by Chris Blake
Apocalyptic Empire: The Hatchery Compound
By Chris Blake
“Every empire has a beginning, this one is a fish hatchery.”
Copyright © 2013 by Chris Blake
Cover design by Chris Blake
Book design by Chris Blake
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Printed in the United States of America
Prologue
It was the end of January, and it was going just like any other month for Vintago Hawkins. He would go to work and partake in the daily grind that most adults have to suffer through their entire adults lives. Things were not so different for Vintago than they were for anyone else. His life was easy, and like everyone else, he took it for granted. This was when the ordinary was boring and not to be enjoyed at all whatsoever. If only people knew then that dull and unexciting would be a commodity that they would wish they had.
Vintago, or Vin as most people called him, lived with his wife Victoria, and son Grayson in a small home, outside of the Phoenix Metropolitan area in Arizona. Their home was about fifty miles from Phoenix and twenty miles from civilization. It was a small cookie cutter house in a small neighborhood that the builder decided to plop down into the middle of the desert. Their home sits adjacent to miles and miles of open desert landscape and is surrounded on two sides by mountains after a couple miles.
By trade, Vin was an “IT guy” and along with that trade came the usual quirks. He tends to be more introspective and internalized. Certain people like to call Vin an asshole, but Victoria knows he is a good man when he needs to be. Along with those quirks, come an intriguing set of hobbies. Unlike most people in Vin’s profession, he always liked to be outdoors, and he was an avid camper, fisherman, outdoorsman, and gun enthusiasts. If only back then he had known that these skills would become the principles that would keep his family together, and keep his friends alive.
For a guy like Vintago, exciting things just did not happen. When the virus outbreak started it took everyone by surprise, especially Vin. Both Vintago and Victoria’s families did not want to believe what was happening. Vin, on the other hand, had a horrible concern about what was coming, and he was not going to sit around idly while everything went to hell. He figured that he could plan it out, and everything would be just fantastic. If only he knew then what was about to unfold, because, clearly Vin had no fucking idea.
Part One: Outbreak
Chapter One
Initial Reports Abound
January, 2013
On one morning that was no different from any other morning, things got a little interesting. Vin was reading through some news articles on his iPhone and found a ton of articles pointing to a weird virus situation in California. The news outlets were saying that there were at least five people that have this mystery illness currently quarantined in a local hospital there. Apparently, the five people were taken out of the back of a van and appeared to be illegal immigrants.
Upon first glance at this article, Vin just suspected it to be another piece of drama talking about illegal immigration and he did not much care about the virus part. It was probably just another ploy to get people to get their flu shots. Just as he was about to lose interest he noticed something that brought his short attention span back around. The reporters said that one of the illegals had bitten one of the other people. That is why the immigrants had tried to escape the van so quickly and fallen right into the hands of the border patrol as they were crossing into California. The one that had gone ballistic was killed by the border patrol agents as he assaulted an officer, and no kidding attempted to bite him.
The illegal immigrants were then held and questioned by the authorities, and that is how they found out about the disease. They said that their friend had been extremely sick, and had apparently died in the back of the van. They had covered him with a blanket and said their prayers when suddenly their friend “woke up” and started attacking them with his mouth hanging open and limbs flailing.
Since nobody knew what this virus was yet, the authorities sent these illegals to a nearby hospital. The hospital was not at all equipped for what this virus could do. This would be one of the first mistakes in what would eventually turn into a disaster.
Normally things like this would not even make a blip on Vintago’s mental radar. He was not one of those people who gets excited about the news. He is the person that says, “If it’s not happening to me, I don’t much care”. The thing that struck him odd about this was that they called it a virus and said that someone had died and suddenly come back to life. Vintago does not know much about viruses, but what he does know for sure is that they do not kill people, only to bring them back to attack their friends. He decides to keep an eye on the situation to make sure it does not progress past this. It was starting to sound like all those crazy ass people eating bath salts and running around naked mauling people.
After finishing breakfast, Vin decides that it was time to head to the office and start the daily grind. Vintago gives his wife and son goodbye kiss and starts his journey into town. On the drive to the office, he decides to tune the radio to the local talk radio station. It was something that he normally would never do, but that story about the illegals seems to have stuck in his mind. Sure enough they are talking about the story regarding this strange virus. The authorities are not saying much, but apparently the person that was bit by the first “dead” illegal has become deathly ill and they are monitoring him by the minute.
This whole story is starting to get interesting now. It was only a few hours after the initial story was posted online and already the infected person was starting to succumb to the virus. It makes no sense at all. Vin wondered what all of the doctors were thinking about this virus. They have to be worried about the timeframe, average incubation times for a virus are not usually within a few hours.
After he listens for a few minutes, he changes the stereo to the auxiliary input and plugs in his iPhone. Time to focus on the drive and throw on some tunes. He picks out one of his favorite bands and cranks up the volume. What’s the point of listening to music if it isn’t loud enough to damage hearing!
An excruciating hour of traffic goes by, and Vin pulls into the parking lot at the office. Time to punch in and get to work. He gets to work doing the same thing he does every day, which is just as tedious as the day prior and even the day before that.
Before he even realizes it, half the day is gone, and it is time to take a lunch. Vin punches out, grabs his little sack lunch and steps outside. Usually, he brings his iPhone with and listens to music and surfs the web. Today is no different for him.
For whatever reason, Vin just cannot seem to get that damn news story out of his head, and go figure, he goes looking for more information about it. What he finds is particularly disturbing, even for a guy like Vintago.
It looks like the infected person that was on the edge of death while Vin was driving to the office died. The scary part is that he also came back from his death after only a few minutes. He then attacked the other members of his party who were with him in the hospital wing. The reporters are saying that he killed two of them and mauled a third before whoever was guarding him came
and in and shot him several times. They shot him seventeen times before a stray round hit him in the head and ended the carnage.
After the massacre had died down, they restrained and separated the rest of the illegal immigrants, or what was left of them.
After Vintago’s corporately dictated lunch break, it was back to the grind. The rest of the day goes by slowly with nothing noteworthy happening. He clocks out for the day, packs up his things, and goes out to his car. Before long, he is on his way home, listening to the same loud, angry music.
As Vin walks in the door at home, he is greeted by his son Grayson who stands all of two feet and some odd inches tall, with brown hair, eyes as blue as the ocean, and the cutest smile ever seen. Next, his beautiful wife Victoria comes over to give him a kiss. She also has brown hair, though being a hair stylist it tends to change, so this month it is red. She is fairly tall for a woman, slender in the waist, and light in the chest. Last to greet him are their two little mutts Toby and Foxy. One is a Terrier mutt, and the other a Chihuahua Pomeranian mix.
Gray is only a year and a half old, so to bring attention back to himself, he strings his two new words together to give his daddy an impressive, “hi da-da” greeting. This makes Vintago’s face light up. Vin walks back over to give Victoria another hug, and she has a strange look on her face. Normally, logic would suggest that it is something Vin has done, or something along those lines.
Instead, she says, “You need to come and take a look at this.”
“Oh lovely, what is it now” Vin replies, thinking the dogs shit on the carpet or something similarly mundane.
Vin walks into the living room, almost tripping over one of Grayson’s toys. The TV is tuned to CNN, which Vintago likes to call “Constantly Negative News”. They are talking about, the illegals in California. It would appear that things have gotten worse since this afternoon. Vin leans over to pick up the remote and turn up the volume. Anderson Cooper is on location. In the background, the entire hospital wing is covered in what looks like a big tent, like the ones the bug guy’s use.
Anderson is saying, “Right now the only thing we know is that one of the guards that originally went in to save the other infected people was bitten before he was able to kill the patient that attacked them. Officials are saying that there was a breach of quarantine by this guard, when he did not tell anyone that he had been bitten. This forced the CDC to quarantine the entire wing of this small rural hospital, to ensure that the infection does not spread any further. As of this time a representative of the CDC estimates that there may be as many as thirty infected patients, hospital staff, and visitors.”
While Anderson is talking about all of the details, three CDC agents all geared up in hazmat suits entering the tunnels leading into the building.
At this point, Vin cannot help but think, “What the hell is going on here? Is this some disease outbreak or something? How did it go from one illegal in a van to an entire hospital wing?”
Victoria says to Vin with a concerned look, “Do you think this is serious? Should we go get a flu shot or something? Maybe it’s like one of those bird flu things going around.”
Vintago just shakes his head, chuckles a little, and replies “Vicky this is no bird flu, the bird flu does not do this shit.” He does his best to try and keep it light with her, so she does not start worrying, but internally, Vin is freaking out a little bit.
Vin turns off the TV and tells Victoria and Gray, “Come on, let's get ready for dinner.”
Mainly because he wants to get his mind off of this story, but also because he is starving.
After dinner, the whole family resumes their normal daily operations, by getting Gray ready for bed and then the husband and wife spend some time together. No hanky panky going on tonight, though, as both of them are clearly, not in the mood.
The next day, Vintago wakes up and begins his daily grind. He takes a shower and stands in front of the mirror to shave. Staring back at him is a man of five seven, slightly portly, but not too out of shape, with brown hair and hazel eyes. After his shave, he has some breakfast and starts reading the news again.
Now it is starting to get weird because the virus outbreak is all over the damn news. It seems like things turned into complete chaos overnight in the small town as the hospital is no longer contained. When the CDC went inside the building, something went terribly wrong, because at some point they lost contact with the outside. Then a few hours later they came back out. The problem is that they did not come out like they went into the hospital.
To make matters worse, with them came about forty other people. The people were patients, hospital staff quarantined visitors, and security guards. They came streaming out of the hospital like flood waters breaking over a dam. The local law enforcement did not know how to respond to this mass exodus of people, so they waited and waited until the infected came close, to close. After the first officer had been swarmed and killed instantly, they got smart and pulled out their side arms. By the time they had their 9mm handguns out, it was far too late, there were too many.
Eyewitness accounts state that the police were overrun within a matter of minutes and left the bystanders fleeing for their lives. One witness said he was sitting in his car watching the whole thing unfold. Vintago watched a video recording of his statement.
The man, George was his name, said “They just came shambling out of that hospital, half of them almost naked because their hospital gowns had come loose. The cops, hell, they did not know what to do. They waited until they could see the eyes on those things and then they finally got their wits about them and opened fire. At first I thought that they might kill them all, but then those...people... just kept coming.”
At this point, the guy chokes up a little bit, and it is clear that he shit his pants about six times today. Still he continues, “After I watched those cops get torn to pieces I wasn’t sure what to do, so I started my car up and I got the hell out of there.”
The news reporter went on to say that everyone had left the vicinity of the hospital and that more law enforcement officers, including SWAT teams from larger cities had been called. The mayor of the small town was urging his citizens to stay indoors and keep the doors closed until the situation could be contained.
At this point, Vin is actually starting to get concerned, which is shown by the look on his face. This does not sound like your ordinary bath salts junky story. This sounds like some fucked up zombie movie where the po dunk town gets to have a showdown in their local mall.
Victoria walked up behind him and just about scared the hell out of him and says, “What do you think about that thing going on over there now!” Using an, “I told you so fashion.”
“I’m honestly not sure what to think about it anymore” Vin replies coolly, not to upset his wife, “but I do need to get to work.”
With that, he gives her a kiss and gives one to Gray, and he is out the door.
The day goes by without event. Vin decides to play games on his iPhone instead of reading the news at lunch. Vintago decides to more or less bury his head in the sand and not care at this point. What’s going on in California is their own business.
When Vintago gets home from work, his in-laws Greg and Cindy Roberts are over and the whole family is in the living room, glued to the TV. CNN of course, what else is anyone talking about right now!
Anderson Cooper is on again, but he is not his calm collected normal self. He is in the back of a van, and they are hauling ass away from something. It is hard to tell what exactly is chasing them because the picture is too shaky. The scene plays out for a full minute as Anderson explains what is going on. Then, the camera angle shifts slightly, and it is clear as day. The thing chasing them is not a thing at all it is a group of people. Not just a bunch, but hundreds of people, chasing after their vehicle.
Anderson is as pale as a ghost as he tries to keep it together, and from the background someone says, “oh my God, oh my God.”
Anderson gains the
slightest bit of composure and continues explaining the scene unfolding. He says that the entire town has been overrun with these crazy infected individuals since the hospital quarantine failed this morning. He says that the California National Guard has been mobilized by the Governor, and California has declared a state of emergency.
Anderson starts talking about something else, when all hell breaks loose. The van takes a hard right and tips up one two wheels. Everyone inside the van is yelling and screaming as they careen through the air. The van slams down onto its side, and the camera flies across the vehicle to rest on what must be the side of the van, but it now the floor. The camera is pointed towards the rear windows of the van which are now shattered. Approaching the van just inside view of the camera is the throng of people chasing them. The people inside the van start screaming even louder, and suddenly arms are grappling at the inside of the van. Someone’s leg gets caught by one of the flailing arms, and the person gets dragged out of the vehicle and into the open arms of the infected people. The brutality in which they split open the man’s stomach and pull out his intestines is almost too much to watch.
For Victoria, it is too much to watch. She runs to the kitchen and throws up in the sink. Vintago, on the other hand, watches with a sick curiosity. He wonders in his own mind what illness could drive a person to do such a thing.
After thirty seconds or so and numerous people being dragged out of the vehicle, someone at CNN decides that it is probably not good news to watch their favorite reporter being eaten alive.
They cut to some stock footage taken from earlier this morning after the hospital had been overrun, but before the whole place went to shit. The scene shows the Mayor of the town addressing the media. He is telling people that things were beginning to spiral out of control and that they were going to abandon the town. He also says that the National Guard would be in soon to get the situation under control. About two minutes into his speech, an entire group of infected people roll over the press group and citizens like a tsunami. They start attacking everyone while the cameras are rolling.
