In Hiding: A Survivors Journal of the Great Outbreak (8 page)

That
was until Cody told us about the rooftop. Once and a while he and some of his
buddies would drink up there when their shift was over. He knew where the key
was to unlock the hatch. He ran and grabbed it and then led us to the upstairs.
He brought us to the break room and opened a door that looked like it belonged
to an electrical room. Inside that room there was a ladder that led us to the
roof of the building.

Once
up there we all walked together to the front ledge of the roof and looked out at
the streets below. The view of the world around me had changed dramatically
since the last time I had seen it. There were pillars of black smoke rising
into the sky from almost every corner of the city. I saw a group of military
helicopters fly overhead at incredible speeds. The road at the far end of the
parking lot was littered with vehicles and almost every one of them appeared to
be abandoned. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

Just
then a series of small explosions ripped through a city block not to far from
where we were. I assumed that was what we had been hearing from inside. There
were people scattered all across the parking lot. Well, not people like me.
They were all zombie-like in their movements and seemed to be walking around as
if they were lost. Some of them were moving to join the others at the store’s
front doors. But most of the others just wandered around aimlessly searching
for god knows what.

Every
so often I could see a car trying to drive down one of the side roads around
all of the newly formed obstacles that seemed to block every street. I could
hear the odd horn, I could still make out gunshots in the distance and I could
see the fires burning. It was a disaster.

I
hadn’t even noticed that Trevor had left us on our way to the roof. That was
probably why he scared the hell out of me when he came running up behind us.
Trevor had gone to grab snack food and drinks for all of us. Most of us hadn’t
eaten that day or even had anything to drink. We were too busy surviving to realize
that we were all starving. Luckily, Trevor remembered and brought up a wide
variety of snacks, bottled water, beer, wine and juice. I lit up a cigarette
and grabbed a beer and watched the sun set on a city that had become almost
unrecognizable.

If
I had to describe that first night in the store the only word that comes to
mind is terrible. Not the most vivid description I know. But it truly is the
only word that comes to mind. Most of us stayed up well into the morning hours
watching the indescribable destruction going on around us. When I finally did
try and get some sleep in the break room I found it almost impossible to shut
off my mind. I was constantly jolted out of any light sleep I managed to fall
into by the slightest sound. Every time I closed my eyes I saw horrible images
flashing through my mind constantly reminding me of the awful things I had seen
on that first day.

I
wasn’t the only one in the group who couldn’t sleep. With the quiet of the
night came time to think about everything that had happened. Trying to
understand how something so unbelievable could take place was enough to keep
you awake in itself. But the thought of the family members and friends that we
had left out there and what might have happened to them was crushing. I could
hear some of the others in the room trying to muffle the sound of their crying
throughout the night. At one point Adam woke up screaming in terror and
everyone jumped to his or her feet.

When
the morning finally did come I remember hoping that it was all just a nightmare
and that I was home in my bed and the world was as it should be. It wasn’t but
at least with the daylight came a very small sense of security. Most of the
others were still trying to rest in the break room around the time I got up and
started moving around. I walked down the stairs to explore the sales floor
mostly out of curiosity. Even thought I knew the doors were all locked and that
the store was empty I still had a hard time feeling safe as I roamed the aisles
of the store.

I
don’t remember what exactly I was looking for that morning but in my search I
eventually found Ray sitting in the entertainment department in a camping chair
watching the national news. The national news channels were the only real
source we had for information. Our local news had gone off the air as of that
morning. However, the national news was gathering reports from everywhere and
even broadcasting local correspondents who were still sending in information. I
guess some of those reporters were trying to hit it big by reporting from the
front lines of the greatest disaster that the world had ever known. That
national news channel kept us updated throughout those early days in the
outbreak and Ray was hooked. He was a well-educated man and he found the entire
situation fascinating.

That
morning the two of us were watching television together and we learned that the
outbreak had hit almost every major city across the United States. The East
Coast had been the hardest hit in this country. Europe, Asia, Africa, almost
everywhere in the world had been reporting outbreaks of the virus. Major cities
across the globe had been overrun with things that closely resembled zombies
and the high population density of those cities was only helping the virus
spread.

Reports
stated that a large percentage of the police force across the country had
abandoned their stations and were leaving to be with their families and who
could really blame them. That morning one of the reporters had implied that New
York City was almost lost. Sure there were still small groups of survivors
spread out across the city, but the military had been forced to pull out. The
outbreak had become so bad they simply couldn’t contain it any longer.

Apparently,
they had too pull out of several major cities in the Northeastern United States
that morning. New York, Boston, Baltimore were all overrun and the military was
in a full retreat south to D.C. to meet up with other units protecting the
capital. From the footage we saw it looked like some units were still holding
out strong in certain areas of the country, but the Zed outbreak had spread
America’s forces thin. There was no front line to hold, the front line was
everywhere. There was no way to just pound the enemy into submission because
Zeds didn’t surrender.

In
the days leading up to the outbreak we had all seen the use of riot police and
non-lethal weapons to try and contain the infected. What we were watching that
morning was a complete shift in operational procedure from the military and
authorities. It had become shoot to kill. They were trying to stop the spread
of the outbreak by any means necessary.

But
there was another threat that was starting to make an appearance throughout the
Midwest. The Great Outbreak had hit the eastern part of the country hard and
fast but it was slowly making its way west. The people in its path had begun
rioting and looting and those cities became just as dangerous as the ones that
had been overrun with Zeds. As Ray and I watch some of those reports we
discovered that they were just as hard to watch as the horrors of the outbreak
itself.

When
it came to actual information on the virus there was still very little coming
out. However there were plenty of instructions and discouraging news about what
was happening across the country. They told us that here was no cure, the
infected were dangerous, and the virus was spreading rapidly. They were
instructing people in highly dangerous areas to stay indoors or get to one of
those secure shelters that had been set up. Major highways had turned into
parking lots as people fled major cities and they had become terribly dangerous
places. Thing is the Zeds weren’t the only thing to be afraid of on the
highways.

Looking
back I have to admit that we were very lucky to have some of the luxuries we
did. Having power for as long as we did, the food and water, and especially
access to television. The news fully covered the outbreak in those early days
when we were still lucky enough to have electricity. I guess if the news was
still on the air it felt like things weren’t completely lost yet. It was
something that felt familiar and I would like to think that it was a big help
for those of us lucky enough to watch it.

That
morning I found it very difficult to get going. I was exhausted from lack of
sleep and my body felt stiff and ached from falling on that bathroom floor the
day before. The severity of the crisis was setting in all over again and a part
of me just wanted to go curl up somewhere, close my eyes and hope to ride it
out.

But
instead I forced myself to get up and move around. I checked the front doors to
see if just maybe the situation outside had improved. What I found was that the
number of Zeds that were trying to force their way through the front doors had
grown by the dozens. I still have no idea what led them to us. Maybe they could
hear all the noise we had been making. Maybe they just knew we were inside but
there was really no way of knowing for sure.

After
seeing just how bad it was at the front I went and checked on Bruce to see if
his condition had improved at all. He seemed to be feeling a little better but
he was still nowhere near healthy. As it turns out, that second day would be an
incredible test of his and our mental strength. The first day had caught us all
by surprise and in order to survive we made critical decisions and we made them
quickly. The second day provided us some time to reflect on those decisions and
the reality that we were stuck was starting to sink in for some of the others.
We had left a lot of people out there in the middle of this disaster and now
with nothing but free time to think about it, some of the others were starting
to realize that we might never see those people again.

Ray
had his wife somewhere out there. They were both retired and the two of them
never had any children. His wife was down in North Carolina visiting her sister
when all of this began and he hadn’t been able to contact her since. Ray had
been shopping for supplies to make the road trip south to look for her when he
became trapped in here with us.

Tanya
had her mother. She had lost her father a few years back and after that the two
of them had grown extremely close. She had a few friends and co-workers she had
left out there, but it was her mother who she worried about the most.

Anne
had left her husband and two children out there in all of this. Anne held out
hope that her husband would have brought the children out to the country where
her father lived with her brother. She thought there was a good chance they
would be safer out there. I hoped they had made it as well.

Cody
was younger. He like Kerri had left their parents and siblings to survive
outside without anyway of knowing where they were. Trevor who was similar in
age to the two of them had left behind his wife and two young children. One
five and the other two, he had married young and had children even younger. He
had worked at the store ever since.

Adam
was always a mystery to me. He rarely spoke, especially about himself. Guessing
by his age I assumed his parents were still alive. Either way, we had all left
our loved ones out there when we made the decision to stay. As much as some of
the others spoke about wanting to go home, I don’t think that any one of us had
the nerve to go through with it. Maybe we were just afraid of the monsters
outside. Maybe we were all just scared of what we might find if we actually
made it there.

Shannon
wasn’t married. She spoke about a long-term boyfriend who she didn’t seem too
overly concerned about. But when she talked about her parents I could tell just
how worried she was about their safety. Paul never really spoke about any
family or friends. I guess he didn’t feel it was necessary to share that
information and Bruce, well he never really had a chance to talk about the
people he had on the outside.

Those
discussions about our loved ones started that morning and that was when Paul
decided it was important that we didn’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves.
We couldn’t afford to just dwell on things we had no control over. There were
plenty of reports of suicides before the outbreak became official. Some people
believed that the world was coming to an end or thought it would be better to
go out on their own terms rather then face the possibility of becoming one of
those things. Some of those people just couldn’t live with the terrible
decisions that the outbreak forced us to make.

So
in an early attempt to curb that line of thinking, Paul decided that we needed
to keep ourselves busy. So we started counting supplies, securing that door or
blocking that door. Don’t get me wrong, all of those things needed to be done
anyway. But most of the time we seemed to be doing things just to keep our
minds occupied. That was one of the reasons we started the daily sweeps of the
building on day two.

The
idea was to take a walk around the entire inside of the building twice a day.
Just to double check that all the doors were still holding and that nothing had
found its way inside. That afternoon it was Paul, Cody, Trevor, Adam and myself
that went out on our first patrol. Shannon was busy taking care of Bruce while
the others were up on the roof looking for any sign of rescue.

During
all patrols we only carried the baseball bats with us. Paul was the only one
who carried a firearm. He felt it was necessary that at least one of us stay
armed especially after what had happened to me in that bathroom. It was for our
own safety that we didn’t walk around the store like an armed posse. The thinking
was that we were more likely to shoot one of our own by mistake then anything
else.

So
that day we set out on the same path that we would follow every day after that
on the routine sweeps. We walked across the back room and down each wall and
through each and every department. We checked every door and we would always
finish up at the front doors. Well that day we never made it to the front
doors. It was one hell of a first patrol.

You
see Paul had this little habit at every door that we checked. He would jiggle
the handle just a little before he tested it to see if it was still locked. I
don’t know if it was something that he had always done or if he was just
checking to see if something would respond to the noise. I never really asked
him why he did what he did but that’s beside the point.

During
that sweep we found ourselves at the automotive department. There was a door
that led to the garage where they performed the oil changes offered by the
store. Paul did his little handle thing and at first nothing happened. So he
tested the door and to nobodies surprise the door was locked. As Paul turned
away and started walking back to where we were standing I saw it.

A
face appeared in the window in the middle of the door. I jumped a little when I
first saw it but everyone took notice once the banging started. It was obvious
that there was a person on the other side of that glass and they were pounding
on the door like a maniac. We moved in even closer and once we had a clear view
through the glass we quickly discovered that the person had been infected.

We
had checked that door the day before. We made sure that it was locked and we
never saw anybody inside when we peaked through the window. I couldn’t
understand how we could have missed him. His face was pressed firmly against
the glass and he was banging his fists on the door desperate to get out or get
at us. His face was pale, blood covered his arms and his shirt was ripped
pretty bad, unfortunately it was a shirt that looked all too familiar.