by Pero, Sara
Chapter 3:
The next morning Kevin woke up to a knock on his door, Britney must have already been up cause when he looked over to her side of the room she was already gone. Kevin stood up and opened the door, Bruce was standing there with a small radio he had found in the office. “I got this to work a few minutes ago, I heard a broadcast come in but it was fuzzy from my room, maybe we should go up to the roof and see if we can boost the signal.” Kevin nodded and they headed to the roof, Bruce set the radio on the top of a swamp cooler and played with the antenna, suddenly they heard the sound of a voice come through, it was still a bit scratchy. Kevin found a few wires laying on the ground and hooked them up to the radio, he held them up into the air until the voice became clear. “This is a broadcast for any survivors left in the world, for those hearing my voice I repeat California is a no go, again California is a no go. Rotters have taken over the base, we are moving the location to Montana. There is a mountain range that has no signs of the infection. Again we are moving our location to the mountain range in Montana. We will broadcast the location in the days to come.” Kevin threw down the wires, “That’s bullshit. Just when we get so close those damn rotters have to fuck up everything.” Kevin kicked at the asphalt on the roof, “we’ve come so far and for what? Just to be sent in the other direction.” Bruce put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder, “we should be safe enough here for at least a little while, we haven’t seen a rotter since we got here. Let’s just rest up here for a while and wait for the location to be broadcast, then if we haven’t seen a rotter by then we can decide whether to leave or try and make a life here.” Kevin sighed and nodded, “I guess your right I’ll tell the others about the broadcast, we can decide what to do in a few days.” Kevin called everyone into the conference room, he told them they were going to try and survive as long as they could at the motel and then he told them about the broadcast. “I’m sorry to tell you guys this but the safe zone we were traveling to in California is no longer safe. Bruce heard a broadcast go out on the radio saying that the people that were left from California were traveling north east to a mountain range in Montana.” Greg grabbed Kevin’s arm, “so what your saying is we pretty much made this trip for nothing? We are going to die out here in the middle of the desert because we chased a broadcast for a place that’s no longer safe.” Kevin stopped him there and said “Look what happened to your camp, it was safe until that huge horde smashed through your defenses.” Greg hung his head and said “so many people lost their lives that day, we’re never going to survive this are we?” Kevin patted Greg on the back, “As long as we stick together we will all be fine.” George walked over, if we are going to be here for a while we might as well make this place as rotter proof as we can, at least until we are ready to join the other people. They spent the next few days gathering parts to create a barrier in case the rotter horde made its way to their motel. The men used broken down cars, fence posts and everything else they could find to create the fence. Bent posts and sharp objects were used to make steaks the rotter’s could get caught on to slow them down for an easier escape. They spent days at the motel, every day Kevin listened to the radio for the broadcast to come through but all he heard was static. They had rigged the wires to the antenna, so they could receive a better range. Bruce and George were working on a satellite dish to make the signal stronger. Once they finished rewiring the satellite dish they hooked it up to the small radio. Soon they started hearing stations come through, a small voice came over the radio it sounded like a woman. “Is there anyone still alive out there? My friends and I had escaped a rotter horde, some injuries have been received, need help please if anyone can hear us.” She gave a location, George looked it up on a map he had found in the lobby. “They are only four miles from here, I can take a couple guys with me and be back within a few hours.” Kevin said “we can’t leave them out there, they’ll never survive.” George got together a couple guys, including Greg and they took a couple trucks to rescue the stranded survivors. George and Greg hopped in the motor home, they figured if there were too many people they would be able to haul them all in the biggest vehicle they had. They drove in the direction of the girls’ location, on their way George noticed a massive amount of rotter’s heading toward the building the broadcast came from. He hit the accelerator hoping they could reach the stranded survivors before the horde reached them. The small convoy stopped outside the building, and everyone hopped out, inside they heard screams and growls. George busted through the door with Greg right behind him, they had their guns at the ready. A young woman was cornered by a few rotter’s screaming for help. Greg pulled his pistol and shot at one of the rotter’s. The rotter turned and came at Greg, Greg tried to shoot again but his gun jammed. The rotter grabbed Greg knocking him to the ground, Greg wrestled to keep the rotter from biting. Its breath smelt of death and blood was dripping from its mouth onto Greg’s chest and arm. George tried to get a clear shot but with Greg wrestling with the rotter he couldn’t hit it without injuring Greg in the process. Suddenly an axe swung down and cracked the rotter in the skull, it laid limp over Greg who was now forcing his way out from underneath it. The girl from the closet had escaped thanks to the other guys and helped her rescuers. Greg stood up and wiped the blood off his body the best he could, he thanked the girl for the help. “I’m Veronica, thank you guys for rescuing me. My friends and I had escaped a horde but one had been bit and ended up turning into one if those things, by the time we knew what was happening everyone else had been turned, I guess it’s just me now.” Kevin nodded, “we have to get back to the motel, there’s a massive horde headed this way and my friends need to be prepared. They are about ten miles out, and with the way those things walk they’ll be hitting the motel in the next five hours. We’re you injured in any way?” Veronica shook her head, “I don’t think so. My daughter is still in the closet, we hid when everyone turned. She walked back into the closet and brought out a baby carrier.” The little tyke was still sleeping. Kevin was starting to get worried, because if that baby started crying when they wanted to hide it could mean big trouble for them. Veronica moved the blanket over the baby carrier and said “she is normally very good about not crying, only time she whines is when she’s really dirty.” Greg took the baby from her and headed toward the motor home. Veronica followed him out with her supplies she had scrounged up for the baby. Kevin looked around the building for clothing and rags, he remembered when his parents ran out of diapers for Britney they used any kind of cloth they could find until they got diapers. Everyone hopped into the rigs and took off back toward the motel, with the women there Veronica could get help with the little baby and Kevin wanted to get things ready in case they needed to get going. George led the way back to the motel, Kevin looked back at Veronica checking on her baby and he started to daydream about having a family of his own someday. The convoy reached the motel, Britney and Jennifer came out to greet them, Kevin helped Veronica out of the motor home while George brought out the baby. “These were the only two survivors left when we got there.” Britney peeked under the blanket to see a sleeping baby, “So cute I haven’t seen a live baby since one of the girls at school brought their son in when she couldn’t find a sitter.” She talked to the baby with a high pitched voice, and wiggled her finger at her. She looked at Veronica who was busy staring down Kevin, “Does she have a name?” Veronica snapped from her trance and said “No, she was born the day after the rotter outbreak, I just call her sunshine. Its cause she brought so much light into my life after my parents were turned by those rotter’s. Her father ditched as soon as he found out I was pregnant, after I was left alone to fend for myself I met up with some other survivors and well your friends saw what happened to them. If it hadn’t been for those guys right there, sunshine and I wouldn’t be here right now.” Veronica followed Britney into the lobby where George had gathered them all to discuss the current situation. Kevin, George and Greg stood in the center of the room, everyone was talking amongst themsel
ves when Greg whistled “Alright folks we need to discuss some things with you, if we could all be quiet for just a moment then we can talk.” The room fell silent, Kevin started talking, “as you all know George, Greg, a couple others and I heard a broadcast go over the radio calling for help. When we went to rescue them everyone except Veronica and her baby were the only ones left alive and on our way there George saw a massive horde heading our way, from the speed the horde is traveling we figure they will reach us in about twelve hours.” Everyone started to panic a little, Kevin started to calm them down. “Now we have a choice, we can either stay here or try to fight as many as we can, or we can gather up everything we can and start heading north.” A few people wanted to stay and fight but the rest wanted to leave as soon as they could. George spoke up, “with the size of the horde I think it would be a mistake to stay here, but we have to stay here for a little bit. The trucks need to be fixed before we can leave, we have most the parts already but we need to scrounge the broken down vehicles for the other parts. We need to work together to get ready.” Britney and Jennifer chimed in, “us girls can make sure we gather up all supplies while the men who know how can fix the vehicles can help you guys out, by the time we get finished packing up the vehicles should be ready so we can leave before the rotter’s get in the area.” They split into groups, the women and children began packing up, the men who didn’t know anything about cars started packing up the equipment while Kevin and the rest started working on the cars. The cars were halfway finished when George glanced up into the distance, he slowly walked over and tapped Kevin on the shoulder. “We might have a problem, I think the rotter’s were walking faster than we thought.” Kevin looked in the direction George was pointing. The massive horde was just over the hill, they had to move fast. Britney came outside with a load for the motor home, she saw Kevin and George looking at something. She walked up and put her hand on Kevin’s shoulder, “what are you looking at?” She looked into the distance, the rotters were fast approaching. “Kevin I don’t think we have time to get everything done, we have to get everyone out of here now.” Kevin and George ran to the motel yelling for everyone to get going. Everyone grabbed what they could and headed for the vehicles, they had only gotten three fixed so there wasn’t much room, people were panicking trying to fit into the cars. George and Greg tried to get them to calm down so they could get into the vehicles. Jennifer helped the kids into the motor home, but no one knew where Veronica was. A few stray rotter’s reached the motel, they were squeezing through the barriers, ripping flesh as they passed through. People were scrambling around trying to get away, Greg saw the night at the camp all over again. The rotter’s that made their way through the barrier were chasing people around, screams rang through the air and people were getting their flesh ripped off their bones by nails and teeth. Greg heard gun shots as Kevin took down a rotter that was heading right for him, the sound of the rotter body dropping by Greg’s feet woke him from his vision. Kevin grabbed Greg’s arm and pulled him toward the truck, they heard Britney yelling from across the lot. “Kevin I can’t find Veronica and the baby, I think they are still inside the motel somewhere.” Kevin told Britney to get into a truck and everyone head out, he shot and sliced his way through the horde as Britney was pulled to the motor home by George. The rigs started to drive away from what once was a home to them, Britney was looking out the window trying to see if Kevin made it out of the motel, all she could see was rotter’s surrounding the building. Greg grabbed her as she cried out, Kevin was the only family she had left and now he was gone. His truck sat there being swallowed up by the massive horde, the few that made it out drove until dark. Kevin had fought his way through the horde into the motel, he searched every room until he found Veronica and the baby. They were hiding in a bathroom near the lobby. Kevin grabbed her arm, “I’m going to fight our way through, no matter what happens you both keep heading for the truck, don’t stop. As soon as you get inside lock your door, if I don’t make it just go on without me. Find the others, Britney will help you for me, just run to the truck.” Kevin busted open the bathroom door and started firing rounds into the rotter horde, Veronica rushed to the truck like he had told her to. She hopped in, the baby was now crying as Veronica watched through the truck window. Veronica tried to hush the baby as rotters surrounded them in the truck.