Chapter 7

"I'm going to need a minute," she said as she

collapsed on the bed still twitching. She looked up at me with a devilish look

in her eyes. "Okay, now it's my turn," she said as she bit her bottom lip.

Life truly is funny. I mean the world is going to

hell, but I have the trust and confidence of these people. I have a beautiful

woman I am about to ravage. My Ma and my best friend are here safe with me. All

things considered, things aren't that bad.

Diane and I had switched places on the bed, with me on

my back leaning up on my elbows and her straddling me. Her shirt stood open and

the view of her cleavage was amazing. Her hair draped down over her left eye as

she continued to bite her lower lip…

BAM!

BAM! BAM! Someone was pounding at my door.

"Aye! Yo, Marv! We got big trouble out here!" yelled T

from the other side of the door.

"Is it something you can handle?" I yelled back.

"Naw, man, this leader-level shit!" he said.

Diane rolled over onto her back and began to tie off

her shirt again. The frustration was visible on her face. Now imagine how I

felt. She sat up and began looking for her shorts. As she fastened them, I

opened the door.

"Hey man we…Daaaaaaamn! I'm sorry Bro, but this

couldn't wait," said T as he peered over my shoulder. "We got a herd topside

moving through the farm."

"Do we have an approximate count?" I asked. I leaned

down and gave Diane a kiss on the cheek. "We'll continue this later."

"Hells yeah you will!" exclaimed T, as he slapped me

on the back.

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I get it now,"

she said. "Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

"As far as we can tell, it looks like a couple hunnit. And Marv, some are in the barn

over the hatch," explained T. "We can't get out!"

"Get Leon, the Raiders, and Tim and meet me in the

conference room," I belted. "Also make sure everyone who is battle ready is

armed, just in case."

I guess in retrospect, having a party with loud music

was not a good idea with deadly creatures that are attracted to sound. I made

my way to the conference room and waited for the others. This isn't the way I

wanted this to unfold, but desperate times and all. I cleared off the

conference table. We had to act quickly, and we had to act smart.

Unfortunately, we would have to reveal the location of the ARC to some of the

residents. It couldn't be helped. T and Leon arrived first, and I ran over my

plan with the two of them. The others arrived shortly thereafter.

"As you all know by now, we have a serious situation

above us. Now, we could sit tight and hope to wait it out," I said. "The

problem with that is that this herd could attract more of them and become too

massive to deal with. I think I may have a plan. I discussed this with T and

Leon, and we think that the use of decoys could be beneficial in this instance."

"But we can't get out," said Tim. "We're trapped in a

massive underground grave."

Everyone looked at each other, and then we all looked

at Tim bewildered.

"Oh! Never mind me. I've been writing fanfiction for

one of my former favorite television shows. It helps me focus on better times,"

he explained.

"Anyway, we're not trapped. Now before I go any

further, I have to swear all of you to secrecy with what I am about to share

with you," I said. I checked the door to ensure that no one was around and

closed and locked it.

"I swear," they all said in unison.           

"Good! When I first gained access to this place, I was

made aware that there may come a time when we might have to escape rather

quickly. And in situations like that, you usually don't want to use the front

door."

I paused for a moment and then cleared my throat.

"Alfred, re-engage voice commands!" I said. "Display

the specs and blueprints of the ARC."

A 3D image of the ARC was displayed with all of the

entrances and exits.

"What the hell?!?" exclaimed Fred. "Is this what I

think it is? Voice activated A.I.? Holy shit!"

"Voice what in the what?" asked Andre. "What the hell

is going on? Where did this video game come from?"

"This isn't a video game! The ARC has an artificial

intelligence," I said. "I've been using it to help me manage this place. Its

name is Alfred and has encoded to my voice only as the first user."

"Alfred, like that super hero's butler?" asked Andre.

 "I guess so.

Back to business. There are exit hatches in storage room A and storage room D.

A lets out past the south water tower and D near the windmill," I explained. "The

problem is that the vehicles are in the barn."

"So what are you proposing?" asked Gerald.

"We need volunteers to exit through the escape hatches

and find some vehicles to try and lure the majority of them away," I said.

"Hey! What about the Penguin's Cadillac?" asked Andre.

"All we did was drain the fuel, so it should still run."

"That's good Andre," I said. "Can anyone else think of

a location for vehicles?"

"I may know the whereabouts of a vehicle or two," said

Fred.

"Hey, we may know of a location for a couple of dirt

bikes," said Robert. "Me and my twin should be able to get in and get 'em

quick. They're only a few miles from here and we've both rode motocross."

"Okay, the twins will hit the dirt bike place with

Andre," I said. "Gerald, you, Leon, Fred and Jessie go get the Penguin's

Cadillac. T, you, Tim and I will prepare things here. Okay, everyone knows what

they're doing? Good, let's get it done."

"Look at you, takin' charge in a crisis," said T. "In

case I don't say it enough, I'm proud of you man!"

We get the flame-retardant suits, which are great for

moving through a herd, but in a horde, you could be trampled. Again, it hit me,

and I realized how colossally stupid it was to throw a party in the middle of

an undead apocalypse with subwoofers.

We made our way out to the windmill. The herd was

numerous but slow. We began blazing the herd with flame throwers. Even on fire,

they kept trudging ahead. Some of their heads would explode from the heat,

while the rest kept moving toward us. We were about half an hour in using the

flamethrowers to curb the herd when I head the whine of dirt bikes.

"Hey, you dead fuckers!" screamed Ricky as he jumped

the fence over the herd. "Follow me if you can!"

Next was Andre. You could tell he wasn't as confident

a rider as Ricky and Robert were. When he jumped and landed he lost control of

the bike and plowed right into about 10 or 12 DCs. T rushed over to him as he

went ass up over the handlebars of the bike.

"Marv! Tim! Gerald! I need you to back me up to get

Andre out of the shit!" T yelled over the comms in our suits.

T took charge. It was second nature to him. We made

our way over to Andre who was stabbing DCs in the head one by one. This kid is

a survivor. We followed suit and used blades to eliminate the DCs one by one.

Andre was leaning against the fence.

"Andre, getcho' ass outta there," T yelled.

That's when I noticed it. Andre's leg had a huge gash

in it. Did they bite him? We continued to work our way to him as we hacked and

slashed anything between us and him. Ricky and Robert were leading the DCs away

from the farm. Just then, we saw the Cadillac. It was a bloody mess in a cloud

of dust. They ran straight through the fence and almost clipped Andre. What in

the hell was happening?

"They got Jessie!" yelled Leon as he jumped out of the

car. "They surrounded him, and they bit Fred on his hand when he tried to help.

There was nothing we could do for Jessie, but I cut off Fred's hand almost as

quickly as it happened. They came out of the woods and were on top of us. As

soon as Fred said he had the car running one lumbered toward Jessie and bit his

shoulder. Before we knew it, four more were on him. Fred tried to help, and

they took a chunk out of his hand. You gotta help him doc!"

"Tim! Help me get Andre out of there. Anyone in the

car that is able help us clear these bastards out!" T barked. "Marvin, check on

Fred! We have to work our way to the barn and then clear it out! Robert! Ricky!

Get your asses back here ASAP! We have two injured, both of whom might turn."

We pretty much thinned out the herd with the

flamethrowers and mopped up nicely with the blades. There were only about 10 or

so DCs in the barn, and they were dispatched easily enough.

"Andre! Look at me! Were you bit?!" T yelled as he

shook him.

"No. No sir! The bike fell on my leg," he replied

while shaking the cobwebs loose. "I swear I wasn't bit!"

"He might have a concussion!" I yelled. "He had to hit

his head when he went over the handle bars!"

"Okay, Leon have Diane look at Andre's leg," ordered T

still taking charge. "The rest of you help Marvin get Fred to the medical bay."

"We have to cauterize Fred's stump!" I yelled. "Tim,

hand me the morphine kit and the pink tubes with the coagulant!"

I gave Fred a shot of coagulant, a shot of my serum

and heated up a flat iron with a blowtorch. I followed up the serum with a shot

of morphine. Fred's breathing began to quickly ease.

"Okay, you guys hold him down!" I yelled. I pressed

the flat iron against his stump. Fred screamed loud enough to wake the dead, no

pun intended. He collapsed in a puddle of sweat.

"Leon, I want a guard on him 24/7. No one goes in

without a guard and he sure as hell doesn't come out," said T. "Marvin, be sure

to regularly check-in on him. I also want Andre brought to Storage Room D until

I'm certain he wasn't bitten."

Diane had cleaned and dressed his wound. She assured

us that it was congruent with metal tearing flesh. She offered to monitor and

change his dressing.

After a couple of days, T and I released Andre into

Leon's custody. Diane was beginning to get moody as my responsibilities were

keeping me from seeing her. After that herd came through, T wanted to implement

some changes in how we do things for safety reasons.

Fred showed no ill effects from the bite, outside of

losing his hand. The blood samples I took from him proved my theorem to be

correct. The serum, if administered early enough could stave off a person

turning if bitten. The fact that the area bitten was removed did help in averting

the infection.

Fred's blood shows that the virus was active in his

system, but the serum was counteracting its presence. Each day, fewer and fewer

antibodies were present from the virus, although the host still remained. While

the serum could help fight the infection that causes death, if anyone dies,

they still turn.

After another few days, we were gearing up for the

election. It's funny because it seems that everyone in my inner circle was all

elected. Leon, Gerald, Diane, Tim, and Andre were elected to representative

posts. T and I rounded out the council. We met in the conference room. We have

two injured and one that we thought might turn.

"Okay, the first order of business is that we need to

rethink our...I mean my rules," I said.

"They've been good to us so far. Why do we need to

change them now?" asked Gerald.

"Because if we would have followed them to the letter,

Fred would be dead right now! As the rules state those who are bit are put to

death," I snapped. "Plus, last week we put down that Penguin guy pretty easily

too!"

Gerald looked at me pensively. You could tell that

something was weighing heavy on his mind.

"What is it, Gerald?" I asked when I realized he was

agonizing with his thoughts.

"Well…" he began. "…when we went to get the Cadillac,

we saw something."

"Well, what was it?" I asked.

"Cyrus! I think he's a DC," he said in a low, defeated

tone. "We saw a DC in overalls that looked just like the ones he was wearing,

but his face was unrecognizable."

The entire room was silent for a minute or two, but it

seemed like an eternity.

"The guy was an asshole, but he didn't deserve that,"

said Andre.

"Fuck him, fuck his shoes, fuck his stupid haircut,

fuck his fucked-up attitude, fuck his hillbilly accent, fuck his Great Aunt

Gertrude (if he had one), fuck his red tricycle he had as a kid, fuck him

turning into a DC and fuck those overalls," yelled T. "He made his choice. He

didn't want to be here and took his chances out there. I'm not about to feel

bad for an asshole who would rather wander around out in that shit and be right, than bite his fuckin tongue, shut

the fuck up and be grateful for a hot meal, a hot shower, safety and friends…if

he was capable of making any!"

"Well, we can't have any more situations like last

week," I said. "I was discussing it with T and we wanted to present to you all

a plan to expand. According to T, we need designated fallback areas as well as

safe zones and outposts to get to if things get desperate while we are out

there. Would any of you ever consider leaving the group to start a sister

community?"

Again, there was nothing but stunned silence. They all

looked around at each other, no one willing to step up.

"Look, I'm not looking to kick anyone out, but as we

continue to grow, we'll have to consider expanding, because there are only so

many that can live here," I said.

"While I like the idea of outposts with emergency

rations, weapons and ammo, I don't think anyone is ready to start over on their

own," said Leon.

"But that's just it. You wouldn't be doing it on your

own. We'd do it together," I said. "We'd set up some type of communication

network and truly begin to rebuild civilization."

"Well, Marvin it looks like everyone is sold on the

outpost idea, but we may need to stick a pin in the expansion plans for another

community," said Diane. "Maybe we can revisit it at a later council meeting.

Now shall we vote on the Outpost Initiative? All those in favor say, 'Aye'!"

"Aye…aye… aye…aye...aye...aye" went the responses

around the table.

"That's six," said Diane. "The motion is passed. Tim,

will you and Leon pick a team and get to work on strategic positioning and

locations, and start the construction? We might also want to consider some drop

areas with specific markings that are recognizable only by us for in a pinch.

Well if there is nothing else, the meeting is adjourned!"