by Chesla, Gary
“What the hell is going on? This is the second person infected like this that we’ve seen today!” Mike said. “It’s like this damn nightmare is starting all over again.”
“If you ask me, I think we’ve been as lucky as hell to still be alive,” Tony replied. “I hate to say this, but this could be a sign that our luck is starting to run out.”
“How do we deal with this?” Mike asked. “How do we avoid something we can’t see?”
Mike looked down at the woman’s ghoulish body.
“Have we been infected by just being here?”
“I don’t know,” Tony replied. “Maybe my idea that we needed to go scout out the area so we would know what was going on around us was all wrong. If we want to survive, maybe we should just stay at the cabin until the virus dies out.”
“How would we know when the virus is gone?” Mike asked. “We didn’t even know it was still alive.”
Tony looked dejected.
“I was starting to think the zombie problem was finally over, but this could change everything,” Tony said. “I didn’t see this coming.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about this,” Mike said. “How the hell could any of us have seen this coming. Apparently, no one knew. We did what we felt we needed to do. Maybe none of us were ever going to live through this. Maybe we never really had a chance and have just been lucky to live this long.”
“I don’t know,” Tony finally said. “I think we could still be OK if we stay away from any place that has a lot of dead bodies lying around. Hopefully we’ll at least have a chance to live a little longer.”
“We might still hear from that Doctor Kennedy,” Mike added. “Maybe help will eventually come.”
“I know,” Tony grinned. “Think positive.”
“I don’t see why not,” Mike smiled softly. “It appears that there isn’t much else we can do. Who knows, maybe our luck will hold out long enough to get through this.”
“I hope you’re right,” Tony sighed. “To tell you the truth, I never felt this helpless since this whole thing started. I always felt that we would find a way to get through this. But this virus scares the hell out of me. I don’t know how to fight an invisible virus.”
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Mike said. “I hear chicken soup helps you fight off virus’s. Rabbit sort of tastes like chicken, so maybe we still have a chance.”
“I guess it’s worth a try,” Tony grinned, “and I guess it’s a good sign that we’re still alive.”
Mike and Tony turned away from the dead woman and were about to leave when a sound came from inside the cabin.
Tony put his finger to his lips and raised his bow.
“Open the door,” Tony whispered.
“Maybe we should just leave it locked in the cabin where it can’t cause any problems,” Mike whispered.
“If it was just recently infected, it could wander around for weeks if it gets out,” Tony replied. “Better to kill it now than have it show up at the house.”
Mike nodded and moved over next to the door.
When Tony nodded, Mike pulled the door open.
Tony aimed the bow at the door as it swung open, ready to shoot whatever came out through the doorway.
But when the door swung open, instead of seeing a walker come at them, Tony saw a young woman cowering against the wall in the back of the cabin.
She looked to be about eighteen years old, but as she pushed her body into the corner, trying to make herself as small a target as she could, it was hard to tell her age for sure.
“Please don’t hurt me,” the girl sobbed when she saw Tony standing at the door, pointing his crossbow at her.
Mike looked around the doorway.
“She’s alone,” Mike said.
“Come out of the cabin,” Tony said, still aiming his bow at the girl.
The girl slowly got to her feet.
She wrapped her arms around herself and slowly walked across the floor and stepped out into the daylight, shielding her eyes against the bright sunlight.
“Have you been bitten?” Tony asked.
The girl shook her head no.
“Put your arms down by your side so I can see them,” Tony said.
The girl lowered her arms, trembling as she stood in front of Tony.
“Her arms and legs look OK from this side,” Tony said looking at Mike. “How’s does she look from your side.”
“She looks fine from this side,” Mike replied.
Tony lowered his bow.
“What’s your name?” Tony asked.
“Sherry,” the girl replied nervously.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Tony said. “What are you doing here?”
The girl was about to answer when she noticed the woman’s body on the ground and she began to sob loudly.
“That’s my mother,” Sherry cried.
“What happened here?” Mike asked. “Why are you here?”
After a few minutes, Sherry was able to compose herself.
“My mom, dad, brother and I lived down near Ligonier,” Sherry said. “For the last month we lived in the A&P grocery store outside of Ligonier. We couldn’t get out of the store because there were so many of those monsters. They were everywhere. We didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t get in to get at us, but we couldn’t get out either, but at least we had something to eat.”
“How did you end up here?” Tony asked.
“About a week ago, Dad said it looked like we could get out of the store because there wasn’t any of those things in the parking lot. So we ran out to our car and tried to go to my grandmother’s house, but everywhere we went, everyone was dead. There was blood and bodies everywhere.
We couldn’t find anyone else that was still alive.
When I was little, I went to camp with the girl scouts here at this campground.
We didn’t know where else to go so we came here.”
“What happened to your mother and where is your dad and brother?” Tony asked.
“My mom and dad went to look for food yesterday,” Sherry replied. “They found these houses down towards Johnstown and said they saw a lot of things there that we needed. Dad said they didn’t see any of those monsters running around there, so they went back down yesterday to load up the car and bring some supplies back to our camp.
Last night after they came back, my mom and dad said they weren’t feeling very well.
This morning my dad said they had to go back down for a couple of things they didn’t have room for yesterday.
My mom was really sick and couldn’t go with him, so my brother went to help my dad.
I stayed home to take care of my mom.
About an hour ago, I tried to get my mom to wake up to drink some broth to keep her strength up.
When she opened her eyes, I got really scared when I saw what they looked like.
They were all white and cloudy.
Then she started to growl and started to come after me.
I couldn’t believe it, she had turned into one of those monsters. I didn’t know what to do so I ran out of our cabin and hid in this cabin.
I don’t know how she knew where I was, but she came right to this cabin and started banging on the side of the cabin.
I just tried to stay quiet and hoped my dad would come home soon.”
“I’m sorry I had to put your mother down,” Tony said. “But when they change into what she became, there isn’t anything else you can do for them. All you can do is set them free so they can rest in peace.”
“I know,” Sherry sobbed.
“When will your dad be home?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know,” Sherry replied. “I thought he would have been home by now. He said they wouldn’t be long.”
“What color was the car he was driving?” Tony asked.
“It was red,” Sherry replied.
“Was it a Kia Soul?” Mike asked as he looked at Tony. Mike had a feeling the answer would be
yes.
“Yeah, how did you know?” Sherry replied.
“Was he an older man and was he wearing jeans and a yellow pullover shirt?” Tony asked.
“Yes,” Sherry replied. Her eyes got large as she answered, fearing where these questions would lead.
“I’m afraid your dad and brother won’t be coming home,” Tony said softly. “He and your mother must have gotten infected when they were down near Johnstown yesterday. You dad changed like your mother did. We found your dad and brother in the car earlier today. He must have attacked your brother. I’m sorry.”
Sherry began to sob quietly again as she realized that she had just lost her entire family and was now alone.
Mike looked at Tony.
“I guess we could take her back with us if you don’t have any objections,” Tony said.
“Take me where?” Sherry asked looking alarmed.
“My wife and daughter are at a little place we found,” Mike replied. “You can come stay with us.”
Sherry still looked terrified.
“Look Sherry,” Tony said. “We’re not going to make you come with us and we’re not going to hurt you. But as you well know, it’s dangerous out here. Do you really want to stay out here by yourself?”
“No,” Sherry replied hesitantly. “But I don’t know you.”
But you’ll be safe with us and I’m sure my little Jamie could use your help looking after George,” Mike smiled.
“Who is George?” Sherry asked.
“Her pain in the ass kitten,” Mike smiled. “I have to warn you, he eats stink bugs then throws them up all over everyone. It smells like hell.”
Sherry smiled briefly, “Will you show me where you found my dad’s car?”
“Sure,” Tony replied.
“Can we bury my mom before we go?” Sherry asked. “After all, she was my mother. I don’t want her to just lay there, she should at least have a decent burial.”
Mike nodded. “Sure, we’ll help you, then we need to go. We’ll take you home where you can get away from this.”
“OK,” Sherry replied. “I guess I don’t really have a choice unless I want to stay here by myself. Do you have anything to eat where you stay?”
“We have enough to eat, at least so far we’ve done OK,” Mike smiled reassuringly.
“Do you have anything you would like to bring with you?” Tony asked.
Sherry shook her head, “No, everything I had got burned up in the fire when the cabin burned down.”
“How did the cabins catch on fire?” Tony asked.
“My brother knocked over a candle,” Sherry replied. “He got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The candle set the cabin on fire. It woke me up and we we’re lucky to get out of the cabin alive. Then the fire spread to the next cabin. That was where we were keeping our supplies. That’s why my dad had to go back down near Johnstown this morning. All our food was destroyed along with everything else we had.
We didn’t have any way pf putting the fire out and it just kept spreading.”
“Let’s go bury your mom,” Tony said.
Chapter 16
July 1st, Granite Mountain
Doc walked to the situation room to find Chervy, Rogers and Davis pulling up chairs around the computer.
Reynolds and Connors stood behind the others, looking down over their shoulders at the computer, anxiously waiting for something to happen.
Chervy had just hit the power button on the computer when he saw Doc come into the room.
“Good morning Doc,” Chervy smiled.
“Hi Doc,” Davis added. “You come down too to see if our visitor was back last night?”
“I thought this was where I would find everyone,” Doc replied and smiled as he continued. “This was the only reason I could think of for the mess hall being empty when I walked in to the mess for a little breakfast and found the bay deserted. The mess hall is usually the most popular spot here at Granite Mountain at this time of the morning. But I have to admit that I am also curious to find out what happened at our food drop last night.”
“Sorry we didn’t finish cleaning up the mess hall, Doc,” Reynolds said. “When Chervy said he was coming down to see if our visitor was back last night, we just had to come down to find out what happened. We can go back and finish cleaning up if you want?”
“No, relax, the cleanup can wait a few more minutes,” Doc smiled, “We’re all curious to see what our visitor looks like. After all, it will be the first look we’ve had at another living person since the infected overran the base.”
“I hope our visitor is a woman,” Connors said. “I haven’t seen a woman in months.”
“For now, I just hope our visitor is someone that we can find a way to talk with,” Doc replied. “Someone that has knowledge about others that may have also survived and how we might be able to contact them.”
“All of that and be a woman too. How else are we supposed to repopulate the earth,” Connors laughed. “Blonde hair would be nice, I like blondes.”
“I don’t care what color hair she has,” Rogers grinned.
“Yeah, Rogers doesn’t even care if she is inflatable,” Davis laughed.
“Hopefully sometime in the near future this can be a conversation we can continue,” Doc replied. “But I’m afraid we have a few obstacles to overcome first. The first thing we have to do is confirm that our visitor was in fact a living human. Did the system indicate that our visitor was back again last night?”
“We don’t know yet, Doc,” Davis said. “Chervy just powered up the computer.”
“Didn’t the system print out any reports about last night’s activity?” Doc asked.
“No, the system here isn’t set up like what we had back at the base in Fallon,” Chervy replied. “At Fallon the system was set up for twenty-four hour monitoring and notification as part of the Satellite Watch Program. Here, the system collects all the information sent back by the satellite and records it on the server. It only prints out anything when we ask for it. Once the terminal powers up, I can search what was recorded last night and see if our visitor came back.”
“We tried to stay up and see our visitor live last night,” Rogers said. “But we didn’t last too long.”
“We sat up to 0100 this morning,” Chervy added, “but when the cameras and the motion detectors we set up hadn’t pick up anything by that time, we decided to call it a night.”
“I tried to bet these guys that our visitor wouldn’t come back last night,” Rogers smiled, “but no one would bet me.”
“It’s hard to bet when you are hoping you will see who is out there,” Davis added. “Even though Rogers is always wrong, and the bet would have been like taking candy from a baby, I was afraid I would jinx us if I bet him.”
“It’s still not too late to take my bet if you’re so certain it would be a sure thing,” Rogers grinned.
They all stopped talking and stared at the computer monitor when the screen lit up. The picture from the satellite’s camera of the area around the food drop came into focus.
The men all crowed around the monitor, straining to see the food crate in the middle of the picture and to see if there were any signs it had been disturbed.
“Zoom in closer, Cherv,” Davis said. “I can’t tell if any of the food was taken or not.”
“It doesn’t look like anyone was there,” Rogers said. “I told you no one was going to show up last night.”
“Wait until we get a better look, smartass,” Davis growled. “We can’t tell anything from this distance yet.”
“If you two would just shut the hell up for a moment,” Chervy laughed, “I’m working on getting us a better picture. The satellite response is a little slow this morning for some reason, so cool it for a few minutes.”
“You don’t think we are having a problem with the satellite or the computer?” Doc asked.
“I don’t think so, I think it is just the amount of data we may have received
from the satellite last night,” Chervy replied. “The system here at Granite Mountain is slow. The hardware and system programing haven’t been updated in years. The operating system we’re using here is still Windows XP which was released eighteen years ago. The processor is a Pentium II, which I think came out the year I was born. It’s a good system, but a little slow compared to what I’m used to working with. It just takes a little longer to process what the satellite is sending us.”
“I hope you’re right,” Doc sighed, “this equipment is our eyes to the outside world. It would make our goal a lot harder to accomplish if the system gave out on us. Since you’re the only computer tech we have, do you think you can repair this system if there is a problem?”
“It depends Doc,” Chervy replied. “I just hope we don’t have to find out the answer to that question any time soon. But I don’t think we have to worry for a while. The system is slow but otherwise seems OK.”
The view on the screen finally began to change and soon the men could clearly see the crate of supplies sitting on the ground near Stone.
“I’m afraid it looks like Rogers was right,” Reynolds said. “It doesn’t look like anything was touched.”
“Yeah, yesterday things were scattered on the ground all around the crate,” Davis added.
“Well, I guess you and I might as well go back to work,” Connors said looking at Reynolds. “We have to clean up the mess hall before we tackle storage bay #19.”
“Yeah, I guess we all got excited over nothing,” Reynolds added. “See you guys later.”
Connors and Reynolds walked slowly out into the tunnel, obviously disappointed that they didn’t get a look at the mysterious visitor, and disappeared as they headed back towards the mess hall.
“What do the satellite images show about last night?” Doc asked. “Did anything happen at the site?”