We marched through the woods and traveled about twenty miles to my school; we hoped that there would be shelter set up, but it was just that, a hope.
"Josh... I'm so, so sorry..." My mom was still in tears.
"Shh," I replied as I took her into my arms again, "Mom, it isn't your fault. They would want you to move on and worry about who's left. Remember what Dad used to say. When a loved one dies, and leaves others behind..."
"...those he left, should continued on and carry the spirit of the fallen with them so that it doesn't hold them in the past. He loved that..." She paused, releasing her embrace, "Josh... I know you know this, but if anything happens to me, you need to promise. Promise to take care of your brother and sister."
"I promise, but nothing will happen to you."
We continued our walk in silence, after about two hours we reached the interstate that led straight to my school. I could remember the last time I'd been riding the bus to school.
...Still you feed us lies from the table cloth!...
"Hey Josh," Shelby whispered, "Do you have any more juice for sale?" She was talking about my vape juice.
"Nah, but here, last one's free." I whispered back, pulling out a large black bag/case with dozens of juices in it, I snuck one into her hand.
"Shit, thanks!" She seemed ecstatic, or at least more than before.
I plugged my other headphone into my ear and discovered that the song had changed.
Such a lonely day, and it's mine. The most loneliest day in my life...
As we passed in between many of the cars that had been abandoned we searched through their see-able spots. Mostly finding nothing other than electronics. But, the interstate wasn't what I expected; I had expected a long road crawling with the walking corpses that we'd have to fight to reach the school. Instead it was a long road littered with the husks of once running vehicles, abandoned making them lifeless and quiet.
Withing another two hours we reached the school, our hopes were defended when we saw the US National guard working with the USMC and USAF helicopters to keep the walking corpses at bay and out of safe zones.
"Have any of you been bitten?" One of the Guards said as he shook my gloved hand.
"B-what?" My brother replied with.
"The virus spreads through bites... haven't you been watching the news?"
"N-no? When did this start?" I asked.
"Listen, go inside, we wont search you; you can keep everything with you, but once you're in go and see General Frank Morgan. He'll be set up in the Main office, he can explain anything you need to know."
"A-alright? Thanks..I guess."
"Wait, were any of you bitten though?"
"No, no bites. We fought them hard before we left...lost two family members..."
"Names?"
"Mike Winchester, US Army, 5th battalion 3rd company and Retired US Marine Russell Winchester."
"Winchester? I knew your brother! Shit, look, we were on good terms so if you need anything tell someone you've got my support and they can get it."
"Thank you." I said as we passed through the doors.
I even knew the ventilation shafts and where they led through the school, this was only because of the fact that I came to help with maintenance over the past four summers and had blueprints of the entire building.
My family sat against the wall outside of the main office as I entered. The General was behind a desk with his feet kicked up onto it, he was watching the news for any info that may have come up.
"Sir?" I said innocently.
"Name and rank, soldier."
"Uh, Josh Winchester, civilian."
"Okay, thanks. What did you need?" He asked as he pulled his feet down and muted the TV, thn turned around. His face was like that of the General off of the old Pink Panther movie.
"Well, I was told that you could explain the situation going on."
"Yeah...where to start... Ah. First; these infected will chase you until you put height over them, they can't climb, or a long distance and get out of their line of sight. Second, the only ways to officially kill them is to either pump them full of lead, or option B is one shot to the brain."
"How did it start?"
"No one knows, however, there are speculations. They only have one need, to feed. They don't seem to care what it is as long as it has flesh. What else... oh, when I said shot to the brain, I mean any major damage to the brain or brain stem will kill them. These things seem to be attracted by sound, loud sound, like gunshots."
"Then why are you flying helicopters outside?"
"If the noise comes from a place they obviously can't reach, they wont go for it. They'll hear it, but wont follow. However, there are reasons that only the choppers can fire."
"Where else is this happening?"
"Right now? Forty Six other states, the UK, most of the UN, and it's spreading faster than anyone can control."
"So? What do we do about it?" I was clearly agitated that the situation wasn't being controlled better.
"What we can do. Get all civilians into a safe place and defend that safe place to the death."
Not liking the answers given, I begrudgingly thanked the General and exited the office.
"Fucking cocky prick..." I said under my breath, my mother hearing me, not seeming to care about my language.
Soon, we had found a good spot for our remaining family and I explained the situation and the lack of control anyone had on it; then, went to sleep.
Surprisingly, I wasn't plagued by nightmares of my brother bleeding out, clutching a hand grenade tightly to his chest, or of my father grabbing the Browning from his tool cabinet with two ammo boxes. Not even of the explosions which wracked my body when they happened, forcing me to the forest floor.
Am I already numb to the death around me, or is my family resistant to it's effects. I've never heard of my brother or father having any type of mental after effects? Maybe we're a warrior family... My thoughts varied, but centered around this one topic; how? Maybe the stories and detailed descriptions had numbed me as a child to the point of no feeling; not saying that I didn't feel the after effects of their deaths, but I seemed to have quickly moved pass the point of recovery. It was like the five steps of grieving had been bypassed by some code put into an algorithm, not that I knew anything about algorithms...
And the rest of the day there I thought...not speaking unless someone I knew passed me with their family. However, they all seemed reluctant to speak to me seeing all of my weaponry and knowing that I was now the oldest man in the family. That lasted for three days; that's when it happened. The first of the undead made it through the military defenses and into the cafeteria. We ran for the exit and busted through it.
"Winchester! Take the keys! They're to the lead Humvee, you got six two hundred round boxes of .50's. Oh, and it's a stick so I hope you can drive. Go!"
"Thanks, I wont forget you!" I replied as we ran to the Humvee. We piled in, I looked to the rear view mirror and saw the military loading every surviving family into school buses. I started the vehicle, and drove off, knowing immediately where we'd go. I just hoped that he was still alive.
The unpadded seats made the ride even more uncomfortable than my bag did. It was pushing me forward and closer to the wheel, luckily, there was a gap enough to fit my Mosin which would have been far too long to stay around my shoulder; my younger brother holding my shotgun as I drove.
We pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex and shut the vehicle off, locking it behind us. This complex was the home of my best friend, Drew. I held the shotgun into my shoulder, the sights at eye level as I climbed the stairs to his third floor apartment.
I knocked, then again, and again with no answer. Finally, I got tired of it, and used most of my force to kick the door from it's hinges...or the wooden door frame.
"Drew?" I whispered loud enough to be heard.
"Josh?! Josh! Holy shit! You were honestly the last person I expected to be at that door!"
"Who's the first?"
"Looters, or bandits as they seem to call themselves."
"Wait, you've seen some?"
Suddenly a shout turned me around, "ON THE FUCKING GROU-" His skull shattered around the slug, leaving his friend in shock.
"DOWN ASSHOLE! DROP THE FUCKING WEAPON!" I ordered, my voice deepening a lot into an authoritative boom.
The man obeyed and kicked the weapon towards us, I handed it to Drew without taking my sights off the man, "I've never shot before..."
"When the time comes you'll be able to. Trust me, that was just reaction, not even instinct. Just keep the weapon trained on this asshole and shoot him if he moves." I could tell that his mother didn't agree with my order, but wouldn't argue with an armed and 'experienced' young man holding more guns than a Fort Knox armored guard.
I approached the body and began to search through it, finding dozens of fingers from dead individuals.
"Disgusting pricks...taking the fingers of the dead."
"Th-they weren't dead..." The man announced.
"What?" When he didn't respond I got aggressive, "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Placing the barrel of the gun against his temple and pushing hard enough to nearly knock him over.
"They aren't dead..."
"Where are they? HUH!? WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY!" He was resisting more and more, I pulled my machete and grabbed his hand, "DON'T FUCKING MAKE ME TAKE YOUR'S!"
"APARTMENT 23, ON THE OTHER SIDE! just please, don't hurt m-" A shot.
Drew had pulled the trigger as the man moved towards the grip of my shotgun, "Jeezus!"
Despite the small size of the round, it had done enough to his face to splatter blood onto each of us.
"Nice shot, clean too." I said, looking to Drew.
"I-i-i just- I just..."
"Saved my life. Thanks."
He couldn't even speak, dropping the small SMG, forcing me to catch it or risk it going off again. I unloaded it and threw it over the balcony as his mother pulled him inside.
"Shit... listen. I'm gonna go get those survivors, you all stay here with them."
"No, take my M4 and give me your Mosin. I'll provide you cover if shit hits the fan." My mother replied, handing me two magazines as well, "And take your brother."
"Alright, come on Mark."
Our trip across was cut short when a round collided with the asphalt at our feet, forcing us behind the Humvee. When I went to fire back he kept me in cover. Thinking of ideas and why my mother hadn't fired yet, I looked towards the gun.
"Mark, I'm gonna need you to find him once I pop out alright? Look through here." I said, pointing at the windows.
"Okay."
I poked the gun out and another round flew, either this guy was an extreme amateur, or drunk, 'cause he couldn't shoot worth shit.
"He's on the fourth floor, two apartments from the stairs."
"Alright. Look out." I said as I opened the door, slowly and apparently stealthily, I got onto the .50 cal; then I opened up.
The weapon boomed like thunder, actually making my ears ring and deafening me. Fighting the urge to cover them, I continued to fire and shredded the walls of that room and quickly quelled the shooters urge to shoot, possibly killing him.
I climbed down from the gun and told my brother to follow me. We both climbed the stairs and I held the sights of the rifle up to my eye, making sure to check the safety; it was off.
I neared the door and turned my head to face my brother, quietly I whispered; "Get on the other side and open it if you can, then follow my lead and clear the room. Got it?" He nodded in response.
Slowly, he pushed the door open and I slipped inside, pushing it the rest of the way. I spotted two armed men sleeping (How the fuck they could sleep after the .50 just went off, I don't know) and quickly I pinned one of them and kicked his gun away, my brother did the same to the other one. I pulled his knife, a Standard Issue US Army Kabar, and plunged it into his chest, splitting his sternum and killing him quickly, then I pulled my PX4 and fired into the others skull.
"We didn't even know if they were friendly!" My brother shot.
"Were you gonna ask?" I waited, "Exactly, now shut it and help me free the hostag-"
I was tackled to the floor by one who had just come from the bathroom, "DIE MOTHER FUCKE-" A round split his skull and my brother fell from the shock.
"Holy fuck!" He shouted.
"Nice shot."
"That wasn't me!"
"Then wh- Damn, Mom can shoot... Alright, take the knife and free them, I'm gonna loot."
He obeyed and cut them free, they gave us all of their praise and essentially said; 'Screw you guys, we're going elsewhere!' and left us. However, I did find more weapons, ammo, equipment, and a key ring. Then, folded up neatly in one of their wallets was a map of Virginia with locations marked Camp Alpha, Camp Bravo, all the way up until they ran out of letters and had to use numbers.
With the weapons on top of my growing bag, and the map in my pocket, we made our way back to the other building.
"Hey, thanks mom, nice shot." I said offering her her rifle back.
"No, you keep it, I like this thing. Pass the weapons and any extra munitions you have out and we'll get going." I did so, then we exited to the Humvee, this time, I sat in the back and checked over my own gear.
What I had now: one PX4 .45 with twelve loaded magazines and fourty extra rounds, one M4 Carbine with five loaded magazines and eighty extra rounds, one .38 revolver with thirty six rounds total, two frag grenades, one green smoke grenade, three white smoke grenades, and extra magazines for everyone with a weapon. (I know I discluded my knives and the newly acquired Kabar...well, technically...)
We drove to the near-by Police station where we decided to take shelter for the night, we each agreed to take our watches, I took first.
Midnight dawned on us and I was still up examining the map; the closest 'Camp' had a sub label, 'Retrieve Excursion'. The keys that I had found were ford keys, which meant that these bastards had a Ford Excursion, and I now had the keys.
"Why are you still up? You need your sleep, especially if you're gonna be manning that gun all day." My mother told me.
"Well, I found a map on one of the guys we caught sleeping and there are a bunch of 'Camps'. The closest one has the words 'Retrieve Excursion', so, from the ford keys I have, that means that we'll have two vehicles by tomorrow."
"So, let me get this straight...you want to raid a base of those bitches and grab a vehicle... I'm in."
I knew my mother was a little on the Adrenaline Junky side, but not like that; "Well, alright. I'll tell the others in the morning and we'll head out just before sunrise."
"Alright, until then...get some sleep."
I glanced down at my watch, the dials read, '0018'. Quickly I was able to go to sleep against my large bag with my new rifle against the wall next to me.
After everyone was geared up and ready to go and I had explained the situation, surprisingly no one opposed. We set out in the Humvee, with your's truly on the .50, and within an hour we had found the camp, set up stupidly inside of a small valley. After 'Scoping out', literally, the camp, we began planning.
Obviously my plan of barging in and going guns blazing didn't work for the rest, but it was only a joke anyways. Luckily, of the few of us remaining my little brother had been taking a military history class and had studied many battles and what were used to win them. He thought of the idea of using a few people on all sides of the camp and hitting them in intervals, with sniper support obviously.
We decided to launch just at the break of dusk, and see what we could do with the darkness.
The Raid
I stood, alone, at the rear entrance of the camps as the others got the Humvee ready and got into position. My mother was on over watch from an old deer watching stand. I laid low in the creek, awaiting the MG from the Humvee to begin.
A few minutes passed and I still heard nothing, no one had informed me of a discard to the plan and we were losing sunlight, so I went in quiet.
I snuck through and closed the door behind me, using the darkness as my ally and approached my first kabar victim. I plunged the knife into the front of his neck and out the back, then pulled back to slice the side and then out. He quickly bled out and I dragged his corpse out of sight. Soon I was crouched behind a Jersey Barrier and waiting for one to approach me. I lunged the knife into the bottom of his mouth and into his skull, killing him instantly. He fell into my arms and out of sight. That's when it finally happened, with high beams on and the .50 roaring, the Humvee rammed through the front gate and the others came to assist.
I lifted my rifle and offed the first hostile I saw, I could hear spaced shots from outside, then another hostile falling. From inside the camp the hostiles were forced into one building, but despite this, I noticed someone not helping...or a few not.
Drew's mother, Drew, and my sister; all of them were armed, but weren't firing. Drew's mother had been at the wheel of the Humvee, Drew was acting as 'Medic' and wouldn't fight unless needed, and my sister was just being scared. Although I can't say I blame her.
The firefight had left me just a little afraid, but I knew that if I did get hit I'd only join my brother and father; and that was fine by me.
Needless to say( considering that I'm telling you about it), I survived. No body was injured and we came out with a large trailer behind the new Excursion filled with looted gear from the raid. However, we quickly figured that the infected like noise for ourselves, because we - If not for our Humvee that I was on the gun of - barely got out of the camp.
My brother followed in the Excursion as we plowed over the infected and made our way to a gas station. Both vehicles were almost on empty.
"Alright, we're gonna need gas cans if you can't find them inside, go across the street and look. Also, bungee cords, food, drinks, and meds. Alright, remember to take a buddy." Drew's mom, Katherine, was basically the group mom.
We split, I took my little sister, Victoria, into the mid-sized bike dealership while Drew went with my brother, Mark, into a decent sized hardware store. The rest searched the station and just around it.
"Nice bikes..." I got distracted and started looking at them.
"Joshie! We're supposed too be looking for stuff. Come on! I see a downstairs!" She was far too excited.
I jogged to catch her, I opened the door and switched on the light to the bottom floor; there was a slight stench that only got stronger as we descended. As I reached to last step and turned to look into the supply room, I choked.
Hanging, wearing a green sweatshirt, blue jeans, and soaked in blood, was the body of an old friend and the owner of this store. I put my hand over my sister's eyes so she wouldn't see it, but it was too late. She screamed, then ran back upstairs. As I chased her I heard her scream again, I tripped on the top step and landed hard on my side, blurring my vision.
As it cleared up, I just barely caught the sight that no one ever wants to; her captor, an infected, had bitten her arm and she was just barely able to escape before it grabbed her again. I aimed my PX4 at the blur...then fired. The fateful shot tore through it's rib cage and stumbled the attacker. I fired again. This time it turned to look at me, then started moving. I pulled the trigger...nothing. My slide locked and wouldn't cycle. I stood and grabbed my kabar; at the same moment the stranger charged. I dodged and it collided into the armored motorcycle jackets, tripping and falling to the floor. I jumped it and plunged the kabar into it's spinal cord, than stood and smashed it's skull into the floor.
My sister had already reached the hardware store to warn the other two and they had made it here as I killed it.
"Josh!? You alright? You hurt? Anything?" Drew started checking me over as I slowly backed myself into a wall, then slumped down onto the floor; breathing heavily.
"No... I'm fine. But- Victoria was bitten..." My voice was low and dangerous, "Take her back to the station, Mark, you stay here."
With that Drew and Vic left the motorcycle dealership and returned to his mother. Mark approached me and knelt down.
"We heard two screams, what was the first?"
In response I held out my hand to request assistance standing, "Follow me."
We both took some riding gear. I took: An armored plain black leather jacket, a new pair of much more comfortable boots, armored jeans (yes they exist), ballistic googles, and a black helmet that looked like those that the SWAT guys wore. The heavy steel ones that were pretty much bullet proof. When I took him down stairs, he had my reaction. We were both good friends of the owner's and spent alot of our time here. At the far back corner I spotted four five-gallon gas cans. Both of us grabbed two. Then, on our way back up, we stopped again; this time we spoke about ways to prevent getting bitten with the gear.
My brother took about the same minus the boots and goggles.
We grabbed the cans and our gear, then made our way back to the station. As we made our approach Drew stopped us for a second.
"Listen, she was bitten-"
"Yeah! No shit! I was there!" I interrupted.
"Let me finish! She was bitten, and unless we find some sort of cure or 'dimmer' if you will, she may turn. Buuuut, from the speed of your family's immune systems as you describe it, she may be able to fight it off."
"So? What? We find her a cure and...?"
"Well, no. It doesn't need to be a cure. If it can slow the virus down her body might fight it."
"Can we mix meds?" My brother chimed.
"Pardon?"
"Can we mix something like Morphine to slow the heart, and what? Penicillin."
"Penicillin? We're not dealing with Scarlet Fever here..."
"No, I know that! But wasn't it made to fight the flu? If so than maybe, just maybe, it'll work."
"I'm in." I added, supporting my brother.
"Hm, alright. It'll take a while to mix the two properly."
"How long does it take to turn? Do you know?"
"I've heard mixed,mostly from the bandits. And then they were saying anywhere from eight to twelve hours. Again, it might depend of susceptibility. Anyways, I'll let you two talk to her."
I was never very good with words so I let my brother do most of the talking, mostly things like a normal brother and sister would say.
We loaded up, putting the fuel that we had gotten and the fuel that the others had found in the trailer, and set off towards the South. We had other friends scattered along the east coast...luckily, just the east coast.
First we headed south, South Carolina being our destination. The drive took longer than anticipated due to stops, obstructions, and bandits. These fuckers had seemed to spread and were working together, evil plus evil equals...a full clan of evil. They also seemed to use the radio towers to communicate by FM radio's. This worked to our advantage by picking up the frequencies and making detours of the roadblocks set up.
We reached the small town of our first friend, Jamie, and slowly made our way towards her house; pushing the small cars and pickup trucks out of the way. The roads were littered with them, but the one car we expected to be there, was hers. A 1968 Dodge Charger, missing.
"Maybe she got out." Drew said.
"If she did, then she did it before everything went to hell." I replied as I grabbed my gear and exited the Humvee.
With our weapons raised we neared her front door, I kicked and my mother entered; following her was me and my brother, then everyone else. Everything remained, furniture, water, cups bowls...everything.
I moved upstairs and into her parents room; inside sat decaying corpses. One of them held a .44 magnum, both of them had bullet holes in their heads. The cylinder was missing two rounds, but there were three ammo boxes on a shelf nearby. After prying the .44 out of the dead fingers and loading up the ammo, I moved onto the next room.
Empty. This was supposed to be her room, and there was no way she'd fit everything into her car.
"Fucking empty." Drew chimed over my shoulder, "Wait, what's that?"
"A note?" I lifted the paper, "Josh, Drew, whoever reads this. I left before the outbreak started and tried coming back, but no one was here. I've taken my car North in search of the others. Please, if you find this Josh, please grab the one thing I forgot... What did she forget?"
"There's more on the back."
"Ah. ...in my room is a switch, a part of the wall that's miscolored. Push it. Take the bag and don't open it. Jamie."
"Found it." Drew said as he pushed the wall. A small section of it opened up and we grabbed the bag.
"Everyone load up! Jamie left a note telling us that she headed north. She can't be too far ahead...Scratch that. Yes she can. Let's move it!"
We all loaded up and I drove the Humvee, mainly dodging cars but ramming through some. We made the trip in about eleven hours after two fuel stops.