POV : Adam Charlemonth
[Klamath, California 20 December 2020]
This....is day fourth after outbreak.. even if it seems like the day hundreth. The military didn't even spotted on the horizon of Klamath. Me and Steve keep communicating with each other to make sure our perimeter is safe. But it's really safe in our part of neighborhood, not sure about the other part. Some zombies walked around the house but we can take them out easily. Other neighbor is pretty quiet, but still can't make sure are they still alive or not. Talking about neighbor, I didn't see any sign of the twins, Ela and Allen since then.
"Fourth day...and no help." Says Emma before groaning. "News died yesterday, and supplies depleted."
All of she says is truth. The news never broadcast anything. I got no radio. We're depending on social media for now.
"Emma, can you check our food?" I says as looking at my wristwatch. It shows 05.26 a.m.
Emma open the kitchen cabinet. "I see there's three worth of cereal, one food can, half pack of tea." She close the cabinet and look over the table. "And two bottles of water, reuseable." She says and point to the two tumbler.
"Okay, I think I should go to supermarket to.. 'buy' some stuff." I says and take my car key along with my baseball bat.
"Did you mean, 'take some stuff' huh?" She says amusingly as give me a frown, which make me chuckles.
"You're in..or out? I can use some backup there." I nod my head to the door as I talk.
She's thinking for some second. "I think I'm in." She says and then rush to pick his M16 from Steve.
"Take this then." I throw her an empty backpack, and sling myself another empty one as walking to the back door.
She's checking the M16 and make sure she brings her magazine.. which her last one. After that, she give me a glaze and then nod. I chat Steve to take watch of my house as well, then get out from back door. I move silently to the front yard, even if there's no zombies in sight. I enter the driver seat, while Emma take the another seat beside me. I turn the car on and then drive away from our house.
I drive our way through the street to supermarket. I got notification from Steve right when I pass one block, which also really quite, as if there's no one ever live here. I balance myself to drive, and also look at the Steve's message.
"Ok." Just one simple word. that's really worth to look at actually.
I put my phone back on the dashboard, then keep drive my sedan. I look around the neighborhood as passing through house and house. There's a lot of house with barricaded windows. But some of the house without any protection has exposed. With broken window or broken door or both. Anyone can enter all of that house.. but anyone can't stay. I jerk the wheel to the left when we reach the T-turn.
"What... the... hell...?" I slow my car when I see a barricade of a military trucks and Humvee.
I hit the handbreak as soon as we got no more room to move forward. "They're trying to....close the road?" Emma leaning from her seat, inspecting the road block through the windshield.
I nod for myself. "But they've failed." I says.
She inspect the barricade for some more minutes. "There's another way around?" She ask even when she already know that there's no other road than this.
"No, this is the only road." I say it anyway, then swallow it hard while run my hand through my hair. "The only way is, move the truck out of the street." I point the trucks to explain my plan. "And after that, we can move freely pass this road. Pretty simple."
"You sure can move them?" She ask and look at the trucks position. "The room is.. not that much, need to take some time to move it, I guess." I nod in agreement when she's explaining. "But can you even drive a truck?"
I open the door and take my baseball bat. "It's same as car right?" I say before I get out of the car.
She also get out with her gun, and then we close the door almost at the same time. "It's never be the same, dad." She says as rolling her eyes.
I chuckles while walking to truck. The trucks basically just block the road, not the pathway. I look around and doesn't see any sign of infected. I glance at Emma, and give a nod. She take out her butterfly knife when I readies my bat. I carefully walk to the truck driver seat. Climb the little stairs, then try to peering through the glass, but the glass is blurred with dust and nothing can be seen from my perspective. I hold the doorknob with my left hand, while I hold the middle part of my bat, so I have short range hit but quick swing.
I look back at Emma to make sure she got my back, and yes she does. I slowly open the door and peek inside. There's no dead body or even live ones.. don't know if I need to be happy or sad. I let out a deep breath and look back at Emma, I give some sharp nod and she start to walk away, also give me space for moving the truck by moving our car little bit farther. In other hand, I keep standing outside of the truck, waiting for Emma as watching for any upcoming zombie.
and after some second, she get out of the car. "I'm going to check the Humvee." She says and point to the military Humvee behind the truck.
"Careful." I replies before enter the driver seat. "Hufft-- it's not so different." I says to make myself calm. I put my baseball bat on the another seat. The truck shaking until finally on, when I twist the key. Carefully, I hit the gas and rotate the wheel. The truck move slowly and I think I just do a pretty smooth turn. And after some while, the truck finally parked parallel. I pull the handbrake, grab my stuff and then get out of the driver seat.
"Okay, now we can---" my words stopped when I see Emma is laying on the ground, there's also a man with blood all over his mouth. The man is trying to reach Emma's head, while Emma grunting and push the man by the chest with both hands and feet.
I quickly run to her with bat in my hand. The zombie seems notice me cause he glance up to me. I take a full hard swing of bat, and success hit him in the chest. The man goes half flying like have no weight on him, and then hit the Humvee for his landing. I'm thinking to hit his head, but I also think that.. it's gonna take so many hit to break his skull. And instead, I hit his leg and then hold him by the neck using my bat.
"Cut his neck!" I says as holding the bat. I look behind and see Emma still shocked and try to catch her breath. "Emma! Cut-- his neck!" I says and almost got no more strength to hold him off.
Emma startle when I call her name. She quickly take her knife from the ground and then cut the zombie's neck. And in sudden moment, the zombie's body slump. I move away and let the body fell down. I breath heavily while wipe my sweat on the forehead. I look at Emma who still shocked, but eventually, she give me a reasuring nod.
"You've check inside?" I ask before peeking on the opened Humvee door.
"Can only find them." She says and take her gun that also dropped beside another dead body.
"Okay, we better get back to the car, and then continue our way to the supermarket." I says and lead her to my car. There's nothing happened to my car. No one trying to steal or broke it like what I saw yesterday on neighbor's car. But yeah, after we look around and feel safe enough, I finally open the door.
We take the same spot, I drive and she's the passenger. I twist the key and the car rattle until finally lives. Both of use use the seatbelt, before I hit the gas and make our body little bit jolted. I focus my mind and eyes to the road, trying to avoid some crashed and abandoned car at some spot. Take some turn untill we found a highway. I'm going along the highway, drive past some lonely zombie. And it makes me feel like in an abandoned place. I mean, who doesn't think like that when there's not even single people walking or driving around. And when I absently thinks about that stuff, we finally reach the supermarket.
I stop the car at far side of the supermarket. "What is happening now?" Ask Emma desperately. "This is..a mess.. it's not even one week and... omg.." She can't even continue her words.
Both of the front glass door is broken. The window on the right is fine, but the one on the left is crashed by a car. The light still on, but there's some destroyed bulb. Even from outside, we can see some of the shelves is pushed and fall.
"We have no choice." I says and drive the car to the front side so I can park my car. "Get your gun ready, just shoot if necessary." I open the door and get out with my bat.
"Dad, are you sure there's still some supplies left?" Ask Emma before walking on my back close with her gun on hands.
"It's may or may not, we better try." I says and examine the broken glass door. "Watch your feet." I push through the broken glasses. The broken glasses cracking to smaller pieces every time I stomp it. When we enter the building, everything look like mess. And my sensory system make me stop.
Emma trying to speaks, but I hold my forefinger to my lips. "What happen?" Whisper Emma.
I get closer to Emma. "You hear that?" I point my forefinger to my ear. There's a continuously groaning sounds, can't say is it human or not, but since it's nonstop, I think it's inhuman. "Be careful." I whisper again.
I look at my left, but the crashed car is blocking my way. The column on my front is also blocked by fallen shelves. Emma is already checking the next column to my right. She looks at me and shaking her heads. I walk to her, and see through the shelves, but there's nothing. The groan slowly getting more visible. I look at Emma and nod to the next column. I lead the way slowly and grip my bat tight and as high as I need to swing, only if I ever need to. There's a cashier to my right, and another column to my left.
Emma nudge me and make me turn around. She pointed to the cashier. "Can be?" She whisper in very low voice.
I shakes my head and turn back to the column. I see nothing but shelves and fallen food or stuff. The light is dim, but it doesn't matter since it's only morning to noon. I walk slowly and make sure to check every corner. The groan is getting louder and louder. My step stopped when something fell from the ceiling. I look at the floor just as Emma gasping. It's an arm, with some ripped point, fallen from the sky.
I look up and hold my gaze at one figure. It's zombie.. but somehow got a pair of wing. She's perching on the chandelier just like a bird. She search something bellow her but then she finds me. She lock her gaze in my eyes. The winged zombie suddenly flying widely, and make a loud scream like a harpies from mythology.. and I think it's possible to break a glass using that scream. I'd even need to cover my ear, and same things also happen to Emma. After flying around, the zombie suddenly marching really fast to me.
I barely can react. I swing my bat, but I can't focus which make me swing before she's coming. The warden crashed her body to me and make me pushed really hard.
"Kffh.." I grunting as soon as I fly and hit the cashier desk. "Dangit." I says and rolling to one side and make myself stand again.
But when I'm standing, the zombie charge at me again.. but now I've already prepared. I dodge to the side before she can touch me, and make her fly through the cashier desk, and then slam right beside 'only staff' door. I look at Emma in my front, and saw her confused about what or how she hit the thing. But there's no time. Because the zombie try to pull my left shoulder from the other side of chasier desk, which make me hit the desk directly. She try to hold my head still and bite my neck. But it's bothered by Emma's bullet. The bullet constantly hit the zombie's shoulder, and make the zombie pretty 'unhappy' with that.
The zombie glance at Emma, and two of them eyeing each other, but no one moves but panting and groaning. This give me chance to hit the warden, but I think my bat was dropped when I got pushed or whenever in between. I search something and found a shopping basket with some can foods there. When the zombie try to fly again, I quickly take the can, and throw it to the zombie before she can fly even farther. My throwing power make the flying zombie startle before then hit one of the shelves.
"Give me the bat!" I says to Emma, and she quickly throw the bat for me. I swing my baseball bat from overhead, make the zombie crashed into the shelves even more. Her hand still moving, but stop as soon as Emma shot her head. I'm panting really hard. Try to calm myself. Leaning my back to the shelves, as Emma running a hand through her hair. But after a while, I move from the shelves and stand tall. "Grab some food, we need to back as soon as we can."
After filling our bag with food, we try to get out of the supermarket. But then I hear something broken. Something crash. Some kind of glass or other fragile things. The sounds was pretty low, Emma might not hear it cause she keep walking like there's nothing wrong. In the end, I need to nudge her shoulder. "What's wrong?" She ask me with frown on her face.
I keep my eyes open while I look around in case if there's something else around. "You don't hear it?"
"Hear what?" She got way more confused now.
"There's something broken, glass or something like that." I says and keep looking around even if I may mistaken about the sound.
"That's impossible, Dad. The only glass around here is the front door and window, I must've hear it too." She says and roll her eyes.
"Well I know that." I look way more around, and I do remember one things. "But we don't check that room yet." I nod to the 'only staff' door.
She give me a questioning looks but there's also hint that she got convinced by my words. "Should we?"
I nod to her. Both of us walking to that door, as she detach her magazine. "Got no more ammo." She whisper at me before attach the magazine back.
"Just use your knife." I whisper back. "On three." She nod and already got her hands on the knife, standing on my back. In other hand, I use my hands both on the bat cause I choose to open it using my feet.
"One.." I take a deep breath. "Two..." I shake my head so all things I worry about gone. I take one more heavy breath. "Three!" I kick the door open and about to swing my bat.. right when I see there's normal people. Not zombie. And instead, the two closest person using a S.W.A.T uniform. I see there's also one more person with the same uniform, and the three rest seems to be a civilian. But things I don't realize.. is that no one moves. No one says something. No one do something.