When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak

by Fraser, D. K.

  They did as they were instructed, and Caleb turned to see the man who’d been at his side of the Jeep was at the back of the Jeep. The man opened the door and grabbed the rug and began sliding it out. “Careful!” Caleb blurted out.

  He felt the muzzle of a rifle jab into his back, “Why?” the man beside him asked.

  “We…we don’t know much about what’s going on, my son’s friend freaked out, turning into one of those things,” Caleb told them.

  The guy slid the body that was partially out back in, then slammed the door. “Was he bit?” The man asked. Nate nodded.

  “Were any of you?” the man behind them asked.

  Nate shook his head.

  “How did you kill him?” the man who’d had the rug asked.

  Caleb looked at him but before he could answer was cut off, “Does this guy not talk?” the man behind him asked and he felt the muzzle of the gun leave his back. Turning, he could see it was now jammed into Nate’s back.

  “We fought him then killed him, don’t worry we destroyed the brain,” Nate said.

  As if this had all been some kind of elaborate comedy skit both men lowered their rifles and burst out laughing.

  Caleb could feel anger boiling inside him, “What the fuck is so funny?!” he blurted out.

  Both men slowed their laughing, “You thought he was a zombie?” The man who’d been behind them asked. Caleb looked at Nate whose color had drained from his face.

  “They’re not?” he asked.

  The man who’d been behind them looked into the Jeep then back at them. “No, he’s a zombie,” the man said and again the other man started to laugh.

  “Why are you guys laughing?” Nate asked.

  “Because you should have seen your faces,” the guy laughing managed to say. Caleb could tell the other guy, the one who’d had the gun in their back knew it was time to stop the funny business.

  “Look, I’m sorry you had to kill your friend but that wasn’t your friend…not anymore. Not many people are willing to believe that this virus turns people into…well, zombies but as you’ve seen, it does.” The man patted Nate on the shoulder.

  “You guys can be on your way but if you’re coming back, I advise you to be fast, do what you gotta do, then get back” the man said.

  The other guy had come back over to the front of Jeep “The reason we’re up here is to make sure no one infected tries to get onto the properties, be safe, and like Roman said, be quick, avoid contact as much as possible,” the other man said.

  “Thanks,” Caleb said getting back into the Jeep. Just as he started the engine up, the guy who’s name Caleb now knew was Roman walked up to the window. “If you do come into contact with anyone infected, don’t get bit, if you do, don’t come back” Roman said nodding walking away.

  Driving along the road Caleb kept looking in the mirror at the body of Mark. He hadn’t really thought this next part through and by how Nate was being he knew his son wouldn’t be much help.

  Turning onto the street Mark and his mom lived on, Caleb couldn’t help but notice how quiet the street was. Knowing what was on the news that the people in this street were probably just following the instructions on the news. “This one” Nate said pointing at a run-down little two-story house near the end of the street. The street was small with only nine small houses, all had cars sitting outside in the driveways although the houses showed no signs of activity. The silence as Caleb turned the Jeep’s engine off was eerie. As they got out, a dog ran over to them panting and drooling, He looked at Nate who was smiling at the dog. Seeing his son smile eased everything and the tension lightened a bit.

  “Dad, this dog’s soaking wet,” Nate said, patting it.

  Caleb bent down beside Nate who was still patting the dog, “Nate, stop,” he said quietly not to startle the dog. Nate looked up at him with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Look at your hand” He told his son.

  Nate let out a gasp as he looked at the palm of his hand which was red with blood. Caleb could see drops coming off the back of dogs coat onto the ground. Caleb watched as Nate backed away from the dog that just sat there wagging its tail.

  “We better get on with this,” Nate said.

  Caleb nodded and they both headed towards the house. “Want me to do the talking?” Caleb asked. He knew his son wasn’t in his right frame of mind so knew he should probably be the one to do it. His son just nodded as they walked up to the door.

  Nate knocked on the door but there was no answer. Caleb took a turn at knocking but he knocked a lot louder than his son did. After a few minutes with no answer Nate shouted “Mrs. Buell! It’s Nate, are you in there?” Nate asked loudly.

  Caleb looked around the yard that was pretty messy, but it didn’t look like it had just been done. Grass grew around some of the things lying around in the yard, letting him know they’d been there awhile. He turned when he heard the door open, but it was Nate who was opening it. Again, Nate shouted for Mark’s mom.

  “Mrs. Buell!” Nate said walking in. Caleb followed his son in.

  “Nate, I don’t think this is a good idea,” he said looking back outside to see if there was any sign of people. The smell hit them like a fresh breeze only there was nothing fresh about it. The smell reminded Caleb of the buttery smell meat spoiling gave off. Nate walked down a hallway which Caleb could see was a kitchen. He headed into the living room which was right beside the door. As he looked at some pictures of Mark on a wall above an old unused fireplace, he heard a low groan. Looking around, he saw an elderly woman with closed eyes sitting in a chair in the corner.

  “Nate! She’s in here!” he said loudly but not shouting.

  He could hear Nate’s footsteps as he came from the kitchen, but it was too late. Mark’s Mom’s eyes shot open, revealing cloudy, milky, white vacant eyes. Then her mouth opened revealing old yellow stained teeth that gave off another low groan as what had been Mark’s mom lurched out the chair towards him!

  Mason

  Dimitri brought the Jeep to a halt and ahead of them in the street Mason could see what looked like an abandoned army blockade. It was made of long beams and what looked like large oversized plastic cones. “We have to clear the way,” Dimitri said. Mason nodded, opening the door.

  “There many of these on the way to the Embassy?” Mason asked.

  “No, I don’t think so, only at major intersections” Dimitri replied getting out the other side of the Jeep. Mason noticed his driver was glancing around nervously.

  “So, what’s going to happen when we get to the Embassy?” He asked as they both walked towards the hastily set up blockade of plastic beams and cones.

  “We’re not going to the Embassy; we’re crossing the border and going to Tiraspol. It’s the village where my family live.” Dimitri said.

  As Mason started to pick up the plastic barriers that were set up attached to tall looking traffic cones he decided to probe further. He could tell Dimitri had hesitated before answering.

  “Seems like you kinda already knew what was going down?” he asked.

  Dimitri nodded, removing some of the long plastic beams, throwing them to the ground.

  “I had known for several days that at some point the airports might get shut down, I just didn’t know when. The government wanted us to show as little fear as possible when it came to this virus, promising all of us would be safe, so we all carried on business as usual just as we were ordered,” Dimitri said.

  “Here’s the thing, though” Mason said throwing a beam down hard to the side of the road.

  “How come the army just let us go, handed you keys to a Jeep, and just let us on our way? Thinking you were going to take us to the Embassy. Surely if there was something going on, then two Americans they would want to take themselves?” He said looking Dimitri right in the eyes.

  Dimitri chuckled a little. “Yes, in an everyday world that is correct my friend, but this isn’t the everyday world anymore Mr. Mason. In fact, everyone is terr
ified, even the soldiers. They knew their safest course of action for self-preservation was to remain at the airport where they have access to aircraft, that and I gave them some money,” Dimitri said with a smile.

  Something wasn’t adding up and Mason could feel it. “Why, though?” Mason asked.

  “I told them you were an American scientist that had information on the virus and were trying to flee with your family,” Dimitri said with a chuckle.

  “What? Why?” Mason said getting frustrated now with Dimitri.

  “Because I’m one of the directors board of tourism, I know the people at the embassy. I had no choice but to go to the airport today like the last few days to help oversee the shut down if it happened. It was the only thing I could think of to get myself and you out of there. I told them I would take you to the Embassy where the Army has set up a HQ” Dimitri said.

  Mason knocked the last of the long barriers off with a kick, it clattered to the ground.

  “I’ve been planning for days a way I could get back to my family if I needed to. I knew how scared the soldiers were and how they were ordered to not abandon their posts but figured if I could give them something important enough for them to give me a Jeep, they would, and they did.” Dimitri smiled.

  Mason nodded back, partly satisfied with Dimitri’s story but knew for now he had to go along with Dimitri regardless, as he didn’t have a choice.

  Dimitri put a hand on Mason’s shoulder, “Please my friend try to be quiet, anyone infected are very agitated and can become extremely violent with noise,” Dimitri said nodding down at the beam Mason had just kicked.

  “Sorry,” Mason apologized.

  Looking around it didn’t seem like there was anyone around to hear it. The streets were mainly stores locked up and the windows above were all dark. The other streets they’d driven down had all pretty much been the same since leaving the airport. “Where is everyone anyw-” Mason was cut off by the roar of five jets that soared over head.

  “This is not good,” Dimitri muttered.

  They both hurried back to the Jeep and once inside, Mason looked in the back at Alex. She had been quiet since the airport.

  Dimitri must have sensed his concern and spoke “Shock, probably from the gunshots and the commotion at the airport. We need to keep them warm and hydrated,” Dimitri said, revving the Jeep.

  “I thought you said we had to be quiet?” Mason said

  “To late for that now, moy drug,” Dimitri replied starting in English then finishing in Russian.

  Before Mason could ask what that meant or too late for what, there was a thud on the back of the Jeep, then another and another. Mason looked round the seat to see Alex sitting up and covering Sarah’s eyes. There were six sets of hands on the rear window that disappeared as the Jeep accelerated forward. “It’s okay, baby” Alex said softly to Sarah brushing the small girl’s hair.

  Mason looked out past his wife and daughter out the rear window to see three people walking slowly, following their Jeep. Within minutes, the three people had disappeared into the distance, satisfied whatever danger they were in had passed he leaned back to kiss Sarah on the forehead. “Don’t worry, honey, mommy and daddy are here,” he told her.

  “And baby Abby! Don’t forget baby Abby, Dad,” his daughter said.

  “I won’t, honey” he said beaming with pride at how innocent his daughter was in all of this and still her only thought was of her baby sister.

  “Were those people infected?” Mason asked quietly as he could in the cramped Jeep.

  Dimitri nodded.

  “How could you tell?” Mason asked.

  Dimitri pointed up at the sky which was dark.

  “It’s night and curfew began over two hours ago. Anyone on the streets are either infected or using the curfew to exploit others. Either one, we want to avoid.” Dimitri said.

  Mason understood that, he’d seen plenty of videos online of people in bad situations like during disasters. People looted and used the chance at the breakdown in society to take advantage of people. “Have you seen these infected people?” Mason asked.

  Dimitri nodded again while looking in the rear-view mirror, Mason saw Dimitri was looking at what was behind them and then at the girls.

  “ I’ve seen some videos on the news but that didn’t prepare me for seeing a Strogi up close…” Dimitri’s eyes were getting cloudy and teary.

  “Strogi?” Mason asked.

  “Yes, it’s what we call them…umm…I guess the English is Zombie perhaps, it’s what they turn into once they die” Dimitri said.

  “Zombies? Are you fuckin’ serious? And what do you mean turn into? You said they were infected, not zombies” Mason said, finding this hard to believe. Then again if he’d been told before leaving the US for Scotland that he’d be caught up in the middle of an international pandemic and quarantine he wouldn’t have believed that, either.

  “Oh, I understand now, when I told you virus and disease you took it literally as you Americans do. However, the disease is just how it starts once you’ve been infected it’s a slow and what looks like agonizing process leading to a slow death then...well, then you come back as a Strogi…sorry, zombie” Dimitri’s tone was sounding sadder as his voice choked.

  “You okay?” Mason asked, sensing the emotion in the man's voice.

  “Two days ago I watched Pietr, my colleague, who’d been bitten by a crazy homeless man a few days before turning into one of them…I watched as soldiers at the hospital in the city center filled him with bullets but he just kept walking towards them…gurgling and making an awful, awful sound…then a bullet hit him in the head causing half of his skull to explode and the thing he’d turned into fell to the ground. Then he was picked up and taken away like garbage by the soldiers,” Dimitri said sadly.

  Mason felt a wave of sadness come over him as he saw the tears rolling down Dimitri’s face, he could tell the man was being sincere this time.

  They drove for almost an hour in silence mainly because Mason didn’t know what to say and he wanted to give Dimitri some time to himself. The roads now were all rural with the odd house here and there but seemed deserted.

  The Jeep slowed and Mason could see someone in the headlights. There was a man in the road. As he slowly turned into the light facing the Jeep, Mason could tell the man was old with a bald head and grey beard. The man started to walk slowly towards the Jeep in tattered stained clothes.

  “A Strogi,” Dimitri said as the Jeep accelerated. Passing the man, Mason could see the man was covered in blood. Part of the skin on the man’s face was missing with just a red gaping hole where the man's right cheek would have been. Mason watched as the man feebly reached out trying to grab the Jeep as it swerved around him.

  “We can’t stop, he was infected” Dimitri said.

  “Yeah…I…I see that” Mason said in both shock and disgust at what he’d just seen.

  Dimitri must have been able to tell that he was a little creeped out as he felt Dimitri slap his leg.

  “It’s okay we’re safe, comrade,” Dimitri said, laughing.

  ”Dimitri…” he said quietly looking back to make sure his girls were asleep, and they were. “What can you tell me about what's happening? Not just here but everywhere? And please tell me the truth,” Mason asked hoping the man would continue to be honest about what he knew.

  Jake

  As they drove through the park there wasn’t much activity, but the air was thick and stuffy with smoke. Nearing the park exit they saw a Hispanic family loading up their car, Jake couldn’t help but think to himself that might not be a bad idea. Jake thought about the day before when his neighbor Peter had tried to warn him. He didn’t understand at the time what was happening so Peter must have seen something pretty serious. As they pulled out onto the main road, Jake looked behind them in the direction of downtown past the apartment blocks. All he could see was the sun making the haze of smoke that filled the sky glow.

  The drive to the schoo
l would be a short one, it was a straight road from the park to the school passing only the rock quarry and a Wal-Mart. As they passed the rock quarry, this was the first time Jake had seen it empty with all the machines ground to a halt. That was an eerie sight he thought to himself.

  They pulled up to a four way stop. If they drove straight, the school was on the other side. Looking across they could see it was deserted with only two trailers parked on the school grounds. They looked like the ones Jake and Benny had saw the day before at the Battleground High School.

  “I don’t see a single person,” Benny said leaning forward. Jake could see his friend scrunching his eyes trying to see if anyone was over at the school.

  “Looks like the Army guys could have been telling the truth,” Alice said.

  Benny started to turn the truck into the right lane to turn into the Wal-Mart parking lot.

  The parking lot was packed! Jake hadn’t seen it this busy since a black Friday! Benny found them a space towards the back of the lot.

  As they walked towards the store, they were met with people rushing out of the store with arms full of merchandise. “Looks like the looting’s started.” Alice said dully.

  Jake could sense the lack of optimism in Alice’s voice but still hoped they could get in and out of here quickly despite how busy the store seemed. As they walked through the double doors, a man ran past clutching a TV. Jake couldn’t believe that some people’s priorities were with material things instead of their families and other people.

  Entering the store, they agreed to split up so they could get what they needed and be out faster. The store was packed with hardly any elbow room at all. Benny was going to head to the pharmacy section for first aid supplies, Alice was going to get what food and water she could then meet Jake in the outdoor and sporting goods department. He figured he could get a lot of stuff to help if the power went out and long-term things to help if this situation lasted a while.