PROLOGUE
We are few, yet we are many. We are remembered, yet we are forgotten. We are together, yet we are alone. We are surviving, yet we are perishing. We are living, yet we are dying.
We are few because there are only five of us, yet we are many because in the world as it exists now, people are rare, few and far between, and five surviving together can mean the difference between another night of staying alive versus being eaten alive.
We are remembered because we have constant reminders of ourselves, battling our own humanity, sometimes on a minute by minute basis, trying to hold on to that little part of us left that reminds us we are human. Yet, we are forgotten because for a while the military air transports would come and rescue survivors, constantly giving us hope that we would be next, but it was always someone else, always some other group, getting out, getting safe, getting help. Then they just stopped coming, and we were left here, are left here, together yet alone.
Together because we exist as a community, searching, scavenging, looting, fighting, running, all in desperate attempts to find that one place we can call home, where we can be safe from the turmoil and terror that runs rampant in the world. Yet, we are alone because we have all lost our loved ones, have all lost our friends, and the only thing that keeps us going is the hope, no the prayer, that one day, somehow, some way, it will be all over and things can return to some semblance of normal.
We are surviving because we exist as a coherent unit, working together, watching each other's backs so that not one person is left behind or surprised by the monsters that yearn for our flesh, because if we lose one, if we go down to four, that's less eyes to keep watch. Yet, we are perishing because we all are slowly deteriorating due to lack of proper nutrition, lack of medicinal items, lack of sanity!
We are living because we are still here, fighting the fight, and we live on day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, because that's what we have to do, for ourselves, and for each other. Yet we are dying because each second that passes on, each minute that ticks by, each hour that continues on, and each day that comes around, WE, not them, are the walking dead. Sooner or later, someone will get eaten. Their numbers are too many, their hunger too strong, their thirst too great.
We are few, yet we are many. We are remembered, yet we are forgotten. We are together, yet we are alone. We are surviving, yet we are perishing. We are living, yet we are dying.
We are the forgotten, we are the few, we are together, surviving and living. We are The Forgotten Few, and this is our story.
CHAPTER ONE
It started off as a morning just like any other morning in the springtime, warm, breezy, and full of life. I had finished my shift at work, a 24-hour gaming center where people could come in and pay by the hour to play Computer, PlayStation 4, XBOX One, or Nintendo Wii U games. It wasn't a glamorous job by any stretch of the means, but I loved gaming, and the job was right up my alley.
I stopped off at Stirbucks to grab a frappuccino on the way home because my morning ritual usually consisted of a couple of hours of gaming before I hit the bed.
I walked in the door and my wife, Natalie, was getting ready for work. She was an Emergency and Disaster Management Specialist here where we lived in Navezgane, Arizona, and she loved her job.
I kissed her on the cheek as she headed out the door. Little did I know that would be the second to last time I would ever see her again.
I sat down to my computer and booted up A Week to Perish, a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game where you had to manage a town of survivalists and assign them jobs so they could learn skills based on their jobs. For instance, my main character, Drazzle, was the metal-smith of the group and could fashion things like blades, maces, shields and so on. Another person, my "wife" Natalia, was a medic, and did things like tend to others wounds, make medicine and bandages, and cook up alcohol for sterilization.
I was in the middle of assigning resource gathering tasks to a new member of my game's community when my real life front door burst open.
In walked a man in a hazmat suit. "Time to go sir! Shit is hitting the fan and you have to vacate to a safe area, now!" he yelled, quite angrily I might add.
"What the fuck! What the hell do you mean?" I asked as the man was grabbing me by my arm rather forcefully and pulling me toward the door.
"No time to explain sir, except to say there is a city wide disaster happening and we need to get everyone we can to safety!"
I looked at his suit and then realized, "Hey wait a minute, do I need a suit too?"
"You'll be fine sir, let's go!" he replied as he kept pulling me toward the door.
"Wait a second, I need supplies, my medicine, my kids are in school, I need to go get..." I exclaimed in a panic.
"No offense sir, but there's no time for any of that. There will be supplies and doctors where you're going, and the schools are already evacuated, now let's fucking move! Now!"
We left my house and I pulled out my phone to call Natalie, but a frantic woman that was running toward us ran into me and knocked my phone to the ground, breaking it apart and the battery bounced off the pavement and fell into a puddle. I bent down to begin picking up the pieces and was interrupted by 2 more people in hazmat suits. They picked me up and physically loaded me into the back of what looked like some type of worker's van. They sat me down on the floor, one of the men taking out what looked like a walkie or some sort of radio, and as I started to protest, he told me to, in so many words, shut the fuck up so he could hear.
There were what sounded like repeat messages being broadcast but I really couldn't make out much more than "outbreak" "flesh", and "quarantine." What the actual fuck was going on?
There were 2 other people who had already been inside the van sitting down as well. They had their phones out and looked like they were constantly trying to reach people, to no avail.
The van began moving, slamming on the gas because we jolted forward rather abruptly before we moved on to a more consistent yet quick speed. "Where are we..." I started to inquire, but was answered with a loud, "Somewhere safe, now keep quiet."
After about what seemed like 15 minutes of very fast and reckless driving, we stopped.
"All right people, we need you to step out and get in line with the others." the one with the radio instructed.
"What's the line..."
I was glared at and told to shut the fuck up, this time, in exact words.
The van door was opened and as we stepped out, the 2 that were with me were stripped of their phones despite great protest. As I looked around, I surveyed that there were dozens of people in the line we got in. There were also fences and walls all over with people on the other side trying to get in. Other people were being escorted, well, more like pushed and shoved, no, forced by what looked like soldiers with guns and hazmat masks, through a gate leading to the other side of the wall and fences.
The line we were in led to a tent. People near the tent were being removed of their clothing, and those even closer to the tent were standing in their underwear. Squinting my eyes, I could just make out a metal structure with 2 large free standing panels inside the tent. It reminded me of some sort of vertical M.R.I. machine which looked like it was scanning and spraying the people that stepped into it.
"Hey man, do you know what the hell is going on?" a man behind me asked.
I turned to him. "Some sort of disaster, something about shit hitting the fan, safe zone, outbreak, or something." I said to him. "Hey, can I use your phone to call my wife?"
"Sorry man, they took my phone, and several others too."
"Damn it!" I cursed under my breath. "I really need to make sure my wife is okay and see if she can find out where our kids are at!"
The line inched forward a bit, and I noticed a soldier walking toward the back of the line near us. I waved him over to get his attention. "Sir, do you have a phone I can use?"
"He looked at me with pity in his eyes. "I'm sorry man, but the orders are no phones."
I reached out to his arm. "Come on man, have a heart. Don't you have a wife, kids?"
"Three kids as a matter of fact." He replied, looking worried.
"And are they safe?" I asked, hoping for an answer I could use to my advantage, not wishing his kids were not safe, but hoping maybe he was in the same predicament I was.
"Honestly, I don't know. My wife doesn't know either." He answered, the worry on his face increasing.
"But at least you've talked to your wife. Come on man, I'm in the same boat, and I need to call my wife and see if she can find out about our children." I looked pleadingly into his eyes, with little hope that it would matter because soldiers are usually pretty strict. After all, orders are orders.
He looked all around, checking to see if there were any other soldiers near, and sighed, his body displaying the signs of giving in. He pulled out his phone. "Look man, I can get in serious trouble for this, so you have 60 seconds, that's it."
Relief hit my face like a cool, summer breeze. "Thank you, sir, you are a good man!" I offered, and took the phone. I dialed my wife's number and waited. She picked up!
"Hello?" she answered, panic in her voice.
"Honey! It's me! Are you okay? Are the kids okay?"
After what seemed like forever, she answered, but I could only make out part of what she was saying. "Kids…." Silence. "..were told to go….." Again, silence. "…safe zone….." More silence. "…quarantined off and told we can't…." That was it, the connection was dropped.
"Fuck!" I started to redial.
"Sargent Sorrow!" someone yelled out.
"Shit that's me!" the soldier who let me use his phone said. "Sorry man, that's all you get, I gotta go!" He took his phone back and headed off toward the front of the line to the guy that was calling out to him.
That's it. I knew nothing! I had no clue if she was safe, if our kids were safe, what the fuck was going on, why we were here, why some people were separated behind walls and other's behind a fence, nothing.
We moved forward, and a man in a hazmat suit exited from the tent and looked at me. "Sir, get undressed down to your skivvies!"
Having seen a few others who had already protested, only to have a couple of soldiers forcibly remove their clothes, I submitted in silence. My clothes were placed in a big yellow garbage-like bag and I was ushered into the tent. One guy in front of was in the vertical machine. Some lights scanned his body and then sprayed him with some type of mist. The man was then escorted out of the tent and given what looked like fatigues, and sent off the right toward the fences. Beyond the fence was a medic area, where it looked like people were being given some sort of shot or injection. People beyond the medic tent were being loaded into long military trucks in mass groups, and some trucks were just leaving.
The next guy in front of me stepped into the machine, and like the other, was scanned. The hazmat guy who had ushered me inside the tent shook his head at another guy in the same type of suit. I noticed the machine did not spray this guy. He was ushered out of the tent, given what appeared to be paper thin hospital scrubs, and sent to the left toward the gate. He was yelling something about unfairly and being separated from his brother, and then forced by two soldiers to go through the gate, which was quickly even though people on the other side were clamoring to get back in.
My turn was next. I stepped into the machine and submitted to the scan. I intently watched the movements of the man staring at the screen attached to the machine. He gave the other man a thumbs down, and I too, was not sprayed. I was then quickly escorted out of the tent, given the same paper scrubs, and the soldiers were about to steer me toward the gate, when I saw her. Natalie! My wife! She was on the other side of the fence looking right at me. She had her mouth open and was clearly yelling but I couldn't hear her because screams started coming from the within the fence.
People were running up on other people and their mouths went right to their faces. They were biting them, chewing, snarling, eating! They were eating them! Wasn't there food behind that fence? Are the people that hungry already that they are resorting to cannibalism that quickly?
Then I noticed their skin. Their flesh was wounded and decayed, pieces of skin hanging off, and I suddenly realized. Outbreak, disaster, quarantine. These were zombies, just like my game, A Week to Perish! WHAT. THE. FUCK!
Clearly the people put inside the fence were "safe" in the scans, and were being given medicine, probably antibiotics, and clothes, and being transported to somewhere probably more secure. Clearly the group I was in, the ones deemed not safe from the scans, were being give sh*t clothes in the form of paper scrubs and being quarantined behind the walls.
My epiphany was interrupted suddenly as a loud noise erupted at the fence and part of it fell down. Some of the people starting running through away from the zombies, some of which chased the people, and some of which started pouring in toward us at the tent, and at the same time, out of nowhere Sorrow, the soldier that had earlier let me use his phone, appeared in front of me, his back toward the broken fence. "Come on man, we gotta move to the walls now!" Ignoring his words, I moved him aside and looked again toward the fence. My wife was part of the people coming in! She was coming toward me, and I started moving toward her. There were zombies behind her, but there was one in particular right on her tail!
"Look out Natalie!" I yelled, and she started to turn, but it was too little too late. The zombie grabbed her, and she and it started falling into me, the zombie's mouth wide open and nearing my chest!
Sorrow turned toward me after I had yelled out all he saw were two bodies among the few others a little farther back falling right into me, and he opened fire. The first shot hit the zombie right in the eye, hitting him in such a way that he fell on the ground near and I was no longer in danger of being bitten. The second shot Sorrow fired hit my wife in the chest and knocked her off of me. "Let's go!" he yelled, "Next time I might not be able to save your life!"
"What the fuck man, that's my wife! She was running from the zombie!"
"Oh shit," he exclaimed, grabbing me, "I'm sorry but we have to go now or we will be dead!"
I started reaching down to my wife, who was already being eaten alive by the zombie he shot but clearly was not dead. Sorrow was strong and started dragging me away toward the wall, and all I could see as I was being taken away from my wife was the rest of the zombies descending upon her and consuming her flesh and organs in some attempt to satiate their yearning.
I had to snap to it because from the side of us, a couple of more zombies were coming. We were at the gate and the other two soldiers were firing at them. Other people in fatigues came up demanding the gate be opened, and they were refusing to comply. They looked as us and shook their head, refusing us as well. "Look sirs, if we all don't get behind that gate they are going to overrun us and kill us all!"
"No way Sargent, orders are orders!" came robot-life emotionless reply. "Step away!"
"Shit! I was afraid of this!" Sorrow exclaimed as he readied his weapon, aimed at the soldiers. "Don't make me do this, sirs! I'm sorry but it's us or you. Either you let us in so we don't die, or I kill you and we get in and don't die."
"You are out of line, Sargent!" retorted the clearly outranking soldier. "Lower your weapon, now, or else!"
"Aw hell," Sorrow said quietly, "this is where it begins. With his gun aimed at the head of the first soldier, he fired a shot. It didn't hit him, but hit the wall right next to his head. "The next one goes in your skull!"
The soldiers began to raise their weapons, and without a delay, Sorrow fired two rounds off, one in each of the arms of the soldiers, which caused them to drop their guns. "I don't want to kill you, but let us in now!" He yelled as he moved us to the gate's controls. He pushed the button to open the gate, and that's when a third soldier showed up out of nowhere and hit us both in the head with the butt of his weapon, knocking us out!