Rise (16 page)

I cannot believe my sister sometimes. She was supposed to write the events I related to her, not go off on some vaguely disappointed tone about how we’re all gung-ho and paramilitary. Whatever. When I read that I knew I’d have to do it myself, so here it is.

Right now we are in a house west and a bit south of Hinton, just off the highway. It’s secluded and abandoned, has two floors above ground, and a lot of bedrooms. There’s still some sharing going on, of course, but we are all sleeping comfortably. My wrist is broken, so I am typing this very slowly with my right hand. It hurts. The painkillers are good, but it’s still a broken bone. Sarah says it’ll heal straight, and the improvised splint is quite effective.

So what happened to us? Jess, Sanji, Darren, Jay and I took the Caravan down into the town after we’d had a look at the town from a nearby hill. It was pretty quiet, with only a thin scattering of undead here and there. The town looked to be in decent shape. By that I mean that only a few uncontrolled fires had burned through here, and most of the structures appeared intact. There were numerous old traffic accidents blocking the various streets, and I could see the local Safeway through the binoculars clearly. It appeared that the front of the store had been damaged, so it had probably been looted, but it was still our best bet for food.

As we drove down the hill we checked our guns. Full loads and extra ammo were the order of the day. We each had a rifle, and Sanji and I had the two Glocks. We’d each taken the precaution of wearing long sleeved shirts, jeans, bandanas for our noses, decent running shoes, and hats. All dark colours, all tight clothes. The less for them to grab onto the better, and the covering was to help keep gore off us if we had to kill anything. Given the choice I would have had military gear. Yeah, Sarah, I guess we are playing soldier. Happy?

Hinton was a nice little town. I’d been here a few times while staying at the cabin by Jasper. Right now it looked like a set from
The Stand
. The highway drove right past the Safeway, and we were able to get pretty close before we were stopped by a series of crashed and abandoned vehicles. We pulled up about fifteen feet from a three car pileup, and Jess and Sanji and I got out to see if we could get around it, or push the wrecks off the road. The cars had no inhabitants, though from the stench we could tell there was something dead nearby. No undead were in sight right that second, though I imagined it wouldn’t be long. We walked to the pileup and checked each vehicle. We could probably move the front car enough to get the Caravan through, if we pushed it forwards and turned its wheels to the left. Jess got in the driver’s seat while Sanji and I pushed, and after a few false starts as the wheels tried and failed to turn, we got it moving. We were sweating heavily by the time we rolled it onto the far curb, leaving plenty of room to get the van by.

Jess went on sentry duty then with her rifle. She climbed on top of the Caravan, to a roof rack made out of plywood and bungee cords that we had mounted there. She could see farther this way. Jay drove the van into the Safeway parking lot, and we saw our first undead come lumbering out of the store. It was alone, a male in company uniform, and he was ripe. His stench preceded him, and bits actually fell off as he walked towards us. It was a revolting sight, but it made me think that he might just decompose by himself if given enough time. I wonder how long it would take? He looked like a stock boy. His apron was still on, but was covered in gore and bits of his own or someone else’s flesh. We had decided to deal with lone undead as quietly as possible. This meant no shooting. So three of us circled him while Jess and Jay kept watch. I had the baseball bat ready, and I stayed back a little so he’d focus on someone else. He chose Sanji, who stood with the shotgun leveled, and took steps towards him as I came up from behind. He was leaving foul squishy footprints as he walked, and the smell as I got closer was indescribable. Sanji lowered the shotgun as I got behind the undead stock boy, and I swung the bat as hard as I could. The right side of his head caved in, and he fell. The smell actually got worse, and I gagged. He rolled over and attempted to rise, but I swung again, this time coming straight down on top of his skull. His head bounced off the pavement as I struck, and I heard a crack. Still he didn’t die, but he was a lot slower trying to get up. The third blow landed as he was rising to his knees, and this one was solid enough that his skull opened like a blooming flower of gore. He didn’t get up from that, but I nearly vomited from the stench. I looked around, but it had taken only a few seconds, and was quieter than I had thought. Nothing else was approaching.

We approached the store on foot. Jay parked the van about 40 feet from the front doors, and stayed with Jess in case a quick getaway was required. Darren on my right, and Sanji on my left, we went to the front doors and looked inside. The lights were all out, so it was dark as a tomb inside. We’d expected this, and turned on our flashlights as we entered. We listened. This more than anything we had learned: listen for them. So we stood and listened for five minutes. When we were certain there was nothing making noise other than us, we proceeded.

The store
had
been looted, but not thoroughly. It looked like whoever had hit the place had taken a lot of water bottles, some canned foods and snacks, and medicines. There was a lot left over though, more than we could carry. Before taking anything at all we searched the entire store. Quiet as mice, and stealthy as ninjas, we’d have liked to have been. As it was we made enough noise walking into spilled cans or stepping on things scattered on the floor that if anything
had
been walking in there, it would have heard us and come running.

We went shopping in the dark. A little light made it inside from the windows, but not enough for us to see clearly at the back of the store. Flashlights were essential, so we loaded up a few baskets full of batteries and put them by the front door. Then we grabbed medicines. Advil, Tylenol, Polysporin, and a whole list of things from the pharmacy that Sarah had requested. Some would have gone bad by now, so we’d have to sort them out carefully. After that was loaded safely in the van we went back and grabbed all the canned food that we could. Stews and soups and chili and canned fruit, canned vegetables, beans and milk and anything we could see. We checked expiry dates as we went, and only a few things were even close. We also grabbed powdered milk, juice mixes, cans of iced tea powder and coffee, and Gatorade. I threw a few boxes of cereal in for the kids, and took all the instant oatmeal boxes that were left. We opened the boxes of those and dumped the packages into a larger plastic container for easier transportation. All this we took to the front doors and loaded. We still had a bit of room, so we went back for a third trip. Toiletries, like razors and extra blades, toilet paper, several bottles of shampoo, and brushes and combs. Jess had us get a few cases of tampons and related things, and we all raided the sock & underwear aisle. Shoes! We all grabbed new shoes, and got new pairs for the others as well. This was like Christmas!

So of course it was all spoiled by the undead. We were taking the third load back to the front when shots rang out. We dropped the things we were carrying near the front door as we went to the entrance, and paused in the doorway to look at what was happening. Jay was standing near the back of the van, with the hatch open and looked like he’d been rearranging the load. He was supposed to be in the driver’s seat the whole time, ready to go, but I guess he’d got complacent, and wanted to fit more things in. I couldn’t really blame him, but it was bad timing. Nearly twenty walking dead were approaching from the north, had just come around the west corner of the store, and were close enough that we could hear them groaning. They stank to high heaven in this heat, and the smell was like a physical force pushing us back gagging. Jess had shot two of them so far, but they’d be surrounding the van before she could kill many more. Jay was trying to shut the tailgate and pick up his rifle at the same time, and was doing neither very well. From what I’d seen of his shooting he’d be pretty easily overwhelmed by the time they got there, so I did the only thing I could think of. I raised the carbine and stepped out shooting. I fired into the lead undead, hoping if I killed one or two the others might fall over it. Several of them changed direction towards us, but most kept going towards the van. Sanji and Darren called to Jay and Jess to get out of there and run, and Jay stayed long enough to help Jess off the roof while I fired the carbine. I emptied the clip in three-round bursts, hitting many of the zombies, but only killing four. It was enough to slow them so that we could get away. As a group we ran east across the parking lot, and around another building, a former pizza place (“Free delivery!”). The crowd of undead was following faster than I’d have liked, so we crossed the street towards a church. Inside there could be anything, so we didn’t go in. We stayed outside, getting distance between us and the dead things following, winding down alleys and streets as we fled. We made it four blocks before we ran into another cluster of undead. Why do they seem to travel in groups? There were four of them, and they just appeared around an overgrown hedge, and got very excited when they saw us. Sanji shot one and its head vanished. I clubbed the next one down, and evaded the grasp of the third, but the fourth grabbed Darren, and was going for the bite when Jess slammed its head with her rifle stock. It let go of Darren and tried to grab her, but I stepped up and shoved the carbine’s barrel under its ear. One pull of the trigger and it fell. We ran. More of them were coming out of the woodwork now. Out of houses, or alleys. Some were alone, but most were in groups, usually three or four at a time. Why?

Sanji changed our direction to the south. He said it was to get us back to the van eventually, running in a circle. Good idea. We ran between a school bus and a gas station, and found ourselves on the highway again. Behind us a group of forty or so was chasing, and to our west another group was coming. We wouldn’t be getting back that way, so we ran across the highway towards the tree line. This was getting tiring. The undead didn’t tire though, so we had to keep ahead of them or we’d be slaughtered. We took shelter in the trees, and hoped they’d lose interest when they lost sight of us. We ran uphill for a few hundred feet, and then came out of the trees onto another road, this one clear for now. Darren was the second last up the hill, followed by Jay. I got the impression he had waited to make sure Jay got there. The undead were wandering in the trees below us, slowly making their way up the hill.

The road ran east and west, so we went west. It wound around a hill overlooking the town, and we ended up in someone’s driveway. The view must have raised the property value to insane levels back before, and was still impressive. It had a set of stone steps leading up to the deck, and a wrought iron gate at the bottom. There was a stone fence that ran around the property, about 8’ high. This could be a decent place to hide. We got to the gate just as the first of them rounded the corner of the drive behind us. I turned and shot the first two that appeared. One went down, and I missed the other. I was the last one through the gate, and slammed it shut. I turned to run up the stairs and my foot missed the first step. I threw my hand out as I fell, the other arm holding the carbine so I didn’t bend anything on the rocks. My arm crunched under me as I landed, and instant agony flared through my hand and forearm. Hands pulled me up as I fogged out in a haze of pain, and I came to on the deck with Jess leaning over me. I tried moving my arm and the pain flared, white hot and sharp as needles. I yelled, then bit down on my tongue. That hurt too, but less than my arm. It was busted bad. It was already swelling, and the pain was incredible. I heard someone shooting, and Jess told them to stop it. I couldn’t tell who. I tried to get up, and the pain as I jostled my arm made me pass out again.

I woke up, and it was quiet. Not to mention dark. When did that happen? My arm was hurting, but wrapped up in something tight. I was lying on a couch facing a set of floor to ceiling windows, and across the room was a huge widescreen TV and DVD setup. Whoever had owned this place was loaded, once upon a time. Jess and Sanji were talking somewhere out of sight, and Jay and Darren were sitting looking out the windows, rifles in hand. I asked for some water, as I was extremely thirsty, and instantly they were all around me, asking if I was okay. I had a drink and told them I was good. They told me what was going on.

We were safe for now. About fifty undead had found us, and were currently surrounding the front fence. The fence was stone all the way around, and solid. The one gate was wrought iron and solid too. They could not get in that way. Then they told me about the grow op they had found in the basement. The plants had long since died from lack of light, but there was a tunnel dug into the hillside, and a passage ran from the basement to the hillside about fifty feet away out the back. It was locked, but it wasn’t a serious problem. We were going to try it in the morning. They gave me some painkillers and I went back to sleep.

Still outside Hinton, and still typing one handed. Damn, this is painful. Remind me never to break my wrist again. Where was I? Ah yes, back on the 14th. I woke up that morning and completely forgot that my arm was broken. Jess was already awake, and reminded me first thing not to move my left arm. She knows me well, Jess does.

After getting up, and getting dressed with Jess’ help, we ate a fast breakfast. The drugs had made me woozy, and I’d slept the night through. It was nearly 8:30 when I woke up. Sanji was concerned about the undead outside. He was thinking that enough of them piled up at the foot of the fence might enable others to climb right over the wall. We didn’t want to stay long enough to test this theory, so we packed up what we had and got ready to take the ‘back door’ tunnel in the grow op basement. When we got down there, Sanji just shook his head. I remembered then he used to be on the Vancouver Police Department. He’d probably seen a few of these marijuana operations in his time. The plants were all dead, but the smell lingered. We went to the escape tunnel and opened the first door, shining lights down the cramped hallway. It was lined with railway ties. Someone must have taken a long time to make this. It was our good luck that we’d picked this house. Well, if it was luck or not remained to be seen. We still had half a hundred zombies to contend with outside.