Government Z (Book 1): The Beginning

Prologue

Beep Beep Beep.  I rolled over to see was already six in the morning and turned off the alarm clock.  One more day I told myself before a much needed four day weekend for Easter break.  I headed upstairs to get the kids up for school, made them breakfast, and then jumped in the shower.  Once I was out of the shower I got dressed and started our morning routine we got the kids into during the school year.  Vitamins, wash-up, teeth brushed, and get dress with enough time for a half hour of SpongeBob.  Out the door at a quarter to eight and off to school.  I’d go have breakfast with the kids when I had enough time or when my daughter asked.  Once I left the school I headed home for a quick nap before heading to work for another twelve hour shift.  I tried to work as much overtime as I could so we would always have a little extra spending money.  I was ready for this break coming up since I was putting in my fourth twelve hour shift of the week.  Working early was always best for me since the kids were in school and the wife was sleeping in, her midnight schedule had her on an irregular schedule throughout the week.  The only down side to working early was the front office since they made everyone on the shop floor a tight wad.  Afternoon shift had a little more freedom since the front office was heading home shortly after the shift started and everyone worked more like a family trying to make the best product we could, where the day shift team was more about a “what’s best for me” attitude.  I always took my breaks and lunches when I could but since it was our last day of the week, I decided to order out with Rus one of the press operators and Don who just became our newest maintenance.  We ordered subs from this little Italian shop in town about five minutes from where we worked.  So did you have any plans for the weekend I asked?  I am taking my boy down to my parents to celebrate Easter on Saturday and his mother gets him for Sunday Don answered.  How about you Rus I asked?  I think we will head over to my mom’s on Sunday but otherwise I’ll just be working in the garage sharpening my axes and chainsaw blades to cut wood Rus said.  I am just relaxing and will probably make a ham on Sunday since the in-laws are still in Florida and my family is in Aruba like they do every year I said.  After lunch my boss came up to me and asked if I could drive one of the new temporary employees to the clinic?  I said sure, what did they do this time I asked?  Hit their head on the table picking up trash under it he answered.  I left and drove the employee to the clinic.  Since it was after hours the clinic was closed the ER at the River District Hospital handled all the work injures.  Once the employee got checked out we returned to work with about a half hour before the end of the shift.  How is he? Don asked when I returned.  Fine just a bump I said.  He did have a hot nurse for being an older lady I said laughing. We finished off the shift slowly sending people home early as lines changed over for different jobs or shutdown for the weekend.  The rest of us that remained lined up to punch out at the end of the day at eleven thirty.  As I unlocked my car I heard “Hey we are going for a drink so follow me bitch” I looked up to see Rus shouting at me out his car window.  I jumped in my car and followed him to bar.  We started easy just ordering beer which I normally didn’t like but it tasted great tonight.  Did you need to text the wife? Rus asked.  I looked at my phone and had a missed text that I read from my wife Christi.  “Tired and heading to bed. Love you.” I saw it was sent around 9:30 p.m.  No she’s already asleep I’ll be good I said.  Before I knew it half the shift was at the bar, the shots started flowing left and right, I also heard last call shouted and when I looked down it was 2:30 in the morning.  Rus had left about an hour before but I never really paid attention to the time. Holy shit I need to get going I said.  I staggered to the parking lot where everyone started heading to go home or smoke before leaving.  Everyone have a great weekend I shouted as I drove off and started up a cigarette.  I drove as safe as I could since I didn’t want to get pulled over.    I pulled in the driveway looked down to see I had a few messages from other co-workers to see that had made it home safely, then I started to head for the front door when I heard a load exploding sound.  I looked up to see if a storm was rolling but saw a clear sky.  As I turned toward the porch I saw this white flash that lit the whole yard up and then everything went black.

Chapter 2

              I must have passed out after that white flash went off.  I awoke on the front porch still with my keys in my hand.  What was that white flash I saw last night? I wondered.  It was the last thing I can remember before waking up.   I woke up covered in frost since it was just the beginning of April on Good Friday.  The clock on my phone still read 3:01 a.m. as well as my wrist watch.  I noticed my neighbor walking toward me, an elder man who moved around well for someone in his early 80’s, but he had a ghostly look to him almost a gray tinge to his skin. Morning Mr. Jones you didn’t happen to see that white flash last night did you? I asked.  He yelled out a disgruntled scream as he got closer to me.  I stared in disbelief as he was only a few steps away. His eyes were pure white like they had rolled back into his head, teeth a yellowish brown color like they had rotted in his mouth and his skin a gray blue color almost like he was suffering from hypothermia.  What the Hell! I screamed as he grabbed a hold of my arms and tackled me down by the front door.  He tried biting me in the neck and chest, but I had a firm hold of his jaw and forehead.          

I heard the front door swing open and saw a wooden bat swinging down like a tomahawk.   Crushing the back of Mr. Jones’s head and stopping him before he ate me for lunch.  I looked up to see a terrified look in my wives eyes.  You need to get inside now she insisted.  I rolled Mr. Jones body off myself and into the garden and went into the house.  Christi quickly locked the door and shoved a chair under the knob.  I looked around and noticed she had already boarded up all the windows and blocked the doors heavily to avoid anyone entering our home.  What is going on? I asked.  She said last night all the power went out around three in the morning and she couldn’t get on the internet or make calls from either the house or cell phones.   Thank God you are alright and made it home to me, but why didn’t you come home after work last night she asked.  I told her I was at the bar with some co-workers having some drinks since we had a three day holiday weekend and when I was walking to the front door I heard a boom followed by a white flash and the next thing I knew it was morning and I was laying on the front porch.  I thought it was a storm rolling in I said.  Christi told me she never saw any white light, but did hear a loud boom and there wasn’t a storm last night.  She said Mr. Jones isn’t the only one she had seen looking possessed.   Our other neighbors had walked down the street with the same white eyes and gray skin as she started boarding up the house around 5 a.m. the night before.  They must not have seen you or thought you were already dead Christi said. She walked over and wrapped her arms around me and gave me a long passionate kiss.  I asked where the kids were, she started to tear up.  I asked what was wrong.  She couldn’t speak; she just started crying and pointed to the kitchen.  I walked in to see both kids sitting inside the dog cages with the door locked.  As I got closer I could see a gray tinge to their skin, but before I could say anything both of them turned around as I sat between the two cages and lunged at me biting at the cage piercing through me with their white eyes…

I fell to my knees with tears pouring down my face. My babies I screamed.  Christi wrapped her arms around me.  What’s going on, what the hell happened to the kids and Mr. Jones? I demanded, knowing neither of us had the answer.  Christi started to tell what she saw.  “Last night around 3 a.m. when the power went out I heard a noise coming from the kitchen.  So I went upstairs with a flashlight and found your son sitting in front of the doggie door.  (Her tears getting heavier in her eyes and voice cracking.)  He was eating one of the dogs.  His eyes were white as snow and he had this discolored skin.  I thought to myself this is not my little boy.  When he noticed I was there he dropped the dog and ran at me with a biting motion.  I closed the gate in the kitchen and then I managed to grab him by the back of the neck and his pants.  I did the only thing I thought I could do and that was to shove him in the dogs cage and lock it.  When I composed myself I got the flashlight to go check on your daughter.  As I turned around she was standing at the gate.  Her eyes white and skin gray.  I just did the same as with your son.  I grabbed her by the neck and pajama pants then I put her in the other dog cage. As they scratched and clawed at the cage I balled up and began to cry until I passed out for a little bit.  When I woke up I was hoping it was a terrible dream but I was still in the kitchen.  The kids were still in the cages and I headed to see if you were home yet.  When I looked outside the first thing that caught my eye was our neighbors walking down the street and the street light showed the same gray tinged skin.  So I panicked and headed to the garage through the backyard since it’s fenced in.  I grabbed all the boards, nails, and a hammer that I could find.  I boarded all the windows up and used the furniture to block the door.  I heard Mr. Jones when I looked outside to see him attacking you.  Christi’s story ended when we heard some noises coming from outside. We jumped up and looked through the gaps in the boarded up windows.  A group of at least 15 people all with the same features walking down the street.   Get some batteries out of the drawer and maybe we can get something on the radio Christi said.  We put the batteries into the radio, turned it on the FM stations and heard nothing but static.  I tried switching to the AM stations and one by one listened closely to see if I could hear any type of broadcast.  After an hour I finally could hear a faint news cast going over the radio.  I couldn’t understand everything but caught a few interesting parts.  Something about most electronics being down across the globe, a infectious disease turning people’s eyes white and skin gray, and those people eating others like cannibals.  If they didn’t kill their victims those bitten slowly turned into the same savage killers.  No one knew how it started or if there was any saving those plagued by this disease.  We listened for the next three days trying to see if there was any word on what needed to happen.  We just kept hearing the same repeated telecast.  Food was starting to run out and we had no idea what was going on in the world, when suddenly my phone let out a chime.

I ignored my phone assuming the battery was dying and that was the chime I heard.  Christi yelled why aren’t you checking your phone.  I said the battery is just dying nothing to get excited about.  She jumped up all excited.  You don’t understand that anything battery powered is still working, we just haven’t had any internet or service.  I plugged our phones into the laptop and charged them through the battery two days ago in case they started working again.  I ran over and unplugged my phone from the charger.  I unlocked the screen and saw I had a text message.   I opened it to see that Rus had sent out a message that read “Anyone out there, anyone at all? Plz contact me and let me know”.   I looked at Christi with shock, we had finally heard from the outside world since we had been secluded to our home for the past 4 days.  I quickly responded to Rus’s text with my own and to all my other contacts and said “Christi and I are here and not infected.  Our kids are not so lucky.  Who is out there?   Contact us and in one hour we will send out plans to survive this horrific time. God be with you all.”  Over the next hour we received only two more text besides a return one from Rus.  Bruce and Abigail contacted us.  All three had the same response “Not infected. Kids are. What’s next?”  Time to set up a plan!

The first thing I texted everyone was “they needed to secure their children in a safe way if they wanted to find a way to save them.    Next find a weapon and get into a car and we will all meet in the old K-mart plaza in 30 minutes.  Hurry and Be Safe.”  Christi grabbed the wooden baseball bat she used to crush the skull of Mr. Jones and I grabbed all our knives from our butcher block in the kitchen.  We scouted the outside before we unlocked the front door and secured the rest of the house so the kids would remain safe and locked up.   It looked safe enough to make a run for our van. Christi figured we would want a vehicle with as much storage as possible.  We headed out the front door as we closed and locked the front door I glanced to the garden and noticed that Mr. Jones’s body was gone.  I thought to myself maybe he got eaten because no one could survive a shot to the head like Christi gave him.  We made sure to stay quiet to not alert any diseased people roaming the streets.  As we got to the car Christi unlocked the driver side door and got in as she reached over to unlock the passenger side I noticed she was looking at me with her mouth wide open.  I looked sharply over my shoulder to see Mr. Jones standing right behind me.  He lunged at me looking to take a bite out of me again but with a swift uppercut and a steak knife in hand I buried the knife through the bottom of his jaw all the way to his brain.   He fell to ground instantly and dispensed yellow mucus from the wound.  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to examine what was going on with Mr. Jones since I looked up from his body and saw 7 more people charging from about fifty feet away.  Christi swung open the door and yelled get in.  I jumped in the vehicle as we sped away I noticed the 7 people tearing apart what was left of Mr. Jones.  I said a prayer for him as we headed through town looking for any other survivors on our way to the plaza.

Meanwhile forty miles north of the plaza is where Rus was starting his journey.  He secured his children in a dog kennel he had built out in his garage.  He loaded up his 12-gauge double barrel shotgun and a .44 magnum and jumped in his son’s Jeep. It was going to travel better than his run down Subaru wagon.  Living out in farm country Rus ran into less people infected with the disease then he will once he reaches the city.  Shortly after he left his house, children, and life behind Rus received a text from Bruce.  “Rus have you passed by my house yet? My car is dead and I don’t know how long I can hold off people in this community park.”  Rus floored it driving 70 mph until he came upon the community park where Bruce lived.  Rus came across a group of five people trying to gain access into Bruce’s house.  Rus leaned out the window and unloaded all six rounds of his .44 magnum getting three of them with head shots and dropping them where they stood.  Distracted by the gun fire the other two turned toward the shooting, so Bruce burst out the front door stabbing a fire poker right through the chest of the female closest to the door.  Rus started to drive again as Bruce ran for the vehicle without missing a stride Bruce jumped and slide across the hood and jumped into the passenger door.  While Bruce started to jump across the hood the last disease ridden person almost caught him but Rus unloaded a shotgun blast that blew the poor souls head clean off his body.   Now with them both in the clear Rus and Bruce headed for the plaza looking for any other survivors.

Abigail lived 20 miles south of the city one town over just a little smaller in population.  She had no way of locking her son in a secure cage since she didn’t own a dog.  So the only thing she could think to do was lock him in the bathroom with a chair under the door knob and a dresser pulled in front of the door.  Since her son was only six and of small built she has no issues or worries of getting him into the bathroom by herself.  She grabbed her keys and went straight for the car.  She didn’t grab any weapons but had no other threats that had tried to enter the house, so she thought if she could just get to the car she could make it to the plaza with no issues.  As Abigail started to drive she noticed a blonde haired woman being chased down the road by two males both infected.  She had the look of Dog the Bounty Hunters wife.  Abigail pulled up alongside her rolled down the window and screamed jump in.  The girl jumped in and Abigail floored it as fast as she could to get away.  Once she got upright and caught her breathe, she said thank you very much.  I didn’t think I was going to make it until you stopped.  My name is Beverly but please call me Bev.  My name is Abigail, but I go by Abby.  I am on my way to meet some coworkers that contacted me if you want to tag along Abby said.  I have no family anymore those two guys chasing me killed my husband who fought them so I could escape as Bev started to sob.  We are on our way to the old K-mart plaza.  We’ll be there in 10 minutes so rest for now I feel we have a lot to prepare for Abby stated. 

Christi and I were the first to arrive at the plaza.  As we drove to the plaza cars were stopped in the middle of the streets abandoned or had crashed.  We didn’t know who was affected and who was just in hiding.  We didn’t see anyone on our drive to the plaza. Abby and Bev were next arriving.  Abby ran out of her car and hugged Christi, breaking down a little explaining what happen to her son.  Christi explained to Abby that she was not alone and the same thing had happen to us.  Abby introduced us to Bev who explained her story to us.  I was about to tell our story over the past few days when Rus and Bruce arrived.  As we had always done at work I let out a bigfoot call.  Ooooooooooo  Wooooooooo.  Rus and Bruce both returned the same call with a smile.  Glad to see you made it in one piece I said.  Not without a little bloodshed unfortunately Rus exclaimed.  Bruce walked over wrapped his arms around Abby and gave her a passionate kiss.  I was so worried about you. My car died and I had no way to know if you were okay.  Abby put her finger over Bruce’s lips to quiet him and said it doesn’t matter we are together now. 

Everyone turned to me asking so do you have a plan?  The first thing we need to do is get supplies to survive.  I was thinking Bruce, Abby, Bev, and Christi could go to the Superstore and split into two teams and start getting anything you think we need for the next few days.  Use all the plastic containers you can find that way we can stack as much as we can into one trip.  Bev mentioned she was a truck driver and maybe we could take one of the rigs.  I said perfect two of you can make sure there is an empty trailer, while the other two start packing supplies and food.  Rus and I will hit up the sporting goods store for weapons and camping supplies.  What weapons do we have Bruce asked.  Rus had his two guns, Bruce a fire poker, Christi a baseball bat, and I had some knives.  Rus gave his magnum to Bev and his double barrel shotgun to Abby.  You’ll need these more than us, I’ll get something new when we go shopping Rus smirked.  Christi and I stripped out all the seats to the van and anything that wasn’t a necessity.   I wrapped my arms around her.  Christi said I love you, I know I said. Be safe since we don’t know who else is raiding the stores.  Bruce, Abby, Bev, and Christi piled into Rus’s Jeep and sped off to the superstore.  Rus and I split up the knives as we prepared to enter the local sporting goods and hunting stores.  Rus looked at me and said I don’t know what awaits us in there but let’s stay close and watch each other back.  Let do this I said.