The Event: The Beginning (13 page)

              Stepping out as the last of the vehicles got parked, I started looking around as people started filing out. There was the expected trash blowing around, but no signs of any people right now. I just hoped we didn’t see any signs of any infected. The last fight was still fresh on my mind, especially the lost man. I glanced over and saw Dave already gathering a small group up, no doubt to go on a gas search. He nodded at me once he saw me looking that way, and I nodded back with a thumbs up signal. Roger was headed my way, suited up with his swords. Looking over at Jeff, he was checking the rig over, I assume to make sure the tire blowing out didn’t do any additional damage since he couldn’t take the time to examine it at the time. Michelle had walked over to check on the kids, and most everybody was just getting out to stretch their legs and get what little sunlight remained of the day. We were starting to come into the mountains so the sun was already behind them.

              "Is this going to just be a gas and go again?" Roger asked as walked up to me.

              "No. There is a RV park and campground here that I want to see if it's safe enough. It would be nice if there were cabins or something so we wouldn’t have to sleep in the RV's tonight. Maybe a conference center, something. If nothing else, there is a hotel on the other side of the highway." I told him, adjusting my sword belt to a more comfortable position.

              "So what do you want us to do now?" he asked, looking out over parking lot, away from the group. The wind was the only thing making noise, and even that was minimal.

              "Dave is gathering men, I assume to siphon what gas is left or go on a food run. I'll find out soon. Jeff is checking the rig out. Michelle is checking in with the kids. I don't want anyone to go too far right now, it's too wooded around here. I would love a peaceful, restful night tonight for everyone. I plan on getting to the ship by tomorrow night."

              "You're so sure one is there?" Roger asked.

              "I have to assume there is. I can't think right now about what will happen if there isn't." I told him. I really couldn’t. If there wasn’t a carrier in port I didn’t know what I do with the group. I wasn’t even sure if they would follow me anymore if that was the case.

              We walked as we talked, and I led us back over to the vehicles. I motioned for Roger to help me unhook my car, which we did. I then ducked back into the RV and grabbed my keys. I walked back to the car and began unloading everything.

              "Just what do you think you're doing now?" Michelle asked, walking up behind us. Roger just smiled and scooted away with the last of the things in the car. I mumbled ‘chicken shit’ to his back and turned towards Michelle.

              "I'm going to go check out this RV Park and campground over here, see if there is a safe area for us to stay tonight. I'm sure most everybody would appreciate not sleeping in the vehicles tonight.” I told her. I knew she worried about everything, she had always been like that.

              "Does Jeff know? You know if he won't want you to go alone." She said. I knew she was also worried about how it would affect the girls if something happened to me.

              "No, he doesn’t. I don’t tell him everything. And I'm not going alone, Roger is going with me.” I replied. I knew she would go tell Jeff immediately, but like I told her, I wasn’t going to run everything past him.

              She just stood there with her hands on her hips, head cocked to the side, with that expression she always gave me when she wasn’t happy with my decision. I stopped, took a breath, and just looked at her.

              "Look, I'll be fine. We won't be gone more than an hour. I need to know if we have a place at the campground, or if we need to head over to and clear that hotel. Go spend some time with the girls, keep them calm, and we will be right back." I assured her, taking her by the arm and turning her. I held my hand on her back as I walked her towards the RV. She huffed, and sighed, but I knew she listened to me and wouldn’t give me any more grief over it. Once I got her back to the RV, I went in search of Dave. Hopefully I was right in that he had men already going for gas and food.

              "Dave, what's up man?" I asked him as I walked up to where he was standing.

              "Not much. I knew you were going to ask for a gas run, and probably a food run, so I sent one team to siphon gas, and another to search the immediate buildings for food and supplies.

              "Excellent, that was exactly what I was going to ask you.” I said as I laughed. Dave was getting really good at reading my mind when we stopped, and taking charge to get things done. Thinking about that, I realized that meant I had Jeff, Val, and Dave that I could count on like that. I knew Michelle would always be there for me to talk to, and help me sort things out, and Roger would always have my back in a fight. It made this seem easier to handle knowing there were people I could count on.

              "I see you're planning on going out again. Does Michelle know? She freaked out the last time." He asked me. He had his own family to watch out for, but he was one of those guys that watched out for everybody.

              "Yeah, she already jumped my ass about it." I replied. I simply shook his hand, we nodded goodbye, and I went in search of Roger. I figured he would be finding someone else to go with us, and apparently I was right as he was standing near the car with Alan, one of the other guys we had found early on that was very good with a sword also. Alan also had a pistol strapped to his thigh, and a shotgun handle sticking above his shoulder. I couldn’t blame him as I also had grabbed a pistol and several clips to take with me. No matter how fast I was with a sword, a Glock nine millimeter made a difference sometimes.

              "Let's load up.” I said as I got close. Roger called shotgun and headed for the front seat, while Alan opened the back door and climbed in. I wanted to get moving before Jeff had a chance to come over and gripe me out or butt in again. I walked around the front of the car and hoped in the front seat, adjusting my swords as I got in. I handed Roger the map and he opened it to the marked page as I started the car and put it in gear.

              We pulled out of the parking lot and as I looked in my mirror I could see Jeff waving at the car and saying something, probably telling me to stop. I smiled to myself and turned left to head towards the campground. We headed down the road, watching the tree line, trying to see anything moving. I knew it would be a little ways down the road past the curve coming up before we made it to the actual campground.

              Slowing for the curve, we continued looking all directions without seeing anything. No signs of people, infected, or even animals. I expected at least animals. After the curve, I stayed going nice and slow, rolling down my window to listen. Our engine, wind, and an occasional bird were the only things we heard. The others had also rolled down their windows so we could listen and watch from all directions.

              We rolled slowly down the street, seeing nothing but trees, brush, trash, and two cars. Both were on the side of the road, doors open and obviously abandoned. After about ten minutes, we finally made it to the turn off for the campground. There was no gate, just a welcome sign. I made the right turn into the park and we started looking around. The trees were a little thinner in the RV part of the park, so we could see quite far. There were RV's still parked here and there, but there were several that had apparently tried leaving that had crashed into trees. Regular cars had also crashed here and there into trees or RV's. It appeared that there had been small fires at some point as well.

              We slowly made our way through the park, only seeing trash blowing around and some squirrels roaming around. There was no sign of humans still lingering around though. It also wasn't looking like a very good place to bed down for the night.

              "What do you think guys? I'm thinking this is a bust, and we should try the hotel on the other side of the highway.” I asked. Roger at least would give me an honest answer, I was still getting to know Alan.

              "I'm thinking hotel honestly. While it would be nice to get out and be in some nature for a little, I don’t think this is safe enough. We wouldn’t be able to see anything coming until it got too close.” Roger said. I glanced back at Alan and he nodded in agreement.

              "I'm with you two on this one. A campfire would be nice, but I think the risks are too great right here. We need safety first, then comfort." Alan said.

              "Alright, hotel it is then. We'll head back and let the group know. I think most of the group would be more comfortable in a bed anyways. The hotel should be easily secured also, I hope." I said as I turned into a spot to turn around and head back.

              As I put it in reverse and turned to look behind me, I saw movement from around the corner of one of the wrecked RV's. I brought the car to a stop and just watched. Roger started to ask what was wrong but I brought my finger to my lips and pointed. Both Roger and Alan then turned to look at what I was pointing at. Three infected, obviously ones infected early on as what little clothing they had left was shredded and barely hanging onto them. Even from this distance we could see they had claws, and they were not walking straight upright, but rather slightly hunched over.

              Alan turned back towards the front and gave us a clear look that said ‘what do we do’. I glanced at Roger with a tilt to my head and inclined my chin towards the infected. He nodded back with a shrug. Alan was looking slightly scared, which I knew both Roger and myself were also, but I didn’t want to leave any infected running around to come harass the group either.

              "Alan, Roger and I are getting out. I want you to get in the drivers' seat, keep it running, but not in gear. Radio back to the group and let them know we have infected over here, but Roger and I are taking care of it. Have them keep a watch in case there are any more we don’t see. Be very quiet, ok?" I said to Alan. He was very nervous, but I was sure he would be okay with instruction. He nodded his understanding and gulped, looking a little pale.

              "You will be fine, promise. Sheldon and I can take on three each, let alone together. Just don’t leave us, ok? You cool?" Roger asked him. Alan nodded back, and gulped again, but after a few deep breaths he looked better, and didn’t appear so nervous. Roger looked back at me and nodded, I returned the nod, and we both opened our doors at the same time. We got out and moved towards the back of the car. Alan also got out and hurried to the drivers' seat.

              "Keep the doors shut, but don’t lock them. Roll the windows up as well. We may need to get back in quickly, understand?" I told him before he shut his door. He nodded at me, gave me a thumbs up, and shut the door. Roger and I met at the back, watching the infected walk around. They hadn't seemed to notice us just yet, and I hoped it stayed that way for a minute or two longer.

              "How do you want to do this?" he whispered to me. I just watched them for a minute, thinking about that.

              "Unless the turn their backs to us it doesn’t look like we can sneak up on them. We may just have to get as close as we can and then hope for the best. Tell you what, grab Alan's shotgun. That would at least slow them down from range. Between that and my pistol, maybe we won't even have to get close to them this time." I whispered back. We weren't sure how good their hearing was yet, and I didn’t want to grab their attention before we had a plan.

              As we were talking, the infected moved to our right, still a little ways off. I motioned for him to move back behind the car for now. Roger then went to the front passenger door and retrieved the shotgun from Alan. Once we realized they were still ignoring us, I indicated with hand motions that we should move slightly to the left, which would put us behind them, using the trees as cover, what little there was. We moved slowly, crouched down ourselves, hoping they wouldn't see us until we were ready.

              We made it across the road without being spotted, when one of the infected screamed out. They had been making small sounds, yelps and grunts, which made me think of pack animal like hyenas. I wondered if they were somehow communicating like that. We stopped at the scream and looked, but it appeared they hadn't seen us. I wasn’t sure what caused it to yell out, but they were still just moving slowly, like they really didn’t have a direction, they were just moving. Again, almost like pack animals searching for food, or shelter. If they were starting to work together, that was a disturbing development for us. That would make them much more dangerous. If they became intelligent enough to work together and communicate, they could also possibly start planning attacks. Coordinated attacks by these things would be very bad for us.

              As we watched, they seemed to turn slightly, away from us. I motioned to Roger and we started moving, slowly, keeping low and behind the trees. We picked up the pace a little when they moved so that a RV was between us. We moved down the side of the RV and peeked around the corner. The three infected had moved a little more left and stopped. There was a burnt out RV sitting close to them, and it appeared like they were using it as shelter. As we watched, another infected came out of the door. I looked back at Roger in amazement, and he peeked around me at the group. The new one was larger, had no clothes on it at all anymore, and appeared to be a leader of sorts. The other three made small yelps and snorts when it appeared. I just added this sign to the growing list of reasons why I thought these things were acting like pack animals.