Part One: Starting Out
December 22nd, Day 1
We started out around 0130 hours at night; we stopped off a few miles away from the Quantico and were in a forest already. We started out again at 0530 in the morning and continued on.
"Where are we going?" Karen whined while we continued walking.
"For the 10th time this morning, we are going to California." Ken told her in an annoyed tone.
"But why that far Mike?" she asked.
"Because, that's where the-." I stopped, went to the crouch and put up my fist, to signal to stop them. "5 yards, 2 O'clock position." I whispered will pointing to a G shambling to my left.
"I got him," Colt said while he raised his HK416 and aimed through his 4x scope.
"Let 'im pass," Ken said as he put a hand on Colt's HK416 barrel and lightly pushed it down. Colt frowned but complied with a nod.
We just sat there watching the zombie shamble through the clearing we were in. It was pretty funny sight, seeing it walk into trees, and trip over the rocks until it tripped over one rock and fell, busted it's skull open while gray matter trickled out of it's skull in small chunks.
Carol grabbed my arm and buried her face into my BDU sleeve so she would not have to look while it fell. But James took a picture of it after it fell. He looked at me, shrugged then said, "never know if it will happen again in our lifetime." I just rolled my eyes.
"Let's get moving again." I ordered while standing up and started walking past the zombie. I heard Ken pull out his pistol, cocked it and shot it.
Nothing happened during the day. We stopped an hour after "Tim the Dumbass Zombie" and ate some lunch.
We started off again and continued on into the night until an hour after full dark.
"So why are we going to California, Mike?" Carol asked me from the across the fire.
"Californication," I simply told her.
"Good song," James mused.
"That still doesn't answer-." I put my pointer over my lips and made a "shh" sound. I pulled out my pistol and waited for a few seconds. It felt like hours until I heard the sound of a pinging shell casing hitting a rock and the sound of a body falling to the ground.
I looked at the backs of Ken, Karen and Colt. Well, Ken was straightening after picking up, I guessed, his casing.
"The reason why that is in the book World War Z, west of the Rockies is the "safe zone", ok?" I told her. She just crossed her arms under her breasts and muttered something I couldn't hear while looking away. I caught a few words that said something about "men", "morons", and "reasons". I don't understand women and probably never will.
I sighed and opened my mouth to apologize, but the snapping of many twigs sounded in the distance. But the peculiar thing was there was no moaning or shuffling.
We three got up and aimed our weapons at four human silhouettes. The movements were a solid, fluid moment, unlike those of a zombie which are choppy and stagnant.
I had my pistol on the lead figure and when it saw my pistol in the light fire, it raised its hands up. Definitely not a zombie.
"Who are you?!" I called out to the figure. "What do you want?"
"My name's Danny and I have three friends with me. One is pregnant. We saw your fire a hundred yards back. We were hoping we could travel together. We have our own food and sleeping bags." The man named Danny called back in a concerned voice.
I sighed then I hesitantly put my pistol down and put it back in its holster after a few seconds.
"Alright, but the women first." I called back.
There was muttering of an argument then it went silent. Two women stepped into the fire light and I gestured that they can sit down by the fire.
After helping the pregnant woman sit down, with muttered thanks, I told the men they can come. There were two men and they sat down next to their lovers or whatever.
Danny here is the perfect stereotype of a black man who grew up in the ghetto, though he was born, raised, and lived in middle class suburbia. Youngkun was a short man with a shaven head, there's a little fuzz growing on his hair that hints to black hair. Danny's girlfriend, I just found out, is just a finger shorter than Danny, who's a head taller than me, who's name was Brianna, and I don't mean the singer. She's also black, but her hair was in a bun while Danny's was shaven to stubble. The pregnant woman was named Jenna. She was Italian with brown hair, brown eyes, and a cute face. Since she was pregnant in a bad era, I call bad timing on Youngkun's and her part.
I stole a look from watch and saw it was 2342 hrs and stoop up, "It's late for me so I'm ganna go to bed," I yawned. "Oh James, can you incorporate Danny and Brianna into the rotation?"
"Sure Mike," James answered while I climbed into my sleeping bag.
"What's this rotation he was talking about?" I heard Danny ask.
"Guard Duty, don't worry. Barely anything happens with us, or so I think." James said then I drifted off to sleep. It felt good.
December 25th, Day 4
It's been a few days since anything happened worth writing about. But today… was a different story. After I got done with my shift at 0400 hrs, I woke Youngkun up for his turn and went to eat some breakfast.
While the food was being steamed cooked in the heater pouch, I heard this shuffling off in the woods that kept getting louder and louder. I turned to my right and saw a zombie heading towards me like there was no one else.
I pulled out silenced .45 and aimed right between the G's two pretty baby blue eyes. The Zombie must have just turned in the last 24 hours, damn Zach. I'm going to clarify really quickly on something. In the days of the Great Panic, it took just 72 hours for Zach to take over Continental America. It took three entire days to take over almost 3,000 miles of land, from ocean to ocean of the states.
Back to the zombie. I pulled the hammer down and aimed at it. It dropped its jaw then I saw gray matter and dried blood spray out the right side of its brain. It fell to the right from the force of the bullet. I looked over to where the shot came from and I saw Ken putting away his .45 back into holster.
Then I started hearing more and more shuffling. Dead leaves crackled and twigs snapped. Moaning was being heard from every direction.
"Shit," I breathed as I saw 4 then 5 then 10 zombies pop out of the morning mist on my 10:30 position. "Get the sleeping bags rolled up and don't worry about the fire!" I shouted. "Carol and I will scope a way out, Keep the channel clear and keep…." I started snapping my fingers so I can remember the pregnant woman's name.
"Jenna, mike," Carol said as she put her ear piece into her ear and clipped it on to her collar.
"Yes, Jenna. Keep Jenna safe until we are in the clear. Let's go Carol." I turned and jogged to west while taking out zombies on my way.
"Roger that, I'm right on your ass Mike." She told me and I heard her murmur to herself after a few seconds, "nice ass." I just rolled my eyes and kept heading west while taking zombies out.
After jogging for 30 minutes, I put up my right fist and went to a crouching position.
"What's up?" Carol Asked as she came up next to me.
"You hear that?" I asked her.
"No… I don't hear anything. Why?"
"No zombies. Tell the others to head west for 30 to grid point…uh…261446." I told her while folding my map back into my left breast pocket. She repeated everything into her mike.
"Roger that. We're on our way." James voice crackled into my ear piece.
Carol turned her mike to one-way and faced me. "We have a half an hour to ourselves. So… what do you want to do?"
"What are you implying?" I asked with a very dramatic suspicious look.
"I'm not implying anything, I'm just saying we have a half an hour to do whatever we want."
"Well, I'm just ganna read," I told her while pulling my book from one of my pants pockets. I layed down in the leaves and started reading my Sci-Fi book.
She sighed at the sight of me and layed down next to me, closed her eyes and fell asleep, or so I thought she was.
After reading for 20 minutes I felt my eyelids grow heavy so I finished my paragraph, marked my place and put my book back in the pocket. I crossed my arms over my chest, closed my eyes and fell asleep.
"Mike…" a male's voice sounded in my ear, "Mike, get up."
"PET! Get the fuck up before I rip ass right in your face!" I heard Colt yell into my ear.
"Fucking shit!!" I shouted, bolting up right. "You guys are couple of douchers!" I pointed to James and Colt. James and Ken were laughing. "Alright, since I'm up, let's get out of here before Zach shows up.
"Alright. Let's move little ladies. We have to get to California before summer." Carol said as she shouldered her sniper.
We men just grunted but we walked on. We headed west for the entire day without finding anything. Well, we found the occasional zombie shambling around but we dispatched them without any interference. But we stopped at noon for 30 minutes and continued walking for 4 hours, I think, and stopped every 30 minutes and we repeated this for the rest of the day.
December 26th, Day 5
Nothing happened at all until around 1500 hrs. We crossed into Tennessee last night also. We were walking through the woods and started hearing moaning all around us.
"Defense Pattern Bravo," I breathed into my mike. We all circled Jenna since she can't defend herself in a box formation. The moan kept getting louder and louder. Then it grew eerily silent. It was absolutely quiet and nothing moved or rustled in the bushes or in the tree canopies. Then we heard Youngkun scream.
"What's wrong?" Ken asked as we all turned to him.
"I don't know. It felt like something – oh fuck." He let out a quivering breather and raised his left foot. He shot the ghoul in the face before it could continue eating his flesh. He then took everything off save his clothes and tossed them to us since we started moving back from him and had our guns risen, even though it takes 23 hours just for someone to turn, but it's still good not to take any chances. "Well, since I'm ganna die, just keep all that and protect my wife." He told us absently as he starred at the zombie. It had no legs, or waist for that matter, but there was some sinew and parts of the small intestine hanging out the end.
Youngkun took a step back and fell into a pit that he probably saw before we did. We rushed over to see him being ripped apart from a bunch of zombies' hands and jaws. Everyone turned away from the sight but I continued to watch to burn this moment into my head so it never happens again.
"Mike," I heard Youngkun say with some difficulty. I saw the reason was because a zombie punctured his chest and took out a lung and started munching on it. "Tell my wife I… I love… her." he said at last as another zombie pulled out his heart, the pacemaker making it beat still and it took a bite out of it.
"I will," I whispered back. I took two grenades I hid away for something of this type of situation. I pulled both pins simultaneously and held them for a couple of seconds then dropped them into the pit. I turned away and headed back to the others. Both grenades went off but I never looked back.
We divided the Hk416 ammo amongst us and kept the gun in case someone lost theirs. But the M9, with holster and pistol ammo, went to Jenna so she can keep it as a memento of her husband and to defend herself.
"Let's continue on to California," I said then we headed out with a word. We trekked on through the great unknown of Tennessee, without ever looking back on this day.
December 31st, Day 10
5 Days went by uneventfully. 5, long ass days of just walking. 4 Days ago, we stopped off at a small, deserted town. I think it was called Shelser, population around 500, but my memory is a little hazy that far back. Anyway, we stopped at the town to replenish our food supply and water. We stayed for the night but kept close watch for any zombies, after clearing the town of course.
We left the town around dawn. That's when things got a bit interesting.
* * *
3 Days ago
"I'm just curious, but how much longer to get to California. And if we do reach it, what city are we going to say in?" Karen asked.
"Ken can figure out how long it will take us but once we get there, hopefully we can get into San Diego, by the time we get there, they should be done sweeping the sewers of Las Angeles, but I could be wrong." I answered.
"I thought we were going to L.A." Colt whined.
"What are you, stupid? If they did no sweep L.A., then it's going to be a huge death trap, and urban fighting is the last thing you want to do in a zombie apocalypse."
"Fuck you James," Colt told him and flipped the bird to him. James did the two finger salute and pelvic thrusted. "Take that you cock rag!"
I held up my fist and everyone crouched and went silent. "You guys hear that?" I asked in a hushed voice.
"It's the sound of boots stepping on leaves and twigs." Brianna answered.
"It also sounds orderly," Ken added.
"Other survivors?" Karen asked.
"Maybe, but I'm not waiting to find out." I said and stood up, moving towards the sound.
"Halt, what's the password?" a Southern accent drawled from, seemingly, everywhere.
"I don't know this "password" of yours; my party and I are just passing though to California." I told the voice.
"You also one of them survivors?" the voice drawled.
"Really?" Carol asked as she came up from behind me.
"Yes, really. Are you or not?"
"Yes, we are also survivors," James answered. "What are you, retarded or something?"
"Hey, we don't got them fancy-shmancy whatamacallits."
"Ok… Can we pass through?" Carol asked.
"Ya'll whites' can, but them damn (I'm not a racist at all, but for the sake of this book, I'm just quoting what the guy told us) niggers can't." the voice drawled with hatred at the (sorry again) word "nigger".
"In this day and age, you hillbilly fucktards still believe in being racist?"
"Yes we do and we still believe that white people are better than any race." A kid called out.
"You got to be shittin' me!!" I exclaimed.
"No sir, we are not "shittin' you"." Another hillbilly told us while stepping out from behind a tree, cocking his shotgun. "You can either leave them niggers here or you can get out of our territory."
"Yeah, uh, if your ganna try and use force on professional soldiers, then it's your funeral. Attack Vector Victor!" I shouted the order and everyone leaped for the closest cover we could find.
Every racist that was there came walking out from their hiding spot and scratched their heads as they speculated on what we were going to do. Some of them were kids around 5-16 years old for Christ's sake!
"Shit," I breathed into my throat mike. God, please grant me strength and release me from the sin I'm about to undertake in. I prayed in my mind then once I felt was enough time I whispered with a cold tone into my mike, "open fire." One by one, the hillbillies dropped like flies from head shots before they could even think of what to do next.
I yelled out "cease fire" before walking out. I walked out from behind the rock I was hiding behind and walked over to the kill zone. Nothing moved from the bodies. Nothing. I waved my hand forward and we moved among the bodies. We weaved through, making sure not to step on one of them. We nudged each on we passed with a boot into their sides to see if they were alive. None were.
After we weaved through the bodies, I turned around and looked over the bodies one last time before I saw Brianna flip the last guy who apparently was still alive. Then everything slowed down in a heartbeat. He brought the pistol up and shot Brianna through the head 2 times before standing up and taking pot shots at us. I reacted first and brought down the fucker before anyone else was hurt.
"Anyone hit?" I asked. I just got no for answers before we ran to take a look at Brianna. When we got to Brianna, Danny was already there, holding her hand. Her eyes were closed and her chest never rose a millimeter.
I grabbed Danny by the shoulder and lifted him up. "It's going to be ok Danny." I told him with sympathy in my voice as he cried on my shoulder.
"No its not. It's never going to be alright." He said pushing me away, pulled out his pistol and held it to his head. The hammer was down. Shit!
"Whoa Danny. Think about it man. Remember the saying 'Fate takes things away from us when we least expected it'?" James asked him.
"I just don't know what to do with my life now that Brianna is gone." He said, sniffling.
"Look Danny, Killing yourself is not going to bring her back to life. When I lost my step-brother and when James lost his wife. We both had things that helped us keep us in this world, for one Ken had a baby boy to take care of and I had my family. We both had helped but nothing can fill the voids in our hearts, but we still chose to find that something to help fill it as we age with time. We could help you find something to help fill that void." I told him while stepping closer to where I'm an arms length away from him.
"Let us help you man." Colt also stepped closer.
Danny sighed, un-cocked the hammer and put the .45 back in its holster. After that day, Danny became one of the guys.
January 4th, Day 14
Its night and it was real quiet. Danny, Ken and I were keeping watch over the others. I looked at my watch and it read 2355 hrs.
"5 minutes," I told myself absently.
"5 minutes until what?" a voice asked from behind me.
I turned to see who it was and it was Carol, face barely visible in the moonlight. "5 minutes till midnight." I put my back to her and resumed my watch." Shouldn't you be asleep?" I asked her as I turned to find a face that wasn't Carol's but had maggots wiggling out of it and eyes glazed like milk.
The ghoul's mouth dropped open and shambled forward. I put the end of my suppressor on its forehead. I pulled the slider back and pulled the trigger. Gray matter flew from the back of its head as the G crumpled to the ground in a head. I put my pistol back and turned back around.
By that time, both my shoulders jerked back involuntary and everything went dark as I hit the forest floor. Damn.