Evacuation

It has been 13 days since that fateful day that our four heroes had united. Yet they still had not left the room in which they met, the only exception being to return to Jack's truck for supplies. Everyone had learned each other's stories, hopes and dreams, pet peeves and hobbies and even some personal experiences. There wasn't much else to do in the situation. The only other things they did were go over the guns that they had. Cleanings, function, disassembly; the whole shebang.

It was late that night, everyone had gone to bed, but not everyone was sleeping. Dillon was lying awake on his sleeping bag in the corner of the room, wide awake. He found that he had trouble sleeping since the whole thing started. Giving up for now, he got up and decided to check the perimeter. Both of the exits were barricaded with a heavy red iron door impeding any progress living or infected would try to make. There were steel shutters that acted as a window. They could be turned to view the outside. Surprisingly enough, no infected noticed the movement or difference in light that this caused.

It looked the same as it always did however. Just more and more infected wandering around aimlessly. "How do they keep going?" was something that came up more than once. They had stopped trying to figure that out a long time ago.

"Nothing changes anymore." He whispered to himself as he closed the shutters for another day.

"Nothing but the infected." came a whispered response.

"You can't sleep either?" he asked.

"Only when you can't" Sam then sat up from her place on the couch so that she could see better. Dillon had healed enough so that a hard surface didn't pain him that much. He felt as though Sam deserved the best spot in the room.

Dillon limped over to join her on a nearby chair. "How are you feeling Sam?"

"Well, I can move my arm again, though it still hurts a little. And my leg is throbbing, but at least I can walk. You?"

"My hand works, I still have my headache, and my chest is starting to feel better. Still hurts to breathe though."

It silent for a while. There still wasn't much to talk about anymore. "So what then?" Sam started. "Three more days?"

Dillon nodded his head and sighed. "That's all we can afford."

"I just hope that three days will be enough for us."

"You're talking for everyone when you say that." Dillon then got up and started to wander around again. Sam soon joined him and eventually made her way to the radio.

The radio had come in very handy for them when they first set up in the base. The news that they heard wasn't pretty, but it was still useful. They tracked which cities were being overrun and directed the future route accordingly. They also tracked any military activity and CEDA evacuation centers that were erected, and in turn fell silent. Eventually they started to receive communications from other survivors on different channels. The news that they got from them wasn't any better. At roughly the two week mark of the first sighting of the flu, reports started coming in about infected. None of them sounded pleasant.

Sam sat down in front of the radio and turned it on low. She scanned the stations to find any kind of human contact that remained.

She scanned for about half an hour and found nothing. She was about to turn it off when she heard a faint voice on the last channel. She turned it up to hear it better and decided she had made a good choice.

"Attention! Attention all survivors!" The voice announced. "There has been word about one of the few remaining military basses in the country. Millhaven has fallen. I repeat; Millhaven is no longer safe. It has been overrun by infected only a few hours ago. There is rumor that four people made it out alive and headed south. We don't know who they are, but our hopes go out to them and anyone listing. Find shelter. Find safety. Find sanctuary. But most importantly, do not let your guard down…new infected have been sighted."

There was a long pause before anything happened. The broadcast was repeated, but by a different person. Sam assumed it was acting like a chain letter. One person would broadcast it, and then someone from some other place would do it again until everyone knew about it. It was after the fifth or so repeats that Sam decided to turn off the radio. Dillon had listened once or twice before trying his luck at sleep again. This time it was Jack who wandered around.

"At least we know that people are still fighting." He mentioned in a hushed tone. He must have heard at least some of the broadcastings. "But what did he mean by new infected?" Jack seemed worried as he said that.

"Can't say myself. When I listen to these people, I get scared…I hear about people being taken by Smokers and now ridden by Jockeys. The last thing we need is more infected to deal with. And I hear that the military isn't being much help either. The whispers about carriers are growing. What does that even mean?"

"It's ok Sam, calm down. We'll figure this out together." Neither of them wanted to say it, but they already knew what, or who, carriers were. People like them. Infected individuals that had a natural immunity to the Green Flu.

Sam took a deep breath and sighed. "This entire situation has just happened so suddenly that, I'm still trying to figure out what is actually going on."

Jack simply shook his head. "I don't even know if I want to know what happened."

"I know Dillon doesn't entirely care about what happened. I think he's just happy to, and I think I have this right, 'take part in every gamer's dream'."

"Tyrone just wants this thing to be over and I can't blame him. Who doesn't?" There were a few moments of silence before Sam spoke.

"I'm going to try and get some sleep. See if I can't figure something out to explain what the Hell is going on."

"Sweet dreams Sam." Jack encouraged.

She gave a small smile as she shook her head. No one was having sweet dreams in their current situation. She replied with "Any dreams would be better than this nightmare were living in." Then she headed back to the couch for any kind of sleep.

Jack then just sat down and thought about what was going to happen once it was time to leave. They did have the truck for transport, but after this amount of time passed he had no idea if they were going to find any more fuel. There's also not to mention any road blocks they may encounter. His truck may be outfitted with a good ram, but that would still only get through so much. And he had no idea what they were going to do for food or resources. But if Tyrone thought it was the best plan, then he would go along with it.

"Dillon better be right about this." Jack whispered to himself. Jack sat there for a while longer debating everything that could happen before he was distracted by murmuring.

It was coming from Tyrone. He was having another nightmare. They weren't periodic, but they were frequent enough to make Jack worry.

Jack knew that he couldn't stop the nightmares from happening, but he could at least help Tyrone through the night. He got up and slowly made his way over to where Tyron was sleeping. He could what Tyrone was saying but it didn't really matter; it was always the same. "Stay back…no, wait…I'm sorry." There was the odd phrase now and again, but it never made sense.

Jack gently placed one of his large hands on Tyrone's shoulder and he shot up almost immediately. "Easy does it." Jack whispered to the startled boy, his hand still firmly on Tyrone's shoulder.

Tyrone looked around as he became accustomed to the light. He was breathing heavy from the dream and it took him a few moments to calm down. He turned to face Jack and let out a big sigh of relief.

"Thanks again." Tyrone spoke almost ashamed of his night terrors.

"It's alright Ty." Jack said with a reassuring squeeze of his hand. "I just wish you would talk about what's going on in that head of yours."

Tyrone let out another sigh and stated. "I wish I could. Whenever I wake up I can't remember anything that happened. The only thing I remember is this felling of terror and grief."

"Then how about we go over the plan again? We've only got a few days left before we need to head out." It was something to get Tyrone's mind off of the dream.

Tyrone shook his head a few times weakly and huffed out a "No." As he brought his head up to meet Jack's. "We've gone over it enough times. It as simple as it could probably get in this situation."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked in a mild tone. "I'm still a little foggy on the details."

It was obvious what Jack was doing, and Tyrone was thankful for it. "Alright." Tyrone leaned back and stared up at the ceiling to clear his head and focus. "First thing we need to do is get out of here. One of best ways we can do this is by taking your truck and head north. 'Canada' north." Tyrone added on at the end with heavy emphasis on the Canada part. He wasn't happy about trying to get that far north from their current position, but if it was the best option that they had then who was he to argue? "The first problem with getting out of here though is dealing with the countless infected we have seen wandering around. Second would be to get those gates open that I briefly saw on my escape from this place. The last thing would be on where the bloody hell we're going to go from there. I'm sure there will be more than one roadblock set up that we'll need to pass. The goal is to hit up a small air field in Alabama called Hawk Field and take that airplane to… I can't even be bothered to remember at this point." Tyrone then turned and looked over at Jack. "Do you even think we'll make it?" Tyrone asked in a small worried voice.

Jack smiled at Tyrone and somehow managed to look hurt at the same time. "As long as I'm driving, we can make it anywhere."

"And what makes you so confident?" Tyrone replying to Jack's smugness with a slight touch of his own.

Jack let out strong belly laugh. "That's a story for another time. Just trust me on this."

Tyrone shook his head and smiled before resuming the original conversation. "If for some reason the plane isn't there, we head up to the Ambassador Bridge and make our way from there. It's more of an idea then a plan, but I guess it's better than nothing."

"Alright." Jack nodded and stood up. "Thanks for the refresher. I don't know how much longer we can lounge around before we need to get moving again. Just making sure I'm prepared for when we need to get out fast." Jack nudged Tyrone by the shoulder and headed to do some quick perimeter checks.

Before Jack could get a foot away, Tyrone spoke again. "Hey Jack," Tyrone spoke in a low voice as not to wake the others. Jack cocked his head up to acknowledge Tyrone's inquiry. "Thanks. Thanks for the help with these dreams." Jack just nodded his head and wandered away

Jack had made his way over to the door like all the others had at some point in the past 24 hours, but something was different about this time. When he opened the slats to look outside, there was something different out there.

At first, he couldn't tell what it was. It appeared to be some sort of fleshy wall. But then it turned around, and Jack had nearly lost control of his bowels. The thing now staring back at him was in fact a mass of flesh. But that flash was just a cheap mask for the shear amount of muscle that this infected, possessed.

Jack leapt back from the door as he heard this infected hollered what seemed to be a mixture of a roar one would expect from a large beast, and a grunt. Beings the slats were still open, the sound echoed slightly inside of the building.

Dillon woke up almost instantly and stared at the only thing out of place at the moment, Jack looking at the door. "What. The hell. Was that." Dillon didn't dare move.

"Hey Tyrone?" Jack said with a wine in his voice.

"Yes Jack?" Tyrone replied as he walked cautiously over to the door to see what the noise was.

"Remember when I said that we might need to get out fast?" Jack turned his head to look at Tyrone who was now standing beside him.

Tyrone was trying to stretch himself to look out opening in the door. "Ya…" Tyrone was getting slightly scared as to Jacks erratic action. He was very scared when the low grunts coming from outside got loud enough to smash against the door with enough force to slightly move the objects barricading it.

"Now would be that time to move." Jack moved back again and bumped into someone.

It was Sam, who was already forcing a pistol into his hands. "Already ahead of you." She stated as she went over to Tyrone and handed him a pistol as well. That was when everyone started moving. Tyrone and Jack moved over to try and gather any of the remaining supplies that they wanted to keep with them when Dillon came up and stopped them.

"You said we're leaving and we are doing just that." Dillon did not bother to look at them as he tossed two of the four remaining med-packs at them while he placed one on himself.

Tyrone looked at Dillon in shock. He of all people should understand that supplies were needed. He had packed his own supplies before he left his own apartment. "But what if we get stuck again somewhere and-"

Tyrone never got to finish his sentence as Dillon cut him off. "Do you want to be slowed down by that extra weight with that thing, chasing you down?" Dillon pointed at the door with the tire iron in his hand where the infected was still hollering at them and trying to smash its way in.

"He's right. No time." Jack walked up beside Tyrone and handed him his gun. "I think it's going to be like this for a while unfortunately. Hey Dillon," he yelled over the sounds coming from outside. "Where's that wrench I brought in?"

Tyrone stared at the guns in his hands and shook his head as if to bring himself out of a bad dream. Then he looked up to see Dillon tossing the wrench to Jack and Sam donning her own med-pack. He noted that Sam had the other two guns tucked into her back. It was finally sinking in to Tyrone that this was real. That the infection was now not only endangering the populous, but himself and everyone that he knew and cared for. He would have to fight. He would have to live. He would have to survive.

"Yo! Tyrone!" Jack shouted at him from the only exit in the room. Tyrone snapped his head up to see that the other two were also there. "You want to be left for dead?"

Tyrone strode over and put his med-pack on at the same time. "Never." He responded with a grim smile.

"Then let's get the hell out of here." Sam gave a nod in understanding. "Jack."

Jack nodded and lifted the heavy bar. The door opened with a loud screech.

"Here they come…"

"Bring it!"