Outbreak The Beginning (The Outbreak Series Book 1) (3 page)

Chapter 5

Driving on the way back from where that poor guy was getting eaten, well at least that’s what it looked like, I knew we were waist deep in a zombie movie. What are we going to do? I mean this really can’t be happening. Looking over at Hank, he’s sure not acting himself, I wonder what he’s thinking, probably thinking the same as me. Shaking my head, I look out the window of the truck. It looks like every other day, I mean the wind’s blowing softly, the grass is green. Some yards are cut others are not, a few look like hay fields. I wonder if those people are sick, or if they know what’s going on? Have they seen what we just witnessed?

I glance back to Hank. “Hank, what are we going to do, stay in our homes until this passes?”

“Hell yes, I would think that would be the best thing to do don’t go around helping others, just stay indoors.”

“Honestly Hank, I don’t think this is going away. What Nate said in his text message was the ones getting bit were getting up and attacking everyone else!” 

“I hope you’re wrong Egypt. That would be very bad. How could we even survive?”

We’re getting closer to home. We have to hurry up. I need to get my boys. We turn on Berlin Station Rd. I look around. Damn the second house on the left is on fire.

“Hank, that house is on fire!!!!”

“Gotta help them.” 

He starts to pull over and I scream at him, “We can’t Hank, I need to get the boys, Tabitha is coming over and you need to get to mom.”

He hesitates but pushes on the gas. We go down the dip that is so familiar to me, we are almost to my house. I reach into my purse and grab my gate and garage clicker. I hit the first one to open the twelve foot gate. I had to get this installed because of the neighbor’s pit bulls always coming over. It wasn’t safe for my animals. They are only little Chihuahuas. I open the truck door. Hank grabs my arm, I look up.

“Listen Egypt, maybe I need to stay with you, I don’t feel right about leaving you.”

“Hank, you need to get to mom. I’ll be ok. You have trained me well in case of emergencies.” I can tell that he’s struggling with what he should do.

Finally he shakes his head. “Damn it Egypt, keep your phone on you and you have my spare 9mm. And damn it you shoot those things if they come near you, even if their kids. You hear me?”

“Yes Hank, I will be safe, I’ll call when I have the boys.”

I jump out of the truck, running into the garage. I hop in my 4x4 SUV. Putting the keys into the ignition, starting it, I look up. Shaking my head, I laugh to myself, Hank’s waiting for me to pull out. He backs up. I put the SUV into gear and start to go forward. As I leave the garage I hit the button to close the garage door. Hank’s well on his way down the road by then. I pull out, turning left to head to the school. I click the button to close the gate. Looking in my rear view mirror, I make sure it closes.

I gun the gas and head down the road to the school. Forty-five miles an hour isn’t going to cut it so I accelerate to eighty-five. I see Hank pull into the driveway to their house. Wow, driving this fast on this road is horrible, they really need to fix this road. Yeah, who am I kidding, they sure aren’t going to fix anything anymore. Coming up to the stop sign I turn right and there’s traffic on this street they are all headed to the school or so it seems. There’s no traffic going the other way.

As I drive down Duck Creek Rd I hear sirens, a lot of them, maybe they are going to the school too. Passing some of the houses, I notice some are boarded up. Wow, that’s weird, why would they be doing …I know the answer to that? They are trying to keep people out. Hitting the gas a bit harder I get to the end of the road. Damn I’m third in line to turn. I shoot a text to Nate telling him I’m ten min’s away and I’ll honk like crazy to let him know I’m there.

Finally it’s my turn. I make the turn but someone shoots right out in front of me. I swerve, to miss them. Looking out my rear view mirror, I see it’s a kid with blood all over them. Shit, I almost nailed him. Rubbing the back of my neck, I need to get a grip. I have to get to the school, fetch my boys, get home and get the house ready. I don’t think this is going to go away. I think this is going to be how it will be for the rest of our lives. I just have this feeling in my gut and I’m usually never wrong.

There’s the school. Oh holy shit it’s a cluster fuck. There’s cars everywhere, parked all other the place, they are even driving on the grass people are running every which way. There’s kids running and screaming, some are covered in blood. Some are huddled on the ground, crying and holding what looks to be their entrails from spilling out. Worse still are the people and kids eating them, shaking I wipe a tear from my eyes. I can’t believe this is happening. I know we all liked to joke about something like this. And yes, I thought it would be really cool but I was so wrong, so very wrong.

I hit the gas and race around the building with a screech as kids are grabbing hold of my SUV and begging me to stop. I can’t, I have to get to my boys. I turn the corner around the building. And I see where I need to be but there are those things all over the place. Grabbing the gun on the seat next to me, I pull up and start beeping my horn. Laying on it. I look to the building where my boys should be coming out at. I jump out of my SUV. I stand with my gun up and ready to shoot. Shit, aiming my gun, I start hitting anyone in the way of that door. All that matters is my kids are safe. One of them starts running straight at me. I aim and shoot right to the heart, it jerks and keeps coming. Shit, I aim again. I’m not playing around this time and shoot it right in the head. The thing falls and doesn’t get back up. I take out another one the same way and it stays down too. I hear other shots being fired, looking around I see two state troopers doing the same thing.

The door to the woodshop opens up and Liam and Nate come running out. They’re dodging and jumping over them things. I see they are starting to get noticed by those monsters and raise my gun to start taking them out. I hesitate, I never had to shoot that close to my kids. What if I miss and hit them? Shaking my head, I can’t think like that. This is life or death!! On the radio I hear the song. 
“I Can Transform YA
” really? I start tapping my foot and take aim. The first one was just about to grab Liam, I
aim and shoot it, down it goes
.
I see the boys looking right at me. Nate has a grin on his face, shaking his head he keeps running towards me. I aim and take out two more, they go down.

“Nate, Liam, stop screwing around and move it!!!”

They run faster to the SUV and I see them yelling at me and pointing behind me. I whip around and someone slams into me, knocking the wind out of me. I drop my gun. Shit, it’s one of them, I throw my hands up on its shoulders trying to keep it from biting me. Gagging, oh my God they really stink, I think I’m going to be sick. I’m really struggling to keep this thing from biting me. He’s way bigger then my 105 lbs.

The thing’s mouth is drooling and getting closer to my neck. Shit, I’ve done it now, all of a sudden Mr. Hutch comes and throws the thing off of me. Looking into his eyes I see the love in them, I wish I could return it to him but it’s just not there. I’m not saying he’s not amazing but the feelings are just not there, it was supposed to be a mutual thing. Whipping around I see the boys are at the SUV and they jump inside.

Turning around, I take my hand and cup Hutch’s cheek. Looking at his lips I slowly start towards him and just before my lips touch his he stops me. Confused I look up into his eyes and he just shakes his head.

“Come on John jump in!! Come with us.” I look up, pleading into his eyes.

He shakes his head and has a sad smile on his lips. “I can’t Egypt.” He lifts his arm so I can see that he’s been bitten.

“So what, come on, I can clean that up at my house.” 

“NO Egypt, I can’t and you know it. It’s just a matter of time before I become one of those things you’re shooting and killing. You need to go and don’t look back. Don’t stop to help anyone. No matter what! This is everywhere and it’s just going to get worse.” He slowly brings me to him. He wraps his arms around me tenderly.

I tuck my face into his neck. I inhale deeply. He smells so much like home, I start to cry and he gently kisses me on the side of my lips. Looking into my eyes he pushes me towards the SUV. “GO now.” He whispers, “I love you.”

Chapter 6

I sit back into the SUV and he’s looking at me, like it’s the last time he will be able to do that. I shut my door and give him a last look. He takes off to help who he can so I start to pull away. Man I need to get a grip. I look at Nate in the front seat. I ask the boys. “Are you guys ok? Are you hurt?”

“No I’m good MOM!” says Liam.

“I’m ok to MOM!” Nate says.

“Ok, seat belts everyone, this might be a bumpy ride. We may have to go across grass at some point. Nate my 9mm is in the glove box. Get it and keep it with you. Click the safety off.” I look at him. “You know what to do with it. We’re not going to stop for anyone.” I push on the gas and we start forward. “Liam, call your sister and see where she is. Nate, call G-dad tell him we’re leaving the school and going to stop at the gas station if it’s safe to do so. Then we will stop at his house.”

As we’re driving out of the school parking lot it’s worse than ever, there is more of them. The state troopers are starting to go back to their cars. A few look like their down. But their buddies are waving me forward, so I lock the doors and keep going. We get to the street and its chaos, cars are everywhere. We’re just waiting our turn to get outta here.

“SHIT MOM GO, GO, GO, they are coming up behind us,” yells Liam.

Looking into the rear view mirror, I see fifty or sixty of them. I look around and decide to go across the grass. “Hold on boys,” I yell and turn the wheel sharp. We bounce up and down over the grass, coming to the road, the tires squeal, turning left I dodge an oncoming truck, barely missing it. Getting back on the right side of the road, we head for the gas station. I look at the boys. “What do you guys think? Should we stop at the gas station and get what we can? And top up the tank.”

“Ya we better mom … you’ve stocked up on everything to last two years but still more can’t hurt,” Nate says.

“I agree mom. What’s the plan?”  Liam asks.

“Well when we get there and if it’s all clear, we will head in. You boys go for the water and other drinks. I will get the food like jerky the junk food and the medicines. Ok, you all know what to do? Oh Nate, start the pump for the gas, we can take it out when we’re done.”

As we pull up to the gas station everything looks normal, so I stop at a pump. I tell the boys to put the guns in their waist bands and cover them.

As we walk in I go for what I planned on getting, grabbing all that I could, just about clearing the shelves. I look around for the boys. Liam is doing what he should be. Nate’s outside putting the cases of water in the back of the SUV while Liam is still grabbing stuff from the cooler. “OK guys hurry up.” I approach the counter. The guy is looking like I’m going crazy buying all this stuff. I tell him, “It’s crazy out there …we would never have made it to a regular store, so we’re stocking up here.” He shakes his head and gives me the total -- over $800.00 dollars. I hand him my credit card and see Nate looking at something in the distance. “Come on Liam lets go.” I snatch my card and rush to the SUV and bundle the stuff in a hurry. Some of it had to go in the back seat with Liam.

I glance in the direction Nate is pointing to see tons of smoke coming from the way we came.

“Mom, I think the school’s on fire,” Nate says.

“Yeah I think your right,” I say. We all stand there and watch it for a while. Shaking my head I tell the boys to pile in and we take off down the road towards home.  “Nate what’s going on with G-dad and Mimi?”

“Mimi is freaking out that we we’re going to the gas station and G-dad is waiting outside for us,” Nate says.

“Ok great. Mimi always worries … guys it will be OK,” I say.

“Mom, Tabitha is 5 minutes away, I told her to go right in but lock everything as she’s going in … that we will open it when we get there,” Liam says.

“Ok great. You guys did amazing.”  

As we turn on Berlin Station RD, that same house is still burning, as we continue to drive down the road we pass our house. You really can’t see it with that 12 foot fence all the way around it. HAH!! People thought I was crazy for doing that, just to keep dogs out and ours in. Well the laughs on them now because we will be safe in there. I turn left into my parent’s driveway. Hank is up by the house. We park the SUV and get out.

The boys run up to Hank, hug him and start telling him, play by play, what happened all the way up to when we got here. I stopped unpacking some of the water and pop to look at them. Hank glances at me while the boys tell him how I shot those things in the head. I hear Hank tell the boys to carry the stuff into the house and to make sure Mimi is doing ok. He walks over to me and gives me a big hug. I start to cry harder and harder, I guess I needed to get this off my chest. He just holds me until I’m done crying. Moving away I start grabbing some more stuff out of the trunk.

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself … you’re a strong woman. You’re the one that will get us all through this … so tell me, why did you bring this stuff down?” Hank says.

“Well, I know you guys won’t come down and stay with us, so I thought you could use the extra stuff to get you through for a little while,” I say.

“Yes, we’ll stay put. We will be safe, for the time being anyway,” Hank says.

The boys exit the house, we say goodbye to Hank and get back into the SUV. Driving off, I see Hank grabbing the last of the water and head into the house. Well for now they should be safe. They do however have huge windows and probably didn’t have enough wood to cover them all. Unlike me I have a fence all around my yard but I’m still at some point going to cover the windows. Heading down to the house I look at myself and groan at all the blood. UGH!! We’re all going to have to take showers and burn the clothes to be safe. As we near the driveway I hit the button to open the gates. I slow down to make sure they close and no one gets in. I pull up next to Tabitha’s truck and turn the SUV off. The boys jump out and head inside. I rest my head on the steering wheel and try to make sense of it all. Grabbing the keys out of the ignition, I open the door and hop out. The air smells so clean. There’s a gentle breeze coming from the west. Looking up at the sky I wonder if it’s going to rain, it’s been sunny all day. I look out to where you can still see the dark black smoke rising in plumes. I’m glad that nightmare is over. But I knew we’re stepping into a new nightmare that just won’t end.