples perspectives when they want to give them, but you’ve told your guys’ story and I’m very grateful that you talked to me.

  ALBERT: Yeah, sure. Don’t mention it. Stop by for dinner later if you want. Haven’t had company in awhile, maybe we can shoot the shit. Maybe tell me some of your story?

  ME: Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll be there. About 6:00?

  ALBERT: That works. See ya then, Jack. If you wanna discuss your story with me, you should bring maybe Reggie or some of the others with you. Make a big dinner out of it. Have a few drinks after.

  ME: Sure, I’ll toss the plan their way. Thanks for the invite. See you tonight.

  ALBERT: Sure thing.

  **

  Simon Dunbar is a skinny and scruffy man with a lighthearted smile and dark eyes. He arrived at Haven only a month or so ago. He was friendly and courteous to everyone and was often seen sitting in a lawn chair smoking and making casual conversations. He and Reggie had that in common and often sat around to bullshit.

  SIMON: Never been…interviewed before. Feels kinda funky and shit.

  ME: We’re just having a conversation. Only way to think about it. Just getting to know all the newer arrivals here. I know you just got here a little while ago. If you’re not settled in completely and not ready to talk about stuff, it’s okay. I can come back some-

  SIMON: No, no. I’m alright, bud. What do you wanna know?

  ME: Where did you start out?

  SIMON: West Virginia.

  ME: Really?

  SIMON: Yes’m. Little t
own called Hankston. Brooke County.

  ME: Isn’t that far north? Right along the Ohio border?

  SIMON: Yes’m.

  ME: So what was Hankston like?

  SIMON: Quiet. Very quiet. Very very small, you see. Probably a thousand people there…hell, maybe less. There were houses scattered around. Trees everywhere. The main street in town didn’t consist of too damn much, no sir. Had a small family owned store named Gordy’s. Most of the town folk didn’t much care for going all the way to the next county for bigger stores. We were out in the sticks and we liked it that way. So, when people wanted things they went to Gordy’s. Frank Gordy owned it. Happy old timer in his eighties. He lived just a mile up the road a ways.

  ME: So his place had all everyone needed?

  SIMON: Oh, sure. Had a deli and everything. Most everything you needed, bud. Let’s see here…we had the garage and gas station. That’s where I worked. Still a full service station, yes’m.