The group met up in the quad of their building, and as usual, I was standing in front of them. "Alright, what's the damage look like?"
A tall but muscular man with a few flecks of grey hair interspersed between his brown locks spoke up. "Well, the sound-proofer's guard layer suffer some mild damage on the west side, but it's more severe along the southern side."
"Do you think you'll need more metal than what you've got?"
"No, but I'll need help if it's defiantly going to be done by the safety limit."
"Okay. Take one guy and have him help you. If either of you want, we can switch him out by high noon, or if someone else is finished, he can help you."
Reiner nodded. He had been a multi-talented guy but when we realized the extent that our home base needed fortification, he studied up on what he already knew and became an excellent craftsman. Nearly everything from our defenses and fortifications to our weaponry passed through his hands, inspected by them, if not made by them.
I nodded as Reiner took Gaston with him. Though hard-headed, Gaston was smart and fit, another well- rounded man with many different talents. He wore a tee shirt and jeans, complete with biker shades he got from somewhere.
As I was about to ask Carter to go to the fields, Vlad walked up with his hand raised. "Actually, I was wondering if I could go to the fields for today?" I smiled and nodded; the garlic fields were a place where Vlad went when he wanted to be by himself and escape the chaos of the world. Sadly, everyone had to come back from the fields at some point.
Carter, a slim kid just out of his teens spoke up. "I'll hit the store then. Might as well check on the generator while I'm over there."
"Alright. Take Vince with you, in case you can't fix it."
"Gotcha, man. C'mon Vince, don't want you getting' lost," he said to Vince, a muscular black guy who never said much, waving his hand for Vince to follow. As the last three went two separate ways, Vlad shouted over his back: "Get me some Coco Puffs, too!"
Turning to two other guys, I said, "Danny, go check the water. The hot waters taking too long and I want any problem fixed before it gets worse. Chris, go check the power plant for our area, and signal if you need help with it."
Danny, a blue collar stereotype with a mustache and sleeveless flannel went a different way, and Chris, an extremely tall and thin nerd stereotype with a pungent natural body odor started following after Vlad, then went down a different street.
"Cody, I want you to clean the apartments and inspect every tool, do the dishes, monitor the radio and listen to what someone else may need. Later I want you to check the garage and the emergency stock. I think there might be a way in through the metal fencing."
At that, Cody, another scrawny white kid with wheat colored hair did what he normally did. "What? Why do I always get the crappy jobs?" I winced and squeezed the bridge of my nose.
"Because, you-"
"Don't have a particular skill. Yeah, I know. You've been telling me that crap forever. Just let me go out there for once." He never stopped pleaded.
"Cody, I've told you a thousand times. If you want to do something, you have to know how to do it."
"And how the hell am I supposed to know how to fix a generator?!"
"Read the damn manual! But read it after you check out the garage. And make sure to turn the safety lights on!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know." With that he turned on his heels and headed back into the base.
"And get someone to cover your back!" I shouted after him. That boy never listened. I angrily rounded on the rest of the men waiting for their orders.
"Tommy, you do maintenance on the cars."
Tom, a former auto-mechanic, readjusted his hat and shook his head, his ponytail flopping madly. "I'm gonna clean house first. The Ram I know works perfect."
"Alright. Get to it." Tom walked over to another part of the house. A few moments later, the roar of a Hemi broke the silence, and then a black Dodge Ram was visible for a few seconds as it rounded the exit into the street.
----
Satisfied so far, I walked across the street to a modified lab that served as our main area for studying the vampires. Inside, the glass walls hooked to the right and left, but without hesitation, I went left, then down another hallway into the main lab for the Doc.
The man of the hour stood over a lifeless corpse lying on an examiner's table, a large stake in its chest.
"Need anything, Doc?" I asked as he looked over the corpse.
"As a matter of fact, I do. A few bodies would do; undead, if you please."
"You certainly are going through them fast. What's the sudden need for?" I asked as I poked the body. Doc swatted my hand away.
"Well," he sighed, "if you must know, I think I am beginning to fully understand our enemy. However, I can't be sure, and you know how I won't tell my theories until I test at least once, and thus I need more bodies."
"Bodies. Got it. Anything else?"
"Just make sure they aren't dead."
I cocked an eyebrow at the Doc.
"Oh, you know what I mean! Just get me the bodies!"
Smirking to myself, I exited the lab room then followed the maze of hallways to the back area.
----
There Dr. Neil Hamilton and Cassidy were busy working on their newest project. Along a fold out table there was a large brown cloth that covered several objects that I could only guess as to what they were.
Since neither one was in sight, I made to look under the tarp, but as soon as my hand touched the tip of the fabric, someone shouted out: "If you ever hope to use those, I suggest you keep your hands off of them."
Turning around, I observed both Hamilton and Cassidy carrying a large scarecrow, with straw for stuffing, and a thick metal pipe extending out of it. "Ready, Cassidy?" Hamilton asked.
"Yes, sir."
"On three then. One. Two. Three." At the final count, they raised the scarecrow up, readjusted its angle, and then inserted the metal pipe into a hole in the ground that Hamilton had made long ago. Pushing it around to check its wobble, Hamilton then patted it on the chest, satisfied with its fixed position.
He wiped his hands together, then against the tail of his brown sports jacket, and walked over to me.
"Good morning," he said in his light English accent. He had a wide jaw and brown hair that went strait up and was shaved flat after a few inches, and circular rimmed glasses. Hamilton possessed not only a great mind, but he knew how to keep it cool. Once he learned something, he rarely forgot it. He had been the one who had, along with me, had contacted and gathered the survivors. He also found, then planned out the fortifications of our home; because of his brains and inventive spirit he was commonly called 'Q'. Yet for the last week, he had kept mostly to himself in the shop, not allowing anyone into it save for Cassidy. Not even I had gotten a peak at the breakthrough Hamilton and Doc said they had come across.
Cassidy was an ex-Marine who fought in Iraq, and his skill with tools, coupled with his place as an engineer, were the reasons why he was Hamilton's right hand man. He was taller and more muscular than Hamilton, but always showed the man great respect. Being an ex-Marine (only leaving because the government was destroyed) he kept his old gear and always had his respectable crew cut.
I walked over to the scarecrow, touching the rough straw, feeling the itchy cotton. "What's this thing for?"
"You'll see around noon when everyone gets back for lunch. Now go do something else."
Accepting the fact that Q had his secrets, I walked over to the adjacent warehouse.
At the door I undid the ten deadbolts with the keys underneath a patch of weeds. I never kept the keys on my person; I refused to take the chance of loosing them.
With the deadbolts removed, the heavy metal door swung open following the addition of a good amount of force. There was a back up door directly behind the large metal one, for support and an extra line of defense. Instead of a series of deadbolts, this only required the removal of a thick titanium bar then a heavy push against it.
After a tremendous heave of my body weight, the safety door gave way. Moving to the left side of the inner warehouse, I felt by memory the position of a series of light switches. My fingers moved down the line, flicking them softly against the base, and in front of me there was a sudden VUENT! and then three long rows of large, powerful lights filled the whole of the second part of the warehouse with light. Along several aisles twenty feet high were piled three layers of kennels. Knowing what was coming, the dogs and cats began to howl and bark.
There were easily five hundred dogs and cats here.
All saved.
All immune.
Moving over to what could be described as the central hub, I pulled down on more large levers, and a loud crackling sound began on one side of the room then moved to the other, following along its set path. Inside the metal tubing tons of dog food was delivered straight to every dog's kennel for breakfast and dinner. Walking back out the door and giving the dogs time to eat, I went up to Q.
"Hey, Q. Are the electric fences working again?"
Q looked at me from behind the scarecrow. "Yes. And if they fail, there is the emergency gate. Wouldn't want those poor pups to get out. They already have had to suffer so much."
I smiled, nodded and vanished back inside. Both Q and I had a great love for animals, and these poor dogs would have no chance without us. It took all of the dogs a little under five minutes to finish off their breakfast. Once they were all finished, I walked over to the main hub again and pulled down on what resembled a large breaker.
All of the cages on the bottom row were released, and hundreds of dogs rushed out, running over to the garage door that separated them from their play area.
Of course, I thought, I forgot to open the door. I moved over to another switch, and when I flipped it, the topmost iron beam began to retract. The four others which combined to form one solid wall had not been wired, but the gears and motor were in place.
I'll get to it, I thought as I brushed it off. I was always forgetting something I had to do. There was just too much to do. Even for all the progress that we've made in less than six months, we always have some new project to do, and coupled with the massive amount of work that was mandatory to survive, things where getting out of hand.
I sighed to myself as I walked over to the large door, and grabbed onto the handle of the second highest beam. It was hardest because I have to stand on my tip-toes to reach it, and since it was already heavy it meant for an annoying experience getting it to budge. But once that beam was away from the door, the other three weren't as much of a challenge. After a few minutes of grunting and heaving, I walked back over to the hub and flipped the switch again. The retracting door brought light to another part of the room. It took the dogs about a minute to clear out, and then I hit the second switch and a dull thunk! from every cage signified the lifted doors. The dogs in the middle row of kennels went through the back and came out of the bottom kennels.
After they were gone, I repeated the process with the topmost row.
Satisfied, I walked out the same exit into the dogs' area. It was the size of two football fields, and it had actually been a foot ball field and its old parking lot, and surrounded by three layers of fencing, with barbed wire on top and sharpened pikes in between the gaps and in front on the fences. I hated the thought of one of them getting in. And just to make sure the dogs didn't get out, I had (barely managed to) installed an invisible electric fence that gave them a light zap on their collars if they got too close to the fences.
I checked my watch. Only eight in the morning, I thought. That gives me a lot of time.
The dogs were happily playing with each other and with their toys, so I left them and walked back over to Q.
"Hey, Q, I was wondering if-" I was cut off mid-sentence by Carter and Vince running up to us and Carter nearly crashing into me. Both were out of breath.
"Man- if you- could-" Carter was out of breath, and mumbled his sentences.
"Catch your breath, man." After a minute he did. "Where did you come from?"
"East Loop." I was shocked. That area was at least two and a half, three miles away. If they had walked over there, that meant they had run back in roughly ten to twelve minutes. "But that don't matter. It's what we found."
"What? What was it?"
"It was big. Freakin' huge."
Even though I knew full well what Carter was talking about, I had to ask what it was.
"Hive. Big one, too. Pushing class A."
Hives were where they slept during the day, and to get an idea of how many there were in a hive, they had designed a class system. 'Kinda big', 'Big' and 'You're totally fucked' didn't really cut it.
Class A meant at least 100 Infected.
"All right. Carter, Vince, load up one of the pick-ups with as many stakes as we got. You three are coming with me. Q, I trust you'll be fine here."
"No. Carter, stay here. There is not need for stakes." Q said definitively.
"What?" I asked.
"You heard me. There is no longer a need for stakes."
"What?" I couldn't help but ask again.
"Come. Come over here and look," Hamilton said as he walked over towards the table, grabbed the fabric and yanked it off, revealing what was underneath it. Everyone but Hamilton and Cassidy gaped. In a neat row lay twenty highly polished, long and exquisitely crafted swords, each a hook angled towards the hilt on one side and a small thorn-like extension in the middle of the other.
"What the hell are these?" Carter asked.
"Swords."
"But what good are these? You have to put a stake through the heart to kill them, don't you?" I asked.
"No." Q replied
"But… how?"
"You must remember that these are not vampires. They are only tormented, mutated humans," Doc said behind them. He walked over to them as he whipped his hands on a white towel. "Hamilton, I thought we agreed to tell everyone together."
"Couldn't be helped. Carter has just discovered a class A hive."
"Oh, has he? Well, that does permit exception."
"Wait. Okay, everybody just hold on for just one minute," I interjected forcefully. "How the hell does this…? What the hell is this all about? The Infected need to have a stake driven into their hearts. That's what the legends say."
"Remember, Sam, these are not vampires. They are mutated humans. You don't need a stake in the heart to kill them. Let me explain." Doc turned around and walked back to the lab, signaling for them to all follow.
Am I doing good? Please review, it makes me happy.
