Infected: They Will Eat You!: A Story of Family Survival in a Zombie Apocalypse
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Authors: Donel Gillies
Tags: #Zombies
InFecTed
They Will Eat You!
By
Donel Gillies
©2013 Donel Gillies
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission from the copyright owner except for brief quotations for review purposes.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Published by
FiveTwo Publishing
Content
CHAPTER ONE
My favorite time of day, dawn…quiet, still, just a hint of light.
The Sun was coming up, peeking above the horizon then escaping the Earth with golden brilliance. I took a sip of coffee watching the day come alive, watching my breath and the steam from my coffee mingle. Spring, it was early spring, time for awakening, time for my trip north to Crag.
Crag is a small settlement northwest about 90 miles. For the past seven years I’d made this same trip to hunt, scout, visit. By this time of the year the snow had melted enough to make travel easier. Game was still moving and plentiful but it was warm enough for dangers to be lurking, bears mainly, hungry from their winter sleep. I’d seen a rattler or two at this time over the years but not enough to worry about. But there were worse things than bears and rattlers to watch out for and this was when they started to move.
-——————————————
Time to go, “
Daylight’s burnin
’” as they say. It would be easy to sit up here watching the valley all day but Crag was waiting and the sooner I made my rounds the sooner I got home.
I didn’t used to grunt when I stood up. Ah, I started that about 20 or so years ago, not every time, just occasionally, now it was nearly always and I felt like my joints were squeaking like rusty gate hinges.
My right knee popped, just age.
I sipped on another cup of coffee and chewed some jerky as I saddled Chief and broke camp.
Chief was an interesting character, a handsome Palomino that we found running wild, exhausted and being chased by nearly everything in the region all wanting fresh meat.
The boys named him Chief because from the start he acted like he was the boss. When we finally got him corralled he nearly tore the thing down. It was days before we could get near him safely even with food and water.
It was a week before any of us could enter the building. I think Caleb and Jesse snuck in one morning and just watched him. They did that for a few days ‘till he settled down then started getting closer. Oh was my wife mad when one day they came running and yelping “I touched him!” “We touched him!” each repeating the same thing over and over.
They had touched Chief.
Within two weeks Chief was saddled and I was on his back. He had settled down a great deal but there were times no one could get near him. That’s when we knew to just leave him alone.
He still has a lot of that in him. There are times that we’ll fight over a trail, what time to go, even what creek to drink from. I’ve learned to listen. His instincts on some things are better than mine. That’s a hard lesson for a man to learn, to listen.
-——————————————
Crag was a settlement tucked back in a small finger of a valley at the base of a large cliff. The people of Crag had chosen the spot for its protection on three sides and its secluded location. The main valley traveled through north and south but this finger was well concealed and easy to defend. It could just as easily be a tomb.
The original settlers, Tom, his wife Sadie and her brother’s family first built log and stone huts on the steep slopes above the valley floor. They slowly built up fencing, a rampart then cabins. Over two or three years a few people traveled by some were invited to stay most, especially early on, were left alone and moved on without knowing Crag existed. Others were contacted, helped and invited to stay.
At first Crag was referred to as The Crag and as people joined the community there was talk about changing the name but none stuck. It was Crag. Today it is home to nearly 80 people and has sprawled beyond the original finger canyon to where the
town
is in the main valley. It is a trading hub between Cody in the north and Lake City in the west. My trip takes me over the mountain from the south, not the easiest trade rout but one I enjoy traveling for a visit.
Lake City was a community that popped up along the shore of Jackson Lake. It had become an established fishing community supplying dried fish and other game meat, hides and the like.
Cody was making a comeback after being nearly destroyed by fire. Most of the town laid in charred rubble with only a few of the original buildings left standing. The new Cody was built at the southeastern side of the reservoir.
Both Jackson Lake and Cody had settled in at nearly 100 residents. That just seemed to be a threshold where people felt safe and could manage themselves without major communal breakdowns.
That was not the case at home. We had grown to over 300 and I found the time spent in town less and less enjoyable. There was always work to be done elsewhere and I made my escape as often as possible. That wasn’t always the best move, I often had more problems to solve once I got back than when I left. That’s the way of things I guess.
-——————————————
It was late afternoon when I rode over the ridge and looked down on Crag. I could see smoke from the fires in the homes and a few watch cabins along the ridges up and down the valley. Chief stomped and jittered as I sat there looking up and down the valley. What a difference a few years had made.
Chief was ready to be free from my control and stamped again.
“OK, OK, we can go, just reminiscing.”
Chief snorted and started down.
CHAPTER TWO
“
Crap, three again
.” The complaint rang in my head. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. For three days I’d woke up around 3 a.m. tossed and turned for a couple hours and then got up. I guess today I’ll try something different and just get up and start working.
It wasn’t unusual for me to get up early, I could get a lot of work done before the house came alive but three is just
too
early.
I toss on my morning attire, shorts, t-shirt, Sanuks, and head down stairs to the kitchen. Start the coffee, pee, let the cat out, coffee’s ready head downstairs to my office and get to work. One great advantage of working from home is the ability to work at any time. I may be tired this afternoon but I can be done early and play. We’ve been needing to sight in the bows before archery season so maybe the boys and I’ll get that done today.
It only takes 10 minutes or so for my first cup of coffee to disappear and it’s time for another so I head upstairs to the kitchen, pour a new cup, let the cat in, give him some treats, grab my coffee and go back to my office.
-——————————————
I’d been working from home about five years. I finally got the opportunity to start my own business, well, really I was forced into it when the economy took a dive and my job disappeared. That was the best career move I had ever made. Not only was I working for myself, something I always wanted to do, but I was working from home, could work at any time and was making more money than I ever had. The first few years of twelve to fourteen hour days took their toll but it got us here, a comfortable life with time to spend with the family.
Life is great.
-——————————————
Once back downstairs I set my coffee on my desk and walk over to turn my TV on. I generally only turn it on espn for Mike & Mike, especially during football season, but today I turned it on without thinking. Habit I guess. Once I realized the time I checked around and settled on BBC World news. Not sure why, maybe it was the accent that made me stay there. I sat the remote down and headed to my desk, and coffee.
The TV in the morning is background noise. Something that makes me feel connected to the world, a world I prefer, sports, rather than the idiotic news we get from most outlets. To me
news
is a waste of time, it rarely directly affect me and yet gets me riled up. The news is BS that is skewed to incite the mindless and get them twiting or whatever else they do. I find it neither new nor truthful.
At least this BBC news is a little different and, like I said, they have an accent that is fresh.
A half hour of work later and I’m ready for more coffee. And the cat is on the stairs telling me he wants out again. Upstairs I go.
That’s my typical first hour of the day, coffee, cat, checking emails, looking over a couple websites, prepping my work day.
-——————————————
Back downstairs with a hot cup of coffee I hear some jerk wearing a mask waving an AK yelling something unintelligible. The crowd behind him is burning an Israeli flag. As the camera pans back and there’s a U.S. flag and British flag burning as well. That just pisses me off. I sit, watch and listen to find out what’s going on.
Turns out this putz and his buddies are all excited because they are going to destroy Israel and then the rest of ‘the infidels’.
“We’ve heard that before Bobo.” I say to the TV and turn it off.
“End of days boys.” I say aloud and sit down to work.
-——————————————
The rest of the day goes as usual, work ‘till three or so then start on other projects. Caleb and Jesse and I make it to the archery range and have a good time sighting in the bows and getting some practice in before hunting season. It gives my wife, Christine, some time to herself as well. Three years ago we started homeschooling so she now has not only a husband at home
constantly
, she has two boys home as well. We try to give her time to herself as often as we can.
After archery we eat dinner and settle in for the evening. It’s a typical evening only I’m dead tired from getting up too at three and head to bed early.
-——————————————
“Damit.” It’s three again and I’m awake. I might as well get up. This is getting annoying. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten in this type of cycle. It sometimes hits Christine as well, we wake up very early and can’t get back to sleep. Both of us like getting up early and starting our work but three is too early. Five is great. Six is OK. Anything past that is late to us. We can get a lot of work done in the first three hours of the day, often more than in the entire rest of the day.
The cat, that’s Joey, is sleeping on my legs and doesn’t seem to be ready to get up so I slip myself out from underneath him and head downstairs…..coffee, pee, on down to my office. I push the on button for the TV and hear that British accent…oh, yeah…I sit down at my desk.
I go through the same morning routine without hearing any jabbering or seeing burning flags and at six I switch over to Mike & Mike to catch up on sports.
The day goes in routine fashion, work, do a couple small projects around the house, dinner, dead tired, early to bed.
That’s the deal all week. By Friday night I’m ready to drop. I’m not good with less than eight hours of sleep, never have been, but even if I were to get eight hours getting up at three just messes the schedule up. If I want eight hours of sleep I have to be asleep by seven. That would
not
go over well with the family. So I’m tired. But things could be worse…
-——————————————
Saturday morning, 3:17 a.m. and my mind is like a NASCAR race, a race with a lot of crashes. Thoughts of work and projects to do around the house are roaring around colliding, splintering into more thoughts of things I need to do and things I want to do.
I get up.
The boys have a soccer game at nine so I can get a few hours of work done, another blessing of working for yourself from home, you can work at any time on any day.
Coffee, pee, downstairs, no TV.
The cat lets me know he needs attention and I let him out, get more coffee and hear Christine coming down. It’s after seven. Time flew this morning. I need to start breakfast then get Caleb and Jesse up.
During the week Christine fixes the boys breakfast or they do it themselves. Both are becoming proficient in the kitchen and regularly fix a meal for everyone. On Saturday, especially during soccer season I’ll fix breakfast for them so they can do their morning chores and get ready for the game. We record Premier League matches and like to watch one while we’re eating and getting ready. It helps get them in the right mindset for the game. I think, I hope…I like to watch the matches anyway.