Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins
By
Audra Allensworth, Robert Parsons, Janna Shaw
Copyright 2012
Janna Shaw
Smashwords Editio
n
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the hard work of these
author
s
.
Chapter 3 - Meeting in the Middle:
Part 3 – Home Sweet Home….for now
Chapter 1 – Where the Heart is
Chapter 8 – We’re coming to get you
The hope for change that everyone wanted did take place, but not quite the way they wanted it.
The government had let down its guard, what with the budget cuts because of overspending something had to give. For years the tidbits of aliens had been let out about Area 51 through movies and rumors of people witnessing their own close encounters. Then in the past decade Hollywood started making hundreds of movies about zombies.
One of the first creators was Romero and he let out his thoughts with humans returning from the grave with ‘Night Of The Living Dead’. Taking all that into consideration, along with the time line of spotting those strange lights in the night sky, somewhere along the cracks the secrets were leaking out to the public. It was just everyone chose not to believe it and turn those flesh eating abominations into money making trophies.
However; there was truth in all of it, the CDC was tasked with keeping the truth from us, from smallpox to cloning; the truth was bound to leak out. When it did……. it was too late.
When the government began the cutting, biggest divisions hit were the testing centers, all funding was cut and so was the control. The men that were capable of controlling the warped Dr. Frankenstein wannabes moved to greener pastures. The only ones that remained were the men and women that didn’t just believe in testing on animals but people too. Even worse, every disease known to man, and even a few no one knew of, were left to those same unethical doctors.
With the ineptness of those in charge and lax security it did not take long for the inevitable to happen. Two doctors had developed a cell similar to the ones that had been used to clone animals. This one was a little different, instead of splitting and re-growing new tissue it reanimated dead tissue. It sparked certain neurons in the brain and spinal cord that generated the basic needs of the human body. The needs were breathing, heartbeat, movement and the most basic of all human needs; the need to feed. They were smart enough to know that with it being a blood born pathogen keeping it secure was the utmost importance. Sadly with security being what it was and the medical personnel’s lack of professionalism, the day came when all hell broke loose.
Two interns were told to simply shut down the lab and secure the specimen. As the younger one picked it up the other yelled and grabbed at him, he thought it would be funny to scare his team
member.
The vial the young man was holding dropped to the table and shattered. Bits of glass broke his skin no more than a pinprick, but that was all it took for the specimen blood to mixed with his own. The result wasn’t immediate in fact it took almost four days. The man became ill, fever, followed by stomach cramps and nausea. Soon he was in critical condition as his organs began to shut down. Once at this stage he was praying for death and the answer to that prayer came quick.
The body was taken to the morgue for a postmortem autopsy. The Doctor in charge was just a bit more professional than the clown he was about to exam. As the doctor started the initial cut, the body sat up fully alive…. well not so much alive. It turned and grabbed the doctor sinking it’s teeth into his arm and biting off a large chunk. The doctor fell and the dead man fed for a few
Mom
ents, then walked out of the morgue at 3 a.m. exiting through a fire door it was now on the loose.
The dead man bit four more that night alone. Those that were bitten also died then arose and bit more. The outbreak was out of control before the government knew what happened. Those who were bitten would die and change within 36 hours. Those who only got scratched, it took a little longer but the result was the same…. The dead came back and reproduced. The old analogy was coming true in a not so good way, “Word of mouth travels fast.”
Three months had gone by. Whole cities had been turned into one large walking grave yard. Only a few had escaped and their numbers were dwindling quickly. The ones that had survived had learned a couple of things.
1) To kill the infected one must kill th
e brain
2) The only way to
live was Surviving
DAY by DAY…………
1 – Choices….
With the dead walking and feeding
on the living
, the living have to make a choice….
Do you try to
survive or
do you give up and
put a bullet in your brain
?
Will you
fight back
killing every chance you get
or just do your best to get through
surviving
day by day.
This is a tale of survivors who face those choices everyday……
Charlie Davidson woke up in the back of a church that he had broken into the night before when the biters came after him. He had accidentally set off a car alarm trying to get at a pistol in a dead woman’s hand. He grabbed it along with her purse and the box of shells lying on the seat. Charlie had learned at the start of the craziness that Churches were a good place to hide. Most had been locked up and the plague had spread so fast a lot of them were still remained locked up. He had tried one that wasn’t, that was a mistake he would never make again. Unlocked churches were full of biters; faithful Christians had
brought
their infected
pr
aying for a cure. Many
had gone the
r
e
hoping that Jesus would save them.
Charlie sat up and looked to the cross over the altar. As the sleep wore off and he stared into the candles he’d lit the night before, the memories came back. He had been left as a baby at the altar of a church in a small Kansas town called Alma, right off interstate 70, or so he’d been told and from there he was taken to an orphanage in Topeka. He had been a sickly child; he had been born with asthma and weak heart. The nuns at the orphanage had taken great care of him, teaching him, praying for him and taking him to doctor appointments.
His ailments did cause any prospective parents to shy away from him, they wanted healthy baby boys. As he grew up he eventually grew out of the ailments, but now he was not a baby and as he grew older he was moved from orphanage to foster home and back again. Some of the homes were
nice;
others were a horror show in the real world. He kept ending back at the orphanage. They kept him there after he turned 10 and sent him to the local Catholic school, the kids there were just plain mean. They had all come from the proverbial good homes. Charlie was an outcast, his only friend had been old man Carl the janitor at the school. He showed Charlie how all the boilers worked and let him help out after school cleaning the class rooms changing light bulbs, and generally teaching him everything there was to know about maintenance. When he turned 18 he graduated and Carl had given him a job working alongside of him.
Charlie had saved enough money to get a small apartment near the school. Carl had given him a bicycle that had been left in the dumpster. Charlie had avoided the church though. All the kids he went to school with basically turned their backs on him which left a bad taste in his mouth. He had no need for people who were two faced. Preaching God and goodness in his house then treating others like lepers when they left. Charlie had learned to be happy with what he had. All the other kids had all the cool toys when he was growing up. They would get video games, jewelry, and such for Christmas; he on the other hand, would get coats, shoes, slacks, shirts, and an occasional new book from the nuns.
When the plague hit though, his old school mates were pretty much done. They ran to all the hospitals offering money and everything for doctors to sell them the cure. Charlie knew there was no cure. He figured their God had had enough of all their selfish bullshit lies and it was his turn. The only thing that hurt him was that Carl had been bitten. Charlie sat with him in the basement of the school as he got worse and worse, the plague taking him over. Charlie knew that once they died you had to bash their head in or they would come back to life. He sat by the bed and waited for what seemed like days. Carl woke at the end and looked at Charlie. In a low whisper he spoke, “Charlie, you have always been like the son I never had. When the nuns were trying to name you, it was me who said Charles. They smiled at me and said so be it, but the boy must have a last name that’s why your last name is the same as mine.”
Charlie had never even thought to ask Carl what his last name was; the nuns and priests had always just called him Carl. Charlie reached down and squeezed Carl’s hand, tears fell on his cheek. “I would have loved to call you dad” he said.
Carl smiled weakly, “Son, you kno
w what you have to do and
for love of God don’t let me come back as one of them. You have to Promise me… Promise me.”
Charlie's was sobbing now as he looked at Carl, “I promise,” he softly added “dad.” Carl sighed, and touched Charlie’s face, “That’s a good son, yes, a good son.”
With that Carl breathed his last, Charlie sat by the bed and cried for a long time. Suddenly Carl moved his hands and growled. Charlie looked up and knew he had waited too long Carl was a biter now. Jumping up he scrambled back against the wall as Carl rose from the bed. Frantically looking around him he found a large pipe wrench. As Carl started towards him Charlie pushed and old office chair right in front of him. Carl tripped and fell right at Charlie's feet and began clawing at his pant leg. Charlie turned his head and brought the pipe wrench down on Carl’s head. The first blow glanced off not really causing much damage. Charlie knew what he had to do, this time he focused and with all his strength brought the wrench down square across the back of Carl’s head splitting it wide open. Charlie landed a few more blows to make sure.
Charlie wrapped Carl’s body up in a bag and took him over to the big boiler. It was an old coal burner that had been converted to natural gas but the coal door was still there. Opening it up, he pushed and shoved
until
he finally got the blanket in then turned the furnace on full blast.
Charlie heard a thump which brought him out of his trance, tears still stinging his eyes from the memory of Carl. Turning he looked to the door to make sure it was secured then he moved quietly down a back stair case with a candle in hand. Finding the kitchen he searched around till he found a flashlight. Then he looked for something to eat. The back was a pantry full of canned goods, grabbing a few cans of peaches he found a can opener and sat down and ate then drank the syrup from the can. Charlie knew he had to get out of Topeka. The whole city was nothing but biters now. He had seen them chewing on everything from cats n dogs to rats. Anything that had warm blood was a fresh meal for them. He looked around in the closets and found things he thought he could use. An old army duffel bag was a good start. He filled it with canned food, peaches, vegetables, even cans of spam. He made sure the weight wouldn’t be more than he could do.
In another closet he found old coats that had been donated to the poor. Finding a nice full length leather coat he tried it on. It was a little big and had a few worn spots and a tear at the pocket, but he figured why not it looked good. He moved to a few more rooms and found clothes, jeans his size, sweatshirts and flannel shirts even a few packages of new underwear. He laughed out loud, “Yeah the sisters will know if I have on clean undies when the biters get me.”
Loading his supplies in the duffel bag he carried it up stairs and looked out on of the office windows, the sun was up in the east so he knew it was morning. Looking around he saw cars and a couple of vans parked next to the church. The vans belonged to the Parrish; searching around the Pastor’s office he found the keys in a desk drawer.
Moving as quietly as he could, Charlie opened the back door that lead to the churches parking lot and scanned the area. A few biters were hobbling around down the alley; he slipped out and moved to the fist van opening the door he saw it had less than a half a tank of gas, “SHIT” opening the second van, “JACKPOT” the van had a full tank. Charlie pushed the duffel bag into the passenger seat and got in. Crossing his fingers he put the key in and turned the ignition. The van started on the first try.
Backing out he headed down the alley running the biters over as he went, turning on the main street he decided to take the old roads out of town. He knew them well as Carl had always taken them when he took Charlie to the Royals baseball games. Carl hated the turnpike and hated spending the money. It was a good call; there were still a lot of abandoned cars and trucks but not so many
that
he couldn’t drive around them. In an hour he was home free heading east to where he had no clue but at least he was away from Topeka…..
Before Charlie reached Lawrence Kansas, he opted to turn south figuring he needed to avoid all metropolitan areas. He knew the biters were everywhere, and there would be thousands in the cities. He thought the small towns were his best bet to avoid hoards of biters. His biggest problem would be trying to get past all the interstates. That’s where most people would have fled to. His plan was right, as he drove he went under Interstate 35 the highway above was packed with cars and biters just walking around, the big security fence kept them from getting to his little two lane road. Soon the road turned back east and he saw the Missouri state line.
Stopping he got out of his van and took out an old atlas to see where the next major highway was. The sun was behind him and shining warm on his back. He felt a warm breeze blowing slightly. Looking up to the sky it had a few white fluffy clouds. Charlie reached in and grabbed a coke form a small cooler; opening it he took a sip then turned to watch the wheat swaying back and forth. He thought he was miles away from anywhere populated; large or small. This made him realize he was miles away from the insanity that now engulfed the world as he knew it. He watched the clouds like he did when he was young, wishing he could climb aboard and just float away. He knew he was wasting daylight and turned his attention once more to the atlas. Surveying it he figured he could snake his way across the state line using the back county roads. He knew it would take a lot of gas so he had to start thinking about where to get extra. Farm houses and barns would be the safest bet. He could siphon it out of tractors and such and best part there wouldn’t be a mob of biters.
Starting the van back up, he drove for about a half hour when he came upon a farm that had several large combines parked beside a barn. Pulling in he sat in the van for about 15 minutes just waiting to see if anyone or anything would come out. Nothing moved just the wheat in the fields. He got out and walked to the barn, the door was open. Picking up a large rock that sat next to the barn he threw it in and listened, again nothing.
Charlie felt safe
so
he opened the door all the way and went to the front. He lifted the bar that held the bay doors closed and pushed them opened. The sun shone in bright lighting up the whole barn. It was then when he saw what
had
happened to
the
owners. They had been eaten…. completely devoured.
Even if they had turned, t
here wasn’t anything left to cause him any alarm. A tear came to his eye as he saw a small set of hands clasped together as if the child had been praying.
Charlie fought back the tears. “It’s a whole new world now. Maybe this is God’s way of cleaning up the mess like he did with Noah.” He said out loud to himself.
Shaking his head his voice lowered, “Yeah Charlie Davidson get over it you ain’t no Noah.”
Charlie walked around and found some five gallon gas cans full of gas, counting all of them up they totaled ten. Finding a flat cart he loaded up the cans and hauled them out to the back of the van. After loading them up he opened the rear windows then turned and went back to the barn to see what else he could find. Pulling his flat cart around he picked up an axe, a small tool box filled with wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, and some things
that
he had no idea what he would use them for. Then he came upon a wooden box filled with nails, hammers, and a carpenter’s belt. Charlie felt like he had hit the family version of Home depot. On the wall hung an old hand weed cutter, taking it down he swung it as if he was fighting off biters. “Yeah, this will work real good.”
At the back of the barn he found a locked closet, taking a crowbar he had picked up, he broke the latch. As he pulled the door open his eyes widened. “SWEEEET FUCKING JACKPOT!” he shouted, then glanced around quickly as if expecting one of the nuns to come out of nowhere with a ruler.
The room was full of guns, ammunition, compound bows and crossbows. Picking up one of the crossbows he pulled back the string and it locked in place. Putting an arrow in, he turned and fire it toward an old hubcap on the wall, hitting it dead center. “I could so get use to this.” he said with a smile, loading all he could on to his cart.
As he went out a side door and saw a large 250 gallon gas barrel on a frame. Heading around to the van he finished loading his goods in and then drove around to the barrel.
T
aking the pump of the side he turned the valve. Gas came out and he filled his van up, then shut it off and hung it back up.
Climbing back in, he started off heading east as the sun was setting behind him. Charlie figured he’d drive another hour then find someplace to hold up for the night. His day had been successful he was still alive and in better shape than when started.
Charlie woke up as the sun’s rays came shining through the windshield. Sitting up he stretched and then took a quick scan around checking for any sign of biters. Not seeing any was as much as a relief as him relieving the pressure on his bladder. Turning to the van he opened the back door taking out a small plastic wash basin he poured in some water and picked up a small bottle of hand soap. Drying his hands with a towel that hung on a hanger on the back door he then grabbed a bag of beef jerky and took a bite.
Chewing it he walked around and working out the nights kinks, he came up on a sign. Humansville Mo. “Damn now that’s funny right there.” Mimicking an old comedian he once heard. “I doubt there might be anything resembling a human left.” He finished eating and packed everything up climbed in and started the van.