Rise (7 page)

We all got back in the vehicles and backed out of the yard. We now had food, more ammo and guns, and some other supplies. As we left I saw the cat come out onto the porch and start to follow us. I braked hard, got out and ran back. I ducked inside and grabbed a garbage bag from the pantry, dumped the cat food bag into it, and then grabbed the cat on the way back out. I ran to the Rav4 and tossed the cat into the back with the food, and then drove away. I would be damned if I was going to leave anything alive behind for those things, even a cat! As we got onto the main road Sarah said she could see several walking dead approaching across the field, and several more from another direction. We turned back south and headed for the highway.

Darren apparently started complaining about an upset stomach soon after that. Jess had to stop and let him out to throw up. He got back in and was pale and hot, and when we stopped last night inside a chain link fenced area around a hydro maintenance shack he was still throwing up and feverish. Sarah diagnosed food poisoning, and we stayed put to give him a chance to rest.

We've found out the guns are a 12 Gauge Winchester Defender pump-action with a pistol grip, a 30-.06 lever-action hunting rifle that holds about 5 rounds, and some paramilitary .223 carbine that Jess got really hot and bothered over. There were also 75 shells for the shotgun, 250 for the rifle, but only about 175 rounds for the carbine. None of these match her own rifle's ammo, but she still has just under 480 rounds left there. The happy thing is that we all have a firearm now, plus spares. And now we are all but Darren going to have a supper of cold canned soup, crackers, and preserved peaches (we threw out the pickled eggs). There is a hint of smoke in the air, so I suppose a forest fire is burning someplace to the west. It's also a little cool, so we have all put on sweaters. Michael wants to call the cat Sparkle because of his collar, and seems really happy to see it. Jess says that they had a cat before all this started, but it got out and never came back.

We'll stay here until Darren feels better. We are surrounded by a fence, and trees outside that. The bugs aren't too bad, and the temperature is tolerable. We only need hot water for a shower. We'll have to find some way to heat water so I can shave, as the thought of dry-shaving gives me chills. My watch says it is 3:35 now, and it's quiet here. Almost peaceful. If I didn't know what the world out there was like now, I would think I was camping.

Darren is feeling a little better. He's hydrated, fed, and sleeping. Sarah has been keeping a close eye on him, since we have very limited medical supplies. We haven't moved from this spot by the hydro station, and probably won't until tomorrow. We haven't seen any walking dead here, so we feel pretty good. Can't really even smell them. We are going to try to scavenge for a portable stove so we can heat up food if we can find a propane source, or a camp fuel supply. Burning wood in a fire pit will create too much light and smoke to be worth the risk.

We left the hydro station two days ago. Jess had turned on the radio Tuesday evening just to check, not expecting to hear anything, and we got a signal. Someone was broadcasting on the local station, 94Xfm. When we tuned in there was a song playing by the Smashing Pumpkins. We all gathered around in shock and listened. Three more songs played, and then a DJ came on. He sounded tired, but cheerful as he reported the weather (smoky, hot, with a chance of rain), the sports (none to speak of), and the news (the world has been overrun with the walking dead). Throughout his broadcast he exhibited a sarcastic humour as he related tales of the world as it was now. He paused to play some more music, and we listened again to see if he would come back on. He did, and talked for a while this time. I think he might have thought that nobody was left to hear him, and he rambled and talked about whatever entered his mind. He never mentioned who he was or where he was transmitting from, but we talked about it and decided he must be near a tower. There was a radio tower in Prince George; I remembered seeing it in the distance.

We listened for a few hours, and he finally mentioned his name. He was DJ Dave, broadcasting live from the downtown offices of 94X FM. He said he was the only one left in the building, except for the several dozen undead in the street outside. He then shut off the signal, saying he was going to bed, and would be back in the morning.

We all thought about it, and decided to listen for another day, then see if we could get to a point where we might be able to signal him somehow. Flashing lights? We didn't have a transmitter, or a working phone. We discussed where he was getting power from, since an FM radio transmitter draws a lot. There's a river through here, so maybe hydro power? We hadn't looked at the city at night, so we didn't know if there were street lights on or not.

So we stayed and listened, and heard him come on again at about 9:15. He described his breakfast, his lack of company, and his dreams, then played some music. He went on this rambling way for some time. Finally he reported more weather (hot, overcast, rain looming in the west) and signed off for lunch. When he came back it was with something called "The Dead Report", in which he pretended to interview formerly alive residents of the city, calling them "Mister Reanimated Corpse" or "Miss Walking Dead Girl". All the imaginary zombie replies to questions were groans or gargling. It was actually quite funny until we thought about it too much, and then it was pretty depressing. He stopped it after a while, played some more music, and when he came back on he sounded pretty down.

We had all decided we were going to try to contact him by then, and rescue him if we could. DJ Dave didn't deserve to be left alone to die, and we were determined to try to get him out.

So we moved the vehicles towards Prince George, and stopped where we had been before. We got out after checking the area carefully, and Jess and I went to the edge of the precipice to see what we could see. She set up the scope on her rifle and I scanned the downtown area with the binoculars, hoping to see an intact building with a crowd of undead nearby. In about 10 minutes I found it. It was near the river, about 200 meters from the water, and across the rail tracks. I could see a crowd of about 60 or so zombies milling around, some walking back and forth, some beating fists on the walls of the building. I pointed it out to Jess and she trained the rifle scope on the spot. Her magnification was very much more than mine was, so she could see clearly what I could only guess at. She thought it was more likely about 50 undead, and thought we could probably get to the building easily if we approached from the water.

After several hours of looking and talking we formulated a plan. We moved the vehicles to a place farther towards the city center, still up the highway from the urban areas, but close enough that we could get a good look at the terrain and the streets. We saw only a few walking dead initially, and they were easy to avoid. We ended up parking both vehicles in empty bays of a service garage on the outskirts, and no undead were within sight. We closed the doors to the bays as quietly as we could and waited for several hours. It started to rain, and the noise of the rain on the roof covered any noise we made inside.

Jess and I changed clothes into dark pants, black shirts, and dark coats and hats. She showed me the carbine we had taken from the farm, and showed me the quickest way to reload it. It had two clips, and we duct-taped them together facing opposite each other, so all I’d have to do if I emptied one would be flip it directly over and place it back in the weapon. I took both clips for the Glock as well. Jess took her rifle and scope, and we spent several hours cleaning them all and going over our plan. Sarah, for the record, doesn’t like the idea of us going in to rescue DJ Dave. She thinks it’s dangerous and not worth the risk. My argument was that he was alive, and that I was not under any circumstances going to abandon anyone alive to those dead monstrosities.

Finally it was time. We had waited for the sun to go down, and waited to see if the street lights came on. They did in a few areas, but not where we were. That suited me just fine. Jess and I took our weapons, leaving the others to watch the area. Michael was asleep, and I was glad of that. Jess was risking her life for a stranger and with her little boy asleep with Darren and Sarah to watch out for him, she felt a little better about going to get DJ Dave. We had been listening to the radio broadcast quietly, and he had nothing really new to report. He made another “Dead Report” around sundown.

We set out, keeping to the shadows and going slowly. I wished we had radios to keep in touch with my sister, so we could call them if anything went wrong. I made a mental note to keep a lookout for a Radio Shack or a Revy or something. We saw several undead on the way to the river, but the darkness and rain kept us unseen. We were able to sneak by them quite easily. We reached the river after about an hour and a half.

We had several advantages over the walking dead. Speed, since they walked or limped along, but never quite ran. Brains, since they appeared to all be about as smart as a dumb cockroach. Weapons were also an advantage. They appeared to rely on hands and teeth only, and they didn’t appear to be getting any stronger as they decayed. Our disadvantages were numbers and endurance. There were many, many more of them than us at this point, and I remember a news report, one of the last I saw, saying that they didn’t tire. They could chase us for days, and while we had to rest, they never needed to.

At the river we took a few moments to rest under a tree. I had brought along a backpack with three water bottles, binoculars, first aid supplies, two flares, some food, and a couple of flashlights. Jess and I ate a bit, and then kept going. We were soaked but not cold. It was still a warm night. Lightning and thunder started up to the west, and we were able to make good time upstream. Few of the dead seemed to be anywhere near the river. Perhaps some instinct kept them away from running water. We saw only three, and all of them were watching the lightning. We passed them quietly, and kept checking behind us, but they never followed.

Four hours after setting out we stopped. We were near the train tracks opposite the radio station, and it was full dark now. A few blocks away the power was on to the street lights, and we could see into the buildings in a few places. Interior lights revealed a few of the undead just standing in some buildings, and on the street a large mob of them had formed near the front and back of one building, a three story brick structure with a fire escape ladder. The top floor lights were all on, but I couldn’t see movement inside, even with the binoculars. Jess and I were safe at our current location, as we were on the other side of a chain link fence, and no undead were within 200 yards of us here. Well, ‘safe’ might be too strong a word, but we were not in immediate danger.

We looked around carefully, and finally spotted what we were after. From the ridge earlier we had seen a few rail cars on the tracks near the station, and in the rain they were harder to find than I had thought. We planned to get Jess up on top of one with her rifle, and I would go and create some distraction to draw the dead away from the building for a little while. I already knew what it was I’d do, so Jess climbed up onto a railcar that said Alberta Wheat Board on the side, and I passed her rifle up to her. The rain stopped around then, but the lightning and thunder kept up, and I suspected more rain was coming.

I quietly snuck over to the fence, and walked the length of it upstream since there were fewer undead there. The grass was very overgrown along the fence, and I was looking for a place out of sight of the undead to climb over it. I finally went far enough and slung the rifle over my shoulder. I waited, listening, for a good five minutes before I climbed over. I paused at the top and looked around, but it was hard to see anything in the dark. I jumped down and crouched in the grass again, and listened for another five minutes. When nothing happened I breathed a sigh of relief and crept towards the road nearby. I had to maneuver my way very carefully around some cars and trucks until I was once again downstream of the radio station, about a block away. The crowd of undead was concentrated by that building, so it was fairly clear where I was. One straggler was a little close for comfort, and I held the Glock ready in case he caught sight of me. I managed to get past him, as he was also staring at the lightning with empty eyes. One bonus to the rain, it kept the decayed stench down to tolerable levels.

I had taken a position a block away from the crowd of corpses, around a corner. I could see from the streetlights in the area that they were all near that building, so I carried on with the plan. I walked along the street until I found a newer model car, big and expensive. Just my luck, it had a broken window. I unlocked it and opened the driver’s side door. I reached down and popped the release for the gas tank cover, then turned the wheel and pushed. The car slowly started moving out into the street, and I pushed some more until I got it clear of the curb. I stopped and looked around again. Never can be too careful. I grabbed a flare from the backpack and closed the drivers’ door quietly, then took the inner cap off the gas tank. I got behind the car and pushed until it was heading towards the street where the undead were gathered. I let it go on its own momentum, popped the flare, and stuffed it into the gas tank. I then turned and ran, hoping to be well away before the tank exploded. I made it three steps.

The gas tank went up with a quiet ‘poof’, and I found myself face-down on the street kissing pavement. This was so not a good idea. I got up, ignored the sudden twinge in my back, and ran for the alleyway nearby. The car was now on fire, and was sure to draw some attention. I walked as quietly as I could down the alleyway, cut around the side block into some serious shadows, and crouched behind a truck. I stuck my head around to see most of the undead wandering towards the burning car. They all had their attention on the fire, and at least 45 of them were walking towards the wreckage. The others were all looking the other way, so I crossed the street behind them and ducked into the alleyway behind the radio station. As I walked towards the back of the building I saw that the large cluster of zombies there had dispersed and were all walking towards the burning car. I waited until they were all out of sight, then went over to a garbage can and lifted it up. I carried it over to the fire escape and turned it over, then climbed up on top and grabbed the bottom rung of the ladder. With a little effort I pulled myself up a few rungs until I was able to get my feet on a rung. Then I just climbed up until I was at the fire door by the back of the building. I knocked.