“Sure. Yea, of course.” The other boys had begun to stir from the noise.
“Well boys, I suggest we get moving, we need to make our way out of this city.” Abeline said getting to her feet.
“Where are we going to go?” Asked Alex.
“I don’t know yet.” Abeline sighed. “The lord will tell us where to go. I do know that he told me we need to get away from the city, it is far too dangerous here.”
“So how do we get out?” Tommy asked.
“Well, I usually moved through the subway tunnels, it’s safer down there, or it was before all this happened. I imagine that is still going to be the case. But.”
“But What?” Both John and Alex asked at the same time. Abeline smiled.
“But you boys need weapons.” She pulled her pack and set it on the desk. “I only have two extra handguns, do any of you have experience shooting?” Caleb put up his hand.
“I’ve shot my dad’s nine-millimeter, and twenty-two rifle.” Caleb boasted proudly.
“Any good?” Abeline asked. Caleb shrugged and looked at the ground. He didn’t want them to know that his dad had forced him to shoot those guns and he had hated it. They had scared him. “Well, good enough to me that you have experience handling weapons. I expect you’ll show the finer points of shooting to the others when we have time later?” Abeline asked. Caleb nodded. “Now keep in mind that this is a forty-five, got a bit more kick than a nine.” All the boys nodded, though none of them really knew what she was talking about.
“What about that one?” Alex asked admiring the pearl inlay on the handgun. And while he knew it would probably go to John, he secretly hoped she would say his name.
“The other I think I will entrust to John for now.” She set two silver handguns with pearl grips on the desk. “I have two holsters, one shoulder, one hip, you two decide amongst yourselves who wants which one.” They immediately set to bickering. Both of them wanted the hip holster so they could look like Billy the Kid. Abeline was still rooting around in her pack. “For you Tommy I have this.” She pulled from her bag a pair of daggers with sheaths. “Now you understand how zombies work yea?” She asked holding out the pair of daggers towards Tommy.
“Yes Mrs. Abeline. Got to get them in the head.” Responded Tommy. A bit of a smile crept onto his face as he looked down at the shiny daggers. He was clearly very excited about his new shiny daggers. His parents never would have let him play with anything like this. And he was a little upset that she picked John to give the other gun to after their talk this morning. But he didn’t care now that he was holding this glistening blade in his hands.
“That’s right sugar.” Now she turned to Alex. “And you little one. I don’t expect you to do much fighting in the beginning, but I want you to hold onto this hatchet. I think it may come in handy in an emergency.”
“Thank you, I’ll be careful”
“Yes, please be very careful with that, it looks very sharp. You keep that cover on it until we can find you a bag to strap it to.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” Abeline stood up and slid her arm into her pack. “Time to get moving, you follow me. Sewer access is at the end of the block. Then it’s two miles northeast to the canal access.
“We’re going in the sewers?” John asked.
“Have to. Be dead in a mile on the streets.” Abeline said plainly. She turned and headed for the door. She turned and gave one last order. “Lips closed ears open.” All four heads nodded in unison.
East Moline Indiana
Saturday August 17th 6:03 AM
Officer Gary Ford is a sizeable figure, standing at 6’4, so when he laid down in a booth to try to sleep his entire legs stuck out into the isle. It had been mostly a restless night anyway, he had only just fallen asleep a little over an hour ago. He awoke in a shot, sitting upright, his handgun already in hand was leveled to an empty room. Memories of yesterday flooding through his mind. He saw the young blonde woman breaking her face against the front door. He takes a moment to make a mental inventory of his situation. Shock and fear spreads quickly through his body when he realizes that he smells fresh cooking bacon and sausage coming from the kitchen. He leaps from the bench seat, grabbing his service belt, and runs to the kitchen and is stunned when he sees Andrew, the boy manager was cooking alongside one of his employees. Andrew spoke up as soon as he saw the officer heading into the kitchen.
“Powers out, but the gas is still on. Figured we’d cook.”
“What the hell are you doing, what if they can smell that?” Gary asked.
“Oh shit. I didn’t even think about that. They wouldn’t, would they?” Andrew asked. As if on cue a window in the dining room shatters.
“Quick, quick, up the ladder. Here!” Gary yelled, people who were asleep began waking, not all of them moving quickly. Andrew was already up the ladder and pushing open the hatch to the roof, his employees following right behind him. Gary watched in horror as undead began to pile through the window, slowly at first and then faster and faster. He continued helping people up the ladder as quickly as he could. The overweight Magnus was the last to wake, he barely sat up before the room was half full. They were beginning to push against the door to the kitchen, Gary was pulling his weapon when Magnus screamed in the dining room. The undead turned and made for Magnus allowing Gary enough time to get up the ladder safely.
The green metal hatch was replaced over the hole in the roof as soon as Gary exited onto the roof. He wasn’t sure if those bastards could climb, but he didn’t want to take the chance. Gary looked around the roof to see that only seven made it out of the restaurant. Himself, a young couple Walter and Sarah, they both looked terrified. The boy idiot manager Andrew, and three employees, Robert, Nancy, and Joel. The two boys looked like they could be brothers. They were both in their late teens, were tall and athletic looking, and both had long hair that hung down in their face. Robert’s hair was a little lighter, but both looked like your average suburban American teenager. Nancy looked to be in her early twenties. Shoulder length black hair, kind of punk rock looking, but more reserved.
Walter and Sarah also looked to be in their early to mid-twenties, and you could tell it was new love. They were constantly telling each other how much they loved each other and were never more than two inches apart.
“Oh my god, oh my god.” Andrew was pacing back and forth.
“Would you sit down and shut up. We don’t need to draw any more attention to ourselves!” Gary hissed at him. “You’ve gotten enough people killed today, haven’t you?”
“Sorry, yea, I mean no, sorry.” Andrew sat down but was still fidgeting nervously.
“What now?” Walter asked.
“My god, all those people. Those children.” Sarah was clutching a cross necklace against her chest.
“Now, we assess the situation and wait. We don’t know how many they drew in with their morning cooking. As soon as it’s clear, we figured out last night that we have two suitable vehicles. Though now I think we can just use Erin’s suburban. We packed three backpacks with extra food and water, and both sets of keys are right over there” Gary said.
“I’m going to look and see how bad.” Joel said moving to the railing. Gary was extracting the Suburban keys from a to-go bag. “Oh shit, I didn’t think there were that many people in the whole town.” Joel said under his breath. The others all heard him, and moved carefully to the edge of the roof trying to avoid being seen. All of their eyes widen to see the streets packed with people. Some were just standing around in the street, others following in and out of the restaurant, the parking lot had dozens, several were very close to their escape vehicle.
“Well, I guess we wait.” Gary said sliding against the side of the roof.
“Wait for what?” asked Nancy. She had a look of someone near panic. She looked at him with wild and attentive eyes through tear streaked makeup.
“Wait for them to clear out, no way we make it to a vehicle with all them down the
re.” Gary said calmly.
“How long do you think that will take?” Nancy asked, sitting down next to Gary. Her black converse slipping on the roof gravel as she sat.
“Long as it takes, I guess. We have to hope for something else to pull them away. Or maybe when they can’t find us, they’ll just disperse.”
“And what if they don’t?” Joel asked also taking a seat next to the officer.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Maybe we can cause a distraction, make them head away. I don’t know, we’ll think of something.”
“Wow, you’re really smart mister, you’ve been thinking about this a lot huh?” Nancy asked. She was in her early 20’s, Gary guessed she was just old enough to drink. Her hair was dyed jet black and she had several silver rings on her fingers.
“Well, yea, haven’t you?” Gary asked looking over at the young woman.
“I guess, a little bit. But then I was thinking about my boyfriend, he works at a muffler shop downtown, and then I was thinking about my family.”
“Yea, I get that, but I’ve also been trying to think of all the different scenarios, trying to make sure I don’t fuck up. God forbid I do something stupid that gets a bunch of people killed.” The police officer shot a look at Andrew who promptly ducked it, looking off in the other direction as if he wasn’t paying attention.
“Yea, I guess everyone looks at you to be in charge huh?” Nancy asked.
“They do.” Gary said. “It’s the uniform.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Robert asked joining the group. He looked just old enough to have a job. He sat down pushing his long brown hair out of his face. Sarah and Walter had also moved closer to Officer Ford, leaving Andrew standing alone in the middle of the roof debating on if he should join the group or not.
Andrew has always known that he’s not generally well liked. And he has turned that to his advantage for the most part advancing over others because he didn’t care who he had to stab in the back to move up. They hated him anyway. But now, people’s lives are at stake, and he already almost got everyone killed just because he decided to be nice and cook breakfast. A kind enough gesture, but he hadn’t considered that the smell would draw them. He was mostly just pissed off at himself for looking stupid. Andrew thought that he should at least appear mournful for the deaths that he technically caused. And with all these facts weighed carefully in mind he decided not to join the group. He also decided that he didn’t like that fucking cop, this was his territory, he was in charge, and that cop made him look stupid too.
Northern Colorado – Poudre river basin
Saturday, August 17th, 7:14 AM EST
Sgt. Kenneth Ferris enlisted in the army five months after his 18th birthday. In the ten years that followed, he had seen death, and he had known hardship, but nothing prepared him for what had been through in the last twenty-four hours. And after the hell he survived yesterday, he started this morning with news that his wife and infant child were dead. They had attempted to flee their home in Provo Utah. She had been heading into the mountains, heading towards her husband who was in Lawry Air Force Base in Denver when the outbreak occurred. She had joined up with a larger group. That group had gotten bogged down in the mountains. They believed themselves to be clear of infection after the first day’s trek out of Utah and into the Colorado Rockies. The report they had received was that of the nearly 175 that were camped out in Rocky Mountain National Forest, only eleven had survived, his family were not among the survivors.
Overall Sargent Ferris was well respected by his peers as intelligent, patient, and fair. He was a hard worker, and always did a thorough job. That was probably why he had been given the task to inspect all the holes that were being drilled for the demolition of the canyon walls. It was the plan of those in command to demolition the entrance to the canyon essentially blocking off their section of The Rocky Mountains away from the entire Eastern half of the United States.
He was just finishing inspecting a hole that was just drilled into the side of the rock wall. He had checked the depth to be greater than 8 feet, which was what depth they were supposed to be drilling to. Looking down towards the river, there are numerous soldiers that are building a culvert over the river with patched together pieces of metal and rock. There were only a few bags of cement, so they wanted to make sure their makeshift structure would hold prior to pouring the concrete. Along the river there are several other smaller groups standing around, building and testing the culvert. Gazing up the side of the mountain several sniper posts can be seen looking in both directions up and down the canyon.
Sgt. Ferris hopped down from the boulder that he stood on giving the group of young privates a thumbs up for the work they’ve done and receives a salute in return. He returns the salute and turns to make his way up river towards the command center. He walks in and stands silently just inside the entryway with his hands behind his back as four ranking officers stand over a table. They look to be going over a map of the area. General Wayne Carson looks up and waves over Sgt. Ferris.
“Sargent?” Sgt. Ferris salutes his commanding officer. “At ease.” General Carson says returning the salute.
“Sir, Sgt. Ferris reporting. All demolitions holes are ready for insertion sir.”
“Very good, we’re on schedule for a three o’clock demolition. Said General Carson.
“Sir, if I may, I have concerns about the culvert.” Sgt. Ferris said.
“Too late soldier, we have to demo today, see?” One of the officers dropped a satellite image of Colorado on the table.
“He turns a computer monitor towards the Sargent.” Sgt. Ferris stares at the computer image for several seconds with a confused look on his face.
“This is thermal imaging from a weather satellite.” States General Carson.
“I see that” Sgt. Ferris is shaking his head “Black is cold, why is this entire landmass. . . . . . Oh. Those are the dead.”
“Correct, and they are heading this direction, couple hundred thousand by our estimates are going to be near enough this area to cause a lot of concern. We demo today or we lose the canyon.”
“And if the culvert doesn’t hold?”
“We’re prepared to move to high ground until the pressure can be released, if not we retreat to Thompson Canyon to try again.”
“That would take weeks.”
“Maybe longer, and it would be a dangerous trek through several isolated towns. That’s why this has to work.”
“Understood sir.” Sgt. Ferris saluted and departed the canopy. He stood for a moment looking at the hodgepodge of materials being used to make the culvert. The Sargent had serious reservations that it would hold, or that enough time was allowed for the cement to set properly. He remembered repaving his driveway a few years back. He was told it took a full day to cure. But that was a couple inches, the culvert is several feet thick. The river had about ten feet it could raise before backing up into the road in most places, but that doesn’t ease his mind much.
New York City
Saturday August 17th 7:41 AM
Erik Watanabe and his new friend Justin had worked through the night and had successfully cleared the apartment building in exception of the first floor. Justin said that the dead would come through the window, so they barricaded the stairwell. There were only a few inside the building, Justin tried to make Erik take care of a couple of them, but Erik managed to nearly get himself killed twice.
About an hour ago Justin collapsed on the floor. His breathing accelerated for a minute and then his heart stopped. Justin had already told Erik that as soon as it happened that he was to destroy the brain. Erik had a ball pin hammer sitting in his lap, he picked it up now and raised it over his head, and hesitated. Justin reanimated and lashed out at Erik. He almost pissed his pants but was able to bring the hammer down on the top of his head. Now Justin lay bleeding his eyes glazed over, motionless, dead for real now.
Erik wasn’t used to being alone, having come from
a large family he only recalled brief moments of quiet or privacy from his childhood. When he was at school, he had always made friends easily. Now, sitting by himself in this unknown place he was feeling very lonely and anxious. He didn’t think that he had ever been in silence for this long through his entire life. At 9:46 AM the power went out. Erik hadn’t thought about that either. He had considered all the food in the refrigerators to be able to sustain him for a week or two. Now he figured all the refrigerated food would be bad by tomorrow afternoon. He was especially bummed because he had found a Playstation V and had been looking forward to having some gaming time. But for now, he was safe and that was all that really mattered.
He was wandering aimlessly through the different apartments, looking through personal effects in an apartment on the sixth floor. Looking at pictures on dressers. Looking at pictures of happy families, and happy couples. He thought to himself that almost every picture is a lie. That every smile is forced for the camera, and none of these people could possibly be as happy as they look in the pictures.
His father was a stern, and disciplined man who ran his house with an iron fist. Erik was the oldest son and therefore the most was expected of him. That was precisely why he was in Columbia to begin with. He had felt pressure not only to graduate with a degree, but to find a suitable wife along the way. Erik sadly hadn’t had any luck with the latter. A flash of pain, and sorrow washed over his heart thinking about his family. Thinking that they were probably dead.
He wondered if he would ever laugh again, if he would ever fall in love again. He stood gazing out the window admiring the city view under the morning sun when the first explosion went off.
Startled he craned his neck trying to see where it was coming from, he could see smoke rising in the distance. He decided to see if he could get up to the roof to see if he could figure out what was going on. He found the door to the roof secured by a small padlock. The ball pin hammer came in handy for the second time today. He was able to break through after his seventh swing. He bloodied his knuckles on the fourth. On the roof he could see that upriver that there had been some sort of explosion on the bridge, there was smoke rising from the middle of the river. Underneath there were at least two, maybe three huge barges under the bridge. He strained and squinted to try to see what was going on with the boats, but it was too far. Then Erik remembered seeing a telescope in one of the apartments. He rushed back down the stairs and tried to remember which apartment he had seen the telescope in. He was fairly certain it was on the fifth floor. He proceeded to check apartment after apartment before finally seeing the large blue telescope set in a living room window pointing towards the skies. He lifts the telescope along with the tripod and struggles out the door nearly dropping the telescope.
The Z Strain Page 12