When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak

by Fraser, D. K.

  “I really don’t need any, my village is just down the road, the people here need them more than me” Dimitri said but Sergei held up his hand in objection.

  “Then maybe if travelers arrive in your village in need of aid you can pass the vehicle and provisions along to them,” Sergei suggested.

  Sergei was a good man, Mason realized now, at first, he was hesitant to trust this man, but all the guy was trying to do was look after his people. Mason understood that as he was trying to do the same. Sergei had given them everything they needed and even made sure they had their own rooms in the building to sleep in. They all agreed it would be better to get some rest before leaving today. Sergei walked them over to the Jeeps then shook their hands. “Good luck my friend to you and your family,” Sergei said, shaking Masons hand.

  “Udachi brat,” Sergei said, shaking Dimitris hand.

  Sergei waved farewell then disappeared back into the building leaving them all outside with the wind howling by. Dimitri came and hugged him. “Thank you, my friend, I hope you and your family get someplace safe. If not, I’ve marked directions from here to my village where your all more than welcome,” Dimitri said.

  They all said their farewells and Alex loaded the girls into the Jeep while Mason took one last look at the infected tied to the tree. Mason waved as Dimitri started up the Jeep then drove off down the road in the opposite way they would be headed.

  “C’mon, Daddy! Let’s go!” Sarah shouted from inside the Jeep. Mason turned to see Sergei watching from a window upstairs in the building. He gave one last farewell wave before climbing in the Jeep and drove off.

  Sergei had gone over with Mason the safest route to and into the city. Soon they would be coming up on a big hill that divided the countryside. The city was on the other side of that hill so they would have to go through a tunnel. Mason could see the tunnel and the orange lighting inside, which was a relief as he didn’t fancy driving through a pitch-black tunnel. The tunnel itself was free from traffic and relatively unobstructed except a few tents he noticed on the other side of the road. As they exited the tunnel, they were shocked to see the smoldering ruins of what must have been a beautiful city. Mason saw his wife's jaw drop as tears filled Alex’s eyes. Buildings were charred and still smoking. The ground itself lay cracked with gaping holes in the road like giant wounds. The streets were filled with clouds of smoke but there was no sound, no movement of any kind.

  “Oh my god” Alex said.

  Mason knew as soon as he saw the blackened brick and burnt-out vehicles littering the road from all those planes they’d seen the day before, this is where they’d come, here to this city to burn it. Dimitri had said governments were trying to get rid of this virus by horrible means. Mason stopped the Jeep on the road then got out. Alex got out with the girls behind him as he heard their doors opening too. Masons eyes welled up with tears as he saw burned, charred bodies all over the road. He felt like he was going to throw up as the world spun around him.

  “This way, girls” he heard Alex say. Mason was in shock and hadn’t had time to tell them not to get out of the Jeep. He watched Alex take the girls into a small park away from the site ahead of them. Mason couldn’t believe it, all these bodies all these people just wiped out by whoever had made the decision. “Look, Mommy a bike! My size!” Sarah squealed.

  “Can I ride it, Mommy? Daddy?” Sarah asked.

  “Of course,” Alex said.

  Mason felt a tear roll down his face as he looked at a small body lying on the road. It was obviously a small child about Sarah’s size. He wiped the tear away realizing he was crying. Then he looked around to see Sarah smiling on the little partially burnt tricycle. Time slowed down as he heard Sarah ring the bell on the bike. As the bell rang and rang the sound of groaning came from behind him. Mason saw the look of horror on his wife's face at whatever was behind him. Mason began whispering “No...no...no” to himself. “Alex! Get to the Jeep now!” He shouted to his family.

  Mason turned to see two blackened corpses walking towards him with hands outstretched. He’d left the rifle in the Jeep so reached for a knife Sergei had given him that he’d fastened to his belt.

  As the first walking corpse got to him, Mason thrust the knife out into the man’s chest, and it sank deep as the man's chest cavity seemed to collapse under the pressure. The man fell forward onto Mason, sending him falling backwards to the ground with the man on top still groaning. Mason pushed him off as the man didn’t have much weight to him. The second corpse lunged down at him, but he rolled then slashed with the knife but all he cut was air. The Jeep horn honked and honked which Mason took as a signal they were ready to go.

  Running towards the Jeep, Mason saw more infected walking corpses coming towards the Jeep from another street. He almost froze in place then snapped out of it as the roar of gunfire filled his ears. Alex was standing half out the Jeep with an Ak-47 with smoke coming from the barrel. Mason didn’t need much more prompting as he jumped into the Jeep and peeled out. Turning the Jeep around the mob of the dead converged on them. Mason put his foot down as the Jeep thundered into the tunnel with the engine echoing.

  Mason had studied the map the night before and the routes Dimitri had marked to get to his village. Instead of going back the way they’d come, there was another route marked going straight from the tunnel exit to the village. Mason decided that would be the one to take to get to Dimitri. It had next to no towns on the way and avoiding people living or dead seemed like a good idea right now. Mason wasn’t sure what Dimitri could do but anything was better than going through the city of the dead they’d just saw. Maybe there were other routes Dimitri could show him around major populated areas. He would have to ask the man himself when he got there, he thought. He felt Alex take his hand. His wife squeezed it.

  “I love you,” Alex said.

  “I love you, too, honey. Thanks for that” He replied.

  “No problem, we’re a team” Alex said back smiling.

  “I love both you guys!!” Sarah chimed in from the back

  Jake

  “Are you fucking kidding me?!” Emily screamed glaring at him. Jake had tried to put it as best he could. Emily was not happy about his suggestion of taking a group to the army base at all.

  “Babe, we need to know exactly what's going on and the only way to get answers is from them,” Jake said trying to reason with his wife.

  The two of them were standing in the kitchen while everyone else was in the living room adjacent. “Boys, go to your room or outside,” Emily barked.

  “Do you want us to go outside too?” Benny asked.

  “Oh, no, you can stay right there, Benny and you too…what was your name?” Emily growled.

  “Charlie, ma'am, but please it wasn’t all your husband’s idea” Charlie said trying to be helpful, which Jake appreciated. “Oh, I bet it wasn’t, but he just follows along to try and keep everyone happy,” Emily said. “And no, you are all going to wait right there! Because I want to say this to all of you!” Emily said turning to the group gathered in the living room.

  “I understand we don’t know what’s going, I understand everyone's scared, I’m fucking terrified and want to know what's going on, too. If anything, and I mean anything happens to my husband those infected fucks will be the least of all your problems, if you come back here without him! Do you understand?” Emily demanded.

  The whole living room was silent as they all stared into the kitchen at Emily and him. Jake put his hand around his wife's shoulders.

  “Babe, I love you! Nothing will happen I promise! We’ll be straight there and back real quick,” he reassured his wife.

  “Emily if anything seems not right, we’ll turn around and come straight back,” Benny chimed in.

  “I know and I know you would do anything for my husband that the only reason I’m allowing it,” Emily said, walking past the group towards the back of the trailer.

  “ I woulda went anyway” Jake said quietly.

 
“That’s what you think!” Emily shouted from the back of the trailer.

  The group laughed which lightened the mood. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll see you guys at the gate,” he told the group. Once they were all gone, he headed into the back of the trailer where Emily was sitting on the bed crying. “Honey, it’s going to be okay, we’re going to be okay,” he said.

  “I know, I just keep thinking about my family, the people I work with just everyone and how fucked this situation is,” Emily sobbed.

  Jake sat beside her, pulling his wife in close to he could hold her tight. When his wife was in his arms, the whole world seemed to stop and melt away. Jake had no worries and felt content; this was a feeling he knew he’d come back to. “I love you” he said wiping the tears from her eyes.

  “I love you more” Emily said.

  “I’m going to have Alice and Marcus stay here if you are okay with it till I get back?” Jake asked.

  Emily didn’t say anything but nodded. “There’s a few empty trailers in the back so Simon can crash in one of those Ken said,” he told her.

  Jake gave her one last hug, “I’ll be back in a bit” he said kissing her on the forehead.

  At the gate Benny and Charlie were both in their trucks. Nathan was in Charlie's passenger seat with Dom in the back. Jake jumped into Benny’s then Ken came over. “You boys be safe and be quick, we don’t have many folks here if anything happens and the Jones brothers have already been talking about going out hunting for infected so they can see what the virus is like up close,” Ken said, sounding worried.

  “No problem, Ken, we’ll be fast and find out what we can then come straight back, Alice is here if they give you any problems, go see her at my place,” Jake told Ken.

  Ken nodded then slapped the side of the trucks farewell.

  After turning out onto the main road, the trucks slowed down at the blockaded road in front of the apartments. Remmy and Eduardo walked over to the trucks. “You guys be safe” Remmy said.

  “Here, if you guys get into any beef between here and the freeway, we can send a car to help,” Eduardo said handing Charlie a flare gun.

  “Thanks, Eddie,” Charlie joked, taking the flare gun.

  Remmy waved for some of the men manning the blockade to open it up. As the trucks drove out, Jake turned and saw Diego, Remmy’s son from Wal-Mart, standing on a balcony waving. He gave the boy a wave back. Jake then sat back in the seat to try and relax and ready for whatever they’d find at the army base, or Camp Hope as it was called.

  Dr. Ferguson

  The results on the computer screen in front of him were not what he wanted to see. He threw his coffee cup in frustration. These results baffled him as had the results before that. None of the markers he’d found in the initial set of infected samples he got matched any of the newer samples. It didn’t make sense as it was the same virus. There was a knock at the door.

  “Come in” He said.

  A soldier walked in looking flustered.

  “Dr. Ferguson, sir, I’ve been ordered to let you know to back up your intel and prepare for evac.” the soldier said.

  “Evac? Where? Why?” he asked, confused as to why they’d have to evacuate after just setting up here.

  “The safety zone perimeter was breached over an hour ago sir, I was just instructed to tell you to back up the drives and pack up any intel you had or needed,” the soldier said.

  “Do you know where we’ll be going?” he asked.

  “Camp Hope, sir, it’s a site that’s been set up on the other side of the Columbian river by I-205, I believe” The soldier said before leaving.

  He slumped into his chair gazing into the screen in front of him. The infected markers still baffled him as did the mutation he was seeing. The only way he could unravel this virus further was with more research. Since the OHSU hospital had been breached this new Camp Hope would have to be where he continued his research.