The Event: The Beginning (5 page)

              I left them then and walked out to the boat with Roger, Randy and John. We packed some food and extra ammo, and then climbed aboard. Since I was the one who knew where dad lived, I took the wheel. I had a map of the lake so I could navigate close to where we were going. It was dark by the time we started so I switched on the lights as we cruised out of the dock area. I throttled up as we cleared into open water, and turned us southwest for the middle of the lake. Once I cleared the arm of the lake the resort was in I turned almost directly west. There were several loose, abandoned boats just floating about that I had to avoid. We idled over to a few that were close to us to see if there was anything we could use. We siphoned gas out of them, but didn't find anything of value. It took us until a little after nine to reach close to dad's house. I slowed when we got close, watching the bank for movement. I killed the lights and idled closer to the bank. I couldn’t see the house itself with no lights on, but I knew vaguely where it was at. I killed the engine and used the trolling motor to ease us up to the bank. We bumped the sand under the water so I turned off the trolling motor and waited. We heard nothing and saw no movement, so I jumped down off the deck into the water and pulled the boat further up on shore so it wouldn't drift away from us. Once the boat was secure we moved as a group up the hill towards dad's house. I knew it was steep, but with the trees and our boots we made it up the hill with no issues.

              The house was dark, which was no surprise with no power. I saw dad's cars there, and some trash lying around, but no sign of life. We crept up to the back porch so I could look in. The back door was not boarded up, and since it was a glass door I could see most of the downstairs area of the house. It appeared lived in, but I didn’t see anyone in there. I tried the door, and it slid open. I glanced at Roger, who just nodded. I motioned for Randy and John to stay out here and watch, while Roger and I slipped inside. There was no one in the kitchen, just to our right, and the only door there led outside, so I went forward towards the living room. It was all open, so I simply walked around to where I could see the front door and bathroom that was around the corner. The bathroom door was open, and it was empty. We silently went to the bottom of the stairs, and Roger checked inside the bathroom, just to be sure no one was hiding in the shower. Once he nodded it was clear, we headed up the stairs.

              They were narrow, and steep, so it would be a good ambush spot if anyone wanted to. I went first, and slowly went step by step. As my head cleared the floor, I could see through the railing. The bathroom came into view first, and it looked empty. The bedroom closest to the top of the stairs had the door open, and it looked empty as well. The other bedroom door was closed, so we cleared the open one first. Other than clothes strung out, and blankets and sheets on the floor, there was nothing in there. We checked the bathroom just in case, and it too was empty. I put my hand on the knob with my shoulder to the door, placed my ear on it and listened. When I didn’t hear anything, I shook my head at Roger, who nodded back. I leaned my body back to the side, turned the knob, and threw the door open. Roger rushed in as I followed right behind. The room was empty. There were clothes in the drawers still, blankets left, but little in the way of food or ammo.

              We went back downstairs and pulled Randy and John in. They reported no movement or sounds. I pulled the drapes on the back door so we wouldn't be visible from outside, and we relaxed on the couch for a few. Roger tried giving me a few words of encouragement, which I appreciated, but I waved him off. I knew when we started what we were likely to find, but I had to come anyways. It was almost ten when I decided to head us out to Philip's house. It was only about a ten minute walk through the woods, but we took twenty, making sure we didn't make too much noise, while listening to hear if someone or something started walking up on us.

              We came out of the woods onto the track that lead past the house. It was slightly brighter with the moonlight, and not being under the trees. The house came into view as the trees thinned out on either side. The house was on the right, back from the road just a little. We walked up the driveway slowly as I watched the house for movement. I knew Randy and John were watching our backs, and Roger was watching the woods. The windows here were boarded up on the ground floor at least, so that was a hopeful sign.

              Philip had a wraparound porch with a rail around it, so I walked around towards the front door to walk up on it. I winced as the boards creaked some, but it wasn't too loud so I kept going. I walked up to the door and tried the knob. It was locked. Randy and John watched the woods, while Roger and I walked around the porch checking windows, trying to find a way in. The front and immediate sides didn’t offer anything promising, so we all moved around back. As we came around the corner, I saw the back door wide open. My heart dropped as we got close and I noticed what appeared to be blood stains on the door frame. Roger saw me drop the point of my sword, so he waved me back and took point. He entered, I followed, then Randy, while John stayed at the door to watch our back. We cleared the first floor rapidly, as it was a fairly open design. With no sign of anyone there, but a few more blood stains, I grew more certain of what we would find. The place was trashed, like a fight took place. Things were thrown around, some furniture overturned. We went upstairs single file, clearing each room one by one. I went to the bedroom on the right, closest to the top of the stairs. I cleared that room while the rest went down the hallway to the rest of the rooms.

              I came back out and headed down the hallway. Randy came out of the room farthest from the stairs, shut the door, and looked at John and Roger, who had gathered in the hallway, blocking me from going the rest of the way down there. I saw Roger's face, and then the smell hit me. I knew the smell of a large amount of blood when I smelled it. I put my sword up, dropped my head, and went back downstairs and sat on the couch. The other three came down the stairs slowly, without talking. Randy and John went to the back door, and Roger came over and sat near me. He reached over and put his hand on my shoulder as I sat there. I went numb as I tried to process what happened.

              When I finally looked up, it was almost midnight. I looked at Roger, who just gave me a look, and then nodded. I turned my head towards the back door and the other two were pointedly watching outside. I nodded back at Roger, stood up, and motioned we should leave. It would be nice to get a few hours’ sleep before heading out in the morning.

              I tapped John on the back as we approached him, and he turned and nodded at me. He and Randy then stepped outside and fanned out so Roger and I could exit. I pulled the door shut behind me, locking it so they could have some kind of privacy.

              We walked back down towards dads house the same way we came. We made it back to the boat without seeing or hearing anything or anyone. John and Randy jumped back onboard while Roger and I pushed the boat back off the sand until it floated on its own again. He jumped up first, then reached down and helped me up. I went to the wheel and fired up the trolling motor to get us into deeper water before turning on the main engine. Once deep enough, I fired up the main motor and turned us around to head back out to deep water. I turned on the lights, not caring who saw us now. I throttled the engine all the way up and headed back as fast as we could go.

              It was almost three by the time we pulled close to the dock at the resort. I idled slower and killed the lights to avoid any unwanted attention being drawn to the group. I kicked Roger who was on the bench next to me and he jerked awake. He looked around and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. As we pulled back up to the dock, he shook the other two awake. I idled up to the dock and killed the engine as Roger jumped down to the dock and tied us off. We all went silently up towards the building, John and Randy leading us, while Roger and I walked more slowly up the ramp. I could see Jeff had posted guards overnight as someone had opened the door just before we got there. They let Randy and John in then shut it back as Roger and I were still a small ways off.

              "You alright man?" he finally asked me. I stopped, turned to look at him, and then turned back towards the lake.

              "Yeah. I was pretty much expecting this outcome, so it wasn't really a surprise. It hurts though. But so did losing granny.” I said. Granny was his grandma, who I had known since I was little, and considered her my grandma too.

              "Yeah, that sucked. But we don’t have time to mourn right now. You're in charge of this little expedition, these people are looking up to you, hoping in you. Let's go make this work.” he told me. He clapped me on the shoulder then turned towards the conference center. I turned too and we both walked up the path. The door opened as we approached, then shut behind us. We both went and found a place to lie down, and got some sleep.

Chapter 3

May 2nd, 2018

              I was shaken awake by Jeff around 5 a.m. Not being a morning person, I started to growl at him and say leave me alone, but he put his finger to his lips and motioned me to get up. Only one thing would make him do that this early.

              I jumped out of bed, threw my boots on, and grabbed my sword. We walked to the front of the building, where the RV's were parked. I had people stationed inside of them, with the doors locked, just in case. Apparently it was a good idea as they were now surrounded by infected, about fifty of them by a quick count. I looked at Jeff, who just nodded at me, then at the infected. I nodded back, and we started rousing people to help out.

              I went back to my pile of stuff and got on my makeshift armor, a set of riot gear we got from an abandoned police station. It included a helmet with a face shield, elbow pads, a bullet proof vest, and I threw some football pads over it to protect my shoulders. Some hockey pads for the legs and arms completed the outfit. It looked funny, but it was pretty good coverage against bites while letting me still swing my sword. By the time I got it all on, Jeff was waiting by the door, looking out.

              "It doesn't look like they know we are here, or that there are people inside the vehicles. They may smell us, but they can't find us. We could just wait, and watch, see if they just leave." Jeff said.

              "True, but if they don’t? We will have to clear them out then, and by then, more could be here. At least while it’s dark we may have a small advantage, they don’t seem to see any better in the dark than we do.” I said. I was contemplating the pros and cons of attacking them now, or waiting until daylight.

              "Well, we have about twenty guys ready to go right now. What do you want to do?"

              "Let's gather them up, run some ideas around real quick.” I said, moving away from the door. I motioned upstairs, and the men gathered behind us started moving towards the stairs. We all moved into a conference room upstairs, and I waited until everyone was here.

              "Ok, it looks to be about fifty or so infected out there. I'm with Jeff in thinking they don’t know we are even here. I want to hear options. We can wait until daylight, see if they move off, then just leave, or we can go clear them out now. Anybody have any other ideas or thoughts?" I asked the group. I wanted them to feel like they had a voice in whether or not they risked their lives.

              "If we wait, isn't there a possibility more will show up? If so, it would be more dangerous to wait and have to deal with a hundred, when we could deal with fifty now." Randy said.

              "Or they could move off and we wouldn’t have to deal with any at all.” John piped up.

              "What if we attack now, and it draws more?" James asked.

              "What happens if we attack, and we get overrun, what happens to the rest of the group?" Allen asked.

              All of these were good points, and I had to think about all of them. I couldn’t take long however, as it was after five in the morning already. I had wanted to start waking everyone up at six so we get moving again. We debated for a while longer, talking back and forth about what could happen if we wait, what if we attack now.

              "Ok, look. I wanted to wake everyone up at six anyways to get started. That's only a few minutes away now. Let’s wake everyone, quietly, and have them pack up. We will clear a path, and get everyone loaded. We have no choice now.” I said, making the decision. The longer we waited, the more infected could show up, and the longer it took us to get to safety.

              "Jeff, you're the only one who can drive the rig. Did you get plenty of sleep last night?" I asked.

              "Yeah. I slept while you guys were gone looking for the girls. I'm good." He assured me. I knew he wouldn’t attempt to drive if he was too tired, so I went with the others to start preparing to clear the path.

              Everyone was finally awake and packed by six-thirty, so the few guards and I made our way to the back door. The plan was we would go out the back and get the infected's attention off to the side of the building, while the main part of the group went the other way around and snuck into the RV's. It shouldn’t be too hard to get their attention, especially once we started attacking them and making noise.

              Those of us on the attack went first. The others were to wait at least ten minutes to make sure we had their attention. We went right out of the door and made our way to the side of the building. I peered around the corner and saw the first of them. They were still just milling around aimlessly. I nodded to the group behind me and made hand motions to convey what I wanted them to do. Everyone nodded that they understood, so we began.

              I ducked around the corner, the men fanning out behind me. I walked calmly up to the first infected, who turned and looked at me, but didn't immediately respond to me. About the time it reacted and started that hissing sound they made, I was close enough to plant my sword squarely in its throat, nearly severing the head. It went down, dead. The sound drew the attention of others, however, as more turned towards us.

              Several of them screeched and actually ran at us. It was the first time I had seen infected move that fast. I sidestepped one and swung low at its legs at it tried to grab for me. My blow hit it behind the knee, destroying the joint, and it went down. There was no howl of pain, and the scream was more like frustration. The thing tried to attack me still, but a guard who had stuck close to me planted his sword through the things head, killing it. I yelled for him to duck as I swung at one coming up behind him. He ducked as I stepped forward, swinging my sword straight through the forehead of the infected. It dropped straight to the ground and never moved again. I yanked my sword out and helped the man to his feet.

              We formed up into an arc, to protect the RV's as best we could, while allowing the rest to load up. We continued to fight as I saw the first of our group come around the side of the building, hurrying to the vehicles. The guards inside the RV's had obviously latched on to the plan, as they had the doors unlocked and threw them open as survivors got close. I glanced back and saw that a few infected were going for the other group, but the guards had it covered. The RV's were parked close enough together that the infected had a hard time getting between them to sneak past us.

              Yelling, thunks from swords hitting flesh, and screeches from the infected were all we heard for the next half an hour. We cleared out the infected, with no one being bitten, or scratched. We checked each other over carefully, cleaned weapons, and finally loaded up ourselves. I took one last look at the building before I climbed on. Once I was in, I signaled to Jeff to get moving.

              We moved through the resort slowly. Obviously our fight had attracted some attention, as we saw more infected hurrying in that direction. A few turned towards the RV's and ran at us, but they either hit it hard enough with their heads to at least knock themselves out, or we fired through our makeshift gun ports and took them out. Once we made it out of the resort, we picked up a little speed as the roads were in better shape and larger. We once again rolled past burned out buildings, overturned cars, and saw some bodies in the street. We made it back to the highway without another incident though, which was good. I wanted to put as much space between us from this place as we could.

              We rolled on for another three hours, about which time we needed to refuel. I had Jeff find a suitable place, which happened to be a truck stop right off the highway, and we all pulled over so we could refill the tanks.

              I instructed the drivers to get close to the building, but park facing out so we could leave quickly if needed. Once all the RV's were parked, I radioed again to the drivers to wait for a few minutes to see if our noise attracted any unwanted attention. After about ten minutes without seeing any movement, I cleared everyone for getting out. Once everyone had a few minutes to stretch their legs, I organized a team to go siphon gas, and another to help clear the building. I wanted to see if anything useful was inside.

              Those of us going inside crept up to the door. The windows were smashed out, but not covered, so it looked like looters had their way with the place, then deserted it. We opened the door and stepped in. The crunch of glass all over the floor made stealth an impossibility, so we just kept our eyes open. We spread out, all of us knowing what to look for. Food was gone, as well as anything that could have been a weapon. Radios, batteries, all gone. The shelves were pretty clear, except for the knickknack items you find at truck stops. Once we cleared the building I ordered everyone outside.

              I let everyone stretch their legs a bit, enjoy the sunshine. I didn’t want to pause too long, but breaks were important so people didn’t go stir crazy in the cars. I checked on our siphon team, and they had found some to replenish with. The cans from the rig were enough to fill the RV tanks, but now those were extremely low. I knew we would have this problem, and our only hope for it was to keep finding gas stations and abandoned cars we could siphon from.

              Once we got as much gas as possible, and everyone had a nice rest and lunch, we loaded back up and continued on. I had gathered the drivers before we left and informed them we would not be stopping for breaks unless it involved clearing the road or siphoning gas. We had at least two stops to make to search for families along the way, and I wanted to get to the ship as fast as possible.

              Around three we passed the exit for Wynne, which according to my atlas was about three quarters of the way to Memphis, which was where we would pick up I-40. We had passed many abandoned cars along the way which helped us replenish our gas cans, but little else. I hoped we had the gas to make it to Memphis, as we should have a very good chance of finding gas there, enough to fill the tanks and the reserve cans. I checked in periodically with the other drivers to make sure there were not any problems in the other vehicles.

              As we continued east on highway 64, we drew close to the city of Earle, AR. I decided that since it was almost dinner time, and we could use a top off on the tanks, I radioed Jeff and the other drivers to pull off the highway and find a place to park. We found what appeared to be a large warehouse, or shipping company with a large open area. I told Jeff to pull in there, and the other drivers to form a protective circle around the rig. With the trailers behind the RV's, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough. I assembled three teams, one to get cars off the trailers and go in search of food, gas, and anything else they could find, while the other two teams, led by Jeff and myself, searched the building. I hoped it was secure enough we could camp out inside for a while and rest, make some dinner, maybe even stay the night if it was safe enough.

              Where Jeff had parked, and our ring set up at, there were four bay doors for semi's to be loaded through. They all appeared to be locked, so both teams went down the wall until we found a service entrance that was unlocked. Since Jeff knew service areas like this better than I did, I told him to take his team to the left through the service bays and search there first. I was going to take my team to the right which appeared to lead into office space.

              Jeff and I both listened at the door, and neither one of us heard anything. He turned the knob and pushed the door open. We waited for a few moments to listen, and when he looked at me I nodded. He took his team in first, then I took mine in. We entered into what appeared to be a lobby of sorts. There was a glassed in desk facing the door, chairs along the walls, some small end tables. I saw the last of Jeff's team disappear into a door to the left of the window, obviously into the warehouse area. There was a second door off to the right, which I hoped led into the office area. One of my men put his ear up to the door for a minute, then shook his head at me, indicating silence. I nodded to him, and he took point, throwing the door open and rushing through. The rest of us followed and fanned out.

              We had stepped through to a short hallway that opened up into a large room full of cubicles. The dividers where about chest high, so we could see the whole room, but it left plenty of hiding places. The team split up, going down each aisle at the same time, peeking into cubicles, over walls, under desks, and trying the office doors. Several of them were unlocked, and two men at least cleared each one. One of the men found a door that led to a front lobby area, apparently the main business entrance. The front windows were boarded up like someone had tried to secure this place at one point, or just hide.

              We finished searching the office area without really finding anything except some blankets and discarded food containers. Someone obviously had holed up here for a while at some point. I had my men make sure that front area was secure, and that there were no other entrances. Once we made sure of that, we headed back to the lobby we first came in at to go find Jeff's team.

              As we walked in, one of Jeff's men was there, waiting on us. He said that Jeff was waiting for us at the far end of the warehouse area. There was something he wanted me to see. I motioned and we followed the man to the rest of Jeff's team. We crossed the warehouse, which still had pallets full of supplies loaded and stacked all over the place. Some had been opened and gone through. I stepped over broken pallets and trash as we weaved our way through the warehouse.