The Event: The Beginning

The Event

The Beginning

Copyright © 2015 Sheldon Friend

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1525373207

ISBN-13: 978-1515373209

The Event Series:

The Beginning

Survival

Expansion

Chapter 1

April 20th, 2018

              Today started like any other day. I made my pot of coffee, checked my email, and got ready for work. I worked from home, so that really only meant I sat in front of my computer. The morning news was talking about this virus that had been discovered in several patients in France. The media had everyone panicking, and I had stopped listening to it a few days ago, as the first patient was seen in an ER almost a week ago. As much as I tried to ignore it, something kept nagging at me in the back of my mind. I decided I would check into at lunch, see what info was online about it.

              I went about my business, took some phone calls, helped some customers, and tried to make some money. On my lunch break I went online and started searching for some news about this virus. The people infected seemed to start out with flu like symptoms; fever, headache, dry mouth and throat. As it progressed, they seemed to lose the ability to speak, and reason. It appeared that the virus took away the higher functions of the brain and left the infected with pure animal instincts only. The patients did not die, but became purely animalistic in that they attacked anyone who came near, and tried to eat them. There were cases of people not going to hospitals who attacked animals as well as other humans, and were only stopped by hitting them in the head, or killing them. The doctors didn't even have a name for it yet, they were still trying to figure out how to treat it. The media called it the Zombie Virus. It was like a worldwide outbreak of those people that turned into 'zombies' after smoking K2 back in 2013 and '14.

              I read on, and the amount of people infected seemed to be growing rapidly. There was speculation of biological warfare, or contaminated water supplies, or the virus mutated from something else. However it started, the result was a particularly virulent agent. It appeared to only be transferred by fluid transfer, so not airborne, thankfully, but a bite would certainly do it, as it has done already. A few autopsies had been done already on patients who were killed trying to eat other people, and it was discovered that the virus actually physically changed the gray matter of the brain. The higher functioning parts were shrunken, while the instinctual parts were swollen and enlarged. Muscle mass also seemed to be increasing in some patients, and the one sickest the longest before dying actually had lost his molars and had them replaced by new incisors in their place.

              I found a website keeping a tally of where the patients showed up, and how many. Patient Zero was found in France. It quickly spread to Norway, Spain, Sweden, Greenland, Russia, China, India, and South Africa. There was apparently some kind of convention in France at the time and everyone had left two days before patient zero entered the ER. Once it started though, it spread rapidly. Already countries were closing borders, air travel was grinding to a halt worldwide, and tourism was taking a huge downfall. Ireland and Great Britain had no reports yet of infection, and they stopped all air and ship travel in or out of the country. Italy had refused all flights into the country, and their military effectively blockaded any ground travel over the Alps.

              I sat back and just stared at the maps, watching the time lapse of even just the few days since the start of it spread like a blot over Europe and Asia. It triggered a memory of an exercise we went through in the Navy. On several occasions, we were asked to put together a plan, short or long term, of different scenarios. World War 3, plague, zombie apocalypse, natural disasters on a world wide scale. We thought they were just a way to make us think, or keep us busy. I took them to heart, and now it seemed it was a good thing I did. I decided to give it one more day, see how things panned out.

April 21st, 2018

              I got up kinda early, put on the coffee, and turned on the news while my computer booted up. I wanted to see if anything new was going on with this whole virus problem. There was a bar scrolling across the bottom, but I missed what it said. I fixed my coffee and got online to see what was going on. Yahoo had many stories about it, with many news agencies reporting on it. Apparently, overnight, the virus exploded. Several European cities had been overrun, as well as a few in the States. Every country it was found in had declared martial law for the affected cities, but it seems even the militaries were having a very difficult time containing it. Rural areas were wiped out, small cities destroyed by the looting and fighting.

              Once I read that, and saw that some cases had popped up in Oklahoma City, I decided to put my plan into motion. I had always run plans in my head for different scenarios, and zombies was one I had a plan for. I started calling people I knew, telling them I had a plan, and to gather as much food, clothes, medical supplies, etc. as they could and meet up at my house so I could explain my plan. I was hoping it wasn't too late.

              Luckily, my best friend Jeff, who was a truck driver, was here on his home time. I called him to have him come over, with Michelle, my ex-wife and his current girlfriend. My oldest step-daughter, Desi, should be home with Michelle, so she would come with them. I immediately called the school and told them I was coming for the other two, Cassie and Angie. I then grabbed my car keys and headed out. Michelle's cousin Val lived across the street from me, so I knew I could reach her easily.

              Once I got the two girls home, I sent them over to Val's to get her and ask her to come over. Her and her husband had guns, as well as swords, and we would need weapons for my plan to work. I set about gathering food, seeing what I had, packing clothes, and sorting my weapons. I collected anything with a blade on it, so I had a nice collection of swords, knives, daggers, and sword canes. Val and her husband Vince showed up, and I immediately began explaining what I had found, and what I intended to do about it. It only took a little while to convince them, and Vince left immediately to get their kids from school. Val went to start packing clothes and food from their house.

              Thankfully, with the news going crazy, no one blew me off, and people started showing up at my house soon after. By that time I had checked the news again. It wasn't good. France had been declared off limits to everyone, Portugal had stopped replying to phone calls, emails, etc. Germany was giving sporadic details of infected, looting, and rioting. Most of Europe seemed over run with infected people; Russia was no longer reporting at all, China also had stopped sending out anything. Japan had closed its sea and airports when it started, so other than a few outbreaks that were contained, they seemed fine.

              I had called several people, and they had all showed up. Those that were there now were Jeff, Michelle, Val and Vince, my friend Roger, our friend Christy and her husband Shayne, my sister Jenna, and all our various kids. We all sat in the living room, and I began to tell everyone what I found, and what I had planned.

              "Ok, I know you all will probably think I'm crazy for this, but please hear me out. I've watched the news, and I think it's time to put a plan I have in motion, for all of us. It will require us all working together, and quickly. Will you guys listen to me, hear me out, and not think I'm certifiable?" I asked. Everybody looked at each other, and then back at me. I could see some of them were not convinced, but I had known them all long enough that would at least give me the benefit of the doubt.

              "Alright, here we go. Ok, so my basic plan starts with us getting as many people as possible to the hospital. It has its own generator and kitchen. Several of the doors could be sealed easily to create very few entrances to defend. Once we gather as many people as possible, and supplies, we can start the second phase, which is getting us out of here and head towards a much more secure location. So for now, gather weapons, food, clothes, medical supplies, and people, and meet back up at the hospital here in town. Also, we will need tools. If this thing is moving this fast, so do we. Let's meet at the hospital at say five o'clock?" I asked. Everyone agreed with me, even if they didn't quite believe me at first. We all went our separate ways to gather stuff up. I set about gathering my clothes, food, and weapons, then threw them all along with my tool box in my car. The girls gathered their stuff they had at my place, and we all headed to Jeff and Michelle's house to get anything else they needed.

              As I pulled up to their house, they were already loading up the car with a couple coolers full of food, clothes, and what weapons and tools they had. The girls jumped out and ran in to the house for some more things. After they were done, we all headed over to the hospital. When we pulled up, there were ambulances evacuating the patients. Apparently some administrator decided to move the most serious patients to Tulsa so they could be better protected, from what we heard of the conversations.

              We left the supplies in the cars for now, and headed inside to see what was going on exactly. We were told everyone had to leave, they were closing the hospital. That seemed perfect to me, we would just have to wait till they left, then we could start fortifying the building. In the meantime, Jeff and I moved all our supplies to Michelle's car, and we went in search of building materials such as wood, sheet aluminum, nails, etc. I also wanted to make sure we grabbed spare parts of anything we could think of. I was a little paranoid on stuff like that.

              We drove through town to various supply stores gathering what we needed until the truck was full. It was almost five by then, and I figured the hospital should be about empty while our group should be almost all there, so we headed back. Once we pulled in, I saw most of our friends and family there, while all the ambulances were gone. We got out and walked over to where everyone had gathered.

              "Alright, Jeff and I got some supplies to block the windows and such. Let's get everything unloaded and everyone inside. I would like to have the windows blocked by dark.” I said. I went back to my car and pulled it up to the ambulance entrance to begin unloading all the supplies. It took about an hour to get everyone's cars unloaded, but everyone and everything was inside before dark. We hadn't had any reports of infected around the Tulsa area yet, but the news reports showed it was exploding quickly, and it was already in Oklahoma City. It was only a matter of time before it showed up in Tulsa.

              We began by boarding up the large windows in the front lobby and securing the ER doors. I left the main lobby doors unlocked so we had access, but I turned off the automatic function so we would have to open them by hand. There were windows in the pharmacy that would also need to be boarded up, as well as a few more doors to secure, but once those big windows were done I would be happy.

              We finished with the lobby windows and doors, plus the pharmacy windows, and the west door. The only other doors were kept locked and only had small windows in them so we could still see outside. We also left places to look out from so we could see in all directions. Everyone split up to claim their own rooms, and we essentially moved in. I found a room suitable to store all our weapons and made sure they were all put up so no one accidently got hurt. I had shown several people where the kitchen was and had them put all of our food up. We still had power for now, and even when it went out we had a backup generator for a while. Hopefully we wouldn't be here that long though.

              I asked everyone to meet in the cafeteria so I could run down my plan. When most of everyone was there, and the cafeteria was full as it could be, I began.

              "Ok, here's my plan. I know it needs some details worked out, but I think it'll work for the most part. We will stay here for a bit, until the looting and craziness dies down, which should happen soon. We will of course have to go on a few supply runs for food, and try to find more people. We will also need to find ammo, guns, and other weapons. Medical supplies also, but we'll see what they left here. We should be safe enough here for now. I know we all have family in other places, and I hope we can get a hold of them and help them. I myself have family in Missouri I need to get in touch with. Let's relax tonight, watch the news, and see what happens. I'll talk to you all in the morning." I told them. I knew it wasn't much, but I would break it down in detail for smaller groups. I just hoped it worked out and I could help keep people safe. I pulled Jeff aside before he left and filled him in on a few details.

              "Jeff, let's talk. I have an idea I want to run by you. It's going to take you and several others to pull it off. I want to go down to the RV store down the street and, uh, acquire at least six of them, depending on how many people we end up with. I also want to use some of the sheet aluminum we acquired to sort of armor them and protect the tires. I will want to find experienced drivers for them so we can get to where I want to go."

              "Which is?" Jeff asked.

              "Virginia."

              "Virginia?"

              "Virginia. Norfolk Naval Base to be exact. My hope is there is a carrier group or two in port when we get there. I want to get to a carrier and use it as a safe haven while we figure out how to survive in this new world. I also want to try to study these things. If we can figure out how they think, if they think, we will be better able to beat them. I'm also going to need your help with keeping order."

              "You are actually serious about all this, aren't you?" he asked me. Jeff was one of the few who I could talk to, and who would question me, and make me think things through better.