"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!"