Made for this World
Chapter 2
Three days. At any given time in life we are all only three days from complete and total anarchy.
This might seem like an unreasonably short amount of time. But Roberta Warren knew better than most people just how true the statement was. She had been in the national guard most of her adult life. Despite the obvious hurdles of being black and a woman, she had worked her way up the ranks and was now a first lieutenant. Her unit had been one of the first to respond after Hurricane Katrina. Within three days the citizens of New Orleans had descended into anarchy, looting and murdering each other. When her unit showed up a few days later, people had been killing and eating dogs to stay alive.
The difference between Katrina and the current state of affairs was that this crisis was nationwide. As far as she knew, it might be worldwide. Perhaps geographically isolated places like Australlia might have fared better, but that wasn't going to help her. Within the three days it took the residents of New Orleans to start going hungry, this time all communication had completely broken down. She had been unable to get anyone on the phone, not even on the military secure line. There were wild videos circulating on the internet and the reports on the news were getting more and more disturbing.
Some of the bigwigs had been rushed off into the night a few days before, leaving Roberta as the ranking officer at the national guard base she was stationed at. She did what she thought should be done. A hospital area was set up for injured civilians. People were offered medical care, food and shelter. The base seemed safe. Impenetrable. But in the end the zombie virus had swept through the place like a tidal wave. Complete chaos erupted within a few hours after the first person with an infected bite died and turned.
Roberta was not especially proud of what she did during the chaos. She shot people. Friends and coworkers that she had known for years. They had not been themselves at the time, and she understood later that what she had done for them was a mercy. But her instinct at the time had been to kill first and ask questions later. She took a vehicle. A large truck with four wheel drive. A bag full of emergency food bars. Two large cases of water and several empty gas cans. Plus as many extra weapons as she could carry.
She peeked into the windows of the infirmary to see if she might be able to take some medical supplies. The place was completely overrun. That was when she saw Addy. Fighting off zombies with a metal tray. Slamming them over their heads before they had a chance to bite her. Her crazy red hair flying around her as her boots slipped on the blood and gore under her feet. Roberta knew she ought to forget the girl and leave. Save her own skin. But how hard the girl was fighting for her life, that resonated with Roberta deep inside her core.
Roberta shot out the window and kicked the rest of the glass out of the frame.
"THIS WAY!," she screamed to the red haired girl. The girl didn't hesitate. She slammed the tray into the walker closest to her and ran for the window. Roberta head shot the ones that were following behind the girl. They both climbed into her stolen truck and Roberta slammed it into drive.
"I'm Addy," the girl told her once they were out of the camp and out on the open road. Now that she was up a little closer, Roberta could see she was more of a young woman than a girl. High school or maybe even college age. Her hair was crayon red and twisted into dread locks in the back. She had a silver chain dangling from her hand that she reached behind her head to fasten around her neck. It had a butterfly charm on it. Roberta introduced herself and told Addy her plans. She was not going to report to another national guard base as her training had taught her to do. She was going home to find her husband. Addy didn't have any family to look for. Her mother and little brother had died back in the camp infirmary. At the time Addy told Roberta all this in a calm and detached tone. Like she was talking about the weather. The crying came a few days later, after her nightmares started.
It took the women two more weeks to make it to Castle Point. Roberta's hometown. She checked her house first. There was a half drunk cup of coffee on the kitchen counter that had mold growing on the top of it. The first sign that her husband had not been there in quite some time. In the living room there was a large puddle of what looked like dried blood on the floor and the coffee table was broken into a million pieces. Dribbles of blood led to the front door, which was hanging open.
Until that point, Roberta didn't let herself think that anything might have happened to Antoine. He was a firefighter. He was strong. The toughest bastard she knew. And he had emergency medical training. She stared at the large spot of blood for a long time. Addy shut the front door and checked the rest of the house to make sure it was empty while Roberta sat down in her husband's favorite chair and cried. The chair smelled like him.
She cried and Addy turned on the television flipping through the stations one a time. NBC was still showing the emergency broadcast signal, but all the other stations weren't even bothering with that anymore. They showed nothing but static or a rainbow of multicolored lines. Addy turned the tv off. Then only reason it was even working was because of the solar panels on the roof that Roberta's husband had invested in to help cut down on the cost of heating their pool. They ate food from Roberta's meager pantry and slept the night in her living room.
The next morning Roberta woke up with renewed hope. If he wasn't at home, she figured maybe Antoine was at the fire station. That was where he was trained to go in case of an emergency. Before she and Addy left, Roberta twisted open the back of a fancy picture frame and took her wedding picture, folding it up to fit it into the cargo pocket of her pants.
Addy drove them to the fire station, with Roberta riding shotgun and playing navigator. The place looked deserted as soon as they pulled up. Addy reached over and squeezed her arm, trying to offer the only friend she had left in the world what little comfort she could. The two women got their guns out and went in. And that was when they met Cassandra.
The first floor was a mess. They found no one and nothing of use. When Roberta opened up the door to the kitchen to walk through and head to the stairs that led up to the second floor, a crazed dark haired woman leaped out at them. She plowed into Addy, knocking her to the floor where she started trying to choke her. Roberta yanked the much smaller and lighter woman off her friend and pushed her up against the wall, ordering her to calm down. She was lucky she hadn't got shot in the face, scaring the shit out of people like that.
"Are they out there?," the woman asked, her dark eyes darting around the room.
"Who?," Roberta asked her.
"Some men," Cassandra explained, "A bunch of them. They were chasing me. I hid in here." She was breathing hard and fast, looking like she might try to fight Roberta off and run. At that explanation, suddenly the sound of gunshots could be heard from outside the building. Not right outside, but close enough to cause concern.
"That's them!," the dark haired woman hissed. Like Roberta thought, the woman tried to kick her and run, but Addy was ready. She grabbed the other women.
"We have a truck outside. Guns. Don't be stupid, you can come with us," she hissed back at the woman they had only just met. There was never a question. She had learned already that there was safety in numbers. Neither Addy or Roberta would have made it this far alone. The woman hesitated a moment and then nodded.
"We need to go for the truck, right now," Roberta ordered. And they did. The men outside were closer than she expected. And there were a lot of them. But none of them were as good a shot as her. She shot the two that were standing openly in the street, sending the rest ducking for cover. Then the women leaped into the truck and hauled ass out of there, putting as much distance between themselves and those men as they could as quickly as possible.