Stage 6

by James, Dylan

  I turned to the crowd of people who had stayed behind to help and said, “Anybody who wants to help, follow Eric here,” pointing to Eric, “and he will put you to work revamping these cars. Also, if you have a specific car or person you’d like to travel with, talk to Lucy,” pointing to Lucy, “And she’ll organize a list.”

  Lucy opened her mouth in surprise, and I met her gaze evenly.

  She sighed and said, “OK... But we’re even now.”

  I agreed, and gave her a hug. Surprised at myself, I backed up sheepishly. It felt good to hug somebody, and I ran to my Mom and hugged her tightly. I felt no matter what rollercoaster hill we went over next, we’d still be on top of things.

  Kevin yelled to Shawn, as they were running back out the door, “Hey what are you going to bring in next time Shawn? Compared to my sweet ride, you’re just bringing in pieces of crap on wheels!”

  The good-natured ribbing made me laugh, and everybody seemed to be in good spirits. Joe and Donovan approached me, and they seemed to be agreeing on something for once.

  I was expecting encouragement, so it caught me off guard when Donovan virtually spat at me, “What do you think you’re doing?”

  No longer able to hold my temper, I said, “I’m leaving tomorrow Donovan. I just so happen to be taking a few of your people with me.”

  He sputtered angrily, “This is a foolish plan! We have a good thing here, and you’re dragging these people into something they shouldn’t be in.”

  I replied, “HOW is it your responsibility to decide what they should and shouldn’t get into? I’m not dragging them into anything, if they want to come great, if they want to stay I’m fine with that. I simply stated what we’re trying to do.”

  He yelled, “But you stated it in a way that made them all agree with you!”

  He received some looks from people, even more so than he normally did so he seemed to calm down.

  He said, in an attempt to be calm, “I think what you’re trying to do is admirable, Jack, but I feel like you’re taking advantage of these people with nice words and false promises.”

  I said passionately, “Not at all Donovan! My group and I traveled all the way here from Texas, and we saw many other survivors along the way. In fact, I suspect there are many survivors out there who are stuck waiting to be rescued. We can rescue them, and add their strength to our group! Eventually I plan to stop somewhere, and start forging anew, but for now? I think it’s a good goal just to be going around helping people, don’t you?”

  Amazingly, his expression seemed to soften for a moment and he replied, “It is admirable...”

  He abruptly turned and walked away, taking some people with him.

  I asked Joe, “Who are they?”

  She glanced at his following and replied, “Oh, that’s his family. He has a wife, several kids, and his Dad living here. I think he’s trying to give them as normal a life as possible.”

  I nodded, it made sense to me. If I were a Dad in this crisis, I’d probably have a similar view.

  I asked her, “So what about you Joe? Do you agree with my plan?”

  She looked at the ceiling for a moment, and then sighed and said, “You know Jack, I’ve seen a lot of people come and go over the years. I’ve seen the worst kinds of people, and the best kinds. You seem like a good person Jack, but it’s a lot of responsibility leading so many people out there in a world like this, especially when it seems we’re safe enough here. I guess you could say I agree with your plan, but I just don’t know if I’m ready to leave this place.”

  I replied, “I can understand that... But please, consider it. You would be a valuable asset, and the people already know and trust you.”

  She nodded, and replied, “Yeah. I’ll think about it. For now do you mind if I worked with you guys?”

  I exclaimed, “Of course not! Just talk to Eric; he’ll let you know what he needs done.”

  I spent the next few hours helping Ben to modify the bus, and it seemed to be coming along quite nicely. Any parts that we needed, we’d simply send Kevin and Shawn out to get once they came in from their car-jacking. We were making the bus into a mobile command HQ, instead of the supply bus it used to be. It still had food, and supplies, and ammunition like it used to, but now it was all organized on shelves and neatly packed into the back. The windows on the bus had boards attached on the inside, securely blocking off any chance of a stray Infected’s hands smashing through and grabbing somebody. Some of the window boards had curved metal hooks holding the board in place tightly, but it wasn’t nailed in or anything, so it could be moved if necessary and a quick escape could be made. The idea was that on the road people could see out, and at the first sign of a problem the boards could be easily attached within seconds, fortifying the windows. The main door had been completely taken out and replaced with a solid metal door found from one of the rooms in the back. It had been sawed down to fit the door frame, and then bolted with hinges to the side of the door. Now there was three inches of thick steel between the outside of the bus, and the entrance. The door handle had a key, and unfortunately there were only two keys that could be found to it. Therefore it was decided that the door would only be closed when on the road, and there should be somebody on the bus at all times. We also secured the front of the vehicle. We built sharp spikes on the front of the bus, placed in strategic locations to severely diminish the likelihood of any Infected actually trying to climb up. The final and most amazing modification was still in the process of being built. The idea was to build a cave-like entrenchment on the roof of the bus over top of the safety hatch. This way, somebody like Steve could climb up on top of the bus and lay down with his sniper, while still mostly covered. He could shoot anything around the bus while remaining virtually hidden from view. It was the “crow’s nest” of the bus, and Ben was particularly proud of it. We were constructing it with wood, which required us to chop down all the unused furniture in the store that we could find. We sent out Kevin to find some tires, but he could only scavenge one tire that was the right size for the bus. While most of us were in the process of modifying the cars, Steve took the opportunity to hold a gun-safety seminar in the middle of the store. Even Donovan showed up, and he had nothing bad to say about it. After a very long, interesting day I felt extremely exhausted. I went to sleep early, even before Donovan shut off the lights. I went into a small corner of the store, and collapsed on top of a mattress. The relationship between me and Donovan seemed to have gotten off to a rocky start, but he got better as the day went on. I fell asleep wondering if I could convince him to come with us the next day...

  Day 14

  I was awoken by the sounds and flashes of the lights being turned on. After I was sure I was sufficiently awake, I convinced Joe to let the guys shower since we didn’t get the chance to the day before. After showering we came out to get to work. Eric mobilized his crew, and I saw that after I had gone asleep Shawn and Kevin had amassed another six cars to their collection, bringing it to a total of eight, not including the truck and bus. Originally I was confused as to why we needed so many cars, when Eric explained to me that he needed some spare parts he could get from the more generic car brands. He had sent them back out to “acquire” some more of these cars. Also, it never hurt to have the capacity to carry more people just in case they decided to come. After working on the vehicles for a few hours, Ben, Eric and Steve approached me.

  Steve said, “Jack, you seem to have good relations with Joe and Donovan. We need to request something of them.”

  I put down the saw I had in my hand, and wiped the sweat off my face. I asked, “What is it?”

  Steve replied, “Put simply, we need more time and we need more supplies. The vehicles are not done being modified, and although we seem to have enough materials, something was brought to our attention by Ben. We don’t have nearly enough food to feed the thirty four people we currently have signed up to come. We’re going to have to convert at least two cars into basically mobile food st
orage units, which isn’t actually a problem all by itself. Except that we also need the food to put in the cars, and we weren’t sure if it was right to take all this food from the store when there will still be people living here. The reason we need more time is because some of the people are a little anxious about leaving so soon after arriving. Kevin wants to leave today, but he relented and said he would be ok with tomorrow as well. So if you could get the others to agree to let us stay one more day, AND letting us take all the food we need that would be great.”

  I sighed, realizing how much arguing I was going to have to do to accomplish this.

  I replied, “OK, I’ll try but don’t count on anything. I can probably get Joe to let us take some food, and she seems to be more in charge of that sort of thing. But Donovan... He was pretty set on the idea that we were leaving today.”

  Steve nodded, and said, “I know it won’t be easy. It’s necessary though. Good luck.”

  I walked over to Donovan’s corner of the room, where Joe was talking with him. They didn’t seem to be arguing, so I seized my chance.

  I sidled up to them and said, “Hey Joe. Hey Donovan. What’s up?”

  Donovan laughed harshly and said, “What’s up? What’s up is that Joe here is trying to convince me to join your little band of renegades.”

  I looked curiously at Joe, and asked, “Does this mean you’ve decided to come with us?”

  She nodded curtly, and then said, “I was just trying to talk some sense in Donovan but I can see now that it’s a lost cause...”

  Before Donovan could reply, I jumped in and said, “So, seeing as you two are the leaders around here, I have a request.”

  I turned to Donovan and said, “First... We would like permission to stay just ONE more day, to finish our preparations.”

  Surprisingly, he simply said, “Fine. One day longer. What’s the second request?”

  I replied, “Well... We have a LOT of people coming with us. And we don’t exactly have enough food...”

  He looked insulted, and replied, “Absolutely not! That food is ours, and we can’t just give it off to a bunch of people who are about to leave!”

  I replied, “Well hold on a second, that food isn’t exactly yours. I mean it’s an entire store, you can’t claim everything.”

  He exclaimed, “The hell I can’t! We were here first, and we set up first. It’s more ours’ than yours!”

  Joe took me aside and whispered, “Let me handle this.”

  She walked off with Donovan a bit, and I could see them arguing. Amazingly though, Donovan started to look thoughtful, and began to listen to her. A few minutes later, Joe shook hands with him, and joined me.

  She said, “Alright, he’ll let us take the food we need.”

  Surprised, I asked her, “What did you say!?”

  She laughed and replied, “Simple logic will do wonders with Donovan. I just explained to him that since such a large portion of us are leaving he’s actually cutting down the rate of consumption of his food by a huge factor. We could take over half the store and he’d still be able to stay here longer than if we stayed and ate up all the food. All you have to do is put it into terms where he’ll understand that it will benefit him, and he’ll agree.”

  I said, “Well that’s fantastic. I’m glad you’re coming with us.”

  I came back to our group’s area with Joe to see a few people drawing crude sketches on a sheet of paper. Steve was among them, and looked up to see me. He introduced the two people next to him, and we shook hands. A tall, otherwise average man named Calvin, and an extremely beautiful woman named Megan.

  Steve said, “They are both engineers, and were intrigued about your idea to eventually operate a city.”

  I replied grinning, “Well we will have all day to talk about it, because we get to stay until tomorrow!”

  He looked elated, and then asked Joe, “What about the food? I had Megan rig a special refrigerator in the bus, so we can bring milk for Victoria, if it’s ok with you that is.”

  She replied in mock horror, “Oh the guilt trip! You’re so evil!”

  She then continued, “Well I’ve decided to come with you guys, and I convinced Donovan to let have whatever you need. So take whatever you can fit into the cars, I guess.”

  He replied, “Great! I’ll go get started!” He gestured to Calvin and Megan, and said, “Jack you can answer any of their questions can’t you?”

  I replied, “Sure,” and asked them, “What were you curious about?”

  Megan asked, “Well mainly, we just wanted to know do you have any idea how to run a city, or will that be our job to figure out?”

  I replied sheepishly, “No I really don’t. I have no idea how to run a city, or machinery, or anything like that.”

  With a knowing smile she said, “That’s what I thought. Well don’t worry, I am a mechanical engineer and Calvin here is a civil engineer. Together, when the time comes, I’m sure we can make it work.”

  I smiled back, and said, “I know it will.”

  I left them to go help modify two SUV’s into food storage vehicles. It didn’t take much work, we just had to take out the seats in the back, and then load box, after box, after box of food into it. I tried once more to get Donovan to come with us that day, but failed. He seemed to be unwilling to accept the fact that life was so different. When I fell asleep that night, I fell asleep sadly hoping that he would change his mind soon. We had spent all day finishing work on our convoy, and installing the radios into each car. There wasn’t much else to do, and tomorrow would come quick...

  Day 15

  I woke up, confused to see the blackness all around me. Then, the lights flicked on. Laughing to myself, I realized my body had gotten tired of being rudely awaken, and had decided to wake me up a few seconds before Donovan’s normal wakeup call. I jumped to my feet, as people rose all around me, excited. Today was launch day. I smiled, seeing our huge convoy of car’s lined up aiming towards the door. We had decided to get an early start today, so Ben had completed all the finishing touches the night before.

  The Bus was smack in the middle of the nine cars we had, and the Lamborghini in the very front. I walked over to Lucy to look at the list she had made, curious to see the arrangements people had chosen. Kevin, Emily, and Shawn had chosen the Lamborghini which was going to be a tight fit but I figured it would work out all right. The next two cars were full of people I did not know, and then the fourth car in the line was our old truck which Eric was driving, along with Megan and Calvin. Then the Bus, which had Ben, Steve, Victoria, Lucy, Joe, my Mom, and I. This made sense to me, as the bus was the best place for Victoria and Lucy, and the rest of us were leaders besides my Mom. The bus was spacious enough to allow her to be there however. Then the next car only had Jonathon and Scott in it, who seemed to be good friends. The next three cars didn’t contain anybody I knew, and I almost put the list down when I realized something was wrong. Somebody wasn’t on the list... I quickly scanned it again to see that Ian, Karen, and Sarah weren’t on it anywhere. Confused, I looked around for them and couldn’t find them anywhere.

  I found Lucy, and asked her, “Hey Lucy, I just checked the list and I’m confused, why aren’t Ian, Karen, and Sarah anywhere on here?”

  She sucked in her breath, and replied, “Jack, you didn’t know? They’re deciding to stay here with Donovan.”

  Shocked, I reeled backwards, and turned to run towards Donovan’s group. Sure enough, there they were, moving supplies around from shelf to shelf. I walked up to Ian and tapped him on the shoulder.

  He turned around and I said, “What the hell man? You and Karen are staying here, and you don’t even bother telling me?”

  He looked down at the ground and said, “I didn’t think you’d let me.”

  Angrily I replied, “What do you mean you didn’t think I’d ‘let you’? It’s your decision Ian, but I would have thought you’d think of Karen’s safety.”

  His eyes flashed, and he said, “Think
of Karen’s safety? I think about it every day! Wandering around out there looking for God knows what; you think that’s safe?!”

  I apologized, and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to phrase it like that. Of course, it’s up to you. I’m just surprised, that’s all. I didn’t think it’d be goodbye like this.”

  He shrugged and said, “I didn’t think saying goodbye to my parents would be like that either, Jack.”

  Confused, I looked up at him. Did he know? Did he somehow find out about the possibility of a cure, and blame me for his parent’s death?

  Shaken, I replied, “Well... I guess this is goodbye then.”

  He said, “Yup.”

  I reached forward to shake his hand, and for a long moment I thought he wouldn’t take it. Then he grabbed it, and looked at me.

  I could see fire in his eyes, as he said, “Good luck Jack.”

  I knew then, that somehow he did figure it out. His staying here was more an act of resentment, then out of interest for survival. I turned and headed away, distraught.

  As I walked away he called out, “I’m sure we’ll see each other again someday Jack.”

  I called back, “Yeah, I hope so,” but in reality I hoped our paths would never cross again. I couldn’t handle the blame, not with so much other stuff going on. Donovan walked to catch up with me, and we both stood watching my group load up into their cars, and turn on the engines. Back to back, nine engines came to life and it was inspirational to watch the beginning of our new quest, to reform civilization.

  Donovan stuck out his hand, and said, “I’ll watch out for Ian and his sister Jack, don’t worry. We’ll do just fine here.”

  I turned to him, grasped his hand firmly, and said, “I wish you the best of luck, Donovan.”

  He replied, “The same to you, Jack. It’s a crazy world out there.”

  I walked away, and jumped aboard the bus. I asked, “Does each car have their own map, drawn out of our paths? In particular, does Kevin in our lead car have the map?”