by Chris Blake
Vintago looks down at his watch, and wonders where his parents are. They should have been around a while ago. Vin pulls out his iPhone and calls his dad.
“Dad, where are you guys at?” he asks.
There is a long pause on the other end of the line and his dad answers, “Son we are not going to meet with you guys. Your mother wants to head over to the hospital to try and lend a hand in whatever way we can.”
Their medical backgrounds were clearly giving them what they thought was their calling, but Vintago did not approve.
“Are you out of your fucking minds? Have you not seen what has happened to the hospitals trying to hold these crazy bastards? Entire cities have fallen to this virus. What makes you think you will be able to help any?” Vin yells into his phone.
“Yes, we have seen what has happened, but we feel we would be much more valuable here where we can help people, instead of running to the mountains to hide.” his father replies.
“Listen, Dad, you guys need to do what you think is right. I’m not going to push you on this, but if you change your minds you know where we will be.” Vin says and hangs up his phone.
Vintago is quite sure that he will regret that conversation at some point in the future, but right now, it is time to go.
The small fleet of four vehicles starts rolling out of their neighborhood and gets onto the highway. About four minutes into the journey, Vin realizes how ridiculous it is to be in four different vehicles with no way to communicate. Since they need to stop for gas anyway, Vin decides to stop at a Radioshack on the way up to get some walkie talkies or something along those lines. He knows that there is a Radioshack on the way because he just drove past it twice.
Thirty minutes later, as their small convoy stops for gas Vin lets them know his intention to purchase some radios, and they all think it is genius. They all fuel up their vehicles and drive two miles down the road and make the stop. Vin runs in the store and grabs four cheap Motorola walkie talkies, the kind used during camping. He also grabs four headsets, so they can all drive and communicate easily.
After they do a quick radio check and everyone figures out how to key their mics, it’s back on the road. They drive in silence for the next hour and a half. It takes considerably longer driving with three vehicles trailing behind. As they are making their way into Payson, Vin speaks on the radio.
“Guys stay real close together through here, I’m not sure what everyone else is going to be doing with everything going on.” he says to the little convoy.
As they are approaching the far end of town, just about to be home free, they come upon the gun store. Vintago, in the lead vehicle notices it at first, but none of the other drivers see apparently. There are people streaming out of the gun store like it is on fire. Since it is clearly not on fire, something else must be going on. Just as, this thought seeps into Vin’s mind, three masked men run out of the gun store carrying duffel bags. They jump into the bed of an idling pickup truck. The pickup driver, not paying attention to what’s in front of him as he is looking in his rear view mirror, just guns his engine. The truck lurches forward and pops the curb flying into the street, right into the rear fender of the Outlander.
“Fuck!” Vintago yells.
He immediately slams on his brakes and gets out of the car. Just as, the men in the truck are recovering from their jolt, they hop out of the truck bed. They begin to train their rifles the Outlander and plan to shoot.
Five shots ring out like a bullwhip and break the silence. The closest masked man takes a bullet directly in the face, totally shattering his mask and blowing his brains all over the side of the white pickup truck. A second round catches him in the chest and knocks him over like a felled tree. The third round catches the second gunman in the shoulder and puts him on the ground, as well. The fourth and fifth shot go wide and hit the pickup truck as the third gunman takes refuge.
Having suppressed the gunmen fairly well with his .45, Vintago dives into the Corolla and reaches for his rifle. Vintago brings the rifle up to his shoulder and stands up ready to fire. He squeezes the trigger and the rifle does not fire. He has never fired this rifle in his life, and it takes him a split second to figure out that the safety is the big bar on the side of the rifle. He disengages the safety and remembers to chamber a round. In that moment of indecision, the third gunman takes the opportunity to raise his AR-15 above the truck bed and starts shooting. Vintago dives for cover behind the Corolla as the shots ring out. The driver leaps out of the truck and starts pulling his downed friend to safety behind the truck.
Vintago, lying down on the ground looks under the car and sees this transpiring. Having figured out the safety, and charging the weapon, he squeezes the trigger three times. Three shots ring out and hit the driver of the truck in the leg, and the downed man in the neck. Blood spurts into the air splashing on the driver as he in turn falls down.
Shots ricochet off the pavement as the last surviving truck bed gunman tries to save his last surviving brother, the driver.
Vintago ducks for cover behind a tire not quite sure what to do from here. Out of the blue comes a higher pitched gunshot.
It is Victoria’s little Ruger .380. Vintago hears one, two, three, and four shots. Suddenly, the AR-15 stops firing. Vin takes a quick peek over the trunk and sees that the last truck bed gunman is down, hanging over the side of the truck, blood running down his face and spattering on the ground. Vintago quickly sprints over to the Outlander and runs behind to get a clear view of the backside of the pickup truck. Standing over the last truck bed gunman is Victoria, smoking Ruger in hand.
Vin runs over to protect her and sees that one of the little .380 rounds found it is place in the nasal cavity of this gunman. Running around to the other side of the truck, Vin finds the driver, scooting off on his ass with a trail of blood following him.
Upon seeing Vin come around the corner, he weakly raises a .38 special, six shot revolver. Vintago raises his AK-74 and shoots the man in the chest four times.
After what seems to Vintago like forever, their hearing starts to return. Victoria walks over to Vintago and looks at him. She still holds her Ruger in her hand, though she is visibly shaking. Vintago, on the other hand, looks calm and collected. One would think after killing three men that he would be more torn up, but he seems to shrug it off and mentally recalibrate. It is like his mind is a computer, simply processing information, completely disconnected from the carnage laid out before him.
Greg finally gets the courage to step out of his car and looks at the dead men lying all around them. He has a mind of disbelief on his face. He looks at his “baby girl”, who just killed a man, and then leans over and starts dry heaving.
“What do we do now?” Victoria asks.
“We grab the bags they stole, their guns, and we get the fuck out of here, that is what.” Vin replies.
He picks up the guns that the dead men dropped, wipes the blood off with a rag and throws them in the back of his car. Then he grabs the three duffel bags from the back of their pickup and with a considerable effort, throws them in the back.
After what seems like forever, they get into their cars and take off towards the hatchery.
Victoria calls Vin on his cell phone while they are driving. Gray is in the background screaming, clearly shaken up from all the gunshots.
“What just happened back there Vin” she asks him.
“What just happened was four armed men robbed that store, probably killing the store owners, and tried to escape, subsequently running into the wrong vehicle.” he explains to her calmly.
“How did you even react that fast? I didn’t know you could shoot like that either.” she says.
“I don’t know, I just saw them trying to hurt you and Gray, I pulled out my gun, and I shot them.” he tells her, then adds, “you didn’t do so bad yourself.”
“I was just trying to save you, like you saved us.” she sniffles as she is clearly broken up. “Why did you take their guns, and why
did we leave” she asks, “Shouldn’t we have waited for the cops to show up?”
“We don’t have time to sit and be interrogated by the local police, those men were in the wrong and we stopped them. As for why I took their weapons, that’s because they didn’t need them anymore and we do. I have a feeling things are going to be much different from now on.”
The rest of the drive to the hatchery goes by without event. They make the trip up the windy road and park in the parking lot. Vintago tells everyone to wait by the cars while he checks it out.
He leaves his rifle in the car, just in case some of the hatchery workers are still there, not wanting to freak them out. Vin walks up the trail, past the pond, past the live tanks, and up to the buildings. It looks like there is not anyone around. Vintago checks in the traveler information center, and also the building where the hatchery stores all of its equipment. Next, he checks the offices, still nobody to be found.
Lastly, he checks what he assumes to be the crew quarters. He pops open the door only to have a gun pointed at his face.
“Who the hell are you, and why do you keep lurking around here!” yells a cute young blonde girl.
She stands in the doorframe holding a Colt 1911 .45ACP handgun. Vintago looks her over, admiring her aggressiveness. She cannot be more than ninety pounds soaking wet, so imagine the surprise Vin got by this young woman pointing a gun at him.
“I’m not looking to hurt you miss, I am just looking to get away from town for a little while.” Vintago says calmly.
“Well why do you keep coming here and lurking around, I saw you here earlier today taking pictures of everything? You’re not some terrorist or something are you?” she asks wildly, still holding a gun on Vin.
“No miss I am most certainly not a terrorist. I am just looking to get my family out of the city to someplace off the beaten path.” Vintago explains.
She seems to ponder on his words for a few seconds and then slowly lowers her gun.
“Well, why didn’t you say so then” she replies.
"I think I just did," he says with a bit of a smirk. “Do you mind if my family comes up this way now? We would just like to camp out for a few days to see if this virus thing blows over.”
“Normally, we don’t let anyone camp here, and we tell everyone to use the campgrounds down by the highway, but seeing as how it’s a mess out there right now and everyone else left the hatchery today, I suppose it’s alright.” she tells Vintago.
Vintago releases his grip that he had on his .45 at the small of his back. He extends his hand and introduces himself.
“My name’s Vintago Hawkins.” he says.
“Jessica Owens.” she replies.
They swap stories for a few minutes and talk about how they got to this particular stage in life. After they warm up to each other a little bit, Vintago decides to go fetch his family.
Back at the “convoy”, he tells everyone about the nervous blonde named Jessica and tells them that she does not care if they camp out for a few days. They start unloading their camping gear and only enough food for the immediate future. No need to notify Jessica to their true intentions.
After a few hours, everything is all set up in a small grassy area clear of snow, next to the hatchery.
Jessica comes out of her little house to see what’s going on at the ramshackle village next door. She casually strolls across the asphalt and addresses only Vintago initially.
“It looks like you guys are moving in over here.” she laughs.
“Well, hopefully not, it’s too damn cold to live out here.” he replies.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to the rest of the family?” she says.
“This is my wife Victoria and my son Grayson.” Vin says pointing to his family. “Those two mutts are Foxy and Toby.” He continues, “That’s Greg and Cindy Roberts, my in laws.”
“Nice to meet you all.” says Jessica.
Everyone says “hello” in chorus, and Grayson says “hiyah.”
“If you all want to come inside and warm up I was just about to cook up some dinner.” she says to the group.
The whole group looks to Vintago to see his reaction.
“Sure, we could use some warm food, and a break from this cold I think.” he replies.
After assuring everyone that it will be fine, they all enter the crew quarters where Jessica is staying. It is surprisingly comfy inside. There is a large kitchen with a table that seats eight. Off of the kitchen is a massive entertainment area with a fireplace, a large TV and a game table. There are two sets of bathrooms, his and hers, and four bedrooms, each with a set of bunks. In each bedroom, there are personal effects from the rest of the crew members that work here year round.
Jessica explained that the other crew members had gone back to the valley to make sure their families were safe or just gotten the hell out of here. Jessica had no family to speak of, and the hatchery had become her life. She chose to stay behind and make sure all of it is essential functions continued. Jessica’s job at the hatchery was routine maintenance and systems operations. She would feed the fish, clean the tanks, fix broken things, and whatever random things needed to be done around the property. She was their Jill of all trades.
After the fifty cent tour, Jessica brought them all back to the kitchen. She got to work making a sizeable pot of chili.
“Great, now our tent’s going to smell like ass all night long” Vin thinks to himself and smiles.
After they had finished dinner, Jessica turned on the big TV in the living room area. No matter what channel she put it on there was an emergency broadcast playing. The transmission keeps repeating;
Emergency Alert: Please be advised, as of this time the greater Phoenix-Metropolitan area is being evacuated. Please proceed in an orderly fashion to the rendezvous point in Tucson, Arizona where each civilian will be tested for the C.Virus. To all military, law enforcement, fire fighter, or local militia members, please proceed to checkpoint Alpha fifteen miles north of Tucson. We need every able bodied man and woman we can get to hold off the infected population and ensure a safe passage for non-infected population. End transmission.
Everyone looks around the room at each other’s faces, and they are all wearing the same face, a face of horror.
Chapter Six
Evacuations
January, 2013
After a few minutes, everyone recovers somewhat from the message. Everyone but Jessica has family down in the valley. Vintago thinks about his parents, wondering if they are OK. He thinks about calling them and reaches for his phone, only to be reminded that there is no cell service on top of the canyon.
Vin brings this up to his group, and after a couple minutes of discussion, they decide to squeeze into one of the vehicles and drive down to the highway where they can place a few phone calls to their loved ones.
Vin runs down to the Outlander and shifts around some of the junk piling up on the seats so that they can squeeze in the vehicle. Greg and Cindy are the only ones coming. Victoria stays with Grayson and Jessica in the crew quarters.
Before leaving, Vin whispers into Victoria’s ear, “Watch your back around her if she does anything weird you have your gun.”
Not quite sure why Vintago does not trust Jessica, Victoria simply nods. Victoria sees no reason not to trust Jessica, but she tends to be more trusting than her husband.
Vintago starts the Outlander and heads down the road towards the highway. The trip only takes about ten minutes, and they all climb out of the car and immediately pull out their cell phones.
Vin takes a step aside and calls his parents. The phone rings and rings. Vin is just about to hang up, defeated, when his father picks up.
“Dad, are you OK?” Vin asks.
“Son,” his father starts and then stops speaking, cries for a minute, and then continues “mom did not make it buddy.”
“What do you mean she didn’t make it? Didn’t you guys evacuate like they said to do?” Vin says with more
than a little anger in his voice.
“We were trying to help the people coming in to the hospital, but there were just so many people it was impossible to check them all for signs of the virus.” his father tells him. “They started storing the ones that died in the morgue below the hospital, hoping that would keep them cold enough not to cause any problems.” he continues. “I guess that didn’t work because at some point, the doors were opened and they all came flying out of the morgue.”
His father explains to him how his mother was with him, on the third floor of the hospital when the infected came flooding up the stairways and blocked off their retreat. He tells Vin about how he could hear the gunfire erupting on the floors below as they tried to contain the outbreak. They tried to hole up in a small employee lounge and wait it out, and that is when two of the infected came into the room and attacked him and his wife.
“They got Mom before there was anything I could do” he tells his son, choking back a sob “I was able to take a broom handle and stab one in the eye, and your mom killed the other one with a chair leg.”
Unfortunately, it was too late because she had already been bit by the sick bastard. He tells Vin about how they fled to their home, and he tried to save her.
The memory floods into Ben’s mind, and he is overcome with emotion. Just like the ones before her, she slowly succumbed to the virus, and died in his arms. He moved the body of his poor wife into a closet and barred the door with a chair and waited. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, he could hear shuffling around in the closet. Then, shortly after that a low moaning sound. Suddenly, fists beating against the door, wanting to be let out, obviously sensing something on the other side of the door. It was almost predatory sense.
