In Hiding: A Survivors Journal of the Great Outbreak (3 page)

That
evening as I was watching my neighbors pack up their van to make their way to
the nearest shelter I finally came up with my own plan. My theory was that if
this virus was spreading as rapidly as it seemed, the last place I wanted to be
was trapped in a shelter with a bunch of strangers. I envisioned those places
being like one of those refugee camps I had seen in war torn countries where
the people were tightly packed together in unsanitary conditions. That wasn’t
where I wanted to be. I had thought of a better place.

It
was a pretty simple plan and I actually thought it had a chance of working. I
couldn’t go and stay with my parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan where they still
lived. I didn’t want to be in any city until this outbreak passed. But my Uncle
still owned a cottage up in the northern part of the state. It was out of the
way from most major cities and was relatively isolated. It would be the perfect
place to hold up in for a while until the government sorted this whole thing
out.

I
tried to call my parents and tell them where I was going and that they should
meet me there. There was no answer at their house and they weren’t answering
their cell phones. I couldn’t reach them no matter how many times I tried that
night. I guess I convinced myself that they had already left for one of those
shelters or that they had found some place safe of their own. I don’t think I
realized how bad things had become.

So
I barricaded my door one last night and tried to get some sleep. When I woke up
I packed up my SUV and hit the road. But before I could make the long drive to
Northern Michigan I was going to have to stop and pick up a few supplies.

I
call this day the first day of the outbreak. But it wasn’t. I guess I refer to
it as that because it was the day in which my personal nightmare began. Either
way, as of that morning there was chaos throughout most major cities east of
the Mississippi River. The American people had responded with mass panic. It
seemed like overnight the virus was everywhere, terrorizing neighborhoods and
city centers across the eastern part of the country. It was also the morning I
was putting my plan into action. I was going to the store to get the supplies I
needed before I got on the highway.

Now
I had seen footage of disasters on television before. But what I saw that
morning was nothing like that. It was like every wildfire, riot, and mass
evacuation I had ever seen all rolled into one. The roads were a total
disaster. Cars were lined up and down every road. Well every road that was
still open because huge areas of the city were on lockdown. There were
checkpoints set up and roadblocks all across the city. It was almost impossible
to get anywhere that morning.

I
debated even stopping at the store. With traffic as bad as it was my first
priority was to just get to the highway and out of the gridlock. People were
everywhere and I mean everywhere. Huge crowds of people were walking along the
sidewalk trying to get to the shelters. Police officers were trying to guide
traffic to the best of their abilities but there were too few of them to handle
the incredible amount of people on the move. The evacuation was in full swing.

It
didn’t help matters that huge areas of the city were shut down by the National
Guard as they tried to block off buildings, roads, and city blocks that had
been overrun by the Zeds. The sad part is, that the traffic wasn’t the worst
part of that morning.

My
usually quiet little city had been turned into a war zone. Black smoke was
rising into the sky as fires burned in the distance. People were fighting in
the streets as they tried to push there way through the crowds. Horns were
constantly honking, people were shouting and most troubling was that I could
hear the sound of machine gun fire in the distance as it echoed through the
streets. While sitting in my car, trapped in traffic I realized just how close
I was to the danger.

I
could see two police officers trying to move traffic along not too far ahead of
me. I was also able to see the woman who came walking out of an alleyway long
before the two officers did. She was infected, there was no doubt about that.
Her left leg dragged behind her as she stumbled along. Her skin had a grayish
tint to it and her awkward movements looked almost unnatural. But it was her
eyes that really stood out to me. I will always remember that look in her eyes.
There was nothing human about them and they never strayed from that officer
that was busy to realize she was even there.

The
cop eventually saw her. He yelled for her to stop several times but she didn’t
listen, Zeds don’t listen. He pleaded with her again and again but she just
kept walking right towards him.

The
people on the sidewalks started to run.

Another
officer nearby drew his weapon and pointed it at the woman. He looked scared as
he yelled for her to stop. When she didn’t listen he fired his gun and hit her
right in the left thigh. I don’t think she even flinched as the bullet entered
her leg. He fired another shot into her chest and it knocked her off balance.

Cars
around me started trying to push there way through the logjam or drove up and
onto the sidewalks to get away. The officer the woman was headed for drew his
gun and fired three rounds into her chest. The impact knocked her to the
ground.
 
But to my amazement that
woman didn’t stay down for long and she was back up and on her feet again and
slowly making her way for the same cop. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.
I just looked on in disbelief as the wounded woman continued on her way.

Finally, the officer fired one
more shot. That time he targeted her head at close range.
 
I saw the back of her head open up as
the bullet passed through and she quickly collapsed to the ground.

To
say that I was in shock after seeing that might be a bit of an understatement.
I had just watched a woman get gunned down right in front of me. Yet as
horrifying as that was, it was her look, her actions and the fact that those
bullets had almost no effect on her that had me frozen in my car just starring
at her corpse. Seeing it on the Internet and
 
hearing about it on the news is one
thing. Witnessing it first hand is another.

The
last thing I remember after that was feeling something pound on the back part
of my vehicle. I don’t know if it was the car behind me or another person. For
all I know it could have been one of them. I didn’t look and I didn’t hang
around long enough to find out. I pulled onto the sidewalk and drove until I
reached a parking lot where I was able to cut across and over to one of the
side roads. As I drove away I remember hearing more screaming and several more
gunshots.

There
were signs of trouble everywhere that I looked. I saw a young man run out of
the front door of a small corner store holding his arm. I could see the blood
on his shirt as he ran past my driver’s side window. He never stopped. He just
kept running down the street until he was long out of view.

I
saw people everywhere. They were running in all directions. I saw buildings on
fire. I saw things that I thought I would never see in my life and I had
seriously started to doubt that I was going to make it to the highway.

I remember turning on the radio
hoping for a traffic report that could tell me about any roads that weren’t
backed up or blocked by the authorities. Hoping for something. Anything. One
way out of town that wasn’t total gridlock.

However,
there was nothing on the radio that morning. Nothing except the emergency
broadcast system. You know the one that they always run a test for in the
middle of your favorite song. Well it wasn’t just a test anymore. Every time it
came to an end it was followed by a series of instructions.

PLEASE
REMAIN INDOORS. IF YOU DO NOT FEEL SAFE OR ARE UNABLE TO REMAIN IN YOUR HOME,
PLEASE PROCEED TO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS.

What
followed was a list of several places in town. The community center, a bunch of
churches, two of the high school gymnasiums, along with several other buildings
that had been converted into safe areas for people to go too. I can still hear
that voice reading those directions in my head. But I ignored them. I had a
plan and I was going to stick to it.

I
can’t even remember how long it took but finally the traffic started to move
and I knew of a store that was nearby. It wasn’t my first choice but it was
going to have to do. The world around me seemed to be in a state of utter
chaos. People running up and down the streets, the honking horns, the screams.
None of it seemed like it could really be happening. It all seemed like a
nightmare. The last terrible image I remember seeing before pulling into the
store’s parking lot was a group of people hunched over what looked like a young
man lying on the sidewalk. I turned my head away from that gruesome scene and
kept on driving.

Eventually
I made it to the store and pulled into the mostly empty parking lot. I could
see a few cars scattered across the enormous lot and I remember for reasons
unknown to me,
 
I parked pretty far
away from the front entrance. I stepped outside of my vehicle and lit up a
cigarette just relieved that I had finally made it. I looked around and could
see people running from something on the far side of the street. I couldn’t see
what they were running from but it wasn’t hard to figure out.

I
started walking towards the store realizing that I should have parked closer to
the building. As I looked around I could see that there were a few people in
the distance walking in my direction. I started to walk a little faster. I
looked back once more and could see that there was a man just on the other side
of my vehicle. That was when I broke into a jog and hurried to the front doors.

The
thought had never crossed my mind until that very moment. That was when I
realized that with everything going on there was a chance that the store could
have been closed. Luckily for me it wasn’t.

I
actually remember breathing a sigh of relief when the automatic doors opened
for me. I paused for a second and looked around before stepping inside. I can
tell you that I was actually scared as I walked through the first set of doors.
I didn’t know exactly what to expect. But as I prepared myself to pass through
the second set of doors I could see that there was a small group of customers
and what looked like several employees huddled together at the front of the
store.

You
see when people stopped showing up for work in those early days of the outbreak
companies that stayed open were offering incentives to get anyone to work.
After all, the business was there, especially if the store sold the supplies
that people desperately needed. Some stores offered double time or banked
vacation. They offered bonuses and other incentives to keep people working. So
I wasn’t shocked to see a few employees in the building, especially if the
company’s incentives were good enough.

When
I walked through the second set of doors the first thing I saw was a man
pointing a gun at me. I was defiantly lucky, he looked scared and it was
becoming common for people to shoot first and ask questions later in those
days. Funny thing is I was fully expecting to see my life flash before my eyes.
But as it turns out the only thing that happened was I raised my hands in the
air and asked if the store was still open.

The
man kept his gun pointed in my direction and shouted all kinds of obscenities
at me while the others in the group tried to calm him down. Finally when the
man did lower his gun I made my way over to join them at the front. The first
thing I learned was that the store wasn’t technically open for business but the
employees that had shown up that morning were still a bit confused by
everything that was going on. None of the managers had shown up and with the
chaos outside none of them knew what to do.

Apparently,
most of the employees of the store had stopped showing up over the last few
days and these employees were willing to work and take advantage of those
offered incentives. They mostly showed up for work because they were young and
didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation or they were desperately in need of
the extra money.

However,
that day there were only a few of them who actually made it to the store. The
customers that were there had either stopped in for supplies or were on the
road and pulled in because of how bad things had become. I stood there quietly
and listened to everything they had to say.

Apparently
before I had arrived there had been several customers who had simply grabbed
what they needed and ran. I guess looter is a better term for them then
customer. Those who remained were still trying to figure out a way to pay for
what they needed or were too afraid to go back outside. Better people I guess.
I won’t lie, I actually thought about grabbing what I needed and getting the
hell out of there while they sat around and discussed what to do next. But
before I could decide if I was capable of that, I heard a scream.

A
young woman who was standing directly across from me in our little circle let
out a blood-curdling scream. She looked terrified and when I turned around to
look at the front doors I could see what had her so afraid.

There was an elderly man who was
walking towards the outside set of front doors. His entire mid-section looked
like it had been torn apart by wild animals. His intestines and organs seemed
ready to burst through the gapping wounds in his stomach as he shuffled
forward. There was no logical reason why he would still be alive let alone
walking.

His face lacked any color except
for a hint of grey, his mouth hung open, and his eyes were fixated on us as he
moved closer to the doors. He moved slowly, but he kept a steady pace despite
the fact that his feet were basically dragging along the pavement. He made sounds
like nothing I had ever heard before. Sounds I couldn’t even describe. They
didn’t sound human and I guess that’s probably the best way to describe it.

The group started to panic. I
don’t think that anyone of us had any idea of what to do. If I hadn’t been so
scared I probably would have run away. Instead I froze. But there was one
member of the group who decided to take action. A young man, probably
twenty-two or twenty-three, who looked like he had played sports for most of
his young life. He decided to do something. Cody was his name and he moved
quickly like only invincible youth can. He started sprinting towards the front
entrance to try and close the doors before the man got there.

Problem is that Cody arrived at
the doors at the same time as the infected old man. He desperately tried to
pull them closed before the man could push his way inside But the automatic
opening system had already reacted to the presence of the Zed on the other side
and as Cody tried to grab a hold of the doors and pull them shut, the old man’s
eyes locked on to him and in a split second he had his arms around Cody’s
shoulders. I am still not sure how exactly it all happened, but I remember
seeing Cody fall to the ground and the old man was suddenly on top of him.