by Pero, Sara
Chapter 2:
As they entered the camp Bruce noticed the fence had been electrified, “I want to check out their system once we settle in.” They parked where the guy at the gate told them to, Kevin helped Britney out of the truck, some girls ran up and took her from Kevin arms, “we are going to take her to our infirmary if you have any questions or concerns just ask for Marta I’m the head nurse around here.” Kevin kissed his sisters cheek, “I’ll be by to check on you after we get settled alright Brit?” Britney slowly nodded her head. Kevin watched where they took her, after they disappeared into a small building Kevin joined George and the others. Greg showed them around the camp, “my grandfather started this place after the war, it was a gun club for him and his legion buddies, when my father took over it became a headquarters for the militia, now it’s a safe haven for survivors. We have everything you could need here, clinic, mess hall, trading post hell there’s even a bar for anyone who needs a pick me up. The school over there goes from baby to twelfth grade, like I said this place has everything you could need, even a crematorium out in the back by the fence though we haven’t had to use it.” Jennifer tapped Kevin on the shoulder, “there’s something I need to discuss with you later that I discovered at the station.” Kevin nodded, “Greg how about weapons and ammunition?” Greg smiled, “follow me I’ll show you the armory.” They walked toward the large building in the center of the camp, Greg opened up the door to the basement. Here is where we keep all the extra weapons, m-16, rifles, and bazookas. Pretty much any type of fire arm you can think of, stores of ammo for everything, and for those who don’t want to alarm the rotter’s of their position we have every blunt force weapon you could dream of. Greg tossed Jennifer a Katana, “here you go sweetheart a brand new toy for you to play with.” Jennifer glared at Greg, she hated being called sweetheart, especially from a guy who was so arrogant. “Thanks, I’ll keep it around in case my other one gets broke.” Greg smirked, “take anything you guys would need, there is plenty to go around, dinner will be served up at the mess hall in about an hour. Let’s get you all into your housing so you can clean up.” George and Kevin started grabbing weapons and ammunition, they all followed Greg to the huts he had prepared for them while they were getting the tour. Kevin took a hot shower, he stood under the water droplets for what seemed days. It had been a few weeks since he felt the sting of a hot shower. The dirt and grime of weeks on the road washed down the drain, Kevin felt his tense muscles begin to loosen up. After his shower he laid on the soft bed, even the bed he had back home didn’t felt as comfortable as the one he was on now. He started to drift off to sleep when he heard a knock at the door. Kevin grabbed his pistol and peered out the window, Jennifer was standing there looking around. Kevin opened the door to let her in, “I wanted to talk to you earlier about what I discovered Kevin” she walked inside his hut. Kevin closed the door, they sat down on the bed next to each other. Jennifer grabbed Kevin’s hand, “are you doing alright? I know you’re worried about Britney and with the rotters getting more in number it is taking its toll on all of us.” Kevin sighed, “I’m fine Jennifer I’m just worried about Britney that’s all.” Jennifer looked at him and nodded. Kevin and Jennifer left the hut and headed for the mess hall, after dinner Kevin went to check up on Britney. The nurse on duty brought Kevin into where Britney was being treated. She had IV’s pumping fluids into her system, her color was coming back. Britney opened her eyes and smiled, Kevin leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You’re looking better, we are going to be staying here for a while till you get better.” She went to sit up but Kevin stopped her, “this is a safe place there is no danger of rotters here.” He sat and talked with Britney for hours. George and Bruce were checking out the electrified fence, a rotter slowly walked up and reached out to grab them. The rotter got fried, and fell to the ground. A guy walked up behind them, “the fence is great for holding a few of those things back but I don’t know how good it would hold with a huge horde, we haven’t had the opportunity to test that out.” George looked at the thirty foot fence, barbed wire hugged the top. “Are you preparing for the rotter to start flying? Why is the fence so tall?” George asked. They guy chuckled, “it’s just an extra precaution. If those rotter’s ever did knock this thing over it the barbed wire should slow them down a bit.” Jennifer walked up to the three men, George “I want to talk to you.” George and Jennifer walked away leaving Bruce to talk with the other guy. “What’s Wong Jennifer?” She sighed, “I’m worried about being locked up in this fenced in area, I’ve tried to talk to Kevin about this earlier and he agreed with me, soon as Britney gets better we want to leave, it’s not safe here.” George scrunched his eyebrows, “what are you talking about?” Jennifer told him she had been looking at the set up on the fence, “if we get a massive horde like the one in that town back in Wyoming this whole system could crash causing the fence to stop working and the whole thing could come crashing down. That could be a real problem you have to tell Greg and the others.” Jennifer said. “Let’s go talk to Kevin he can get me an audience with Greg and some of the other people here.” They walked off to find Kevin. The next morning Jennifer and Kevin went to talk to Greg, he listened to Jennifer’s theory, “we should be fine so far, the fences have been holding up even when we get a horde the fence should hold up. On another subject, your friend Britney seems to be getting well enough to be taken off of the medicines we have been giving her in a few days.” Kevin smiled, “thank you guys for taking such good care of my sister, she’s all I have left in this world.” Greg nodded, “all I ask for a payment is that you and your friends help out around the place, I could use a few good people such as you guys around here, even if it’s for a little while.” Kevin smiled and shook Greg’s hand, “we will help out anywhere you need us to.” It had been a week since Kevin and the rest had joined the camp, they had been given chores to complete during the day and weapons to carry around the camp. The place was starting to become like a home to them, Britney had finally gotten well enough she to be helping out. One night Bruce and a few other guys were making their rounds checking the electrified fence. They heard a few growls out in the distance, one of the guys had shone his flashlight out into the tree line to check how many rotters were out there. They saw three rotters slowly making their way toward the fence. Bruce aimed his gun toward them but one of the men put his hand on top of the gun, three rotters aren’t worth wasting our bullets. Bruce put his gun down, the rotter’s reached the fence and the election type running through the fence blew the rotters back. Suddenly they heard someone yelling from down the fence line, we have four more coming this way. The rotter’s reached the fence, again they were electrified. More started coming at different sides, it was as if they were testing the fence for any kind of weakness. Bruce was getting worried, he knew if the rotters somehow took out the electrical system near the gate they would be able to breach their defense. Bruce rushed down to talk to Kevin and Greg, they were out by the trucks checking on the maintenance. Bruce told them about the rotters and how they were coming at different sides, Kevin and I think they are honestly checking for weak spots. Greg started to laugh, “I don’t think they have the smarts to try something like that, these are mindless flesh eating copses and they can’t have the brains for something that complex.” Suddenly they heard yelling, the two guys that were with Bruce came running up to Greg. “We have an issue you should be aware of, we need to get everyone on the ready just in case.” Greg asked them what was happening. Tom, the head of security joined in the conversation. “Greg we heard a lot of growling outside the perimeter I ordered the snipers to shine spot lights toward the tree line, when we got a good view we saw hundreds of those rotter things, all heading straight for the fence line. It’s like they are surrounding it!” Greg told Tom to have the people start gathering everything from the store rooms, food, and medicine. Everything they could carry and then he told him to get a few guys to meet him at the main hall, and they needed to get the weapons and ammu
nition together. Kevin and Bruce took off to get their friends ready to leave. Kevin told Britney and Jennifer to take Ahmed and head for the motor home, no matter what happens stay there. “We have to help get the weapons from the store room.” The girls took Ahmed to the motor home and waited inside, suddenly they heard yelling from outside. The rotter’s had made it to the fence, with as many that had grabbed the fence at one time the electric panels blew out just as Bruce had predicted. The rotter’s pushed each other into the fence causing the poles in the ground to buckle. Everyone started shooting toward the rotter horde, the rotters just kept forcing their way through. Suddenly the fence snapped under the weight, rotters pushed their way through. The first of the rotter’s got snagged on the barbed wire, they kept walking tearing the rotting flesh from their bodies. More and more kept walking toward the people in the camp, people fought them off as best as they could. There was no way they could win this war, the camp soon became over run. Kevin, Bruce and George ran toward their vehicles, Yuri had already started the motor home. Kevin hopped into his truck and revved the engine, he saw Greg and Tom running away from a horde of rotter’s he honked his horn and they headed toward Kevin, the horde was fast approaching. Greg hopped into the truck, Tom started to jump in but was grabbed from behind. Greg and Kevin pulled Tom with all their might but the rotter’s were too strong. Tom’s legs were being ripped apart, the more Greg and Kevin pulled the more flesh the rotter’s pulled off. Tom begged for Greg to kill him, the pain was becoming unbearable. Greg pulled out his pistol and shot, Tom’s body flew back into the rotter crowd. Kevin hit the accelerator and drove through a crowd of rotter’s, George had taken the wheel of the motor home and followed Kevin. The motor home bounced as it ran over corpses, George tried his best to avoid people that were running around trying to get away from the rotter horde, Kevin busted through the gate and drove as fast as he could, George tried to keep up, stopping only for a minute to pick up a few people that were running alongside the motor home yelling for help. A few other people had been able to drive out of the camp along with them, but the rest of the people at the camp had become rotters. The convoy of vehicles drove along the road, Greg looked over to Kevin and asked “what are we going to do now? That camp was out only hope of survival.” Kevin drove on. “We all stick together and try to survive the best we can. As long as we keep moving we should be able to out run a lot of the rotter horde, if this place in California doesn’t pan out we’ll just keep moving.” Greg nodded and looked down to the floor board, blood covered the mat below his feet. Kevin glanced over, “I’m sorry about your friend, you two must have been pretty close.” Greg looked up, “We were very close, he was my twin brother.” Kevin felt bad, he knew how bad he would feel if it had been Britney. They drove in silence for the rest of the night. As the sun was rising above the trees George could see smoke ahead of the convoy. The rotter’s had already been through the area, leaving a stream of devastation behind them. They drove through a small town, buildings were blazing, cars were flipped and the town was a total wasteland. The convoy stopped outside of a shop that looked like a wrecking ball had smashed through it. Normally Kevin wouldn’t have even stopped but judging by the devastation ahead this place looked like their best bet to find supplies. The men searched through the rubble while the girls loaded up what they found. Ahmed stayed in the motor home with a couple of other children they had saved from the camp, Britney had found a deck of cards and some dice among the rubble for the kids to play with. Ahmed came up with some games he and the others cold play while the adults gathered up all the stuff. One little girl began to complain that her stomach was hurting, Ahmed called to Britney for help, when Britney got inside the motor home she saw the little girl doubled over. Britney picked her up and ran out to Kevin, “this little girl is injured we have to find a parent or someone.” Kevin called over Greg, and the others, “there’s a little girl here that’s been injured somehow. Anyone know who she is?” One of the people from the other tucks walked over, “I grabbed her in the rotter invasion. Both her parents were killed at the camp.” The little girl started crying in pain, Kevin took her from Britney and laid her on the sidewalk, he lifted her shirt a bit checking for injuries. He saw a huge cut across her belly, the flesh was already changing colors. He told the women to go inside the motor home with the rest of the children. George picked up the small child and asked “Sweetheart were you cut by a monster?” The little girl shook her head and whimpered “It was my mommy, she cut me when she got hurt by the monsters and was angry.” Kevin and Greg didn’t have the heart to kill the child, George walked up to them with the girl in his arms. She had passed out from the pain and had started to turn “I’m going to go do what needs to be done, this little girl can’t be suffering like this.” George disappeared behind the buildings with her in his arms, they heard the shots from his pistol, after a few minutes George walked back alone, tears streaming down his face. He looked at the rest and asked “Are you guys ready to head out, after the loud noises I’m sure the rotters heard it and are on their way.” George didn’t say a word after that, he headed back to the motor home and started it up. The drive through the rest of the state was quiet for everyone, especially for George. He just kept his eyes on the road, driving through the deserted road, tears still falling from his eyes. Yuri walked up from the back, he put his hand on George’s shoulder, “if you want me to I can take over driving, you’re probably tired from driving all night.” George pulled away, “I’ll be fine just let me drive.” Yuri sat in the passenger seat, “If you need someone to talk to my ear is always open. I know how it feels to do something like that.” George looked over at Yuri and asked “What do you mean?” Yuri looked in the back and then back to the road and replied “Before the outbreak I was married and had a little boy who was around nine. My wife had died from a terminal brain cancer leaving me alone with my son, he was my world. After the rotters came my son and I hid with my brother, his wife and my nephew Ahmed. We were doing alright for ourselves, until one day my brother was out getting supplies with me, we had gotten cornered by a few rotters, I escaped without harm but my brother had been scratched by one while we got out of the building. When we reached the safe house all seemed fine until my brother turned, he bit his wife before I could shoot him. Before she turned she ended up scratching my son’s arm. I shot her once she began to turn. My son soon became ill, he complained of pain as the infection spread throughout his small body. I had to kill my own son, he was just a child. Since then I have vowed to keep Ahmed safe, he is my son now. The horrors that poor little boy has endured since this whole thing started, no child should have to see what he has”. George tapped Yuri on the shoulder. “Thank you for sharing that story with me, I’m sorry you had to endure that.” George drove on behind the other vehicles, he felt a little bit better since his talk with Yuri, at least he didn’t feel alone any longer knowing someone else had done what he had to do and knew how he felt. They continued on to the south west, they figured their best bet was to cut through the desert and avoid the major cities. Although their projected route was going to make it scarce to resupply or fuel up along the way. Kevin radioed to the other vehicles. “There’s a gas station up ahead, this could be our last stop for quite a while, let’s see if they have fuel there and supplies and it’s going to be a long hot drive through the desert.” They stopped at the small station, George checked the pumps and fuel was flowing just like they hoped. Kevin and George filled all the trucks and extra fuel cans. The rest gathered up everything left to scrounge out of the station, a lot of the food on the shelving was moldy. They gathered what they could and headed back to the vehicles, they helped load the fuel into the back of the trucks and the convoy headed trough the desert. It was a long hard drive for everyone, between the heat from the sun and the long periods of nothingness everyone started causing everyone to go stir crazy. They were only most of the way through the desert, all they saw was sand and road, not even a sign to direct them toward a town. K
evin had his window open to let the air come through, the warm breeze didn’t help with the heat inside the cab of the truck. Greg was sweating so bad his shirt was soaked, he looked like he had gone swimming in his clothing. In the motor home everyone felt like they were cramped, even the children were having tantrums due to the heat. Yuri looked out the side window, he saw something shining in the distance, so he tapped George and pointed toward the object. “Do you see that or am I just hallucinating?” George looked in the direction Yuri was pointing, he saw the same gleam. George picked up the radio and called for Kevin, “Do you see what we do or are we just having heat stroke?” Kevin got on the horn. “I see it. Do you want to check it out?” The convoy turned and headed in the direction of whatever the thing was. When they got closer Kevin realized it was a sign, Oasis motel two miles, an arrow pointing in the direction they were driving. “Let’s check this place out, see if we can stay there for a little bit to rest up a bit.” George radioed to Kevin. The convoy drove onward toward the motel, the roadway was bumpy, two miles felt like fifty, the sun shine brightly on the convoy heating up the vehicles like an oven on broil. They finally reached the motel, George and Kevin and a few of the men went around to check the building out for any rotters. When they returned they told everyone to grab only what they would need for a few days. Jennifer, and Britney helped the children out of the motor home and took them to the room Kevin had cleared out for them, there still wasn’t clean running water but the beds were extra comfortable, especially since they all had been cooped up in vehicles for a few days. Things were starting to look up a bit. The little convoy decided that they would make this their temporary home. With the desert surrounding the motel Kevin noticed he could see for miles all around the motel from the roof, as long as someone kept watch they could probably see rotter’s coming before it is too late. Kevin brought George onto the roof to show him the view, George and Kevin talked about how if they could possibly build a barrier, and find some kind of water source they could possibly make that oasis live up to its name. George pointed out a few jack rabbits near the empty pool and said “we could trap a lot of those for food, maybe even some rattle snakes, with a little bit of time and all of us working together we might survive here.” Kevin sighed, “We thought that was the case back at the camp in Wyoming and look what happened there, I doubt the rotters care about the heat from the desert like we do, their dead. They don’t feel like humans do, besides we don’t have the resources to make a good enough barrier around this place, even if we did want to stay the rotter horde won’t just trample through.” George tapped Kevin on the back and headed back down to the others, Britney passed him on her way up. She walked through the door to the roof and saw her brother sitting by the edge, she sat down next to him and hung her legs off the edge. “Dad would be proud of you Kevin, the way you’ve stepped up and helped all these people.” Kevin put his hand on Britney’s knee. “He would have been proud of you too.” Britney smiled, “I miss him a lot, and mom too.” Kevin put his arm around her, together they watched the sun set. “It’s so pretty out here, hard to find so much beauty in a world like this don’t you think Kevin?” Kevin nodded, “I could die happily just sitting here right in this moment.” The sun went below the sand dunes, Britney started to feel a slight chill, Kevin grabbed the blanket he had brought up and wrapped it around her shoulders. “You should get back inside, I’ll stay out here and keep watch for a while.” Britney kissed her brothers cheek and stood up. “I’ll be in the room on the next floor below, if you see anything you holler I’ll come running.” Britney handed Kevin back his blanket and walked inside leaving Kevin alone on the roof. Kevin kept watch throughout the night. As he was sitting there alone he started to think about his parents, the night they died Kevin had been asked to watch over Britney while they were away. She was only nine and was a sickly child most her life, the night they died she had been sick with the flu for over a week, she was six years younger than he was. Kevin’s father had grabbed his shoulders and in a serious tone he had told Kevin, “no matter what son know your mother and I love you, you have to promise me if anything ever happened to your mother and I, even if it’s years from now you’ll take care of Britney,” Kevin nodded and said “I will dad I promise I’ll take care of her till the day I die.” His father hugged him and that was the last time he saw either of them. Kevin wiped his eyes and looked up into the stars, “I promise I’ll take care of my sister till my dying day mom and dad, and I’m going to stick to my word.” Greg walked out to the roof and sat next to Kevin, “I came out to relieve you for a while, I’ve gotten enough rest to last me a while, you need to go eat and rest up for tomorrow, and you’ve been out here for hours by yourself.” Kevin stood up and stretched, “I didn’t realize I had been up here so long, any idea what time it is.” Greg looked at his watch, “I think it’s around three in the morning, my watch got broken when the rotters took over the camp. I’ve been trying to go by the sun for the time, my time telling skills are a bit rusty.” Kevin laughed, “I think everyone’s time telling skills are rusty. We’ve been so dependent on electronics the whole world had forgotten the old ways of doing things.” Greg laughed, “That’s for sure and it’s amazing how lazy a cell phone or computer had made us all, maybe this outbreak was a good thing, made us have to figure out how to really truly survive on our own instincts.” Kevin nodded and walked into the motel, he walked down the hall to his room. Britney was sleeping soundly in the bed next to his. Kevin laid back on the soft mattress, he didn’t realize how tired he was until his head hit the pillow, soon he was out like a light, dreaming of a world without rotter’s.