Wow, this took way to long to write. My bad. so enjoy this chap. Skipped the fluff and decided to move it along. So we can be on to the next groups. more maze characters. Anyways stay tuned.
One Love Ray
Day 248
Not everyone got an apartment of their own. Only people with children got a apartment or a hotel room to stay in. Not that one is any better than the other. If you didn't have kids well, I jus think it would suck going from one gym to another. I kinda wish we were in the hotel. Not any major reason but there's this creepy lady that lives at the end of the hallway who's in charge of the last three floors. She came to visit yesterday. Dropped off a box full of old military jackets. They been stripped of all the insignia but one patch on the shoulder that said PFC. There was only three but she looked at jess as if she didn't know she was pregnant until she saw us. I guess no one told her.
I rolled onto my side and sat up on my elbow over Jess. She stirred awake. "I didn't mean to wake you up." I whispered, I took a strand of her stay hair an put it back behind her ear. Jess smiled, "You're goin to work today. I don't think you're gonna last one minute without me." Jess joked, I couldn't help but give a cheesy smile. I swung one of my legs over hers so I was slightly on top of her. "My life would be in ruins." I told her as I came in slowly and hovered my lips just above hers. "I'm so serious about that." I told her, I was half joking. I really wouldn't know what I would do without her.
Knock, Knock, Knock. "Come in." Jess called out. I went back to laying on my side. Sam came walking in our room and sat on the edge of the bed. She had a couple granola bars in her hand. She handed us each one. I placed mine next to Jess on the nightstand. "Was that all we got?" I asked, as jess opened hers and started eating. "There's more out there, but Jacob said we should ration a little off to the side so we have something in case we need to run. What if the infected break out?" Sam explained. "Have you eaten?" I asked Sam. Sam nodded, "I'll be out there." Sam told us as she stood and walked back out the room door.
"but you need to eat too." Jess wined still eating her granola bar. I knew it wouldn't stop her. As she finished off her's I handed her mne and chuckled. "see.." I noted. She glared at e for a second. "I'm fine. I'm sure they'll have snacks in the transport." I let it slip. I tried not to let it show hoping she wouldn't catch the word transport. I have to go on a recon trip today. "Transport? Where are you going?" Jess asked, I broke eye contact and laid on my back. "It's nothing, we just need to know what's going on out there." I tried to explain it to her the way it was explained to me. It sounded easier when the sarge said it. I think his name was Lakin.
"Look I'll try not to get sent on another one of these recon missions." I told her hoping to ease her worry a little. "Promise." She whispered. "promise." I whispered back as I moved in for a kiss.
Afterwards I got dressed and stood over the bed. I put my hands on my waist and posed like superman. "that jacket doesn't look too bad." Jess claimed, I glanced down. Its bulky, and doesn't really fit. The one and only random patch that's looks homemade itself. "yea…right.". I smirked. Jess smiled and sat up then she hugged around my waist. "Just make sure you come back to me." She told me and I kneeled down to kiss her forehead. "I'll be back later." I told her. She hugged me one last time then I got up. I walked over to the door, taking a look back to see jess was getting comfortable again.
I strolled out into the middle of the living room to see most everyone up and playing. Newt was standing on the coffee table. I walked over to him and picked him up. "Who's idea was this?" I asked everyone. Newt starred up at me wide eyed as I placed him on my hip. "His…he just got up there when you walked out here." Sam explained as she crossed the room. "Are you leaving?" Nathan asked, sitting up from the floor. "Yea." I told them and Jacob walked up to me. "Today ought to be fun." Jacob said as I set Newt down. Newt ambled over to Sam and climbed up into her lap. He started to play, reaching up an attempting to climb Sam like she was jungle gym. Sam giggled and fell backwards holding Newt up into the air. I laughed as we walked towards the front door.
Both Jacob and I walked out of the apartment and down the hall to the stairwell. We got to the main doors quickly and pushed them open. Like always the sun was super bright. I kept telling myself I was going to walk through the market and see if someone is selling sunglasses. I bet they are, I jus have to look. There was a bit of a crowd that filled the streets. Everyone was standing just far enough for people to walk through. Its normally like this during the middle of the day for some reason. Or it has been the last few days because there's so many new people coming in. "Hey you two over there…Sargent Lakin wants to see you." I glanced up to see another fellow guard sitting on a truck Bed. He pointed towards the Transport building. Lakin was one of the guys in charge of the security, Sarge. He wasn't a leader but he was high up there. "Are we late?" Jacob asked me, "don't know…but let's go." I said as he placed his hand on my back and we made our way through the thin crowd.
When we made it to the transport building you couldn't help but notice the groups of guards standing around the building waiting for something. We made it to the front door and walked right in. When you first walk in there just this three-way hallway. Guards walked up and Down the hall with a purpose in pairs of two or in straight lines. At the end of the hall long there's two large doors. I pushed it open. The room itself was huge, there were cars in the back of the room. Two very tall machines stood in the center of the room about twelve feet apart. There was some kind of consul next to it.
Lakin walked in the room from another hall. "I forgot both of you were new." HE said as he approached us. He was followed by three other guards. "Yea but this girl can shoot. I want her on the away team." One of the other guys said. He was tall and fit. HE wore black tactical gear but no jacket like the rest of them. The other two he was with walked off. "I'm Hank." Hank greeted holding out his hand. I shook it. "Hank, we don't normally send girls on away teams." Lakin turned slightly to him. "Look my girl Jess can't pull her wait just yet. I don't mind doing little extra if it keeps her out of the hot seat." I explained to Lakin and he nodded. Lakin then turned to Hank and reached in his pocket. "She's all yours." He than tossed a set of keys in the air for Hank to catch.
Hank smiled at me, "C'mon." Hank told us as we walked by. Lakin walked off back in the direction he came from. Hank led Jacob and I back into the hall but we went a different way. We took too many lefts and rights for me to keep track. I wasn't expecting the building to be this big. By the time we stopped I could smell the outside air. Now that I'm thinking about it. I guess I've just gotten used to it. But the air. It always has this burnt taste in it.
In this garage I jus mainly smell all the gas. In the far right corner there were a barrels. They had a lot of them. I wondered how many of them were full. On the left was a line of Trucks. Two of them were armored up and the last one looked like it was still being worked on. "Were riding in one of those." Jacob asked, "Naw…were going to the one out front I just had to grab something." Hank explained as he walked over to the wall and grabbed a pair of gloves off the cabinet. "Okay, this way." He claimed and motioned for us to follow again.
Hank walked out a door and down a short small hall. It was dimly lit by the light outside. We got outside on the side of the building to see a small parking lot full of cars that had been shredded. Mostly burnt up by the solar flares but also stripped for parts. We walked through the skeleton lot and made our way to another street, there was no crowd but a few guard here and there.
"This way." Hank told us as so we followed. We ended up back on the main street but closer to the truck I saw earlier. I saw the guy who yelled at us earlier still sitting on the truck. Hank walked up to the truck and opened the door for me. "Your riding upfront." Hank said as he held the door open. "I can sit in back." I protested not being able to ride with the guys. "I need you to see where we are going just in case something happens to Paul." Hank told me as he pointed to the man in the drivers seat. I shrugged my shoulders.
I got in the seat and glanced out the window as he started the truck. When I looked down at the far end of the street I noticed people being escorted. At least I think they were, it was really far away. "What's that?" I asked Paul who took a quick glance. He got back to the road and white knuckled the steering wheel for a moment. "Its uh… infected intake two..IIT2, is what they call it." He told me and I starred to try an see what if there was anything else of note. "Why would they need a second Intake?" I questioned, wanting to know what happened to Jen. "I don't know, they don't really like to tell us much. Unless it's needed. I probably shouldn't have even told you about it." He stated and shifted in his seat. He took a quick glance again as he pulled out onto the main road.
I starred out the window as he took us out the back. The gate was a lot smaller only one door; it's just as tall. There was not that many people outside of the back gate.
Hours later
We drove in and out of groups of infected people on the road. They didn't even look like they were trying to go anywhere. Just camped out by the cars. They weren't going to Ashville, they stopped and camped out here. Paul took us right to a neighborhood. Infected were everywhere.
There was a crowd of them in the street. Paul stopped at the beginning of the neighborhood. Someone knocked on the window behind me so I opened it. "Here." Hank said as he handed me a gun, then another. I think it was a M16, but I wasn't sure. I'm not used to using a assault rifel. I glanced at the side of the gun to see a safety. "you know how to use one of those?" Hank asked, I nodded and glanced back at the gun. I started to hear the guys jump out of the truck so I got out.
The Crew started walking infront of the truck towards the crowd. Even though these people were yards away you could see how many of them had been dismembered and was still walking around like nothing was wrong. It was like someone took a hose of red paint and let it rip onto this crowd of people. "How are these people standing." Jacob asked. He was thinking the same thing I was. "C'mon… we got to get closer." Hank mentioned as he walked by us. "Ey Paul, Ride behind us on a slow crawl. I don't like the look of this." Hank called out as he walked. I brought my shirt up over my nose, but it didn't really help the smell.
We got closer and closer to the crowd. There were infected in some of the yards but they took one look at us and ran behind the house to get away. No one else seemed to notice us. When they did they were obviously avoiding us. "Last week the infected here were living in the vacant houses. We got a report there was a group of kids out here. WE came lookin and we found them. but they refused to leave." Hank explained, "Think the kids are still here?" I asked, Hank glanced at me, "Oh yea…there goes the lady that was with them." Hank pointed to a body on the ground about ten feet away. She was badly beaten, there was some food on the ground next to her that had been mushed. She must have been trying to get some food them when she was attacked. Hank didn't look like he wanted to look for em. I felt bad knowing they could be here with no one to watch over them. I wanted to find them but not at the expense of losing any of the crew.
Just to think, that could have been me. We could be here in this hell instead of Ashville. "Guys stop." Hank said so we all did. The group sort of clumped together as we starred ahead to see what he saw. Hank walked back to the Truck and asked for something but I didn't hear what. Paul handed Hank a pair of binoculars. Hank walked back up to us. "Do u see that Terry?" Hank asked as he handed them over. Terry took the binoculars and looked through them. "How the hell did they get those?" Terry said as handed them off. They were to far away to see what they were talking about.
Then the weirdest thing I had ever seen happened. They noticed us. One by one, every head in the crowd turned in our direction. One of the infected screamed something and all at once they started running after us. "What do we do?" Terry asked, "Don't just stand there playing with your dicks boys start shooting." Hank ordered and a barrage of bullets started to go off. I joined in. It was supper loud. Bullets started hitting bodies , shells showered the ground around us. We kept shooting but unless it was a head shot they weren't going down. They kept coming. Then I noticed it. They were shooting something back at us. A small laser line that looked like silver light whizzed by me. Then another, "HANK!" someone yelled, "Yea Hank… I think we should ju…" I heard this woosh of air; all of a sudden Terry was GONE. Just like that.
Wind blew a bunch of ash in my face. I stumbled backward, "What The…OKAY Guys let's get the Fuck up outta HERE." Hank yelled seeing what I just barely missed. At once all the guys turned and hauled ass to the back of truck. I got in the passenger side of it. Paul immediately kicked up his speed heading backwards to get us out of there. "KEEP Shootin if you wanna get out of this." Hank continued to give out orders. I leaned out of the window and kept shooting. We haven't even made a dent in the crowd. I jus gotta say, I like this way better than a nine mil.
Bodies fell as Paul kept backing up. He spun the truck around quickly. Then drove full speed out of the neighborhood. We left them behind running after us. Everyone stopped shooting. "That was way to close Hank, how did they get ahold of one of those guns?" Paul yelled, Hank knelt by the back window. "I have no idea. Those particular guns were at a mountain base." He told us, "Good thing they only had one. Just get us home safe ok." Hank ordered then went back to sitting down.
When we got back to Ashville we drove by the main gates first. They were closed. A crowd of people were pounding on them trying to get in. There were only guard in the towers watching the surging crowd. No one stood out in front but you couldn't tell the infected from the rest. Paul drove by slowly then headed towards the road that will get us to the back gate. I guess when the shit hits the fan it really spreads over everything. This crowd wasn't going to disperse anytime soon. I looked up to see them drop a sign over the top of the gates. "GATES CLOSED".