First Activation: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller

by D. A. Wearmouth

  We came up to four cars that crossed the highway blocking our path. Some bodies lay outside the vehicles, but all had corpses inside as far as I could see. Apart from one.

  The car blocking the outside lane appeared to be empty. As I opened the driver’s door to get in and start the engine, an arm flopped out. The incredible stench of rotting flesh hit me, and I looked down to see a purple bloated face of a small lady who was wedged into the foot-well.

  My legs wobbled as I staggered back to the car with my hand over my nose and mouth. We’d all got used to the smell – it was everywhere – but I’d never received such a powerful blast of it, and the view had been equally as revolting.

  “Car swap time again,” I said to Lea and Jack.

  “Can’t you just move that car? What’s inside?” Jack sighed.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  We grabbed our supplies and moved around to the opposite side of the obstruction. Lea quickly found a nice Toyota with a full tank of fuel. I hoped this would see us all the way to Monroe, which would also mean reducing the car searches and being in exposed positions.

  Eventually, the debris on the road thinned out again and our pace picked up. The next major place we would pass was Toledo. After that, it was Monroe.

  I was just about to comment about breaking the back of the journey, when Jack vomited out of the back window before it had completely opened.

  “What’s up? Are you alright?” I asked.

  “I think I’ve eaten something dodgy. My guts feel terrible.”

  “You haven’t eaten anything different from us. Have you?”

  Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  “When I went to fetch the Range Rover we shot up yesterday from the side of Jerry’s house, I found a chicken sandwich in the glove-box. I put it in my pocket, as it looked nice and fresh and completely forgot about it until a couple of hours before breakfast. I was starving.”

  None of us had slept for over twenty-four hours. Adrenalin was keeping us going and now Jack had food poisoning? These were definitely not the best conditions to be staging an assault on Ron’s house.

  “Let’s get close to Monroe, then get some rest, you probably need it more than anyone, Jack. See if you can catch any sleep and get some water down you, I don’t mind driving. We’ll go to Ron’s tomorrow morning.”

  “Isn’t that cutting it a little bit fine? The activation is tomorrow morning,” Lea said.

  Jack, who was now holding his stomach, groaned.

  “It’s probably not a bad idea. I feel like shit. Besides that, it’s probably going to be dark by the time we get there. I’d prefer to take the house when it’s light. We don’t know the territory like you.”

  “Won’t we have the element of surprise in the dark?” Lea asked.

  “We would, but so would anyone who might be guarding Ron,” I said. “Badly organised as they are, I doubt they’d be advertising their positions. In the dark, we wouldn’t be able to see where people are stationed until we got right on top of them. I’ll need some rest anyway.”

  “We need to be in the best possible shape,” Jack said. “Lea, you might know the area, but we don’t. What if something happens to you? We’ll be feeling a lot better if we manage to get a few hours of sleep.”

  We managed to pass Toledo with no further issues, apart from a few stops that Jack required to vomit by the side of the road. As we neared Monroe, my eyelids were getting heavier, and I was trying various techniques to keep myself awake. Jack and Lea had both slipped into sleep a few miles before, so I bit my lip, shook my head from side to side, or forced my eyes open as widely as possible. When none of that was working, I decided that we needed to stop.

  Chapter 10 – MI

  I shook Lea awake; she blinked a few times and frowned at me.

  “How far is it from here?” I asked.

  “Where are we?” She yawned.

  “Is there any place you know where we can stop for a few hours?”

  She looked at the approaching road sign for Luna Pier.

  “It’s not far, about ten miles I think. Exit here, and we should be able to find somewhere, there’s a few quiet places around.”

  I pulled off the highway, and we quickly found a house on Luna Pier Road that looked promising. Jack approached the door and knocked, there was no answer. We crept around the back and tried to peer through the windows, but blinds prevented us from seeing inside.

  “Fuck it,” Jack said. “Let’s kick the back door in. I’m too tired to start hunting around for the perfect house.”

  He raised his foot and smashed it against the door, it didn’t move. Lea stepped forward, turned the handle, and the door opened.

  “Sometimes it’s worth keeping things simple,” she said, smiling.

  Jack looked at me and puffed his cheeks.

  We entered the house directly into a small clean kitchen, and then continued into the living room.

  “I think it’s empty,” Lea said.

  “Why don’t we check upstairs for some bedding? I think we should all sleep in the same room tonight,” I replied.

  Jack and Lea agreed, they were both too tired to bother putting up an argument. We started to climb the staircase slowly, listening for movement. Upstairs, were three closed doors which presumably led to the bedrooms and bathroom. The bedrooms were the most sensible place to look for our requirements. We took a door each and I entered a small room with a single bed. I took off the duvet and pillow, and then heard Lea curse loudly from another room.

  I dropped the bedding and ran into Lea’s room holding my rifle in a firing position. Lea was staring at two dead bodies lying together on the bed. They were an elderly couple dressed in day clothes and holding hands, they didn’t appear to be long dead. Four empty pill bottles lay on the bedside table.

  “Sorry, they freaked me out in this light,” Lea said. “I didn’t mean to scare you guys.”

  “Don’t worry about it; we can take turns using the bedding I found in the other room.”

  Jack edged past me and looked at the scene on the bed, “Christ, that’s awful. Let’s close the door and get downstairs.”

  We filed back to the living area and sat on the couches in silence. With a dead couple upstairs, I wanted to find somewhere else, but we all appeared exhausted and needed some rest. I rose with a grunt and checked that all the doors and windows were locked. Jack and I pushed a large dresser and bookcase in front of the internal doors. There was no point taking watch and sitting up all night with the house secured, so we agreed to get some sleep.

  I took a recliner, Jack spread out on the floor with the duvet, and Lea pulled a single sheet over herself on the couch.

  Ron was probably plotting his next moves a mere ten miles away from us, and the second activation was due tomorrow. I couldn’t concentrate on what I was supposed to do about it all, and drifted in and out of sleep until a disturbingly vivid dream at dawn woke me completely.

  In the nightmare, I was dressed as a groom and standing at the top table with the rotting corpse of a lady in a wedding dress sitting next to me. I had notes in my hands about to give a speech. As I looked around the large reception room, I could see it was filled with the rotting corpses of my family and friends, all in suits and dresses. They started to heckle me.

  “Why did you get on the plane, Harry?”

  “Why are you still alive?”

  “You’ll be married to the dead soon.”

  I came awake with a start, and rubbed my eyes muttering under my breath, “Fucking hell.”

  “What is it?” Jack whispered.

  “I just had a nightmare about getting married.”

  “Loads of people have had that in real life,” he yawned.

  Lea must have been awake, she replied, “Yeah, Jack, mostly women faced with the likes of you.”

  We’d all managed to get at least a few hours of sleep, and I was feeling a lot better for it. Jack said his guts had improved, and he hadn’t
vomited since we arrived at Luna Pier. I made my way into the kitchen to see if there was anything we could eat in the cupboards. The first thing that caught my eye was a can of baked beans; I smiled and shook my head. Behind the beans was a rare treat that I hadn’t eaten in years, and picked up the two cans as if they were heaven sent. We had our breakfast – spam.

  I opened the fridge and grabbed a sealed, lukewarm bottle of coke, opened the cans of spam, found a couple of forks in a drawer, and proudly took breakfast back into the living area.

  Jack was surprised and enthusiastic about breakfast. Spam reminded us of ration packs in the army, and we hadn’t eaten it in years. Lea appeared less pleased, but was soon eagerly chomping on large, pink chunks, of processed meat.

  “Does it taste as good as it sounds?” Jack said.

  “I’d prefer Eggs Benedict, a fluffy croissant and freshly brewed coffee,” Lea replied with a smile.

  “Sorry, Lea, the kitchen’s closed,” I said.

  After breakfast, we sat around discussing our next moves. Jack suggested driving to within a couple of miles of Ron’s house, and then approaching on foot, I agreed. It was inconceivable that we’d be able to drive right up to Ron’s house in an unknown car without being stopped by Genesis Alliance.

  “Do you know where we can get our hands on some black clothes, similar to the ones that the patrol members were wearing?” I asked Lea.

  “I know a couple of places in South Monroe we could try. They’re both around two miles from Ron’s, so if we walked from there, it would fit nicely with Jack’s idea.”

  “With the AR-15’s, we’ll look the part. Anthony, Jerry, and three out of four of the goons we have come across so far, have been carrying them,” Jack said.

  We spent the next hour cleaning and checking our weapons as best we could using items from the kitchen. We decided to leave the bolt-action rifle that Jack took from the killer at the airport in the trunk; he kept hold of the Ruger. I could tell he liked it as he kept pulling it out and inspecting it with a look of satisfaction. I strapped the hunting knife to the side of my backpack for quick release. If we needed any more weapons than we already had, it would probably be safer to retreat and put on the respirators and ear defenders, ready for the next activation. We would have to use speed and the inherent deception of our clothing to carry out a lightning raid on Oak Street.

  It had already been light for an hour when we pulled back onto the expressway. We left at exit nine and joined Otter Creek Road towards South Monroe. Just before the road joined the South Dixie highway, we came to a halt. Our way ahead was completely blocked with a thick jumble of cars, stretching as far as the eye. It was unlikely that the vehicles had all ended up in this position on Friday. Lea had a theory that Genesis Alliance might have started tidying up the immediate area around Monroe and dumped the cars here.

  The only option available now was to proceed on foot. We slowly made our way through the tangle of cars, and noticed that although some of them had bloodstains on the windows, there were no corpses inside.

  As I began to consider where the bodies had been taken, we arrived at the junction. There, next to a mechanical digger in the field opposite, was a large pit. From our position, I could just about see the top of a pile of corpses that had been dumped into it.

  I couldn’t speak for a moment, Jack was staring at the pit, Lea wept into her hands. Though it was a gruesome sight, it was simply a logical outcome for the bodies. Nothing surprised me anymore. Our immediate focus was to locate some black clothing; Lea led the way along South Dixie Highway to a retail plaza.

  The area was quiet and had obviously been cleared since Friday. It had the look of any other small town pre-Activation, but on closer inspection, that evidence of violence was apparent. Blood smeared areas of the sidewalk and fragments of shattered glass gleamed on the road. We hugged the buildings as we proceeded to the entrance of a large store. Not a soul was in sight, but the fact that someone had actively been working here, and that we were so close to Ron’s house, was enough for us to maintain a very high level of vigilance.

  The doors were open and we slipped inside. The shopping area seemed relatively intact, although the checkouts were spattered in blood. Lea led us to a clothing department and we looked around for suitable outfits to fool Genesis Alliance. Jack and I found some well fitting black cargo pants and black turtleneck sweaters. I tucked the hunting knife into the belt of my pants and covered it with the sweater, and then slung the rifle over my shoulder.

  “You won’t be having any kids if that slips,” Jack said, pointing at the hunting knife.

  He tucked the Ruger into the front of his pants and looked in a full-length mirror.

  “How do I look?” He said.

  “Not bad at all. I could almost shoot you.”

  “Right, let’s get to Ron’s. I want to hear what he has to say about all of this.” Lea said, after appearing from the ladies section, she was also dressed from head to toe in black.

  As we approached the glass entrance doors, I saw the edge of a black Range Rover outside in the previously empty car park.

  “Get back, against the wall,” I whispered.

  We quickly retreated back into the shop to avoid being seen.

  “I don’t think they’ve seen us, what shall we do?” Jack asked quietly.

  I peered around the wall for another look and saw two men smoking cigarettes, standing by the side of the vehicle. They were dressed in the Genesis Alliance uniforms.

  “There’s two of them,” I said, “I’d really like that Range Rover; it would make the approach to Ron’s much easier.”

  “We can’t start shooting,” Jack replied.

  “Why don’t we try and bluff them?” Lea said. “Remember Jerry saying he didn’t know all of the other members, as anonymity helped protect the organisation?”

  “Wouldn’t all of the patrols in the local area know each other?” Jack replied.

  “Lea, have a look and see if you recognise either of them,” I said.

  I stepped back and Lea took up my position, she quickly peered around the wall.

  “One looks vaguely familiar. If he remembers me, we would never get away with pretending we’re part of the team. They might just drive away, we could wait.”

  “We could ambush them if they come through the doors,” Jack said.

  “Damn,” I said.

  “What is it?” Jack asked.

  “We’ve left the respirators and ear defenders back in the car. We can’t afford to wait around now in case we get caught by the activation. It’s either straight to Ron’s, or back to the car.”

  “Straight to Ron’s it is, then,” Jack said. “I don’t want to go through another three days of dealing with killers.”

  “I’ll go and bluff the two outside by saying I want to turn myself in. I doubt they’ll shoot an unarmed woman, especially as I know Ron.”

  “What are you going to say?” I asked.

  “I’ll say I’ve decided to return to Genesis Alliance and draw them towards the doors.”

  Lea was putting herself on the line, but the only other option we had, would be bursting out and shooting the goons.

  She readied herself and moved in front of the door, put her hands up, and shouted through the glass, “It’s Lea. I’ve come back to see Ron.”

  “Weren’t you supposed to go out?” I whispered.

  “They’re right outside the fucking door,” she said through pursed lips.

  “Open it up and let them in, we’ll smash them with our rifle butts.” I turned to Jack and said, “As soon as they walk in, move. We can’t afford to give them any time to see us.”

  Jack and I both held our rifles like clubs.

  “Did you hear me?” Lea said, as she opened the door.

  “Ron said we might be getting some visitors,” a voice answered, “are you alone?”

  “Yes, come in and search me.”

  “No, you come out here.”

  “And b
e searched in the middle of a parking lot?” Lea replied. “I’ll tell Ron you were pointing guns at my face. Come in where no one else will see.”

  “Fuck it, have it your way.”

  I heard the noise of weapons being slung over shoulders as they entered through the door. Lea instinctively took a couple of steps back.

  Two large men appeared, one behind the other, Jack and I moved immediately. I smashed the butt of my rifle against the first man’s temple; he staggered to the side but didn’t go down. I moved to strike again, but the man had already recovered.

  “You mother fucker,” he shouted through gritted teeth.

  We came together and punched furiously at close range. My initial hit hadn’t been enough to put him down, so now it was a straight fight. Neither of us had time to use our weapons. The same thing must have been happening with Jack, and I could hear scuffling to my left. Where was Lea?

  I managed to get a few heavy blows in, but was also taking equal punishment. The man was strong; I went for my knife and lost my balance. He smashed his fist into my ear and a high-pitched tone whistled through my head.

  I tried a kick to the groin and knee, but couldn’t connect, the strong arm of my assailant was keeping me at bay. I dropped my head, trying to avoid any more punches to the face and tried to push him backwards with my left arm. He was difficult to move, so I stopped swinging with my right arm and forced my thumb into the corner of the man’s left eye socket. He roared with pain and thrust my shoulders back with both of his arms. I staggered, fell to the ground, and he was immediately on top of me.

  Lea appeared to the left of the man and swung the butt of her Beretta at his head. He avoided the blow and connected with a powerful uppercut to her chin. She screamed and fell backwards onto the floor, holding her face. My arms had been pinned by the full weight of his heavy frame on top of me. I turned my face to the left as he hooked me in the jaw and saw Jack still wrestling on the ground.