The Event: The Beginning (6 page)

              Stepping out from the stacked pallets finally, it opened up into just an open area of floor, and I saw Jeff and several of his men standing at an open door. The smell hit me from even this far away, and I wasn't sure I wanted to see it after all.

              "Looks like we weren't the first ones to try to hole up here." Jeff said, looking grim. I went up to him, trying to breathe through my mouth so I wouldn’t have to smell it so much. He handed me a flashlight and I shined it around the room. It looked to be a storage locker of some kind. There were metal shelves lining the walls, but the sight that drew your attention first was the small pile of bodies on the floor. It looked to be about ten people, all dead. There was bedding, a few makeshift weapons, and plenty of canned food on the shelves.

              "I guess they closed themselves off in here with food and weapons, hoping to ride it out for a while. They must not have realized it was airtight. None of them looked bitten, or changed, from here." I said, surveying the rest of the room.

              "Without a close examination it would appear that's the case, yes." Jeff said.

              "Clean it out, if there is anything left we can use, then close it back up. Let's leave them in peace.” I ordered, turning to survey the rest of the warehouse. I had seen a forklift somewhere in there, and thought maybe we could move some of these pallets around and clear out the area furthest from the room of bodies. I heard Jeff assigning a few men to clean out the room, and then his footsteps came up behind me.

              "I saw a forklift. I'm guessing you are thinking of moving these pallets around to clear out an open area closer to the door, farther away from this room?" he asked me. I just turned my head towards him and smiled, then nodded. We thought a lot alike.

              "We should probably get that overhead door open there for a little while, let it air out in here. I wouldn't want the more squeamish of the group coming in to this smell.” I said, pointing to the closest door. "How much did you get searched? Is there any other entrances to this area we should be concerned with? If we are going to camp out here tonight I don't want any surprises."

              "There are other doors, but they are locked tight. It probably wouldn’t hurt to post a couple of guards overnight just in case, but as long as the door we came in is secure, and anything you found was secure, we should be safe here." Jeff said. He motioned a man over and gave him instructions to open the door a little, then he nodded to me and walked towards the forklift to start moving pallets. I looked back over at the room and saw a few men had brought out canned food and water bottles and just closed the door. One appeared to say a small prayer for the ones left inside. I thought we could all use a little of that right now.

              I gathered my team to go check the front area again, just to make sure it was all secure. I sent two out to gather the rest of the group and start bringing people in. The rest of us went back into the office area to check it back out. I went to the front lobby area and checked those doors. They were locked, and the boards all seemed to be nailed or screwed in tight. I tried pulling on a few, and none of them budged. As I entered the cubicle room again, one man came over to me and said all the windows in the offices were also boarded up tightly. That meant the only way in or out was the service entrance we originally came in. I told the guys to start funneling people into here so everyone could claim a bit of floor to sleep tonight.

              I went back out to the warehouse area and saw that Jeff had managed to move most of the pallets to in front of the door to the dead room and cleared a large area close to the service lobby. People were starting to file in now, and I heard the guard directing people to the office area. With the room closed, and the overhead open for open, the smell was dissipating now. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was now about six. The sun would be going down soon, and those things would be more active. I went to Jeff as he hopped off the forklift.

              "I want two men stationed in at least four RV's for the night, and we need a radio or two in here. They can take turns sleeping, but I want at least one in each vehicle awake to keep watch. They can radio us if they see anything, but don't fire unless they have to." I told Jeff. I then went outside to the RV's and helped bring in some of the food. We could make a makeshift kitchen in one of the offices. I went out and climbed on top of one of the RV's to get a better view of the area. I looked out across the lot, then up and down the building. Seeing a ladder leading up to the roof, I decided to head up to get a birds' eye view of the area. I had my swords on me so I walked over to the ladder and motioned to one of the men who was outside, pointed to myself, the ladder, and up. He nodded understanding and continued on his way.

              I made my way up the ladder and scanned the rooftop. I didn't see any movement up there so I pulled myself the rest of the way up. I began by going right and heading to the area over the office area. I walked around the perimeter of the roof, looking as far as I could. I could see houses in the distance, other businesses.  I continued around the edge of the roof, looking at the street, inspecting the roof for damage, looking out across the street. I couldn’t see any movement, which meant no infected. I also didn’t see any signs of survivors either, though. I made my way around the edge of the roof, even to the areas we weren't going to be in. it took me about an hour to make it all the way around back to the ladder. The sun had set most of the way by then, so I couldn’t really see anymore. I stayed on the roof near the ladder and watched to see if there was anything moving around our area. Seeing nothing, I started climbing down the ladder. Once I got to the ground, I made my way inside.

              There were a few men and women in the lobby area, just talking together, the door was open to the warehouse area and I saw people in there too. I went into the office area and went to find a place to bed down for the night. I talked to a few people, listened to a few fears, calmed some people down, and then went in search of Michelle and the girls. I found Michelle setting up her bed for the night in one of the offices.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her.

“Ok, I guess. It still doesn’t seem real though.” She replied.

“I know. I just hope I can pull of this bullshit I’m spouting. I know the ship will be there, I just don’t know about leading this many people there.” I said. We made small talk for a little longer, and then I decided to go find the kids and check on them. I found the girls hanging out with Jeff's kids in the front part of the room. They were playing cards, and it looked like my little card shark Angie was winning.

              "How's it going guys? Doing okay for now?" I asked them. They all answered me that they were doing well.

              "Want to join in?" Angie asked.

              "No, I'm good. Looks like you're winning, and I would hate to spoil your run of luck.” I joked with her. I went and found my bedroll and found a quiet spot to stretch out for the night. I laid my sleeping bag out and curled up.

Chapter 4

May 3rd, 2018

              I woke up to Jeff kicking me.

              "Get up, lazy ass, it's already six." I rolled over and glared at him.

              "Shut up.” I growled at him. I threw my blanket off and sat up to start waking up and getting ready to get this bunch moving again. I got my boots back on and then rolled my sleeping bag and blanket up. I put my sword belt back on and picked up my things. Walking through the room, I saw everyone was waking up and getting packed back up. I went outside and saw several others already loading the RV's back up. I could tell that someone had found several usable items among the supplies in the warehouse and they were loading them up with the rest of our stuff.

              I could tell some had eaten breakfast, or were still in the process of, but I was never one who cared much for breakfast, so I just put my things away, and climbed back on to the roof to check out the scene. As I got to the top, I saw several of our men on the far side with binoculars. I walked straight up to them instead of around the edge since it looked like something had their attention.

              "What's up guys, see something interesting?" I asked as I came up behind them.

              "Yeah. Take a look.” one of the men said, handing me his binoculars. I looked to where he was pointing, which seemed to be a large building, maybe a school, I couldn’t be sure from here. There were several people milling around in front of it, which by the looks of them were probably infected. It was hard to tell how many were there as they kept going in and out of view. I guessed at least thirty or so however.

              "Alright. Let's get everyone loaded quickly and quietly. We don’t have to go that way to hit the highway again, so hopefully we won't have to deal with them." I said, handing the binoculars back. Two of the men stayed to watch, while the rest of us headed back down to get everything loaded. I had one man stay at the top of the ladder so we could get the two watchers down without forgetting them.

              I walked back in the office area and found Jeff and Dave. I told both of them what we saw, and they began hustling people along without panicking them. I went and found the kids and got them moving along.               My girls were not morning people, but I got them moving anyways. I then went back outside and made sure that everything was going smoothly. I helped get some of the food and other supplies we had pulled out get packed back up. People started coming out and getting their things put away and loading up for the next leg of the trip. I hoped we would make Memphis by ten, and then Nashville by noon or so. If the roads were clear, and we found plenty of gas easily we had the potential to reach Knoxville by the end of the day, but I wasn't counting on clear roads. I hoped that we could reach the base by the end of the day tomorrow.

              By seven everyone had finished packing up, and I signaled the man on the roof to get the other two and get loaded. Once they were down and in, I radioed Jeff and we started moving. We headed down the service road back towards the highway without incident. We got back on headed east and continued on our way. After scrounging last night we had full tanks and most of our cans were full. I figured we could reach Nashville without refueling, unless we ran into too many roadblocks.

              We traveled about fifty to sixty miles an hour, keeping in constant radio contact as well as within visual range. Five miles west of Memphis we encountered a pretty bad wreck blocking most of the highway. Jeff pulled as close as he could, and we pulled the RV's close together as well. I got out with Jeff, Dave, Roger, and a few others. Keeping any eye out for any movement, we walked up to the wreck and surveyed the scene.

              It had apparently happened a while back, as the cars had obviously burned, but were no longer hot or smoldering. Quite a few of them were on their sides, or roofs, so they would be a pain to move, while the ones upright had melted wheels.

              "Is there an exit we can back up too and take a service road or something?" Dave asked.

              "I don’t think so, but let me go get the map.” I said. I then turned towards the RV's again to go get it. What I saw made me stop. There were several dozen infected moving towards us in a herd. I could see several people in the vehicles trying to get our attention through the windows frantically, so I knew I wasn’t the first person to spot them.

              "Turn around slowly and draw your swords.” I said quietly to the rest. I knew Jeff and Roger were good with a sword, but I didn't know about Dave or the others. I felt movement to my side and saw Jeff and Roger in my peripheral vision, so I knew I was not alone. I glanced back and saw three of the other five had swords, while Dave and the other guy had handguns.

              "Don't fire those guns unless you have to.” I instructed them. I knew the noise would only draw more. Those of us with swords fanned out and formed an arc around those with guns. The first of the infected saw us, gave their telltale screech and started moving towards us. Some shuffled, some actually ran. The first one reached Roger, who swung, planting his sword directly in its forehead. One of the others had the next one, then Jeff quickly dispatched the third one. There were two headed towards me, and I simply rushed forward before they could close and swung both blades at their necks, neatly decapitating both of them. I rushed back to the line we had formed as the rest of the herd closed in. I heard gunshots ring out, and realized some were firing from inside the RV's. I really didn’t want the gunfire, but it appeared we were committed to the fight now. I nodded back at the two with guns and they took aim and started firing, dropping infected before they got close.

              "Jeff, let's get you back into the rig. I need you to push these cars out of the way. At least a path wide enough to drive through, not the whole road.” I yelled over the gunfire and screeches of infected. We began moving in that direction, each swing or bullet dropping an infected person. I hated all the killing, but it was us or them, and there was no reasoning with them. They were no longer people, I had to keep reminding myself of that.

              We made it back to the rig and formed an arc around the drivers' door so Jeff could fall back and get in. Once the door shut, we started moving towards the RV's once more. A chorus of gunshots warned us of a new wave coming at us from around the corner of the RV's before we saw the first ones appear. We continued fighting through to get to the first door we came to.

              Once we made it to the closest vehicle, we formed a short arc around the door. The door opened and we started filtering in one by one. I had Dave go first, then two of the other men, followed by Roger. It was down to me and one other man. He nodded at me to go first, and as I turned and ducked in, I saw an infected crash into him, sinking its teeth into the side of his neck.

              "NO!" I yelled, preparing to go back to try to save him. I stopped cold and felt myself yanked backwards as Roger had a hold of my collar and yanked me back in. The door slammed shut as people kept firing through our gun ports. I struggled, pushing against the hands holding me down, trying to get back to the door and save our man.

              "He's gone man, he's gone. There is nothing we can do for him.” Roger was telling me. The driver had already started moving, following Jeff as he plowed a path through the wreck. His rig shoved cars out of the way, off to one side or the other. We followed, one by one, running over infected as they ran in front of us. According to the other drivers, all the vehicles made it through with no issues, and no one else was bitten. We continued on without any more roadblocks to work around.

              I knew that Jeff was familiar with these roads, as he traveled this area quite regularly as a truck driver. It was a confusing area, and I radioed to everyone to keep close so no one got lost. Jeff turned off on an exit, and as much as I didn’t want to stop around here, we all followed. He pulled into a truck stop and we all pulled to a stop around him. When no movement was seen for ten minutes, a few of us unloaded to look around. Jeff and I split the teams again and went to search the truck stop. It had a restaurant attached to it, so I hoped there might be something useable left inside. I had Roger take a team to siphon gas out of the tanks, as well as the few cars that were parked around the building. By the looks of this place though, I doubted we would find much of use. We were currently in West Memphis, which had a not so good reputation among truck drivers regarding safety. I was surprised Jeff had chosen this spot to stop in.

              Most of the windows were busted out, so we could see inside. Everything was trashed, shelves were empty, knocked over, things thrown around. Glass was shattered everywhere, and there were a few bodies lying on the floor. Blood had pooled around them, and we could see most of them had their throats ripped out. A few others looked like they had been stabbed to death. From the looks of them, none of them had been turned before they died.

              "I don’t like the looks of this man, I think we should just siphon the gas and leave.” Jeff said, looking around. His head swiveled, watching all directions.

              "Me either, let's go help them with the gas and get out of here." I agreed. We made our way back to where Roger's team was and helped them with loading the gas cans back onto the trailer as they got filled. There was not much gas left in the tanks so it didn’t take long to empty them. We didn’t get as much as I would've hoped, so we loaded back up and started driving again.

              The highway twisted through Memphis, and luckily we had no more roadblocks, even though we passed many wrecks, or stalled vehicles. Once on the other side of the city, we moved fairly quickly until our next exit. One of the group had family in Brownsville they wanted to check on, and it was only a short detour. We took the exit and headed north. It was a small, two lane highway to Brownsville, and it was slow going as there were multiple wrecks along the way.

              We made our way north until we found the town, and it looked to be a small farming town. There were businesses lined up and down the street, cars parked or wrecked all over the place. Some buildings had boarded up windows, some were busted out. There was glass and trash all over the street, but we didn’t see any bodies, or blood. A few stray animals here and there, but they mostly stayed away from us. Jeff found a grocery store with a nice sized parking lot to pull over into, and we all stopped to assess the situation. Once all the vehicles had pulled in and stopped, I got out with a radio and my weapons. Roger, Jeff, and a few others joined me.

              "Ok. Dave, take a few men and go look over the grocery store. I don’t have high hopes, but maybe we will get lucky. Jeff, Roger, and you three will go with Eric and myself to search for his family. Let's take two of the cars off trailers so we won't waste so much gas. I want hand weapons mostly, swords, crowbars, etc. The less noise we make the better." I told the group around me. One of the men named Steve ran back to the RV to get Eric and his weapons, while Dave gathered his men to search the store. Jeff and I went to unload the two cars and make sure they had gas.

              Once the cars were fueled and ready, Jeff took some men with him, and I took the rest. Eric was in Jeff's car in the lead, showing us the way, while I had Roger, Steve, and one of the other guys with me. We each had radios, and I hoped they would reach the convoy too, just in case.

              We rolled through town, taking turns as Eric described, looking at various places they could be on the way to their house. We tried city hall, with no luck. It didn’t even appear that anyone had ever holed up there. Next we went two blocks to the city jail. It was a sturdy building, and would have been a good place to go, but it too was empty. We did find a few more weapons and some ammo there, as well as some riot gear and bullet proof vests to add to our armor collection. By the time we had searched those two, and made it to Eric's family's house, it was pushing noon. I was hoping to be further along than this by now, but we weren't too far behind schedule.

              Eric had us stop in front of a two story, nice house. The yard was becoming overgrown, and there were no cars to be seen, but there was a large three car garage in the back. It appeared that the windows on the ground floor were boarded up, but not the second. There was also a privacy fence around the property that someone had placed barbwire coils on top of. Obviously someone at one point had tried to fortify this place. I could only hope that Eric's family was still alive.

              We got out and looked around. There was no movement that we could see, and no noise but the wind. I formed the group up in one formation so we could keep a view in all directions, while Roger, Jeff, Eric, and I took point. We started by heading up the driveway towards the garage. It too looked boarded up. There was no door on this side of the house, so I could only assume that there was one that lead from the garage straight to the back yard, and then into the house.

              Roger checked the fence, but of course the gate was locked, as we expected. I motioned for two of the others to come here and had them lift me onto the roof of the garage. Once up there, I helped up Jeff and Roger as well. We crept to the edge near the back yard. There was nothing in the yard except play equipment for the kids, toys, and a dog house. The dog was nowhere to be seen however. We made a quick inspection of the roof of the garage, and as much of the house as we could see from there. It all appeared intact. I motioned for Eric to come up also. I wanted him with us in case we found survivors.