A New World: Untold Stories (29 page)

While Ashley cried, the three upstairs discovered the body of their dad. He appeared to have been dead for a couple of days. Based on what Nate could piece together of the scene in the master bedroom, the kids’ mom had turned and attacked her husband. Most of his body had been consumed, the sight of which Nate tried to keep from Andrew, unsuccessfully. For the second time in a matter of minutes, Andrew threw up in the hallway. He sat down, using the wall to support his frame. Sam sat with him.

After a short and inadequate amount of recovery time, Andrew rose, followed by Sam, and stepped into the bathroom. After removing his shirt, he wet a towel with the water from the toilet tank and cleaned himself off as well as he could. He then concentrated his efforts on his dog. As he wiped the blood off of Sam’s fur, it fully dawned on him that his happy, friendly dog risked his life to save him. The gratitude he felt toward Sam was so powerful, he had to put it on the back-burner for the time being to process it fully at a later time. There were too many other emotions swirling around in his soul at the moment. So many decisions to be made. The responsibility of taking care of his sister weighed heavily on him. And there was also the task ahead of burying his parents’ bodies. He was thankful he didn’t have to face any of this alone.

A couple of hours later, the Man, his Boy, the Girl, and Cheeseburger made their way back to the Man’s house. They walked in silence, each lost in their thoughts about the events of the morning. The Man and Cheeseburger dug a hole in the backyard of the house. The same two took the grisly job of wrapping the Mom and Dad bodies in sheets and dragging them down the stairs. Sam watched as the bodies were lowered into the ground and covered with dirt. He tried to comfort his Boy by leaning against his leg as he and his sister said a few words over their parents’ grave.

The group had gathered what supplies they could from the house, including food, a Smith & Wesson revolver, two hunting rifles, and ammo for each of the weapons. Sparing Ashley from having to see the blood and gore upstairs, Connor went to her room and selected some clothes and other items. He threw them into a duffle bag he found in her closet and brought it to her. He then returned upstairs and did the same for Andrew.

The silence continued after Sam and his People reached the Man’s house with their supplies. His Boy busied himself with cleaning his dad’s hunting rifle. After that, he worked on his own. Cheeseburger helped the Man sort and make a list of supplies they would need for the days ahead. Their list included food, gas, weapons with more fire power than what they had, and as much ammunition as they could find.

Sam watched through baleful eyes as the Girl kept herself busy going through the pile of clothes Cheeseburger brought her. She inspected and folded the clothes as she replaced them in the duffle. There was one shirt she investigated curiously. After looking at it closely, she sniffed it. With a wrinkled nose she tossed it aside, wondering what had happened to her favorite shirt. Sam felt a little guilty, but he vowed to never tell her.

Over a lunch of canned soup, the Man asked the younger people what they intended to do. Sam’s Boy and his sister looked at each other and shrugged. Cheeseburger would do whatever the siblings decided, since he assumed he had no family left. Sam would, of course, go wherever his Boy went, but he secretly hoped the Man would join them.

He listened to his Boy tell the others his story of the last few days. He shared how he left his apartment after talking to Ashley on the phone. He was as worried as she was about their parents, so he set out to find some supplies to take on his journey home to find them. While he was out, he heard a plane in the distance. Andrew thought it was odd as it occurred to him he hadn’t heard a plane in days. Intrigued, he pulled over in a mall parking lot, got out of his car, and searched the sky. Shielding his eyes with his hand, he observed a giant, grayish-colored military plane overhead. Whoever was flying it, obviously had seen him because they circled around a few times. He was a little concerned when he saw a door open on the side of the plane and, half a minute later, an object falling from it. Whatever it was had what looked like streamers attached and it was falling fast.

Andrew laughed, recalling how the object landed across the mall parking lot with a huge
bang!
It had landed on top of a Beemer, blasting its windows out and crashing the roof in.

“I was just thankful it didn’t land on my head,” Andrew said with a grin.

He continued his story, explaining how, when he recovered the instrument of the BMW’s demise, he found a note duct taped to a wrench. The note read, “
McChord
. You’ll see us parked on the north end. Meet us there.” He kept the wrench and the note and headed toward
McChord
Air Force Base. It took some time to get to the north end of the base since he had to find a way in and then make his way around piles of bodies.

When he finally made it to the place the note directed him, he saw a man pick up a mean-looking gun from the back of a chair. A little alarmed at the greeting, especially since he was an invited guest, Andrew approached slowly, stopped the car far enough away to show he wasn’t a threat, and got out. He smiled and showed the man the wrench he had dropped. After introductions were made, he explained he was a student at the University of Washington.

The man mentioned they were flying over to Kuwait and invited him along. Andrew declined, explaining he needed to search for his parents. The man, whose name was Jack, mentioned they would return to the base in about a week and suggested they meet up then. After wishing each other good luck, Andrew headed out again for home, glad to know there were still good people out there.

Sam sensed his Boy was telling the story for a reason. And as usual, Sam was right. His Boy threw out the idea of taking the man up on his offer to regroup at
McChord
. The Girl and Cheeseburger considered this option silently, not sure at that point what to do.

“What are your plans, Mr. Johnson…
er
, Nate?” asked Ashley.

The Man said he had been planning to settle down in his cabin on the Montana side of the Bitterroot Range. The large cabin had been in his family for years, was solidly built, near a lake, and out in the middle of nowhere. He figured it would be best to get as far away from the cities as he could. He also added that he’d prefer to have their little group stay together, so he would consider going to
McChord
, if that was what everyone else wanted to do.

Sam listened as his People discussed their concerns regarding each option. The biggest worry the younger ones had about going to the cabin was how they would manage in the winter. Spokane’s winters were pretty mild compared to what they would find in the mountains. The biggest comforts were knowing their large friend was familiar with the area and they would be able hunt, fish, and grow their own food during the warmer months. Everyone’s main unease about going to
McChord
was whether the man Andrew met would even make it back from Kuwait. That was a long way to go and the likelihood they would make it back seemed slim. On the other hand, they all agreed it would be to their advantage to increase their numbers. That is, if the other group had survived.

In Sam’s opinion, that last thought ended up being the deciding factor for his Boy and the rest. For better or worse, choosing the ‘known’ of the mountain cabin over the ‘unknown’ of what they would find at
McChord
, they decided to head for Montana first thing in the morning.

With only a few hours of daylight left, everyone started to do what they could to get ready for the trip. The journey would be interrupted with stops along the way to gather supplies and hopefully find other survivors, so the more they could do before securing themselves in the attic for the night, the better.

Sam tried to help by following his Boy around. When that got tiring, he settled onto the floor against the Man’s couch and rested his chin on his paws. Sam thought about all that had happened in the course of three days. The people around had been nearly decimated, those still alive would be spending the rest of their days struggling to survive, and the lives of those he loved the most had been forever changed.

Sam didn’t know what the future held for any of them in this new world. All he knew is they were together and his Boy was by his side. And that was good enough for Sam.

Written by H.J. Harry

He cursed loudly to the empty air as he stood patiently waiting at the end of Still Island Pier scanning the surface of the Sound with binoculars.

“They still aren’t back yet?” His co-leader’s gentle voice surprised him as he didn’t expect her to be out here this close to evening. Everybody including, maybe especially her, was getting way too complacent in their current situation.

“Aren’t you worried about getting back behind the fence? It’s going to be dark soon.” He replied.

“I’m not too worried about it really. We’ve only had the floaters that the current pulls into the bay on the north side of the island for over two weeks since you cleared the houses. You also cleared the prison of the inmates that had turned. We never would have been able to do that without you and your brother.”

“You mean me, my brother and the caravan that was with us cleared the prison of the few inmates that were left there.”

“Yeah, it was shut down as a regular prison farm years ago when it was deemed cruel to make criminals work. I will never understand that type of thinking. All that was left here were the violent sex offenders who rarely saw daylight. As wards of the state, they all got their flu shots and we know how good that turned out.”

“Don’t forget the role that your group played in our survival. That was a risky thing to do and it saved our lives.” Barry said with sincerity as he thought back on the night he and his group were chased out of their safe hold by marauders right before the screamers started their run.

They had lost most of their weapons and all of their food when an organized group started shooting right through the walls of the train car they had held up in. They didn’t know who it was or how many but Sam claimed that they were using a Barrett and there were at least two of them. They had just arrived and were unaware of anybody else alive in the city other than the screamers. Two of his friends were dead before they even heard the shots. A third had his head blown off a second later and they realized that they were sitting ducks.

“Did you ever figure out what they were after? I mean why would anybody just start shooting at a bunch of strangers?”

“Because they could, I guess. Take away the laws and the police force and people can really show what they are made of.” Barry replied, his tone steady as he didn’t understand that mentality either. He continued to scan the shoreline hoping for some sign of Zack and his crew.

“Well, we were just lucky to be fishing that stretch when you came barreling into the water. We were almost going to call it a day with the screamers about to come out for the night. They don’t do well in water but they can jump from shore a surprising distance. Twice before we almost had them in our boat.”

“Barreling, running for our lives because screamers spotted us! It’s all kind of relative now. That is, at least now that we have the island cleared.”

“Have you seen any more funnel clouds?”

“Nope. It’s been quiet…too quiet. I sure hope that Zack and the rest weren’t close enough to be affected by any backlash from the blast,” Barry said, thinking that their group of scavengers could not have gone that distance in such a short time. It was such a big explosion that its impact would have far reaching implications. Somehow he knew that a hitch was thrown into the plan and he should have gone with them.

“I wonder what kind of bomb they have that could cause such a cloud and so much noise that it rattled all of the windows on the island. Do you think that they are military?”

“I don’t know for sure but I doubt that there’s a true military left anymore, at least we didn’t see any while we were on the run,” Barry said as if that was all that their lives consisted of for the first several months after the apocalypse began.

If they were connected with the group that performed the assault on the Highway 16 bridge, then they could be military. At the very least, they had access to their armored toys.

“Don’t you think that you should be heading back to the prison farm? I mean we still have live floaters showing up now and again,” Barry said, thinking about the rogue screamer that got caught in the current up north and landed on McNeil Island before the sun came up.

“I know. We had two last night, ‘but they only float out at night’.” She sang the last few words as if they were the true words to an old Hall and Oates song and smiled warmly at the newcomer to their community.

The world has changed
, she thought.
Life has changed. My life has broken and now we must rebuild with new rules.

So much was conveyed in that simple smile that Barry couldn’t help but be drawn to her, but was he ready? It had only been a couple of months since Sandy was ripped from his world by apocalyptic claws whose bloody teeth sealed his fate. He thought he was going to walk around in a daze for the rest of his life, only living to kill more of the screamers. This is the reason he was not invited on the trip. It needed to be subtle, which is something that Barry is not. Now he looked into Arzel’s pretty face, her green eyes that sparkled in the fading sun, and he realized there might still be something there for him. Not what he once had, there was no way to ever replace what he once had with Sandy, but it could still be good. Different, true, but good nonetheless.

Barry smiled in return. “Two? Did they have their pants on at least?”

He chuckled referring to the anomaly of them literally stripped by the current, aimlessly floating to wherever it brought them.

“Nope. The bigger one was completely naked but Anita took them out with the plungers you came up with,” Arzel said with a smile.

“Not a problem. I stole it from an old Boris Karloff movie,” he said as he mused about the simplicity of twelve-inch wood spikes with very sharp tips.

They would never win any wars in the old modern world, but here, where you don’t have many guns and your adversary was faster, stronger and had more stamina, they came in pretty useful. A person could carry fifteen to twenty, more if they made a quiver of some sort and they killed beautifully. A last ditch weapon that was inserted under the chin or elsewhere after the screamers thought their quarry was caught.

“She should have used the longer spears. There is no need to get that close to them,” Barry stated.

“So I told her, but she is going to do whatever she wants to anyway. Well, would you look at that? The sun is already behind the ridge. I guess I’m going to have to keep you company in the Anderson house,” Arzel said with a smirk.

It was then that Barry noticed the gear tied to the racks on her bicycle. Barry smiled as he scanned the horizon one last time. Spotting something, he put out his hand to alert Arzel.

“What is it?”

“Kayaks. Two paddlers towing three others. Oh this is not good,” he said as they started to ready themselves for the boats that were approaching.

He could tell from the postures that neither of the paddlers was his brother. A foreboding of doom started to overwhelm him. He didn’t know if he could survive this world without his brother. Oh, he knew that he should have gone with them.

* * * *

He was nothing but a blend within the backdrop of trees behind him. The only contrast being the flecks of snow within the camouflage pattern on his gear showing him to be a little premature in the season, but it didn’t matter. He would have worn bright orange or construction green if that is what the gear was, because it was all he owned and is the real reason why he floated within the early morning hours scanning the southernmost shore line of Puget Sound.

Zack had left with four of their most skilled people, each in their own kayak, which was where they would live for the next few days. Lashed together at night and wrapped in winter clothing, rain ponchos covering their heads as makeshift tents, they tucked into a secluded bay to hide from the screamers throughout the nights and avoided marauders during the day. They weren’t heavily armed as only a couple had any type of weapons, with the exception of their custom made plungers, which is exactly the reason why they left the safety of the island. Armed with a .22 rifle along with a small .22 Highpoint pistol, they had set out with every intention of increasing the wealth of the group. Wealth in this day and age meant fire power and the closest/best place to get that was at the hunting store down in Lacey. Roger was the only one who wasn’t in the original group. He was also their guide having lived in this area for five years and was physically the most capable of the islanders.

The people who lived on the island were a pretty complacent people who never expected to be forced to protect themselves from screamers or bandits, living a reclusive life upon an island only reachable by ferry which is why Roger moved there. N.Y.P.D. for over twenty years, he searched out a virtually crime free place to settle down for his retirement where he could fish and while away the days wondering about missed opportunities. Roger, despite his age, was the most suited for this scavenging trip that they were on.

Janine was probably in the best physical shape of any of them with the exception of Zack. Working as a line man for a power company in San Diego had kept him very fit. He still carried his pole spikes with him everywhere, though lately, they have been used as weapons as much as for climbing. Janine was a realtor before the infection began but it only took a couple weeks of the apocalypse to bring back her gymnast’s body from high school.

Sam and Elise were a married couple who had managed to save one of their three children when hell broke loose. Tommy, who is twelve, they left on the island in good hands. Zack didn’t know that much about them other than they were quiet and owned a carpet cleaning business in the old world. Neither was trained that he knew of, or even seemed to be fighters, but when the shit hit the fan, they were right there next to you every time and didn’t run until the group as a whole ran. Saving each other’s lives several times imbued trust among the four to which Roger had now become a member. It also created a feeling of respect for privacy and, if they didn’t want to open up about themselves, then you didn’t bother them about it.

Movement from the woods alerted him. Zack slipped his paddle silently into the water and slowly pushed himself deeper into the shadows hoping it was simply a deer. It was too late in the day for screamers and the sound was too large to be a coyote or rabbit, so he held his breath and signaled for the others to stay still. The shore line ahead of him jutted out into the bay with a sharp slope creeping up towards a summit on a pine-covered hill. A flash of construction yellow from a parka as it rounded the slope made him think that it was just a hunter, but hunters never made that much noise. Just before the figure slipped from view, he noticed the butt stock of a rifle, a very large rifle, and he caught several undefinable words of a conversation. Zack back paddled to the others and related what he saw. Roger seemed very interested in the rifle. He wanted to know what the stock looked like and how long it was. When Zack said he didn’t get a good look at it, he then wanted to know how it was hung on the man’s body.

“It was slung like a back pack and would be hard to get it up in time if trouble came. It also looked as if it had something attached to the barrel like a couple of legs that could fold down,” Zack said, to which Roger simply nodded his head as if in confirmation. “What is it Roger?” Zack pressed.

“Well, there aren’t too many people left in the city and to be in this particular area in itself is pretty significant, don’t you think?” Roger said as if we should all be picking up on this, but Zack checked, and all faces except Rogers were blank. “Well, I think that we should follow them and see what they’re up to. It sounds like they’re headed towards the Cabelas anyway and if one of them is wearing high visibility colors, we should be able to stay far enough back to watch them and not be seen.”

He waited for a response and when he got none he continued, “Look, the store is a couple of miles that way. We can stay within these woods for a while, but we will have to break out of them from time to time. So, it is either follow them or pick another destination.”

At this revelation, they gave a unanimous single nod and directed their boats towards shore. Zack had been up in this area with this brother and had spent a lot of time in the field tracking game, so finding a trail in these woods, especially since he had a starting point, was pretty easy. It wasn’t long before they had this new group in sight again so they followed at some distance.

“Two carry .50 cals and two without. These are sniper teams, Zack,” Roger whispered. “Two spotters and two shooters. These boys are on a mission. Look one of the spotters has a high tech spotting scope. It probably gives him the ability to see at night and may pick up heat signals.”

“Heat signals? Can that see through walls?” Janine asked.

“It depends upon the thickness of the wall, what it’s made of, and the temperature outside at that time of day, but in some cases, yes,” Roger said.

Janine looked to Zack who had a similar inquisitive look on his face. They followed the four men for another mile before they split into groups of two, with one pair staking out what should have been Cabelas off in the distance.

“What in the hell is going on down there?” Roger exclaimed.

“What is it, Roger?” Zack pressed.

“Well, that is the Cabelas down there but it looks like somebody has put up a concrete wall encapsulating several miles around it.”