Deadfall: Survivors (13 page)

Entry 24 – The Hike
[23]

We found two dead hikers today.

The hike began just fine. In fact, it almost felt like a group hike from the good old days
, when most people weren’t trying to eat you. The eight of us set out this morning, headed up the highway a little bit, until we veered off and took an old forest road that forest techs and rangers probably used back when it paid to be a ranger. The road would take us about two thirds of the way, up to a point called the Courthouse Falls. It’s a gorgeous little waterfall that empties out into a small pool and cove. I had planned on making a good lunch stop there before taking the steep hike up to the top.

The waterfall is truly a sight. I have pictures I had taken here years ago
, after some particularly heavy summer rain showers and the amount of water coming over the falls was impressive. I remember taking a dip in the small pool with my girlfriend at the time. We got mostly naked to wash off the heat and sweat. That was a very good day for me, and a memory from so long ago, it’s hard to discern what actually happened in my mind.

Today, the memory has been fouled by the two dead hikers we found there. Tague, probably about the only person
here who has any experiences with corpses or dead people that aren’t trying to rip your flesh off, figured that they had been dead for a little over a month. He also pointed out that this might have been a double suicide. The two bodies were apart from each other, and two small guns were found, one still in the clutches of one of the hikers, the other, near the other one. Both had gun shots to the head.

I
can’t even begin to imagine what took place here. If it was only a month ago, then these two, male and female, had been alive and survived for quite some time in the new dead world. Had their hopes died here? I keep thinking about my day here, many years ago. Had this couple also shared one day of pure bliss, and then ended it while it was good? And not just ending it, but making sure they didn’t come back as something worse.

Everyone was quite somber about the whole scenario. About
a mile from the falls, I had begun talking about them, and everyone was actually quite excited, possibly about lunch, or the falls, or just simply resting for a bit. But the bodies changed everything. We have all seen plenty of dead. Obviously, we see the ones that are still walking around, but we've seen plenty of those that have been disposed of as well. But I think for many, if not most of us, this is the first time we’ve  seen a dead human body that was not a zombie.

I
’ve  never contemplated suicide, that is, after the apparent end of the world. I really didn’t have a reason to. I was alone, so my death and subsequent rise as a zombie wouldn’t affect anyone, and if I died in my house, well, no one would ever find me or the house. Plus, I was fine. But I can’t speak for everyone else, and I am sure as hell not going to ask about it now, despite how curious I am. I know Heather and Chris have fared the worst out of this group, but, both Aaron and Lucy lost their families, Evan had to kill his own zombie father, and both Tague and Dawn have seen plenty of misery of their own.

Is suicide an option for them? I truly hope not.

The waterfalls were truly beautiful. But we left that beauty to the two dead humans who decided to finish it with that beauty in their mind. At least, I’ll  imagine it that way.

Instead, we veered off the path and began taking a trail that went up behind the waterfall. We followed the stream not even half a mile up
, until it formed another small fall, nowhere near as impressive as the one below, but nonetheless, forming a pool and a convenient resting spot. We cooked up our noodles and ate, heartily, but quietly.

I knew the hike ahead, the steeper sections, would keep everyone
quiet, but that was probably a good thing now. I don’t think anyone was really in the mood for conversation, and the hike up was going to suck the words out of most everyone anyways. From that point, it was only about a mile and a half to the top, but I knew, as it proved out to be, that it would take most of the afternoon, and many, many stops. We would follow the stream most of the way up, so that would provide us with all the water we would want, and need.

On the way up, I gave one of the radios to Tague, who led up the rear to make sure no one lagged behind
, and kept us decently close together. I only had to check in twice before we reached the top. It actually only took us three and a half hours, better than I had expected. At the top, it was only a small walk along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then a small, quick hike back behind off of the road to where the entrance to the house is.

We got here at about six pm, still an hour of light to go, even if
the sun was starting to go down. I know of course, that my house isn’t what everyone was expecting. When I moved the wooden crate and revealed a metallic door, I got many odd looks. It got even odder, when I brought up a small panel, and punched in the code that unlocked the door. I entered my house to the hiss of clean, filtered and stale air, lights flickering to life in the hallway that led into my house.

I
’m  writing this now as everyone is taking showers. I’ve  collected all of their clothing and am washing them. Sadly, I have nothing new they can wear, so they’ll  have to wear their own clothing, albeit clean, until we can do something about that. I just gave everyone large blankets that they can wrap in until the clothes are dry. They’re  all in the main locker, with all the showers, although there is enough of a separation that women and men can have some privacy. I pulled out some of the pork chops I knew for sure we had in the freezer in the kitchen, and fired up the grill to get them going.

Tague is the first one to come out, wrapped in his blanket.
He’s  looking at me and looking around at my “house”, at least this tiny section of it. I just pointed at the stack of clothes I’ve  thrown on one of the tables to his right.

This is where the questions will begin. I wonder just how many will be asked tonight.

I need to go find that recorder, for tonight’s conversation will be interesting. That, I can deal with.

For now, I'm home. And I'm safe.

Entry 25
– Actually, Day Sixteen, At Night.
[24]

Everyone is sleeping in. The whole place is locked down tight. Everyone ate well last night. I recorded everything
, and I hope I  write this down as accurately as possible. I do add on a few things that I didn’t explain as well last night, but, its only minor details. I’m doing this on one of the computers, as I can actually type fast enough to keep up with the voices, mostly.

It
’s  weird typing. I think I almost got used to writing.

Ok, here goes:

I didn’t start the recording until I thought that the actual conversation would break into what I expected it would. Pork chops and rice were served with spinach. Just some things that were in the freezer in the kitchen. Evan asked first:
“So. A house huh?”

“…do you guys mind if I record this?
”

Tague
“For what?”

“Just for my journal.
I want to make sure everything I write down is as accurate as possible.”

(I remember odd looks.)

Aaron
“Accurate for what?”

“I suspect there are going to be lots of questions, and I want to make sure that I get what you all say exactly as you say it.”

Lucy
“Okay…”
Tague
“Makes sense, I think. I’ve seen you writing in your journal. Why the journal?”

“It was just something I started a few weeks ago, thinking I was by myself. It’s easy enough to recollect what I thought. It is a lot harder to remember exactly what others said or asked. The journal though, I think it’s just for me, or, for anyone else. I guess it becomes our story, I think. I'm honestly not sure just where it is going.”

Heather
“Can we add to it?”

“Like write in it?”

(Heather nodded)

“I don’t see why not. Probably better overall.
Different perspectives. Now that I think of it, I think I should have asked you all if it was ok that I wrote about you.”

Aaron
“Man, you saved us. Do whatever you wish.”
Tague
“Don’t think you’ll  get a lawsuit from me.”
Chris
“You gonna eat that?”

“Ok, well. Okay then.”

Evan
“So what do you have to say then?”

“The house?
Yes. There is a lot to say. I’ll  start as far back as I can recall, or at least as far back as relevant.”

“This house is technically, not my house. It belongs to my father. And yes, as you can clearly see,
it’s  not a house in your general terms. Other than the entrance and several sunlights, the entirety of this place is undergrou…”

Evan
“Sunlights?”

“…
nd. Ah, yeah, Sunlights. Mirrored tubes that direct sunlight down into the rooms here. It’s not super bright, but, it gives light on sunny days in case of electrical failure.”

Evan
“How do you get electricity here?”

“Ok, hold on. Let me get back to that in a second. So this house belongs to my father, who some, or all or none of you may know of. His name is Richard
Arche. He wrote…”

Lucy
“The guy that wrote or directed those movies?”

“…some….yes.
That guy. He’s  actually more renowned for all the books that he wrote, many of which were turned into movies. He wrote books about a very specific genre, ironically, the end of the world, in a whole vast of different ways.”

(Lucy, to the others)
“He’s the guy who did ‘Fire Above’. That movie really frightened me. Scared me. I didn’t  sleep right that night.”

“That was one of his good ones. The book is better. Anyways, yes, he did those movies.
And books. And while some, well, of the movies were really good, award winning, like Fire, most of them were just summer blockbuster types. Many of his books went the graphic novel route, you know, like comic book type. There were a few animated TV shows, games, that kind of stuff.”

“What it comes down to, is that my dad was very wealthy.”

Heather
“What happened to your father?”

“I’ll get to that. At some point in writing all of his books and doing his movies, he made some pretty important friends in many places, people who liked his ideas about dealing with extreme situations. My dad had a weird sense of understanding about technology. He wasn’t a techie kind of guy, he didn’t develop anything, but he had a way of looking at scenarios and applying existing technology to it in a way that made sense, but not always
thought of before. So, while he made money with his books and movies, he also had contracts with companies, as well as the military. The details of all this? I don’t know. I'm just…or was, a high school teacher.”

Evan
“You were a teacher?”
(Laughter)

“Yeah, History.
Whole different world.”

Dawn
“Your name is Brian Arche then?”

“Ah. No. My name is Brian Orbison. My father changed his name at some point when he began writing his books. Not sure why. I never changed mine. Never knew why, never asked really.”

“I had it pretty rough as a young kid. My mother left us for who knows what and we were on our own, barely making it, until his first book got published, and then it went crazy from there. We had money, and he had time, so we hiked a lot out here. The one passion we shared, hiking.”

“After college, I moved on and actually began teaching down there in Hendersonville, where I found you guys. I didn’t see much of my dad, he was always traveling around doing his stuff, but he had always hinted at buying a sweet house out here in the mountains for us to hang out at and hike from.”

“Now, when the comet was first discovered, I tried reaching my dad, seeing as he was into this kind of thing, but I didn’t hear from him for almost a year after the comet. I figured he was completely busy with, well, I'm not sure.”

“It turns out he was busy with this. He had taken almost every last dime he had, of which he had tons of, and poured it into this little project of his. When the comet was destroyed, my dad actually invited me up here, where he showed it to me for the first time. We were only going to hang out here for two weeks before school started; hike, fish, that kind of thing. But then the zombies started coming out. We watched the first couple of days on the TV while it all unfolded and then it all went black. When it finally went completely silent out there, my father explained to me that this hideout was the best and most valuable item on the entire planet.”

“Now, I'm not my father. I don’t have his understanding of technology. What I do know is that there are seven levels here, and more rooms and storage areas than I can imagine. There’s stuff in rooms I simply don’t understand; machinery, computers, I don’t know the half of it. Evan…there’s a whole room with just weapons of all sorts, even stuff I don’t see in movies. Large freezer rooms with food and other stuff in it, too. There are spare parts rooms, rooms with boxes, and just more rooms I haven’t even looked in..”

“We stayed here for a whole month, just kind of waiting to see if anything would happen out there. We scouted around up here in the mountains. That’s when we found that there were no zombies coming up this high. We talked a lot. He had actually written books
about zombies and zombie attacks, but to him it was always enjoyable fiction, and a way to make a living. While he was unusually understanding about everything that was happening in the world, probably because this type of thing had been his entire life, he really had nothing to add to it. He had no explanations or solutions.”

“After that month, he tells me he’s leaving, that
he’s  going to go raid into Asheville for some parts he needs.”

“I never see him again. I can only assume as to what happened. We’ve all been out there.”

(Quiet)

Tague
“This place must have cost millions.”

“He had millions.”

Tague
“I'm talking in the hundreds of millions.”

“Yeah.
I don’t know. He knew people. People who were interested in his way of thinking in apocalyptic scenarios. Maybe…I just don’t know. He never told me.”

Evan
“What else, other than the gun room?”

“I really don’t know.
I’ve  gone down to all seven levels, but never into all of the rooms. I do know, as my father told me once, that there was enough food here, for one person to live on for forty years. Dunno what type, or anything. Don’t even know where it all is.”

(More quiet)

Heather
“What did you do when your dad didn’t come back?”

“Well, I waited three weeks. Well, obviously, I waited more than that, but, I think it was after three weeks that I kind of decided that something had happened. I made a few hikes over to some of the peaks, and that’s when I saw plenty of smoke rising out of Asheville, so, I felt rather defeated. Even if I went down into Asheville, I would have no idea where to look. I don’t even know what parts he was looking for.”

“So I came back. And I did nothing. I read books. There’s  a room full of books and if those aren’t enough, there's like over a million books in digital storage. I waited, for nothing really. I sat through the winter up here, doing nothing, working out, reading, eating, sleeping. When spring came, that’s when I began to plan to head out. I know this sounds completely insane, after all you guys have been through, but I was bored.”

Lucy
“Don’t feel guilty for being in the right place at the right time.”

“I don’t feel guilty about that, I don’t think. I just don’t want any of you to, well, I don’t want to demean or belittle all that you guys have been through.”

Tague
“So your father, who wrote novels and made movies about what is going on right now, took the information he must have researched for many years, and made it happen at this place?”

(Sound of eating, chewing)

“Yeah, that’s what I came up with, as well.”

Tague
“Did you and your father not have a good relationship? Why did he not tell you more?”

“Oh no, my father and I got along great, I think. I guess as well as any father and son does. I tried digging a little, asking questions, but it wasn’t like he didn’t want to tell me, but that, he shouldn’t. At one time I wondered if maybe he had scammed people out of money or technology, and didn’t want me to know, but, that simply isn’t who he is. If anything, he's the kind of guy who gets scammed because he’s too open and trusting about everyone and everything around him.”

“Regardless of that, he isn’t here to answer any questions. What I do have here is this place. Now, it’s not built to house a whole town or community, but I figure that about twelve to fifteen people could live here comfortably. Given the available food, those same people could live off of the food here in storage for about three years, without having to do anything else outside. Three years would seem to me to be ample enough time to, at the very least, learn how to plant corn or raise some pigs. Seems simple, but that’s how I think.”

“Everyone is welcome to crash anywhere on the main floor here. There are more than enough couches and cushions to make do tonight. And then tomorrow we can plan everything out, where people can stay.”

(Sound of something hitting a plate)

Chris
“Sorry.”

Aaron
“I think the bigger question now is, what do we do? Here? Or anywhere?”

Evan
“I think that’s a simple answer. We stay here until they all die out.”

(Sound of a chair shuffling)

Tague
“Two main things wrong with that idea, which, sounds ideal. First, we have no idea if the zombies will die out. We don’t know how their physiology works. It could be years, decades or even longer. We have no way of knowing. Second, we have talked about closed communities. We saw what probably happened in the airport. It only takes one mistake. Now, even if we do make a system that keeps us all under guard, the eventuality is that we will all die. And then, that’s it.”

(Moment of silence)

“I have thought about a few things as far as a watch or guard here. I think the biggest thing is for no one to ever be alone, at any time. Well, short of showering or the bathroom…”

(Laughter)

“… but, yeah. And at night, everyone sleeps alone, in separate rooms. Or, even more severely, chained to the beds. Doesn’t even have to be locked, I have yet to see a zombie unlock or even turn a knob on a door.”

Lucy
“What if we want to share a room?”

(Unintelligible)

“I guess that would be a choice you and Aaron make together. Assumed risk I guess.”

Dawn
“What about children?”

“Well, Chris would get his own room, too. Or he could share with Heather, again, assumed risk.”

Dawn
“No, I meant, future children.”

(Mixed conversation)