After Jordan left, the rest of us reconvened back in the living room and began to gather supplies, and formulate some sort of plan of attack to help us survive this accursed situation.
"I hate to say this but we have officially entered the zombie apocalypse" I began trying to think of some way to lift their spirits and make the whole situation less painful. But as I thought and thought I just couldn't find the words that could ever help this situation. No matter how I was going to say it, this was no field trip to an ice cream parlor. Then without trying, my eyes slowly drifted towards my kitchen, to the four empty chairs sitting around a now empty table.
The only thing I could hear was my dad's scanner, constantly going off because he is a fireman. So many people talking over each other trying to get help on the scenes. First responders reporting everything from car crashes to robberies and car theft. As much as I love my father, I knew he wasn't going to make it because he was the first person to show up to the scene. My mother might make it for a while longer than my day, but she works right by the hospital so the chances are slim. One of my brothers is in middle school and the other is in elementary, I give my brother in middle school a small chance but the elementary students are fucked. Then I slowly started to make my way back to the guys in the living room, trying to keep my mind off the obvious.
"There is food in the kitchen, try not to open the canned goods because we are going to need them when we leave this place. I suggest that we stay here for the next two days and see if anyone else arrives." I said, realizing that even though I want to cheer them up, there is nothing that I can say or that could be said, in this situation to make things better.
After that, I went into what used to be my parent's bedroom, and emotionlessly started getting out every gun they owned. Three in total, one hunting rifle and two pistols. With almost no ammo to be found. Then after filling each gun up with a full clip, I walked out of the room handed off the rifle and one of the pistols along with most of their respective ammo.
"Decide the watch among yourself I don't know if these things are going to come after us but we might as well be prepared," I said looking out the front door window before closing all the blinds.
"If you need me I'll be downstairs." With that, I walked down into the basement softly closing the door behind me. The moment that I had rounded the corner I fell to the ground back against the wall and began to sob.
After a few hours of sitting there doing nothing but watching the small window waiting to see if anything passed by. Once I had determined that almost everyone in the neighborhood must have been at work when everything started, and I had been given enough time to dry my tears. I walked up the stairs slowly trying not to scare the guys. Once I had opened the door I expected to see them still in the living room cowering in fear.
But once I entered the living room I saw quite the scene, one was facing the door with the hunting rifle positioned slightly off to the right but still in the grasp of his hands. The other gun was being pointed at the back door, waiting. The rest of them, on the other hand, was sitting on the couch watching a Melissa McCarthy movie trying all they might to hold back their laughter.
"Not that this isn't amazing, because it is, but once it gets dark we need to move this to the basement so that the light from the Tv doesn't shine out the windows," I said creature popping down on the couch and slowly pulling back the large window curtain that sat adjacent to the couch. After just enough had been pulled back and looking at the sunlight that peeked over the house, I realized that just because it's the zombie apocalypse the clocks didn't stop working. So instead of doing some crappy light calculation, I looked at the wall clock.
"Ok, it's a little past 5 pm and we know nothing about how these creatures move or act, so to be safe let's move downstairs," I said trying to act a little bit like a leader. No one asked me to be the leader nor did they appoint anyone else, it's just that whenever I thought about a bad situation in the past, whether it be real or completely fictional, I always saw myself as the one to lead people. Not one of the sheep following a mad man but the one who keeps them alive. So now that we have entered a situation where we could die at any time why not try to be the man I always thought I would be.
After a brief second of thought, everyone started to shut things down and move it to the basement. If that was due to it being "my house" or if they just thought that I was giving a good direction I don't know. But whatever the case we moved downstairs and switched the watch shift every 90 minutes, just enough time for someone to complete a rem cycle. But thankfully nothing stirred the entire night, leaving us in a suspenseful peace.
In the morning we ate very little to conserve food. Soon after everyone was finished we gathered in the living room to discuss our plan of action.
"I think that we need to make some sort of fortifications for the house. I know that we agreed on staying here for two days back at school. But in all honesty, we have no reason to leave as of now." I said trying to bring a focus to some of the more pressing issues. That's when Owen spoke up for one of the first times since I met him.
"I think Lucas is right, but I also feel that we need to have some sort of supply gathering plan in place." He said looking at me first with his light blue eyes. Then slowly moving on to the others. Then after a few long seconds and no other suggestions we began setting food aside and recording our supplies.
Then after doing a little work outside, I started walking in through the back door from right across the street when I heard an explosive bang. I looked back in a hurry to see fire shooting through the sky in an upwards fashion. After taking a quick survey of the surrounding area we determined that the explosion was caused by the nearby gas station. While it was nothing to worry about at this time it was still scary to remember that those things are still wondering.
After recovering from the shock brought on by the fireball of death just a few thousand meters away we began getting a recon/supply gathering team ready. While it wasn't the best idea to split up the group we couldn't risk leaving the little supplies we had unguarded.
"So who wants to go?" I asked the group while everyone was working on one task or another. They all looked up at me and then at each other, the fear of leaving was clear. I mean who can blame them, I am asking for them to leave the safety of the house and risk their lives.
"We have three guns meaning we will need at least four people to go, two to shoot and two to gather," I said looking at the four other people in the house. Knowing full well who was going to volunteer.
"I'll go, I have been an eagle scout for years now, shooting a gun is nothing new," Owen said not completely confidently but with more than he would have if we weren't in the current situation.
"Damit, well I guess that means we will go too," Jeramy said while Jim made the motion of standing up. Then with that, I threw Rob the hunting rifle and told him I would text him when we got back, so don't let anything touch the supplies. Then with that, we slowly exited the front of our base and began walking towards the house next to us. We walked along the sidewalk in a slow and steady pattern, looking and preparing for whenever one of those creatures might jump out and go for us.
Each step along the grey colored brick seemed like a year off my life. Every step preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. Jeramy was leading the way and Owen covering the back searching everywhere with their eyes, each step we took while frightening was one step closer to at least a little bit of safety.
After a long and slow trip, we safely arrived at the house next door. Then with just a little bit of work, we managed to get the door unlocked and open. We only had to have Owen crawl in through the doggie door gun first. Then after a brief second of tension searching for any potential people or creatures that might be lurking, we determined we were in the all-clear.
We first began ransacking the kitchen for anything and everything we deemed useful. After the kitchen had been depleted of anything useful and stored in the basement of our current base, we moved onto the bedrooms. Where I found some basic men and women's clothing along with some medications. (Such as Aspirin and other basic stuff you would find in a home). Next was the closet when I first opened the door all I was expecting was more clothes and a few odds and ends. But instead, I stumbled across a somewhat hidden gun safe. Now I couldn't get inside without the key, but we still attempted to bring it back to the house.
We were successful in doing so but only with almost everyone helping. But alas no one could open the damn thing. Eventually, we gave up on getting in, but I hope that later down the road once we have more tools and supplies that this thing will be a treasure trove.
Now that we have some decent supplies, we could begin focusing on the real task at hand, survive, and thrive. Then after everyone got situated into the basement and had both potential entryways covered we all sat down and began thinking of places to settle down and build a good home base.
"I think that we should go to the North Baptist Church, it would be, good cover," Owen said while Jim, on the other hand, had a different idea,
"I disagree. I think we should go to the old abandoned elementary school in the northwest part of town. " (We are located at the far south point of town).
"While both of these are good suggestions and would make a good base I think that we should go to the Henry County Sheriff's Office. Not only is my grandpa the Sheriff but I am also very familiar with the layout." I was pretty confident that people would agree with this idea. The only thing to worry about was the inmates were still locked inside. They have ways of getting water, but getting food, on the other hand, is a lot more difficult. We all talked it over for a while making sure we had the perfect plan of action. Right at that moment, I could hear a car moving outside. Then the others began pointing it out too.
When we all looked out the window we saw a car that was all too familiar. It was Mr. Watson, but I didn't see anyone else with him. Just from his appearance by looking out the window I could see that his clothes were torn and he was in a state of turmoil. But after doing a quick inspection of the tears in the blue t-shirt his skin didn't seem torn or open. As we opened the front door to let him in he tripped and fell I am guessing from the lack of water. Rob immediately ran to the kitchen to get him some. We don't know how long the tap will be active but for now, it still works. After that Mr. Watson seemed fine, he ended up telling us everything that had happened.
He said that he went to go find his family. He never made it to his wife inside the hospital because of the traffic. Even when he got there he could see that the creatures had already taken over the place like a king dominating another country. When it came to his son in middle school, by the time he arrived the school was also crawling with those monsters. There was no way he could navigate through all of them. But one thing he told us that seemed peculiar, was that while the place was crawling with them, he couldn't find one child version of these things.
His son that we knew was in high school with us, but he wasn't able to locate him either. His oldest and last child was in the military so there wasn't much he could do to get in contact with him or even confirm the potential of him being still alive. The only thing he returned with was the keys from his high school son's car, clutched in his fists with a tightness that could crush a normal man's skull.
After finally reconvening in the living room, we began the course of action on moving to the HCSO. Sure we had to fill Mr. Watson in on everything that happened thus far, but that didn't take very long. The goal of this "mission" was to successfully take over the jail with no casualties, and be able to free the inmates within its walls. Now some might call us stupid, they are criminals after all. But due to the "human lives problem," that kept getting brought up by everyone else in the group except Mr. Watson this was the only agreement we could come up with. Overall this was not going to be an easy task. The first task alone may be near impossible, we have to get there with no creatures or humans detecting our presence.
"There is a large garage located in the back of the facility in which we will park my truck. From there we will raid the cafeteria, the kitchen and then move all those supplies into the office area. After that, we can begin bordering up all the doors and windows and making a pathway to lead the inmates out of the station without letting them gain access to us.
Once that is complete, we will have the fortress all to ourselves. The only problem is that we don't know where the armory is and if any of the creatures are currently occupying the building," I told them all trying to make sure that everyone was not only on the same page but to help minimize the risk on our part. After everyone nodded in understanding I said:
"Let's gather up everything and then leave in the morning," I tried my best to be a little bit more like the leader I had envisioned. We spent the rest of the night doing the most random crap after getting everything ready, from playing card games to hopping on video game servers while they were still up. You wouldn't think it but the GTA servers can survive the apocalypse.
Sure there wasn't anyone online to enjoy it with, but it made everything a lot less shitty and more like the way things were before day zero. You know except the people pointing guns at the window and door anticipating a zombie at any second. Except for that. I was making sure that everything was getting packed away when I heard shuffling outside. Jim must have heard it too because he sprang up and said:
"Just a deer, right?" We both knew that it wasn't a deer, but we didn't want to face the fact of what it was more likely to be. He picked up the handgun while I got a large kitchen knife. Knowing that if I took one of the other guns I would leave the others unprotected. Jim and I decided to leave the others inside to sleep, and try not to bother them because of their task tomorrow.
Once upstairs the shuffling got louder and seemed a lot closer. We each went around the house looking through the windows trying to locate the monster. We shuffled in the dark bumping into things while trying our best to find the damn thing. The monster was lingering right beside the air conditioning unit on the left side of the house near my parent's bedroom. I guess the air conditioner made a noise or something because that monster would not leave it alone. Once we rounded the corner we saw the monster attacking the grey box-like, air conditioner. We could instantly see that this wasn't a monster, it was a young woman who had become one. She had a torn green tank top covered with her long blond hair.
When you saw her you didn't see what you would expect when someone said the word zombie. Instead of rotten flesh, bloody insides, and all other horrors that are associated with zombies. You saw this pale white young female, a paleness whiter than any snow humans have ever seen. It's misleading looking at her, but knowing that if given the chance the thing that she had become would kill you without a shred of remorse.
After taking a quick second to lock eyes with Jim then back at the monster standing in front of us, he brought the handgun up to eye level, and then after a few seconds of stabilizing it, he took the shot. After a second for the bullet to leave the gun and go through the head of the unsuspecting creature, she began to crumble. Fall over with almost no external force, like a paperclip caught in the wind. Then immediately after she had fallen to the ground I began to help Jim grab the now limp body and remove it from the scene. After that, we both went back inside trying not to wake anyone up and hoping that the gunshot wasn't too loud to wake them from their slumber.