Chapter 100 CDC Base

Jerry had been traveling around with his wife, Beth, and his daughter, Summer. In the beginning they had been able to shelter themselves from the undead. They had a bunker under their house, Jerry was a doomsday prepper. All that money that he had spent on the bunker had been worth it, even though it almost destroyed his marriage.

Anyway, Jerry and his family had managed to survive for about three months inside their bunker. Then they had to leave as the food and supplies Jerry had prepared had run out. They came out of the bunker fully equipped with body armor and gas masks. Jerry was the only one that had a weapon, it was a Remmington 590 mag-fed shotgun.

Stepping out of the bunker for the first time in months they were shocked to see that their house had been burned to the ground. Their once beautiful home had been utterly destroyed, Summer and Beth burst into tears. They had not understood the severity of the situation they were in until this moment. Jerry seeing his family so distraught, brought both of his girls into his embrace.

It took a couple minutes to calm down, but when they did, they had a new determination about them. They walked into the ruins of their old house and looked through the wreckage, they found a couple cans of food which were quickly put into their bags. They walked out of the front door and started to make their way down the street.

Many of the houses they passed by were destroyed, but they still went inside to check for any food that might have survived. They looted about 4 houses before they turned down another street, in front of them was something of nightmares. Something that they had only seen on the news, right before they rushed into their bunker.

In front of them was a walker, Summer yelped in terror. This caught the attention of the walker, it started to walk towards them slowly. Jerry got in front of his family and aimed his shotgun at the head of the walker. He had seen on the news, that the head was the only way to kill this monster. His aim was a little off, so he hit the walker in the neck, luckily the force of the shot was enough to take the walker's head clean off.

Seeing that Jerry had successfully killed the walker, both Beth and Summer released a sigh of relief. They then continued down the street to loot more houses for food and supplies. They had to kill 7 more walkers as they were looting. Jerry had let both Beth and Summer kill a walker each and this helped them to gain some confidence in themselves.

They all saw how affective guns were against the walkers, so they planned to loot a nearby police station. This would have to wait until the next day however, as it was already starting to get dark. They made their way to one of the houses that were in better condition and made a temporary base there. They ate dinner, then they went to sleep for the night.

The next day, they made their way to the police station. When they arrived, they broke in through the front door. They walked through the station slowly, trying their best to stay quiet. They were walking down a hall when a walker pounced onto Jerry, the walker gnawed at his arm as he tried to fight it off. Beth managed to grab the shotgun and shoot it in the head, saving Jerry, or so they thought.

They helped Jerry stand up and they made their way to the armory. Inside they saw a good number of guns lining the walls, they each grabbed a pistol and one of the assault rifles. They filled multiple duffel bags with ammunition before they walked to the bathroom. Beth and Summer went in first as Jerry guarded the door.

About 20 minutes later Beth and Summer came outside, wearing new clothes. Jerry then went inside the bathroom and began to strip off his body armor and clothes. As he was taking a shower, he saw that his arm was bleeding where he was bitten. Thinking nothing of it he finished his shower and changed clothes before wearing his body armor. Then he left the bathroom and rejoined Beth and Summer.

They left the police station and walked back to their temporary base. As soon as the door closed Jerry collapsed to the floor. Beth and Summer were extremely worried when they saw this, and they dragged him over to the couch before they set him down. They removed his body armor and saw that his face was very pale, and his clothes were soaked in sweat.

Beth reached her hand out and touched Jerry's forehead before saying, "My God, you're burning up. What happened?"

Jerry said, "I don't know, but I got bit by one of those walkers."

Beth said, "Oh, well you will get better then. I'm sure this is just a fever." Jery and Summer nodded. Beth stood up and grabbed a washcloth before she poured some water on it and began to wipe Jerry's brow.

For the next couple hours, the girls took care of Jerry, but he got worse and worse as the seconds passed. Eventually they all realized that he was going to die. Beth and Summer's eyes burst into tears as they watched Jerry become weaker. An hour passed and Jerry took his last breath, both the girls cried loudly.

They stopped suddenly when they heard Jerry make some noise in the other room. They walked into the room only to see Jerry standing up. Summer tried to go towards him, but Beth stopped her. Beth called out, "Honey. Are you okay?"

Jerry didn't respond, but his head snapped in their direction. His head was turned to an impossible degree. This scared both the girls as they began to back away in fear, this didn't cause Jerry to faulter at all. He walked towards them clumsily, both the girls called out to him, but he didn't respond, the only noise he made was a guttural growl.

They continued to back up but soon their backs were pressed against the wall. Jerry was right in front of them and he went towards Summer. Beth seeing that Jerry was about to bite Summer, pulled out the pistol at her waist. Aimed at Jerry's head and pulled the trigger, blowing the brains out of his head all over the wall.

Summer started to sob as Beth came over and brought her into a strong hug. It was not long before Summer had fallen asleep, Beth finally allowed herself to burst into tears. She cried quietly for a couple hours before she fell asleep.

They stayed within this neighborhood for about 3 weeks before they had to leave once again. This time they were much more careful when dealing with walkers. They traveled around for a long time, many months. They had been hardened by all the things they experienced during this time, and they no longer had a problem with killing a couple walkers.

They had long realized that guns weren't the perfect weapon to use to deal with walkers as they were attracted to sound. They had started to use melee weapons more often.

Currently they were traveling to Atlanta as they had started hearing some broadcasts from the CDC. They cautiously made their way to the city; they made a small camp on a quarry they found on the way. They wanted to have enough light to see what they were getting themselves into before they went to the CDC.

They made a small fire and heated up some canned beans. They ate quietly as they kept a watchful eye on their surroundings. Then they went to sleep in their car, after locking the doors.

The next day they woke up at the crack of dawn and started down the dirt road, going to the highway. They drove down the highway for a while before they turned onto a side road and continued a little further. They got out of the car and geared up before they started walking to the CDC.

As they walked down the streets, they saw that the streets were very empty. There weren't many cars littering the streets at all, this made them suspicious as they continued forward. They were about 1500 feet away from the CDC, when they saw a big wall in the distance. It looked like there were turrets lining the wall.

They walked to the wall slowly but stopped about 20 feet away, when they heard a robotic voice. The voice said, "Halt! Identify yourself!"

Beth pushed Summer behind her, then said, "I am Beth Smith, and this is my daughter Summer Smith. We have heard the broadcast on the radio."

The robotic voice said, "Please make your way to the left, when you reach the door, it will open." Beth nodded as she held Summer's hand and started walking to the left along the wall. As they were walking a walker started to come towards them, they were about to shoot it, but they were stopped when one of the turrets fired a single shot and demolished the walkers head.

Seeing this they continued forward at a faster pace and eventually arrived in front of a big steel door. The door started to open inwards, and they quickly walked inside. They were shocked by what they saw, a big farm on one side and many people tending to it. On the other side were many people practicing what looked to be martial arts. A tall man came over to them and stood in front of them.

The man said, "Hello, my name is James. Welcome to the CDC." Beth and Summer were shocked by the polite welcome.

Beth said, "Hi, James. My name is Beth, and this is my daughter. Nice to meet you."

James gave a warm smile before he said, "Follow me, I'll show you around." James then started to walk around the out side of the CDC showing the girls the different projects that are happening. Then he brought them inside the CDC and showed them to an empty room.

Beth asked, "What is this?"

James chuckled then said, "This is your new room, everyone has one."

Beth and Summer were shocked for a couple second before Summer said, "Really?"

James nodded as he walked away after saying one last thing, "If you need anything, use the phone in the room. You can connect to either me or my closest confidants. In a couple days we will talk about the jobs you will do."

Beth and Summer nodded as they walked into the room and shut the door. They set their stuff down and began to look around the room. Then they sat down together and started to think about all the cool things they saw as they were looking around the CDC.

They saw huge solar panels on the roof. When they were walking inside the CDC, they saw many machines making medicine and ammo. The whole place was super clean and there was not a spec of dirt to be seen anywhere.

When they were looking around outside, they saw the massive farm and also the huge field with at least a hundred people practicing martial arts. They sat together in silence as some tears began to fall from their eyes, it had been so long since they felt safe, but now they knew they would be alright.